Underwater with Greg Lecoeur

We were so very lucky to have Greg Lecoeur on the Zodiac with us to chronicle our Sardine Run experience on film!

Greg is a professional nature photographer and diver who specializes in underwater photography. He has an extensive publication list and I am looking forward to seeing his photographs of the 2015 Sardine Run in upcoming scuba and nature magazines.

Sardines for Father's Day

It took me three years but I finally got Vince to dive the Sardine Run! 

Theoretically, the Sardine Run happens in South Africa every June and July when the sardines migrate from Antarctica. They swim along the southern coast of the Indian Ocean along the Wild Coast to Durban through a trough where the continental shelf steeply drops off into the deep ocean.

I say "theoretically" because during some years, the sardines are a no-show. Apparently the sea temperature needs to drop below 21 °C because sardines prefer water temps between 14-20 °C. If not, the sardines do not run. 2013 and 2014 were dismal, but the sardines started running this year by mid-June in KZN. By all accounts, 2015 is gearing up to be a great year for the Sardine Run!

surrounded by dolphins

I have to admit I had never heard of the Sardine Run before Vince mentioned it to me three years ago. I am not a scuba diver and really have no interest in meeting a shark face to face underwater without a cage to protect me.

But the Sardine Run happens to coincide with something I do care about - the return of the Humpback Whale to the Wild Coast - and I was told there would be a good chance to see whales from out on the boat.

And we would definitely also be able to see dolphins since they are the key to making a sardine "bait ball."

This is the way it works. Once dolphins find a large school of sardines, they circle around part of the school, cutting off a large number from the rest of the school. They create a whirl pool around the sequestered sardines who spin around and around in circles until they form a tightly packed ball of bait. Then the crafty dolphins feed on the captive sardines. This phenomenon does not go unnoticed by others however. Out of the sky come gannets and cormorants who dive deep into the bait ball and eat their fill as well. Then there are the whales and the sharks who come in for some sardines too.

Humpback whales, like sharks, are feeding opportunists. If the dolphins take the trouble to make a bait ball of sardines, the whales are more than happy to join in and take advantage of a free meal served up by their friends.

circling dolphins

Jill watching the diving gannets

Vince getting ready to go overboard.

there he goes!

I brought snorkeling gear with me on the boat, but I wasn't sure if  I could actually go into the water if there were confirmed sharks swimming around. And in fact, Vince saw two sharks just swimming around the boat almost as soon as he entered the water. He said one actually circled back to get a better look at him before heading out to catch some sardines instead. No thanks!

I didn't need to snorkel like Jill to see the sardines anyway. The sardines were visible from above the water swimming around and under the boat. Besides I didn't come for the sardines; I came for the whales and dolphins. And I could see so many of both from the safety and security of the boat! They were putting on quite a show too. The whales were peduncle slapping the water with their tails and pec slapping with their fins, rolling on their backs like a puppy dog and clapping their fins together like a seal, breaching, lunging and spy hopping. And we saw a ridiculous number of common and bottlenose dolphins all swimming around and under the boat. We even saw a couple of loggerhead turtles!

humpback peduncle slap

I didn't take many photos of the Sardine Run though for a couple of reasons. First of all, Vince was busy with the GoPro and took hours and hours of footage of the sardines and sharks below the surface as well as the dozens of frolicking whales and dolphin pods all swimming around us in the boat. I had only brought my little Canon on the Zodiac and not my 35mm Nikon. (I didn't have a waterproof casing for it.)

Secondly, we were so lucky to have a world famous underwater photographer on board. I gave him precedence and a wide berth in our little Zodiac. (Between the diving equipment and the people, we were packed in like sardines!) No matter how good my photos might have been had I elbowed in for a better vantage point, they would never have been as good as his. I sure hope he got a photo of a dolphin breaching too!

Photo by Greg Lecoeur

photo by Offshore Africa

photo by Greg Lecoeur

photo by Offshore Africa

Vince surely earned his Sardine Run tee shirt

For his next adventure, Vince wants to dive with the fur seals and sevengill sharks off of Simonstown in the Western Cape. He can do that in July when I am safely back in the United States for the month. Have fun honey!

All in all, it was a great Father's Day. And as a result, we now have a new Father's Day tradition. From now on, Vince will remember and celebrate his Father's Day Sardine Run by eating a sardine sandwich for all his future Father's Day lunches.

Happy Father's Day, Vince!

Sandton Scuba

Vince has been a certified open water scuba diver for more than 40 years! He once was very diligent about keeping his certification status and dive log up to date. (Certification lasts a lifetime, but when presented, an active log precludes any additional check-out procedures administered by responsible dive operators on the day of diving.)

Vince snapped this picture of Alex and Nick diving in the BVI

But as he has discovered when diving in many places outside the USA such as the Caribbean, Thailand, Costa Rica and Mozambique, he has rarely been asked to present his certification card and log book for inspection. (Australia and the Great Barrier Reef is a notable exception. Like everything else, they care deeply about such things!)

But since we are about to check out the Sardine Run in the Indian Ocean and Vince will be diving with sharks and whales, he figured he'd better make sure his paperwork - and his diving skills - are all in tip top order.

So he's refreshing his skills at Sandton Scuba in Bryanston today. Scuba Sandton is a one-stop dive shop. Along with PADI courses and organized dive trips, you can rent (or buy) equipment for all your diving and snorkeling needs, including underwater cameras!

Sharks and whales? I am happy to just snorkel!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

... or should I say the big, the little and the ugly ... wildlife of South Africa.

It started off with the Big Five: lion, rhino, cape buffalo, elephant and leopard, the five game species that were most desired as hunter’s trophies in times gone past. They now represent the five species that visitors to classic African wilderness areas most want to see. Next came the Little Five which I blogged about last year.

vultures

But now it seems everyone wants to get in on the act. There are the ugly five – and if you’ve seen them, you know that they deserve this title. Although having said that, they are no less interesting and they do add to the whole African experience!  They are the:

• Hyena
• Wildebeest
• Warthog
• Vulture
• Marabou Stork

Cape mountain leopard

There are also the impossible five, because of their being so elusive and hard to find.  Trust me, they are. I have only seen night camera photographs of most of them. They are the:

• Aardvark
• Cape mountain leopard
• Pangolin
• White lion (in the wild)
• Riverine rabbit

seals on Seal Island

And in the sea, there are the Marine Five.

• Southern right whale
• Great white shark
• Bottlenose dolphins
• Cape fur seals
• African penguins

Five is not enough for the air. Kruger National Park has come up with the Big Six Birds, the ones that most birders come to the park to see.

southern ground hornbill

The Big Six Birds are:

• Kori Bustard
• Martial Eagle
• Lappetfaced Vulture
• Pel's Fishing Owl
• Saddle-billed Stork
• Southern Ground Hornbill

Southern hemisphere night sky, February 2015

Not to be outdone by the terra firma, the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa has even come up with their own list, the Big 5 of the African Sky.

• The Southern Pleiades open cluster
• Eta Carinae Nebula
• Coal Sack Nebula
• Omega Centauri globular cluster
• Milky Way Galaxy

Sadly, nowhere on any of these lists are some of my favorite iconic African animals. So I will come up with my own list. Some are easier to find than others, but it wouldn't be Africa without them:

• Zebra
• Giraffe
• Hippo
• Cheetah
• Gemsbok
• Kudu
• African wild dog

The Troyeville Hotel Book Club

Daisy with award-winning cookbook writer Anna Trapido

The Troyeville Hotel, first licensed in 1939, is a Johannesburg original. Serving unfussy, award-winning Portuguese cuisine, it’s been the hangout for artists, musicians, political activists and sports fans for generations. The Troyeville Hotel's restaurant features consistently in lists of the best places to eat in Johannesburg.

The Troyeville Hotel dining room

And the Troyeville Hotel hosts regular book evenings that have become a fixture of the city's cultural life. The category of books varies from evening to evening. Fiction. Non-fiction. Biography.

Last night, a cookbook. Star Fish by Daisy Jones. The book identifies the top ten most sustainable fish in South Africa and provides recipes for each one. Locally farmed oysters, anchovies, squid, locally farmed rainbow trout, snoek, hake, locally farmed mussels, yellowtail, sardines and other oily fish, and locally farmed kabeljou.

menu

Daisy, a journalist who lives in Kalk Bay, has written a very personal and atypical cookbook. Yes it has recipes, but it is also filled with the results of extensive research on the fishery industry, first hand interviews with fishermen, conservationists and farmers, personal anecdotes and gorgeous pictures and illustrations by Craig Fisher.

books for signing

And the best part of going to a cookbook book talk at the Troyeville Hotel is that the talk was accompanied by a specially prepared menu featuring many of the sustainable fish documented by Daisy. Yum!

We started off with snoek fishcakes with a delicious spicy mayo dipping sauce. Next, a calamari and mussel salad with roasted peppers and chick peas.

Then we had a choice of main course. I chose the prawn curry (not on the list but I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist!) and Vince picked a Portuguese specialty of the house, the Beef Trinchado (not seafood, but he couldn't resist.)

magnificent views

Questions and answers provided the audience with some good recommendations for fresh fish in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Of course in Joburg, it is La Marina. And Daisy gave us her picks in the Cape Town area. The Little Fisherman in Lakeside and in Newlands.

Here's an interesting tip about the anchovies too. Practically all of the anchovies farmed in South Africa are ground up for fish food or exported for feed for poultry and pigs or used for bait. All of it. So if you want to put fresh South African anchovies on your pizza, buy some at the nearest bait shop!

Thursdays are Brazilian at The Troyeville Hotel

Another fun fact. The ubiquitous cans of Lucky Star pilchards are just sardines. Same fish. Sardines are the teenagers, pilchards are the adults. And ironically, none of the sardines who make their run up the coast of KZN to lay their eggs are caught for food. The only ones fishing for sardines during the sardine run are the trailing sharks, whales and gannets.

We will be back to The Troyeville Hotel for more interesting and informative book club evenings and for the authentic Portuguese fare. Both are very appetizing!

Whales and Penguins

the penguin colony in Boulders

We always jump at the chance to go back to one of the South African penguin colonies whenever we have visitors to Cape Town.

whale sighting from the parking lot

But this time we had a bonus whale sighting in the parking lot at Boulders!

Not as many as we saw last year when we did the Whale Coast tour from Hermanus to the De Hoop Nature Reserve, but any whale sighting is cause for celebration.

I looked under the car for whales too!

The Sardine Run

That should be Vince with his GoPro

Vince really wanted to scuba dive with the sardines this July during the annual Sardine Run in the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa. He wanted to do it last year too but just like last year, he is simply too busy at work at this time of year. That pesky job! And unfortunately diving with the sardines is not the kind of thing where you can just bop in on the fly if you get a free day or two over the weekend. It takes advanced planning. It is quite a production. To be more precise, scuba diving during the Sardine Run is an "expedition."

So what is the phenomenon exactly? The sardines migrate from the colder waters of the Cape into the warm sub-tropical waters of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in a northwards direction, coming close to shore in the Wild Coast area during autumn and winter, moving further offshore in the Durban area and finally, disappearing into the vast blue yonder.

Because of the cold currents along this stretch of coastline and their appetite for plankton, these fish converge close to the shoreline and to the surface, making ideal targets for hungry predators and perfect viewing for snorkelers (that would be me)  and scuba divers (that would be Vince.) And by predators we mean cormorants and dolphins, okay. And sharks and whales, not okay.

In order to participate in an expedition you have to first be a master diver. Check, Vince is. And you have to be willing to dedicate a week to the experience. No check, Vince isn't. For a week (the minimum length of an expedition,) the drill is the same. First the sardine safari organizers use reconnaissance planes and helicopters to locate the sardines in the open ocean. If they find them, then they communicate the location with the group on shore who race to the identified sweet spot by zodiac. It is very controlled and very monitored because it is also very dangerous. Did I mention there are sharks? And you are not in a cage? And whales who come flying up from the deep with their mouths wide open to catch any or all of the food in their path before they burst out of the sea? Yeah.

Anyway, I am sure it is super cool to see live and I feel bad that Vince can't do it this year. During the height of the sardine run, he will be way off-shore back in the US of A. Here's hoping for next year! In the meantime watch this great video called The Sardine Chase by Nick Bernhard from the 2013 Sardine Run.
 

The Bottom of Africa

whales

whale tail

sea birds

sunset

tide pools

driving to the white dunes of De Hoop

white dunes

white cottages and whales

needles of Agulhas

A Whale of a Time

my boyfriend behind me!

Before I fell for the rhinoceros, my favorite animal was the whale. (It may still be the whale, but sshh! don't tell the rhino!)  

Whale watching has always been one of my favorite activities. Some of my favorite spots have been in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maine and Massachusetts, in the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii and Baja California and in the Arctic off the coasts of Alaska and Norway. And I do it whenever, wherever and however I can. In a kayak, on a ship, sailing in a catamaran or if I'm lucky like in Maui, right from the shore.

The whale and the rhinoceros have a lot in common when you think about it. Both are awe-inspiring creatures, masters of their respective universes. Seeing them in the wild requires timing, patience, perseverance, and a certain amount of luck. Sadly they also share the fact as well that they have both suffered at the hands of man. Both the whale and the rhino have been driven almost to the point of extinction several times by man. In fact, seven out of the 13 great whale species are still classified as endangered or vulnerable, even after decades of protection. And you all know about the rhino by now.

It is true that since I've moved to South Africa, it has been all about the rhino. But this weekend I cheated on my horny boyfriend and checked in with my old flame along the Whale Coast Route in the Western Cape. Thousands of whale watchers flock to it annually when the Southern Right Whale hugs the South African coast between August and November.

The Right Whale got its name during the time when they were hunted for their oil. The whalers referred to them as the "right" whales to kill. First of all, they have a large amount of oil (aka blubber) and baleen and secondly, their large amount of blubber causes them to float when dead thereby enabling the whalers to find them easily after harpooning them in the open ocean.

Right Whales are baleen whales who require enormous amounts of krill in order to maintain their massive physiques. So they migrate to colder waters to feed and then back again to warmer waters to give birth. The Southern Right Whale (E. australis) is the only one of three Right Whales species found in the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern Right spends its summers (December through May) in the cold polar regions of the Southern Ocean. In winter (June through November), they live around the shallow coastal waters of Southern Africa, South America and Australia. The North Atlantic (E. glacialis) Right migrates from the the Arctic Ocean down the eastern Canadian coast all the way to Florida and from Greenland and Norway along western Europe to North Africa. The North Pacific (E. japonica) Right Whale's range starts in the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea from Alaska to California and from Russia to the Sea of Japan. The North Pacific are the rarest Right Whales of all.


All the guidebooks told me I would be able to see whales right from the shore along the route. The guesthouses we reserved for the weekend had promised I could see them right from our bedroom windows! I was excited! We started our trip in Cape Town and drove to nearby Hermanus, the beginning of the Whale Coast Route and the self-proclaimed Whale Capital of the World. It was the weekend of the annual Whale Festival and the town was decked out for it.




There was plenty of food and wine, crafts and music at the festival. There was even a vintage car parade and show for Vince. Whales and Wheels! (Vince checking the VIN to see if it is his old '65 Mustang. Ya neva know!)

There was also the local whale crier who blows on a kelp horn when a whale is spotted in the bay. He uses a code when he blows his horn to give the approximate location of the whale sightings. But we just looked wherever we saw everyone's binoculars pointed. They were everywhere in the bay!












The innkeepers were right. We saw several whales right from our Hermanus guesthouse balcony.

We saw them from the viewpoint in the center of town during the festival.

We were also told we could even watch them from our beds. But the only ones I saw from bed were the two on the tips of my needlepoint shoes!

Once the festival started to get really crowded, we set out on by car along the Whale Coast Route from Hermanus to Gansbaai and all the way to Cape Agulhas, the most southern point in Africa. We stopped at posted whale viewing turnouts along the way and they did not disappoint. At each and every stop we saw several whales frolicking in the aquamarine water below.

After an overnight in Agulhas at the lovely Art Ocean House (we saw whales from our balcony there too!), we finished our weekend off by spending the day at the De Hoop Nature Reserve. Hermanus may lay claim to the title of Whale Capital of the World, but De Hoop actually deserves it.

There is a 55 kilometer Whale Trail that runs all along its protected white beach coast. To hike the whole trail, you need a guide and five days and overnights at their very nicely appointed way station cottages. But we only had a day so we drove down to the beach at Koppie Allen, parked and hiked down to the beach front. We were amazed by what we saw! Dozens and dozens of Southern Right Whales just surfing and lolling, breaching and spyhopping. It was truly the most amazing whale watching experience we have ever had! We definitely want to do the entire Whale Trail next year.

the lid of my Nantucket lightship basket

About the only thing missing from our Whale of a Weekend was my favorite whale-watching accessory, my stowed-away-in-the-States Nantucket lightship basket purse.

Nantucket lightship baskets were originally crafted by the lightship crewmen stationed in their floating lighthouses as they guarded the treacherous shoals off the coast of Massachusetts' Nantucket island. To pass time the crewmen took to crafting honey-colored carryalls from cane to take to their wives and girlfriends back home. They would finish them with findings made from whalebone and decorate them with  carved scrimshaw and reliefs.

Nowadays, the baskets are produced by dedicated artists on Nantucket and sold for astronomical prices in gift shops and galleries. A reputable craftsman only uses whale ivory for the decorations and only ivory procured before 1972 when the international ban on whaling took effect. My purse, a gift from Vince for my 35th birthday, has a carved ivory humpback whale cow swimming with her two calves. The basket cane has taken on a luscious warm patina which I love.

Darlene + whales = true love 4 ever!