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Chris Fallows | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Nationality | South African |
| Occupation | Photographer, conservationist and adventurer |
| Spouse(s) | Monique Fallows |
| Website | www |
South African born Chris Fallows is an expert on great white sharks and their hunting habits. [1] He has amassed the largest database of predatory events involving great white sharks in False Bay and was the first member of the scientific community to observe the breaching behaviour.
Growing up in a game reserve, Fallow's fascination with wildlife stretches back to his childhood. After moving to the coast at the age of 12 his fascination with the ocean and marine wildlife grew. At the age of 16 Fallows co-ordinated a tag and release program in his home town. His endeavours, with the co-operation of local beach net fishermen, saw the tagging, documenting and releasing of over fifteen thousand sharks and rays. Fallows attended Rondebosch Boys' High School in Cape Town.
In 1992 Fallows was at the forefront of great white shark tours when he started his work and research at Dyer Island off Gansbaai. He worked there until 1996 when he co-founded African Shark Eco-Charters in False Bay. It was then that he along with colleague discovered the breaching great white sharks that have been made famous by the Air Jaws movies. In 2000 Fallows formed Apex Shark Expeditions [2] with his wife Monique. Over the last 15 years together they observed and catalogued over 9500 predatory events. This is the largest database of its kind in the world.
Chris Fallows has co authored 10 scientific papers [3] on the breaching behaviour of great white sharks when hunting as well a book titled, Great White and the Majesty of Sharks which has sold over 25,000 copies. Fallows has worked with David Attenborough on the "Shallow Seas" episode of the Planet Earth series, National Geographic, Discovery Channel [ citation needed ] and helped produce the Air Jaws series of shark documentaries.
As well as great white shark observation and cage diving, Fallows has undertaken nearly 200 open water diving expeditions with the mako shark and blue sharks in South Africa since 1999.
Chris Fallows is also a wildlife photographer. Although he is best known for his world famous breaching great white shark images, he specialises in both ocean and terrestrial wildlife photography. His limited edition fine art prints are globally renowned for their intimate representation of some of the world's most charismatic and iconic mega fauna. His gallery can be viewed on www.chrisfallows.com His August 2020 image, "The Pearl", of a great white shark breaching the sea's surface, was selected by BBC as one of "the most striking images of 2020." [4]
The great white shark, also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is notable for its size, with larger female individuals growing to 6.1 m (20 ft) in length and 1,905–2,268 kg (4,200–5,000 lb) in weight at maturity. However, most are smaller; males measure 3.4 to 4.0 m, and females measure 4.6 to 4.9 m on average. According to a 2014 study, the lifespan of great white sharks is estimated to be as long as 70 years or more, well above previous estimates, making it one of the longest lived cartilaginous fishes currently known. According to the same study, male great white sharks take 26 years to reach sexual maturity, while the females take 33 years to be ready to produce offspring. Great white sharks can swim at speeds of 25 km/hr (16 mph) for short bursts and to depths of 1,200 m (3,900 ft).
A shark attack is an attack on a human by a shark. Every year, around 80 unprovoked attacks are reported worldwide. Despite their rarity, many people fear shark attacks after occasional serial attacks, such as the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, and horror fiction and films such as the Jaws series. Out of more than 489 shark species, only three of them are responsible for a double-digit number of fatal, unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white, tiger, and bull. The oceanic whitetip has probably killed many more castaways, but these are not recorded in the statistics.
Hans Hass was an Austrian biologist and underwater diving pioneer. He was known mainly for being among the first scientists to popularise coral reefs, stingrays, octopuses and sharks. He pioneered the making of documentaries filmed underwater and led the development of a type of rebreather. He is also known for his energon theory and his commitment to protecting the environment.
Shark cage diving is underwater diving or snorkeling where the observer remains inside a protective cage designed to prevent sharks from making contact with the divers. Shark cage diving is used for scientific observation, underwater cinematography, and as a tourist activity. Sharks may be attracted to the vicinity of the cage by the use of bait, in a procedure known as chumming, which has attracted some controversy as it is claimed to potentially alter the natural behaviour of sharks in the vicinity of swimmers.
Rodney Winston Fox is an Australian film maker, conservationist, survivor of an attack by a great white shark, and one of the world's foremost authorities on that species. He was inducted into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in 2007.
The 1992 cageless shark-diving expedition was the world's first recorded intentionally cageless dive with great white sharks, contributing to a change in public opinions about the supposed ferocity of these animals.
Seal Island is a small land mass located 5.7 kilometres 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. It is 5 acres in area and home to 64,000 cape fur seals. It is also home to seabirds, and it is likely that non-marine species fly there to breed as well. The island is an outcrop of the Cape granite, and rises no more than about 4 to 6 metres above the high tide mark. The island is long and narrow – 800 by 50 metres. There is no vegetation, soil of any significance, or beach.
Ron Josiah Taylor, AM was a prominent Australian shark expert, as is his widow, Valerie Taylor. They were credited with being pioneers in several areas, including being the first people to film great white sharks without the protection of a cage. Their expertise has been called upon for films such as Jaws, Orca and Sky Pirates.
Stephen James Backshall is a British explorer, naturalist, presenter and writer. He is best known for BBC TV's Deadly 60.
Manny Puig is an American wildlife entertainer who is known for his direct approach when dealing with dangerous animals such as sharks, black bears and American alligators. He has made frequent appearances on the television shows Jackass and Wildboyz and also on the Animal Planet show Gator Boys. He was also known for hosting Outdoor Channel's "Savage Wild". Puig has appeared in numerous documentaries as an animal expert and even appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and on Shark Week.
Frank Mundus was a fisherman and charter captain based in Montauk, New York who is said to be the inspiration for the character Quint in the movie and book Jaws. He started out as a shark hunter but later became a shark conservationist. Up until his death, he chartered out his boat Cricket II for those seeking the thrill of big game fishing.
Michael Rutzen is a South African conservationist, film maker, and cage diving operator.
Brian Skerry is a photographer and photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife and underwater environments. Since 1998 he has been a contributing photographer for National Geographic Magazine. In 2014 he was named a National Geographic Photography Fellow.
The BBC Wildlife Specials are a series of nature documentary programmes commissioned by BBC Television. The series premiered in 1995, and 22 specials have been produced to date, with most of the more recent ones consisting of multiple episodes. The earlier programmes were produced in-house by the BBC's Natural History Unit, but the more recent Spy in the ... titles were made by the independent John Downer Productions. The first 18 specials, through 2008, were narrated by David Attenborough. Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice (2010), Penguins: Spy in the Huddle (2013) and Dolphins: Spy in the Pod (2014) were narrated by David Tennant.
Ryan Johnson is a marine biologist specializing in researching sharks. He is best known for the shark documentaries that he features in and hosts.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to sharks:
A bait ball, or baitball, occurs when small fish swarm in a tightly packed spherical formation about a common centre. It is a last-ditch defensive measure adopted by small schooling fish when they are threatened by predators. Small schooling fish are eaten by many types of predators, and for this reason they are called bait fish or forage fish.
Pete Oxford is a British-born conservation photographer based in Quito, Ecuador. Originally trained as a marine biologist, he and his wife, South African-born Reneé Bish, now work as a professional photographic team focusing primarily on wildlife and indigenous cultures.
Valerie May Taylor AM is a conservationist, photographer and filmmaker, and an inaugural member of the diving hall-of-fame. With her husband Ron Taylor, she made documentaries about sharks, and filmed sequences for films including Jaws (1975).
Port and Starboard are a pair of adult male orcas notable for preying on great white sharks off the coast of South Africa. The duo are identified as having rare and distinct collapsed dorsal fins and they are named for the nautical terms, as Port's fin collapses left and Starboard's collapses right.