Shark Chronicles 083 - A strange new month

The month of October started off with a lot of big changes, switching from 12 interns to 4 in the house. Things have quieted down a bit but there is still a lot of work being done. October 1st was a day of mixed emotions, with excitement for the new interns and some sadness for the ones that were leaving.

For the new interns orientation took place on Monday 4th October where they got to grips with the work that is expected of them at Oceans as well as familiarizing themselves with Mossel Bay.

The working week started with the upsetting news of a beached hump back whale at the Kleinbrak river mouth. However, the invaluable data that can be collected from these beachings means that samples must be taken and measurements recorded in order to determine reasons behind the stranding. The hump back whale was in excess of 15 meters in length and looked to have been dead for 2-3 days by the time the Oceans team examined it. The whale has subsequently been disposed of by the authorities.

During the week there has been a distinct lack of white sharks sighted within Mossel Bay. Chum trips went ahead as normal, however not one white shark has been spotted by the Oceans team. A potential reason is the weather which Mossel Bay has been experiencing over the past week. The sea conditions have been less than ideal, with large swells coming in from the open ocean. Whether this means the sharks have moved to deeper water in order to avoid these conditions will have to be looked into in the coming weeks.


Whilst there was a distinct lack of white sharks, to everyone’s surprise here at Oceans the starry smooth-hound, which is exhibited in the Shark Lab, gave birth to two pups. This was exciting times for everyone who is involved with Oceans Research, especially Adam Johnstone who is the lead scientist at the Shark Lab. The two pups were closely monitored for the first week of their lives and were eventually released into the bay on Friday 8th October……..Very cool!

This week also saw a visitor to Mossel Bay. Kyle McHugh came down from Pretoria university in order to expand his ideas for potential PhD projects. Kyle worked closely with Enrico Gennari and made some good progress in solidifying his project area. Kyle is planning on studying the effects of catch and release on sharks’ stress levels.

Anticipation is high for the coming weeks with plans for the tracking of white sharks to commence. Everyone at Oceans Research is looking forward to this, as it gives a much greater understanding into the movements and hunting tendencies of the white sharks here in Mossel Bay.

Michael Reynolds – Mossel Bay Oceans Research intern

Shark Chronicles 072 - Stranding season continues

It seems to be a season of many strandings. On Wednesday this week a humpback whale was reported to us by Neels Dreyer to be stuck in shallows of the harbour in front of the fishing factories. The NDP team and John Paterson (Albatross Task Force) responded promptly and got on site to find several divers from Walvis Bay diving already in the water trying to guide the animal out to sea. After a little discussion with the TunaCor security officers to assure them we were there on legit business, John, Gwen Penry and I got our wetsuits on hopped in the water with the divers to help with the rescue attempt.

The whale was clearly unwell, covered in cyamids (whale lice), had a broken dorsal fin (probably from hitting into the jetty, it definitely wasn't a propeller cut) and was clearly disoriented, swimming at an angle, holding its head up and only going in circles. With much pushing we occasionally got the animal out of the shallows but it kept turning back to come lie on its belly. We attempted to the tow/guide the whale out of the shallows with help from the Walvis Bay diving boat, but although it got out a little way, it again came back.

The WBD boat had to leave but we got in two more boats from Mola Mola Tours and Henning DuPlessis (a local oyster farmer). These larger boats were more successful at pulling the whale further out of the jetty area, and eventually managed to get it past the moored ships. With some great driving by Rudi Hass and Eddie of Mola Mola and Henning - they managed to keep the whale from turning back to the shallows and guided her out in the deeper central bay area (last photo).

Once in the deeper water the whale paused to reoriented it self and seemed to wake up and head off strongly northwards. We were all hopeful that it was going to make it but unfortunately, on Thursday, the whale was reported re-stranded on the west side of the bay near the pump station.

The decision was taken at this point to let nature take it's course. Strandings are sad, but natural events and you can only perform so many rescue attempts (which are quite stressful for the whale) before admitting defeat.

I've put in some photos below, most taken by Lucille Chapuis, (one of our July interns) of the rescue operation in the harbour.

A big thankyou to Walvis Bay Diving, Mola Mola tours, Henning du Plessis and Tunacor for their help.