Daily Blog: 18 November 2024
Today, we were treated to warm, calm weather out at sea, making for a fantastic day!
- Location: Joubertsdam
- Water Temperature: 14.2°C + 14.3°C + 14.4°C
- Depth: 7.59 m + 6.6 m
- Visibility: 5.0 m + 5.0 m + 5.0 m
- White Sharks Seen: 3 + 4 +
- Conditions: Perfect. Literally, perfect. No swell, warm sunshine, a light breeze, and amazing visibility.
This is what dreams are made of! Today was an absolutely perfect day! We launched from Kleinbaai to a stunning sunrise and within 30 minutes we had our first white shark. It was the 2.6 meter male that we’ve been seeing around lately. Due to his continuous appearances at Slashfin, we decided that this young male needed a name. His dorsal fin has a bold gradient effect, much like the ombre hairstyle and he is male, so we decided on Hombre. He’s such a handsome shark! Hombre stuck around with us throughout the entire trip and was joined by the male version of Clampy, aka Clampo, the 3 meter male, and another male with 2 scratches behind his gill slits that we’ve also been seeing. With constant activity in front of the cage, this trip was a fantastic way to start our day! We even had 2 white sharks by the boat at one time! On our ride back into harbour, a visiting Southern Right Whale was spotted in the distance, relaxing just outside of the surf. These whales visit our shores between June and December to mate and give birth. They spend the other half of the year in Antarctica feeding on krill.
Our second trip launched with a gut feeling that it would be another superb trip. Our guts were right! Our divers didn’t even have their wetsuits half on when Hombre approached. Our first diver climbed into the cage as Hombre passed deep down, easy to see with the stunning visibility. Soon the cage was full and Clampo had also returned, investigating the seal decoy with immense curiosity. This trip also had some visits from the third male from the first trip, although he didn’t seem to spend too much time as Clampo seemed to dominate this trip. He was joined by one other shark, about 3 meters long with several dark scars running down its side. This shark behaved much like the third male and didn’t spend very long around the boat. After everyone had several beautiful views of these amazing animals we headed back into shore, excited for the final trip of the day.
