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

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

Two Great Whites Die in Shark Nets

This article is from Shark Life.
________________________________________
On the 31 August a large sub adult female Great White shark (4.37m) weighing 900kg's was caught in a shark net off Zinkwazi beach on the KZN north coast. She was still alive when the natal sharks board (NSB) team arrived and she was tagged and released. Unfortunately the nets are very effective trapping devices and she was caught in the same nets a day later and died.


Shark nets kill on average 26 Great White Sharks every year.

Then on the 2nd of August a second unfortunate female Great white (3.95m) weighing 722kg was found dead in the shark net culling devices. It was an unusual occurrence to have two large Great whites caught in the nets within such a short space of time. There was no apparent reason for them to be in the area i.e. scavenging on a whale carcass or the like.



the average size of the great whites caught by the NSB is around 2.5m.

Shark Nets Facts:
• Shark nets do not form a barrier
• Shark nets are culling devices
• An average of 600+ sharks are culled each year
• 38 beaches in KZN have shark culling devices
• Shark culling is a destructive method of reducing the risk of shark attack

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.

A day in the Life of a shark crew member

 

Karen thought it would be a great idea to have some of the crew blog about their shark trips. I asked Robert Jennings, our latest crew member to give it a bash. He gave me an apprehensive look that said " What, who me? Oh No!!"

So without further adieu, here is Roberts first blog.

Yesterday we left the harbour in a blanket of fog, cold and dark. With the aid of the GPS we were able to find our way to Seal Island. Navigating through the fog reminded me of the movie “Dead Calm”.

The sea was calm and oily with just the outboards for company. The faster we went the wetter my waterproofs became.
The sun finally came out just after ten burning off the last of the fog around the island.

We had anchored in section 5 of Seal Island, about 50m from the shore. With the sun out and the guests relaxing on the fly bridge we began to lure the Great Whites up from the deep. Within minutes we had a player around the boat, which stayed with us for about an hour and a half. The guests were well pleased taking photos and enjoying their cigars.

At around 12ish, we hauled the cage in, anchored up and we were back on our way to port. Fifty meters from the port we slowed down to view the first three Southern Right whales, of the season. That brought out more cheers from our guests and the final cigars of the day.

The afternoon trip brought us to tears with laughter, as we had a group of IPL supporters who knew nothing about diving or sharks. Most of the time was spent dressing them up in wetsuits, gloves, boots, hoods, masks and weight belts. When finally we got one of the guests into the cage, he said he can not stay in the water because it is too salty!

The day ended well with them seeing two sharks and eating all the sandwiches and snacks. What they could not finish they took with them. That was the first, till next time.