Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween weekend!!

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!!

Kids, kids, and more kids!

Hi all!

I come to you in the middle of a crazy hectic week at Save Our Seas… we have 100 primary school kids coming every day for about four hours of rock pool lessons, shark lessons, and shark videos. It has been absolutely nuts and totally exhausting, but so much fun at the same time! The kids are from all different schools around the area, and most of them are eager to learn and happy to just be down by the water. A few of them don’t know much about the sea beyond that it is home to “big, scary sharks that will eat you!” (direct quote from an adorable 6th grade boy this morning)

My role this week has been to teach alongside one of our educators, Michael, down at the rock pool out in front of our building. We have a protected area out front which is home to everything from African Black Oystercatchers to limpets, barnacles, sea anemones, urchins, and all kinds of other animals. We have been doing a 20 minute lecture about these animals’ adaptations to their unique environment, then the kids come down onto the rocks and we show them everything close up, and then we bring them over to some touch pools to touch and hold the animals while we finish up the lesson. A lot of them seem really interested in both the animals and the kelp, and it has been a lot of fun to hear them asking questions and getting excited about life in the ocean. Often there has been two or three kids in each group that are especially interested and will ask what kinds of programs they can join and how they can be a marine biologist. It always makes me smile ☺

They then move on to a shark lecture inside SOS with another educator, Paul, and their third “station” is a shark video showing footage of the White sharks that breach out near Seal Island. All of the teachers that have come along with the kids so far have seemed really happy with the trip, and a few of them scheduled follow-up days with us so we can go a little more in-depth with smaller groups of children. All in all, it’s been a good week so far and it has made me a lot more confident with the lecture material and the sea life living in this part of the world.

In addition to the school groups, I have continued working on projects for the main area of SOS, including a presentation board about Shark Threats and a powerpoint lecture about the importance of kelp and rock pool life. I have spoken to Alison Kock as well and should be getting out on the research boat with her within the next two weeks or so. Can’t wait!

Yesterday was one of the coolest days ever- the school group that was supposed to be here ended up cancelling, and since I had taken the train all the way down and didn’t have a pressing project or anything to get to right away, I decided to take advantage of the sun and calm seas and go surfing at Muizenberg (a few train stops away from Kalk Bay). I called up my friend Brocq, who works with Alison Kock’s husband, Morne, and since he also had the afternoon off he said he’d be happy to give me a surfing lesson. I grabbed my wetsuit and hopped off the train at Muizenberg, and of course on the first day I decide to surf in South Africa they spot a shark right off the beach. The Shark Spotters flag was red, which means a shark has recently been spotted and may still be in the area. Most of the surfers had gotten out of the water, but after 20 minutes or so people started swimming back out. We headed in and within about two minutes of paddling out I had completely forgotten about the shark. The waves were perfect for a relatively new surfer, and I managed to catch a good number of waves and stand up pretty well on most of them (although still a bit wobbly ☺. It was SUCH a blast and such an amazing workout (my arms are killing me today!) and I am pretty sure I’ve been bitten by the surfing bug. It’s so convenient for me if I bring my wetsuit to work, because Muizenberg is right on the way home, and I can just hop off there and meet up with people in the afternoons. I’m hoping the winds stay the way they are now for the next couple weeks so the waves don’t get too messy.



Aside from internship and surfing stuff, I have been enjoying the weekends with roommates and other interns by spending time at the beach, heading to the Old Biscuit Mill market on Saturday mornings (amazing local vendors with all sorts of food and other goods), and getting out to explore hiking and running trails. This past weekend I was able to go out on Animal Ocean once again with Steve, and we had an absolutely gorgeous day of sun, flat water, and clients who were very excited about diving with the Duiker Island seals. Steve, the Captain of the ship:



My favorite spot on the boat...



Of course there has been a night out here or there, and those are a great time as well ☺



I'm not sure if I included this in last week's blog, but last Friday I was able to take the day off from SOS and head to my roommate's primary school where she teaches and help her do some painting lessons with the younger grade. They were absolutely adorable and it was so much fun. Here are a few of the little painters :)



Alright, that is all for now! Miss everyone back home :)

Don't eat shark fin soup!

Tomorrow will be the beginning of my second week at Save Our Seas, and I am already loving the opportunities I have had at this organization. This past week was spent focusing on a few different projects, including educational information for the public in the main area of the center, preparing a shark lecture for school groups that will be visiting over the next two weeks (70-100 kids a day!), and helping to prepare a lesson on rock pool life for the school groups as well.

I was also finally able to meet Alison Kock, who does the White shark research here for SOS, and listen to one of her White shark lectures. It was really informative and made me even more excited to get out on the boat with Alison to help with tagging and behavioral research. I will start doing that in about two weeks, and I can't wait! Here are a couple recent pictures that Alison and her husband Morne took while watching White sharks feed on a decaying Brydes whale carcass.. such amazing shots.





I have learned so much in just one week; everyone at SOS has been extremely welcoming and happy to help with anything. I am able to look right out to the ocean from my office window, and have enjoyed seeing Southern Right whales slowly cruise by on several occasions. We also spent a day taking an environmental school group, ages 14-18, out to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and doing an educational 5K nature hike. The kids loved seeing the Sand Hoppers, learning about the role of kelp in sustaining the ocean ecosystem, and the gorgeous views of the sea from our hike. It was a beautiful day that ended with the group painting vuvuzelas made of dried kelp- a great way to round out the day’s lesson and let them take a keepsake home to remember what they learned. Here are a couple shots from the day:





I have also been borrowing documentary videos from SOS to watch at night, and thanks to these I have learned quite a bit about the huge problem of overfishing certain shark populations and shark finning that takes place off the coast of South Africa (and many other places in the world, unfortunately). The footage of this horrendous crime is absolutely heartbreaking, and I strongly encourage anyone who is interested in shark conservation to look further into this issue. Some shark species have lost over 90% of their populations due to long-line fishing (illegal in a few areas, but unfortunately still legal in most areas and practiced regularly) and the desire for shark fins (fetching hundreds of US dollars per fin) for things like shark fin soup, leather products, jewelry and skin care products.

Long lines are used mainly to fish for tuna, swordfish and shark, and their length ranges from one to over 100 miles. They are kept near the surface using floats, and there are baited hooks attached at intervals of about 100 feet. They are a huge threat to the survival of many species of shark, including Blue sharks, Mako sharks, Hammerhead sharks, and several other species found here off the coast South Africa. Since long lines are far from species-specific, they catch all sorts of animals- sea turtles, whales, dolphins, seals, all kinds of fish, and even fishing birds. Here are a couple images of some unfortunate long line bycatch.





The majority of sharks that are caught using long lines are caught only for their fins; the rest of the body is usually discarded back into the ocean and considered “bycatch” (shark meat is of relatively low economical value, so most fisherman are strictly interested in just the fins). Shark finning also takes place by fishing for individual sharks, bringing them onboard and cutting off their dorsal and pectoral fins while they are still alive, and then throwing the live shark back into the ocean. The sharks then sink and starve to death, are eaten by another animal, or drown since they cannot move to force water through their gills for oxygen. I know this is a disturbing photo, but after seeing the footage of finning, I think it's important for people to actually see how terrible it really is, rather than just hearing about it...



Shark fins are sought after most specifically to accommodate the ever-increasing demand for shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy. Shark fin soup can fetch up to $100 per bowl, and is eaten mainly by affluent consumers and travelers to Asia who are unaware of the decimation that shark finning causes. The fin is tasteless, providing only a gelatinous bulk for the soup, which is then flavored with chicken or other stock. It is served in many restaurants and sometimes served at weddings as a sign of affluence.

These irresponsible fishing practices are leading to the decimation of many shark species. Since 1972, the populations of Blacktip, Tiger, and Bull sharks have decreased by over 90% each. Long lining and shark finning has become an enormous problem in many parts of the world, including South Africa, and the limited resources for regulation of this issue allows it to happen more often than not. Organizations like SOS are striving to make the public more aware of this worldwide problem, but there is still a long way to go before shark populations and many other species are in the clear.

So, on a lighter note, this past weekend was a fabulous end to the week. On Friday night we said goodbye to a fellow VAC intern heading home to Germany, and Saturday was spent lounging on the beach at St. James, which is near where I work in Kalk Bay. My roommate Gen and I took the train down and set up shop on the sand for a few hours- it was beautiful. Unfortunately we didn’t spot any sharks in the water (they are regularly seen offshore in that area- especially in the summer), but it was a great beach day nonetheless. We headed home to change and grab a cab to Newlands, where the Western Province rugby team was playing the visiting Durban Sharks in a regional championship match. It was my first rugby match since seeing some in Australia, and the atmosphere was amazing. The stadium was packed, and people were completely amped about supporting their Western Province team. The Afrikaans cheer that we were chanting the whole time was “WP Jou Lekker Ding!” which is pronounced nothing like how it looks, but means “Western Province, you’re a really good thing!” or something cheesy like that. Here is a picture of some of my fellow VAC interns and myself at the match:



It was pretty hilarious to see a bunch of American and Canadian girls yelling in Afrikaans… I think the Afrikaaners next to us got a kick out of it, too :) We followed up the rugby game with my first night out in Claremont, a neighborhood just south of my home in Observatory. So all in all a successful, super fun weekend! Wish me luck for the week ahead with tons of kids running around SOS- should be interesting! Hope all is well back home and that everyone is enjoying fall!

Dusky dolphins and Save Our Seas!

Hello everyone!

So it’s official: I started my real internship today at Save Our Seas (SOS). I had a meeting this morning with Meg Ledeboer, the woman who will be my supervisor for the duration of my time at the shark research center. SOS is located in Kalk Bay, which is a beautiful little seaside town with a working fishing harbor and lots of little shops and cafes. It is about a 35 minute ride on the train, but the view is amazing- the last 10 or so stops are right along the beach and I have a full view of the sea (as long as the train’s not too crowded :).

Vanessa, my internship coordinator, picked me up this morning at 9 am and drove me there just to help me become familiar with the area before having to take the train alone. Vanessa actually knows Meg from her time at the University of Cape Town; Meg was head of the zoology department, and Vanessa studied zoology. I can’t believe how lucky I was to get to know Vanessa, as she is responsible for connecting me with both Steve and now the people at Save Our Seas. I owe her big time.

Anyway, the meeting went very well and it sounds like there will be plenty of opportunities for me to get involved in different areas. They are hoping to expand and improve the area of SOS where the public can come in and browse, so they were hoping I would have some ideas about particular wall presentations and how to make the center more kid-friendly and educational. I will also be involved with some of the teaching of the school groups, and next week happens to be Marine Week, so there will be 60-70 kids coming to SOS every day. The man who runs the school program is named Paul, and he said he’d be happy to have someone else along to teach and help with all the kids. They do shore investigations, where they take the kids out in front of SOS when the tide is low and explore the various organisms that live in the five different zones: Littorina, Upper Balanoid, Lower Balanoid, Cochlear and Infratidal. They also take field trips out to Cape Point where they do a nature/marine walk and lecture for the kids. These trips are usually followed up by a video and short discussion about shark characteristics, safety and conservation back at SOS. All of that should be a lot of fun, and will definitely help me learn very quickly.

The last thing I’ll be doing, which I am so excited about, is joining Alison Kock, the primary White shark biologist at SOS, to head out on the boat to do some field research and see what working with White sharks is all about. Since Alison is in between research projects, I won’t be out with her every week, but hopefully I can get more involved in this over the next month. I can’t wait to experience this and hopefully contribute to their work in the field.

So that was today… yesterday was an absolutely amazing day as well. Steve, Vanessa and myself organized a VAC intern trip to Hout Bay with Steve’s boat, Animal Ocean, and not only did we dive with Cape Fur seals again, but we came upon a pod of Dusky dolphins that were incredibly playful. They stuck around our boat for over 15 minutes and when we all hopped in to dive with them they began darting around us and swimming alongside. Steve handed me his underwater video camera and I was able to take some pretty good footage of 10 or so different dolphins- it was an experience none of us will EVER forget. Here is a frame from the video footage I took:



This is a picture taken the same day by Evert Nel, one of Steve’s friends who is an amazing wildlife photographer:



From the crazy crowded minibus adventure getting eight of us out to Hout Bay, to the wild bumpy ride home in the waves, it was definitely one of the best days I’ve had yet in South Africa, if not ever. I can’t wait to get out again and see what else is out there!

This is a picture from a few days ago, when Steve took me out for my first Sevengill Cowshark dive. We were at a site called Miller's Point, which is on the way out to Cape Point. It is a gorgeous area for a shore dive, full of kelp and fish and these guys (it doesn't look very big in this photo, but it was probably about two meters long):



Here is a better photo (again taken by Evert Nel) to show how long they can get relative to a human:



I absolutely love this photo! They are amazing sharks- they have the most primitive skeletal structure of any shark and can be identified as individuals by the pattern of spots on their back. SOS is actually doing a Photo ID research project to try to identify individuals living in False Bay. The main researcher's name is Robert Raw, and his paper on the ID project is really interesting. The project is still being developed, and they are encouraging anyone who dives with the Cowsharks to take photos from above and submit them to SOS to increase their database. So, come dive with the sharks with Animal Ocean and you can be part of a really cool shark conservation project :)

Alright, so for now, I am going to do my best to settle in at SOS, and when research and projects and everything else gets underway I will surely update my blog with the latest events. Thanks to everyone who is keeping up with me, and feel free to e-mail or comment here, as I love hearing from anyone and everyone! I will leave you with this adorable picture of my friend Lydia, who is from the UK, squeezing into her 9 mm wetsuit!