After working with the great whites in Kleinbaai for 3.5 weeks this year, I also desperately wanted to do the blue and mako shark dive off Cape Point. Tricky business, because to do this dive and find these pelagic shark species you have to go far offshore and venture into the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore the trip is highly weather dependant. Definitely not a journey for people with weak sea legs! I booked the trip with Apex Shark Expeditions, the company of world-renowned nature photographer and shark expert Chris Fallows. I was relieved when we got the confirmation that the weather was ok and the expedition would actually take place. Chris skippered the boat himself and managed to show us many of the natural wonders that can be found in this part of the world. We saw 7 blue sharks during the day. Although these slender sharks lack the bulk and impressive body size of the robust great whites, they are hardly less interesting. Gracious and extremely curious are the right words to describe these amazing sharks that often come very close to check you out. We also saw two mako sharks, one of them being a baby that was probably only a couple of weeks old. Besides the sharks we saw many beautiful oceanic birds (shy albatross, Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross, Indian yellow-nosed albatross, black-browed albatross, northern giant petrel, yellow-chinned petrel, sooty shearwater, Cape gannet, subantarctic skua and more), southern right whales, a large pod of common dolphins, many fur seals, African penguins and a mola mola. That is one of the great things about Chris and his crew: the main objective is finding sharks, but they don’t forget to show you and inform you about the rest of the wildlife you encounter during the day. So the trips are also very educational, very important if you want people to care about and protect the natural wonders and beauty that this planet still harbors.
Lees ook:Stories, memories and natural wonders
Lees ook:The great white chronicles
Lees ook:Great whites feast on whale carcass in False Bay
Lees ook:Western Australia suspends shark kill order
Lees ook:International fisheries willing to protect some shark species