Superpod of common dolphin head north… - 08:46 pm

17 Jun 2009

Around 6.15am this morning we intercepted a small pod of common dolphin hunting off the Umzimvubu River, about 2km’s out to sea. Following them south, we steamed straight into another hunting line of common dolphin, which turned out to be the vanguard of a superpod of around 2000 to 3000 animals. Moving north with purpose but without hunting intent, we followed them or an hour as they swam steadily northward. From other boats we heard of reports of small red - eye baitball activity off Mbotyi, but nothing significant.

Posted by Earth - Touch Marine Crew: Roger Horrocks, Barry Skinstad, Ian Cook.

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Confirmed: Sardinops sagax sardines documented off Port St Johns - 06:09 pm

16 Jun 2009

After filming some early morning common dolphin predation on what we suspect were red - eye sardines just off Port St Johns, we headed south towards Brazenhead. Attracted by a small group of diving gannets off Mngazi, we jumped in not far from shore, in greenish water with around five meter visibility. Very quickly it became clear that the baitball we were on was the real deal, Sardinops sagax. Not only were these sardines bigger then the red-eyes we had been filming to date, but their balling behaviour was different, much tighter. Unfortunately the usual predators appeared to be put off by our presence and apart from one charge by two dolphin and the odd gannet dive, we witnessed nothing epic. That aside, its great to have confirmation that the sardines we have been waiting for are here.

Posted by Earth - Touch Marine Crew; Roger Horrocks, Barry Skinstad, Ian Cook.

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Sky full of gannets but no sardines… - 03:41 pm

15 Jun 2009

This morning we were greeted after our pre-dawn launch with skies full of gannets just north of Port St Johns. Bailing overboard in an attempt to film the action beneath, we glimpsed snatches of hunting behaviour as clusters of three to four common dolphin careered past us in chase of red eye sardine. The visibility was not great however, around three to four meters, and with large dusky sharks lurking below the action we made a call to focus on capturing the topside action. According to reports from the Natal Sharks Board, the most significant concentration of Sardinops sagax sardine was sighted off the Mbashe River on Thursday last week, some 100km’s down the coast. Tomorrow morning, weather permitting, our plan is to run south past Coffee bay to see if we can find this action in clean water.

Posted by Earth-Touch Marine Crew: Roger Horrocks, Barry Skinstad, Ian Cook.

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Humpback whale breaches enroute to warmer waters… - 05:04 am

15 Jun 2009

Increasingly we are seeing groups of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, making their yearly migration from the cold feeding grounds of Antarctica to the warm spawning grounds of the tropics. One of the larger baleen whales, the humpback whale was almost hunted into extinction until a ban in hunting in 1963 gave these leviathans the opportunity to make a gradual but sustained come back. An intriguing and spectacular behavioural characteristic of these whales is breaching, in which the animal appears to make a real effort to jump clear out of the water. Why they do this is unclear, but experts suggest that as it is often done in groups, it may play a role in communicating with other individuals. Another theory is that it is useful for dislodging parasites.

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Gannets take off into the wind… - 08:10 pm

13 Jun 2009

It might sound obvious on reflection, but gannets will always take off into the wind. Even on a calm sea with the slightest of breezes, one can determine the prevailing wind direction by watching which way the gannets take off. On those rare occasions when the air is absolutely still, one will invariably find the gannets sitting down in large congregations on the water, as getting airborne with no wind is not easy.

Posted by Earth - Touch Marine Crew: Roger Horrocks, Barry Skinstad, Ian Cook.

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Superpod of Bottlenose dolphin aggregate off Port St Johns - 10:55 am

13 Jun 2009

Yesterday morning we launched filled with expectation at what the day might bring. The critical driver of great baitball action however was noticeably missing - we saw no common dolphin the entire day. Instead, we followed what we suspect is the same aggregation of bottlenose dolphin that we filmed yesterday, who were collectively working an area about seven kilometres off the Umzimvubu River Mouth. Sardine are not really on the menu of bottlenose dolphin - stomach content analysis of bottlenose caught in the shark nets has indicated that sardines compromise around 2% of their diet. Instead they feed on larger fish, such as small salmon and shad. Descending to around 20 meters, Barry and I held station, trying to be as non-threatening as possible. What followed was one of the most memorable encounters of our respective diving careers. Clearly intrigued by our presence, the bottlenose gradually built up confidence in our presence, and began to swim around us in ever tighter circles, in groups of twenty to thirty at a time. Barry got some great footage on video which reveals intriguing behaviour which one often misses when witnessing first hand. I will post some more images for the dive shortly.

Posted by Earth - Touch Marine Crew: Roger Horrocks, Barry Skinstad, Ian Cook.

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Slapping tail signals first sardine shoals in Port St Johns? - 09:35 pm

11 Jun 2009

After a slow start to the morning, which dawned warm and overcast with very little wind, things started to pick up in the afternoon. Having completed a recce north up to Waterfall Bluff, we slowly headed back south inshore before being drawn back out to sea by the appearance of a flock of gannets gathering above disturbed water. Expecting a pod of common dolphin, we were quite frankly astounded to discover that they were bottle nose dolphin, in all likelihood the larger type that ranges right off the continental shelf. What was astounding to us was the size of the pod - conservatively we estimate around 500 individuals, but quite possibly it was closer to 1000. Their behaviour was interesting as well - they travelled extremely slowly, almost languidly, and appeared to be in no hurry at all. Jumping in on scuba, we found them to be moving right through the water column - at our depth of 25m, they would disappear below us and out of site. Barry was able to get some great footage of this pod, given their relaxed pace and clearly inquisitive behaviour. A short while after filming this pod underwater, we came across a humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, slapping its tail on the surface repeatedly for around ten minutes. Quite what this behaviour indicates is unclear, with experts holding different positions on it - tongue in check, we have a gut feel that today it signalled the arrival of a pilot shoal of Sardinops sagax sardines in the area. Why do we think this? Quite simply, the load of animals moving into the area. Tomorrow we will surely get a sense if this hunch is true.

Posted by Earth - Touch Marine Crew: Roger Horrocks, Barry Skinstad, Ian Cook.

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Redeye baitballs - hard work and slim pickings… - 03:37 pm

09 Jun 2009

This morning early we came across a pod of common dolphin working small shoals of red-eye sardines, quite probably the same pod that we worked yesterday. From a filming perspective, such feeding behaviour is tricky to capture - not only are the shoals small in size, they tend to move far more quickly through the water column and do not ball nearly as tightly as the Sardinops sagax sardines, thus being harder to feed on. It would appear that it is also tricky for the pursuing sharks, who struggle to take advantage of these fast moving meal opportunities, and never have we seen a shark actually catch a red-eye sardine underwater. Around 10.00am the north easterly, or ‘beastly easterly’ as we call it, started to freshen, and we cut our losses and headed back to base. Based on current reports, its is not unlikely that the pilot shoal reported off Mazeppa bay three days ago could be with us in the next few days, so we will continue to keep focused on the south, and wait for the action to erupt.

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Large pod of Bottlenose Dolphin patrol surfline - 07:37 pm

08 Jun 2009

Running forty kilometres south this morning, we completed our first reconnaissance trip in search of the first pilot shoals of the sardine species that makes the sardine run an event each year, sardinops sagax. Nothing. As the south westerly wind moderated, we headed inshore and picked up a large pod of bottlenose dolphin, Tusiops truncatus, patrolling the outside edge of the surfline, in all likelihood a resident pod. Larger framed and bulkier than the common dolphin, Dephinus delphis, this species is well known on the east coast of South Africa, where one of its ‘forms’ or suspected sub-species is often seen playing in the surf close to shore. On sardine bait balls last year we occasionally saw the bottlenose dolphin in attendance, but very much paying a secondary role to the main driver and protagonist of these feeding events, the common dolphin.

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Can Sharks create baitballs on their own? - 11:03 am

07 Jun 2009

Yesterday was another quiet day at sea off Port St Johns, overcast, no wind with sea conditions being near perfect. After picking up some early morning dolphin feeding activity which we struggled to film because of poor visibility and fast moving action, we noticed a sudden boiling of activity close to our boat. It appeared to be a shark bait ball - there were no dolphins in the vicinity - a small shoal of red-eye sardine that had been balled to the surface by a group of attacking sharks, and who were in the process of being attacked from both below and above, by sharks and cape gannets. Sharks are not known for their co-operative feeding skills, so was this bait ball created by them or by something else. Earlier Barry had noticed a shoal of bonito’s or skip jacks while filming underwater - its possible that it was these same bonito’s that had done the work of the dolphin to create the bait ball in the first place, which the sharks had then taken advantage of?

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