Shark versus dolphin is an epic oceanic battle—pitting brain against brawn, social cooperation against rugged individualism. But while the war has likely run for millions of years, the skirmishes are fleeting, brief, and rarely witnessed.
“They happen so quickly that our chances of seeing them are low,” says Michael Heithaus, a marine ecologist at Florida International University who’s spent years in the water among dolphins and sharks. “I’ve seen one direct interaction in my life,” he says, describing a scene in Western Australia’s Shark Bay when a great white swam toward a pod of dolphins that scattered when they sensed the impending threat.
Joshua Rapp Learn 