AfricanDiver.com

It took rescue services more than six hours and the help of dozens of volunteers to rescue a young whale shark that beached at Durban Harbour on Thursday 4 December.

The whale shark, which measured 6m, was eventually herded out with the tide late yesterday afternoon.

Describing the long, arduous but successful rescue operation, National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesman Craig Lambinon said rescuers had been elated when they realised the operation was going to end in success.

Working hand in hand, NSRI swimmers, SA police Search and Rescue services, SA Navy Divers, uShaka aquarium staff and Ezemvelo Wildlife officials finally managed to strap the whale shark to the NSRI Megan 3 rescue craft and it was escorted out by the navy harbour patrol vessel and was released one nautical mile off shore “It is unknown why it beached as it appeared to be healthy, but we are very happy that we managed to rescue it,” Lambinon said.

The whale shark was first spotted yesterday morning by people working around the harbour near the Point Yacht Club.

It was not long after that paramedics and the public and rescue officials gathered around the whale shark, which was constantly splashing water in an attempt to swim away.

A paramedic who was among those who had walked across to the whale shark said people were frantically trying to get the fish into a sling so that they could pull it out of the harbour, but all to no avail because it was very heavy.

A fisherman who was also trying to assist said he was amazed at how big it was.

“You would think a big group like this would be able to lift it up in one go, but never. I really hope that they can save it,” he said as he made his way out of the water.

Pupils who were on the Jolly Roger at harbour also got a glimpse of the whale shark, but before they could get close enough, the boat was sent away by naval officials who were concerned about further traumatising the animal.

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by Bryan Hart

I always look at the prop wash in order to get an indication on what the water is doing when launching from Durban. On Saterday it looked like we had plotted a course into the Umgeni River mouth…. However - just as we were about to cancel the whole show, a decision was made to go have a look see……

I have to admit, I didn’t expect much, and was already groaning at the prospect of having to put my wetsuit in soap afterwards to get all the mud stains out of it! As we descended down the shot line, the viz was none existent - until 5m, the water opened up into 10m of viz. The water temp dropped to 18 degree’s though but still I could tell we were going to get in a long awaited dive!
We dropped the shot line on Nevs Ledge - there have not been too many dives on this reef as of yet so the area on top and further down the ledge are still unfamiliar to the group making each dive interesting.
Nevs Ledge that at its highest point, drops off approximately 6m onto the sand. There is an old danforth anchor and a rudder on the sand. This reef is best dived on Nitrox with a nice 30 percent mix giving you a good 30min on the bottom. Scattered around this area are pieces of pipe / metal - one can only speculate how something like a rudder and all this metal could could come to rest here.
There was a slight South to North current that was running, and the horizontal viz was an acceptable 10m.

As we hit the bottom, we were engulfed by approximately 200 plus spotted grunters. They were swimming in rapid bursts and I really expected to see the GW again!! The Grunter were all very large at around 60cm - As far as Iam aware there is no Grunter run that would explain why we saw this large shoal of grunter. The fish also appeared to be “slapping” one another on the sand - very interesting. There were also a few rays scattered around as well as a very large ship that came over us during the dive - nothing out of the ordinary really for NO.1!!!
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February is traditionally a non event in terms of diving off Durban as this coincides with the rainy season. However Iam sure all that dived on Saterday with us will take it and back me up in saying….

you only know if you go….

Regular blog contributor Bryan Hart sent us this report on the diving, or lack of it, in and around the Durban area.

The diving season is going to plan…. Dec and Jan are usually great, and Feb is traditionally not…..

This means that the water is very warm but dirty, due to all the rivers dumping their sediment into the sea. And then just when it looks like it is clearing up, a big old cyclone pulls in!

This can be a very tough time of the year for any diver - low viz and cancelled launch’s and that feeling of going to work on a Monday that you have missed out on something….tensions at home run high - spouses get irritated by having you home on the weekend and you generally end up fixing something around the house or mowing the lawn……it also results in very uninspired newsletters like this!!

However April is coming, and looking at all the public holidays in this month, it appears that the ANC wants us to dive with less working days in that month than ever than before!! Fantastic as this also coincides with a calm clean ocean!!

It appears that sharks are still in the lime light this year. There has been another Great White sighting off Umdloti - unfortunately this was of a dead Great White that had been caught in a FAD (fish attracting device). Fisherman build these fish attracting devices, and anchor them out at sea which they then visit in order to fish. The picture below was taken during the recovery of the drowned Great White.

Gareth Morgan sent us this image from one of his dives in December on Nevs Ledge at a depth of 24m. Visibility was 10 metres and the water temp was 24 degree’s. The shark size was estimated to be 2.5 metres. AfricanDiver has had reports from numerous divers of increased shark activity on the Eastern coast of South Africa and Mozambique. AfricanDiver is currently investigating these reports as this type of activity is unusual. The findings will be published in a forthcoming issue of AfricanDiver.