UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS

It was really gloomy down on Stringer reef, I'm back on the boat now, processing the pics.

The Clownfish couple's neighbourhood is darker than usual, there's not a lot of light down here. Quite eerie.

THE LAST MORNING

This morning is typically dark & gloomy. At least the weather has been consistent...

As far as I can remember, we've had two sunny days out of twelve. Not great odds!

We're heading for Stringer.

LAST PREP...

It's with some nostalgia that we prepare for what will be our last day tomorrow. Its been a great two weeks which has increased in action as time goes by.

The giants with which we've rubbed shoulders over the past days have left big fat memories ingrained in us, real priviledges that we'll take into the future...

SOMETIMES THINGS ARE OBVIOUS!

These massive appendages are the Whale shark's claspers. Very obviously identifying this animal as a male!

BIG DADDY!

This Whale shark is enormous. He must be at least 10 meters long, and is in beautiful condition!

He's really timid and I had to work hard for these shots, diving down deep to make contact.

GREY BUT CALM

Sodwana is nice and calm this morning. Maybe it's a leftover from yesterday, and I expect the wind will start in the next three hours.

SAFETY STOP?

I just climbed out of the sea after a bizarre experience. After our safety stop, we'd drifted for a while, waiting for the boat pickup. I noticed a huge Humpback tail sticking out of the sea nearby, so I swam over to see if I could get a shot.

With the tail towering over me, the big whale was just lying inverted, vocalising. After a minute or two, the animal detected my presence and kicked its huge tail and sped off leaving me hurtling around in its wash!

I was then passed by the rest of the pod, which came swimming by with purpose.

What a morning...

SEVEN MILE

Seven mile is as good as it can be. The coral down here is spectacular, and this reef is doing a lot better than its tropical counterparts. No coral bleaching here.

THE SEARCH CONTINUES...

It's turned into a glorious day, and we're still on the sea.

Planning to go for a scuba next...

A QUICK DIGRESSION...

While I was floating around in Whale shark alley I was confronted by this pod of Bottlenose dolphin. We've since left the area, parting ways with the dolphin that are now near Seven mile somewhere.

INJURY...

This big male has a badly injured dorsal, its a very old injury and does'nt seem to affect him much...

WHALE SHARK NO 2

We're currently sitting off Ribbon, and our second whale shark has just left, heading north.

AAAAHH, AT LAST...

Not a Whale shark, but a morning with very little wind! Don't be deceived by the cloud bank behind us, its just lazy cloud left from yesterday.

This should be an easier day.

RAYS SAVE THE DAY

Failing to produce a multi-ton animal like a Whale shark makes one feel somewhat inadequate. For this reason we decided to dive on Mellow Yellow, as I knew the rays would be around, and I wanted to revert to something cartilaginous.

We've just got out of the water now after a great dive, the sea is crystal after this little west. The whole area is covered in clouds of tiny silver Slender sweepers, and the Sharpnose rays are floating beneath, hovering on the sandy bottom.

What a digression from the sharks, but what fun!

NO JOY:..

We hunted high & low for the Whale sharks, but alas, another choppy overcast day. We actually did locate one about ten minutes ago but lost it due to the lack of visibility on the surface...

Plan B is a scuba dive on Mellow Yellow...

COLD FRONT

The west wind has just hit us, as we prepare to launch a huge looming black cloud bank whips across the horizon.

The only time the wind dies is at night... Doesn't make it easy.

THE VIDEO...

Here's a little video clip of the egg field next to the anemone. The clownfish were constantly checking the area to see if everything was in order.

It was a really nice morning, not quite what we expected!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG ON STRINGER

OK, just up. On the north point of big Stringer, we visited the big anemone and clownfish that reside here. I was originally on my way down to the Stingray cave but we lingered at the anemone because the clownfish were particularly aggressive this morning.

It was through the view-finder of the camera that I noticed the bright orange field of eggs that the pair had laid. They'd nipped back the mantle of the anemone, and deposited the eggs in this protective bay of exposed rock where the poisonous tendrils brush the area, keeping the eggs safe.

This is just an extension of the amazing symbiosis that these little fish represent.

TAKING THE PLUNGE...

Preparing to go over on Stringer reef, one of Sodwana's "home" reefs. Windy conditions make Stringer very appealing! The water certainly doesn't look that bad, sometimes the sea looks a lot worse from land.

WINDY MONDAY

Monday morning is windy, but clear. We're going to do a real hit & run on one of the close reefs today, the sea is a bit ragged.

We'll report in later.

RIBBON EEL AT LAST!

Adjacent to the Paperfish this morning, we found the elusive Ribbon eel. Another bizarre creature that seems to spend its life with its jaws agape!

This animals is about as thick as my smallest finger, although more compressed. The pronounced "flags" on the snout must be hunting related appendages, I'll try and look this up when I get to the computer.

This was a good little dive, Paperfish and Ribbon eels are the signature species on this reef, so we've done well, even though we didn't score a Whale shark.

PAPERFISH!

We found this nice big Paperfish in the "hotspot" on south Ribbon. These little fish have been dealt a cruel blow by their physical makeup. While they're incredibly difficult to see, their compressed bodies, and ridiculous dorsal fins ensure that they're buffeted around by the surge.

None the less, these are fascinating creatures, this one is about 6cm/2 inches long.

HUNTING THE RIBBON EEL

Ian took this pic of me, I'm busy looking for the familiar slot that houses the eel that Ribbon reef takes its name from. Hunting in the photographic sense of the words here of course...

RIBBON REEF DELIVERS

Today was a bit of a bust with the Whale sharks, so we diverted out to sea, and ended up over Ribbon reef. The deep crevasses and canyons here hide all sorts of special little creatures, and it's surprising what you can find if you know where to look.

The visibility today is pretty good, in the region of 15 meters, and has that nice dark blue tinge that makes for great images. We ended up on the southern section of the reef, nearer the end of the drift, and this is where I picked up some special little critters.

THE SEA SETTLES...

Wow! Its amazing how fast the sea settles here! The waves are pretty choppy, but its not half as bad as we thought.

Shouldn't be a problem getting out.

LAST DAY OF THE WEEK

Heading down the forested road to the bay at Sodwana is a nice daily commute. We often have bands of Samango monkeys watching as we go though the gate...

The wind seems to have died after the 20 knot blowout yesterday.

RECAP...

It was a great morning spent with the big pod of dolphin, and these animals were very sociable this morning. One individual in particular led the interface between myself and the marine mammals, easily identified by the jagged dorsal fin, I'd seen this dolphin before in previous encounters with the same pod.

This video clip gives a brief glimpse at the type of interaction and sound that occurred just beneath the surface.

CONTACT!

No Whale sharks yet this morning, but we did find the resident pod of Bottlenose all together and in a talkative mood. I've never seen this pod all together like this, they're normally fragmented into smaller groups that we sometimes see traveling with purpose along the back-line.

This morning is one of those grey, greasy days, and the light penetration is pretty poor, so these shots look a little drab. I'm going to try and load a small video clip later so you can see some of the amazing behavior that these mammals displayed towards me. The sound is really interesting too.

ANOTHER GREY DAY...

We're out in the Whale shark coridor again this morning. The east is picking up and its quite difficult to work out here, we're chasing shadows and dodging waves!

We'll turn at Ribbon and start to head back...

ADRENALINE DENTIST!

This ballsy little Cleaner shrimp has a lot more guts than I do... He just clambered into this Starry moray's maw this morning, and poked around, before side-stepping a snap from the eel.

Some way to earn a living...

STRANGE STINGRAY?

The first thing that appeared was this unusual specie of Stingray. This male was about 1.2 meters across the disc, and as you can see here, was a marbled dirty brown with pale chips.

I've never seen one of these, and while I'm sure they're not that uncommon, I'm still quite excited about finding this specimen.

SCUBA DO

Struck out on the Whale shark mission today... The water's too glary to see them with this low cloud, so we jumped in on SCUBA at a little reef called the "Showroom". Amazing what turned up here...

DAY 2

Putting to sea this morning, we felt the north east building. Even blowing some of the dingey cloud off that's been settled here over the past few days.

It's really hard to find Whale sharks when the sky is that icy grey colour; the reflection on the water is extreme, and does'nt allow one's vision to penetrate.

RE-CAP

Just to re-cap on this encounter, the above photo reveals the Whale shark "fingerprint", an area of spots that are specific to each animal. The red dots signify the critical markings that have been loaded onto Whaleshark.org's research database already.

It was a good start to the expedition. The conditions deteriorated today, the south easter got up, and it took quite a while to find this animal. You'll see from the blog entry times that it took almost 2.5 hours to locate the shark, but to strike on day 1 is always nice.

We're back at base processing the television content, and of course... preparing for tomorrow.

THE IDENTIFYING FEATURE

This particualr shark is quite clean except for this obvious kink in the dorsal. It's features like these that can be used to record individual characteristics between sharks.

WHALE SHARK 1

Just out the water and Graeme intercepted this 6 meter specimen, swimming south past Five Mile in 8 meters of water.

FIRST SIGHTING!

We've just seen the first dark shape off the Five Mile mark. Ian's getting ready to drop Graeme onto the shark...

DAY 1!

Dark skies and calm sea greet us as we drive onto the beach. Perfect shark weather. Busy launching now.

Stand by...

THE EXPEDITION STARTS...

Sitting here on a wet evening at Sodwana Bay as a strong westerly starts dropping off, I'm hoping that tomorrow will give us a chance at covering some ocean to begin locating the Whale shark "corridors". We'll be up early, and plan to traverse the block north of Jesser point, between the point and the Five Mile area.

Can't wait to see what turns up...