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| Diving with dinosaurs |
| 18 June 2011, 12:15 |
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Our regular Moz blogger Aaron Gekoski travels from the warm waters of Mozambique to film and dive with broadnose sevengill sharks in Cape Town.
Just off the Cape Peninsula, close to the pretty bay of Simon’s Town lies an innocuous short stretch of ocean. Like much of the seascape here, kelp sprouts from the kryptonite green water, which laps at boulders straight out of The Flintstones. It looks a lot like the rest of this spectacular coastline. Yet this body of water harbours a prehistoric secret: just a short hop, skip and a dive away from the shore swim living, breathing dinosaurs.
The name of these astonishing creatures is the broadnose sevengill shark. Yet I prefer their more palatable, less adjective heavy name: cow shark. These fish have glided through our oceans for hundreds of million of years, unblemished by Mother Nature’s marauding fingers. All sharks originally possessed seven pairs of gill slits. A period of tweaking and refining commenced and most species drop a couple of pairs. For some reason the cow sharks kept theirs. In fact, cow sharks have very few modern adaptations, which is why they remain one of the closest links we have to dinosaurs on earth.
For some unknown reason, the cow sharks just love this tiny stretch of water and congregate here en masse, just metres offshore. I’d read about this extraordinary site, yet before now had never had the opportunity to dive here. Shore diving remains one of my favourite methods of exploring the deep blue; there are no boats with their thumping motors, no launches, no travelling out for miles to sea. A shore dive simply features you, your breathing apparatus, your buddies, and a gradual descent into an underwater world packed full of goodies.
Unfortunately, these goodies come wrapped in a bitterly cold packaging. Even 10mm of neoprene, hoodies, gloves and boots do little to mask the freezing water here. Our dive guide was free diver and photographer Jacques de Vos. Jacques has spent countless hours underwater interacting with the cow sharks. He has built up an intimate knowledge of their behaviour and habits. He stressed that whilst the cow sharks may appear docile, we must maintain eye contact and not touch them. Attacks on divers are rare, yet it’s important to remain vigilant when dealing with toothy predators like sharks. Especially ones that can grow to four metres in length and have been found with human remains in their stomachs.
Jacques, divemaster Rob, myself and my colleague – the underwater cinematographer Chris Scarffe - entered the water via the rocks. The Cape’s waters welcomed us with an icy blast, jolting our systems, priming our senses. During descents into unfamiliar (and shark infested) territories, I frequently remind myself that each year more people are killed by their Christmas tree lights, or by falling off their chairs than by sharks. However, it’s easy to lose sight of such rational thoughts in these famously murky waters.
My mind turned to the ridicule that would ensue at being chomped by a shark named after a chubby, milk-yielding herbivore. I’d never live it down. Thankfully the chances of being nibbled by a cow shark remain miniscule. My first encounter with a two metre male put me at ease. In fact, I could have sworn it was smiling at me. Much like dolphins, cow sharks’ stubby faces are etched with perma-smiles. Depending on your point of view, this is either quite cute, or freakishly sinister. Either way, it’s as unusual as it is mesmerising.
The other notable thing about these sharks is their curious, bold nature. Most sharks, despite their fearsome reputations, remain skittish when encountering humans. Cow sharks, on the other hand, will boldly check divers out, flash a wicked smile and then glide off momentarily, before returning for a second look. They move as if in slow motion, their stout bodies propelled by long, elegant sweeps of the tail. The sharks are a photographer’s dream; willing posers for the camera, unfazed by the flashes of strobes and enveloped by the most spectacular studio imaginable.
Sadly, the fate of the cow sharks may remain a familiar one. They are being fished extensively in these waters. Whilst I was diving there, reports began to surface of cow sharks being used as bait for great whites by several of the operators in Gansbaai.
Sharks, yet again are falling prey to the greatest predator to ever walk the earth, Man. Every year, we are responsible for the deaths of up to 100 million sharks. We kill sharks for their jaws and teeth which make tacky souvenirs. We kill them for the oil in their liver, their cartilage, flesh and fins. Now, unimaginably, we are killing them to feed to their own, by those who pass themselves off as shark conservationists.
I left this magical stretch of water full of wonder at the amazing smiling cow sharks of Cape Town, yet appalled at how, once again, we are changing the face of our oceans. Cow sharks have survived five mass extinctions and due to Man’s short sightedness and greed, they now face a sixth.
Aaron Gekoski is a filmmaker, writer and photographer who has just finished filming Shiver, a documentary on Africa’s shark finning crisis. For more information, please visit www.aarongekoski.com.
Please contact the excellent Mike at Pisces Divers (www.piscesdivers.co.za) for more information on diving with the cow sharks. Chris Scarffe’s work can be seen on his website: www.mozimages.com.
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| Killers on the loose in Tofo |
| 3 June 2011, 07:33 |
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How many events in our lives can we count as truly unforgettable? Those magical moments we will recall to our grandchildren as we bounce them happily off our knee, deep into old age? I can probably count mine on one hand – flying over the Valley of the Kings at sunrise in a hot air balloon, scoring the winning goal in a cup final as a kid (a toe punt, but they all count), graduating from university.
I had a moment last week that may have eclipsed them all. It all started regularly enough: another sweet and sunny day in Tofo, Mozambique. The ocean had been unnervingly glassy all week; flat with the potential to explode at any moment. I was diving with operator Peri Peri and we were off to Tofo’s world famous dive site, Manta Reef. We launched effortlessly, caressing our way through the puny waves. Instantly we were surrounded by a pod of humpback dolphins who seemed in an unusually playful mood. And then devil rays, everywhere, tossing themselves out of the water like pancakes from another world. The sea was in a mischievous mood, alive with life. Customers cooed and squealed in unison, not a bad place this Tofo. Little did they know what lay ahead.
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An Orca passes beneath our intrepid trio
And then we saw it; the commotion in the ocean. A huge flock of birds circled above in anticipatory mood. And fins…fins all over. Dolphins? Too big. Whale sharks? Too pointy, too black. As we got closer, we realised what we were encroaching on. A pod of perhaps ten killer whales had clearly just caught something large. Chunks of flesh floated everywhere, as the killers feasted on what had probably been a humpback calf just moments before.
An excited bull shark barrels past one of the orcas.
Of any marine animal, orcas are the ones I’ve always said I’d be most reluctant to swim with. They are carnivorous, smart, fast and hunt in unison. Although no cases exist of them killing humans in the wild (perhaps because most people get the hell out of the water when confronted by an orca) they regularly hunt large mammals such as other whales and seals. And as we know, a snorkeling human can look rather like a delicious seal – only in my eyes a lot less agile and therefore easier to snarf right down.
I never actually thought I’d have to confront this hypothetical situation. Killer whales are seen here maybe once every couple of years, disappearing as quickly as they arrive. No one had ever been in the water with them. So would I snorkel with killer whales in a feeding frenzy? Not on your nelly.
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A bull shark muscles in on the action
But adrenaline does funny things to you. The desire to get in the water was overwhelming. It was very unlikely I’d ever get to see this again in my lifetime. Myself, our instructor Dave and Marine Megafauna Association researcher Helen kitted up like crazy people. We slipped quietly into the water and gingerly snorkeled our way towards the buffet. The ocean was thick with offal and flesh. We could make out large black and white objects all around us. And then shouts from the boat; “sharks, to your left!”; “more, right!”; “lots of them!” We were being buzzed by bulls sharks who had joined in the feast. They were in hunting mode, fins tucked in to their sides, darting around aggressively. They would rush towards us from the deep and were repelled by thrusting a camera, or fin towards their snout. The killer whales snacked on obliviously all around us, uninterested by three mad people flapping around at the surface, fending off sharks. We’d seen enough. We grabbed a couple of photos and flopped back onto the boat, elated. I thought my heart was going to pound through my chest.
Orcas and bull sharks. Photo by Helen Mitchell
The rest of the day and the dives were a magical blur. I seem to remember a breaching giant manta, possibly a whale shark and lots more UFO pancakes. And then as we surfaced from our final dive, the giant slap of a humpback’s tail fin, maybe 100 meters from us. Was that the heartbroken mother, off to continue her migration, without the calf she has nurtured in her belly and by her side for so long? It’s an unforgiving place, the ocean. Yet it’s capable of producing moments that will be forever etched in our memories.
See below for a video clip of the event.
All images by Aaron Gekoski unless otherwise credited.
To see more of Aaron's work please visit www.aarongekoski.com
Aaron was diving with Peri Peri divers. Contact steve@peri-peridivers.com
For more information on the Marine Megafauna Foundation, please visit www.marinemegafauna.org.
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