One of the groups visiting with us this June was a 7 day Expedition hosted by Dr Alessandro Da Maddelena. Alessandro always seems to find the most enthusiastic of all shark fanatics to join his trips and needless to say we love the time spent with his groups. This group was a particularly fanatical group and even though we had slow activity they still enormously appreciated what they did see. There were still some amazing encounters including some really good breaches on the decoy, a couple of predatory events and a number of really nice sharks around the boat.
After this expedition the activity decreased even further and we had some days with no sightings at all! Yikes!
We had just started filming with Discovery Channel for 2012 Shark Week so there were a few worries on board. I have to admire Chris, even with everyone around him being pretty downcast and negative his confidence never wavered and using all his experience and expertise at Seal Island I can very happily say that there is going to be a beautiful shark documentary on Shark Week 2012!
We continued to monitor the weather very closely and on an approaching cold front we got our first bit of good news. Suddenly from having a day of zero sightings the next morning produced 14 natural predatory events and 3 awesome breaches on the decoy. The change was pretty phenomenal and the excitement that the sharks were back was fever pitch on board “White Pointer”! The sharks were obviously not far from Seal Island as it did not take them long to return once the conditions were favourable.
For the next week or so the activity around the boat was still quiet but we got more fantastic breaches.
This new show is being hosted by Chris and co-hosted by Alison Towner, a marine biologist from Gansbaai. It has been great having Alison on board as we have had so much to talk about in terms of our different observations at Seal Island and Dyer Island. Alison is currently completing her Master’s Degree by studying how the environmental conditions affect great white shark movement within the Dyer Island system. It has been fascinating to hear about her observations and I look forward tp sharing this will you all once her project is complete.
There are a couple of interesting points to note about the quite shark activity at Seal Island and the great white shark sightings in general this year. We had our earliest ever start to a season, February. This is a whole 2 months early but we cannot come up with a plausible reason for this.
There are normally very good numbers of sharks sighted close to shore in the Gansbaai area in the months December to February but this year they were already at Dyer Island over this period. So, both areas had an early return of the great whites to the seal colonies.
Now the strange part...while we were having decreased shark activity at Seal Island, Ganbaai and Mossel Bay (the third seal colony up the South African East coast) where having what some consider their best shark numbers and sightings ever. While Chris & I were green with envy (!) we were actually very relieved that at least the other shark areas where seeing sharks. This obviously made us feel less worried that something had happened to the sharks.
Then different news started to filter down from Mossel Bay...the researches here started having very good days followed by a few days of no sharks at all.
Out of the blue our sightings in False Bay suddenly sky rocketed and we had 2 days of 9 sharks up at the boat. My gosh, I can’t tell you how excited we were to actually see a shark really well around the boat, the shark cage diving guests on our boat must have thought we were seeing Great white sharks for the first time!
So, guess what happened while we were having great sharks....Gansbaai reports came through that they had a massive drop in sightings with a number of boats not seeing sharks at all.
It has just been a really, really strange season so far and I have absolutely no idea what to expect going forward.
Now I am saving the best news for last.
During our shark cage diving trips there are a number of sharks that we record seeing over a number of seasons at Seal Island, and we know them pretty well in terms of their characters and behaviour. One of these sharks is a male shark we have seen since 2004. We named him, “Cuz” and he was a very relaxed and interactive shark around the boat that would visit us often.
As the years went on he would spend less and less time at the boat and his visits were less frequent. The last time we saw him in 2009 he only came to the boat once and then we recorded him hunting on a number of occasions. On that note, he is a stand out hunter and very determined. Some sharks give up the chase on a seal quite easily, but Cuz will keep going until he is successful.
We did not see him at all in 2010 during our shark cage diving trips and other expeditions so it was a complete surprise when he showed up at our boat on 28 June.
We had an amazing encounter with him. He stayed with us for about an hour and a half and the whole time he would make very close passes to the boat and cage. Another interesting observation is that he has hardly grown in the 2 years since we have seen him. We made this same observation when we saw “Shy Guy” back in May. Both are males and both were not seen at Seal Island in 2010.
These observations and the shark activity in June again make me question how much we know about these complex animals. They are just so difficult to understand and they keep us guessing on so many levels. I guess that is why so many people are fascinated!
I am not even going to guess what will happen in July, but I am hoping for a good turn in sightings!
Shark Week 2011 on Discovery Channel starts on Sunday, 31 July.
The night kicks off with “Ultimate Air Jaws” and then the premiere show is “Great White Shark Invasion”. Don’t let the title put you off, this is the most professional shark documentary ever produced for Shark Week and I think you will all find it fascinating as it covers the dangers to Great white sharks as they move close to shore at certain times of the year.
Chris is the host for both shows, so we hope you will enjoy it!
Until next month,
Best wishes
Monique Fallows
www.apexpredators.com
