DATELINE :- 14th June 2000
GREAT WHITE NUGGETS
Great white's lifestyle revealed by expert
Facinating insights into the lives of great white sharks were a key feature of the Shark Trust's annual conference, held in the Spring at the impressive Blue Planet Aquarium at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, writes Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch.
Peter Pyle, who has spent many years studying the great white sharks of the Farallon Islands, gave a spellbinding account of his research, with slides and video footage.
In the autumn some 50 to 100 sharks pass through the islands and Pyle and his colleagues are trying to identify each one from characteristic markings, scars and fin damage. The Farallons' pinnipeds, which are protected, are rising in number and the white shark population may be slowly increasing in response.
Pyle's attachment of transmitters to the white sharks has shown that they tend to remain in less than 20m during the day, diving deeper at night. This supports the suspicion that they hunt primarily in the daytime by sighting the silhouettes of their favoured food, blubbery elephant seals, against the pale ocean surface.
Pyle described how the fat-rich seals have to run a danger zone from some 25m to 100m from shore, in which the sharks lunge from below, decapitating the seal so that the inert carcass can be devoured at leisure.
People can join Peter Pyle for a week's field research with great whites - the snag being that you have to contribute one $5000 transmitter to be attached to one of the animals. Or donate, via the Shark Trust (01752-672008) to the White Shark Adoption Programme.