On a beautiful day in Hout Bay towards the end of last year, we were entertained by a seal that had caught a west coast rock lobster. The seal spent a lot of time parading around near the boat with his lobster, and we were suitably entertained. We dived the SS Maoriand Die Josie and enjoyed the very mellow surface conditions and warm sun.
Crayfishing seal
The seal with his morning snack
Odette insisted I take this picture of Shane and Christo
Shane, Christo, Odette, Gary, Matthys and Otti on board
I was diving with Open Water students, so Gary skippered for us. On our way back into the harbour we came across the local NSRI station personnel doing towing exercises with their two vessels.
A last-minute request from a local underwater videographer had me driving the boat over Chapmans Peak to Hout Bay just before Christmas, so that he could get some footage of Cape fur seals at Duiker Island. We had worked together before on the same project, and the conditions looked right to get the final few shots that were required.
Diver down at Duiker Island
Unfortunately the water wasn’t as clean as the recent south easterly winds would seem to suggest it would be, and there were the beginnings of an algal bloom that would destroy the visibility in hours. We spent a bit of time at Duiker Island, and then motored up the coast towards Llandudno, where another small seal colony offered some possibilities for getting footage.
Hout Bay looking pristine
Seals in the water
Seal action at the bow
The water wasn’t much cleaner there, so the day wasn’t particularly successful from a filming point of view. It was, however, a nice day to spend messing around on the water.
We did a boat dive to Justin’s Caves off Oudekraal early in December, and we were harrassed – or menaced – by a large Cape fur seal, who followed us for at least half the dive. He swam between us and came very close, and while he didn’t show his teeth or try to bite anyone, he was sufficiently forceful in his approaches to make most of us quite twitchy. The visibility wasn’t amazing, which contributed to the slight feeling of unease.
He didn’t seem to upset Tami too much, though! At times it looked as though he was trying to split our group up, but by that point I may have been reading sinister interpretations into his behaviour and anthropomorphising too much. While I filmed this short video I was thinking that maybe he wanted to take Tami away to be his seal wife, to live on a rock somewhere and pay visits to divers who entered their territory…
Ok so this is a bit late, and if you haven’t done your Christmas, Hannukah and Festivus shopping yet, shame on you. Or just shame. Most of these ideas don’t entail going to a mall and having your personal space invaded by ten thousand hormonal adolescents. You can order online, or make a phone call or two. Get going!
Christmas at Sandy Cove
Books
For the reader, you could check out our book reviews, arranged by topic:
I’m not going to suggest a magazine subscription – I’ve let most of ours lapse as we seem to have entered a long dark teatime of the soul when it comes to South African diving magazines. If the quality picks up, they’ll be back on the gift list at the end of 2014.
Make sure you know the returns/exchanges policy of wherever you make your purchases. Some places can be difficult, and if the mask doesn’t fit it’s no good at all!
For lady divers
For the diving lady in your life (or your man friend with too much hair), what about some rich hair conditioner to apply before going in the water? Suggestions here. A pack of cheap, soft fabric elasticated hairbands is a good stocking filler.
Some high SPF, waterproof sunscreen, or a nice hooded towel for grown ups (available in one or two of the surf shops in Muizenberg) would also not go amiss.
Experiences
Don’t forget to add a memory card for the lucky recipient’s camera if you plan to gift any of these! Contact Tony for prices.
My underwater alphabet is available for R200 in A1 size, fully laminated. Shout if you want a copy.
If you take your own photos, you could print and frame a couple, or experiment with stretched canvas prints if that’s your thing. A digital photo frame pre-loaded with underwater images is also a lovely gift for a diving friend.
Donations
For the person who has everything, or because you’re feeling grateful:
Best day for diving looks like Sunday, and it’ll be an Atlantic day. Text me if you want to be informed of any plans to launch.
Shane, Christo, Odette, Gary, Matthys and Otti in Hout Bay
Recent diving
The south easter has certainly made itself felt and we have had close to 60 km/h wind in False Bay more than a few days over the last week. This is meant to clear the Atlantic but didn’t really do so last weekend, and we had mediocre viz at best and very surgy conditions launching out of Hout Bay.
I am out in Hout Bay tomorrow on a seal trip so I will have a better idea of the conditions tomorrow evening. Sunday will be the day for diving so text me to book and I’ll keep you in the loop regarding plans.
Wired.com featured an article describing research done on tagged white sharks off California in the United States. The research supervisor, Barbara Block, was involved with the creation of the Shark Net app, about which I’ve gotten excited previously. The sharks were tagged as part of the Tagging of Pacific Predators Program (TOPP), using satellite pop-up tags. These tags release after a certain amount of time, and upload some information immediately via satellite. Once retrieved, further data can be accessed on the tag. (These tags are different to those used by the Ocearch team who participated in the Shark Mendocumentary series.)
Pacific white sharks visit the Farallon Islands to feast on elephant seals, and then migrate out into the Pacific Ocean to the shared offshore foraging area (SOFA). During this time they lose fat, and researcher Gen Del Raye hypothesised that this would affect their buoyancy, and hence the ease with which they dive. Del Raye calibrated his model by studying a captive white shark at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Del Raye’s results suggest that the sharks don’t eat at all during their migration, since their buoyancy seems to decline steadily while they’re out at sea. Implications of the research include the fact that not only is it important to conserve white sharks, but their seal prey too – since those meals before setting out to sea seem to be incredibly important for building fat reserves in the sharks’ livers.
We took a trip to Seal Island in False Bay to see the white sharks there, in late July. I’ve already posted my video footage from the cage. We also took some photos – mostly Tony. The trip entailed getting up very early, so as to be at Seal Island by sunrise. Once there, we scanned the horizon for predatory behaviour: typically, the white sharks here attack the juvenile seals from below, often launching their entire bodies out of the water in an explosive burst of energy.
Video still of one of the great white sharks we saw
It was a very rough day with a swell of about five metres, and from speaking to people who come to Seal Islandoften, I gather that the sharks tend to be less active on days like this. Their accuracy in striking the seals is reduced by the movement of the water column. Nonetheless we did see a couple of predation events, with the characteristic flock of seabirds waiting to pick up any leftovers, and the slick of “oily seal juices” (to quote Gary!) left on the surface afterwards. The sharks are so quick that if you’re looking the wrong way, it’ll all be over by the time you turn around.
Shark Explorers doing their thing
Investigating the bait on the surface
White shark in False Bay
After some time watching natural behaviour, a decoy (surprisingly realistic looking, made to resemble a young seal) is towed behind the boat, to try and elicit breaching behaviour from the sharks. We didn’t have much luck here, again probably because of the surgy seas, but one shark made a few investigations of the decoy before losing interest.
White shark next to the boat
Finally sharks are attracted to the boat using chum, which is mostly fish oils and other fishy substances. A tuna head was splashed in the water near the boat, and when sharks came to investigate it they were visible from the cage. While in the cage we breathed off scuba regulators, which was great. Trying to breath-hold or snorkel while the sea was so choppy would have been next to impossible. The sound of the bubbles emanating from our regulators didn’t bother the sharks at all.
Bernita and some stormy seas
We spent about twenty minutes (or maybe more – I am not sure) in the cage, some of it just waiting for action, and some of it with our full attention focused on the enormous fish swimming by and looking at us with its black eyes. Five minutes of looking at a great white shark, eye to eye, gives sudden perspective on life and the natural world. I’ll recommend this experience to anyone who will listen!
Tony and I had a lovely walk in Kalk Bay harbour in between some winter storms recently. We checked out the dilapidated boat on the beach (the Pelican Brief) near the Main Road, and visited with a group of well-fed seals frolicking in the water on the outside of the harbour wall, just next to the Harbour House restaurant. It was quite windy, as you can hear, and the sun starting to think about setting.
The photograph above was taken by Dave Hurwitz of Simon’s Town Boat Company, the holder of the whale watching licence for False Bay. I noticed the whale watching boat coming closer and closer as I was taking a group of divers out of the water at Seal Rock, and it was only once they were in the boat that we realised that a pair of humpback whales was coming closer and closer to our position. We held our breath and enjoyed the show – it is not often that this happens!
At this time of year there are both humpback and southern right whales in the bay, but there are strict regulations about approaching them. In this case the whale approached us, and I wasn’t about to leave the divers on the surface while I was busy retrieving them!
Humpback whales
Diving humpback whale
Flukes in the air
Disappearing act
This amazing experience was only one of the parts of this day, which started early and ended late after two separate charters. One was a group of Finnish tourists who snorkeled and dived with the seals at Partridge Point – they were the ones lucky enough to enjoy the spectacle of the whales.
Snorkelers on the boat
Seal Rock at Partridge Point
Sleepy seals
Massive bull seal at Partridge Point
The second charter was a group of divers who wanted to dive with the seals, and then visit the cowsharks at Shark Alley. The visibility was so good I could see the divers on the bottom. We spotted an absolutely enormous bull seal on the rocks at Seal Rock, as well as some really adorable smaller juvenile seals.
Wow! is about all I can say for the current summer day-like conditions. A short while ago I installed a weather station at home to help my inadequate weather forecasting, and this is a screen shot of today’s temperatures. Note the high of 26.5 degrees.
Screen shot from our home weather station console
Weekend plans
To complement the great weather the bay is clean and blue ,and the water temperature is 15 degrees. All this good stuff from today is set to continue for the weekend, and we will launch the boat on both days. Neither day will deep dives as I have Open Water students, so we will pick the sites from a range of the following: Photographer’s Reef, Ark Rock, SAS Pietermaritzburg, Spaniard Rock or Caravan Reef. Why the loose arrangement? Well there are a few traces of red tide further north and further out in the bay, so we will dive where we have the best conditions.
If you want to dive, text me. Be quick, because the boat is already quite full!
The past week(end)
White shark at Seal Island
We did not really dive last weekend as the weather wasn’t all that great and most of this week has been spent on Divemaster training. Over the weekend there was rather a large swell and lots of wind and rain. We did however get wet on Sunday, above and below the surface, as we did a cage diving trip in False Bay to take a closer look at some of the rather large animals hunting around Seal Island. We had some sun, some rain and some time in a cage, and seeing the white sharks was absolutely remarkable. Despite the swell the experience was most definitely a memorable one and if I won the lotto I would go back every other day for the entire season.
Great white shark in False Bay
Training
We are working on some detail for a few Specialty Courses not offered much in Cape Town, namely Drift Diving, Research Diver and Equipment Specialty. If any of these courses tickle your fancy send me a mail and I will send you the details.
