We headed out into a gloomy cape morning, watching rain clouds on the horizon draw upon us as we neared our destination, “the canyon”. We did a small detour to investigate a fishing vessel called “Fox Glove”. We were searching for tuna. The divers jumped in but found only seals and fish heads. We left the ship and found an area that looked promising and started chumming.
Th spearo’s jumped in and were quickly joined by a hyper-active 1m long Shortfin mako, which quickly disappeared. I got in and enjoyed diving in the clean warm water. Lying on my back at 28m looking up I could clearly see the boat, looking down I could see out bait trail disappearing into the depths.
We were eventually joined by 2 Blue sharks that hoovered up any pilchards we put in the water. Jean, who was the inspiration for this trip was very seasick and I knew he would not be happy if he sat this one out. So I pushed, pulled and taunted but got him in the water.
A small 1m mako arrived, very excited and raced around and between the divers. I is amazing to seen the fastest shark in the ocean swimming with us. Mako’s are know to have bursts of up to 74 km/h (46 mph). A second slightly larger mako arrived and was much more comfortable with us. Everyone enjoyed watching the activity but most soon left the water. I was left alone with 2 blues, a very relaxed mako and Jean’s camera rig….a dream come true, thank you Jean.
I snapped away and here are the results…
Blue shark cruises in
A relaxed Mako comes in for a look
The fastest shark in our waters relaxed and swimming with us
The king of the open ocean cruising above me and under my boat
Mako tail, the caudal keel of is huge
Report by Jean Tresfon
- After hearing some good reports of tuna being caught at the Canyon (a spot 25nm SW of Cape Point) a few friends and I decided to spend a day at sea trying to shoot a few of these fish. My friends are all spearos and my weapon of choice was a Nikon. We went out with Steve Benjamin of Animal Ocean. The sea was very rough with fair size swell and around 20kts of wind. We did not find the tuna, but did manage to attract a few blue sharks and mako sharks. For me the day was characterised more by missed opportunities than by the results that were obtained. I was really sea-sick, worse than any time in the last 5 years despite being at sea every weekend. When Steve reported the arrival of the sharks I really could not have cared less and just lay on the deck heaving. Steve did not relent and would not rest until I had kitted up and dropped over the side. Being in the water did not help much but I took a few decent shots over the course of about 20 minutes. After that I started to throw up in the water and was in danger of drowning so I climbed back in the boat. (I also was no longer concentrating on watching the sharks which is not clever when there are excited makos darting around). I preset the exposure on the camera and handed it to Steve, who spent another half an hour in the water taking pictures. While my own memories of the day were not the most pleasant, I can only recommend the trip to others. These pelagic sharks are stunning, and being out there in the warm clean water, with 600m to the bottom and nothing but you and the sharks is just an experience that words and pictures just cannot do justice to. I will definitely be going back soon, but this time will be taking a few motion sickness tabs before hand!
Have a look at more pics from the day at Jeans Flickr stream here
Cheers
Happy diving
Steve
