Guest comment: “Very knowledgable staff, really good day, shame no shakrs but saw lots of sea lions!”- Matthew
“Lots of knowledge, very hospitable. Isn’t nature fickle, but that’s how it is!” – Adam
“Organisation was great and staff very relaxed and friendly. Shame there was a “shark no show”, bet you can’t control nature. Lovely scenery and learnt alot!” – Claire + Liam
09/02/2017
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 19.0’C + 19.3’C
Depth: 7.7m + 11.1m
Visibility: 0-0.5m
Number of Sharks: 0 + 0
Conditions: Calm morning with wind increasing into the afternoon.
The day’s that we all dread came today, with the first day of no sightings for 2017! With yesterday’s slow activity, in which we were lucky enough to be one of only a few that actually saw sharks, we worried about what today might bring. Our first trip of the day launched bright and early at 6:45am, by 7am the boat arrived in the Shallows at our anchor site which was around the same time that our team received news of a deceased White shark on Pearly beach, an area close to our dive site. This 2.6m juvenile female appears to died and washed up recently, a blog pertaining to this can be seen here. This could just be coincidence or it could possibly have something to do with the sighting of two male orcas in the bay yesterday morning. It has been witnessed else where in the world that orcas will predate on White sharks and today’s shark scarcity has us all wondering if it could be possible for our area or just similar timing, factors that could influence a flight response in the White sharks of Gansbaai have been outlined in a blog written by the Dyer Island Conservation Trust’s Biologist Alison Towner in 2016 when the White sharks disappeared for a 21 day long period and can be read here. The second trip of the day also had no luck with shark sightings but did have a very playful Cape Fur seal around the boat. This sealion appeared much at ease and in no way cautious, another bad omen to no sharks being around at that time.
We truly hope that we will have some good news over the next few days with a return to shark sightings.
For the time being the crew on board Slashfin and the team here at Marine Dynamics would like to thank all those that joined us today for their patience and understanding in such a situation.
