Daily Trip 18 March 2018

Guide Summary and Photographs

Today we were greeted by almost perfect conditions in Kleinbaai as we set off in search of the Marine Big 5.  We did not have to wait long until our first sighting of five very dapper African Penguins, they weren’t shy at all giving us some excellent views. We soon moved on to the shark cage diving vessel a were treated to a 3-meter shark circling the cage. On our way towards the Dyer Island system we came across much bird life, Giant Petrels, swift terns and of course the cape cormorants. The seals were extremely enjoyable on Geyser Rock, the pups were very inquisitive often coming very close to the vessel to check us out. We then headed behind the Island in search of Whales, unfortunately we were unable to locate the largest member of the Marine Big 5. However, just as we were almost back in the harbour, our keen-eyed spotter, Kira, unbelievably saw a humpback whale! We stayed around the whale waiting for it to surface, with a few fleeting glimpses of the 40-tone animal we headed back to the harbour to change over clients.

We hurried our clients onto the boat as we could see the whale breaching in the harbour, we quickly made our way out but were interrupted by an amazing sight. At least 50 African Penguins sitting in the water, offering us an insight into the past when their numbers were over 2 million, not 2000. We left the birds behind in search of the whale. We kept up with the animal for some time showing us the fluke on many occasions. Almost as soon as we left the humpback behind, we came across another species of whale, the Bryde’s whale. Again, we stayed with the animal for a while, but this species in particular can be very shy so we moved on towards the island soon after. A quick stop at our ever-entertaining seals and journeyed over to the shark cage diving vessel. Within moments of arriving we were treated to a large white shark going for the bait, before it disappeared back into the abyss. Then to complete the Marine Big 5 for the second trip we stumbled across three very playful Indian Ocean Humpback. These guys were very playful and one even breached by the side of the boat and began bow riding. With the Marine Big 5 complete we headed back to the harbour.

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