What is Shark Breaching and Predation?

Shark breaching and natural shark predation is amongst the most spectacular of white shark behaviours.

Breaching refers to the natural hunting techniques that sharks use when they attempt to catch a seal. When hunting Cape Fur seals, sharks will ambush it from below the water at the very high speeds. They go so fast that the shark will actually breach out of the water.

When you book your shark diving trip, you will be able to see these natural shark interactions and their attempts to catch seals.

See this video of a successful shark breach.

When is the best time to see Natural Shark Predation?

The optimum time to observe the natural predation behaviour is during the morning. See our morning trip to read more about the activities that happen at Seal Island in the morning. Our high season for shark viewing is between April and September, during these months you will see the best shark predation in South Africa.

Observe sharks chasing after their prey. Sharks usually attack at the surface of the water, so guests will be able to see this from the boat.

How do you attract sharks?

Although most people think that throwing blood in the water will attract sharks, this is actually fairly ineffective as the blood quickly disperses.

Low frequency sounds travel far distances and in many cases resembles struggling fish sounds and therefore act as a magnet to predatory sharks. Dying or struggling fish that are injured also attract sharks by virtue of odour from wounds, vibrations from their struggles and sound from irregular thrashing.

We get sharks interested in the boat by using a fake carpet seal that looks like a cape fur seal that sharks in the area would hunt. We also fish for tuna (guests are welcome to try their hand at fishing for tuna during our pelagic shark trip and we use this to draw the shark closer.