Travel and adventure photographer, Chris Mclennan has taken these truly terrifying photos of great white sharks breaching.

According to Wikipedia:

Seal Island is a small land mass located 5.7 km off the northern beaches of False Bay, near Cape Town, in South Africa. The island is so named because of the great number of Cape Fur Seals that occupy it. There are a few sea birds as well. It is an outcrop of the Cape granite and rises no more than about six metres above the high tide mark. The island is long and narrow- 800 metres by 50 metres. There is no vegetation or soil of any significance. A radar mast was built on the island during World War II by a crew who lived in prefabricated huts for the duration of the construction but this tower gradually succumbed to corrosion and was blown over in a winter storm in 1970. All that remains of it is rusty, twisted metal. There are the ruins of a few huts and other structures from the sealing and guano-collection era (first half of the 20th century). Some rock inscriptionsmade by sealers in the 1930s are still evident.

The dense population of fur seals at certain times of the year attracts the seal's main predator, the Great White Shark. Seal Island provides unique opportunities for those who wish to observe attacks by White Sharks on Cape Fur Seal and to observe social interactions amongst both species. The island is well known for the interesting way the sharks grab their prey: They come up from underneath and literally launch themselves out of the water with the seal in their mouth. It has been shown that if the seals enter the "Ring of Death" (where the sharks circle the island) on the surface instead of at the murky bottom, they will be picked off by the faster and more aggressive Great White.​

​

More Nature Photography

"Another incredible set of jaws on a great white shark near Seal Island, False Bay, South Africa. This is one of nature's marvels and was really a sight to behold! Let's hope that these incredible creatures will survive

for generations to come. This shark was attacking a seal decoy being towed behind the boat. The action happens so fast and without warning that it is very easy to miss... The decoy is used by researchers to study the Great White's unique feeding behavior in False Bay. I chose to lie on the deck of the boat shooting out the open transom to get the low angle."

​