I love this shot!
It's so cool to watch their eyes roll back during an attack
My, what large teeth you have!
It was
another great morning out on the white shark projects vessel! We got a text
from Karla last night to be up and in the garage getting ready at 5:30 this
morning, half an hour earlier than usual. So, needless to say, none of the
volunteers got a full eight hours of sleep last night. Still, when my alarm
went off at 5 o’clock this morning, getting up really wasn’t hard considering
that I’d soon be out on the boat with the sharks. With Ryan, the two Alina’s,
Aurelie, me, and the crew all working, we got the boat packed up pretty quickly
and returned to the volunteer house to have breakfast before heading out. There
were seven guests on this trip, along with the five volunteers and the crew
members. The crew for this trip included Grant and Gerald, the skippers,
Maarten and Jan as photographers and dive masters, and Mandla to handle the
bait and the cage. Mandla was one of the first crew members I met on my first
day (he was the one that greeted the new volunteers with “welcome home”). While
out on the boat, he’s been teaching me a few words of Afrikaans.
We went back
to the dam for this trip. The swells today were the biggest that I’ve
experienced in my time out on the boat- they were over three meters.
Thankfully, though, I didn’t feel seasick at all. I think by now I’ve gotten
used to the feeling of being out at sea, and have learned to just let my body
move with the boat. The water visibility didn’t seem to be too great so I
decided not to get in the cage today, but instead just take pictures from the boat.
You can often get a better view of the sharks from the boat, even if the water
visibility is good.
The sharks
were very active and feisty this morning, so it turned out to be a great
morning on the water. We saw several of them breach, or jump out of the water,
to follow the bait, and I got some good pictures of their heads out of the
water. We got the bait stolen about five times out on the boat this morning,
which is rare. Usually, in the hours we’re out on the water, that’ll only
happen once or twice. One thing that surprised me about being out on the boat
is that it’s actually pretty easy to tell different sharks apart when we see
them. When I see a shark for the first time, we try to find some specific
characteristic about it that would distinguish it, so that if it hung around
the boat for a while we could tell it apart from the other sharks around.
Almost all the great whites we see have scars, spots, or something like that
which makes them instantly recognizable, usually around the dorsal fin. In
fact, all sharks have distinct notches in the dorsal fin that can serve as a
fingerprint in identifying them from all other sharks.
After a
couple of very exciting hours out on the boat with the sharks, we headed back
to the harbor. The volunteers took the used wetsuits back to the garage to wash
them, then relaxed until lunchtime. We decided that this evening for dinner,
instead of cooking, we’d go to the Great White House, a restaurant that’s
almost right across the street from our house. Ryan, Beth and Lizzy will be
leaving on Friday- they only signed up for two weeks- so we wanted to eat there
at least once with them. So at about seven this evening Lizzy, Beth, Aurelie,
the two Alina’s, Ryan and I walked over to the Great White House. Shortly after
ordering, the lights around us were dimmed and candles at the tables all around
us were lit. “Ah, so romantic.” Ryan said. “It’s like I have six wives.” We all
laughed. Maarten originally said he wouldn’t join us, but as we were nearly
finished with our meals he walked in. He knew that we’d be pretty much done,
but he still joined us for dessert and a couple of beers before walking back to
the house with us.
Tomorrow
Karla said there’s room for three volunteers on the boat, and we all agreed
that it should be Ryan, Lizzy and Beth, since they probably won’t get another
chance. The rest of us will still be in the garage at six to help pack up
everything, but then we’ll probably just go back to bed.
While
walking back from the Great White House tonight, all the volunteers paused
outside for a moment and just looked up at the sky. There’s a beautiful half
moon, and you can see so many stars out here. It reminded me a bit of the
beautiful night sky in Wyoming last summer. I will say that if there’s one thing
that can make a Texas girl feel a bit out of place is looking up at the night
sky and not being able to find the Big Dipper.
But seeing the bright moon and stars shining over the crashing waves of
the ocean right in front of us was absolutely beautiful. And, with that
thought, I’ll close this post with one of my favorite quotes that I recently
discovered: “I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of
the world.”- Mary Anne Radmacher
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