00:00Tour boats off South Africa's Cape coastline once lured passengers hoping for an encounter with a great white shark.
00:08But the legendary predator has seemingly vanished from these waters.
00:13We barely ever see white sharks around our boats anymore, maybe one a year if you're lucky.
00:17In 2017, dead sharks began washing ashore with their livers torn out,
00:23attacks linked to a pair of killer whales known as port and starboard.
00:27That's really when the white shark population started to decline.
00:29Lorraine Shuttleworth is a research coordinator at Marine Dynamics, a shark sightseeing and research company.
00:36She says the orcas aren't the only ones to blame.
00:39There are anthropogenic factors at play and those would be the longline fisheries in the sense of bycatch
00:45and then also catching white sharks prey species and then we also have the shark nets.
00:52So all of that is at play working together and it creates sort of like a perfect ecological storm.
00:58It's forced eco-tourist groups to rebrand.
01:04That's Amy Weber, a marine biologist at Marine Dynamics.
01:08The bronze whalers were our saving grace.
01:10They came in, they're here within schools, it's more than one individual as well.
01:13They're extremely curious around the bait lines too.
01:16So in terms of a shark age diving experience, they're still doing the job.
01:19Of course there will be the few that come through chasing the dream of seeing a great white shark.
01:23Weber says sharks are the doctors of our oceans that help maintain balance through the food chain.
01:29She and Mike Barron, marine biologist and Cape Research and Diver Development founder,
01:35fear the loss of great whites could have consequences beyond tourism.
01:39As they were displaced from these localized areas, they've been exposed to the threats
01:45and the dangers of the open waters outside of those bays, namely being overfishing, illegal fishing
01:53and badly or non-reported bycatch of white sharks in the longlining trawlers.
01:59On the watch of the people who are supposed to be protecting and providing shelter and a future
02:04for these species, we are potentially going to lose this species to extinction.
02:11And that kind of really sends a message of despair, really.
02:16If we can't protect the white shark, the charismatic species of the oceans,
02:22then it kind of leaves a big worry and questions about all the other species
02:27that also need our help and protection.
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