Today was a wet and wonderful day out at sea, with us spotting 4 of the Marine Big 5 including 2 different species of shark and some stunning Humpback Whales. The wind picked up a little earlier than predicted, but we had a fun and adventurous ride through the bay, starting off our trip by the shark cage diving vessels.
Here, we stopped for a few minutes and got to enjoy the sight of a Bronze Whaler Shark coming up to investigate the vessel of sister company Marine Dynamics before a beautiful Great White Shark popped up to come and say hi! It’s a always great to have a bit of diversity around the boat, so we were really thrilled to catch sight of both species.
We then made our way over The Clyde Reef System and onwards to Geyser Rock where we watched the young seals catch the surf! Most of the adults had opted to sleep in, but it little ones were having a whale of a time, letting themselves be propelled by the surge. Whilst most of us were watching the seals, Kira kept his eyes on the deep. Soon enough, his eagle eyes spotted a blow so we quickly took our seats and head out behind the island in the hopes of catching up with some oceanic giants. We were in luck, spotting 3 large Humpback Whales heading east.
This was a competitive pod, so we watched in awe as the males gave chase to the female. As we arrived, we got to see some flipper slapping which soon turned into full on breaching. It is incredible to watch these animals throw themselves out the water, and this is a behavior we tend to see a little more when the wind picks up. These whales were certainly the highlight of the tour and after watching them breach again and again, we decided to head back in towards the bay to see if we could spot an African Penguin.
As we pulled into Sponge Bay, which is where these birds like to hang out, we got to see some waddling and some cuddling. There were quite a few of these black and white beauties about, so we watched with joy before hugging the coast back to shore.
