Frank Heinen's Volunteer Stories

A great day on the Atlantic today. A very calm sea and literally loads of spectacular shark action. We moved from Dyer Island and Geldsteen Reef down into the shallows near Joubert’s Dam for the first time this winter. And it definitely paid off. During the morning trip seven different sharks were spotted near the boat and most of them stayed around for quite a while, inquisitively checking out the bait. A small male especially showed off his feisty nature and went for the bait vigorously quite a few times. This shark, together wit a big, 3 meter plus female, showed great interest in the treats that were offered to them. Both sharks returned to the boat during the second trip of the day, a trip that will probably not easy be forgotten by everyone who was on board on this very special afternoon. The star of the day was a huge and bulky 3.3 meter female, quite easily recognizable because of the white spot on the tip of her nose and some old scars on the back of her head. This shark really gave away a formidable show! Multiple bait attempts and a couple of (3-4) spectacular breaches really awed the clients, volunteers and crew members on the boat. And to put the icing on the natural cake she also took the bait twice, forcing Mandla to loosen his grip in order to avoid an involuntary skinny-dip in the quite cool (12 degrees) waters of the South-African Atlantic. Quite obviously everyone returned to Kleinbaai harbor with a feeling of true satisfaction, a bag full of memories and a lot of hardy stories to tell back home.

2 september 2010

The shark action has really gotten into gear the past couple of days and today was no exception. The feisty, breeching female from 2 days ago showed herself again and went for the bait in spectacular fashion several times again. Besides her, we saw seven more magnificent great whites during the morning, some of them very inquisitive and lively around the boat. The sharks during the afternoon trip were a little calmer, but most of them stayed around for quite a while. At times there were literally to or three sharks circling the boat, often crossing inches apart from each other. It’s always interesting to see that the smaller shark mostly backs away when a bigger shark enriches the crew and clients with its awesome presence. After a decent august month, that was however troubled by a few nasty storms, September certainly got off to a great start.

Shark activity 5 September 2010

Another great day at the office. It took a while for the sharks to turn up during our morning trip, but eventually some very inquisitive and active sharks appeared, really delivering the stuff right in front of the cage. Especially the kids on board of the Shark Team had the time of their life, seeing the apex predator of the South
African seas in action from up close. The sea was nice and calm, unlike yesterday when the sea was choppy and the ride out to Joubert’s Dam quite bumpy. We had no clients in the afternoon, but still went out for a volunteer exclusive. And what a trip it turned out to be. Seven sharks visited the cage, amongst them two, three meter plus females. What an awesome experience to look such formidable creatures straight in the eye. One shark even decided to check out my side of the cage, giving the cage a gentle bite a couple of inches away from my hands. Multiple bait attempts even further enhanced the experience. There was so much going on that there was literally virtually no time to come up for a breath of air. The by now familiar words ‘down’, ‘down left’, ‘down right’ and ‘stay down’ kept echoing around the boat. Generally, the shark action seems to be very good around Joubert’s Dam at the moment. A promising foresight for the upcoming day and the rest of the month.