i've seen like hundreds
of sharks but now it's nothing
sadly just the last few years these
animals have all but disappeared from
this incredible bird
it is terrible to see how that is
happening under our watch
many years surfers on these beaches have
known they have to keep a close
watch out for the white flag and for the
siren that indicate a great white shark
has been spotted
close to shore but for the last two
years all that's changed dramatically
wherever you go if you put your feet
into the water you expect to encounter a
white child
but that's not the case no more i don't
even remember when last i've seen the
shark
beautiful day yes clear blue ocean any
sharks
no not at the moment none at all none at
all no white sharks in full speed
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for us one of the standout theories is
the arrival of a specific type of orca
in 2015 we saw the arrival of this pair
of orcas they're very distinctive they
have dorsal fins that flop over
and they feed specifically on sharks to
us the
the arrival of these orcas and then the
reduction in shark activity does all
seem to be correlated
it appears that the orcas arrive and the
sharks just are aware that they are no
longer the apex predator anymore
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so logic tells you if your food's not
available here you go look elsewhere
and that's what a lot of us believe is
what's actually happened
the tragic irony with the whole
disappearance of our sharks
is that the over exploitation of these
smaller shark species along the south
african coastline
is to meet the demand for fish and chips
in australia
unfortunately we're suffering a lot it's
a
very very difficult time for the whole
town for the whole town yes
the whole industry yes it is really
really sad we we miss these sharks
a lot
my name is dr sara andreatti i am a
marine biologist and a postdoctoral
researcher at the university of
stalingrad 2.5
and then these are two and these two
my god oh that's much better now we're
talking
one okay they're all two and a half ish
we want to try and take a genetic sample
from the sharks to do that
you with that sterilized biopsy sampler
we will take a piece of tissue
out of the shark skin
and we got something hey
now we have to collect these
very carefully
i don't know white sharks are top
predators so they are actually
much more vulnerable than other species
to
climate change pollution they can
if you have heavy metal in the water the
animals at the top of the food chain are
the ones that accumulate the heavy metal
so that will interfere with the
reproductive system
is it very frustrating for you not to be
able to keep
testing great whites yes
it's also it's not just frustrating is
the feeling that that happened on under
our watch
you know we saw the sharks we saw the
numbers were not great
and the work we did wasn't enough to get
them
the environment better protected in a
way and
or maybe it was just too late so the
frustration comes from the feeling that
maybe we just didn't do enough
great how does that feel good right
let's get you in
plenty of beautiful sharks down here but
no great whites none at all and so many
theories about
why they may have disappeared but the
real fear
is that they may have gone for good
if we keep on doing what we're doing
we're not giving them a chance if we
start
changing the way we've been doing things
then it is basically up to them if there
are still enough to
restock their old problems that are
human related
so humans should do something about it
let's just wait and see it's like i
still strongly believe they should look
like
the sharks will come back it's just a
matter of time
the best we can do is just keep on
collecting data and
keep looking they will come back that's
for sure that's my
personal belief