It was special day on Sunday in False bay, Glassy, great vis and warm. It was a real summers day with the vis of winter. We dived with the Sevengill cow sharks and seals most of the day. There were a lot of fishermen catching snoek nearby, however we didn’t catch anything. The entertainment coming from catching gurnards when someone got a birds nest and the lure stayed on the bottom to long.

It was just one of those days your happy to be alive. Here are a range of images from the day.

Thanks to everyone for the great times

Catshark video clip

It was supposed to be raining and strong NW winds, great for a shore dive! It turned out to be a beautiful day. We jumped into Castle rock marine reserve to explore. The vis had dropped from earlier in the week but was still pleasant at times. I would call it a patchy 5-8m vis, which is plenty for a morning wander through the kelp forest. A pair of seals followed us along our path between the rock ledges. We found three shark species (Seven gill cowsharks, Pufferadder and Dark shysharks) and a small electric ray.

Castle rock marine reserve

View of the kelp forest at millers point

Curious seal

Ricky and seals

In the pouring rain we kitted up for a day of seals and cow sharks. Everyone was keen to get into the clean (15m vis) blue winter waters as it was much more pleasant under than above.

Steve, Tomas, Jenny, Alex, Cara

The team headed to partridge point for some seal snorkeling. It is always amazing to see an animal so happy in the water. The team quickly had seal between their legs and smiles all round.

Next we put on our SCUBA kit and went down to the cow sharks. First we played with the puffadder shysharks and pyjama sharks but it wasn’t long until a cow shark came in to investigate. We explored the caves and overhang’s and found cuttlefish, west coast rock lobster, abalone and giant periwinkles. The magic of the kelp forest can never be underestimated.

Cuttlefish

Great day in False Bay

Cheers

Steve

I got a call from Alex at 11pm last night “I have dived Aliwal Shoal this morning, have just arrived in Cape Town and heard you dive with Cowsharks” he said.

It was a beautiful morning on the peninsular, really one of those days where one is almost as happy just to be near the sea as in it. I pick up Alex in town and headed for the coast. Our first stop was an educational one and a lesson “How to eat Biltong”. I guess one doesn’t get much in Holland. We stopped at Boulders beach and enjoyed the noisy cute penguins. It was great to see the nest boxes and see really healthy happy birds waddling around the beach.

We kitted up at Millers point and entered the water from the shore. It is quite something to explore a kelp forest for the first time. We headed to Cowshark ally and very quickly found many. They are really inquisitive, coming very close to us. Small males and hefty females surrounded us. In 15m vis it is a pleasure. We found a puffadder catshark and a smooth hound shark. 3 species in one dive is not bad. I was surprised we didn’t find and pyjama sharks or Spotted gullies, oh well next time.

I took some images with my Olympus Mju, which is only rated to 10m ! but handled 12m just fine thankfully. Pictures always tell a story better than words. Hope you enjoyed them.

On our way home we stopped to admire a playful Southern wright whale, what a day!

Cheers

Steve

A beautiful still day in the bay, spring is on the way. I picked up Hanli Prinsloo and Craig McKune and headed to Millers point for an afternoon of Cowshark freediving.

We entered the water and were greeted with 15m vis and 16C water…heaven!!!

I wanted to show the team what a healthy False Bay ecosystem should look like and point out a few fish species. I took them to the thick kelp bed near pyramid rock and by the third dive all the red roman, red steenbras, bankies and red stumpnose had come in from the surrounding areas to investigate the activity. Great to see these fish in the bay, it is near impossible to find them outside these safe areas.

We swam out into the sparse kelp forest that the Cowshark like to frequent and sure enough there they were. We dived on a small area and waited for the sharks to come to us. It is 12m deep in this area and simply by lying still on the bottom they came to investigate. I would guess we saw 10-15 sharks in total and 1 pregnant Spotted Gully shark.

As we headed into the shallows I spotted a puffadder shyshark. I love these sharks and dived to film it. I was getting a close up when a cowshark came from behind and swam straight into my camera and continued on its way, the clip is at the beginningCowshark diving of the video. Just goes to show you never know what can happen next.

Hanli Prinsloo and Cowshark