Dead White Shark :(

Two days ago, we got word that a dead white shark had washed up on Dyer Island, which was very sad news.

Unfortunately, the first day was far too rough for Marine Dynamics' whale rescue team to go out and retrieve it on the first day. However, yesterday it was calm enough for the team of three boats and crew to go and fetch it.

I managed to get to the harbour just in time to see the crew and the boat Calypso coming in, towing the animal behind it between two inflatable buoys. There were lots of people at the harbour, including a couple of film crews! I was keen to see if the shark had an obvious cause of death, but there were no marks on him whatsoever, except the skin that had been rubbed off by the sand as it had washed up.

The shark was immediately taken by the South African government's marine scientists to go to Cape Town for dissection in a couple of weeks. Maybe then we will find out what caused the death of this beautiful creature.

Below is the picture of the shark (it is bloated due to decomposition) taken by Marine Dynamics skipper, Hennie Otto:

Marine Dynamics actually lost a lot of money in fuel and personnel charges retrieving it, which goes to show how much they care about the wildlife in this area. Wilfred Chivell, the founder of Marine Dynamics and Dyer Island Cruises, is clearly extremely passionate about these animals.

That is why, and please don't judge me too badly for promoting this company so blatantly, I would definitely recommend Marine Dynamics as a shark diving or whale-watching company. The money that is spent on your trip really does go towards marine conservation; these guys perform whale rescues, animal corpse retrieval for post-mortem analysis (an extremely important factor in conservation - if you have a dead animal, you need to find out what killed it to aid possible prevention of killing other members of the species in the future!), penguin housing placement on Dyer Island as well as education of the public about the area. I have witnessed first hand where this money goes, and can vouch for the company's positive actions towards conservation.

So, if you're considering coming on a shark diving tour/whale watching trip in South Africa (and I would really recommend it), I can honestly say Marine Dynamics is the best choice for a responsible eco-tourist.

p.s. I'm not getting paid by them!

Catch Up

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, it has been a very busy week!

So I've been on a couple of shark trips, one of which featured a cape fur seal swimming around the boat. I also went on a whale scouting trip with some of the whale scientists and skippers who work here, saw a couple of humpback whales and followed them for a good while. I love them! Saw a great deal of sea bird life, including the shy albatross, cape gannet

I also went out scouting for sharks on Lwazi (meaning 'knowledge' in the Xhosa language... one of the local languages of South Africa). Lwazi is a small research boat, so I got to do some crew-work which was fun (another thing for the C.V.!) and took a few fin pictures for I.D.

Last Thursday was the official gathering to celebrate the construction of a southern right whale skeleton in the great white house, which was brilliant, there were some fantastic presentations, along with an amazing time lapse video of it being constructed (by the amazing Anna).

There was free food and wine, which was really really tasty!

I've also been socialising a lot more with the volunteers and interns, who are a lovely bunch of people from the likes of Canada, USA, Switzerland and the UK. We had a night out to a bar called "Captain's Corner" which was one of my favourite nights out here so far!

Yesterday, we saw a southern right whale come extremely close to the boat, the sun was shining and it was just a lovely day in general. I helped to clean the boat after the trip and did some of the volunteer's work, as the majority were at Cape Augalas. Productive day!

I've also started 'project keep fit in Africa'; trying to eat as healthy as possible and go jogging and do some other exercises. Hopefully I will be able to maintain some good willpower and keep it up. I've been jogging two days in a row, and hope to go later (even though I went this morning)...

Later tonight, we're having a pasta night at Nicola's house, one of the marine biologists on the boat.

No sea day AGAIN :(

Oh dear, the weather is not our friend... although it appears sunny enough, there is a strong wind forecast for later on today, so the trip is cancelled. Not all is lost, though... it has given me the chance to catch up on inputting my data, and I can start to make some preliminary graphs to see what my data might look like.

Later Amy and I will be contributing our efforts towards the DARWIN database, a piece of software originally designed to help identify the fins of bottlenose dolphins, which are unique to each individual. Marine Dynamics are applying this software to the fin identification of white sharks, using photographs taken on the boat and then putting them into a database via the DARWIN software, which then maps out the shape of the fin. I'm really happy to be a part of this, as it's always good to get some new experience for your C.V!

I'm not sure what will be happening this evening, but it will probably involve getting another early night for the trip tomorrow (if there is one!).

p.s. I've just realised, I've been here a total of 2 weeks! Wow. That went extremely quickly... 7 weeks to go!

In the cage...

So today I actually ventured into the cage. Unfortunately the visibility was a lot worse, but there were a good few sharks, and I got extremely close to them! They become a whole new animal when you get in the cage with them; graceful and beautiful creatures, gliding through the water. When they go for the bait or decoy, they seem like aquatic acrobats, not too dissimilar to dolphins. When they glide past the cage - it really does feel like they are looking at you, with an almost curious look on their face.

When the time came to get out of the cage, however, it began to get more scary. The sharks became excitable around the bait, and one was hurtling towards me with its mouth open. A formidable sight, its jaws projected forwards, I understood why some treat cage diving as an adrenaline sport! As a second shark went for the bait, its nose actually came into the cage in front of me, but at this point I had not got a mask on and wasn't submerged, which really got my heart racing!

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any data due to heavy rain. If I had stood on the top deck where I'm supposed to stand (in accordance with my project's methodology), the recording sheet would have been absolutely soaked. 'Cheating' and standing downstairs was also not an option due to the amount of people crowding around the shark cage. I can't really ask them to move as they are paying guests, so I couldn't see a thing! Never mind, I've got more data than I expected to have by this point anyway, I just hope there aren't too many more no sea days/rainy days.

I can't wait to go into the cage again! Hopefully I'll manage to catch a day where the visibility is even better.

Amazing Visibility!

This morning, whilst doing the washing up, I managed to impale my hand on an upturned knife in the drying rack... blood everywhere! Luckily it didn't hurt too much, and I eventually stemmed the blood to put a plaster on, which soon was also soaked. Whoops!

Another early trip, and the sun was shining lovely. As we pulled up to the diving spot, I could once again see the bottom. Absolutely stunning, and we were at a depth of 10m. This kind of visibility is amazing for the divers and for observing the sharks, but it seems to make them aggregate more. This means when you try to follow one or two individuals, you end up getting really lost and it is almost impossible to follow some of them who don't have distinctive marks on them!

I'm currently sat out in the sun with a hot chocolate talking to a girl called Ingrid from Cape Town, she's going to be with us for a while as she's on her Uni holidays doing some work for Michelle, one of the main researchers here at Marine Dynamics. In about an hour, we'll all be going out whale watching! Hopefully we'll see some nice ones, as I didn't actually spot any this morning.

Tomorrow I'm planning on going in the cage, diving with the sharks! I wish I had an underwater camera, but never mind. Hoping the visibility will be just as amazing as it was today!

Whale of a time!

Excuse the awful pun, but today I saw a total of 3 southern white whales, and one humpback! A wonderful start to the whale season! Sharks are very active and impressive, but I love how beautiful whales are, and how slowly they seem to move. I really wish I had my camera with me!

The first trip was very early, and absolutely freezing, although the sun soon came up and made for another wonderful day. I managed to get some good data on a couple of returning sharks; one with a strange lump on its side, most possibly a badly healed wound, and another shark with a large hook in its mouth, trailing a fisherman's lure to the side of it. Visibility in the water was lovely, and Amy got some lovely footage on her go-pro camera (an underwater video recorder).

After two trips, I was absolutely exhausted, and went home, had tea then went straight to bed at about 7.30pm! Mostly because I was absolutely freezing and this was the best way to warm up.

Dissolved Face!

So Prometheus wasn't as good as we thought, although it was visually stunning. Despite not being particularly enthralled by the film, I was amazed about was the sizes and prices of the food and drink! I ordered a medium popcorn and drink £3 total! The drink was of expected size, but the popcorn was far bigger than I imagined! Unfortunately they only do salted popcorn, which isn't my favourite, but they do have different flavoured powder that you sprinkle on! I chose salt and vinegar - lovely tasting, but after a while of eating, powdered acetic acid tends to start dissolving your lips and tongue, which is painful.

ANOTHER no sail day, which is disappointing, although apparently tomorrow there are two trips lined up. The weather has picked up today, and the rain is holding off in favour of the sun. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some good data!

Prometheus

No sail days are quite boring, so it is nice to have something to look forward to this afternoon when we head over to Cape Town to watch Prometheus, the prequel to Alien. Alien was very good and I'm surprised I haven't seen it before now; it's a lot  less scary than I thought it would be!

I'm currently trying to write an entry for Marine Dynamics' blog, about my background and the work I'm doing here. I'm not sure how much detail to go in to really, so I might try to catch Michelle later (the person 'in charge' of the blog). In the mean time, whilst there isn't much happening to fill out this blog, I'll post some pictures I took in the last couple of days.

Above is the view from the boat towards the houses on the sea front. Our holiday home is just behind one of the houses towards the left hand side of this picture. You can see how close we are to the shoreline!

Here is the view from the patio out onto the sea! This is just before sunset at about 6pm.

And finally, one of the Great Whites I'm studying! I'm yet to get the perfect shot, but this is a taster of what it's like to get near one of these wonderful creatures! This one is probably about four meters long.

Blustery Day

It's a non-sail day due to high winds. So unfortunately most of today is going to be laptop work based. I've had a second meeting to check I am on track, and I appear to be doing well, especially considering I've only been here for one week. My methods look like they will work, I've just got to get as much data as possible! We're not going out until Sunday though, so I won't have much to do between then and now.

I think tonight we're going to order some sushi and watch Alien (as we'll be heading to the cinema in a few days to watch Prometheus, the prequel). Apart from the weather and work, not much is going on today I'm afraid!

Penguins Ahoy!

It was a 6am start this morning and it was hard to get out of bed. Once I had made it to the Great White House (the building where Marine Dynamics is based), I felt much more awake and ready to start the day.

We anchored in 'shark alley' due to bad sea conditions, as this is in between Dyer Island and a large rocky outcrop inhabited by cape fur seals (which is really a misnomer, as they are more like sealions than seals in morphology). Despite this 'shelter', the boat was very rocky and a great many guests became sea-sick, which wasn't a pleasant sight. One guest was even violently sick in the diving cage, much to the amusement of some of us on board (including me), as other divers in the cage were unable to escape the floating vomit!

I managed to follow a large male shark with a notch in the top of its caudal fin (tail), and managed to jot down a lot of his behaviour. A smaller female shark was also around the boat for a good deal of time, and I managed to collect a lot of data on her as well. Overall a good day data-wise.

On the way back from the trip, we slowed to watch three penguins swimming about in front of our boat. African penguins are also endangered, and these were the first wild penguins I've ever seen! They were very cute and inquisitive.

Now I'm back and sat out in the sun to warm up from the cold wind of the trip. About to head back to the flat for a warm shower, then might make an attempt at getting on to Skype later if the internet connection allows it!

Stormy Day

Today was a no-sail day due to bad weather. At first, the day was just overcast and cold. However, by lunchtime there was a light rain, and by half past three, a full-on thunderstorm had developed. Luckily before the downpour happened, I had managed to get home relatively dry. I noticed that the sand-fleas were going absolutely bananas on the sand, hopping all over the place! No wonder the cape wagtails are so fat and abundant, with all that food about.

The first lightning struck as I sat down for a cup of tea, so I opened the net curtains to see if I could watch out for it. As the storm grew nearer towards me, the lightning became more frequent and deafeningly loud. I love lightning, just how dramatic and colourful it is, as well as the thrill of the loud thunder that follows. I began to unplug all the appliances and turn off lights as I wasn’t sure South African electrical wiring was up to any lightning strikes, and didn’t fancy any surges blowing up my laptop or the T.V. As the storm began to pass, I decided it was probably safe to plug my laptop back in. Literally seconds after doing so, lightning struck the sea about 50m from the shoreline! It sounded like cannon fire. I ran to unplug my laptop again, just in case of another strike. 

After a few minutes, I heard voices outside the door and assumed Amy had returned, perhaps with Ed and Anna. However, it was the landlord and lady, who are absolutely lovely! They had come to check if Amy and I were ok, and also to bring round a couple of candles, a gas cooker and Anneke (the landlady, who has a really unusually spelled name, so I just wrote it how it sounds) had made some ‘mudcake’, which I have just tried a piece of, and it is gorgeous. It is basically a kind of home-made chocolate fudge. Amy will have to get back soon if she wants a piece (joking!). I hope to go over to their house (just in front of ours) at some point, as Anneke keeps inviting us over for some tea!

No such thing as Monday blues...

I was awoken by the sound of a fog horn in the distance, and drew the curtains to a thick grey mist covering the garden. I assumed today would be bad weather, and wrapped up warm, then stepped outside to find that the fog had been blown out to sea only to be replaced by bright, warm sunshine. 

Working with Marine Dynamics, there is no such thing as Monday blues! I spent the morning in the garden outside the office trying to chase a beautiful sunbird, attempting to get a nice photograph of it. Unfortunately, the bird eluded me, but I'm sure I'll get it one of these days!

After that, it was time to set sail again. The mood on board was upbeat as usual, and it wasn't long before we saw our first shark of the day. This time, I was ready with my data capture sheet and managed to collect some good data. I noticed one of the sharks appeared to have a tactic of gently approaching the bait, feigning interest, then suddenly snapping back around to grab it.

After a good while of data capture, I set about taking photos (some of which I will eventually get around to posting on here). I think I got a couple of good ones! Then it was the end of another exciting trip, and we began to head home. After disembarking Slashfin, the name of our boat, we proceeded to walk up the road back to the office. Unfortunately, a group of fishermen decided to drive past us with a boat full of dead Copper sharks (Carcharhinus brachyurus). I'm not sure any of the guests noticed or cared, but I found it appalling. How are groups like Marine Dynamics supposed to promote the conservation of sharks and other marine life when people like this are driving up and down with their catch on such open display?!

Anyway, I am currently writing this blog in the garden, the sun beginning to set in front of me. Hopefully tonight we will be heading to Ed and Anna's house to eat some leftovers from the braai and watch a couple of films. 

Sunday Braai

Woke up to glorious sunshine, ready for my next outing! This time I was going to trial my data capture sheet to see how easy and effective it was. As soon as the boat reached its anchor point for the cage diving, I grabbed the Secchi disk to measure water visibility. However, looking over the side of the boat, we could see the bottom of the sea! Crystal clear visibility like this is very rare, according to one of the crew. It apparently only happens for a couple of weeks in the year!

It was pointless using the Secchi disk, so I turned my attention to helping Ali by noting down the properties of the water itself (dissolved oxygen content etc.). As soon as we lowered it to get the surface information, a humongous shark rolled up. As amazing as it was, this meant Ali couldn't collect any more information due to the fact sharks enjoy a bit of a nibble on shiny electrical implements!

And so I took my post on the top deck for maximum visual range, ready to record behaviour. Despite the amazing visibility in the water, this was not as easy as it seemed. The sharks were in an interesting mood today, and at one point there were six individual sharks swimming around the boat! Brilliant if you're a tourist, but extremely difficult when you're trying to keep an eye on only one shark! The crew, Amy and Ali were all very excited, but I was with the guests in that I didn't realise the treat that lay before me (due to lack of experience in these things). The number of individual sharks ran into double figures, something that is apparently very unusual.

After recording data for three different sharks, I stopped. Clearly this was an unusual day, and there were far too many sharks to follow effectively and record good data. Instead, I enjoyed the view in front of me, and watched as shark after shark swam around the boat, almost like a school of fish (sharks are not social animals normally). The sun was shining, and this was an experience that I didn't want to miss completely with my head down in a spreadsheet!

And so we headed back, everyone on the boat was buzzing at what they had just witnessed.

That evening there was a braai (a South-African style barbeque). I made homemade burgers - although I didn't realise that burgers are a taboo for braais! Although I was assured that I was the exception for making them home-made, phew! So eventually the beers were flowing and the braai was burning away. An eccentric Mexican by the name of Pepe arrived, along with home-made dips such as salsa, guacamole and some hot tomato stuff (immense), as well as some home-made tortilla chips!!! Absolutely delicious!

Everyone having filled up on the delicious starters (which included some corn casserole and mac 'n' cheese made by a lovely American woman called Tammy), it was time to get some meat on the braai. All nine burgers went on, but I only had room for one. I hadn't realised that it was customary for everyone to bring their own meat, and that there were also a few vegetarians... d'oh! So there were eight burgers left over, and nothing saddens me more than good food left over! However, at least I was sorted with food for the next couple of days.

Amy and I headed home at about 10.30 (we only live a few seconds away), and I got in bed with a satisfyingly full stomach, read a chapter of The Hobbit and fell fast asleep, ready for the following day's adventure.

Saturday Outing!

There's no such thing as a weekend here at Marine Dynamics. Not that I'm complaining. Saturday morning, and we're heading out again to see sharks. What a life the permanent workers here lead!

Once more, a tonne of sharks showed up to play. This time I had my camera ready! The guests all seemed to love it still, and I can certainly sympathise! It was amazing. Ally, a marine biologist from Manchester, got a high reading for oxygen content of the water, meaning that the sharks were getting an extra energy boost. You could certainly tell! There were a couple of really big sharks around the boat today, it is hard to imagine just how big these animals get! Estimated to be around 4m, the biggest shark swam lazily around the boat for much of the time we were out there, giving the occasional lunge towards the decoy (a 'seal shaped' piece of wood) and the bait. She seemed to enjoy swimming right past the cage the guests were in, giving them a fantastic underwater view of herself. Once more, the reactions were brilliant!

After the trip, I managed to grab a word with Michelle about my methodology. After all, she is a behavioural ecologist, and my project is about shark behaviour! Luckily, our ideas for data capture methods were very similar (something I'm quite chuffed about!), and I confirmed how I would  collect my data.

Hermanus

My second day here was lovely. Amy, Ed, Anna and I all headed off to Hermanus to get some equipment and such. Another lovely town, I would really consider living there! Famous for whale-spotting, the cliff at the sea-front boasted stunning views of the bay. However, it is not currently whale season, so we didn't see any.

After walking about attempting to find a digital watch for myself, we gave up and headed for a late lunch at one of the restaurants. I ordered a pumpkin and halloumi salad in an attempt to be healthy (it was also quite cheap!). However, when it came, it was stack upon stack of halloumi cheese and pumpkin, with a few rocket leaves underneath. As tasty as it was (and it was very tasty!), my attempts to be healthy had worked out to be in vain, and I was soon full from the vast quantities of fried, salty Cypriot cheese.

Today was another roasting hot day, which again pleasantly surprised me due to it being winter. I wish winter was like this in the UK!

After climbing into bed at the end of the day, my thoughts soon turned to home and I began to feel a little sad, wishing Ian could be here to experience this with me. Although I'm glad to be having a good time so that it's easy to push how much I miss him into the back of my mind. Having The Hobbit to read has also proven a good distraction method in the evenings!