Pilot Whale Sighting

15 May 2011

We have been running Pelagic Shark Trips since 1999. Chris, Poenas & I just love these trips. We are venturing out into the open ocean off the most South Western tip of Africa. This trip is truly a marine adventure with such a great variety of marine life possible to encounter.

Our target species is Mako and Blue sharks but the open ocean sea birds are also a huge highlight. After New Zealand the waters off Cape Point are said to be the best for seeing a large variety of sea birds. Up to 7 species of albatross are possible as well as petrels, terns, shearwaters and so many others.

The waters off Cape Point are extremely nutrient rich and not only support the sharks and birds but also a large amount of cetacean species.

Shark Activity

APRIL 2011 SHARK BYTES

Dear Shark Lovers!

April has been a very up and down month for Great white shark sightings. It has been interesting to see how dramatic the effect of weather and water temperature seems to have had on the shark activity.

Sadly, our much loved crew member, Woods, also had a very traumatic event where he lost his home in a fire. Please read below to see if you can help him.

Ultimate Air Jaws

Doing for Conservation what Jaws did for Demonization

Air Jaws the 2000 documentary featuring local celebrity and shark conservationist Chris Fallows showed the world the breaching great white sharks for the first time. The subsequent Air Jaws 2 and Ultimate Air Jaws have been met with equal awe and acclaim as the first, as improved technology and better funding have helped the team get closer than ever before to these jumping giants.

17 to 23 April

Great White Shark Sightings

Seal Island, False Bay

Chris & I had been away the week before this on board a 6 Star Cruise Ship, Serenity, where Chris was invited as a guest speaker. Needless to say the 6 star treatments was something completely new for us, especially after just camping in very rough conditions in the Himalayas! We weren’t complaining and had an amazing time on board enjoying both the exquisite food (!) and very interesting lectures by other guest speakers.

While we were away “White Pointer” was operating as per normal and Poenas and our team had some amazing shark sightings for this time of the year as well as great sightings of a large school of dolphin throughout the week.

SHARKS TRIPS, GREAT WHITE SHARKS

SHARKS OF SOUTHER AFRICA 2011 TRIP REPORT

1 TO 12 FEBRUARY

Every couple of years Chris & I host a special expedition which focuses on finding and diving with as many different shark species that we can find in the Southern Cape. Most people associate Great white sharks with South Africa but there is such a variety of other sharks, both big and small. This trip is aimed towards the true shark and nature lover.

We started off by taking a 4 hour drive from Cape Town to spend the first 5 days with our long-time friends Tim & Hilary. In this area in the Southern Cape our aim was to dive with smooth and scalloped hammerhead pups, large ragged tooth sharks, bronze whaler or copper sharks and a variety of small cat shark species.

Update on Great White Shark Activity Mid to End March

Every season at Seal Island is different. This year we have had a great surprise with the sharks making an early return to Seal Island. We think that great white shark movement depends mostly on what they are feeding on. In the summer months most of the shark activity is close to shore where they feed on a diet of other species of shark (smooth hound and soupfin sharks) as well as migratory fish species such as Yellowtail, Kob, Elf etc. All these species move into False Bay with warm water currents. During this time we do not run white shark trips, simply because there is little to no activity at Seal Island. As soon as the seasons change and the migratory fish and sharks leave False Bay the Great whites move to Seal Island where they predominantly feed on young of the year Cape fur seals. This normally happens around early to mid April each year.

In 2011 we have been seeing sharks at the Island since early February which is fantastic news for us! I hope I don’t jinx myself now, but we have seen Great whites on all trips since the middle of Feb.

On the 8^th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,

6 cheetah cubs with their mother in a leaning tree……..

Masai Mara, Kenya

October 2010

Having spent a large part of my life in the bush, all in Southern Africa I had naturally wanted to visit Kenya and see East Africa’s wildlife. An opportunity arose this year when we did a trip swop with C4 images who run expeditions to see the famous wildebeest migration and crossing of the Mara river.

To see hundreds of thousands of wildebeest sprinkled over the was incredible. In fact to see such a profusion of life in the form of large animals, rather than humans, was really very heart warming. Whilst in the Mara we were lucky enough to witness one of the famous crossings of the Mara river and unbelievably also managed to see one from a hot air balloon, something that apparently only happens about once a year.

Two’s Company

Isla Guadalupe, Mexico

September 2010

For anyone who works with great white sharks there are many times on clam days when the huge predator is slowly cruising around your boat that your urge becomes so great to hop in and be a part of this magnificent fish’s world for just a few moments. To swim with this gracious yet obviously potentially dangerous animal requires the right conditions and above all the right animals. It is not simply a case of on the 3^rd of August we will swim with great whites irrespective of conditions, shark etc. It needs to be done respectfully considering what can potentially go wrong.

Although I have free dived at Gansbaai as far back as 1994 and at Seal Island, conditions in South Africa are often up and down from a visibility point of view. At Seal Island the sharks are also there purely to hunt and so the stakes are obviously higher.

The low down on Leopards

Botswana

December - 2010

Photographing lions, wild dogs, hyenas and cheetahs from ground level was something I was very familiar with and had adapted techniques to allow me to do this with minimal intrusion and at the same time allowing me to get dramatic profiles of these animals. One particular cat I had always wanted to photograph from the ground was a leopard. The problem with leopards is they are Africa$B!G(Js real masters of cunning and guile, to outsmart a leopard is not easy. The other problem is to frighten a leopard is really easy and that is my biggest concern when I shoot any wildlife, I really do try my best to not frighten things if I can in any way help it.

Although in most cases not a serious risk leopards can be aggressive when startled as like so many creatures adopt a fight or flight policy so I also needed at all times to be aware of this and had to choose my cat to crawl with very carefully.

SNOW LEOPARD EXPEDITION TRIP REPORT

Part 3

THE DAYS FOLLOWING THE SIGHTING

Camp morale was massive after the sighting and we were all super confidant that we would have another sighting.

The signs were all there. Most mornings we would find fresh, fresh tracks and scats. The tracks were often of two leopards travelling together. It was fascinating to see that the long heavy tail also left very clear marks in the fresh snow as it trailed behind.

A very close second to the actually sightings of the snow leopard was an experience we had at twilight one evening. I did mention earlier that it was mating season and a male on the lookout for a female could be heard making contact calls.

The sound that echoed through the valley is very difficult to describe. The howling sound is a mixture between a cat and a wolf…I have never heard anything like this, and it was a rather eerie experience. Darkness falls very quickly here and unfortunately we were not able to see the animal.

During the night some members of our team were woken by the same noise as well as the typical leopard cough. He must have passed no less than 100 meters from our camp.

Although we did not get another sighting it was enough to know that he was so close and to hear that strange sound was something special.