Steve and his hard-working team at Pisces Divers in Glencairn have been labouring for a few weekends now on their artificial reef at Long Beach. I finally had an opportunity to check it out on a dive with Tony, Tami, Keren, Nils and Corne, and was extremely impressed by their work so far. Check out this awesome contraption to transport breeze blocks – this is ingenuity!
Awesome inner tube transport contraption
The main feature (or hostess, if you will) of the reef is Lady Long Beach, who I think used to live in Erika and Steve’s garden. She looks much happier in the sea! We did speak to another diving instructor who said that some students of his came across her on a night dive, just after she’d been placed in the water, and almost jumped out of their wetsuits to see a “wee girlie” (he’s Scottish) standing calmly on the sand, illuminated by their torches!
Her Serene Highness, Lady Long Beach
Recent additions include a large plant pot (which we’ve taken to calling the bird bath) – I think this could be an excellent place to hide, if you’re small enough… And a very impressively constructed, gently curving wall of concrete breeze blocks, held together by cable ties.
The "bird bath", with a large klipfish on its base at the rightCurved wall of breeze blocksThe wall and Lady Long Beach
We are so looking forward to seeing how this develops… Artificial reefs are a wonderful habitat for fish and other creatures, and this one is sure to be a popular diver attraction at Long Beach. It’s located 25 metres north of the seaward end of the pipeline… Go check it out!
The inaugural OMSAC Treasure Hunt was held on 9 July at the Cape Boat and Ski Boat Club at Miller’s Point – their very exposed slipway faces the opposite direction to the one we usually use, but (a major point in its favour) the CBSBC has facilities that are otherwise lacking at Miller’s Point… such as toilets and a shower or two! The bar was also appreciated by some chilly divers after their dives!
OMSAC had done a sterling job of marshalling the support of three local dive charters: Dive Action, Underwater Explorers and Pisces Divers. Their boats were launching hourly to nearby dive sites, and a couple of Extreme Shore Dives were also on the program. I’m not entirely sure what was extreme about them (I think the prizes may have been – they got gold golf balls)… Perhaps a reference to the looooong surface swim from the slipway to Shark Alley!
Beautiful morning at Miller's Point
In the week prior to the OMSAC Treasure Hunt, Tony and I watched the wind with much trepidation. An unseasonal southeasterly was buffeting the bay, which usually leads to poor visibility and unhappy divers. We were surprised and delighted, however, to have 10 metre visibility on the SAS Pietermaritzburg (most unusual!) and 4-5 metres in Shark Alley. The surface conditions there were unpleasant, since by the time we launched for the second time – around 1330 – the swell had picked up quite considerably.
Anchored on the SAS Pietermaritzburg
The weather on the day was magnificent – anyone who was in Cape Town on that weekend will recall it as being an absolute shining gem in the middle of winter that heralded the start of several beautiful, sunny weeks. The sun shone all day, and I spent some very happy hours sitting overlooking the waves at Miller’s Point, watching whales frolicking in the bay, and chatting to Errand Girl Bernita. There was also a steady stream of familiar faces passing by our spot in the car park, so we were not short of entertainment between dives.
Divemaster Carel on the Dive Action boat
In addition to the diving there was a festive atmosphere with boerewors rolls on the braai (included in the registration fee was a voucher for a boerie roll and an iced tea – owing to a glitch the iced tea never materialised but there were drinks available for purchase at the venue), a small market, and stands manned by DAN South Africa and Manex Marine. I heartily approved of the sale of coffee and hot chocolate in enamel mugs for R10, and R6 for a refill (you got to keep the mug).
The Treasure Hunt aspect of the day passed me by – I actually forgot about it as soon as I rolled into the water – but on each dive the skipper had four marked golf balls which were tossed overboard after the divers had backward rolled off the boat. Each golf ball corresponded to a prize, some of which were rather nice. This part of the day could do with some work for next year’s event… On most of the dives, one person found all the balls, as they fell close together, and one lucky chap collected about ten golf balls in total. He was also rewarded with a (ridiculous but very nice) prize for finding the most golf balls – share the love, people!
There was a raffle with the prize of a VERY proper diving holiday to Mozambique – somehow I also missed this, which is lucky as I would have spent the cost of the holiday on tickets to try and win it! In our goodie bags for the day we received back copies of Submerge, Africa Geographic and Birds & Birding Africa, as well as a fetching Old Mutual t-shirt. We were also (including the 15 year old girl who was diving with Tony’s group) each given a bottle of Sedgwick’s Old Brown Sherry. The juxtaposition of drinking and diving was slightly inappropriate! Imagine my delight to win a second bottle in the lucky draw. If anyone can suggest what two teetotallers can do with 1.5 litres of sherry, please let me know… Current best idea is to use it as drain cleaner!
There was also a lucky draw – in our goodie bags we each received a number. There was a ridiculous quantity of Stormer’smerchandise on offer (Tony won some of that), but not surprising given their embarrassing loss to the Crusaders the previous week. There was also a number of awesome prizes: boat dives with Underwater Explorers, dive gear, and a tour of Cape Town with Carel from Dive Inn. Dives in the Predator Tank at the Two Oceans Aquarium were also up for grabs. (Next year some thought should be given to limiting the number of lucky draw prizes that can be won by each person – about four folk practically cleaned up all the prizes between them! I was very jalous!)
Diving events like this that aren’t all about pushing a particular brand of gear are a big boost to local diving, and we really enjoyed the day with OMSAC. It was smoothly run, well organised, and there were provisions made so that even if the weather had been horrible, we could have a hot cup of coffee and a shower after our dives. In winter in the Cape – when the diving is the best in False Bay – this is important. It’s no mean feat to put together something like this, and as the OMSAC committee has already demonstrated with the Robben Island Coastal Cleanup we attended last year, they are more than up to the task! We’re extremely grateful for their efforts and look forward to future events.
Tony’s going to be contributing weekly articles to the Dive Deals scuba diving web portal. It’s a recently relaunched website that aims to promote South African diving, by spotlighting and providing advertising opportunities to local dive operations.
Scuba Diving Deals
The Dive Deals team is based in KwaZulu Natal, and the focus is still very much on that part of the world (Sodwana, Durban, Aliwal Shoal, Protea Banks) – we hope that some of our Western Cape dive charters will get involved here too. Tony’s contributions will also spotlight Cape Town diving wherever possible.
Check out his first article (part one of two – the second part will follow later this week…).
It has been almost nine months since we acquired this little 70 litres/minute compressor. It is Mohnsam compressor unit made in Germany and powered by a 1.9 kW Honda engine. Very compact and well made, it is very portable and has one filling whip. During the time we’ve had it, it has run for a total of 45 hours and has had two services since the service we did when we bought it.
On each service the filter tower has been done, the compressor oil changed and the engine oil changed. The air filter in the motor is a sponge filter which has just been washed each time and the compressor intake has a paper filter element that has been blown clean. There is also a drive belt and a spark plug, but neither of these items have shown any wear and tear
The unit has been trouble free and has proven to be a money well spent. The convenience of being able to fill your own cylinders when you want and where you want to is very beneficial to me and my style of diving. I have filled my cylinders 145 times and this is a saving of around R6,500. I have used a little over 20 litres of fuel on the Honda engine that powers this unit.
When I took my cylinders for their annual visual inspection last month they were in good shape, verifying that this little compressor is pumping clean air, and that frequent drainage is maintaining excellent fill quality.
Potential students often ask the question, should I learn to dive at a dive centre or with an Independent Instructor? Which training agency is best?PADI, NAUI, CMAS, or SSI? To name but a few.
The goal of all the agencies is to turn you into a competent diver. The Instructor is instrumental in this and it makes no difference where they trained or where they work. They are either good at what they do or they are not.
The important issue is the quality of the training you receive and this is largely dependent on the calibre of the Instructor. Some dive centres have exceptional staff whilst others are worse than dodgy. Some dive centres will take shortcuts in the interest of profit margins and the same can be said for Independents. The Instructor you choose needs to be passionate about diving and if the Instructor sees diving as just another job then the quality of the training will be mediocre. If you do four 20 minutes dives for your Open Water dives you meet the standard for certification with regards to dive time but do you get enough experience from this? If you did four 40 minute dives you would have double the amount of water time. Given the steep learning curve diving has this makes a huge difference.
All certifying agencies have standards, (these being the minimum requirements for certification) and all Instructors are required to follow these standards without deviation. You can add to the number of times you have a student perform a task, or add several dives to the course if you feel the student requires this, but you cannot skip a step or do less than what the standards specify.
Preparing for confined water skills
Dive centres will sometimes have Instructors on staff, always available and there when you sign up. Some however will rely on an army of freelance Instructors they can call upon when they need to. This often means you sign up, pay and have yet to meet the person you will be trained by. This also means you are on somewhat of a merry go round as there will need to be several calls and “I will get back to you” conversations before you have a time and date for diving and classroom usage.
It can also often result in you having several different Instructors during your training as the freelance Instructor you start with may not be available on the subsequent days. The downside to having several different instructors during your course is that anything you felt uncomfortable with on day one is not necessarily conveyed to the Instructor for day two or for day three and as such you can often be left feeling unsure of your ability and not as confident as you should be by the end of the course. Having the same Instructor for the duration of the course ensures that any weakness you may feel you have can be addressed and the skills redone until you are confident.
Having said this, it is possible to walk into a dive centre, find an Instructor behind the counter, who will sign you up talk you through the stages of the course and the program you will follow and sort out everything in a flash. You then leave happy in the knowledge that you have met your Instructor and had a chat and know what’s next.
I would encourage you to ask questions about who will be your Instructor(s) when you are shopping for a dive course. This is not a small decision and you can avoid being short-changed by being well informed.
Are we all clear? I know a Divemaster candidate who is proud of announcing to people that he is becoming a Master Scuba Diver. He’s not (and at the level he wants to dive, not knowing the difference is a bad sign…).
A Master Scuba Diver is someone who has completed:
You don’t have to do anything other than the above to get this rating – if you qualify, you just ask your instructor or local dive centre to certify you with PADI. They’ll help you fill out an application form, attach a photograph and post it to PADI. It’ll cost you quite a bit of money (about 26 British pounds when I did it) for a certification that doesn’t actually entail any diving but the idea is it’s a prestigious rating that sets you apart among recreational divers.
PADI Master Scuba Diver decal
Not sure about that! But you’ll get a shiny new certification card, a wall certificate, and a decal too, if that’s your thing… Plus, instead of carting a wallet-load of certification cards around, you can just take this one (and Deep, and Nitrox, because the card doesn’t specify WHICH Specialties you did).
I have often watched divers having difficulty inflating their SMBs. Usually when you haul out the SMB it sinks, you have one hand on the SMB trying to get it to be higher than your octo and the other hand on your octo. Somehow it just won’t float like you want it to and by the time you get some some semblance of control it’s full and hauling you to the surface. I too have experienced this and this might help.
SMB (with smiley face), D ring and pool noodle
Next dive try this: attach a small piece of pool noodle to the D-ring on the top of the SMB. If you don’t have a decent SMB that will allow this, put the piece of pool noodle inside the SMB. This will ensure the SMB has the correct profile for inflation. Deflate your BCD a little to make you negatively buoyant so the SMB doesnt haul you to the surface.
Clare inflating an SMB
Instead of using your octo, hold the SMB open and exhale into it (hold the SMB above you and let it capture your exhalation bubbles). This will inflate it enough for its trip to the surface. Do NOT remove your regulator and use it to inflate an SMB!
We are just home from an epic dive trip to Malta. Made up of three main islands, Malta, Gozo and Comino, Malta has a population of approximately half a million people and is located south of Sicily in the Mediterranean. The islands are primarily limestone and have very few beaches but instead have stunning cliffs, many small bays and inlets and incredible rock formations eroded by centuries of wave action forming stunning caves, overhangs, swim throughs and some of the best wall diving in the world. In summer the weather is so predictable as to be almost boring… If 32 degrees during the day, 23 degrees at night, and an occasional light breeze can be called boring! There are no tides in Malta and almost no sand (most of the beaches are man-made) which makes for extremely clean water.
St Paul’s Bay, Malta
As a vacation destination the Maltese islands have a lot more than just diving but diving was our primary focus. As a country it functions reasonably well, has buses that run all the major routes, tourist buses, boat trips, shopping and of course dining and night life. We stayed in a self-catering apartment in the town of Bugibba, and we were 5 minutes’ walk from the bus terminal, the dive centre, the town square and the ocean. The place is vibrant and has something for everyone. We were fortunate to experience a Malta Mini Owners Club event in the town square on one of the evenings.
The view from Bugibba town square in the evening
The Maltese have enjoyed (well, some of them have!) membership to the EU since around 2008 and prices are comparable across Europe for most things and in many cases a bit cheaper than mainland Europe. This trip took us to the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden and finally Malta so we had a good idea of costs for basic items. Fuel was most expensive in Denmark at over R18 a litre, cheapest in Malta at R14. Water was most expensive in Germany, with Cape Town International Airport a close second.
Bugibba town square by night
Sadly dive gear was cheaper in all these countries than in South Africa and before you jump on the “number of divers” band wagon, Denmark has 5 million people , three to four months of diving a year, and yet sell “Made in sunny South Africa” Bright Weights for 20% less than our local prices. Go figure.
Never mind all of that… Back to the diving!
A bluefin tuna
In Malta we took a ten dive package, including gear and transport to all the dive sites (dives to Gozo and Comino include a ferry trip). We did three dives on Nitrox (an extra R50 per dive) and the cost was R310 per dive including all gear, two of which were boat dives. We were offered the choice of 10, 12 or 15 litre cylinders in steel or aluminium at no extra cost. Of the ten dives, eight were to depths of 30 – 37 metres and the dive at L’Ahrax Point was around 14 metres. Dive times were 40 minutes to an hour, because the ascent was usually done along a wall, very slowly, and the warm water and virtual absence of currents made for excellent air consumption. Average visibility was around 30 metres and the water temperature was 26 degrees with the coldest dropping to 18 degrees inside some of the wrecks.
The shore entry point for diving the P29 patrol boat
The shore dives are like nothing I have ever experienced. Several of the sites start with a giant stride – and I mean GIANT stride from a jetty 2.5 metres above the water. Descending to 5 metres you then you swim a distance of around 10 -20 metres, over a shallow ledge at about 10 metres, and then the sea floor just drops of to in some places 40 metres. You descend to around 15 metres and can clearly see the sand and seagrass below as you swim out to the wrecks, most lying upright in 35-40 metres of water. Within a few minutes the wreck looms ahead and you descend onto the deck or sand if you want to check out the propeller. As you approach deco you ascend to around 20 metres and the start the return leg of the dive, ascending slowly to around 15 metres you reach the wall within 10 minutes, and spend the next 20 odd minutes at 10 metres as you swim slowly back to the entry point. The last 5 minutes of the dive, or longer, air dependent, you cruise around at 5 metres on various ledges doing your safety stops.
Diving a wall at Cirkewwa
We dived three of the wrecks twice, the tug boat Rozi, scuttled in 1992 in 34 metres of water and the P29 patrol boat scuttled in 2007, on the white sand at 38 metres. The Patrol boat, 52 metres long, still has paint showing and was for me one of the best wreck dives I have ever done. Inside the wreck the electrical switch boxes still have labels and the colour of the wiring is still visible.
Peering into the P29 patrol boat
The largest wreck we dived (also twice due to its length) was the Um El Faroud, scuttled in 1998. This is an oil tanker, 110 metres long and 16 metres wide and lies at 35 metres on the sand. This tanker has its propeller in place and is absolutely massive. We also penetrated this wreck and the interior is still showing paint in some places and many clearly visible and well defined features in the wheel house and engine room.
Inland Sea, Gozo
We also dived a site called the Inland Sea on the island of Gozo, where you enter the water in a 2-3 metre deep harbour, descend to 10 metres and swim through a huge tunnel – quite narrow, with tourist boats above. It is quite spectacular watching them from below zoom in and out of the tunnel. After a relatively long swim along a wall where the top of the ledge is at around 12 metres and the sand below close to 40 metres, you enter a smallish cave at around 18-20 metres depth that leads into a narrow passage. At this point it becomes very dark and you swim into a cave for around 8- 10 metres, this narrows and then becomes a vertical swim up a passage wide enough for one diver at a time opening up into a huge cave at around three metres. Once in this cave you have a short swim and drop down to around 15 metres where it opens up into a stunning crevice that opens up to the deep blue ocean.
The Blue Hole on GozoThe Azure Window on Gozo
Diving Malta gives a whole new meaning to the word shore entry. Being able to reach depths of 40 metres in a matter of minutes, reaching wrecks just as quickly reduces the need for boats dramatically. This does not mean boats are out of the picture as there are many, many more dive sites only reachable by boat so we also tried this out. We spent one of the days diving from a boat. The boat was a traditional Maltese boat and picked us up at a jetty in a small harbour near our apartment. The boat has inboard diesels and sails at around 4-5 knots. A giant stride is required for entry off the boat, and a ladder dropped over the side at the end of the dive makes exiting the water a piece of cake. Once on board you sit down and then remove your gear. A slow leisurely pace makes the day on the boat a pleasure and the boat has a covered deck keeping the sun at bay.
A traditional Maltese boat, used as a dive boat
In total we estimate there must be around 40 dive centres in Malta, there were three within 100 metres of the dive centre we used. Clare took photos of every vehicle we saw at the dive sites and every day there were several new names in the parking lot. We also visited every one we walked by. The Maltese government encourages diving tourism, regularly scuttling ships close to shore, and the industry is well-regulated.
On board the dive boat – lots of space
The centre we used was Subway Scuba, a Russian-owned and run centre with a Russian and a Maltese resident Instructor. The guided dives are all done by Instructors in Malta and not Divemasters. Most centres had several language options listed on their windows, a must in such a tourist destination. The centre was well run, very efficient and we left on time every single day, reaching the dive sites first and ensuring the best spot close to the entry points. (Some sites are on very steep inclines and being there first ensures an easy day’s diving.) We were issued with gear on day one and given a box to store it in. Each day your box, labelled with your name was loaded onto or into the vehicles and off you went. The Nitrox mix was on the money every time and there was not a single delay on any of the dives. Perhaps just one funny moment when the scuba bus refused to start in the hold of the car ferry from Gozo and we had to push it… Hilarious for us but embarrassing for the driver!
Subway ScubaSubway’s Scuba Bus
Watch this space for more pictures and reports on the dives we did in Malta… It was some of the best diving I’ve ever done.
Diving, in my opinion, is one of the most rewarding sports on the planet. Breathing underwater, interacting with the myriad of creatures you can and do always encounter and the total tranquilty below the surface cannot be achieved easily in any other sport. If it is an adrenaline rush you need, diving can give you this too. Having raced cars, bikes and go-karts I know what an adrenaline rush does for you, but believe me an encounter with a whale shark, a pod of dolphins, a tiger shark, hammerheads or a great white shark give you a rush unlike anything else, so diving gives you the best of everything.
As with any sport or recreational activity diving has a few inherent risks. Besides regular maintenance of your gear, the air you breathe underwater must be clean and pure. A cylinder filled with contaminated air will harm you quickly and quietly. Unless you test each and every cylinder you breathe from with a sophisticated analyser for air quality you have no idea of how good your air is.
Charcoal, used felt pads, new pads, and drying agent
All dive centres have a strict policy on compressor maintenance and filter changes or services but occasionally you will have a fill from an operator who is not that scrupulous. You may also have a fill from a privately owned dive compressor and again the same regulations regarding maintenance apply. If you are unsure, ask the compressor operator for his certification card and the compressor service records. This is your right, it is you that is going to breathe that air. A rule of thumb for me is that if the owner dives and breathes that air then it is most likely safe, but if the owner is seldom breathing from the cylinders he supplies then there may be a risk.
Components (felt pads etc) from inside the filter tower
I often fill my own cylinders, for my students, divers and myself. I am a stickler for the quality of the air I want in my cylinders so I am careful of the places I will fill my cylinders and just as careful of the quality of the air I pump. Our compressor has a service interval of 15 hours and this is what is involved.
Bleed valve on filter tower
Bags of charcoal and drying agent
Exterior of the filter tower
The filter tower is made up of a few components. Felt pads between the water separator, charcoal and drying agent. The filter tower also has a bleed valve and bleeding the moisture off every few minutes helps in reducing the moisture the filter must remove. The compressed air passes through the water separator, a felt pad, a drying agent, another felt pad, charcoal, and finally another felt pad before it enters the cylinder. This ensures dry clean air is pumped into the dive cylinder.
Water separator inside the bottom of the filter tower
There are other considerations.
Air intake
The intake of air to the compressor needs to be clean so a particle filter on the intake pipe is important as is the location of this filter This prevents bugs, sand , dust and paper entering the compressor. The compressor we have has a petrol engine and the exhaust fumes must be kept away from the intake so it is important to position the intake upwind of the motor.
The top of the filter tower
The compressor runs on a synthetic oil that must be changed as often as the filter contents and the Honda engine also has service requirements. Spark plug change after 30 hours, air intake every 15 hours and an engine oil change every 15 hours. The whip or filling hose needs a cap to keep the threads clean and the opening free from contaminants.
A record of the fills done must be maintained and the correct procedure followed. This includes recording the last viz date, owners detail, ending pressure and blend if it is a Nitrox cylinder.
Finally, to operate a compressor requires a certification and in South Africa this must be a course approved by the department of manpower. The CMAS compressor operator course offered by False Bay Underwater Club fullfils these requirements.
One rainy Thursday in June Tony and I attended the first of what will hopefully be a monthly series of talks at the Save Our Seas Shark Centre in Kalk Bay. The speaker was Christopher Neff, a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney. Chris is doing his doctorate on the politics of shark attacks, and was in South Africa to learn more about our Shark Spotters program (and to meet some great white sharks).
He spoke about his doctoral research, and described how perceptions of risk and other factors influence government responses to shark attacks. I was struck by a couple of things:
It isn’t all Peter Benchley’s fault
Sure, Jaws demonised sharks and I don’t think Peter Benchley is wrong to feel some residual guilt about the ensuing panic and slaughter of creatures assumed to be bloodthirsty maneaters. The phrase “shark attack” – as opposed to the previously popular “shark accident” – was invented in 1929 by Australian surgeon Sir Victor Coppleson. He mounted a one man crusade, alerting people to the dangers of sharks, in response to a fatal shark attack off Sydney that year. He published a book on the subject of shark attacks in 1958, and was considered a world authority on the subject. Shark nets were installed on the beaches of New South Wales in the early 1930s in response to the findings of the Shark Menace Committee appointed to study the issue of human-shark interactions.
Shark spotters is unique
We’ve posted before about Cape Town’s Shark Spotter’s program on this blog, and I consider myself fairly familiar with its workings, but Chris’s talk shed new light on the program’s importance and singular success.
I was particularly struck by the uniqueness of the Shark Spotters program in the world. In response to the fatal 1929 Australian attack mentioned above, a program functionally identical to our Shark Spotters (observers watch for sharks, and warn bathers to exit the water) was proposed. The program never took off, and the reasons for this – chiefly stemming from a lack of agreement by stakeholders and their conflicting aims – form part of Chris Neff’s PhD studies.
In other countries (such as Australia) and even in parts of South Africa (Durban), shark nets are popular and are widely considered to be very successful. Brazil used hooks laid on the ocean bottom near the beaches, and Hawaii has recently taken down all the interventions that could kill sharks in order to protect humans (nets among them, I think).
The Cape Town Shark Spotters program was started in 2004, and since then just under 1 000 sharks have been spotted in the waters around the Cape Peninsula. The proposal to start the program succeeded where the 1929 Australian proposal did not, for several reasons:
Strong backing
The City of Cape Town, surf lifesavers, the trek fishermen, and community groups all backed the proposal. South Africa has a strong history and cultural ethic of wildlife conservation, and the proposal for a shark spotting program dovetailed nicely with this.
Agreement among proponents
It was agreed that any management program should address all the problems raised by human-shark interactions:
altering human behaviour
restoring confidence to enter the water
conserving the sharks
The shark spotting suggestion deals with all of these issues equally well. (Shark nets, for example, answer the first two concerns but not the third one.)
Feasibility
The local trek fishermen have been watching for sharks from the top of Elsie’s Peak for decades. They had thus proved the feasibility and affordability of the solution.
Trek net fishermen at Muizenberg
(Tony took the picture above from the top of Boyes Drive, next to the Shark Spotter’s hut.)
Comprehensiveness
Shark Spotters answers public concerns about going into the water, as well as environmental concerns, because no sharks are killed as a preventative measure. Shark Spotters use a siren to encourage people to get out of the water when a shark is sighted, and provide them with information when visibility is too poor to identify sharks in the water (via a black flag – see the image below). Hourly water use around shark warnings indicates that the public has developed a high level of trust in the program, as surfers and swimmers return to the water when the all-clear signal is given. (Initially this was not the case – the beach would empty after a shark sighting.)
Cape Town’s topography and ocean conditions make it uniquely suited to this type of effort. There are elevated geographic features such as hills and mountains from which observers can watch for sharks, and the water is clear. Durban installed shark nets over 50 years ago, and while the bycatch is appalling (dolphins, turtles, etc) this seems to satisfy the stakeholders that Durban’s large number of water users, drawn by the warm waters lapping the coast, are protected. What’s more, the tiger and bull sharks common on the KZN coastline are not endangered, whereas the local great white shark is. A shark net solution for Cape Town would fly in the face of all conservation principles.
Black Shark Spotters flag flying at Fish Hoek indicating poor visibility
Tony and I appreciated Chris’s philosophy on information sharing, and particularly his comment in closing that “while my research is independent, the funding is not.” Too much research is conducted using donations from the public, and then kept secret. Unless you paid for the research yourself, it’s not yours to keep! We’re grateful to Chris for sharing.
