I’m starting to realise how an addiction is triggered. Two weeks ago I did a pelagic trip with Animal Ocean, and whilst the trip was technically a success with some reasonable photos obtained, I still felt cheated of the overall experience after suffering from sea-sickness the whole time. Four days later and following a visit to the pharmacist for some anti sea-sick tabs, I went back out with some fishing buddies on a tuna boat. This time I was fine, and the water was the “blue-est” I have ever seen, but apart from one tuna quickly caught by the crew there were no pelagic critters keen to play. I was now more than ever determined to get back out.
A week later I was called by dive charter skipper Grant Whitford and asked if I would go along for his inaugural charter to the deep. Would I like to go? Does Barbie have a plastic fanny??? Then next weather window fell on Sunday and it was all systems go.
The ride out was fairly rough and it took us three hours from Hout Bay out to the tuna grounds. Apart from myself, on board were photographers Andrew Taylor and Mark Van Coller (wetpixel member MJvC), as well as some regular Blueflash clients, Adriaan Johnson, Jenny Jay and Peter Gordon. After trolling for about two hours without finding the tuna, we decided to start chumming for sharks. Immediately the sea birds staring diving for the sardines and Mark and I slipped into the water to try and photograph the birds. Mark shouted that there was already a small blue shark on the bait and everyone else jumped in.
The current was fairly strong and Grant threw a safety line out the back. Mark found that bobbing around in the water looking through his viewfinder and turning all the time to watch the sharks made him fairly sea-sick and he sat out for a while.
I stayed in for the next hour and a half and by the time I climbed out there were seven blues and a mako under the boat. This was the most amazing shark interaction I have ever had, but the day was not without a lesson learnt.
Following several pelagic trips I have become fairly complacent about the blues, and have always been more concerned about the behaviour of the makos. On this trip the mako was very shy and stayed away from the divers. The blues were not aggressive, but were also very bold and would swim right up to the divers and nibble on anything shiny, including dome ports, weightbelt buckles as well as recharging flashes. While there were lots of divers in the water and just a few blues thing were fine. But as more blues arrived and more divers left the water then the situation started to change.
Eventually I looked up and noticed that only Andrew and I were left in the water and there were seven blues and a mako swimming about. Andrew swam up to me and exclaimed, “…these blue sharks are getting a bit bolshie!” Earlier in the dive if you pushed a blue away it would swim off and take a few minutes to return. Now every push resulted in a quick turn and straight back at you. Three blues approached me, with one grabbing a fin, one nibbling the flash and the other investigating my pale white un-gloved hand. I decided that it was way past time to leave and made my way to the boat, with four blues following right on my fin tips.
I don’t want to over dramatise the situation and don’t believe that we were in any serious danger at that point, but it became clear just how quickly the situation can change. In hindsight we should have left the water earlier, or at least each have had a diver to watch our backs.
All in all an incredible day out, and I got my “fix”. Enjoy the pics, I certainly enjoyed taking them…
Lots more pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jtresfon/sets...57623211681973/
Regards
Jean
damn i would use skin sample from these !
