Killing the Whales..the right choice.

Well, the inevitable happened. The False Killer Whales not Pilot whales that managed to get out to sea, all returned and just beached themselves further along the beach.

The decision was made to euthanise them. It was the correct and best way to go about it.

It's a quick process. The bullet goes straight through the brain through the blow hole and the whale dies in a few seconds. You can't be emotional about it.It had to have been done to prevent suffering. Plus "The beach was a disaster area".

As mentioned yesterday, there were kids, dogs and with the emotional human element, when the first whales were shot,the public went hysterical, and I mean HYSTERICAL. Some were throwing themselves on the beach and fights broke out with the authorities. Others had to be carried away by the police.

It is going to be a very hot topic for a long time here, with everyone having their say on how the situation should have been handled.

Nan Rice, head of the Dolphin Action and Protection group said "rehabilitating" the animals in those weather conditions proved impossible. We know, we tried to help.

She lashed out at public criticism of the decision to euthanise, as well as her organisation's handling of the stranded whales. I think they did very well, and I praise them ( all the authorities) for there efforts.

Well done. It was a sad situation, but in the end what was done, was for the best.

Pilot Whales stranded at Kommetjie beach

My shark trip this morning was touch and go as the weather wasn't looking so good. I told my guests I would contact them early in the morning if we would go to sea. So,when I woke, I headed off to Muizenberg. Even though the weather wasn't looking bad, the swell was very big, and I was not going to take the boat out.

On the way home, around 7.45ish, I got a call from a paramedic buddy of mine. Pilot whales had beached themselves off Longbeach, Kommetjie. I phoned my crew, and asked if they wanted to assist me in helping out. "Yes, of course", they said, and I raced to my boat to get wetsuits.

When we arrived there where dozens and dozens of whales on the beach. Being still early, there where only about 30 people around. We started to move them back into the water, and getting them to try swim out to sea.

You need to get them with their dorsal fin upright. If they are on there side, they lay on there lungs suffocating. By moving them closer into the sea, we were successful in getting many off the beach.

By now many people where there, all eager to help. There was the NSRI, Sea Rescue, the police, marine biologists,local surfers and everyone gave a helping hand. With more and more coming onto the beach, it also started to get out of hand. Some where pulling them by there tails and pulling them on there side.

The NSRI, and the police cordoned off sections to try do some crowd control. I saw some young girls crying, as seeing these whales die was emotional.

After about 2.5 hours in the freezing cold, I called it quits. I tried to help, but to be honest, most will return and die. Only a handful will make it. No one really knows why they beach? Some say its because of illness, or one is in distress and so being in a close community they all follow suit.

Karen arrived later and took some pics. The dogs being none the wiser, seemed to be having a great time.

A few hours later, I phoned to see what the latest update was. A flat bed truck was on its way to take some whales to False Bay, where they would be taken into the deep sea. A good few were dead, and more had returned to the beach.

We don't see Pilot whales in False Bay. We get them offshore, and have seen them on many of our Pelagic Blue and Mako shark trip. By the looks of it, I think they were short tailed Pilot whales, but don't quote me on that.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Dead Dolphin

Here is a pic of the Dolphin that we saw the other day in False Bay.

Latest shark activity at the Island

Until recently I did not have a heck of a shark news to report, as not much was happening at the island.
Well, things have changed drastically. PEAK SEASON HAS ARRIVED.

The big storm of the week end of the 16/17th/18th May, prevented us from going to sea, but it was just what we needed to bring the sharks to the island.

Tue 19th May
Predations were good, and had picked up a lot. We had 7 predations and witnessed 5 kills.
Predations mean that the sharks actively hunt (in our case) seals. The sharks attack seals at or near the surface. This activity is very intense in the morning, when the seals leave the island to go find food or returning after 3-4 days of hunting for food. The seals leave the island in groups of 8-12 or more. Most likely because more eyes mean more focus on watching for any sharks.

They brave the ring of death, which is the area around the island, which is heavily populated by sharks for a certain time ( our winter) of year.

Thurs - Friday 21st May

Good predation activity.We also had good breaches on the seal decoy. The water was clear with about 10m of visibility. The sharks were staying deep, so with the good visibility, those who cage dived had a great time, but the surface viewing guests didn't see much action.

Saturday 23rd.
We had a very good day. Saw 4 predations and all 4 were active kills. Not all predations end up being successful, and not all end up being breaches. It all depends on the sharks and it varies from day to day. That day we saw no breaches, but the sharks followed our decoy with much interest.
The visibility is really good at the moment with Saturday being 15m+. We didnt have a lot of sharks around the boat. The first time we anchored up, no sharks. So we moved to another spot. Got 2 sharks, who stayed with us for the whole morning. They also stayed quite deep.

We spotted a dead dolphin, so we headed off to it and took it on board for inspection. There were no shark bites and no propeller marks, so we assume it died from natural causes. There have been a lot of dolphins in the bay and we have been seeing large schools of them them very regularly.

Tomorrows weather looks to be a bit windy, so lets see how the trip goes.

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More birds

While I am on the subject of birds, we spotted this tiny Owl in Botswana in April. It was so CUTE! It was happily sitting in the tree, and the only reason we saw it was that we where following another bird with our binoculars.

Its called a Pearl Spotted Owlet. Its only 18-19 cm's big.

Franklin's Gull spotted in False Bay

Rob was thrilled to have captured a picture of a Franklin's Gull, whilst on a recent shark trip at seal island.

Its Status is Vagrant, meaning rare and accidental to the region.

It is a very pretty gull, with a full black hood and a white eye-ring, and pinkish breast. It also has black tips on its wings.

I am going to look into where this bird is from/ what area its common to.