The disappearance of great white sharks from Cape Town, and in particular False Bay, has been well documented.

In a recent interview, Shark Spotters CEO Sarah Waries outlined some of the reasons why this is happening. Whilst there isn’t a single, agreed-upon consensus, what goes without saying is that there are many businesses that will suffer in the sharks’ absence.

Gregg Oelofse, who oversees coastal management for the City of Cape Town, says that great white sharks are “central to Cape Town’s identity”, and shark cage diving operators are really feeling the pinch in their absence.

Over to Fin24:

The sharks support a cage-diving industry that provides employment for as many as 750 people and a vibrant documentary making scene. There’s concern that many of the thousands of tourists who view sharks off the city’s coast may go elsewhere…

The three cage-diving operators in False Bay, who lower tourists into the water around Seal Island to view the 4.5 metre  sharks, say they have not spotted any this year and the about 40 tagged sharks haven’t been picked up by sensors in the bay…

For the cage divers, who charge as much as R3,500 a trip, the disappearance is a disaster.

“With the white shark crisis, many of those clients have canceled their bookings,” said Swanson, the web page of who’s company – like its two rivals – features a great white, noting that bookings are down 50%. “At the end of the day the client wants to see the white shark. It’s part of their bucket list.”

Part of the reason why there’s a lack of consensus about the reasons for their absence is the fact that the species is known for its migratory nature, with tagged sharks migrating as far as Australia before returning home in later years.

If you’ve been following the great white shark stories, you’ll no doubt have heard about Port and Starboard, two notorious orcas that have acquired a taste for shark liver.

Their presence may well have had an impact on the movements of great whites in the area:

“Port and Starboard came to the island one Sunday, smashed a few sharks and the sharks didn’t come back for three weeks,” said Stef Swanson, the owner of Shark Explorers, one of the cage-dive companies.

Port and Starboard are identifiable as each has a distinct, flopped-over dorsal fin:

There are also some reports that link overfishing, and the eastward movement of fish stocks, as reasons for their absence.

Whatever is behind their disappearance, an ecosystem missing its apex predator is bound to undergo changes. Alison Kock, a marine biologist at the Cape Research Centre, says we cannot accurately predict what those changes might be.

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate what we’re missing out on in their absence:

[source:fin24]