Shark Chronicles 055 - A Swiss in SA

There are a lot of things to discover and to learn when you arrive for an internship at Oceans. On Monday we had our first chumming session. We were particularly lucky for this trip: 3 sharks came towards the bait, and we saw 4 predations near to Seal Island. One of the sharks, which was particularly active and dynamic, made jumps here and there to catch the bait. Sometimes the waiting time is quite long, but what a reward when you can see the shark approaching the bait! The Great White Sharks are really impressive animals. The first experience with the ones of Mossel Bay was great and prepared us for some very interesting things to come for the next months.

Seal survey took place on Thursday night. The main task during that exercise consisted of counting the seals who arrived or left the island, in order to analyse the dynamics of the seal populations. Other events like sharks attacks, the presence of other marine animals, as well as the environmental conditions, are also taken into account. This week, the moon was bright and the night was not too dark, so the bioluminescence was not very strong. But despite this fact we could see the movement of the seals which approached the boat, and those movements are amazing and very beautiful to see.

In addition to the learning of all the tasks to do and how to do them, the first week in Mossel Bay allowed us to discover the marine biodiversity of this region, which is spectacular. Within the small area of Mossel Bay sharks, whales, dolphins, seals, and so on can be found. And that is one of the reasons why that region is amazing.

Sylvain Haldimann - Oceans Intern