Sardine Run 2011
Sardine Run 2011
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Photographing Blue Sharks!
Mark got the chance to spend the day, 20 nautical miles off Cape Point, coming eye to eye with one of the most beautiful sharks in the ocean, the Blue Shark.
Getting up even before the crack of dawn for a 6am launch from Hout Bay, definately paid off when, after a three hour bumpy ride to a spot called The Canyon, Mark finally got to photograph a couple of Blue Sharks and a Mako. To see the Blue Shark face to face for the first time in his life, he was amazed at how the shark shimmered in the water, a true blue beauty. One can not imagine that anyone could put a hook through his mouth or slice off his fins for a watery broth called Sharkfin Soup…
Sardine Run 2009
This year, Sardine Run 2009, delivered some great action and amazing images! Mark, based out of East London, took most of the images on the first day, as they really hit the road running, with enough baitballs to make any photographer happy…and wife at home green with envy!
This year Mark chose to pick mid june to photograph the Sardine Run, based out of East London, which was a nice gentle launch through the harbor mouth, compared to last year’s rough surf launch from Port Edward. He decided to join our friend Paul Wildman who was filming for Carte Blanche. Well, from the moment go, it was action and everyone came to the party: whales, dolphins, sharks, seals and gannets, all there to feast on the sardines. So needless to say, the more predators, the faster the action, and the photographers had to have their wits about them if they wanted to get good shots. Not knowing how long the action would last, you have to grab the moment and indeed, the rest of the week was spent trying to find more baitballs and dreaming of the perfect conditions on the first day. But as always, working with nature is a gamble and you just never know when it will all come together and work in your favour. So we persist, and with patience and a whole lot of luck, we hope to get that perfect shot! My favourite picture of Mark this year is of their boat skipper, Steve Benjamin, freediving through the baitball. Wow! That must be the ultimate freedive!
Mozambique
The last two weeks of November we packed the 4×4 and headed up to Tofu, Mozambique to join Julie Andersen, one of the Shark Angels and Paul Wildman, her partner and cameraman. We wanted to check out the shark finning situation, but also hoped to photograph some of their mega fauna in the Tofu region. That proved slightly more tricky than we had anticipated….
When we arrived in Tofu, we were greeted by poor water visibility and no mantas or whale sharks for the past three weeks. We decided to give it a couple of days and get our ears to the ground for where there might be shark finning operations working along the coast. Speaking to locals and dive operators, we headed north to Pomene, where word had it that things were active there. Finally arriving in Pomene, a small hidden gem in the middle of nowhere, we saw shark jaws of every kind being sold to tourists in the local market area. We decided to come and base ourselves at Pomene Lodge for the next week, especially after hearing that they had spotted some whale sharks and manta rays the day before. We found out that the shark finning camp had been raided three weeks earlier by the Mozambican government, and that they had moved their camp further north, but not too far away. Well, after 15 years of diving, I finally freedived with my first whale shark…..WOW! What an amazing creature!! We also had a beautiful manta ray encounter and Mark finally got to experience their magic. For me, they are truly the most magical creatures of all. And sadly, as we had dreaded, on the last day of diving we found the shark finners. Mark, Julie and Paul found and dived a longline, with thousands of hooks stretching over kilometers. They used eels as bait and there was a huge remora that was still alive which had been caught by one of the hooks that was pierced right through his eye. Hopelessly struggling to free himself, he was dying a slow death. What else had been caught we could only imagine. Mark photographed and Paul filmed it and they followed the line back later which ran in a loop back to shore and right to the shark finning camp. They were very aggressive towards the boat, thinking that we had cut their line. They are only the small evil doers in this story and word had it that they were being funded and supplied with equipment by the Chinese. So where does this end? And where do we go next? Spreading the word and sending out the message that this has to stop. We, all of us, have a responsibility towards the ocean. So let’s start preserving it.