Marine Dynamics Blog
Blog - Marine Dynamics - Page 407
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What a way to start the day! Our trip started with the release of a baby sea turtle, back into the wild. Marine Dynamics took it upon themselves to release this animal back into its natural environment. Everyone on board was thrilled to be a part of this fantastic occasion, especially the little girl entrusted with the duty of releasing it. Afterwards we carried on towards our area of cage deployment where we had lots of shark activity waiting for us! The shark activity was amazing and the visibility in the water spectacular and these two elements always make for a winning combination! We spotted several box jellies today as well as a single blue bottle. On our return trip I was given a small love bite on my finger by a subantarctic skua while attempting to give it some food, it was very funny! I love those birds…
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This afternoons trip picked up where the first left off ‘Bent Fin’ and ‘Notchy’ circling the cage as we arrived. Very, very big sharks on the trip and we saw at least 12 of them including ‘Sharkius Maximus’ ‘Big Nemo’ among others. It was a lovely group of guests on Slashfin today too, plenty of families on board and Margaret Holden who came aboard at the grand age of 89! We’re honoured to have you all with us and it was great to be able to share fantastic shark sightings with you.
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Another excellent start to the trip courtesy of ‘Woundy’ I first saw this shark over 3 years ago with a large and freshly opened wound on her keel between the 2nd dorsal fin and tail in Mossel Bay, I joined Marine Dynamics later that year and low and behold here ‘Woundy’ was here in Gansbaai too. Three years on she is now massive, comfortably over 4 meters and still has her feisty temperament. After she left it was quite for a time before more and more sharks started to appear. One was very large – even bigger than ‘Woundy’ and ‘Bent Fin’ who’s around 4 meters. It’s such a privilege to work with these animals on a daily basis but it’s always special to see the big ones!
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The only worry with today’s trip was that the algal bloom which has been prominent in the bay may affect our visibility. Sea conditions were perfect with a slight breeze and no swell, unfortunately the bloom however remained and visibility was reduced. This had little to no effect on our trip as within five minuets the now giant ‘Woundy’ appeared. We’ve been seeing this shark since 2007 when she was less than 3 meters in length and have continued to be visted on and off for the past 5 years. She is now over 4 meters in length and completely dominated the first half of our trip. Rubbing alongside the cage as she passed and giving every person who entered the cage a jaw dropping, breathtaking experience. By the end of the trip many other sharks had arrived and we sighted at least 8 or 9 – possibly more. Fantastic stuff! Thank you very much to Paul Hubert of Paul Hubert Ltd (UK & Ireland) for adopting 2 white sharks, they will be tagged later this year.
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A really great trip today with the sharks arriving very promptly on the scene! Our visibility was still hampered by the large planktonic blooms in the area, however the sharks new exactly what to do! They were coming very close to the cage and to not see them was impossible! We had two sharks over the 4 meter mark which was a great treat for everyone on board including myself! After all of the amazing shark activity in the water we were greeted by a large pod of bottlenose dolphin on our way back from Dyer Island! A brilliant way to end off our day! There is just so much life in this area, it is very important to keep a sharp eye out at all times! At all times…
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We absolutely love our coastline as well as the high nutrient levels which create our large food webs in the ocean. We have one of the strongest upwelling systems, off our coast, in the world. These factors contributes to the immense diversity in the ocean but it has one large drawback for shark cage diving, it decreases our visibility severely. We had nice big sharks today who were a bit more relaxed and not as active in going for the bait, it was still fantastic to see them make their slow passes. One of our regular sharks arrived on the scene today with fresh scars; it’s never a pleasant sight. The scars could have occurred as a result of several speculative factors, only a closer inspection would reveal the answer. We had an awesome bunch of guests on board who were in very high spirit. It was a pleasure having you on board. Great stuff…
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An interesting start to our trip was the sighting of a dog swimming randomly in the sea; it must have been a dolphin in its previous life :)! Very odd indeed. We then carried on with our voyage and were greeted by the sharks in very timely manner! The guests were caught a bit off guard when we started to ask who our first seven divers were going to be. “Big Nemo” made her infamous appearance and was off again. Taking up her limelight was a shark riddled with parasites. This shark stayed with us for the entire duration of the trip and put on a great spectacle! There were many box jellies in the water as well as blue bottles which were quite interesting to see. It was fantastic to see all the diversity in the water today! Great stuff…
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Although the start to today’s trip was slow at first, it escalated very quickly towards quite a few jaw dropping moments! We had several large sharks initially and after a while they seemed to be getting bigger and bigger as we carried on. Finally we climaxed with a large 4.1 meter shark arriving for a closer look at the bait! The visibility seemed to deteriorate later on in the trip, most likely due to the cold front approaching. We had several families on board today, demonstrating how versatile and accommodating we can be to all group sizes and all ages! A great bunch of guests…
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It is amazing how the visibility has remained so good for the last few days; it is really an added bonus to the entire experience. We were celebrating a couple of newlyweds on board today who decided that shark cage diving would be the ideal thing to do to strengthen their relationship. I think after today they will remain together for a very long time to come! We had lots of large sharks today with our regular smaller 2 meter individual making his appearance! We had a real treat today when we sighted a large 3.8 meter shark in shark alley, the waters were crystal clear. The seals were less than 2 meters away from it at times, however no predation took place to the great disappointment of all the guests :)! A tremendous day…
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Conservation Partners
Dyer Island Conservation Trust
African Penguin & Seabird Sanctuary
Department: Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment
Cape Nature
Overstrand Municipality
