Marine Dynamics Blog

This afternoons trip picked up where the first left off ‘Bent Fin’ and ‘Notchy’ circling the cage as we arrived. Very, very big sharks on the trip and we saw at least 12 of them including ‘Sharkius Maximus’ ‘Big Nemo’ among others. It was a lovely group of guests on Slashfin today too, plenty of families on board and Margaret Holden who came aboard at the grand age of 89! We’re honoured to have you all with us and it was great to be able to share fantastic shark sightings with you.

Another excellent start to the trip courtesy of ‘Woundy’ I first saw this shark over 3 years ago with a large and freshly opened wound on her keel between the 2^nd dorsal fin and tail in Mossel Bay, I joined Marine Dynamics later that year and low and behold here ‘Woundy’ was here in Gansbaai too. Three years on she is now massive, comfortably over 4 meters and still has her feisty temperament. After she left it was quite for a time before more and more sharks started to appear. One was very large – even bigger than ‘Woundy’ and ‘Bent Fin’ who’s around 4 meters. It’s such a privilege to work with these animals on a daily basis but it’s always special to see the big ones!

The only worry with today’s trip was that the algal bloom which has been prominent in the bay may affect our visibility. Sea conditions were perfect with a slight breeze and no swell, unfortunately the bloom however remained and visibility was reduced. This had little to no effect on our trip as within five minuets the now giant ‘Woundy’ appeared. We’ve been seeing this shark since 2007 when she was less than 3 meters in length and have continued to be visted on and off for the past 5 years. She is now over 4 meters in length and completely dominated the first half of our trip. Rubbing alongside the cage as she passed and giving every person who entered the cage a jaw dropping, breathtaking experience. By the end of the trip many other sharks had arrived and we sighted at least 8 or 9 – possibly more. Fantastic stuff! Thank you very much to Paul Hubert of Paul Hubert Ltd (UK & Ireland) for adopting 2 white sharks, they will be tagged later this year.

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A really great trip today with the sharks arriving very promptly on the scene! Our visibility was still hampered by the large planktonic blooms in the area, however the sharks new exactly what to do! They were coming very close to the cage and to not see them was impossible! We had two sharks over the 4 meter mark which was a great treat for everyone on board including myself! After all of the amazing shark activity in the water we were greeted by a large pod of bottlenose dolphin on our way back from Dyer Island! A brilliant way to end off our day! There is just so much life in this area, it is very important to keep a sharp eye out at all times! At all times...