So far I have only been here for six days and it has been an absolutely life changing experience for me.
The second day I got here, I had an absolutely amazing day! We started the day at 4 am doing Seal Survey with Dorien. Yulia and I took the first shift from 4-6am talking the whole entire time and loving the bioluminescence that surrounded the seals as they swam in the water. Around 5am we saw this Cape fur seal that was staying very close to the boat and was staring at us for a while until it started flipping vertically in the water column. We had absolutely no clue what it was doing and thought it was adorable until I looked closer to the boat and saw a white shark about 4 meters long, lit up by the bioluminescence in the water, and noticed it was circling the seal. I was in amazement! I could not believe I was witnessing this happening!!! Finally the white shark gave up and swam away but that is one experience that I will never forget for the rest of my life!
Later on that day around 9am when everyone was exhausted from the day, we had a white shark breech so close to the boat that you could reach out and touch it! Everyone started screaming in excitement! When everyone had calmed down after that breech and we were wrapping up the day by finishing weather data, when another shark breeched so close to the boat; for a second I thought it was going to come into the boat! It was absolutely amazing to see a creature that massive jumping out of the water completely.
I will never forget that first seal survey trip and I still went chumming later on that day (during which we saw 14 sharks)!
I am in love with Oceans Research and Mossel Bay. I don't think I'm going to go on the plane ride home.
The second day I got here, I had an absolutely amazing day! We started the day at 4 am doing Seal Survey with Dorien. Yulia and I took the first shift from 4-6am talking the whole entire time and loving the bioluminescence that surrounded the seals as they swam in the water. Around 5am we saw this Cape fur seal that was staying very close to the boat and was staring at us for a while until it started flipping vertically in the water column. We had absolutely no clue what it was doing and thought it was adorable until I looked closer to the boat and saw a white shark about 4 meters long, lit up by the bioluminescence in the water, and noticed it was circling the seal. I was in amazement! I could not believe I was witnessing this happening!!! Finally the white shark gave up and swam away but that is one experience that I will never forget for the rest of my life!
Later on that day around 9am when everyone was exhausted from the day, we had a white shark breech so close to the boat that you could reach out and touch it! Everyone started screaming in excitement! When everyone had calmed down after that breech and we were wrapping up the day by finishing weather data, when another shark breeched so close to the boat; for a second I thought it was going to come into the boat! It was absolutely amazing to see a creature that massive jumping out of the water completely.
I will never forget that first seal survey trip and I still went chumming later on that day (during which we saw 14 sharks)!
I am in love with Oceans Research and Mossel Bay. I don't think I'm going to go on the plane ride home.
Sam Hagen - Mossel bay Oceans Research intern
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