Guest comment: “Extremely fortunate to be able to encounter the joys of nature. Orcas and sharks, can’t beat that!” – Anna + Trav
“Not possible to explain the emotion of seeing the orcas and the sharks are even more beautiful from up close!” – Pedro + Enos
“Fantastic team with amazing and important research and conservation work!” – Jessica
08/02/2017
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 18.0’C + 18.4’C
Depth: 7.8m + 8.0m
Visibility: 0.5m – 2.0m
Number of Sharks: 2 + 1
Conditions: Flat seas with a slight south west wind.
Gansbaai is world renowned for the large predatory fish that visits it’s waters, the White shark, however there are other large predators that inhabit the seas off the South African coastline and one is the Orca. The first group that joined Marine Dynamics were lucky enough to start off their morning with glimpses of two male Orcas that had made their way into the bay. These two are believed to be the same two males that we spotted in the bay in October 2015, both with the collapsed dorsal fin, and whilst this is often associated with stress or ill-health there are other factors that may be at play. The last known sighting of these two were in Langebaan lagoon on the 17th of January of this year. It was a great sight, especially as this is only our third sighting of Orcas in the last 4 years, however there is always that worry that we, like Australia and America, may see our White sharks disappear from the area with the presence of Orcas especially when some groups do specialise in feeding on sharks. Before we had even anchored we had heard from the other boats that had launched earlier than we had that there had been no shark sightings yet for the morning, so much so that two boats decided to try our Winter diving site around the Islands. We anchored and hoped for the best and within 45 minutes an excited cry of shark was heard all over the boat. This was a little juvenile but far from shy, she was happy to get nice and close to the cage and make multiple attempts on the decoy and bait lines, furthermore a second shark appeared, a smaller juvenile but it too was quite active and we ended our trip with each cage having a shark pass by atleast once.
The second trip of the day launched in the hopes that they too may be some of the few lucky ones to see White sharks in the area on a day proving very difficult. Within 20 minutes of re-anchoring the group had the second shark from the first trip turn up again, and this little juvenile showed yet again that you don’t need to be a big White shark to impress with the shark sticking around for the trip so that yet again this trip saw the shark passing by the cage for each group of divers.
It is these sort of days when one truly appreciates how lucky we are to see these sharks. There is no guarantee, these are wild animals that do what they want, when they want which in the end makes us even more greatful to have the chance to see them.
We are so thankful to the guests that joined us today for their patience and understanding, in the end we had a fantastic day out on the water!
