Shark Chronicles 082 - A Day At The Breach

As we boarded Cheetah, we immediately fell into our “pre-chumming” routine. After two months together at Oceans-Research in Mossel Bay, we had become a close-knit group and by now had become very efficient at all of our boat duties. For most of us, it was our last day in Mossel Bay which also meant it was sadly our last “chum” trip. We all hoped that our last “chum” trip would be epic and all signs were looking good as the weather that day was fantastic—a light breeze from the South, partly cloud but still warm. However, we knew not to expect too much as it had been slow the past few days and even on the morning “chum” trip earlier that day. After two months at Oceans-Research in Mossel Bay, we had learned that sharks are both predictable and unpredictable.

Upon reaching Seal Island, we swiftly anchored in sector two, the area around the island most prone to predations and breaches. Then we began to “chum”—spoon after spoon of sardine oil and fish product went overboard but after an hour, “no sharks”. Someone then mentioned that it was highly unlikely that we would see sharks that day and that the sharks had probably moved across the bay towards Grootbrak. As if the sharks had heard us, they began to attack our bait rope with reckless abandon. Another case of “Murphy’s Law”—which states that when something is least likely to happen, that when is surely happens.

For the rest of the “chum trip” sharks breached, half-breached and ambushed our bait rope. In two months, none of us had seen such a display and the sharks seem more aggressive than normal. It was a great last day.

Too make things even better, on the return to port we saw not one but two natural predations. We had just pulled up the anchor and begun to head home for the last time when we saw intense splashing ten meters away. Almost simultaneously in the background, we saw another seal porpoise out of the water with fear in its eyes. Within a few minutes the action had subsided but our hearts were still racing and everyone had smiles on their faces.

It was a day that began with little promise but huge expectation and the sharks didn’t let us down. It was a day that surely everyone on board will remember for a long time to come. The double natural predation was something that most of us will probably never see again. As the sun slowly set behind us, we listened to the words “port control, port control, this is Cheetah, Cheetah, Cheetah, requesting permission to enter port” for the last time. Our day had ended but our adventure and memories will stay with us forever.

Robert Conrad – Mossel Bay Oceans Research intern

Shark Chronicles 076 - A brand new first month

As our ten-person car stuttered along the beautiful coastline of Mossel bay towards the Ocean’s Office & House, feelings of excitement and nervousness began to set in.

The first day or two seemed like a blur. On the first full day we woke up at seven, had orientation, socialized, and then explored the facets of our new research environment. By the third day, most of us had gotten the hang of things and it felt like we had become seasoned veterans---although maybe these sentiments were due to the fact that we hadn’t slept much.

For about half of us, our first chum trip provided such spectacular events that five hours on a rocky boat went by as if it were fifteen minutes. Almost immediately upon our arrival to Seal Island, a wounded seal greeted our boat, eliciting queasy stomachs, and a feeling that we might be in over our heads. Ten minutes later the wounded seal was gone. What the sharks didn’t finish off, the seagulls slowly and surely did. Although we were initially inclined to stare at the remnants of the injured seal, it was time to start the real work---chumming, data taking, photography, and probably the coolest, bait roping. Great White Sharks were even more magnificent in the water than they had been in any pictures that we had seen. We felt both amazement and utter respect for the sleek, agile and fast animals. Just when it seemed like the chum trip couldn’t get any better; we heard a loud splash on the port side of the Cheetah. It was predation. No one except for Dylan was prepared for what we saw next. While half of us cheered for the shark, the other half prayed that the baby seal would get safely back to the island. After a minute or two, the outcome was clear as the water turned blood red and the splashing ceased almost as quickly as it had occurred.

By the end of the week, everyone was more than ready to have a few days off. After all, a twenty-four hour seal survey will take its toll on anyone---except for our resident Italian, Michele, who managed to stay awake for over a day. From sitting on the Cheetah and listening for seals coming and going in sector two, to watching from a “snipers nest” at the top of the Diaz Strand hotel, seal survey definitely required patience.

While the seal survey was an exciting experience, at the very least it was also a long, arduous, and uncomfortable one for some. The seal survey from the boat was broken up into shifts, and ours was the night shift. Just when we had succumbed to sleep after the previous day’s duties, we were awoken in order to board the boat. It was a beautiful cool and crisp night, a stark contrast to the previous blizzard-cold nights previous groups had endured. Those that were on-shift utilized any night-vision senses they were equipped with in order to listen and spy fur seals coming and going from Seal Island. While the Cheetah boat was an excellent vessel for chumming, it did not have the best sleeping accommodations. Many of us played musical chairs in the attempt to find good sleeping positions. The cubby, in the steering wheel compartment of the boat, seemed to be the warmest and most comfortable area of all. Half of the boat seemed to be rooting for a breach; the other half hoped that all seals would make it through their journeys unscathed. Although a breach would be an exciting event, for this half the seal’s safety was more valued.

And to top off the week, everyone also managed to have a little social time. Despite thinking that going out would be a leisurely event, it soon became clear that going to Carouse, the only and best nightclub in Mossel Bay, required dance skills and a lot of energy. Dylan impressed even the locals with his excellent and exotic dance moves!

Overall, the first week at Ocean’s was excellent. It started out with a little apprehension but after seven days in the intern house, everyone seemed like family. The excitement of doing groundbreaking research and the experience of seamanship culminated in making the first week a very memorable one.

Robert, Katie and Brittany - Mossel Bay Oceans Research interns

Shark Chronicles 036 - A very busy week

The main focuses this week were the arrivals of new interns and sorting out a new home for our adopted green turtle, now nicknamed Crush (like the Turtle in Finding Nemo).

The question to which aquarium would be better suited to Crush’s needs was somewhat abandoned when the animal still hadn’t eaten by the second weekend and showed no signs whatsoever of recovery. To the turtle’s luck, SAMPLA director Enrico, against others’ opinions, never lost faith and a detour was worked into an airport trip for one of the leaving SAMPLA interns, and early Monday morning, Crush embarked on the long journey to Port Elizabeth’s Bayworld aquarium.

Bayworld was the perfect place for the young thing as Dylan, who works in what could be called the ‘recovery unit’ of the facility, had been successfully nursing another green turtle with the exact same condition, and was looking forward to releasing her. This was great news for Crush to have experienced people at his bedside caring for him (or her, too young to be determined). It was explained that with quick thermocline changes, bacteria in the digestive system can become overactive and create an air bubble within the shell, debilitating animals to dive, or feed, and naturally they would not recover in the wild.

It is doing well now, and looking forward to a speedy recovery.

Thanks Freyja and Naomi…

The rest of the week was a jam-packed week for the SAMPLA interns. In fact two new interns, Amy and Riley, were fast welcomed into the house with chumming trips, a twenty-four hour seal survey, aquarium maintenance, a Halloween fundraiser, and a weekend of filming for a documentary.

Seal survey started off with the appearance of Big Rosie, a shark that is easily 4.5 meters if not longer. Throughout the night the interns counted incoming and outgoing seals, and were all mesmerized by the beauty of the bioluminescent trails left in the water as the seals swam past the boat. Some were even lucky enough to spot the shape of a shark lit up by this same bioluminescence. A couple of hours after the sun rose over the horizon, the interns began taking shifts watching the seals from the top balcony of the Dias Hotel. In the span of a few hours, interns witnessed three predation attempts, including one successful predation. The seal survey finished in time for the interns to organize matching “Team Zissou” costumes and head to the Halloween fundraiser, benefiting the Mossel Bay Shark and Ray Aquarium.

Saturday and Sunday morning five of the interns woke up early to help out with the History Channel documentary film shoot. While the days were long, it was exciting for everyone involved. Many members of the film crew had never seen great white sharks before, so you can imagine their reaction when they witnessed a successful predation within forty meters of the boat. A pod of common dolphins and two southern right whales showed up, but the great whites were always the biggest stars with multiple shark breaches throughout the first day of filming and a second predation close to Cheetah on Sunday. Two of the SAMPLA interns, Beverly and Fabrice, managed to catch this second predation on video and in photographs. The documentary will be aired in March of 2009 on the History Channel in the United States and everyone is very eager to see which SAMPLA cameos make the final cut.

Elisabeth and Freyja – SAMPLA interns

Shark Chronicles 027 – The “Cheetah” runs again

After being out of action due to engine problems, there was news that Cheetah (the other SAMPLA boat) was finally repaired and ready to hit the water again. This was the icing on the cake (following the return of Stephan), for the five newly arrived interns who had been eagerly awaiting their virgin trip on the more ‘luxurious’ of SAMPLA’s two boats. One-week old interns, Simone, Victoria and Beverly, together with Stef undertook the task of getting Cheetah clean and shiny for her re-launch. After some hard scrubbing and hose-spraying, Cheetah was good to go and the three lucky interns clambered aboard the vessel and experienced their first boat launch, as Cheetah was safely lowered into the harbour ready for duty.

The return of Cheetah was followed by “sharkiness” in abundance. It appeared the effects of last week’s storm had died down and the sharks were back in numbers to the bay. The morning’s chumming trip was a big success, with a tally of nine different sharks including a 4.5 metre mother of a shark, which was suspected to be a previously tagged shark known as “Big mama” (the star of Sharkville). In addition, the crew onboard were fortunate to witness a post-dawn predation event on a not so fortunate seal. Two breaches and some violent thrashing by the shark, followed by a pool of blood, just 50 metres off the stern of the boat, indicated that the predation had been a success.

Beverly and Alessandro (SAMPLA interns)

Shark Chronicles 025 - Night Time Hunting

For one of the first times since “Sharkville” was released, SAMPLA crew members were able to witness a night time predation of a white shark on a seal near Seal Island. The predation was observed during a twenty four hour seal survey taking place on August 14 through 15, 2008. SAMPLA crew members aboard the vessel Cheetah began the survey at approximately 6pm. After anchoring, Christine, Ryan, Adam, Amy, Viola, and Ed began the night by placing a seal decoy in the water in hopes that a shark would breach while the crew waited patiently for seals to begin moving from the island. As the SAMPLA team waited, a group of approximately 6 seals began to move quickly toward the boat just before sunset. A few meters from the boat, the group of seals suddenly split and began to porpoise high out of the water. Intently watching with hopes of a shark predation, we were pleased to see a white shark breach on one of the smaller juvenile seals in the group. The predation was unsuccessful in killing the seal, which then quickly swam back to the safety of the island. Minutes later, the sun set behind the hills and it became true night.

The overcast sky hid the moon, but seal movements were still able to be seen with the help of night vision binoculars and the lights of Mossel Bay. For the first few hours many seals were seen moving to and from the island, but no other shark predations were observed. Suddenly at approximately 10:30pm, a large splash was heard a few hundred meters from the boat. Ryan spotted the splash and the SAMPLA crew watched anxiously to see if it was what they had been waiting for, a white shark night predation. The darkness made it hard to see what animal had in fact made the splash, but it was evident that a chase was occurring between predator and prey. The chase continued for a minute or so, and visual clues pointed to a white shark predation on a seal. Abruptly the shark appeared to grab hold of the prey and violent thrashing began at the surface of the water. In the darkness the SAMPLA crew was unable to see if the predation was successful or not, but splashing subsided soon after the predation.

Witnessing a night predation of a white shark on a Cape Fur Seal in Mossel Bay is a unique and amazing experience. Those who were aboard Cheetah during the third 24-hour seal survey were lucky enough to see this phenomenon in person! Observing the unique night time predatory behavior of white sharks in Mossel Bay was a thrilling experience for all the SAMPLA members on board Cheetah that night.-

Christine Moore (SAMPLA intern)

Shark Chronicles 022 - A hunting Great White Shark

One of the most magnificent sights to witness in the natural world is a great white shark breeching on and successfully killing a seal. Successful predations by white sharks are not as common as you might imagine, so it is quite a treat to be able to watch the entire event unravel in person. We were lucky enough to see one of these acts of predation on August 6th whilst chumming off the southeastern side of Seal Island.

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We had departed the harbor before sunrise and were at anchor as the sun was peaking up on a rare overcast day in Mossel Bay. Whilst in the midst of setting up for regular chumming business, Ryan shouted that he had just witnessed an attempted predation. We all froze and glued our eyes to the spot being pointed out, but apart from James and Ryan, we had missed everything but the splash. After watching for a minute or two, we saw another attempt by the shark on the same seal. At this point, we quickly hoisted anchor and sped towards the action to go find out what was happening. As we approached the area, we saw a dorsal fin circling the remains of a seal that was missing its head and the hind part of its body. Intestines were spilling out of the seals butchered body and the head seemed to have been severed clean off. Then we saw the shark, and it was massive. It wasn’t just that the shark was almost four meters long; it was the girth of the shark that really surprised us.

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We drifted up to the carcass and watched for a few minutes as the giant circled its prey and were surprised when we recognized a second, smaller, shark circling the carcass along with the first one. After about ten minutes of the sharks making close passes to the carcass without touching it, the smaller shark came up and grabbed what was left of the seal in its mouth. It, then dove with the seal carcass and didn’t appear again. We tried to tempt the larger shark back to the surface, but it would not show itself again. Disappointed, but still excited about what we had seen, we returned to the island and resumed our chumming for the day. Needless to say, we will all remember the sight of those two sharks circling the headless body of that seal.

Justin Silbernagel (SAMPLA intern)