White Shark Predatory Behavior

at Seal Island

Surface Pursuit Movie

This is an MPG movie of surface pursuitAt right is a classic Surface Pursuit of a Cape Fur Seal by a White Shark at Seal Island.  The attack begins with a Surface Broach, followed by a series of surface rushes.  Watch how the seal continually zig-zags along the surface and sometimes actually leaps toward the shark as the predator chases it along the surface.

This sequence represents a single predation event, shown in real-time.  It was shot by University of Rhode Island marine biology student Dan Wieczorek, who participated in ReefQuest's 2000 White Shark Expedition, and is used here with his kind permission.

[Back to Ethogram]

 

ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research
Text and illustrations © R. Aidan Martin
Copyright | Privacy