11 March 2017 | Wildlife Tours Gansbaai
An exciting day out at sea with our first sighting being one of the elusive...
Written by Jax, March 11 2017
Guide Summary and Photographs
Our trip today was an exciting one in which we were able to spot all of the Marine Big 5. Our fist sighting happened shortly after we had exited the harbour when our skipper spotted the elusive Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin. This guy disappeared almost as soon as what he appeared but, luckily, there also happened to be an African Penguin close by which we were able to view for a short while.
In the shallows, we were able to spot another African Penguin as well as another Humpback Dolphin. This dolphin decided to humour us a little more and so we got to watch him come up for us several times, to the absolute delight of the children on board. It is not uncommon to see Humpback Dolphins alone abut they also live in family groups of up to 10 individuals.
Following this, we found ourselves at the shark cage diving vessels. Here we spotted quite a large Great White Shark before heading towards Dyer Island. On our way into the alley, we spotted a blow behind the island and so we decided to change course and investigate. This was a brilliant idea as we were really fortunate to come across a Brydes Whale and her little calf. It is always awesome to see their little babies and, in general, the calves tend to surface more than the adults making for a very memorable sighting. We were able to move along with these two for quite a while before they disappeared.
Behind the island, we also spotted some Cape Gannets, a White Chinned Petrel and a Sub Antarctic Skua. After all this excitement, we made our way back into Shark Alley where we watched the seals play. We had quite a few jumping seals around today which always make for an excellent and challenging photographic opportunity.
On our way back to the harbour, we had a Sub Antarctic Skua fly with us which was a great end to the trip.
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