This was a great white shark hotspot. Then they mysteriously vanished | 60 Minutes
In a Nutshell
Great white sharks vanished from Cape Town's prime habitat around Seal Island after carcasses with surgically removed livers washed ashore, initially blamed on orcas like the infamous duo Port and Starboard, who learned to stun and target shark livers for their high-calorie content. Scientists debate the cause: some cite orca predation creating a "landscape of fear" that displaced sharks (though populations elsewhere recovered), while others like Chris Fallows and Enrico Gennari point to prior human impacts—depleted prey from commercial longline fishing and lethal shark nets killing dozens annually—as the real culprits preventing recovery. Conservationists urge ending these controllable threats, warning that failing to protect great whites signals doom for broader marine ecosystems, with hope drawn from humpback whales' rebound post-whaling bans.
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Coastal waters around Cape Town, South Africa, have long teemed with great white sharks. About 10 years ago, carcasses of these predators began washing up on beaches with their livers missing. Now, it's hard to find any great whites. This story fuels a bitter feud among scientists and conservationists who disagree on the culprit. They agree the great white sharks that once cruised these waters are gone.
For as long as anyone can remember, the ocean off Cape Town was the best place in the world to see great whites. There were plenty of smaller sharks for them to hunt and tens of thousands of seals on nearby Seal Island.
Early each morning, with luck, you could see these majestic predators flying out of the water.
That was unbelievable.
Until a little more than a decade ago, photographer and naturalist Chris Fallows saw 250 to 300 different great white sharks a year. His images from then are among the most breathtaking of the natural world.
It's a sight you never forget. I still get that tingly feeling to see the most spectacular shark on Earth flying out of the water. It was truly incredible.
In 2010, reporters saw this themselves and noted tens of thousands of visitors came each year for close encounters in cages.
That was really something.
They dove without a cage in water chummed with blood. A 15 ft great white swam straight toward them.
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