Photos showing a fur seal voraciously eating a shark are apparently the only known documentation of this kind of behavior in the marine animal.

This discovery reveals the secretive nature of the sea's diet and also shows they consume mid- sized to large sharks. This finding suggests important implications in understanding the complex food web in the ocean.

Like Us on Facebook

The photos were taken by Chris Fallows, who's been working with sharks since 1992. He currently runs a diving operation called Apex Shark expeditions that involves commercial cage diving. Fallows is fascinated with sharks and witnessed this uncanny event in December 2012.

During that time, Fallows was leading a shark dive some 20 nautical miles southwest from Cape Point, which is the peninsula near Cape Town, South Africa. The group was looking at 10 blue sharks when a young male Cape fur seal suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked the predator group.

Great white sharks usually feed on Cape fur seals but Cape fur seals aren't known to eat sharks. The seals' diet consist of small fish, squid and crabs.

The young seal ripped apart five of the blue sharks, some measuring up to 4.5 feet long, the same size as the seal.

The seal ravenously snatched one shark and tore its abdomen wide open to feed upon the dark viscera. Fallows stayed and witnessed the scene, capturing photos of the seal as it killed and ate five sharks out of 10.

In this new study, researchers Hugues Benoit and Neil Hammerschlag from the University of Miami studied Fallows' documentation to decipher its ecological implications. There were already incidents where seals ate baby sharks or dead sharks.

Benoit says Cape fur seals and blue sharks possess similar diets but the seals aren't known to attack their predatory rivals. Researchers noted the seal's targeting the viscera area of the sharks means the seal has the option to be selective with its food and doesn't seem to be at a loss for food.

This strange behavior also suggests traditional methods of diet estimation when it comes to marine animals might be missing some key points in the marine food web. Ecologists have long assumed seals eat small fish not exceeding more than one foot long.

This study was published online in the African Journal of Marine Sciences.

Tags[PHOTO] Why Did This Fur Seal Attacked and Devoured a Shark's Innards?, seal eating shark photo, South Africa, cape fur seals