Baby Cape fur seal stranded at Danger Point December 15, 2011 by dyertrust During the month of December, we often get many reports of stranded Cape fur seal pups. Pupping time is in full swing and the massive (+300kg) adult males are still on the island causing chaos defending their territories from rival malesand it is during that chaos that many [...]
A busy July for Alison Towner and the Great white sharks July 26, 2011 by dyertrust July 2011 Studying great white sharks for the last five years in Gansbaai, I have often found myself out at sea wondering just what the sharks are up to on the other side of the headland- in False Bay. I have often imagined the same [...]
Shark sightings February 21, 2011 by dyertrust February 2011 has been an excellent month. We have encountered some spectacular white shark sightings and a drastic improvement on shark numbers from December/January. Interestingly, white shark presence has only been documented at Dyer Island and not in the normal shallow water reef system of Jouberts dam. The only female shark we saw in [...]
SHARK & RAY RESEARCH MEETING February 27, 2011 by dyertrust Alison Towner and I attended the Southern African Shark and Ray Meeting hosted by the KZN Sharks Board in mid February. The first meeting of its kind, it offered the opportunity for scientists from across the country and Mozambique the chance to present their research and share ideas. The conference also [...]
SHARK CONSERVATION SOCIETY VISITFebruary 24, 2011 by dyertrustOn the 7th of January our eco-tourism partner,Photo: Dr. Liesel Trollope prepares the aneasthetic drug assisted by Albert Scholtz ofPhoto credit: Hardus BothaGansbaai Courant
Introducing our first Leeds Uni masters candidate June 12, 2012 by dyertrust Ill have to go with the old clich and say, Ive loved sharks since I can remember. My parents are still trying to fathom where it started. I grew up in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England; a city not particularly well known for producing marine biologists. As [...]
Amy shares results of her study June 26, 2012 by dyertrust What has been the most unexpected result of your study? Three weeks in, I now have over 9 hours of underwater footage of white sharks visiting Slashfin. Some no-sea days due to bad weather have given me the chance to start analysing my footage, which involves extracting stills from the [...]
The theodolite tracking is running like a well-oiled machine October 31, 2012 by dyertrust The theodolite tracking is running like a well-oiled machine and the team has seen sightings of humpback whales almost every week. These animals seem to have changed focus from migration to social behaviour. They spend much more time breaching and their pattern is not as predicable as [...]
Acoustic tagged shark number 10 October 09, 2012 by dyertrust Finally, the long days of Masters thesis writing chaos have subsided for both myself and my co scientist Oliver Jewell, which means more time for acoustic tracking (I never though Id cherish the noise of those continuously pinging radio transmitters so much!). During this month of September we managed to successfully [...]
Shark tagging programme update April 20, 2011 by dyertrust March and April have been really exciting months with regards to the DICT white shark tagging programme. We left off on this blog last time introducing Nina our fourth tagged 2.3m female shark. After tagging her in the shallows at the end of January, she made her way to Dyer Island where [...]