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Seal escapes white shark attack.
It is already known that Cape Cod has become a place where seal numbers have significantly increased over the last few years.
Seals are the favorite prey for great white sharks, so if you see a couple of seals, there must be a great white somewhere nearby.
Scientists have recently caught on camera a chase between a great white and a seal in the Cape Cod waters. The lucky witness was a spotter pilot named Wayne Davis, who got the chance of watching the white shark chasing the seal live.
Wayne Davis works with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy biologists in an extensive project of finding sharks during ocean expeditions. Many images have been posted on Facebook by the Conservancy this week, so many people got the chance of catching a glimpse of the deadly chase.
The shark can be seen close behind the seal at a distance of maximum two meters, while the seal is observed swimming fast to the shallow waters of the shoreline.
The shark was too big and the waters too shallow, therefore, the great white was unable of reaching its top speed, so the seal eventually got away after making a sudden U-turn towards offshore.
Davis underlined that the shark needed only a few more inches to catch the sly seal. The hunting season will continue for the following months as well because more sharks are gathering in Cape Cod waters to feast on their favorite prey.
Seals became protected under the Endangered Species Act three decades ago after fishermen have hunted most of them. It is rumored that seals are now regarded as possibly too many threatening the fish supply on which fishermen depend.
But this is where white sharks have a deciding role because they control the number of seals by hunting them. This way, seals are prevented from becoming a pest.
During the same day when the chase was captured on camera, state shark biologist Gregory Skomal successfully tagged two great white specimens. The first white shark was spotted near the Coast Guard Beach in Eastham around 10 a.m. and scientists said that it was about 14 feet long.
The second one was found half-mile off South Beach around the Chatham Southway, and it was tagged at 2:21 p.m. Scientists will continue their efforts of tagging white sharks in order to understand more about their mysterious behavior and also about their hunting behavior when they chase a seal.
Image Source:Wikipedia
