Our Shark Diary - May 2007
Dear Ultimate Animal friend,
May started off to a very good start. We went to sea almost every day, and we had excellent shark activity around the boat. The visibility in False Bay in early March was very good, around 15 metres, and the sea temp a nice 18’C. This allowed for some very good diving.
The sharks where breaching on a regular basis. This is always a spectacular sight. False Bay is unique and world renown for this shark behaviour. We have noticed that the predation behaviour (hunting) is very quiet at the moment, compared to previous years.
The actual shark sighting where very good, and we saw quiet a few different individual sharks, but then towards the end of May, the shark activity around the boat at Seal Island slowed down a lot.
At the beginning of May, we had an Australian film crew with us for two days. They were doing a travel show. They had a very good trip, with nice weather and calm sea conditions and so they managed to get some really good shark footage, as well as some lovely diving sequences with the sharks.
Over the last few years Rob has been doing more and more video work, a passionate hobby which is becoming a nice side line for him. This month Rob upgraded his video camera to a really good high definition professional one. Already his footage is widely used in many shark programmes, and a HD video camera means better quality footage.
A highlight for the crew was working with Beyond Productions. They came out with us for over 10 days. They produce the show “MythBusters”. Jamie and Adam, the stars of the show, were great fun and they had a fabulous time on the boat with us. I can’t go into any detail about their “myth busting”, but it obviously involved sharks. I have included some pics of the crew and the Jamie and Adam on our boat.
Toward the end of May we had a very bad cold front come in, bring huge sea conditions and stormy weather. A few days after the storm, when we managed to get to sea, we sighted pelagic birds inshore. This is very exciting as these birds are open ocean birds and do not come into the bay at all. It was the first time for us to sea a Black Browed Albatross as well as sightings of Sotty Shearwaters so far inshore. A rare Francolins Gull was also spotted. This bird is not common in South Africa at all. After the storm, the sea temperature dropped to around 15/16’C.
Our crew was sponsored some lovely rain jackets this month, by First Ascent outdoor clothing. They make top quality outdoor gear, and if you need gear, I would highly recommend them. For further info look at their website. www.firstascent.co.za
I always find it interesting to see where out guests are coming from. This month I noticed we had a lot of Australians, more so than ever. We have been part of two Australian travel show in the last 12 months, and I wonder if this has helped add more interest in our sharks!
Well, that is the update on May’s activities. It was a very nice month, and a good start to the shark season was had by all.
Take care all you shark lovers out there.
Until next month…….
Rob and Karen Lawrence
African Shark Eco-Charters
