Cape Fur Seal

Photo: Callum Evans · CC BY-NC

The 60,000-strong Cape fur seal colony on Geyser Rock is the ecological engine driving the entire Shark Alley food web, providing the primary prey base for great white sharks and sustaining scavenger communities beneath the surface. Underwater, the seals are extraordinarily playful and inquisitive, spiralling around divers and mimicking movements with an intelligence that makes each encounter feel personal. Their torpedo-like agility in the water — a sharp contrast to their lumbering behaviour on the rocks — is one of the most spectacular sights in southern African diving.