Guest comment: “Great staff and a fantastic idea to tie in with conservation. Kepp up the good work and thank you for helping me tick off a bucket list and boyhood dream!” – Will
“What an amazing experience! We loved it and thought the people were great. Thank you so much!” – Christian + Gill
“It was an amazing experience that I really enjoyed. Thank you!” – Paula
25/01/2017
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 15.0’C + 15.9’C + 16.0’C
Depth: 12.2m + 13.0m + 12.9m
Visibility: 0-0.5m
Number of Sharks: 8 + 6 + 3
Conditions: Swell but little wind and clearing skies.
Trip 1
The skies and rain cleared just as we were launching with a beautiful sunset coming up over the bay as we made our way out of the harbour and into the Shallows to be the first boat on anchor. The sharks appeared about half an hour after we did with a very large male making a surprise appearance on the decoy and disappearing into the depths only to reappear every few minutes. Not too long after this first shark another male appeared, one we have nicknamed “Tum K”, and who was sighted in the bay a few weeks ago for the first time since our Winter season last year. This trip really was about the sharks that we are aquainted with in the bay with not only “Tum K” visiting this morning but also “Mini Nemo” the male with the stunted right pectoral fin, “Sellendilloh” the male that has had a satellite attached to his dorsal fin for the last 5 years and of which you can find more information on and his tracking data on this website here. Not to be ignored we had two of our smaller known sharks show up towards the end of the trip as “Mini Rosie” came by and “Dolphin Fin” the smallest of the trip, a juvenile male which is part of our biopsy program. We also had a Short-tailed stingray present for much of the second half of the trip.
Trip 2
The second trip of the day started off well with a shark spotted in this distance when we arrived however the first shark to be seen closely was the first, large male from the previous trip that did exactly as he did in the morning which was to cruise around for a little time before disappearing. We didn’t see anymore of our first trip sharks again this trip but had new sharks come up to the boat, many of which were males, including one measuring in at approximately 3.0m and with exhibiting some very active behaviour as he circled around and made some very impressive attempts on the bait and decoy lines. The Short-tailed stingray was yet again a constant sight around the boat this trip.
Trip 3
The shark activity in the bay quitened down this afternoon with our third trip with a long wait for the sharks to arrive and then they proceeded to come and go from the boat with gaps of no activity in between. This is something that we can experience as we do work with wildlife and it is completely unpredictable but we were fortunate enough to see three different White sharks including the small male known as “Dolphin Fin” that was seen earlier on in the day. A big thank you to all that joined us for there patience and understanding.
