A research team has found that seals off the coast of South Africa were attacking and eating sharks of the region. According to the team, they found that even the largest sharks have been fending off these seal attacks.

The team led by great white shark expert Chris Fallows found that the seals have not only added shark meat into their diets, but they have indicated that of the food chain in the open ocean could be different than scientists originally thought.

According to researchers of the team, they caught seals attacking and even eating sharks in December of 2012. At that time, the researcher Chris Fallows was about 20 nautical miles off the southwest shores of Cape Point.

According to Fallows, he saw a group of sharks in that region. He got surprised when he noticed a young Cape fur seal, which was approximately four and a half long, launching a predatory attack on the group of sharks.

When the seal was attacking the group of sharks, Fallows was capturing the event on a camera. Before this event, crabs, squid and small fish were considered as the food sources for Cape fur seals. These mammals are also known for hunting and eating infant sharks, but they were never seen attacking an adult shark.

According to the team, there are possibilities that seals could attack sharks, but that happened periodically when seals want to reduce competition for food in the ocean nearby.

By attacking sharks, seals can gain high-energy nutrients from consuming the flesh of their rivals. According to the researchers, such kinds of periodical events occur when conditions are met. They also said that some more researches are needed to know about the feeding habits of the seals of the region.