The Secret Life of Sharks by A. Peter Klimley

Author:A. Peter Klimley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

CHAPTER 10

WHITE SHARK PREDATION AT THE FARALLON ISLANDS

It was October 24, 1988, and we were standing on top of Lighthouse Hill, the pyramid-shaped hill, 340 feet above sea level, on the north side of Southeast Farallon. This is the best spot on the island for seeing sharks feed on seals in the surrounding waters. “There’s an attack! Look there, over there,” shouted Peter Pyle as he pointed at a large swirl of water mixed with blood close to Sugarloaf, the massive rock shaped like a loaf of bread at the northern edge of Fisherman’s Bay. Peter looked down at his watch and then shouted, “The time is now 8:04 A.M.” We were setting up equipment that would be used every fall for the next four years to document feeding by white sharks on seals and sea lions.

Lighthouse Hill is an ideal vantage point. To start with, on the peak there is an oval concrete walkway, 6 feet wide, that circles the conical lighthouse and has large aprons on its eastern and western sides, on which one can mount observational equipment. The equipment can be stored safely in the lighthouse at night, when it’s not used to document shark attacks. It is easy to walk around this walkway, protected by metal railings on the outside, and look for attacks in the waters below. From here, one can look directly downward to the north on Fisherman’s Bay, which is the home to a large colony of California sea lions. To the east is Shubrick Point, in the direction of the Golden Gate Bridge, which is often visible in the far distance. Groups of sea lions from Fisherman’s Bay leave the island from this point at dusk on their nightly feeding excursions to forage on fish in the waters around the island, quickly escaping the perilous nearshore waters by swimming away with up-and-down surface dives like dolphins. Their behavior struck me as ideal for avoiding being surprised by a predatory shark lurking below—there were more eyes in a group to pick out a predator, and the members were moving targets with their porpoising actions. South of the hill is the expansive flat terrace on which the PRBO field station was situated. In front of the terrace is Mirounga Bay, crescent-shaped and the largest bay at the island. The bay is half a mile across. During the fall, many rounded and shiny bodies of juvenile elephant seals are present on the terrace, next to the small peninsula jutting out into the center of the bay. To the southwest is the smaller of the two South Farallon Islands, West End.

A large colony of seals is present during the fall on another flat area at the western edge of Mirounga Bay immediately below Indian Head. To the west is another large bay spanning both islands—Maintop Bay, which usually receives the brunt of huge rolling waves driven against the islands by the winds that constantly come out of the northwest. There is a large colony of elephant

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