A Day in the Life of a WSP Volunteer

Volunteering for White Shark Projects (WSP) has been interesting.  Other than my love of sharks I came here knowing nothing about boats, seamanship, great white shark behavior or cage diving.  My first day going to sea, we were given a tour of the boat and told how it operates.  I learned that port side is the left side of the boat (“there is no port left in the wine bottle”) and starboard is the right side.  The bow is the front and the stern is the back.  We were taught how the GPS system and the motors work although we wouldn't be in charge of operating these.  Our boat, Shark Team, is a 36 foot split hull catamaran.

Shark Team

Unfortunately, for me, there is no current research going on here with this particular project.  We are only focusing on data collection at this time.  We chart the number of different sharks we see each trip out, their behavior, their size, their sex (if we can tell) and how much time they stay around the boat.  The crew is very good at telling the sharks apart by their scars.  It is hard for me to tell because the sharks don't spend too much time with their heads out of the water.   The crew members are quick though! 

Our day starts at 5am.  We meet the crew in the garage that is attached to our volunteer house.  We pack the wetsuits and the booties for the day's dives.  We pack the bait and chum components, the life jackets for the clients, the client lunches/refreshments and dry towels and blankets to give the divers once they come out of the cage.  All of those items go from the garage into the bucky (that's what a truck is called here) and then down to the boat.  First launch is usually around 6:30am.  

Boarding the boat. Ready to launch.

We assist the clients with putting on their life jackets as they board the boat and then we head to the dive spot about 3 miles offshore.  Once at the dive site one of the crew members gives a briefing to the clients about the area and some basic shark behavior.  We are currently diving at the "summer" location called Joubert's Dam in the Atlantic Ocean.  The "winter" location is further out to sea in a strip of ocean between Dyer Island and Geyser Rock, also known as Shark Alley.  The water is about 10 meters (33 feet) deep at Joubert’s Dam and unfortunately visibility is poor due to the sandy bottom.  Visibility is much better in Shark Alley where the water is only about 7 meters (23 feet) deep and the bottom is rocky instead of sandy.  

Joubert's Dam

Map of Dyer Island/Geyser Rock

The sharks don’t hang around Shark Alley in the summer time.  They wait for the winter when the seal pups are first learning to swim out on their own from Geyser Rock.  The pups are not wise to the ways of the sharks and are easy prey.  In the summer the adults are out in that water and they are smart, can avoid the sharks and they even fight back.   It takes too much effort for the sharks to prey on the adult seals. The sharks are therefore forced to come to Joubert’s Dam in the summer to feed on skates, rays, smaller fish, whatever they can find.

Geyser Rock

Once at the dive site we help the crew take the cage off the boat and secure it into place on the side of the boat.  The wind direction/speed and the current determines which side of the boat we place the cage.  Every time I have been out we have placed the cage starboard. The cage is attached to the boat with ropes to keep it from moving.  It is fully submerged in the water with the exception of about 12" that is above the water.  The cage can hold six divers at a time.   While the cage is being secured one person starts the chum slick and the rest of the crew drops the anchor.

The captain gives a pre-dive briefing to the clients.  He explains how to enter and exit the cage, cage etiquette and how the baiting works.  The clients are split into groups of six.  Once a shark is seen hanging around the boat the volunteers give out wetsuits, booties, weight belts and masks to the first dive group.  The wetsuits are very thick (7mm) to combat the cold water.  Average water temperature since I’ve been here is 13 degrees C (about 55 degrees F).  Apparently the water is colder here in the summer and warmer in the winter?  Weird.  The wetsuits make you very buoyant so you need a heavy weight belt to get yourself under the water to see the sharks.  The weight belts we use are anywhere from 15 to 18 pounds.

Divers enter the cage from the top.  Feet forward and back to the boat.  You “walk” down the front of the cage with your feet and lower yourself into the water.  Your feet rest on a bar that is situated inside the cage about 4 feet down and you grab the roof of the cage with your hands.  You CANNOT under any circumstances use the area in front of you to place your hands.  You can see from my videos that the sharks come very close to the front of cage, often with their mouth open, thrashing, and you can get unintentionally injured.  Rule number one……keep your limbs inside the cage :)

Waiting for a shark

Divers wait in the cage, bobbing around, until a crew member spots a shark.  The crew member working the bait yells which direction the shark is coming from and for you to go down under the water.  He uses the bait to lure the shark towards the cage and pulls it out of the water just before the shark can get a hold of it.  Sometimes the shark does take the bait but that is not the goal.  We are not out there trying to feed the sharks.  When the crew yells “go down”, you hold your breath, take your feet off the inside bar, push yourself down and then place your hands on the bar your feet were on.  You have to place your face as close to the front of the cage as you can to see the shark since visibility is so poor.  You do this as many times as the shark(s) stick around.  It’s a whole lot of waiting for a few seconds of visualization.  Most people stay in the cage for 20-30 minutes at a time although you can stay in as long as you’d like.  Some people get one look at the shark and then they are done.  Some people like to stay in the cage and get as many looks as possible.  

Bait Handler

Chum Master :)

View of shark from cage

On average we are at the dive site about 2.5 hours rotating divers.  There is one crew member dedicated as the “Movie Man” who takes a video of the entire trip for the clients to have.  Either a crew member or a volunteer is responsible for chumming the entire time we are anchored at the dive site.  Usually the skipper is in charge of data collection however, we are encouraged to help.

The Crew

Jerome

After the divers are done taking turns in the cage we prepare to head back to shore.  We hand all the divers a dry towel as they exit the water.  The volunteers are responsible for hanging the wetsuits on the side rails of the boat to dry.  We collect the booties, weight belts and masks and put them away.  The clients are instructed to put their life jackets back on and to be seated for the return trip.  

The cage is left at the dive site to be used for the next trip(s) to sea.  It is easier to do this than to load and unload the cage each time.  A large buoy is attached to the top of the cage to keep it afloat.  Two tuna heads are secured inside the cage with a leaking bottle of anchovy oil to help keep the sharks around.  After the last dive trip of the day the cage is loaded back onto the boat. 

Once the boat is back on shore the volunteers unload the wet towels, used wetsuits and any trash.  We reload the boat with new wetsuits, dry towels, more refreshments and additional bait.  After the boat docked for the evening we help the crew clean the boat. We wash the wetsuits and booties and hang them to dry for use the next day.

Our day is usually done by 3:30pm and then we are free to do whatever we like.  Most of us head to the local restaurant, The Great White House, for lunch.  It is literally across the street from our house.  Then we read, download our day’s photos and videos and decide who is going on what dive trips the next day.  On “no sea” days we can take day trips around the area or we can just hang out at the volunteer house.

The Great White House Restaurant

It’s been a great adventure and learning experience so far.  I have one week left to get my shark fill.   I had one good dive in the cage and the rest of the time I have viewed the sharks from the boat.  With the water visibility being so poor you can actually see the sharks better from the boat.  That and the water is really cold :)

I have been able to manage my seasickness with LOTS of medications.  The cocktail that seems to work best is two non-drowsy Dramamine (meclzine) and 8mg of Ondansetron at 5am when I get up.  Then at 6am I take two regular Dramamine and eat a piece of toast.  It’s a lot of medication.  One good thing about it is that I sleep well at night!  I tried to back down on the meds one day and it wasn’t good.  I didn’t actually get sick but I didn’t feel well.  This is my cocktail and I’m sticking to it!

"Better living through chemistry"

Swop Shop

Every Tuesday afternoon when the volunteers get back from sea we go to the Masakhane/White Shark Projects Recycle Swop Shop.  The Swop Shop is an empowerment initiative for children in Masakhane, a very poor suburb of Kleinbaai.  The aim of the project is three-fold:

     1. To clean up the community and teach environmental awareness 
     2. Help provide basic needs of children
     3. Teach children trading skills 

The children of Masakhane collect bottles, tins, plastics and other recyclables and bring them in bags to the White Shark ‘Swop Shop’. In return, they earn buying points that they ‘spend’ in the shop.  The shop carries worthwhile stock such as stationery, simple clothing, and food basics, and relies completely on donations.

Waiting in line

Waiting in line

In this way, the children learn valuable lessons about caring for their environment: They learn that it’s important to recycle resources and at the same time care for their environment by picking up litter. Not only does their village look nicer, but they also earn something through this care. Conservation, they see, has many values.

The underlying vision of the Swop Shop is to empower these historically disadvantaged children, helping them grow into self-sufficient, contributing adults. By encouraging them to use what they have around them, they see that in small ways, they can improve their lives.

The WSP volunteers take turns going to the shop each week.  This week I went with Gary, Roger, Dominick and Sidsel.  What an amazing experience!  It was humbling seeing these children lining up with their bags of recyclables to trade.

I was truly blown away by these kids. When they had the choice between "buying" a pencil or "buying" a toy, they always chose the pencil.  There was one girl there, maybe 8 years old, that used her points to buy clothes for her family members.  The lady that runs the shop, Nellie, said that girl comes every week and that is all she buys.  She never gets anything for herself.  What a selfless act at such a young age.  After they redeem their points they are given a cup of soup to eat.  

Eating their soup

The older children spoke a few words of English but mostly they speak Xhosa.  Xhosa is a tonal language; that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonants; the word "Xhosa" begins with a click.

The kids LOVE to have their picture taken.  They are such hams!  They say "cheese" when they see the camera pointed at them.  They like to play photographer so I let them use my camera.  They took photos of each other and themselves - they love to take selfies!  Adorable!! I got a video of one boy singing and dancing too!

She buys clothes for her family each week

Selfie!

Life changing experience!  Wish I could go every day!  Certainly looking forward to next week's visit!

Adorable girls

If you are interesting in learning more or if you want to help, please visit this link.

http://www.whitesharkprojects.co.za/projects/community-projects.html

PLEASE VISIT MY GOFUNDME PAGE AND MAKE A DONATION IF YOU CAN.  ANY AMOUNT HELPS.  I WILL BE DONATING TO THE SWOP SHOP!

http://www.gofundme.com/eouk6k

SHARKS, FINALLY!

After many days of not being able to go to sea, we finally got to go!  The sea was still a bit rough though.  Everyone that knows me well knows that I get pretty severe motion sickness.  I can’t even watch an IMAX movie without getting dizzy!  So, what do I do?  I sign up for 3 weeks on a boat! Only me!

In an attempt to combat seasickness I purchased Scopolamine patches from my doctor.  Everyone swears by these. I applied the patch as directed, 4 hours prior to getting on the boat.  I also took  8mg of Ondanestron (an antiemetic) to combat any nausea I may have. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me.  I didn’t vomit but I didn’t feel great.  

Shark Team is the name of our boat and we take clients out to sea for their great white shark cage diving experience.  Normally there are two trips scheduled each day.  During the busy season they sometimes take three.  The boat can hold 20 clients/volunteers and 5 crew members.  So the number of clients booked each trip determines how many of our volunteers can go along.  Right now we have 10 volunteers and we take turns going out to sea.  Our job is help the clients with their life jackets and wet suits.  We answer questions for them.  We help load the boat and drop the anchor.  When we return from sea we have to wash all the wetsuits and hang them to dry to be ready for the next day. We make the chum and we actually get to do the chumming!   The chum is a mixture of a chopped up whole tuna, anchovy oil and mashed up sardines.  It didn’t smell as bad as I expected and really didn’t gross me out that much.  Chumming is actually a great job on the boat as it has one of the best viewing spots.

Shark Team

Wetsuits

The chum creates an oil slick that goes with the current.  It attracts the sharks to the boat.  Then we have the bait which is two large tuna heads attached to a rope.  There is one crew member designated to throw the bait out for the sharks. He stands on the boat just above the cage.  His iob is to try and lure the sharks towards the cage while attempting to keep them from stealing the bait!  Not easy! 

Bucket of Tuna heads

When we got to the dive site, about 3 miles off shore. We put the cage in the water and got the first group of divers ready to go.  The cage can hold six people at a time.  It didn’t take long before we saw our first shark. This shark was juvenile about 6 or 7 feet long.  So awesome to see!  

Dive site - 3 miles off shore

Waiting for sharks

First Shark!

I did manage to do some chumming before I felt too bad and had to sit down.  I did not actually vomit (probably due to the ondansetron) but it still wasn’t pretty.  The water visibility was pretty poor so I actually saw more from the boat than I would have seen in the cage.

Roger - Chum Master

After everyone had their shark fill we went back to shore, cleaned the boat and the wetsuits and then us :)

All the volunteers take turns making dinner for everyone.  Monday night was my turn so I made lasagna.  It turned out really well!  Even better than what I’ve made at home.  Either that or we were just really hungry so anything would have tasted great! 

I went on the boat yesterday (Tuesday) on the second trip.  I removed my Scopolamine patch after the first day because it didn’t work for me and I had some pretty bad side effects - blurred vision and really dry mouth.  Instead, I took two meclizine tablets and an ondansetron at 5am.  Then I took two Dramamine at 10:30am and 0.25mg of Alprazolam to help with the claustrophobia (maybe?).  That was my best feeling day at sea but I didn’t dive because we had so many clients and it was a really windy, cold day.  The water was rough.

I went to sea today (Wednesday) on the first trip and the water was really calm.  I was hoping for a good day but I felt just a tad seasick.  I didn’t take the alprazolam and I took one less meclizine.  I really need to find the right combination of drugs.  I still feel like I’m on the boat and I’ve been off it for 5 hours…….

We have seen sharks each day.  A couple good ones yesterday and today.  The only bad day is a day with no sharks!

Great White taking the bait!

Great White taking the bait

I did do most of the chumming today which is actually kind of fun. You put the chum in the water and immediately all these little fish come up and eat the tuna bits from the oil slick.  They look like piranhas in a feeding frenzy!  I had to mash up some sardines to add to the chum.  You take whole sardines and put them in a bucket and stomp them like grapes.  Just like making wine :)  After they are all smashed up you add them to the chum.  I really thought this would gross me out but I actually like it!  Good times, good times……

Fish feeding frenzy!

This is pretty much the drill everyday so I won’t post the same thing over and over.  I will just post stuff that is different or extra cool.   More to come......

“If I had a choice between walking along a sidewalk with no rails and a thousand foot drop, or jumping in a tank full of blood and sharks, I’d choose the sharks.” 
― Jarod Kintz

African Penguins

Today, Saturday, November 15, 2014, we traveled to Betty's Bay at Stony Point to visit the African Penguins at Betty's Beach.

Only an hour’s drive from Cape Town, Betty’s Bay is a picturesque seaside village situated along the scenic Clarence Drive Route (R44) between Pringle Bay and Kleinmond. The town is positioned in a narrow strip of land sandwiched between the Kogelberg Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, and bordered by fresh water lakes and the Palmiet River.

The penguin colony at Stony Point is one of four mainland colonies in South Africa and declared a municipal nature reserve in July 2002. Since then this important seabird colony has grown in size due to the breeding of both the endangered penguins and cormorants (a type of seabird). 

The African penguin was once called the Jackass penguin because of the call they make which sounds like a donkey braying. Let me tell you, it sounds JUST like a donkey!!  So cool!!  The first nests in Bettys Bay were found in 1982. Penguins pairs mate for life and both parents contribute to the feeding of the chicks.  

You arrive at a parking lot near the Penguin colony that overlooks the ocean.  The surf was high this day and you could see the surfers out there catching some waves.  They are brave as the water is ice cold and there are huge rocks around the bay that could seriously injure/kill you if you were to hit them.

Betty's Bay

Surfer

Off to your right side there is a wooden boardwalk that leads to the penguin colonies.  The penguins are on both sides of the boardwalk.  There were some penguins out near the water sunning themselves and there were some on the opposite side of the boardwalk building nests on the slope of a hill.

Hundreds of penguins

Penguins EVERYWHERE!!  I could not believe how many there were.  This area is estimated to be home to more than 3,500 of them!! 

We also spotted some other creatures there:

Baby Water Mongoose

Cape Lizard

Water Mongoose

After our penguin visit we went to Hermanus for lunch.  Ate at a place called Lemon Butta.  It was excellent food and the best thing is that they have huge glass windows facing the bay.  Hermanus is known for whale watching and they have a town crier that blows his horn when he sees a whale.  During lunch a cow and calf were seen off the coast but I was unable to get a good photo.  All the restaurants I have been to so far in South Africa are on "South African Time".  This lunch took a good 2.5 hours.  Seriously........I am learning patience!

Between yesterday and today, we lost 4 volunteers and gained 4 volunteers so now the new dynamic is 4 Americans,  2 English, 1 Danish, 1 Swedish and 1 German.  The youngest volunteer is 19  years old and the oldest is 58 years old.  

After lunch we arrived back at the volunteer house and just hung out.  Every evening they call or text our house phone and let us know if we are going to be able to go to sea the next day.  Unfortunately we got a call that we would not be going to sea on Sunday.   We had a couple of meetings on Sunday morning instead and then after lunch five of us took a walk to the lighthouse down the coast.  It is a 4 mile trail that runs right along the coastline.  It is so close to us that we can walk to from the volunteer house.  I ran on this trail on my first day here.  I fell on some rocks and skinned my knees which should be no surprise to many of you :)  Seems to be healing just fine despite the lack of a good first aid kit here.  I had to use Murcurochrome which was outlawed in the US due to it's mercury content.  I remember my mom using it on us kids when we were younger.  Yes, I am that old :)

Tomorrow will be sharks for sure or I may go postal on someone!!  More later......


"It's practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry"  - Joe Moore