An Eco Marine Safari, 03 January 2019
An Easterly wind and an excellent trip...
Written by Jax Bath, January 4 2019
Guide Summary.
We’ve been having some great luck out on our tours, spending quality time with all of our favorite sea creatures and having a blast cruising around the bay in search of them. We have a single Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin who’s been hanging out with us for the last week or so, and this was the very first animal we caught up with today.
We’d moved along the shoreline towards the shark cage diving boats, and just as we were nearing we caught a glimpse of a shape in the swell. After a couple moments of searching, the shape popped up again and we went on to spent the next while waiting in anticipation for the dolphin to surface as we kept our eyes peeled for any indication that he might be near. In this same area, we also got to see a single African Penguin who may have been trying to feed along the reefs below.
Our next stop of the day was over at Slashfin where we hung out with a Copper Shark or two, watching as they came up to investigate the chummy smell around the boats. These sharks are famous for schooling along the annual sardine run along our coastline, with hundreds of animals working amongst dolphins, whales and diving birds trying to catch a schooling fish or two.
Our final stop of the day was in Shark Alley where we got a few lovely views of our incredible Cape Fur Seal colony who will live on this island all year round. Many of the pups were sitting by the water in what looked like little kindergartens and we also got nice and close to Hospital Rock to get a close look at the seals here.
Daily Snaps.
A Pup nursery.
Coming up for a breath.
Checking us out.
Mutual napping.
A seal having a cuddle.
A Copper Shark at Slashfin.
Cap Cormorants flying in a v-shaped formation to save energy.
An Indian ocean Humpback Dolphin.
The dolphin surfacing in the sunlight.
Here you can see the damage to the dorsal fin.
An African Penguin in Jouberts Dam.
Cape Cormorants sitting on the water.
What species did we see today?
Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin
Humpback dolphins are an endangered species, with small populations living very close to shore, typically in water less than 25m deep and an average home range of 120km. Their proximity to land makes these animals particularly vulnerable to human influence.
