Hippos, Great Whites, Seals and Sards....
In the news recently in Durban has been the story of a hippo travelling south in the surf. Check out http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...to-danger.html and http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_i...1427890C280110).
For those who don't know, the ocean isn't a hippo's usual habitat - they prefer fresh water lakes and slower moving rivers without rocks on the bottom and with fresh green vegetation nearby. The areas in which this hippo has been seen lately include some very rocky ocean floor with limited food. Not to mention surf...
Though this is not the first time this has happened (in the late 1920's Huberta the Hippo made her way from St Lucia in KZN to King William's Town in the Eastern Cape), it certainly is the first time in my lifetime....
Naturally curious my buddy and I changed our plans for a South Coast dive and headed North to Tinley Manor in the hopes of spotting this beast. We had a good look out at every diveable spot that we know of (and found some we didn't!!) along the way. The swell was resonably large and the water mucky so we decided against jumping in lest we inadvertently swim into the hippo - they have a bad temperament and are prone to create injury in others when startled. Brings new meaning to 'biting your head off!'
After more than 3 hours of driving we took our very dejected selves to the Bluff to check out the water there and get at least a consolation dive in (and maybe some bugs or garrick). We weren't very hopeful considering that the swell was running south/north but we thought, what the heck... better than going home. Our determination wasn't well rewarded and the sea there was just as bad as we expected it would be so we went to Beach Club at Vetch's for lunch and a beer.
Well, the water at Vetch's was perfect! Relatively anyway. Flat and serene with the viz on the inside not looking terrible. We quickly kitted up, our spirits lifted. We were going to dive after all!! Just before going in my buddy took the car keys inside for safe keeping and returned looking a bit pale and somewhat less excited than before. He only committed to telling me the story he'd just heard after the dive. Hmm...
The dive wasn't that exciting, the viz wasn't that great and there really wasn't anything to see or shoot. I took it as an opportunity to practice and really enjoyed myself anyway. As for my buddy? During the dive he stayed well clear of any murky water and wasn't as gung-ho as usual. Rather fidgety too... Perhaps he was tired and after the short absence from the water due to an injury just needed to get his confidence up a bit? Or so I thought. Turns out that the day before a 6m Great White had been spotted nearby! Glad he didn't tell me? You bet ya! At least one of us got to enjoy ourselves
After checking out the paper online today (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_i...102615840C5696) I'm pleased to say that 'nearby' was really more than 3km away, which I know is only a hop skip and a jump for a great white but at least it wasn't nearby as in it took a chunk out of some fisherman in the harbour as one did about 4 years ago the night before I was wading knee deep less than 100m away into that very water with a heavy rowing boat on above my head and 7 incredibly twitchy girls making nervous splashing noises alongside me... And a week later I was acting as a dummy (quite literally in my opinion) for search & rescue training and was floating at night on the wrong side of the shark nets waiting for the trainee skipper to 'find' and 'rescue' me and a couple other souls. Nothing like floating around on the surface acting like you need rescuing and potentially mimicking a meal knowing there's a big bugger around somewhere waiting to eat you...
So anyway, perhaps the great white was looking for the seal that had been spotted a week before? Or perhaps they were all (hippo included) after the pilot shoals of sards that have been spotted along the coast recently... I know hippos are vegetarian but then again, wildlife experts say "Hippos are not known for their fondness of seawater"... perhaps we just don't know as much as we think we do about the world around us..?
For those who don't know, the ocean isn't a hippo's usual habitat - they prefer fresh water lakes and slower moving rivers without rocks on the bottom and with fresh green vegetation nearby. The areas in which this hippo has been seen lately include some very rocky ocean floor with limited food. Not to mention surf...
Though this is not the first time this has happened (in the late 1920's Huberta the Hippo made her way from St Lucia in KZN to King William's Town in the Eastern Cape), it certainly is the first time in my lifetime....
Naturally curious my buddy and I changed our plans for a South Coast dive and headed North to Tinley Manor in the hopes of spotting this beast. We had a good look out at every diveable spot that we know of (and found some we didn't!!) along the way. The swell was resonably large and the water mucky so we decided against jumping in lest we inadvertently swim into the hippo - they have a bad temperament and are prone to create injury in others when startled. Brings new meaning to 'biting your head off!'
After more than 3 hours of driving we took our very dejected selves to the Bluff to check out the water there and get at least a consolation dive in (and maybe some bugs or garrick). We weren't very hopeful considering that the swell was running south/north but we thought, what the heck... better than going home. Our determination wasn't well rewarded and the sea there was just as bad as we expected it would be so we went to Beach Club at Vetch's for lunch and a beer.
Well, the water at Vetch's was perfect! Relatively anyway. Flat and serene with the viz on the inside not looking terrible. We quickly kitted up, our spirits lifted. We were going to dive after all!! Just before going in my buddy took the car keys inside for safe keeping and returned looking a bit pale and somewhat less excited than before. He only committed to telling me the story he'd just heard after the dive. Hmm...
The dive wasn't that exciting, the viz wasn't that great and there really wasn't anything to see or shoot. I took it as an opportunity to practice and really enjoyed myself anyway. As for my buddy? During the dive he stayed well clear of any murky water and wasn't as gung-ho as usual. Rather fidgety too... Perhaps he was tired and after the short absence from the water due to an injury just needed to get his confidence up a bit? Or so I thought. Turns out that the day before a 6m Great White had been spotted nearby! Glad he didn't tell me? You bet ya! At least one of us got to enjoy ourselves
After checking out the paper online today (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_i...102615840C5696) I'm pleased to say that 'nearby' was really more than 3km away, which I know is only a hop skip and a jump for a great white but at least it wasn't nearby as in it took a chunk out of some fisherman in the harbour as one did about 4 years ago the night before I was wading knee deep less than 100m away into that very water with a heavy rowing boat on above my head and 7 incredibly twitchy girls making nervous splashing noises alongside me... And a week later I was acting as a dummy (quite literally in my opinion) for search & rescue training and was floating at night on the wrong side of the shark nets waiting for the trainee skipper to 'find' and 'rescue' me and a couple other souls. Nothing like floating around on the surface acting like you need rescuing and potentially mimicking a meal knowing there's a big bugger around somewhere waiting to eat you...
So anyway, perhaps the great white was looking for the seal that had been spotted a week before? Or perhaps they were all (hippo included) after the pilot shoals of sards that have been spotted along the coast recently... I know hippos are vegetarian but then again, wildlife experts say "Hippos are not known for their fondness of seawater"... perhaps we just don't know as much as we think we do about the world around us..?
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Recent Blog Entries by calliecal
- diving report (December 31st, 2008)
- Hippos, Great Whites, Seals and Sards.... (June 2nd, 2008)
