Every year on the South African coast between the months of May and August, shoals of sardines (Sardinops Sagax) travel north from the Agulhas banks off Cape Town. They swim along the coastline as they make their way up along Transkei and KwaZulu-Natal.

The Sardine Run is a multi faceted spectacle of predators and prey. It is a marine wildlife extravaganza rivaling the Great Migration of the wildebeest. Dolphins, sharks, whales and birds gorge themselves on the sardines allowing the diver to witness first hand a show that will live on in memory for ever.

Copper shark cruising through sardine bait ball - Jean Tresfon

A friend, Jean Tresfon, had been enthusiastically discussing putting an expedition together to go and experience the sardine run from Port st Johns. We wanted a small, like minded team, so we could quickly mobilize in the mornings and have minimal impact on the animal’s behavior in the water. It didn’t take long for us to find six eager divers; we booked a wonderful lodge, packed the cars and hit the road.

This was to be my 3^rd Sardine run, but the first one under my own name, ANIMAL OCEAN. I was filled with excitement thinking back to the sights I have been blessed enough to see and the though that I would be there again. A hint of apprehension lingered with me as I knew that there are no guarantees for this trip.

So many elements have to come together for divers to have a successful trip.

By this I mean that the boats have to be able to launch through the surf zone, the visibility has to be good enough to see and divers have to enter quickly without disturbing the animals. The sardines have to enter the area where we are based and the predators have to find the fish and then form the balls

If all these things happen then you stand a chance of experiencing this madness. Luckily the team knew all this and were prepared for anything. With this attitude you will have a great time.

We ended up spending our week with great ocean conditions and lots of action. We only had 1 day where the ocean was quite. This is however a relative term because we still had many dolphins, gannets and whales with us but they weren’t feeding.

We got to experience many different kinds of bait balls, including one morning were we dived on a ball of baitfish being devoured by sharks and Eastern little tuna. In the image you can see hundreds of little tuna as they shot in to feed. They ate every single last bait fish.

Eastern little tuna and sharks devour a shoal of baitfish on the surface - Jean Tresfon

We found bait balls comprising of shad (Pomatomus saltatrix), mackerel and red eyes (Etrumeus whiteheadi), each behaving differently as a whole. Some such as red eye form loose fast moving shoals that can be hard to follow while shad form shoals that actively seek protection amongst the divers.

Shad flee as a common dolohin enters the water in persuit - Jean Tresfon

Other highlights were seeing so many humpback whales travelling up the coast line towards their calving grounds to the north. It is always a privilege to hear the sound of a pod of whales breathing as they surface or watch as they breach in the distance

Humpback whale breaches

I have tried to describe two of the days that really stand out to me, but Im afraid words fail me. I can only hope to fill in your minds eye with the amazing images that Jean Tresfon captured on his trip with me.

Bryde’s whale mayhem

The day didn’t look good and by 10am we had failed to spot any early morning action. The wind was blowing strong from the North East and the sea had whipped itself into a mess of whitecaps and choppy swells. I had received a call that there was potential action “10km” of shore. I knew that the boat didn’t have a GPS and I couldn’t be certain if 10km was actually 5 or 15 km. We searched unsuccessfully none the less and slowly headed back towards Port St Johns. Luckily we spotted action off the river mouth and we jumped in. Jean was first on this small bait ball and had the pick of the shark action. He took this image as one came careening at him.

Sharks feeding - Jean Tresfon

Another boat arrived and told me about the great baitball they had just come from and where to find it. We beat into the wind and found what everyone was speaking about. As I arrived I saw one of the skippers flailing around in his swimming shorts squealing with glee as a Byrde’s whale surged through a black mass just under the surface. Snorkelers were washing off its back as the head and body broke the surface.

In a heartbeat we were in the water with the swirling mass of sardines. The ball was roughly 10m wide and 6m deep and just being hammered buy a pod of common dolphins, countless dusky, blacktip and copper sharks. And there was a Brydes whale sporadically lunging though. All the animals were unperturbed by the many divers bobbing in the water. The team set them selves up around the action and got to witness first hand the splendor of so many predators feeding on this writhing shinning mass of fish.

Jean Tresfon

Jean Tresfon

Hello BRYDES WHALE !!

Diver and whale - Jean Tresfon

The bait ball marathon

We launched as usual into a beautiful day and headed north. I though it would be best to check the area of yesterdays amazing action, if there was nothing then “oh well”, we’ll search elsewhere. There were quite a few boats in the area as the operators form Mboyti had heard about the previous days baitball.

Gannet searching

I spotted a small pocket of bird diving not far off and headed towards it, I could see another boat rapidly approaching. They arrived just before I did,  I cruised up and we chatted. After waiting 20mins we jumped in and enjoyed this delightful little ball all to ourselves. The action consisted of only a handful of dolphins but I knew that we had sardines and that no one else would bother with such a small ball after the behemoth of a sardine baitball of the previous day.

Boats came and went, even with me inviting them to dive.

After hours of sitting on this one baitball the team was relaxed and happily soaking in the slow but steady dolphin action. I even put the boat on top of the fish so the team could get split screen images of the boat and the fish.

Animal Ocean and the sardines

It all changed at 2 pm (after 6 hours of us diving). It was as if all the predators in the area got hungry and realised that there was a single shoal of sardines to feast on. The sky filled with gannets, the sharks welled up from below and the handful of dolphins were joined by others. The feast had begun.

Gannets feast - Jean Tresfon

The photographers were scratching for memory cards, sucking the dregs of their cylinders and swapping batteries. After an entire day of action the best had only just started. We stayed with this now intense action until the gannet’s glowed orange in the light of the setting sun. The divers came up shrieking with joy. Mark van Coller was ecstatic with the evening light and wore a smile that was larger than his head. We headed in tired and extremely happy. What a way to spend a day.

Setting sun and sardine ball - Jean Tresfon

I hope this sheds some light on the sardine run and our experiences this year, please feel free to post your comments.

I have also included some links to more information and blog posts from friends about this years sardine run

Jean Tresfon Flickr stream

Drew Wong comments and review

Mark van Coller images

I will be heading to Port St John in June – July 2011, if you would like to join me. Please email me and we can plan another amazing adventure.

All the best

Steve Benjamin

Last week Tuesday, 11 interns from the volunteer Adventure Corporation (VACorps) went out to False Bay to join Steve Benjamin, and Animal Ocean. The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect, for a day on the water. After launching the boat from Miller’s Point, we set off towards Seal Island to check out the seals. About 15 minutes into our trip, we spotted diving Gannets in the distance and decided to check it out. What we found however was a 1000 strong, pod of common dolphin! The water was white with moving dolphin, and the sound of 1000 dolphins echoed all around us. What and incredible experience! It didn’t stop there though however, after a stop at the biggest Cape Fur seal colony in the area, we then made our way over to Pyramid Rock for a dive with the Cow Sharks. The water was top to bottom visibility, pancake flat, and we were surrounded most of the dive by at least 15 Cow sharks, ranging from 1m to 2.5m. These impressive creatures let us swim amongst them for a good 40 minutes. What a day to remember! (Text from VACorps newsletter)

Volunteer Adventure Corps

Mid March saw the freediving duo of the newly formed Ocean Encounters, 3x World Champion Fred Buyle and No fins dare devil William Winram arriving in Cape Town to a great weekend of weather. We headed out to the seal Duiker Island seal colony were we found cool 11C but clean water. We joined a playful group of 4 month old seal pups in the shallow secure waters near the island.

Fred Buyle with the seal pups of Duiker Island

William Winram with a playful pack of pups

These pups were born in Nov/Dec last year and seemed excited to play with the divers. It was time to warm up with some hot coffee while we searched for the next diving experience. It wasn’t long till I noticed a bird activity and a shimmering water surface a few kilometers offshore, it was a large pod of common dolphins!

Fred Buyle with a pod of common dolphins near Hout Bay

Attracted buy the possibility of riding our bow wave, they surrounded us. A magical experience right on our door step

The next day we headed to pyramid rocks to dive with the sevengill cow sharks. The light NW wind had brought in quite a bit of cloud cover so we dived while we waited for better lighting. The water was a massive 2 degrees warmer but slightly greener. With just about 10m vis, if I looked carefully I could see the sharks swimming on the bottom. The cowsharks did no disappoint with up to 15 sharks being present at the site.

Fred Buyle and William Winram with the Cowsharks

We dived until we were chilled to the bone and once again some hot coffee saved the day.
Considering the difficult ocean conditions we have been having lately the guys had a wonderful gap in the weather and some good diving.

One of the Netherlands most acclaimed award-winning underwater photographers, Peter Voerhoog, traveled to Cape Town with the goal of photographing blue sharks for his latest book “Sharks, close encounters”.

Sharks, close encounters by Peter Verhoog

Here are some of the images he captured while diving with us in the Cape

Dusky Dolphins play in the cool Atlantic waters off Cape Town

Cape fur seals in Houtbay harbor

Steve Benjamin and Sevengill cowshark

Blue sharks investigate Peter off Cape Point

Cape fur seals playing off Duiker Island, Houtbay

Peter in tough conditions in order to get the blue shark images

I am looking forward to this inspiring book and am proud to have played a small part in it

Steve

Hey guys

Its been awhile since my last blog entry. I find myself this evening with so many experiences I want to share and I dont know where to start. I always find its best to show people what we’ve been doing. So below I have chosen a few images from the last few weeks. The images come from a range a photographers to whom I am grateful.

Chapmans peak panoramic by Goeff Spiby

This image was taken on a photographic trip on the Atlantic seaboard. It really shows the beauty of being under Chapmans peak and the scale of the mountain. The wind was howling with this bay being slightly protected. I had to position myself in the lee of the granite boulders to keep the boat steady.

Bull and dead pup by Geoff Spiby

The seals have been pupping on Duiker Island, not all make it. Here we found a bull seal resting on a small granite boulder lying right next to young seals corpse seemingly oblivious to it. In the water we found many dead pups, most being scavanged apon by giant petrols and seagulls, the strong winds and waves washing possibly washing them off the island.

Steve Benjamin filming for Charles Maxwell at Duiker Island by Jean Tresfon

Trying to capture the seals swimming in thick kelp was tough but once one finds a pattern in the seeming chaos of swirling seals we got the shots.

Swimming seal by Jean Tresfon

Here Jean captured the seal just as it darted “flew” away

Chapmans peak, Geoff Spiby

We were traveling along the base of Chapmans peak, mostly trying to stay out of the howling wind, when we arrived at my faverite crayfishing spot. This turned out to be a well know location to others on the boat. We jumped into the cold but clean water to see what could be captured. These anemonies are covering the granite boulders in the shallows . One can see the mussel zone at the top of the rock.

Chapmans peak ledges Geoff Spiby

This was taken at the same location as the last image but just a bit deeper. You can see the small crayfish that dwell in these crevases. That crack at the top of the image used to hold huge crayfish but not anymore. The photographer in the background is Mark Van Coller.

Dusky Dolphins by Peter Lambert

Dusky dolphin pod by Peter Lambert

On this day we encountered the local pod of Dusky dolphins as they were aggregating. The can be a very inquisitive species of dolphin and came to investigate the divers.

Jellyfish by Jean Tresfon

There have been an abundance of Jellyfish on our coastline latley, which make beautiful subjects. It has also lead to the appearance of many sunfish.

Jean Tresfon Sunfish

Sunfish by Jean Tresfon

It took me awhile to figure out how to get photographers close to these small sunfish, they just kept swimming away. The larger individuals seem to be less skittish and easier to work with, but also less common. We encountered up to 5 small individuals at a time and got extremely close in often dirty water.  Here Jean Tresfon captures the beauty of a sunfish in Table Bay.

Jean Tresfon and Sunfish by Geoff Spiby

Here one can see that these are small individuals and Jean tries to get a close up with his wide angle lens

Sevengill Cowshark by Steve Benjamin

Although not a pro image I wanted to mention the Sevengill sharks. They have returned in full force.  We have done several dives there in the last week and I am always blown away. On one occasion I had 13 in my field of view, from the bottom to about 8m in the water column.On another dive I found seal remains (flipper, fur and intestine), Iether a seal carcas washed in or the Sevengills got hungry.

Well I hope you have gotten an idea of what I have been up to. There are some fun project in the pipline so get in contact to see what is going on and how I can help

Cheers

Steve

I was alerted to an amazing event by a friend, Toby Esdar, who was catching crayfish in the area. He told me the water was black with fish, I had to have a look. I raced to Chapmans peak to see just what he was speaking about. I saw shoals of fish swirling in the bays below chappies as a few dusky dolphins and seals lunged to consume them. In particular we saw one pocket that had been separate from the main shoal and was the target of the predators. Jean Tresfon met me there and together watched.

Dusky dolphins work a baitball at the base of Chapmans peak, Hout Bay, Cape Town

Shoals of fish against the cliffs

I called Charles Maxwell and told him what was happening. He quickly mobilized and an hour later we were on the sea and heading towards the action. We found the shoals still in the same location but the dusky dolphins and seals had stopped feeding. The following images were taken by Jean Tresfon

Silver shoals and seal, Jean Tresfon

Shoal engulfs the cameraman, Jean Tresfon

Chappies and the shoal

Summers sun shines down on the shoal

Diving in the shoal

This is what Jean had to say :

” Yesterday at lunchtime I received a phone call from a friend to let me know that there was a lot of bird activity at Chapmans Peak. I drove out for a look and saw a huge baitball of fish up against the side. In the pic below you can clearly see the baitball in the centre of the picture, and in fact the entire dark mass above and to the left is also baitfish. The water was looking clean and we could see a few dolphins and seals smashing through the baitball and grabbing mouthfuls of fish.

I rushed home, grabbed my camera and dive kit and managed to be in the water within an hour of having first seen the shoal. Unfortunately it was too late for any predator action, as the dolphins had left and a few stuffed looking seals were swimming around lazily. Still a baitball in Hout Bay is not a common sight and I jumped in regardless. The shoal turned out to be anchovies and there were quite a few of them. The shoal was probably 60m long and 10m wide and it was incredible just to swim underneath it into the dark shadow and just watch the millions of fish moving in complete harmony. There were also a lot of Hottentot and Galjoen swimming around and I think they were feeding on the injured anchovies. ”

Steve Benjamin, Jean Tresfon and Charles Maxwell. Image by Roxy Towil

Another amazing day in Cape Town

This is what Cape Town can be !!!

This is what Jean Tresfon had to say

Following several days of pumping SE winds the water on Cape Town’s Atlantic seaboard on Saturday was looking about as good as it gets: 20m viz and a chilly 10 deg C. A few enthusiastic divers and photographers jumped onto a boat and headed out into the blue to see if we could get some good dolphin interactions. We saw some common dolphins on the hunt but they were not interested in stopping. The dusky dolphins however were a different story and spent almost half an hour with us allowing for a stunning interaction. While in the water a Brydes whale swam under me but I was not quick enough to get a photo. The excitement on board was infectious and we all agreed the day out had been worth it. On the way home some more dolphins appeared and we jumped back into the water. Finning fast and following some of the dolphins I saw a huge cloud of white water ahead and the next moment I was face to face with two 30 ton humpback whales. This was my first time in the water with a really big whale and I was blown away by how big these animals actually are up close. The law in South Africa prohibits approaching closer than 300m to a whale so we swam back to the boat, but not before taking a few photos of course! On the way back we stopped at Seal Island for a quick dip. So one boat ride out and we were able to dive with three different mammals in one afternoon, not too shabby for a day out in the Cape!

Jean Tresfon surrounded

Jean Tresfon and Dusky

Image by Steve Benjamin

By Jean Tresfon

By Jean Tresfon

By Jean Tresfon

By Jean Tresfon

By Jean Tresfon

We watched this Humpback whale breaching early in the morning in the chilly waters off Dassen Island

A mixed team of freedivers, spearfishermen and photographers headed to Dassen Island for the day. We had great reports from the previous day so expectations were high and we were not disappointed.

We left the slipway and found a mixed pod of Dusky and Heaviside dolphins playing together. Unfortunately the vis was quite bad but everyone enjoyed the dolphins company

We headed to some reefs near the island were we had 20m vis. The guys drifted over the reef watching yellowtail and bonito swimming past.

Some of the team opted to SCUBA on an unbelievable offshore blinder. The pinnacle just breaks the surface and drops to 40m rapidly with narrow cracks running down its flanks. An amazing dive

We had a great day spent at Dassen Island, 100km north of Cape Town on the west coast and 10km Offshore.

We jumped in with a pod of Dusky dolphins half way to the island. The vis was a shocking 1m but we still had dolphins between our legs. We went greeted with great 12m vis around the island and it didn’t take us long to get in and hunt for a hottentot. We found 4 pyjama sharks in huise baai, but they didn’t stick around. On a SCUBA dive on the south corner of the island Falk and myself watched 3 houndsharks (Mustilis mustilis) interacting. It appeared to be one large female being trailed by 2 small males. Crayfish were in every crevice, I cant wait for the season to open. Later on whilst searching for big hottentot I had a pair of yellowtail swim up to me. One swam away and the other was just eaten for supper.

A great day on the sea.

Read what Morten wrote about the day here

First a short clip of the dusky dolphins we encountered and then a few images from the day……

Morten on the inside edge of Dassen Island

Dassen Island in glassy, flat conditions

Hagfish coming in to eat a pilchard

Pelicans on the Island, watch out penguins and cormerants

Hottentot in kelp forest