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Cape Fur Seal and Bull Kelp, South Africa, 2002

A young Cape fur seal forages amid bull kelp near Gansbaai, South Africa. The large numbers of great white sharks here, drawn by huge seal populations, give Gansbaai the unofficial title of Great White Capital of the World. Great whites rarely enter kelp forests, and fur seals seek them out as refuges from their arch nemeses.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Oceans of Plenty: South Africa's Teeming Seas," August 2002, National Geographic magazine)

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Photograph by David Doubilet