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It is said that Coffee Bay got its name when a ship carrying coffee beans ran aground in the vicinity. Apparently this was in 1893. It is also rumoured that some of the stranded coffee beans took root and grew into small coffee shrubs but failed to mature owing to the salt content in the soil. All of this is a great pity because there’s nothing I like more than a great cup of coffee to start my morning. And today, I needed that coffee. Sometime during the previous night the weather Gods had turned the tables on us and blew up a stormy, grumpy and wave-filled sea. White horses stretched to the horizon and interestingly shaped waves crashed onto the launch beach.

With more than a little anticipation in our hearts and lumps in our throats we launched into the waves and headed out to sea. Leaving the shelter of the bay we headed south for a few kilometres to get some photographs of the famous and iconic Hole-in-the-Wall. The afternoon sun had settled behind the structure the previous day, which made for dull and uninteresting photography. So, our mission this morning was to photograph the Hole from the seaward side.

This was the last time the cameras saw any light as the swells and rough sea had us all holding on to pontoons, foot straps and tank-racks as our intrepid Kamikaze Kaiser skipper navigated his way to Port St Johns.We weren’t the only ones having a hard time though. Gannets, Skua’s and Petrels flapped aimlessly against the wind and eventually settled to float in the swelling and moving sea. We forced the Kaiser to stop for lunch and dined on cheese and tomato sandwiches while bobbing in between swells. Although the ride to Port St Johns was rough it was exciting and a good reminder of how lucky we had been with the weather the previous days. The other good thing about this ride was that it meant the last day of dining on cheese and tomato sandwiches; a regular lunchtime fare.

Port St Johns was a welcome sight and it took very little motivation for our crew to load the boat onto its trailer and ensconce ourselves in our hotel for the night. Well, if only for an hour or two … just before sunset we raced to the Port St Johns airport (airfield) to catch the sunset and quaff a few celebratory beers before heading out to dinner at the famous Delicious Monster restaurant.

We’d travelled some 600 or more kilometres by sea from Port Elizabeth to Port St Johns. Along the way we were privileged to share the sea with:

• Bottlenose Dolphin;
• Common Dolphin;
• Brydes Whales;
• Southern Right Whales;
• Humpback Whales;
• Cape Gannet;
• Skua;
• African Penguin; and
• one cargo ship.

We’d planned this trip on a whim and in order to explore the marine diversity of the Eastern Cape and Transkei coast and we were not disappointed. The marine diversity is staggering and the off-shore encounters legendary. The people we met along the way were friendly and welcoming and there is no doubt in our minds that we South Africans must do everything in our power to protect, preserve and treasure the oceans that run along our coastlines and sustain us.

Download the October issue of African Diver for the full report and more images.

After the welcome break on shore for a day, we were more than ready to get back on the water. It was another glorious day with little wind and mild swells. We knew we were in for a great day as we’d seen several Humpback Whales breaching in the distance. Today’s route was to take us from Mazeppa Bay to Coffee Bay, a distance of some 76 kilometres by sea.

But first we had to navigate the launch from Mazeppa Bay. Our Skipper, the Kamikazi Kaiser, safely launched us through the Mazeppa surf but not without having to punch a growler that threatened to upend us and all our expensive photographic equipment.

Somewhat relieved and pumped full of adrenaline we set out to look for Humpback Whales. As usual we first came across a pod of Bottlenose Dolphin working the inshore waves and as usual, their curiosity got the better of them and they rushed out to investigate our boat.

Further along, we came across a herd of cows cruising the beach … as seems to happen on this magnificent coastline. The coastline was enthralling. Rolling hills that plunged down to pristine beaches interchanged with craggy rock formations that stood valiantly against a sea that slowly eroded all in its path.

Our team was completely taken by the topography and landscape and we almost missed a mother Humpback Whale escorting her calf. The little calf must have been newly born as it was still very grey and very small in comparison to its mother. Full of the joy’s of spring it lob- tailled often and kept its mother busy keeping it on the journey north.

Mindful of her duty to her calf we left them in peace and headed out to sea to where a cargo ship was slowly cruising northwards.

We followed the cargo ship for a while until distracted by a leaping, breaching Humpback. This Humpback breached at least 12 times when we were close enough to it and it didn’t seem to mind our presence. After several breaches it was joined by two other Humpbacks and all three dived for what seemed like ages. Finally our breacher surfaced and the other two went on their way as did our breaching whale. Was it some kind of whale caucus meeting? Who knows, but we were ecstatic to be witness to it all.

Cape Town - A whale that became entangled in a 40-metre nylon rope was freed on Saturday afternoon near Gordon’s Bay in a meticulously planned rescue operation.

Employees from the department of environmental affairs, with the support of the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), used sharp knives to cut free the one-year-old southern right whale, which presumably became entangled on Friday afternoon at Hangklip.

The crew of a boat in False Bay saw on Friday night how the whale was hitting the water with its tail and realised it was in distress and was probably tangled.

“But it was nearly dark and we decided to only go out the next morning,” said Mike Meyer, a spokesperson of the department for environmental affairs’ branch for oceans and coast, on Sunday evening.

“All along the coastline there are fish nets in which whales can become entangled. When a whale swims into a net, it starts turning round and round in an attempt to free itself. But that is actually the worst thing it can do because then it becomes more entangled.”

Infection

According to Meyer, a rope like that usually caught on the thin part of the tail, in front of the tail fin.

Often, as was also the case with this whale, there was a buoy attached to the rope. If an entangled whale was not helped, it could die eventually.

“The rope cuts into the animal’s flesh and it leads to infection.”

“The buoy keeps the animal on the surface of the ocean and prevents him from feeding and eating properly.”

“As this whale was helped within a day, he was not injured too badly,” Meyer added.

Officials from the branch asked the NSRI, tourist boats and other boats to look out for the whale on Saturday morning.

After they established that it was near Koeël Bay, NSRI volunteers took three members of the branch in NSRI boats to the whale.

Quick operation

They herded the whale to calmer waters in Gordon’s Bay.

They could then throw a kedge anchor on a rope toward him so that it could be fixed to the rope on his tail. Two buoys were tied to the rope so that the whale would remain on the surface.

Then they switched off the boat’s engines and carefully approached the whale. They pulled the rope toward them and carefully cut it off with sharp knives.

The rescue operation took about 30 minutes.

Cormac is currently on a 7 day expedition from Port Elizabeth to Port St Johns. The trip is an exploratory sea-going venture to gain a better understanding of the marine life on the South African East Coast. The trip has been organized jointly by African Diver and Rainer Schimpf of Expert Tours (www.expert-tours.com).

Rainer operates from his base at Port Elizabeth and this trip has long been an ambition of his. He also runs and NGO called Ocean Messengers (www.ocean-messengers.com) which focuses on ocean conservation.

Entries in the blog catalogue Cormac’s trip and the October issue of African Diver magazine will carry a full feature on it.

Further blog entries from other parties on the expedition can be found at www.mype.co.za

Day 2

Port Alfred to East London

After a lazy breakfast our little party left Port Alfred destined for East London. Once again the weather Gods had been kind to us and we delighted in another lazy sea day. That said, waves were crashing on the rocky coastline and leaving the harbour at Port Alfred was an exciting mad dash out of the harbour entrance once we caught a lull in the waves. Although we had a lazy sea, the sky was overcast and grey, but it looked like the clouds would burn off in a midday sun and we would be treated to blue skies again.

It didn’t take us long to find some excitement and we spent about an hour tailing a small Humpback family; two adults and a calf. This was consistent with our experience of the previous day when we had come across several small families of 2 adults and a calf.

Having left the Humpback family to their meanderings we headed into deeper water hoping to find some form of marine action. Great shafts of sunlight broke through the cloud cover in patches illuminating huge spot-lit areas of the ocean. Now and then blue sky broke over our heads, encouraging us to move ever deeper.

As the cloud cover broke up, in the distance, we caught sight of Gannets wheeling and diving and so we raced towards them. As we got closer it became apparent that the Gannets were following a mega-pod of Common Dolphin. The pod was spread out and was obviously hunting. Every now and then the dolphin would isolate a school of fish and the Gannets would wheel in and dive into the water to feed. The dolphin and Gannet were hunting Garfish and not Sardines as we had hoped.

The dolphin, were in a playful mood and each time we sped up the swiftly slipped into our bow wave to surf in front of our boat. Because the pod was so spread out we were able to “work” a very large patch of the ocean and “play” with them.

At some stage during all of this activity the pod came upon a two families of Humpback Whale and we were treated to the magnificent experience of having two species of cetacean sharing the ocean with us.

By now the sun had won its battle with the clouds and the sky was a magnificent azure and so was the ocean. It was too inviting to miss and so we kitted up and joined the dolphin in the water. Visibility was a magnificent 20 meters and clear of phytoplankton. Sunrays danced in front of us as it pierced and illuminated the waters beneath us.

We could hear the clicks and squeaks of the dolphin but also the deeper rumble of the Humpbacks. With so much activity the ocean sounded like a high street in Johannesburg in peak traffic.

We realised we were in the path of the oncoming whales and readied our cameras in the hope of a once-in-a-lifetime shot …

Little did I know just how once-in-a-lifetime that experience would be. For the full story and images, catch the October issue of African Diver, out on 1 October.

By Hunter Atkins

You could be eating shark meat and not even know it.

South African fish shops are selling unlabelled or mislabelled shark products, which poses a threat to these endangered species and the unaware shoppers, according to the WWF’s Southern Africa Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI).

“We are getting more and more reports of fish shops selling products with strange sounding names like sokomoro and ocean fillet. (Some are) common or even made-up names that most consumers won’t recognise,” said John Duncan, a programme officer for the initiative.

Referring to the latest name on the market, sokomoro, which is another name for the shortfin mako shark, Duncan added, “Retailers are purposely mislabelling these species and lying about their origins because they know shark is unpopular with consumers.”

The shortfin mako is listed as “vulnerable” by the World Conservation Union. In addition to depleting the shark population, selling shark meat poses dangers to consumers with certain allergenic or religious food restrictions.

There are no regulations in South Africa to keep retailers from selling shark under different names like gummy, lemon fish and ocean fillet, a few of “thousands and thousands” of common names used to mask fish, according to Duncan. An exotic sounding name like sokomoro is just as mysterious.

“If you wanted to, you can call it peanut butter,” he said.

It is not illegal for retailers to sell shark, and concealing the identity of shark products has advantages. Selling shark under a different name gives fishers a way to catch and sell more sharks than the legal limit in a given year.

Mislabelling also attracts shoppers who normally avoid buying endangered animal products.

The anonymous meat can also make up shortages of a popular item that is similar, like swordfish. This was the justification put forward by Sidney Fishing director Sidney Moniz, whose employees at the Fish 4 Africa in Woodstock gave inconsistent answers about sokomoro yesterday.

One vendor said sokomoro was a fish from Spain and another vaguely described its origins as “from the coasts”. One manager said the shop carried, “no fish from Spain, as far as I know”.

Most shortfin mako are snagged near Japan when long-lining for tuna according to Duncan.

“I’m not sure if they knew it was from the shark family,” said Moniz, who added he was embarrassed, as he wrestled with reasons why the shop would be selling unlabelled fish. He said it was possibly done to bolster swordfish shortages or could have been a mistake because shark is difficult to distinguish off the bone.

“A big problem for me in the recent economic recession has been all these guys shipping these substitute fish,” Moniz said. “I didn’t even know it (sokomoro) was on the endangered species list. It’s not even a big portion of our business.”

Duncan said the SASSI programme was lobbying for government and NCIS standards to develop a list of acceptable trade names. For now he said a good policy for consumers is to avoid buying a product if they do not know what it is.

Source can be found here

In the months before handing over control of MCM to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), the Department of Environmental Affairs spent R144 000 on 402 Bafana Bafana soccer jerseys for MCM staff using LRF funds! That worked out to R358 a jersey!

What makes this spending spree even more criminal is that since DAFF took control of MCM on 1 May, it has emerged that within 15 days of the financial year, MCM has no more money for any further fisheries research surveys for the 2010 season. This means that critical annual surveys for hake, pelagics, lobsters, mackerel, abalone etc are not going to take place. It is also apparent that MCM has no funds for any significant compliance strategy.

At least we know what MCM’s previous leadership under Mayekiso and then Razeena Omar (the Acting DDG of MCM) considered a priority. After all why spend any funds on fisheries management when you can spend it on Adidas Bafana Bafana soccer jerseys!