Today's great white trip to seal island

We took a trip to seal island today. I haven't been on a shark trip in a while and when Rob said he was going, I was keen to come along. We also took Tamsyn, our new assistant with us as well as our 4 year old Jordan. I promised her that when she was 4 she could come and see the sharks.

The day started out with a very light wind and a bit of a cloudy sky. The swell wasn't bad at all and the run out to the island was very pleasant. We spotted penguins and a Giant Petrel.

Jordan was so thrilled to discover that seals bleat like lambs. The island is very full at the moment, and  the constant cacophony of bleating was overcome by the horrible stench of the island of guano.

We waited around for an hour before the first shark appeared. Tamsyn shouted shark, shark, shark in this voice of amazement and awe. If you have never seen a shark up close and personal the effect on a person is awesome. The shark was a female, and just under 4m. It approached from the bow and lazily moved around the the stern( which is around 4 and a bit metres to give you a picture of how big 4m is).and went to inspect the bait that Wellington was handling.

It wasn't interested in the bait and then turned around and cruised into the depths. A few minutes later Rob shouted shark again and it had taken the second bait that we have below. We didnt get to see much, except a shadow as it swam away. A dead seal was floating by and another shark decided to have it for a snack. It first played with it like a cat plays with a mouse, tossing it into the air a good few times, rather gently I might add.

Another shark around 3m came to inspect the decoy, again just lightly mouthing it before moving to the bait. It was more interested in the tapping noise I was making on the side of the boat. This tapping we have found very effective as the great white is a rather curious animal. The female came again and stayed for a good while. Rob and Wellington had seen her in 2009 shark season. You can see the white band on her dorsal fin identifying her as her "fingerprint".

We returned around 12 as the navy had issued a warning that they where about to do a shooting excercise and we didnt feel like being a target for their practice. We where escorted by one of their boats back to make sure we where returning to the harbour.

Gonna check out my beauties with the Shark spotters

Woke up this early this morning and was at the beach before 6.I felt so good no, blessed, no super blessed to alive, and living in the "deep south" of Cape town. I walked for about 20 min greeting all the old ducks that swim every morning and then headed to the gym to cycle those extra snacks away. 

Went home feeling on top of the world, singing and praising and I knew that I would have a great day.

 We are spending the morning with the shark spotters tomorrow, bring your sunglasses and water, and lets wait for the great white beauties,to wink at us....

Australia goes Gung Ho on Great White Sharks

I don't like to openly criticise other countries. We deal with so many international guests that we prefer to just keep our opinion  to ourselves, unlike a lot of sharky related blog sites.

But man oh man, I just cannot understand the Australia's media and some of those who share the following articles mentality. We are in 2010, yet they live in the dark ages when in comes to Great White Sharks. come, on everyone, bring your pitch forks and torches and lets kill some sharks.

ROGUE sharks that attack beachgoers this summer will be hunted down, shot in the head and sawed apart until their spines are severed. OKAY, JUST HOW ARE THEY GOING TO FIND THESE " ROGUE" SHARKS. Do these great whites carry placards on their dorsal fin saying Hi, I have just killed someone swimming in my territory.
Just read the rest of the rubbish below.
The Sunday Times can today reveal the graphic methods put in place by the WA Government's Shark Hazard Committee for dealing with man-eaters.
In a candid interview, WA Department of Fisheries strategic compliance manager and shark committee member Tina Thorne said a rogue shark that attacked a swimmer would be slaughtered if it continued to pose a significant threat to beachgoers and if it could be positively identified as the offending shark.
But the kill order would only be given in "extreme circumstances" as a last resort where there was an immediate danger to the public.
Ms Thorne said fisheries officers would first use a baited drumline and put "attractant" in the water to try to hook the shark. And if you hook the WRONG shark, what then? or are you just gonna kill it, and then say oops.

Then the creature would be hauled aboard a boat where officers would "have to use a large firearm to dispatch the animal". sounds a bit like the KKK
"That is not an easy task, as sharks have very small brains," she said.
Once shot through the head, fisheries personnel would take a final step to ensure the creature was dead by "severing the spinal cord and bleeding it out".
"Even if you hook it, you can't just fly over in a chopper and shoot it because of refraction (of the bullets) in the water," Ms Thorne said.
While the shoot-to-kill methods are operational procedures put in place by the Shark Hazard Committee, Ms Thorne stressed great whites - the species responsible for most fatal attacks - were protected and a special exemption from the law was required by Fisheries Minister Norman Moore to kill one. Dont you just love it. She says she STRESSES that GWS are protected
"It's not something we would take lightly," Ms Thorne said, after a spate of shark sightings and beach closures across Perth this week.
Trying to catch a large shark was extremely dangerous, she said, and in most cases the creatures disappeared into the depths after an attack. WELL, WHERE ELSE MUST IT GO, IT IS THE OCEAN AFTER ALL.
Ms Thorne said in three of the past four fatal attacks in WA the shark responsible was never spotted.
Only after the fatal attack in 2008 on 51-year-old Port Kennedy man Brian Guest did the shark linger.
In that case, there was no immediate danger to other beachgoers, so authorities tried to tag the animal.
The statements about killing sharks angered the family of Mr Guest.
A friend of the family told The Sunday Times Mr Guest's widow Charmaine and son Daniel stuck by their comments that sharks belonged in the marine environment and should not be harmed.
Ms Thorne agreed, saying "they live in the ocean and we don't".
Six people have been killed by sharks in WA in the past 20 years.

Should sharks that kill be shot? Leave a comment below.

To cook or not to cook, that is the question?

How can anyone utterly and truly STUFF UP rice?

I just can't seem to get it right. The same goes for pasta. I follow the instructions clearly written on the packet and yet 8 out of 10 times it goes horribly wrong. 
Tonight it was rice. Yesterday I made a nice stir fry with Brown rice, which turned out nicely,  Tonight Rob was cooking. All I had to do was the rice. I chose  nice fragrant white rice (which I bought for Christmas dinner and amazingly was great, I might add.). So I suppose that was my 2/10, and the rest will be a mess.

Rob, poor chap isn't feeling so great and being dished up rice that looked more like Pap did not make him feel any better.

The bookings for shark trips are coming in nicely. I have found a PA to assist us and so that is a huge weight of my shoulders. She did some work shadow training for her practical experience for a diploma in Tourism and so it was great to have someone we know apply for the job.

Well I better go and clean up some wee. The potty training isnt going so well.

PA-Booking Agent for Tourism Company in Simons town.

Must have related experience or diploma in travel and tourism.

Bookings and reservations, arranging  transfers, hotel accommodation.

Direct dealing with guests.

Till point controller / cash ups/banking/emails and admin.

Marketing to guest houses and tour operators.

Must be confident, outgoing ,willing to work  week-ends and standby. Preferably live in area.

Email CV to airjaws@mweb.co.za

PA-Booking Agent for Tourism Company in Simons town.

Must have related experience or diploma in travel and tourism.
• Bookings and reservations, arranging transfers, hotel accommodation.
• Direct dealing with guests.
• Till point controller / cash ups/banking/emails and admin.
• Marketing to guest houses and tour operators.
Must be confident, outgoing ,willing to work week-ends and standby. Preferably live in area.
Email CV to airjaws@mweb.co.za

The great white that didnt get away

Wow, its our 7th anniversary today!!

I cannot believe how time flies.

We met almost 10 yrs ago. Rob was trying to get his fledgling business going, and so he spent his nights working as a barman to help bring some extra cash in.
I had come home to Cape Town, after spending a few years at University in Johannesburg, and had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I had paid for my studies waitressing, and so I decided to once again do that until I knew which direction I was going in.

So, at Peddlars on the Bend, barman met waitress and the story unfolds from there.

We got married Dec 14th 2002 in Franschoek. I wanted something very different and Rob, being a typical bloke, didnt care how he got married, and so we had a medieval wedding.
Averyone was dressed up, we had knights, knaves, merry men, ladies in waiting and even an executioner. It was such fun, and was more of a party than a wedding.

Great White sharks have christmas too!

Our son, Adam, who is 2 yrs old, has taken to walking around the house with his Christmas bag. He is very possessive of his toys in it and has even spent the last three nights sleeping with this bag.
I opened the bag yesterday and discovered a great white shark finger puppet, a big great white teddy, an orca, and a dolphin, and his sisters baby doll.

Funny kid!

Beer advert should have had a great white shark

This is a Great Beer Advert. Pity it didnt have a great white shark

Shark Cage diving with African Shark Eco-Charters

I have just learnt how to link words to websites, so bear with me as I play " link link"

Shark Cage diving info

Great White Shark diving

Watch great white shark hunt seal at False Bay Seal Island.

Simonstown False Bay, at dawn

Here is a nice pic Rob took of Simonstown False Bay.

What to do when the wind blows.

We share a joint bookings office in Simons town with another shark operator, called Apex Expeditions. From 1st December, they will be having their own shop in the centre, and so the next few weeks will be spent on getting the shop fittings ready and possibly new staff. Our lease expires soon, and so we don't want to spend a fortune ( and you know how expensive fitting a shop can be)as we are not sure that we want to keep that shop.

Rob and I have also been getting new adverts made, brochures ready, etc. Its in this quiet season, that we start to prepare for the next shark season. Obviously this all hangs on whether or not we get our permit, but I cant wait on tender hooks until January or whenever MCM has finalised the permit's.

WE fully expect to keep our permit, but sometimes the uncertainty gets to me. I suppose all the other operators are feeling the same way right now!

The wind has not stopped blowing and its been irritating as we have been wanting to take the kids for a few spins out in the bay.

I am also trying to get Rob to move all these darn wetsuits out of our garage. They are all hanging from the beams and it bugs me that I have to duck under all these legs every time I want to go out the garage door.

Off to the Noordhoek fair just now. Maybe grab a pancake or two to eat.

So snowed under with work.

I have been trying to finish the holiday blog for ages now, but have been so snowed under with work.
Rob has been running around trying to fix the toilet on the boat, as well as looking around for another vehicle.

I have had meeting upon meeting with marketing and advertising companies, all wanting to sell and have our company list with them. Its hard to measure how successful your marketing is in terms of where are the guests coming from, and so you gotta be so careful where you advertise.

Then, the admin is really hectic at the moment, and I am as busy at my desk as I was in season, so I need to address that soon.

We found out yesterday, that MCM hasn't even begun to look at the permit applications. Hmmm, and they say they will have the permit allocation ready by January. Well, we will wait and see.

Updating doc's

Been updating doc's today.


Here is some info on our Blue Water Predator trips.

This adventurous trip takes you 15-25 miles off Cape Point in search of pelagic sharks such as the magnificent Mako and Blue Sharks.

High Season: November to May. Our success rate is 80%.
Time : Trips depart 06h30 return at 16h00
Weather dependent : All trips are weather dependent and are subject to cancellations based on bad weather. In this event a full refund is offered.
Cost: R2,000-00 per person.

We take a maximum of 8 guests per trip with 3 crew.
A min. of 5 guests is needed for the trip to go.

It is a 2.5 hour boat ride each way so the guests need to be comfortable going to sea and be informed of the duration of the trip.

Blue sharks are afraid of very little and are usually the first to approach diver and cage with a lot of interest, only satisfied after a close inspection that you are not a food item; this is great for photos and memories. Mako Sharks are the fastest swimming shark, and observing one is truly a fantastic experience. We also have a good success rate with diving with Tuna.

All diving is in the cage and on snorkel. We use a three man cage but for comfort reasons we only allow 2 divers per dive. The water temperature can exceed 21`c.

We do offer free diving (out of the cage). This is only for experienced divers and under the right conditions. This decision is taken by the skipper and will depend on sea conditions, visibility and numbers of sharks. All diving is on the surface and on snorkel.

We will get to see spectacular views of Cape Point from the water;

For naturalist wanting a bit of everything, then, this is a must. The moment we leave False Bay we start to see a multitude of pelagic birds including Skuas, Terns, Shearwaters, Petrels, Penguins, Gulls as well as the possibility of seeing several different species of Albatross i.e. Shy albatross, Black browed and Yellow-nosed albatross. Rarer sightings will include the Wandering & Royal albatross.
We very often see a variety of whales and dolphin species i.e Humpback, Southern Right, Sperm, Pilot and Brydes Whales, Common, Bottlenose, Dusky risso's dolphin and sun fish or Mola mola can be seen. Large shoals of yellow fin tuna (up to 100kg) and long fin tuna are seen and can sometimes circle the boat.

This is a great adventurous trip and a perfect alternative in our summer when it’s the low season for the Great White Sharks.

Been to busy for Shark Week

Oh shock, Oh horror, we haven't watched much of shark week.

I have been reading with amusement and concern the various blog's and there comments on Shark Week. So far many of blog posts have not been positive with the main concern that the sharks have been portrayed from the angle of a killer, with bloods and guts and gore.

Due to having little kids using every trick in the book, not to go to bed, or more like, not to stay in bed, TV &(shark week) has taken a back seat and so I cant comment on shark week.

Having had a few of shark week documentary's made with us, its is always interesting to watch them. We have very little to do with the filming, or what the production is about. The most important thing is that the sharks must not harmed or negatively impacted. Most of the crew we work with are friendly and professional. Some times the presenters off screen personalities are Jekyll and Hyde to their on-screen, but we just keep that to ourselves.

The BBC are busy doing a film on migratory birds. Basically, the low down is that on their journey interesting happenings occur. Here in False Bay, its the breaching and predations of the Great White Sharks.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, we had a fantastic two days of predatory activity. The shark activity was amazing with dozens of predations occurring. Those days the crew was interested in the birds and so they were not filmed. I think they got an awesome breach shot on Friday, if I am not mistaken.

The activity has been quiet slow since Saturday, with the sharks being lethargic and staying deep. Today is the first day this week we have been able to get to sea. The swell is still quiet big but we have had one very good breach this morning. The guys are heading back now and will possibly head out this afternoon again.

Today, I need to work on July's newsletter, doing some changes to the website which should keep me glued to the computer the entire day.

Hopefully be able to download any new pics Rob has taken. Maybe he captured that breach today?

Starting the film shoot with BBC

WE started a 10 day film shoot with John Downer Productions of the BBC.

Rob comes home late last night and asks where is their generator. Oh my hat. I have forgotten to order in. Thankfully we have a genie at home. Its huge and old, but it will do the job for today. I have to go collect the proper one today. Its at the other end of the world 1.5 hrs away and so I will be spending close to 4 hrs in the car later on as I will be coming back during rush hour traffic.

Give you a low down on how the first day went and an over all description of the shoot.

Shark joke of the day

Shark spotters enjoyed their trip with us

Up close and personal with sharks

By Thandanani Mhlanga

The sea is quiet and still and it is almost hard to believe that great whites inhabit these calm waters.

On an unusually hot winter's day in the peninsula, and even more so in Simon's Town, a group of 10 shark spotters will get their first up-close encounter with the predator they've observed for so long.

Their excitement is palpable as the cage descends into the water.

At first, there are no sharks, but within minutes the boat to which the cage is attached is encircled by at least half a dozen.

After about 40 minutes, shark spotters Monwabisi Si-kweyiya and Patrick "Rasta" Davids are lifted out of the shark-diving cage.

"It was that close! Did you see it?" shouted Sikweyiya.

Davids responded: "Do you believe me now? There's nothing to be afraid of?"

The group was invited by African Shark Eco-Charters to get a close-up view of the sharks they keep a lookout for.

"There are more dangerous two-legged sharks on land," said Davids, a veteran of the shark spotting trade.

Davids started out as a car guard at a Muizenerg beach until a 16-year-old teenager lost a leg to a great white. His livelihood was subsequently threatened as the beach saw fewer visitors.

This led him to train as a shark spotter.

"The local trek fishermen taught me how to look for weather conditions, wind patters, visibility in the water. I was the first shark spotter in Muizenberg."

That was seven years ago, and shark spotting has since grown to encompass this group of youngsters from all walks of life who were given the opportunity yesterday to encounter the great whites.

Rob Lawrence, owner and host of African Shark Eco-Charters, sponsored the group.

"These guys do such a good job but only get to see the sharks from the mountains," said Lawrence.

Alison Kock, a shark re-searcher with the Save our Seas Foundation, said they were grateful to Lawrence for sponsoring the trip as the experience had lifted the shark spotters' spirits.

"Getting to see sharks in their natural environment, up closer than they ever have before, can teach them more in a few hours than years of studying sharks from books or films," said Kock.

Also in the shark spotter group are four women.

Ethel Thsandu said that, as a shark spotter, she had learned how to connect with nature.

"You get to learn about nature, how to become connected to nature," she said.

The other women said the best part of their job was meeting tourists from all over the world.

Shark Spotters

I have blogged before about the shark spotters and what a good job they do, sitting on the mountainside with binoculars and a radio, and monitor shark activity around the surf zone.

Today we are making their dream a reality, by taking these guys on our boat to have a look at the sharks "up close and personal"

Alison, from Save our Seas, said they are very excited and cant wait for this afternoon. We are giving them each a beanie to keep their head warm as its darn cold, and are looking into jackets for them as well,(just trying to muster up some sponsorship).

Let you know how it goes.

Can an old dog learn new tricks

So I have been promising you pics of whats been happening on the recent film shoots.

Rob bought a new computer for his footage and it has an editing program for raw footage and its bloody complicated to use.

Also with the added burden of getting all the filing ready for VAT month, trying to sort out PAYE and about 75 emails a day and to top it of its school holiday's, it doesn't leave much time to do anything else.

But, I will persevere and hope to have a few pics by this afternoon.

I love working with Great Whites. I love everything about them.

Here is a pic taken yesterday.

Notes from a recent filmshoot by Rob Jennings

We recently finished a 6 day shoot with Gurney Productions, filming for Discovery Channel.

One of the presenters who spent two days with us was Les Shroud from Survivor man. He was presenting a show about The most dangerous Great White Shark spots around the World.

The other presenter was Charles.( see pic below of us),a Special Forces Marine. His show was on the different feeding behaviors of the Great Whites around the world.
I was hoping that Charles would give us a grunt ( who-ha) and a marching song, as they do in those Hollywood movies…….but alas...... maybe another time.



Most days where pretty standard.....towing decoys, cage in the water and for the film crew.... chumming to bring the sharks up from the deep.

On one of the days it turned interesting when we had to use squid, kelp and a whole tuna to see which the sharks preferred.
To our disbelief the kelp was the first to be taken and eaten in a frenzy of tail thrashing, proving that the Great White goes for anything that resembles a seal in form shape.

The presenters were relaxed and enjoyable to work with, even though there was a lot of going over the lines again and again.
Once in the cage it was a different story, things were not so relaxed on one trip when visibility being poor and the sharks of about 4.5 m swimming around they were a little skittish and did not stay in the water long.

The weather over the period was outstanding for it being winter and the crew were content with their stock of film, making the six day shoot a success.

A great shark dive

Rob and the crew,

I cannot thank you enough for the dive this morning. I am so thrilled with every bit of how it went, all of the photographs that I was able to get, and even some great video! I wanted to share the photos and video with you - nowhere near as incredible as Rob's and Chris's, but some good shots all the same.

I will remember the dive forever, and can now cross it off my "MUST DO" list. That said, I'm sure that I need to do this a few more times, so I'll be back at some point. Thanks for making a long time dream come true.

photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanders5

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnckIjmkvuU

Jenna Sanders, RN, BSN

testing post

this is a test blog

Breaching Great White Shark of False Bay

Pic taken by Rob Lawrence

Watch out for those chairs......

New Website

Last year I wanted to "refresh" our website, and stay in touch with the latest trends.
Our web hosts WSI have now completely revamped our website, and I think it looks really great.

Bookings were really slow in January and I was hoping that this would not be a trend for our shark season. Now over the last two weeks, we have received a lot of bookings, especially for June and July, so if you are planning on joining us, please book sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment.

Please feel free to visit our website and comment on the "new look".

Volunteer post available

Dear Ultimate Animal lovers,

Each year Rob and I host one to join us as a crew member for our shark season.
Normally this is a marine biology student who needs practical training experience, or someone who is passionate about sharks and the ocean, and wants to volunteer their time.
Boating experience is essential, and they must be a confident and comfortable interacting with tourists on a daily basis.
They must also be available for about 5 months and financially self sufficient.
Should you wish to apply, please feel free to send us your CV.
We look forward to hearing from you!

Rob and Karen Lawrence
www.ultimate-animals.com

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.