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!
No comments:
Post a Comment