Ocean News

Happy Easter! I woke to a tropical downpour and silence in the little wooden house we are all sharing – grabbed my camera, pulled its raincoat on and tip toed out the door. Half way down the beach the rain stopped and I sat waiting for the shore birds to…

Last night was our first night off and instead of catching up on some much needed sleep we stayed up watching the classic film Blue Water White Death, a documentary made in the 1970s about the first expedition to find great white sharks. It is interesting to step back in…

It is Easter Friday also on Aldabra and the little blonde 4 year old daughter of Aldabra’s Research Officer is getting excited at the prospect of a certain tropical bunny. As she splashes in the shallows with the black tip reef sharks around her, the creatures she calls her friends,…

The wind changed direction yesterday and has brought in a slight swell compared to the flat, calm waters we have been lucky enough to have for our first few days here. We just made it over the reef this morning – our captain could not put the engines down as…

Chaos rains in the school of Bohar snappers. The red big-eyed fish are everywhere – darting beside the plastic blue crate of dead fish, changing direction with the flick of a tail and nibbling at anything they think resembles food. Apart from the frenzy the media love to build around…

Up when Aldabra’s coconut crabs were still roaming in the hour before dawn we were all ready and rearing to go this morning for a full day’s diving, but those tricky tides fooled us and we were half an hour too late to get over the reef. Some of us…

Our life revolves around the tides, high tide, low tide and the severity of the level. If we are on the island and the tide is too low the boat cannot navigate over the reef and if we are on the outside of the reef and the tide drops too…

An Aldabra Tortoise was having a chilled morning on the beach, an unusual site as they love their food – leaves, fruit, and pretty much anything else that drops from the trees – and that is what seems to drive them! Things are taking shape in the waters here. For…

Today was in technical terms a ‘down day’. Consisting of equipment preparation, checking, rechecking and scheming. The compressor problem was fixed and Rainer boosted our confidence by announcing “It SEEMS fine, ah hum hum, correction. It IS fine.” A huh! All the filters were replaced; the air was tested and…

Early on Tuesday morning I sped off in car boldly displaying new signage: www.rethinktheshark.com and heavily loaded with dive gear and underwater camera gear – it was to be a big day for Elle, the raggedtooth shark, she was only 1 day away from freedom. Matthew was left holding the…

By 7h45am yesterday we had reloaded all our gear, one final time (for the next few days anyhow) on a 30ft Miami Vice look alike boat and begun our cruise north to Aldabra. Standing at the front of the boat, not daring to do the Titanic manoever with such revered…

Two little Cessna planes greeted us at the IDC hangar and there was absolutely no way all our gear would fit in both, let alone one of them. Thankfully neither plane was fit for the unusually stormy sky above. Our plane had not yet landed and we were due to…

Mike Nortje, the owner and hands on operator of Pisces Divers in Glencairn, Cape Town, has very kindly gone out of his way to give up his time, allow staff members off and donate his 8 metre Superduck boat, his tow-vehicle and his skippering talents for the release of "Elle"…

For as long as I can remember the Indian Ocean has captivated me. As a child its seemingly endless expanse of blue wilderness held a life full of adventure and of places even more mystical than those in Enid Blyton’s Magic Far Away Tree. Growing up in Kenya I often…

Recently Lesley managed to escape us and the mayhem at The Save Our Seas Shark Centre in Kalk Bay and headed off to Durban for meetings related to future education and awareness projects. She joined Blue Wilderness Diving Expeditions in Durban who focus on shark ecotourism. Lesley had absolutely wonderful…