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January 2007 SHARK BYTES |
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Dear Shark Lovers, Although the weather has not been great this past month we have had a wide variety shark encounters and a couple a surprises too. One of our great interests in the Cape area are the spotted-gully sharks. Years ago we found a spot where we see them in the summer months on a fairly regular basis but still have not been able to work out exactly what is actually going on with them. Earlier in the month we decided to visit the area at dawn to see what was happening at that time of the day. When we arrived we could see from the shore at least 15 to 20 sharks clustered together in a small area, and in very shallow water. On closer inspection we observed one large shark (about 1,8 meters) chasing a second large shark. This did not only happen once but three times over a short period. Although fairly easy to see them from the shore, diving with them is a different kettle of fish! They are always very shy and when we do see them underwater it is usually only for fleeting moments before the shark realizes that we are there. On this dive Chris did manage to take one shot of a particularly large female. Her belly was so swollen we can only assume that she was pregnant. January is definitely one of the worst months of the year in terms of having the lowest chances of seeing a great white shark in Cape Town. Chris & I actually do not even run great white shark trips and focus on offering the mako and blue trips. Our colleague Rob did venture out to Seal Island a number of times this month and had a good couple of great white shark sightings. One of the sharks was a shark that we know from last winter and she stayed around for most of the day. Staying on the topic of great white sharks Chris & I went down to our local beach for an evening swim to find that it had been closed due to a shark sighting. There is a very proactive shark watch system that has been operating on a big scale this summer. This system makes use of “shark spotters ” who sit and watch from elevated areas, usually from the mountain. When a great white is spotted the beach is cleared if necessary, or the shark is watched carefully in case the water needs to be evacuated. When the conditions are right I think that this is a fantastic way of preventing an accident and more importantly the shark does not need to be harmed compared to using methods such as shark nets. Once the beach was opened Chris & I went for a quick snorkel and then raced up to Muizenberg mountain on a hunch that we may see a shark from up there. As we arrived the spotter motioned that he had just seen a shark and we where able to get a fantastic view of a large, dark sharky shape cruising a few hundred meters off-shore. About 10 minutes later Chris spotted another curious shape that also turned out to be a great white. This one was smaller and curiously followed almost the exact same path of the previous larger shark. So, for the locals that read my newsletter be sure next time you are driving along Buoys Drive to stop for a quick look…you may just get a lucky sighting! Usually every year we try to visit a spot about 300km from Cape Town where we have had very good success in seeing smooth hammerhead pups In the middle of the month we had a break in the weather so we rushed up here for a night. On the afternoon of our arrival we had a rather bumpy few hours at sea where we managed to see two small hammerheads and then about after an hour of waiting we had four large ragged-tooth sharks come to the boat. It was a real surprise especially as they seemed happy to stay around for a while. (When we have seen the raggies in the past they were very shy and skittish). The next morning promised to be a peach of a day and we headed out just after dawn. We had lucked out with the flattest sea you can imagine and on top of this the visibility was at least 15 meters making it a perfect day for diving! After trying a number of spots and not seeing any sharks we went back to the same spot as the day before. Chris put the anchor down and I looked over the side to the reef below to see what the visibility was like. I saw this dark shape on the bottom and when I looked closer it appeared to be a large ragged tooth shark that was just sitting on the reef! I exclaimed excitedly what I had seen and both Chris & Tim, of course, did not believe me. After a few moments I was too excited to ignore and sure enough when they had a look there was the raggie on the reef. In no time at all we had 5 large ragged-tooth sharks around the boat and we were able to dive with them in beautiful clear water for most of the day. Believe it or not this was the first time that I had dived with raggies so I had an absolute ball when they interacted with me. It was interesting to note that a couple of them seemed to be much more comfortable with us in the water whereas three of the others definitely displayed more caution. By the time we had finished our dive with the raggies the conditions were still good that we decided to take advantage of the conditions and snorkel around a pinnacle point close by. This is normally impossible if there is any sort of swell, so we had to make use of this opportunity. As we approached the point we came across a kind of underwater ravine, and had the thrill of bumping into 7 or 8 spotted-gully sharks moving along the ridges. In the amazingly clear water and with the frothy water from the breaking waves above it is a beautiful sight that Chris & I will never forget...it looked like a painting. Chris did not have his camera with so this was one for the memory banks! On the same snorkel we came across large shoals of galjoen, a couple of musselcrackers as well as a wide variety of other reef fish. Added to this we also observed a striped cat shark hunting on the reef. It was fascinating to watch it dive into little crevasses in short bursts of speed. We did not see it catch anything but it certainly was in hunting mode. The dive did not end here and just as we were about to get picked up by the boat we saw two large duckbill rays gliding towards us. We were able to admire then as they approached us and then gently swam off into the distance. This certainly was a special dive! We did not see any hammerheads this time round but we do have a trip booked in March as part of our Sharks of Southern Africa trip, and we look forward to seeing some then. We have only been able to do a small number of pelagic shark trips but one in particular was a great trip. We found longfin tuna in a very short space of time after rounding Cape Point. We were able to catch a few for bait and while we were fishing we had attracted 2 blue sharks to the boat. In no time at all we had at least 8 blue sharks and a mako shark that would come and go. The water was blue and the visibility was very good and everyone on board had a great dive. To top all of this we had a school of at least 700 to 800 common dolphins that came past the boat in different groups. Dolphins in our part of the world are very difficult to see underwater because they seem particularly uninterested in us. This group paid a small amount of curiosity towards us and most of us were able to see them underwater when they passed close enough. It was my first time of seeing a dolphin whilst diving, so it just goes to show that sharks are much more co-operative. Sadly, we did another pelagic shark trip 2 days later and came across a shark longlining vessel that had made a set in the area. The thousand plus hooks of the longline set was stretched out across an area of approximately 20 kilometers. This is all completely legal and there is no catch limit, as well as size limit. Yes believe it or not in South Africa shark longlining is completely legal, despite 1000 scientists in the USA petitioning for such practices to be stopped. These licenses were issued in 2000 as 4year experimental permits.This was done based on no hard data other than what the fishermen had told MCM. Now, 7 years later they are still valid. Marine and Coastal Management cannot even give us an answer as to when these licenses will be revoked despite huge opposition to them as well as the massive impact they are having on rapidly dwindling shark stocks. MCM have been promising to stop longlining since 2004 but to date the carnage continues. All attempts to speak to the person in the department in charge of this have been ignored. It is quite clear that the government institution, MCM, that is supposed to manage our marine resources in a sustainable manner simply does not care about the future of sharks within this country and that the conservation of sharks is simply not on the agenda despite a lot of talk that it is. It is a well known fact that there has never been a sustainable pelagic shark industry anywhere in the world yet we openly allow it in our waters. On the pelagic trip where we saw the shark longliner we waited the entire day and only had a brief visit from a small mako shark as compared to many sharks only a few days earlier in the same area. Sorry to end with some pretty depressing news but working with sharks I find that it is not always good experiences that we have and that being at the forefront one is exposed to the harsh realities of what is really happening with the destruction of our Oceans. Very very soon we will be faced with the consequences of our actions based on the total lack of respect for caring for the environment around us! On a more positive note on Photos of the Month we have put up a couple of Ragged-tooth sharks to have a look at. Hope you enjoy! Until next month, Best wishes |
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