Sharks Cape Town
Look the other way! A bronzie having just passed underneath the long boarder while she looks in the opposite direction.

Home » PHOTOS Show Surfer and Sharks Sharing South African Ocean

PHOTOS Show Surfer and Sharks Sharing South African Ocean

Thursday was one of those rare hot, wind free, incredible summer days in Cape Town. I was in the air by 8am and spent nearly three hours flying along the coast, photographing our amazing marine wildlife. The dusky dolphins were playing along the Blouberg shores, Table Bay was filled with baitballs and frenetic feeding activity and […]

Sharks Cape Town
Look the other way! A bronzie having just passed underneath the long boarder while she looks in the opposite direction.

Thursday was one of those rare hot, wind free, incredible summer days in Cape Town. I was in the air by 8am and spent nearly three hours flying along the coast, photographing our amazing marine wildlife.

Sharks Cape Town
Bronze Whaler Sharks (bronzies) patrolling the surface near Muizenberg. There were big shoals of Mackerel nearby.

The dusky dolphins were playing along the Blouberg shores, Table Bay was filled with baitballs and frenetic feeding activity and there were seven southern right whales in a mating group right just offshore from the Sea Point pool.

Sharks Cape Town
Huge rays were gathered in big groups just offshore from Muizenberg and were swirling around near the shoals of mackerel.

Large groups of seals were lying on the surface in Hout Bay as we headed down to Cape Point. False Bay was alive with activity and along the Muizenberg shoreline there were big shoals of baitfish (mackerel?) with the attendant predators in hot pursuit.

Unsurprisingly Surfers’ Corner was filled with surfers and there was no activity nearby but from Sunrise Circle to Strandfontein massive rays, bronze whaler sharks, thresher sharks, dolphins and even hammerhead sharks were everywhere.

Sharks Cape Town
Kommetjie and Slangkop Lighthouse on a beautiful and flat calm sea day.

Strangely enough there were no great whites around, at least none that I could see.

One lone long boarder out at Strandfontein was unwisely sitting at the backline right alongside (probably 100m away) from where the trek netters were busy pulling their nets.

I spent about five minutes circling overhead and finally managed to get some images with the surfer and sharks in the same frame…

Sharks Cape Town
Look the other way! A bronzie having just passed underneath the long boarder while she looks in the opposite direction.

I ended up spending 20 minutes altogether watching the shark activity at Muizenberg / Strandfontein.

On the first pass I saw five large sharks within a few hundred metres of the long boarder.

Sharks Cape Town
A bronze whaler shark emerges from underneath the foam as this surfer tries to get back on her board.

As I watched several of the sharks passed within metres of the longboard, with one even swimming right underneath it.

The surfer seem oblivious to the presence of the sharks even though it must have been pretty obvious that something was going on with me circling overhead for about 5 minutes.

Sharks Cape Town
Four large bronzies plus another one just out of frame all within a few hundred metres of the long boarder. They moved down the coast line abreast and all passed within a few metres of this surfer who seems completely unaware of their presence.

At one point she even fell into the water while one of the sharks was nearby.

I was nervous for her sake as she spent a lot of time sitting on the board with her bare feet dangling in the water but the sharks were not interested in the slightest.

Sharks Cape Town
Luckily the water was very clean and their was little chance of mistaken identity causing a problem for the surfer.

Just goes to show that the sharks really are not interested in humans, and in the clean water there was no problem with mistaken identity.

Hint to surfers: If you see a small white gyrocopter circling overhead, it’s not you I’m looking at!

JEAN TRESFON is a South African marine conservation photographer who specialises in aerial and underwater photography. He flies several times a week specifically to keep tabs on our South African marine wildlife and regularly assists the authorities with shark and whale spotting.

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