Giant seal pod goes on offense against hungry great white shark
A seal pod on the coast of South Africa banded together to drive a hungry great white shark away from the shore.
Even in nature, it’s good to have friends.
Footage from the first episode of “Planet Earth III” shows a pod of seals mobbing a great white shark and driving it away from a seal colony.
The footage for the BBC series was taken off the southern coast of Africa at the Robberg Peninsula, an area where ocean currents attract both fur seals and packs of great white sharks.
The great white is the world’s largest predatory fish, according to NOAA, and routinely picks seals as its prey, though as the shark in the footage found out: there is strength in numbers.
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Seals use mobs to protect themselves
The mobbing technique shown in the footage is a common and effective defense mechanism.
“To see such a large and competent predator completely overwhelmed by its prey and swimming off into deeper waters [is] both incredible and surprising,” Georgina Ward, the associate producer on the episode and the person who directed the seals versus great white sharks sequence, told Live Science.
“It’s not how you’d expect a shark-seal encounter to go. Very occasionally you’d get one shark that just wouldn’t give up and we’d watch and film it for 10 to 15 minutes just going up and down the cliff with a swarm of seals in tow. But most of the time once mobbing started, they didn’t hang around.”
Despite the surprise attack from seal colonies, the peninsula remains an important habitat for the vulnerable shark.
“The waters off Robberg, and the wider area, are special. It’s a marine reserve surrounded by a still-healthy ocean,” Justin Blake, a marine biologist and crew member on the series, wrote in an article accompanying the series. “I think this may be great white sharks’ last refuge in Africa. We could be witness to their last stand.”
The series, narrated by David Attenborough, premiered on BBC America and AMC+ Nov. 4.
Dr. Sarah Adams is a scientist and science communicator who makes complex topics accessible to all. Her articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
