Dead Humpback whale washed up on Muizenberg beach

 
 

I got a call this morning saying there was a dead whale on the beach. Jordan (3) wanted to go with me to see, and asked if the whale was going to heaven. Thankfully she didn't go into the logistics of how it was going to get to heaven.

Anyway, it was a baby humpback whale. Very dead. Stinking and it had been a feast for the sharks. Have a look at the shark bite marks on the tail. ROB

Mythbusters with African Shark Eco-Charters

Many people have asked us what myths the mythbusters came to bust. Well I have found a site that says it better than I would so I am just going to copy and paste it in for you ( taken from http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2007/11/episode_90_supersized_myths.html )

However the photo's are all ours.

Supersized Shark

See also: Jaws Special

Jamie and Adam shipped their gear to False Bay, South Africa (near Cape Town), where they hired African Shark Eco Charters to take them out into waters infested with great white sharks. Seal Island, located just 5.7 km off the coast, is home to innumerable seals. The huge seal population also attracts the great whites. On an initial site-seeing trip, Adam and Jamie got to see first-hand how many: Jamie couldn't even finish his explanation before a seal decoy they dropped in the water was hit by a great white breaching out of the water. They lured the sharks closer using tuna heads and Jamie went for a closer look inside the shark cage. He got quite a show as a shark got a full nose into the cage and knocked things around. Meanwhile, Adam didn't take enough ginger pills and spent much of the trip seasick.

Adam: "South Africa has been pretty crazy to us so far. We did see an air attack, Jamie almost got eaten, I threw up -- Now we are able to start our tests."
Supersized Shark Myth 1: Sharks attracted to noises

Myth: Sharks are attracted to low-frequency noises (40hz) that sound like an animal thrashing around

The theory is that the great white sharks detect the low frequency noises using lateral lines that run along the length of their body. Jamie supposed that there was some credence to this theory, given that the operators of their shark cruise rap on the side of the boat to attract the great whites.

Jamie once again went in the water along with an underwater speaker system that first blasted the MythBusters theme song to the surrounding sea life.

Jamie (to Adam): "If you're gonna be sick, can you be sick on the other side of the boat, over"

With Jamie in the water, they tried three tests: * 40hz hum for 10 minutes: no sign of sharks * 0-40hz sweep: presuming that 40hz was too precise, they swept the sound from 0-40hz. Still no sign of sharks. * High frequency: they went in the other direction, blasting a high pitched noise instead. A single shark appeared

Not knowing if Jamie was a factor in the sharks (not) appearing, they pulled Jamie out of the water and repeated the same series of tests. This time, no sharks appeared at all.

busted
Supersized Shark Myth 2: Sharks are afraid of dolphins

Myth: Sharks are afraid of dolphins

Marine biologists speculated that dolphins are intelligent enough to be capable of altruistic acts, such as rescuing animals of other species from shark attacks. They MythBusters researchers dug up two incidents from 2004 that seemed to confirm this myth. In New Zealand, lifeguards training on a beach reported a great white appearing on the beach and then swimming away when a dolphin swam up. Similarly, in Australia, a fisherman capsized and was stranded for two days. Great whites approached but were repelled by a dolphin.

Jamie and Adam constructed a foam, animatronic dolphin after studying the swimming motion of Merlin the dolphin at Discovery Kingdom. Adam cut out a dolphin model from a block of upholstery foam. He used a printout of a 3D dolphin model they found online as a guide. Meanwhile, Jamie worked on generating the dolphin tail motion that they figured was crucial to fooling the sharks. He connected an electric drill to an off-centered crank to create the undulations. Bike chain was used as a mechanical spine. When the drill was turned on, the entire rig flapped up and down like a dolphin.

Down in South Africa, they conducted a series of tests to see if the animatronic dolphin was a shark deterrent: * Seal decoy: the seal decoy was hit by a shark within five seconds of being dropped in the water * Seal decoy + animatronic dolphin: the dolphin and seal decoys cruised along the water close together. A great white fin broke the surface between the fake dolphin and seal, but no bite. * Tuna heads + animatronic dolphin: They upped the ante by throwing a tuna head into the water. As a shark approached the tuna head, they pulled the dolphin over -- the shark swam away. They repeated the test again with the same result. * Tuna heads: With the fake dolphin out of the water, the great white went to town on the tuna heads.

The sharks may not have been 'afraid' of the dolphins, but they did seem to be deterred.

plausible

I know they say plausible, but seeing it, it seemed more than plausable to us.It was amazing how the sharks swam AWAY from the dolphin.

Flying sharks of False Bay

False Bay is home to the great white shark. It is also unique as our white sharks "fly". Here is an wonderful picture, taken by Jose Alejandro Alvarez, a guest on our boat "Blue Pointer" in July. Watching great white sharks breach is truly AWESOME, and there is no where quite like it on earth than with us in False Bay. Why not join us on a shark trip, and witness this spectacular sight for yourself.

False Bay Fishermen

 
 

These are little local fishing boats from either Fish hoek or Kalk Bay. Most of the local fishermen eek out a living catching good eating fish such as Snoek, Cape Salmon, Yellow tail and Red Roman. Many of them catch the fish using hand lines.

There is something so magical and beautiful about fishing boats. I am not sure what it is. The kids love it when we take them to the harbour,to buy some fish for supper. There are always fat seals lolling about in the water, waiting for a scraps. We also normally buy some hot chips and feed some to the sea gulls.We love the bustle of activity, and love watching the fisherwoman clean the fish. The speed and skill with which they handle those knives makes me never want to cross with them in a dark alley.

Beautiful Cape Point

 

Rob took this picture on our last trip we did. I just had to share it with you as I find it so captivating.
 

Here is a close up of the light house at Cape Point. This was a lovely calm day, unlike the next picture.

I took this picture a while ago, but the conditions this week where exactly the same. The weather has played havoc here in the Cape.100's of homes have been washed away at at a little town in the Breede River (2.5 hrs away)

We had to cancel Friday's trip, but tomorrow we are going out again into the deep. Keep you posted on how that goes

Technorati Profile

Technorati Profile

Great White Found dead at Macassar beach False Bay

It always saddens us to hear about great whites that are found dead. This shark was found on Oct 25 2008 at Macassar Beach in False Bay (South Africa).It was a nice healthy looking big shark of 4.6m. There was no idication of how it died.

Trying to get boat maintenance done.

Well after a few weeks away and a long shark season we have got down to boat repairs, painting the deck,checking the wiring and other general repairs. However,it looks like Wellington and myself will have a few days off as a very big Southerly storm is blowing into Cape Town.
So I think I will take this opportunity over the next few days to do some editing of footage I shot during the season.(Note to self:I actually need to get a new computer especially for my footage).

We did one very successful Pelagic trip last week where we had 15 Blue sharks and 1 Mako around the boat. The water viz was not that great, but it was nice to be back in the water and to see sharks again. ROB

Congratulations

Rob and I would like to congratulate Tim Maycock for his award winning picture. Tim one first prize at the Royal Air Force photography competition.
He went out with Rob in May this year and took this pic on our boat “Blue Pointer 2”

Mooove Over

On our way back from the mouth we had to wait for a herd of cows to moooove out the way. The kids just loved the little black calf.

Its hard travelling with little kids, but I think we have little outdoor enthusiasts. Adam thought it was such fun as our vehicle negotiated the sandy roads. He sat in his little car seat being bumped around as if he was on a dodgem car. The harder the bump the more he laughed. Jordan just loved everything she saw, especially the kids. There where an incredible amount of schools everywhere, all in the middle of no where, which is mind boggling. One would think that they would all be at the nearest town or village, not scattered around.

Kozi bay mouth and the fishing traps

Kozi bay is actually not a bay, but an estuary system 18km long that comprises of three lakes. The lakes are hippo and croc filled but the one closest to the mouth is safest to swim.

Here are some fish traps built by the local Tonga people. They are passed down from father to son, from generation to generation. I was amzed to find out that they are environmentally friendly as they allow the smaller fish to pass through and only catch fish that are travelling towards the sea and not from the sea into the lake. At low tide we watched the fishermen wade through the waters with long spears in hand to catch fish in the traps.


The two other lakes are behind the dunes and connected via narrow channels. As they are hippo and croc filled we did not go exploring ...this time...with the kids.

This is just such an amazing view. You drive on the narrow sandy roads and then pop over the hill to see this amazing sight.

This way or that way?

This captivates the essence of our holiday. This is a typical road, thick sandy 4x4 only roads.

Kozi bay lies on the SA/ Mozambique border. As mentioned I wanted to get away from the wet Cape weather and go somewhere warm, and not touristy. Well we got what we came for.
Its not often in South Africa that I feel like I am truly in "Africa", but here you could be mistaken for being in Zimbabwe or Botswana etc.

Why Kozi Bay. Well, as a kid my dad used to take us scuba diving at the famous Sodwana Bay,( a few hrs from there) and I remember the warm water, white sand, and lots of coastal bushveld. I also went to Kozi then and had memories of an amazing lagoon mouth. So with these memories, off we went to find a warm beach, where we could laze around with no one in sight.

P.S. Kozi bay is not for the average tourist as the accomodation available is pretty basic and if you dont have a 4x4, then your stuck. Its also a place that is stuck in time. There are a few basic needs shops and that is it.