On 19 January 2023, a team of scientists from Marine Dynamics tracked Port and Starboard, an infamous pair of male orcas known to prey on several species of shark in South African waters.
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Ralph Watson, a spokesperson for the Marine Dynamics Academy, stated that the two orcas were seen diving down repeatedly in a small area for nearly two hours. Later, eleven dead broadnose sevengill shark carcasses were discovered on the same beach by Watson and his team on the following Tuesday, 24 January 2023.
Alison Towner, a PhD candidate at Rhodes University, leads research on orcas preying on sharks in Gansbaai.
She and Watson, along with some students, performed the necropsies. According to Towner, this research is part of a larger effort between various killer whale and shark scientists that has been ongoing since 2015.
Each of the sevengill sharks was torn open and missing its liver. They were all females, ranging in size from 1.6 to 2.3 metres, and had injuries similar to those found on sharks killed by the same orca pair in False Bay.
Good storm and surge conditions earlier in the week pushed the shark carcasses ashore. Towner stated that “This is the largest amount of sharks these orcas have killed in this area in one sitting. There could well be more that didn’t wash out.”
Please report any stranded sharks in the Overstrand area to Marine Dynamics on +27 072 5987117
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