The Case of the Disappearing Great White Sharks

False Bay and Gansbaai in South Africa have been popular destinations for people who want close underwater cage encounters with great white sharks. But the sharks have disappeared in the last few months and divers have seen none. What happened to them?

Over the years, occasional sharks have been turning up dead on the shore, a victim of orcas that have a unique dietary taste and attack and rip the sharks' bellies to devour their oil-rich livers.

Shark carcasses tend to sink without their livers, so although dead sharks stopped washing up, people began to worry that the orcas had decimated them.

Thankfully not so. Scientists have recently discovered that they have wisely relocated further east, to places like Algoa Bay and the KwaZulu-Natal coastline, which had seen great white sharks before but not anywhere near as many as now.

The fear of predation can profoundly influence animal behavior, so scientists expect some changes. They're also warning about the potential for increased shark bites; people dipping in the water near the white sharks' new homes must be alert to their new neighbors.

Though many people think of the great white as an apex predator, the orcas have proved "There's always a bigger fish."