13 May 2020 - Going Live with Kelly Baker & Dickie Chivell

Monitoring of Great White sharks in Gansbaai through observational and photographic methods.

The seas around Dyer Island, South Africa, has one of the densest populations of Great White Sharks in the world which is readily accessible to research scientists. Attracted by a colony of about 60 000 seals on Geyser Rock (separated from Dyer Island by the world-famous Shark Alley), these mysterious Apex predators are regularly sighted by thousands of visitors who come here to cage dive every year. Over a decade of dorsal fin images were collected by our marine biologists off our cage diving vessel, Slashfin.

The Dyer Island Conservation Trust was founded in 2006 by Marine Dynamics' CEO Wilfred Chivell. The first fundamental question that the Trust set out to answer scientifically was: What is the size of the shark population in the bay today? This was answered in 2013 when our biologists published the first completed Great White Shark Gansbaai population study. Kelly Baker will explain more about some of the methods our biologists use to monitor the Great White sharks in Gansbaai.

Originally from Sydney, Australia, Kelly grew up in a family that spent much of their Summers by the sea leading to a fascination with the marine world and with the discovery of 'Sharks, Silent hunters of the deep' at a young age an interest in sharks began.

Graduating from Australia's University of Wollongong with a degree in Biological Sciences, her aspirations to work with sharks was realised in 2014 when she became part of the team at Marine Dynamics. Kelly has spent much of her time guiding the companies shark diving tours, interacting and educating guests from all over the world and maintaining the collection of extensive observational data, the basis for previous and current Great White shark research done by conservation partner, Dyer Island Conservation Trust.

Kelly Baker & Dickie Chivell will go live here.