Shark Chronicles 046 - Good bye summer

As summer draws to an end and winter sets in, we believe big sharks to be coming into the area. The movement of sharks has already been observed, as we have not found many sharks in our old hotspot. Sharks have begun to be found around Seal Island again, which is typical of winter behavior. Juvenile seals are beginning to take to the water on their own to forage and their naivety and inexperience makes them an easy target for the sharks. This results in a lot of activity around the island. This behavior is beginning to be observed during the seal surveys, with much more data sheets being used.

The white sharks were illusive during the early part of the week but returned along with the arrival yesterday of a German film crew. Our chumming efforts were rewarded yesterday by attracting 10 sharks and today with 6 in the morning and 11 in the afternoon.

In the last couple of weeks we improved the appearance of the aquarium, giving it a funky make-over. Colorful posters were made, a new coat of paint was given and the shop expanded. As well, additional lighting and improving the oxygenation of the benthic tank has made a significant difference to the look and feel of the aquarium which has seen an increase in visitors as we approach the Easter holiday.

Coming with a new look are a few extra sharks and fish. A few interns went diving this week to collect new inhabitants for the aquarium, and would like to give a big thanks to Adventure Edge who gave their time and equipment for the collection of the sharks. With the new sharks a surprise came when the large pajama-jacket shark laid 2 egg sacks in the benthic tank. These eggs are now positioned in the back display, and everyone here at OCEANS is excited for the sharks to hatch.

A new octopus was also caught to keep the resident octopus company. At first this resulted in a fight-off, but now they’ve gotten used to each other, they respect each others space. We thought we had a handful with the first octopus’ cunning escape plans, rearrangement of the tank and doing ninja-moves at the sharks, two octopus will probably mean double trouble.

Dorien, Gill and Chris – Oceans interns