25 November - Call Out
On Saturday the 25th of November a deceased white shark was reported to the South African Shark Conservancy by Ichthyologist, Sarah Halse, from the Breede area. On Sunday the 26th, Dyer Island Conservation Trust’s white shark biologist, Alison Towner, retrieved the shark and brought it back to DICT’s Kleinbaai facility.
The white shark is a juvenile 2.8 m female. Her head was removed on the Sunday morning post mortem but luckily the team at Infanta were able to retrieve it. The shark had no tag but she may be recognised by researchers using photographs of her dorsal fin and tail patterns.
"There are no obvious sign of Orca bites and she has her liver intact" said Towner. “The shark does have a fresh hook with steel trace lodged in her jaw and a gaff mark on the upper caudal lobe. We suspect, similar to the last Mossel Bay white shark mortality she likely fought with an angler resulting in her death."
