Despite the title of this blog, little to none of it is about my Halloween celebration this year. That, sadly, is due to the fact that South Africans hardly even recognize the best holiday of the year and rarely dress up for the occasion! Can you believe it?! I couldn’t. BUT I am totally and completely ok with it this year (and that is REALLY saying something, because I LOVE dressing up and celebrating Halloween), because I am lucky enough to be doing something I love just as much all weekend- diving. And not just diving.. diving with sharks! I spent the entire day today (Friday) about 25 miles off the coast of Cape Point on a boat with a few friends diving with Blue Sharks and Mako Sharks. It was my very first time diving with either of these species, and it was absolutely incredible. It took us about two hours to get from Simon’s Town to our destination (basically out in the middle of the sea), and although today was much less windy than the past week, the water was fairly bumpy. I love long boat rides, especially when there are waves, so that was definitely a fun journey. When we arrived, Brocq (my friend who does shark dive tours with his boss Morne, who is married to Alison Kock, the White shark researcher here) chummed the water, which means he basically chopped up fish parts and poured fish blood into a big drum, and within 30 minutes we had two sharks show up. At first it was a Mako, but that one left quickly, and then two Blue sharks showed up soon after. We threw on our wetsuits and hopped in, and within 15 minutes had about five sharks surrounding us. They were very curious, and would come extremely close to check us out, but I never felt threatened by any of them.
We were freediving (without a tank- just a weight belt and snorkel), but it was even better than trying to scuba with them since they all came so close to the surface. I dove down quite a few times, just five to 10 meters or so, and they would come right up to my face, swim through my legs, and even tested out the taste of the tip of my fins a few times. The Blues are sleek and shimmery, with a vibrant blue color that gives them their name. They are much bolder than the Makos, coming up right behind us and swimming all around as we dove down to them. The largest Blue shark was a little over two meters, and the smallest was probably about half a meter or so. The Makos were a little less bold, usually darting away if we got too close. They look like mini Great Whites, with impressive teeth that are very visible and a stockier body shape that looks like one big hunk of muscle. The largest Mako we swam with today was about 1.5 meters. They are amazing creatures. We were in the water for about an hour and a half, and about halfway through I counted six sharks at one time in the water. They were surprisingly calming, though, and at no point did they seem to be more interested in us than the chum. Well, at one point a Blue did give one of the clients a small chomp on the shoulder, but it didn’t perforate his wetsuit and didn’t hurt him at all. It was toward the end when Morne was emptying the drum of fish, so the sharks tend to get more excited about the abundance of food. Aside from that, they were very well-mannered ☺
Since I don’t yet have an underwater camera (boo!), I am relying on others who were there today to send me some of their photos. I will post them as soon as I get them! For now, here are a couple shots of the trip out to the dive site and a couple pictures from the internet of Blues and Makos:
Harbor at Simon's Town where we launched the boat
On our way to see the sharks...
Brocq getting the chum prepared. Slightly nasty business.
Blue Shark
Mako Shark
Today was by far one of the best days I have had here yet- I am so lucky to be able to participate in these kinds of things, and I feel incredibly grateful for the connections I have made. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be spending a Halloween weekend diving with sharks! Tomorrow is another dive, but this time no sharks- we are doing a wreck dive in Hout Bay. A few of my roommates are getting their advanced SCUBA certification, so this is part of their required dive set. I am going along as a fun dive, and also because I have never done a wreck dive. The waters in Hout Bay are cold, but it should be a pretty awesome experience.
Aside from diving, I have been continuing my work at SOS developing some more projects for display in the center and also for the school groups. I am just finishing up a presentation called Life on the Rocky Shores, and spent Tuesday and Wednesday taking some pictures of our animal life in front of SOS. Here are just a couple of the better shots used in the presentation:
Anemone, tentacles in (I know this one's not as cool as the ones with their tentacles out, but no one ever shows them like this...so thought I would switch it up :)
A couple urchins using limpet shells as protection
Pear limpets, each surrounded by their own algal garden. These particular limpets are found down in the cochlear zone during low tide. They use their muscle to suction tightly to the rocks, and if birds want to eat them, they have to sneak up behind them to quickly pop them off the rocks.
Cape Reef worm! Not the greatest quality picture, but these guys are so cool. If you touch them, them dart really quickly back into their hole.
Work has still been going very well, and everyone at SOS continues to impress me with their generosity and kindness. I am so grateful to Meg, my supervisor, for the opportunities she’s giving me with this research and also for letting me take time off to dive with and learn more about the sharks I am studying every day.
One of my favorite people here is leaving us this Tuesday.. my roommate Leah Webber, who has been here for about three months, is heading back home to San Francisco and then off to Sydney, Australia for yet another adventure abroad. Leah has become one of my closest friends here, and is so much fun and one of the nicest, funniest girls ever. I am super bummed she’s leaving but promised I would be visiting her in Australia soon ☺
Otherwise, not much is new.. just livin the Cape Town life and loving every minute! Only one month until my parents arrive (yes, that’s you Candace Faye and Johnny V!), and I cannot wait!!
Love to all in the states and elsewhere- miss you!!
I hate you.
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