With the onset of our Autumn the great white sharks were back at Seal Island and sightings were regular as was the opportunity for shark photography, but rather than increasing began to tail off towards mid-May, whilst at the same time Gansbaai saw unprecedented numbers of sharks. This was a worrying time for us and although we still saw sharks on all trips sightings were not as good as expected.
Towards the end of May we hosted our Sardine Run Expedition. This is always an amazing time for pelagic photography and gives us some of our best
shark photos. Well I can tell you this was an amazing roller coaster with some mind blowing experiences that included an epic all you can eat shark only bait ball with Monique and a regular guest of ours Espen nearly getting chomped by a horde of massive and ravenous Dusky and Bronze Whaler sharks biting each other, the boat and anything in their way.
It was simply awesome chaos to watch. We had a few epic bait balls with hundreds of dolphins, sharks and even a few freight-train-like Brydes whales hurtling through. When you sit near to a bait ball and a Brydes whale steams past you it is an awesome but intimidating experience as you are totally reliant on the whale missing you, it happens so quickly that you have no chance of getting out of the way should you be in its’ path. That said what a sight and for anyone who has not experienced the excitement of being near to an active bait ball all I can say is that if you dare you will have one of the most amazing experiences of your life.
