Guest comment: “Loved the trip and especially glad we are supporting research and conservation!” – Preeth, Sauragh, Hiland + Frank
“Very professional, knowledgable staff and good trip!” – Mel + Viv
“A once-in-a-lifetime experience! Truly amazing!” – Priest Family
16/03/2017
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 13.9’C + 14.6’C
Depth: 10.2m + 9.8m
Visibility: 1.0m + 0.5m
Number of Sharks: 4 + 5
Conditions: Clear skies with light winds from the west and little swell.
The conditions had changed for the better since yesterday with the swell and wind decreasing and bright clear skies from the get go with our first trip launching early in the beautiful weather. The sharks had other ideas this morning with a 2 hour wait for the first shark to arrive. The patience is always much appreciated on these trips and it was worth the wait with the large male known as “Tiger” appearing and making some nice passes by impressing all on board. He soon left and the rest of the trip was dominated by the juveniles including yet again “Dolphin Fin” the little White shark we have known since 2015 when a tissue sample was taken for behavioural, genetic and toxicology studies.
The guests on the second trip of the day spotted a shark almost immediately after we arrived back on anchor as a juvenile cruised up behind us, this was “Dolphin Fin” back for a visit this afternoon. This little juvenile was around for much of the start of the trip and the end but disappeared for a little while, possibly because of the arrival of some larger sharks. These larger sharks including the male with the flopped over dorsal fin tip we have been seeing every few days recently and a new comer to the boats for this month which happened to be the most active of the trip, coming out of the depths at quick speeds with multiple breaches. This shark was very fast and made identification hard, however we knew it was female, approximately 3.5m in length and had some scarring on the right side under the dorsal fin. On closer examination of the fin identification photographs it was discovered it was none other than “Paisley” a female that was tagged by Dyer Island Conservation Trust on the 1st of December 2016 and was last seen in the area January of this year. Welcome back “Paisley”! We also had a very friendly Cape Fur seal around the boat this afternoon which seemed to take a liking to the divers in the cage, making close passes, however “Paisley” appeared to take a liking to this seal and made a predation attempt that was unsuccessful much to the delight of our guests on board!
An interesting and exciting day out on board Slashfin.
