Sadly, just the last few years, these animals have all but disappeared from this incredible.

But it is terrible to see how that is happening under our watch.

Yeah, For many years, surfers on these beaches have known they have to keep a close.

Watch out for the white flag on for the siren that indicate a great white shark has been spotted close to shore.

But for the last two years away, that's changed dramatically.

Wherever you go, if you put your feet into the water, you expect to encounter, which are.

But that's not the case no more.

I don't even remember the last I've seen the show.

Beautiful day Clear Blue Ocean.

Any sharks?

No, not at the moment.

None at all.

None at all.

No white sharks and false bear us.

One of the standout theories is the arrival of a specific type of orca.

In 2000 and 15, we saw the arrival of this pair of orcas.

They're very distinctive.

They have dorsal fins that flop over on.

They feed specifically on sharks tow us the arrival of thes orcas on then the reduction in shark activity.

It does all seem to be correlated.

It appears that the orders arrive and the sharks just are aware that they are no longer the apex predator anymore.

So logic tells you if your food is not available here you go look elsewhere.

And that's what a lot of us believe is.

What actually happened was tragic irony with the whole disappearance of our sharks.

Is that the over exploitation off the smaller shark species along the South African coastline is to meet the demand for fish and chips in Australia?

Mhm.

Unfortunately, we're suffering a lot.

It's Ah very, very difficult times for the whole town.

For the whole town.

Yes, the whole industry.

Yes, it is really, really sad.

We miss these shocks a lot.

My name is Dr Sarah Andreotti.

I am a marine biologist and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Stellenbosch.

500 to in these two.

Thank God, that's much better.

Now we're talking okay, that all too enough.

We want to try and take a genetic sample from the sharks.

To do that with that state realized biopsies Sampler way will take a piece of tissue out of the shark skin.

Thomas Fisher back to when I went in and we got something way.

Have to collect these very carefully.

I'm white.

Sharks are top predators, so they are actually much more vulnerable than other species to climate change.

Pollution that can if you have heavy metal in the water, the animals at the top of the food chain of the one that accumulate the heavy metal so that will interfere with reproductive system.

Is it very frustrating for you not be ableto keep testing great whites?

Yes, it's also it is not just frustrating is feeling that that happened under our watch.

You know, we saw the sharks.

We saw the numbers were not great on the work we did wasn't enough to get them, uh, environment better protected in a way.

Or maybe it was just too late.

So the frustration comes from the feeling that maybe we just didn't do enough.

Okay, Alright.

How does that feel?

Good, Right?

Let's get thio.

Plenty of beautiful sharks down here, but no great whites, none at all on so many theories about why they may have disappeared.

But the real fear is that they may have gone for good.

Sure, if we keep on doing what we're doing, we're not giving them a chance.

If we start changing the way we've been doing things, then it is basically upto them.

If there are still enough to restock their old problem that our human related so humans should do something about it, let's just wait and see.

It's like I still strongly believe that look like the Sharks will come back.

It's just a matter of time.

The best we can do is just keeping collecting data and keep looking.

They will come back, that's for sure.

That's my personal belief, yeah.