Shark diaries: August 2008

Each year we have numerous requests from volunteers around the world wanting to join us on a work study basis. We like to chose someone who is passionate about the sharks as us and who we feel can benefit from what we have to offer and in turn, will be able to assist as a guide or good crew member. I have asked this years volunteer Jurgen to write his experience with us so far.

Karen already introduced me as a new crew member in the last newsletter. My name is Jurgen Batsleer and I mainly work as a guide on the Blue Pointer 2 during the high season for the sharks. I studied marine biology at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands and have been passionate about sharks since I was three years old. During my study I was able to do a research on the the temperature preference of juvenile lemon sharks, Negaprion brevirostris, in Bimini, Bahamas. I also focused on fisheries and the removal of apex predators, like sharks and rays, out of the ecosystem. This opportunity given by Karen and Rob to volunteer at their company provides me a chance to gain more knowledge about the sharks as well as learning to work on the boat.

As for most of our guests, I’ve seen the breaching and predations only on television. With the work I’m doing now I’m able to witness these events in the wild almost on a daily basis. I must say, it is much more impressive to see all this action in real life, then when you sit on your sofa back home. A lot of our guests come from all over the world to observe and capture these amazing moments. We must not forget these predations are a natural event and we as crew or humans can’t control this process of seal and shark interactions.

I feel the morning trips are giving the guest a great view on the different ways of behavior of the sharks. The predations and breaching represent the wild and spectacular behavior of the sharks while during the cage dive people can experience the curiosity and peacefulness of the sharks. In my own opinion, this is an important reason why there is no need to chum the water. We like to show people the natural behavior of these animals and not the behavior as is suggest in some movies (JAWS).

As I mentioned before my main function on the boat is to be a guide. I always give a small talk when we arrive at the island and when go close to the seals. In the meanwhile I’ll try to answer the questions guest have about the sharks and the way we work. It’s not always easy to give a concrete direct answer. These sharks are difficult to study and little is known about their behavior, like for example how they reproduce, where they give birth etc… This always makes me think about the possibilities for research in the future.

The last two months have been great. July was a wonderful month, we went out almost every day to see the sharks. We had one crazy shark around the boat, which we named Cruella. She likes murky waters and orange and yellow floats from Sam’s (Skipper) take away! So far August is going well, except the forecast for this week predict a few bad days (18-24 th). Hopefully the weatherman is wrong “for a change”.

As conclusion, I enjoy every day out at sea. It’s wonderful to meet new people from all over the world with different life stories every day. Not one day is the same. I also would like to point out that the crew works as a team, which provides a very good atmosphere on the boat. I guess this can only be a benefit for the guests.

If I can give one piece of advice to people who want to join us on a trip, please take tablets for motion sickness. We rather see our guest enjoying their trip instead of feeling very sick and miss out on all the fun.

All the best
Jurgen Batsleer