Shark activity: 6^th July – 11^th July 2009

06/07/09

Three different sharks were recorded on Shark Teams morning trip. We had one 2.6 metre male with another two sharks around the 3 metre mark. Data was limited on the trip as other crew responsibilities were of greater importance. We were also lucky enough to have one of the early arrivals of this seasons’ Southern Right Whales and another beautiful Shy albatross.

07/07/09

No fin-ids were taken today as I was filming. We had 6 different sharks in the morning and 7 in the afternoon. In the morning one of our crew members lost his hat as a gust of wind took it and placed it in the chum line, immediately a small shark made a move over to it and had a good look before test biting it to see what it was. This is very typical of Great whites’, they are extremely curious and inquisitive but also very cautious in their approach. Whites typically mouth objects to investigate them as they do not have hands to manipulate objects. This is what we attribute most so called shark ‘attacks’ to. The shark is simply curious and mouths a person, unfortunately we have very thin skin and sharks have teeth as sharp as razor blades.

08/07/09

As I was filming again, unfortunately there are no pictures for the tour today. We were anchored close to Geyser rock again on this trip, the sea was calm and it was overcast but it did not deter the sharks. We had quite a lot of seal activity with small numbers porpoising from the island to go out to the fishing grounds, unfortunately no predatory activity though. We had 9 different sharks with a lot of activity and interaction between the individuals. We observe social interactions amongst the sharks on a regular basis at this time of the year as they are so abundant around the vessel. It just shows that these animals are highly sophisticated and not mindless killing machines as so many people truly believe. Order is maintained amongst the sharks by subtle movements and signals which is generally mediated by larger sharks being dominant over smaller individuals, what is termed a size-dominance hierarchy.

09/07/09

Seven different white sharks were observed on the morning trip, the activity was a little sporadic which has been typical of this week. Over in the distance we could see splashing and the commotion that is associated with a predation on a Cape fur seal. It did not appear to be successful as there was no blood and the ever hungry, scavenging sea gulls did not swoop down to gobble up the juicy bits as per usual. On the second trip there were 11 different sharks around Shark Team and the activity had picked up from the morning.

A few weeks ago I wrote about some of the dangers that white sharks and their cousins face today, the picture I included last time was of a line with 3 hooks trailing from the shark and this picture just shows that this is an all too familiar site. Many sharks have large hooks embedded in the jaws and lines trailing from the mouth and even sometimes from the gills.

10/07/09

We had 2 great trips around the island today with 9 and 8 sharks on the morning and afternoon tours respectively. We were also treated to a very rare sighting of a pod of +/- 200 common dolphins moving out to sea. In 3 years I have only seen the marine big 5 once and today was the second time.

The MB5 include the white shark, Southern Right whale, African penguin, Cape fur seal and the Common dolphin. A well known 2.8 metre female we named dropsy made a few passes around Shark Team, she has been around the Dyer Island area for an unusually long period of time. Most sharks are usually here for 2-3 weeks and then they move off to other areas including False and Mossel Bays and far beyond. Some may even regularly undergo transoceanic migration, unfortunately our knowledge of migration is still in the early stages but we are gradually starting to reveal some of this species habits.

11/07/09

After a week of stunning days another cold front is starting to roll in so the island will be inaccessible for a little while. We had 12 different sharks on our morning tour with lots of great action, we had one 2.6 metre shark spy hopping and checking out the back of the boat. Another shark kept on making vertical approaches to the bait which is a beautiful sight with the white belly exposed coming straight up to the surface, I guess the last thing quite a few seals see before they meet their maker!

 On top of all that we had 2 Humpback whales pass close to the boat again as they navigated their way out to the open ocean.