As any visitor to Cape Town will testify, there is no shortage of beautiful coastline to explore. The reality, however, is that the constraints of time and money, as well as a growing alienation from things outdoor and natural, mean that most Capetonians get very few (if any) opportunities to experience the coast. So while we aimed to build the youngsters knowledge during this outing, our primary goal was to provide a rich experience of our natural, marine heritage.

This year on the 18th of August, 20 students participated and had to complete around 36 tasks between Muizenberg and Simon’s Town. Points were awarded for each task completed, so the more tasks fulfilled the better the chance of winning! The tasks consisted of photo opportunities, experiences (diving and visiting specific venues and museums), answering questions along the way, and of course bringing back proof of the tasks being done!

The Save Our Seas Shark Centre was one of the venues to be visited, and while sipping on a mug of hot chocolate to warm up on a chilly day, the challenge was for the students to name 10 animals (vertebrates or invertebrates) in the fish tank.

Identifying vertebrates and invertebrates in the tank

Yummy hot chocolate!

The overall event was a huge success with some challenges being fairly intense, however the students performed remarkably while at the same time had lots of fun! Some students managed to get interviewed on the local CCFM radio station and promoted the event and Save Our Seas!

The students were particularly impressed with the way that the community in False
Bay responded to the event - people couldn’t have been nicer, and they were all only too happy to help, which helped contribute to the success of the event!

The winner’s of the AmazingDIVER challenge will be announced at UCT tomorrow, Thursday 23 August. Good luck to all the students and a huge thanks and pat on the back to Chris Fourie and UCT’s Underwater Club for putting on a great event!

A little more about Adam…

Adam has worked in a number of jobs associated with the marine environment encompassing scientific research, education on an eco-tourism dive vessel and as a member of production teams on 20 underwater documentaries. In 2006, Adam moved to Tasmania, Australia to undertake a PhD on Sevengill shark ecology, which was partially funded by SOSF and was completed in 2011. Adam has been looking at the role Sevengills play in the temperate ecosystems in Tasmania, and is now expanding the project in Australia to incorporate the whole of the east coast from New South Wales to Tasmania. He is also trying to set up a project in Port Phillip Bay, which will focus on the Sevengill pups.

Currently, Adam holds research positions at Deakin University in Melbourne, the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies in Hobart and the Reef Channel, North Queensland.

Why Adam chose to study Sevengills?

The last person to complete a large study on the Sevengills was Dave Ebert with his PhD in the 1980’s. There hasn’t been much interest in them since, only a few smaller studies in Argentina and Southern Australia. This is surprising as Sevengills are found in most temperate waters except for the North Atlantic, and are a coastal species that appear to be abundant and easy to catch.

Somehow this species has been overlooked. Whites sharks are referred to as being the apex predator at the top of food chain, however Sevengills eat the same prey and there appear to be more of them. So could they have a greater influence on the ecosystem than the Whites?

Previously their diets were studied and some small reproductive work, but there has been no real focus on their ecology and role in ecosystem, until Adam’s work in Tasmania.

Sevengills have unique spot patterns which can help identify them from each other

A little more about Sevengills…

The broadnose sevengill shark, Notorynchus cepedianus, is a large (up to 3m) coastal-associated apex predator with a wide temperate distribution. This species’ trophic position rivals that of other species considered important upper trophic predators such as tiger sharks and white sharks (Cortés 1999; Barnett et al. 2010b; Barnett et al. 2012). Yet, in contrast to the latter two shark species, considerably less information is available on Sevengill sharks.

Sevengill sharks are a low value fishery species across their global distribution. However, there are no management policies or conservation considerations for this species in any country, and exploitation is currently unrestricted. Ongoing unregulated exploitation is of concern, as previous targeting of Sevengills in California and Namibia suggests vulnerability to fishing (Barnett et al. 2012).

Their low conservation priority may be attributed to the lack of available data (classified as data deficient on the IUCN Red List). For example, in South Africa, scientists have noticed reduced catches, but efforts to form management strategies are hindered by this lack of data. In the Southern Australian shark fishery, they are at high risk in terms of abundance and catch susceptibility, with current fishing mortality rate estimated to be higher than the maximum sustainable levels (Zhou et al. 2007).

Are Sevengills a threatened species?

Worldwide, the Sevengills are a bycatch species in commercial fisheries and are also targeted by recreational fisherman. Currently there are no conservation management plans in place for them and there is concern in South Africa that they are being affected by fishing. One of the aims of this project will be to collect enough data to inform management as to whether any threats exist.

Alison diving with a Sevengill at the aggregation site, up to 70 sharks can been counted on a single hour long dive

Why is False Bay so unique?

Adam and Alison are looking to see what the Sevengills are doing in False Bay and how important this ecosystem is as an aggregation site. False Bay is unique in that it is the only place in world where large numbers of Sevengills (up to 70 on a single dive) can be consistently seen. In all other instances, the water is so murky that there is little visibility or sightings are few and far between. Another factor is that it is suspected that pregnant females reside here. There is little known information on pregnant females elsewhere in world so this presents a great opportunity to collect more data which will be done by using non-destructive methods, for e.g. analysing hormones in the blood samples that are collected. 

Large female Sevengill with fresh mating scars on her side and pectoral fin

How much has been done on the False Bay project so far?

This project plans to track the sharks using acoustic tags and receivers. With the expected 10-year battery life of the tags, the research team is hoping to give the project a long-term focus and extend this out of False Bay to other areas of South Africa. In collaboration with Dr. Paul Cowley from the South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity and the Ocean Tracking Network, migration patterns along the South African coast can be determined using an existing array of acoustic receivers.

Alison and Dr. Malcolm Smale hold the shark in place while Adam attaches the tag

The pilot phase of this project is to deploy the acoustic receivers (which was done when Adam visited in November 2012) and to tag the Sevengills (which they have started on this March trip), so that they can determine whether or not they need to move the receivers in the bay to maximize the data collection. Alison will be downloading the receivers in June, so they will start to get an idea on the sharks movements in False Bay then, while Adam will return in November to tag more Sevengills.

The Sevengills will be acoustically tracked together with the White sharks at Seal Island and around False Bay. With up to 75% of the Sevengills diet being seal, Adam and Alison are hoping to determine where the Sevengills are hunting seal, and whether or not they visit Seal Island, and if they do visit the island, do they do so while the Whites are there, or wait till spring and summer when the whites are less prominent at the island.

During this March field trip, 13 Sevengills were tagged and blood and tissue samples were collected for stable isotope analysis, which allows the scientists to determine their diet, and for reproductive hormone analysis, which allows them to assess maturity status and reproductive seasonality.

Sevengill held upside down in the water to keep the shark calm and ensure water flowing over the gills at the same time

As with all successful projects, a strong team of collaborators are involved including Adrian Hewitt (UCT and Shark Spotters), Dr. Malcolm Smale (Bayworld), Meaghen McCord and Tamzyn Zweig (The South African Shark Conservancy), Charlene da Silva (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) and Dr. Paul Cowley (SAIAB and OTN). The main sponsors of this project are The Two Oceans Aquarium who have donated tags, manpower and funding and Ocearch who have also donated tags. The Save Our Seas Shark Centre has offered accommodation to Adam at the Shark Centre during his visits for field work.

Hanli Prinsloo, an eleven-times South African freediving record holder, filmmaker and avid ocean adventurer, spoke about ‘Fear, risk and freedom: Freediving in the wild oceans‘.  Believing in the power of storytelling and inspiration, Hanli captivated the audience with anecdotes of her freediving experiences from around the world - illustrating her underwater interactions with turtles, whale sharks, blue whales, manta rays and sharks with breathtaking photography.

Dr. Eleanor Yeld Hutchings, who is the Manager of WWF-SA’s The People’s Coast Programme and the specialist marine biologist presenter for the award-winning SABC television documentary series ‘Shoreline”, spoke about ‘Sharing Our Shoreline’. Dr. Yeld Hutchings delighted the audience with fascinating stories and video footage from her travels around South Africa’s biodiverse coastline – from the adaptations of mangrove mudskippers to the beauty of nesting leatherback turtles in Maputaland.

Both speakers addressed the importance of communication for conservation and the power of enabling people to experience coasts and oceans to positively affect attitudes and behavior.

The Shark Centre held a lucky prize draw during the evening, which was awarded to Peter Ryan. The prize included a Save Our Seas coffee table book and t-shirt.

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1.)  I was struck by the Bay – False Bay! Just amazing.
2.)  Alison Kock was keeping me pointed in the right direction!

As you all know, Alison is the leading shark scientist here - but did you also know that she is consummate host! From picking me up at the airport, to taking me to the grocery store (Spar), to introducing me to the staff I could not have been in better hands!  Especially since I was only half-conscious for the first day … Thank you ALISON!

By day #2, it was time to get to work.

I am here for a month to do field work on my PhD at the University of Sydney, but I am also very fortunate to have just received a Save Our Seas grant. As an SOS grantee, I feel like I’ve been welcomed into a very smart, cool and sharky family! OK – so onto the sharky work:

I have three tasks while I am here:  1.) interviews with diverse group of folks who helped put the Shark Spotter program together;  2.)  research at the University of Cape Town, and 3.) getting to know sharks better.  So this is about learning about people, policies and sharks! 
This is clearly going to be fun!

On Thursday (day #3), I met my first great white shark.

I went on the Save Our Seas Research Boat with Adrian (Skipper/masters degree student), Timo (funny/German/crewmate) and Jake [here in his red jacket]. We went out to Seal Island, in False Bay, to view white shark predations and do research on sharks that approached the ship. 

Here’s how it works when you go out on the Save Our Seas boat:

1.)  You are up at 5am on the boat, out to sea, by 6:30am.
2.)  Cruise around for the first hour to see where sharks are jumping (breaching) to predate on seals. And then report on those predations ( i.e. how long they go on for, what the seal was doing).
3.)  Then around 8:30am, we anchor off Seal Island to spot white sharks to try and tag, gain tissue samples and record size as well as fin identifications.

I had the clip board and needed to check on the water temperature, visibility, wind direction and then watch for the predations from the top deck, and then look for markings, etc when sharks came up to the boat. BEST JOB EVER!!

So our collective job then was to wait. Seal Island is not an aquarium, it is a thriving ecosystem. And after a good deal of patience, a 3 meter great white shark popped its head up and I saw it’s nose come out of the water. It was massive and fantastic!  It had a circle on its nose, a bit off-colour and it was FAST! As fast as you think a shark can move – yup, that fast. It stayed with us for a few minutes – returning and saying hi to Timo at the back of the boat. And then it was gone! It was brief, but unbelievable.

No sight for the rest of the day. It’s mystery intact, but having introduced itself to me and the team, the shark had returned to the surroundings of Seal Island. WOW!

We headed back to land. I had seen my first great white shark, marked incredibly cool things down on the clipboard, and met a great team. Sounds like a good day on Seal Island in False Bay to me.

OK - part II and the story of the rest of the week coming soon!

The next part of the visit aimed to illustrate just how dependant humans are on our oceans. They also learned a whole lot about sharks, and about the important role that these often misunderstood animals play in marine health. While we can’t ask all of our young learners to become avid shark lovers (although quite a few of them are), it is important that they understand the role that sharks play in our own species’ survival. It was a real privilege working with such an enthusiastic group.

The group then walked across the road to Dalebrook Beach to see first hand some of the rock pool creatures (and their special adaptations) that Paul had discussed in the presentation. Both the adults and children were particularly excited to explore the myriad of little rock pools – finding Limpets, Barnacles, Star Fish, Sea Anemones, a shark egg, Chitons, remains of a Cuttlefish and many small fish.

The group returned to the Shark Centre for a relaxing lunch near the pool, followed by an intriguing look at the Shark Centre’s small aquarium. After a short shark lesson, the group ended their marine outing by watching the movie ‘Shark Riddle’.

The Save Our Seas Shark Centre offers free educational marine outings, which can be arranged with Paul Millar (email paul@saveourseas.com or phone 021 788 6694).

The Save Our Seas Shark Centre is open daily to the general public, Monday-Friday from 10am to 4pm, and on Saturdays from 10am to 3pm during summer months. Visitors to the Centre can expect to see small sharks and marine life in the aquarium, view marine documentaries and find out general shark and research information.

Our first day started with a shark lesson where we learned a whole lot of shark facts, particularly the crucial role that these often misunderstood animals play in maintaining a healthy ocean, and how this benefits us humans. Then it was off to the beach for a treasure hunt for the biggest, smallest, slimiest, most beautiful objects imaginable. It was great to see (yet again) how much kids enjoy getting to grips with all the seemingly weird stuff one finds washed up along the shore, and how much they learn as they do so.

The next day the holiday-clubbers evolved into an efficient biscuit-making production line. Ingredients were mixed, dough was kneaded and funky sea creature shapes created. After a short movie while the oven did its thing, the decorating began in earnest with colours as bright as a pristine coral reef. At the end of the morning, happy children left clutching a box of delicious, albeit lurid, marine-themed biscuits.

After our indoor baking day, we needed an outdoor adventure. Not to be put off by thick coastal fog, we hopped on the train at nearby Kalk Bay station and headed for Muizenberg. As the train doors slid open an unmistakeable odour erupted – red bait! Muizenberg corner was buried under massive mounds of the decomposing pods. None of us had ever seen it in these quantities, and with a prolonged spell of flat seas and windless weather (conditions not usually associated with redbait being washed up), we are still searching for an explanation (does anyone have one?).

Fascinated but somewhat nauseous, we started our hike along the St James coastal path. A shell hunt, bird watching, a three-legged spiny starfish and numerous anemones later, we reached the tidal pool for a welcome lunch.  As we ate, the mist lifted and soon we were swimming in full sunshine. Then it was onwards to the Save Our Seas Shark Centre in time to hand over some exhausted children to their parents.

On our last day we were blessed with a spring low tide so there was no better way to spend the morning than in the rock pools at Dalebrook beach. The flat sea and continued sunshine complimented the colourful collection of animals we discovered, and we even had a go at snorkelling. The children were excited to find a fertilised shark egg-case washed ashore in a tangled mass of fishing line, and proudly carried it out to the kelp forest where it should continue developing.

The kids really enjoyed themselves throughout the programme, and hopefully tired parents got a bit of rest as well. This is the first time that we’ve been fully booked,  and while it is really encouraging to see interest in the holiday club grow, we were sorry to turn people away. It’s great that so many parents understand the value of this kind of experience in the development and education of their children – we’re going to have to do more of this sort of thing. Bring on the summer!