Marine Dynamics Blog

This shark fact blog answers the question, "Do white sharks sleep and how do they do it?" 

It was a great day at sea with little to no waiting time for the sharks to arrive! It is always a great treat if the sharks decide to arrive promptly at ‘work’! The sharks we encountered were for the most part well above the 3 meter mark and very entertaining. As an extra treat we were greeted by a whole family of African (black footed) penguins, they were very close to the boat and then started to move out towards greener pastures. Just to top off an amazing day, we were very fortunate to have encountered a massive pod of bottlenose dolphins on our way back in towards the harbour. What an amazing treat...

We had a very early start to our day this morning, due to the fact that they had predicted a change in weather conditions later in the afternoon. We were one of two boats out on the water and found great conditions in Shark Alley. The sharks were quick to arrive and gave some nice passes for the guys in the cage! It was however a bit difficult for some of the clients to get that perfect out of the water photos due to the glare factor on the surface. The largest shark was around the 4 meter mark and one of the sharks was missing the tip of its fin, it seems to have occurred from a bite. Another successful trip...

Winter is well on it's way and we headed out to Dyer Island in anticipation of seeing large sharks in Shark Alley. We were rewarded with a large and fairly agressive male in the opening half hour of our trip. You could clearly see his well definied claspers, a good indication that he is a mature male. After several quick passes and one or two lunges at the bait he moved on in search of bigger rewards for his curiousity - the seals of Geyser Rock better have been prepared! We next had a more relaxed sub-adult, just over 2.5m in length come to investigate us. We were lucky to have this shark stay with us for the rest of the trip and each of our divers got time in the cage with this young shark. Finally two of the larger sharks of Dyer Island came to visit. Both were around 4 meters and spent a few minuets with us before heading back to Geyser Rock in search of seal prey.

We were blessed with amazing water conditions today and that just made it easier for anyone struggling with ‘motion distress’! Our first shark of the trip was around the 2 meter mark and we gradually worked up to the bigger sharks as the trip progressed. Even the infamous ‘Slash Fin’ made a very brief appearance before bolting of towards the deeper waters. The sharks were coming nice and close to the cage and one of our clients took an amazing underwater picture, congratulations on that one! We also had a sighting of a hagfish in the water, which was a very bizarre looking fish to many people who were not familiar with it! Great day yet again...

It was an action packed Friday morning for us at sea today! I am very happy to report that the sharks are arriving quickly on the scene, just like before! We did not have a huge number of individual sharks; however they remained constant throughout the trip and delivered! Our old friend the subantarctic skua followed us from the harbour to our destination, I just love those birds! The sharks were all similar in size, more or less 3.6 meters. They offered some amazing passes...