A surfer's worst nightmare or a species worth saving? Despite capturing the imaginations of millions of people, the dreaded Great White shark remains a mystery to us all.

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Aerial photographs of shallow water close to the Cape Peninsula taken after a fatal shark attack in Fish Hoek in November 2004, showed us that what we were observing was not confined to Gansbaai's Shark Bay."

Using his data on the size and sex of the sharks, and combining it with his knowledge of the Great White, Scholl has identified three possible explanations: hunting, birthing or mating.

Hunting - This theory was quashed when sharks in the shallow end of the bay showed absolutely no interest in feeding or scavenging - swimming straight through the chum slicks of cage-diving boats without responding to them.

Birthing - The Great Whites' unwillingness to feed lent credibility to his second theory. In some shark species, appetite suppression occurs during pregnancy and immediately after giving birth, in a bid to prevent mothers from eating their newborns. Moreover, many shark species make use of shallow waters to give juveniles protection from predators. The disproportionately high number of very small sharks in the bay also suggested it may be a pupping ground.

Mating - The presence of large mature sharks swimming among the young led to Scholl's third theory - their breeding. No one has ever seen Great Whites mating, but if it is similar to other sharks, it is a violent process. This would account for the high number of females with fresh bite marks visible in the bay.

But these theories remain conjecture because sharks are shrouded in mystery. A form so perfectly built that evolution has not changed its structural design for millions of years, it is the apex predator of the planet's largest domain - the ocean. It swims at the top of the food chain - the perfect monster, the perfect nightmare - but really, just the perfect shark.

According to Scholl, its nightmarish reputation is bred from a fear of the unknown. Fact is, not much is known about sharks and, true to human nature, people fear the unknown. Shark encounters draw more sensationalistic media attention than both Aids and axe murderers, yet, statistically, less than one person per year is killed by Great White sharks.

One thing you can be sure of is that sharks are not deliberately targeting bony humans, but, if you happen to read the newspapers, you'd probably think otherwise. It's amazing the creative thought that goes into headlines these days, yet equally amazing is our inability to see the realities of shark-human encounters.

A spear-fisherman carrying his bloodied catch on his hip is eaten by a Great White. A woman who has been swimming every day for the past 15 years in shark-infested waters is eaten at the ripe old age of 77. How about a poacher swimming in the Great White shark capital of the world with a catch-bag full of bleeding perlemoen? And surfers and bodyboarders 'seal-ouetted' in black wetsuits and fins, ripping up the sharky swells? Is it really so strange these people encountered sharks and lost their lives? Do the laws of probablity and logic not also apply to sharks?

The three most popular shark encounter theories are: Mistaken identity (...), Investigative curiosity (...) and Lastly, there's the hungry shark theory (...)

Alison Kock and Save Our Seas Foundation are currently involved in tracking the massive Great White sharks of False Bay. Acoustic tags and receivers help Alison map the seasonal swim patterns of these ambush hunters. The waters often run red around Seal Island in the winter time, when Great Whites seem to think they can fly and seals wish they could.

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Read more: Shark Cage Diving Cape Town:
Other Big Issue article on Great White Sharks and Cage Diving
Great White Shark Diving in and near Cape Town
Watch or dive with ragged tooth sharks in Cape Town