Daily Trip 14 December 2017

Guide Summary and Photographs

Sunshine and sea spray was in order today after having a bit of a rest yesterday, so we head out of the Harbour at around 12 today to see what the deep blue had in store for us. After a no sea day, we’re always curious to see what our animals have been up to, so we made our way into the shallow waters of our bay, where most of our favourite species like to hang out.

The trip started off with a bang when we spotted two endangered Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphins. These guys like to dwell in coastal waters and get their name from the fat hump just below their dorsal fin. Since there are so few along the coast, we try our very best to gather as much research as what we can, getting photo identification pictures of their dorsal fins. After watching these guys enjoy the surf, we moved on towards the Shark Cage Diving vessels to go and check out some cartilaginous fish.

We were in luck when we arrived as a Bronze Whaler Shark was checking out Slashfin’s bait line. These requiem sharks can be found in the shallow waters along our coast too, and are said to go down to depths of 100m, or potentially even more. It’s been really great to have these guys around for the last few months, especially since these guys are being over exploited commercially by fisherman.

We got to see some African penguins next when we were heading towards Pearly beach. We had 3 of these little guys pop up out of nowhere and give us a great show, coming up next to the boat. Our bay has a large number of reefs running below that provide shelter for a lot of our smaller fish species, which our penguins will readily try and snap up as a quick snack.

Next, we head on over to Pearly Beach, feeling a little nervous and excited about what we might discover. To our absolute joy, we still have a few pairs of Southern Right Whales about, including a mom with a white spot on her back who we spent some time with a little earlier in the season.  When we arrived, the whales were all really shallow but, came out to play a little later to our absolute delight. Some highlights from the sighting came from a little calf who did a bit of lob tailing for us. This calf was having a ball in the swells, launching himself out the water in a mini breach and also giving us a spy hop or two. Mom was equally as generous with her behaviour, showing off her flippers as she rolled around.

Last but not least, we stopped by our favourite rock to visit our favourite seals, who were a little pungent today.

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