Great White Sharks Take to the Air for Seal Hunt

Jan 5, 2011 – 3:39 PM

Sharks generally aren't known for their flying skills -- but don't tell that to the great whites off South Africa's Seal Island.

The island, home to a major fur seal population, is like a castle under siege -- surrounded by hungry sharks just waiting for dinner to venture out into the water.

Any seal that does can expect death from just about any direction, because these sharks can leap 10 feet in the air for a quick morsel.

Photographer Chris Fallows has spent two decades pursuing the sharks that pursue the seals, and has emerged from the sea not only unscathed, but with images that are both unforgettable and downright terrifying ... especially if you happen to be one of those seals.

"If I can take an image that shows the incredible life-and-death struggle that takes place, then I feel my imagery has done the dramatic battle justice," he told AOL News via e-mail.

And as hard as it might be to believe, that struggle isn't always as one-sided as it may seem. Just take a look at the image above, which shows a seal balancing on a shark's tooth as it leaps for its life. And Fallows has many more stunning examples on his website.

"The shark finally lined up the seal in front of its mouth and was in a position to push home for the kill," Fallows says. "Amazingly, at the last possible moment, the seal used the teeth of the shark as a point of leverage and was able to push itself out of the shark's mouth."

Fallows admits to rooting for the seal in these situations.

"Even after witnessing more than 6,000 events, I still am a bit of a softy," he says. "I certainly respect the fact that the sharks must eat, but it is never nice to see animals die."

But like any good tale from the sea, the stories of the ones that got away are just as good as the fish he's mounted in his photo frames.

In one case, "we got to a predatory event just too late as a massive 14-foot shark flew out of the water with a seal balancing on its snout 10 feet clear of the water," he writes.

In another, he witnessed a feeding frenzy where a shark bit another shark in the head so hard that it left a few teeth embedded in its skin.

"Believe it or not, the bitten shark kept on feeding as though nothing had happened," he says. But instead of trying to photograph the scene, Fallows tried for a souvenir -- and reached for one of the teeth.

He missed the tooth and the photo.

But, like any other job, there are occupational hazards of working with sharks, including the risk of one jumping right onto the boat, possibly sinking it in shark-infested waters. And sometimes, not even the shark cage is safe.

"I had a 10-foot great white shark get stuck in a one-man cage with me for over a minute," he said. "Not fun!"

Most of the time, however, it seems like plenty of fun. Fallows, who has worked with the BBC, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, owns and operates Apex Shark Adventures with his wife, Monique, bringing tourists out in the open water.

He's also written four scientific papers and one book on the sharks.

For him, it seems like every week is Shark Week.

Photos and videos at: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/05/sharks-take-to-the-air-in-seal-hunt-near-south-africa/