Marine Dynamics Blog

It was a bit chilly going out today and we did have a light drizzle at our dive sight, but all and all it was worth it! Our dive site allowed us to view the sharks and the seals from up close and personal. It is really nice to be able to see how the hunter and his pray behave around each other in such close proximity. The seals are always vigilant and on alert whereas the sharks are always waiting for the opportune moment to strike and we were right smack in the middle of it! We had two satellite tagged sharks arrive on scene today, “Brenda” and “Dorien”. It has been quite a while since we last sighted “Dorien”, nevertheless always nice to see a familiar face. The largest shark today was around the 4 meter mark with heaps of parasite activity around its tail, we’ve been seeing this shark quite regularly over the past few weeks. A great time at sea as per usual! On that note, I did include one photo (nr.3) on how not to take a brilliant shark photo :)...

A very early start to the day! Everyone looked like zombies entering the front door of the white house this morning. Thankfully our restaurant staff cooked up a special pot of coffee, extra strong and everyone felt right as rain again! Whoever said that caffeine was bad for your health :)! My favourite part of an early morning trip is definitely the spectacular sights of the surrounding nature! Our sharks did not keep us waiting very long this morning, however some of the individual sharks were a bit sluggish. On the flip side of the coin we had some very active smaller sharks that were leaping out of the water. There was a shark for all types, the people who preferred the slow passes and for the people who came to see some flying sharks. As our dive was coming to an end today we could clearly see the weather changing in front of our eyes, hence the reason we had an early launch this morning! Hope the weather holds out...

Keep the good weather coming; unfortunately the weather is not as constant as our friends the sharks! I predict that the warm conditions might fluctuate again over the next few days; nonetheless this will not hamper our shark activity I only recommend packing in that extra jacket of yours for the trip! We had two trips today with both trips offering high yields of shark numbers. At times you didn’t know on which shark to focus when you were under water, that’s how abundant they were today. Our first trip had a very international cliental with guests all the way from New Zealand to Lebanon to Holland and Brazil! It just goes to show that everyone has a special place in their heart for sharks, regardless from which background you are! Our second group of guests were a bunch of young lads from the UK on a rugby tour of South Africa! If these guys thought our rugby players were big, they were very surprise to see how big our Great White Sharks could be. We had several sharks that were over the 4 meter mark and 3 different satellite tagged sharks around the boat today. I think these kids have some amazing memories to take home to their friends and family! I’m glad we could help out...

The best weather conditions we have had in ages! Absolutely no wind or swell with some lovely sunshine made for some tremendous shark viewing. We had two shark trips with the first one launching from Gansbaai harbour due to the low tide! We definitely had a lively bunch of teenagers who just loved to scream every time they saw a shark; my ears are still ringing :)! They had an amazing time with some very intense passes by the cage. Our second trip I believe offered the same amount of shark activity with one added bonus, they were flying! We witnessed two full breaches on our seal decoy and a couple of half ones too. On our first trip we were lucky enough to see a predation take place in the distance, no pictures unfortunately! I will try harder next time! All and all it was a tremendous day, can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us...

The sun has come out today in all its splendour, we have had a couple of really cold days and thankfully today was not one of them. We had a tremendous day of shark viewing; at times we had 5 sharks around the cage at once. If anyone didn’t see a shark today they desperately require prescription glasses fast! The sharks were very relaxed and kept giving us tremendous passes; initially we had the same 7 sharks around the cage. Thereafter the flood gates opened and we started to see more and more and more sharks! “Zane”, “Nemo” and possibly “Lumpy” all made an appearance, its great seeing our regulars at old hangouts! We had a small shark arrive at the very end that had a particular interest in our underwater camera and just kept staring at it; I think Clarence got some amazing footage for our clients. Well done to all...

A tremendously successful trip today! We had awesomely active sharks and giant ones too boot! The largest shark was our first one of the day, a massive 4.5 meter female who just kept giving very close passes by the cage. We had two more sharks that were also around the 4 meter margin, the big guns were out and about today! We also had one shark which had a small suckerfish attached to its lower jaw, as you can see on the first picture! After some amazing shark displays we were treated to a final demonstration by a juvenile Humpback Whale. It popped up right in front of the cage to everyone’s amazement and left abruptly thereafter. That was truly the cherry on the cake and a perfect way to end a shark trip! No blue Mondays at Marine Dynamics...