Expeditions
Each Expedition is hosted by Chris & Monique Fallows who’s passion, knowledge and love of the wildlife in the area makes this the most personalized and educational trip on offer, with a limited maximum of 8 participants to ensure the best viewing potential.
2011 Expedition
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If you are a serious shark lover and if it is a life’s dream to experience the Great White Shark, then the best way to do this is to book a longer stay.
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April 2009 SHARK BYTES
Dear Shark lovers,
Well, I did have good intentions on putting together a newsletter at the end of March but the amount of work on our return from India got the better of me! Apologies.
Although this is a shark newsletter I feel I must dedicate a few lines to the incredible wildlife that we encountered in India, and I know of lot of you will enjoy the images as well.
With a population of just over 1 billion people it is actually amazing that the wildlife has any sanctuary in India and for all nature lovers, you need to make at least one trip here in your life to have the opportunity of seeing these special animals.
ONE HORNED RHINO
We started our trip in the North East of India where we were to vist Kaziranga National Park, a strong hold for the Indian One Horned Rhino. En route to Kaziranga we stopped at Guhawarti dump to actually bird watch (home to large numbers of Greater Adgidant Storks). I believe that each person in the first world needs to pay a visit to this place to realize how lucky we are. On arrival we encountered a stinking, burning dump site and a whole community of “rubbish collectors”. It was sobering to see women and small children sifting through the rubbish in order to survive. After seeing that I do not feel we should be complaining about the things we normally do as this seems so insignificant after seeing how other people live.
The one-horned rhino population is in trouble with a remaining population of only 2400. This is difficult to believe as in Kaziranga the rhino are dotted all over the park and it is difficult to drive a few minutes and not spot one! It is an amazingly impressive animal and due to folds in its skin it looks like it is covered in armored plates. It is about the same size as a black rhino, so a large animal indeed.
We also encountered a large variety of bird species including one of the most impressive birds I have ever seen, the Great Horn Bill which is a flying hornbill bird standing 1 meter high. We were lucky enough to spot this bird during a forest walk. On the same walk we also encountered one male Hoolak gibbon, the only true ape in India. It is famous for its very long arms that it uses to travel through the tree tops, but its haunting call is something that I will hear in my mind forever.
GANGES RIVER DOLPHIN
As if the above were not enough we heard when we arrived that there is a small chance of sighting Ganges River dolphin in the Brahmaputra River, which goes through the park. We booked a river cruise, not really expecting to actually see one but highly excited about the remote possibility. On arrival we noticed that a so-called boat (it floated and it had an engine) was waiting for us and the boat driver was busy bailing out buckets of water in preparation for our trip! Well, sometimes it does not matter what the boat looks like as we did manage to sight a Ganges River Dolphin. It is estimated that there are 300 remaining of these almost completely blind dolphin. It is difficult to spot as it spends most of its time underwater and only briefly surfaces to breathe but to see this animal is one of the highlights of my life..it was such a priviledge.
TIGERS!
The second part of our trip was to Bandavgarh National Park in Central India. This is our second trip here and again the main purpose was to glimpse a tiger! The park has so much more to offer in terms of various antelope, birds, sloth bears, wolves and scenery as well. Our hosts and guides that organize our trip here are great nature lovers and conservationists and we enjoy spending time with people who know these animals so well.
Badavgarh is well known for its good tiger sightings but we were lucky enough to have 6 great encounters, including the very famous male tiger, B2. Those who have visited here before will know which tiger I am talking about. But, our best sighting happened within the first hour of being in the park. We were taking a very slow drive in the quieter area of the park when 200 meters in front of us we came across a tigress walking down the road towards us. She was completely unfazed by us and sauntered towards the car in typical cat velvet like movement. About 20 meters in front of us she veered off the road and slowly disappeared into the thick forest. It was wonderful!
GREAT WHITE SHARKS
Before we left for our India trip we were having fantastic pelagic shark trips but the Great white sharks at Seal Island had not arrived yet. This is almost normal as we would expect our first sightings anywhere from mid March onwards. We arrived home at the very beginning of April and were surprised to hear from our crew that they had only had one shark sighting while we were away. Each season is different and it is not normally a surprise if we see sharks a few weeks or even a few weeks late.
Now, however we are at the start of May and the sharks have still not decided it is time to return. We have had sightings of one to two sharks about 65% of the time but most encounters have been very brief. It is easy for me to say that it is a wild animal and we can’t make them do want we want them too, especially as I have the opportunity to see them throughout the season. It can be disappointing for our guests who are so looking forward to see the sharks. I’m afraid there is just nothing that we can do.
One thing I can say it that, for me, those first glimpses of the sharks has been so exciting. After not seeing them since September last year I had forgotten how big they are and the kind of presence they bring with them!
The shark activity in the Gansbaai area has also been very quiet so there must be something going on that we are not aware off, and as such there are a lot of theories been thrown around as to what is affecting the sharks. I’ll get to ours shortly.
DOLPHINS
Our dolphin sightings in False Bay this past month have just been phenomenal. There is a school of about 1000 common dolphin that we have been seeing on almost all of our trips. There is a huge amount of bait fish (anchovies, sardines etc) all over False Bay that must be the factor keeping this group here for such along time.
Normally when we drive past the dolphins they come towards the boat at high speed, often doing spectacular aerial moves in an effort to reach the boat. The reason they approach the boat is that they use it to save energy as they ride the bow wave. (This acts like a slip stream.). When the dolphins are close like this we can normally hear the sonar sounds through the hull of the boat emanating from the dolphins close by.
A VERY SPECIAL WHALE SIGHTING
This past week end Chris & Poenas were on a great white shark trip with only a few clients when they had a very unusual sighting. It was a flat calm day and amazingly enough they had a shark around the boat and a guest in the cage. Poenas has very good eyes and he and Chris often have friendly “spotting” competitions. On this particular day he announced that he thought he saw a pod of Killer Whales (Orcas) a few miles from Seal Island. On closer look Chris agreed and within seconds our bewildered guest was being hauled out of the cage for a closer look at the Killer Whales.
Over the years there have been very infrequent and rare sightings of Killer Whales, most often offshore and very rarely in False Bay. Chris has done close to 1300 trips over the last 15 years and this is his first sighting. But it wasn’t just a Killer Whale sighting; these incredible animals were hunting down the large school of common dolphin that we had been seeing so often. I unfortunately was not at sea that day and although we were not able to find a boat for me to get out there we tried very very hard! I was bitterly disappointed to have missed this but at the same time I was thrilled for Chris, Poenas and our guests who had this very special encounter.
Below is an account from Chris:
Upon coming up to the Killer Whales we noticed there were actually 6 of them including 2 teenagers.
After a while the whales came up to us and started to bow ride, pretty amazing but that’s only the beginning.
In the distance I saw a commotion on the surface and immediately realized a huge school of common dolphin was ahead numbering between 800-1000 animals. Not 10 dolphins or even 100 dolphins but a mega school.
Putting two and two together it was obvious the killer whales were setting up for a hunt.
Easily they closed the gap and when several hundred yards away two adults dived. For about 2 minutes nothing happened and then a huge splash followed by panicking dolphins spreading out in all directions.
The killers had missed and the dolphins were out of there as fast as they could swim.
This all on a flat calm glassy day I might add.
We followed the whales and they followed us for about twenty minutes.
Then again they were off and easily caught up with the dolphins in a short period. The hunt ended with the same result.
Again they stopped and swam under our boat, bow rode and had fun. Ironically several seals swam with them. They were young seals that were on the surface and on numerous occasions the whales even swam under them. Neither paid each other any attention. These Killer Whales were definitely not from Patagonia.
A third time something triggered the whales and again they pursued the now relaxed dolphin, again they hunted and again they missed.
The dolphins this time moved about 4 miles away and only after 30 minutes did the whales resume the chase.
Employing a slightly different tactic they closed to right within the ranks of the fringes of the dolphins and held that position for ages. The dolphins amazingly seemed oblivious to their presence.
Eventually some of the dolphins must have caught sight of one or more of them and the tail end of the school started to panic. This time one of the two big Killer Whales launched into the dolphins, full breached and cartwheeled (yes I missed the ##$^$*&!! photo) and landed. The whale then surfaced with an adult dolphin across its mouth and swam away with it whilst the rest of the pod followed. We came quite close to the whale with the kill and could see it vaguely under the water with the dolphin draped across its mouth
We then gave them space and watched from a distance. There was no thrashing or aggressive behavior and had we not seen the dolphin in the whales mouth we would have thought nothing happened. We then followed the whales for a few more km's and finally as they started to move away from us rather than swim with us it was clear they had enough and our encounter was over.
A few days later we heard that another boat had come across a large male Killer Whale with another 2 teenagers in the Cape Point area...Chris had been wondering where the adult male was! We all now have Orcalitis and are on high alert for another opportunity to see these awesome creatures.
OUR THEORY!
So, all this brings me to where I can let you all know possibly why we think we have not been seeing sharks.
Firstly with such a large amount of bait fish throughout False Bay the seals are feeding in large groups all over (normally they would need to head up to Cape Point and beyond). Therefore there is no strong reason for the sharks to head to Seal Island with so much opportunity of seals lazing about the Bay. We have seen a few seals with fresh white shark wounds on them but as we have seen no predatory activity we speculate that these have been inflicted away from the island.
Our second feeling is that Chris thought those Killer Whales knew exactly what they were doing hunting the dolphins and may have been in the Bay for a while hunting these dolphins. Another vessel reported thinking he saw 15 killer whales two weeks earlier that we had thought was mistaken identity, but perhaps not.
There is at least one account of a Killer Whale killing a Great white and our fellow operators and friends in California have told us that when they have sighted Killer whales in their areas of operation the Great whites have disappeared for up to 2 weeks.
I guess we can talk and think ourselves blue in the face but it is so difficult to understand these animals.
The water in False Bay is also unseasonally cold. We have recorded temperatures of as low as 11,5c and whilst this is not a out and out reason for the white sharks to be absent as they can easily thermo regulate many degrees above ambient temperatures, it may have had an effect on other wildlife that in turn changed the white sharks normal patterns.
A large part of me is really happy that the Great White is such a mysterious animal but it would be great if they came back soon.
As we go into May we are hoping that the Great White activity will improve. We had a similar situation in 2004 where the sharks only returned in large numbers by early June and we then went on to have one of our best seasons ever so time will tell.
It is also our last month of pelagic sharks and as long as the weather is good for us we have a number of trips planned for May.
I will no doubt keep you all posted next month. Be sure to check out this month’s Photos of the Month. There aren’t too many shark images but I think you will enjoy the others.
Best wishes
Monique Fallows
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