Daily Trip 01 October 2017

Guide Summary and Photographs

The Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin is said to be the rarest marine coastal cetacean living along our coast, with an estimated 460 animals living along the beaches of South Africa. We are really fortunate to have about 24 documented individuals moving in and out of our bay, but, these sightings have been a bit infrequent as of late…that was until today!

They were the first of our oceanic friends to make an appearance today, with us spotting them just in front of the Uilenkraalsmond estuary. This is one of their favourite hangout spots, with the estuary attracting some of their favourite prey into the area. We had several animals around today including Summer, one of our regulars, and a mother and calf pair.

It is always really special to find a baby Humpback Dolphin around as these little ones have many grave threats to face before reaching adulthood. Something pretty shocking about this species is that when a mother claves for the first time, there is a chance that she might lose her baby due to toxins that have accumulated in her body from birth. These toxins are then transferred from mom to baby via the milk, and are said to be from chemicals washing into the ocean through estuaries. We spent an awesome few minutes watching these rarities before setting our sights on Slashfin.

Here, we got to see a pretty cool White Shark. The shark arrived a little after we did and become quite active towards the end of our stay, lunging for the bait. The shark launched half of it’s streamlined self out the water as Alfred, our expert bait handler, pulled the bait to the side, past the cage, giving both the divers and our whale watchers an excellent view.

We moved on to find the largest of the Marine Big 5 in Pearly Beach and came across 3 Southern Right Whales slowly cruising through the swell. We spent some time watching these majestic specimens move effortlessly with the motion of the ocean before heading off to shark alley. Although an Easterly Wind kept us cool out at sea today, many seals had had enough of the heat by the time that we pulled up, with hundreds of them in the water.

The second trip also got their fair share of Humpback Dolphin, with the same awesome bunch giving us a show. We got to see the Mother and calf as well as Summer again, and we even had one of the individuals do some lob tailing for us!

We also had absolutely gorgeous whales on this trip, with an active mating group keeping our eyes glued to the water. The group consisted of a female with 2 males, which included a beautiful brindle boy. The brindle really stole the show, popping that gigantic head out of the water for us numerous times to the delight of everyone with a camera in hand. We also got to see the eye of one of the animals for quite a long period of time as it lay on its side, enjoying the swell.

We ended off this trip with 3 adult African Penguins bobbing about in the middle of the bay, which made for a perfect end to the day.

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