Seal Island (formerly known as Witte Klip, meaning "White Rock") is a small land mass located 5.7 kilometres (3.5 miles) off the northern beaches of False Bay, near Cape TowninSouth Africa. The island is so named because of the great number of Cape fur seals that occupy it. It is 5 acres (2.0 hectares) in area and home to 64,000 cape fur seals.[1] 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 Cape granite and rises no more than about 4 to 6 metres (13 to 20 feet) above the high tide mark. The island is long and narrow – 800 by 50 metres (2,620 by 160 feet). There is no vegetation, soil of any significance, or beach.
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| Geography | |
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| Location | Atlantic Ocean |
| Coordinates | 34°8′10″S 18°34′58″E / 34.13611°S 18.58278°E / -34.13611; 18.58278 |
| Administration | |
South Africa | |
Aradar 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. The ruins of a few huts and other structures from the sealing and guano-collection era (first half of the 20th century) have remained on the island. Some rock inscriptions made by sealers in the 1930s are still evident.[citation needed]
Besides the Cape fur seal, the Brown fur seal,[2] occurs here and the dense population of seals at certain times of the year attracts the seal's main predator, the great white shark.[1] Seal Island and the adjacent waters provide rare opportunities for those who wish to witness attacks by great whites on the Cape fur seal and to observe social interactions amongst creatures of both species. The island has become famous for the size of the sharks, and for their favoured way of catching their prey – a shark launching an attack will come up from underneath and hurl itself out of the water with the seal in its 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 are more likely to be picked off by the faster and more aggressive great white.
Since 2001, Seal Island, False Bay has been popularized by the Discovery Channel series Air Jaws, which features the breaching behavior of Great Whites near the island. A 2019 sequel, "Air Jaws Strikes Back" names a "second Seal Island", this time located in Mossel Bay on the southeast coast of South Africa.[citation needed]