Chris Fallows is a South African expert on

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocea ...

s and their hunting habits. He has amassed the largest database of predatory events involving great white sharks in

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

and was the first member of the scientific community to observe the breaching behaviour.

Early life

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 Rondebosch Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the oldest schools in the country, having been established ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

Career

In 1992 Fallows was at the forefront of great white shark tours when he started his work and research at Dyer Island off

Gansbaai Gansbaai (Dutch/Afrikaans for "bay of geese," sometimes referred to as Gans Bay) is a fishing town and tourist destination in the Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa. It is known for its dense population of great white shar ...

. 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 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 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 Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

on the "Shallow Seas" episode of the ''Planet Earth'' series,

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

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 ''Isurus'' (meaning "equal tail") is a genus of mackerel sharks in the family Lamnidae, commonly known as the mako sharks. They are largely pelagic, and are fast, predatory fish capable of swimming at speeds of up to . Fossil history and evolu ...

and

blue shark The blue shark (''Prionace glauca''), also known as the great blue shark, is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae and the only member of its genus which inhabits deep waters in the world's temperate and tropical oceans. Ave ...

s in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

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 o
www.chrisfallows.com
His August 2020 image, "The Pearl", of a great white shark breaching the sea's surface, was selected by

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as one of "the most striking images of 2020."

References

External links

Apexpredators.com

Chris Fallows Photography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fallows, Chris Living people South African ichthyologists Alumni of Rondebosch Boys' High School Year of birth missing (living people)