Shark Chronicles 050 – Alek 26 May – shift 9-18
Posted by Enrico Gennari on May 26, 2009
We change over at 9 am and surprise surprise...
the shark was still at the island. Just after our arrival, the cage diving vessel joined us and for the first 2 hours the shark, even though being around, never showed interest on their boat.
But then Alek decided to investigate that strange rope with a fish head attached to its end, floating in front of that boat. Thus the crew rushed their clients into the cage, shouting to them "Down, go down!!!". The tourists took a big breath and dove into the cage right when Alek was opening its majestic mouth. And then the show began! The clients came up screaming and giving hi five to each other with smiles bigger than their masks. Alek performed for them for over an hour.
Then when everybody had the chance to meet the great white shark, the cage diving vessel left. Alek maybe a bit surprised by not having the bait in sight anymore, for the first time in 2 days, decided to show itself to our tracking team: AMAZING! Cruising like a torpedo but gently like a dolphin our shark made few circles around our boat before disappearing into the deep blue.
Alek then moved toward Hartenbos (a reef about 3 Km from Seal Island) and there it slowed down. Hartnebos is a particular reef in front of a river mouth which could provide enough oxygen into the water allowing the shark to swim very slow while still breathing (a white shark needs to swim in order to pump water into its gills and thus breath).
We left when Alek was still in Hartenbos facing the darkness of a South African night.