The Marine Reserve
Oceans cover 70 percent of the Earth’s surface.
The sea is home to Earth's largest animal, the Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus), and also some of the smallest organisms to exist, such as microscopic plankton.
Having dived around the Island, I've been lucky enough to encounter a variety of creatures that live beneath the waves. Unfortunately, the underwater camera I have is very basic, the images do not do justice to the beauty of the animals I have seen.
The sea is home to Earth's largest animal, the Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus), and also some of the smallest organisms to exist, such as microscopic plankton.
Having dived around the Island, I've been lucky enough to encounter a variety of creatures that live beneath the waves. Unfortunately, the underwater camera I have is very basic, the images do not do justice to the beauty of the animals I have seen.
Various Marine Life
Commerson's Dolphins (Cephalorynchus commersonii)
Orca (Orcinus orca)
Sharks
My fascination with sharks began as a child when my Dad bought me a book about them, "Shark Attack" by H David Baldridge. I read it from cover to cover, totally captivated. When I'd finished, I reread the entire book again, picking up on facts I'd missed or not quite understood the first time. That was the beginning of my obsession.
Over the next thirty years or so, I read everything I could get my hands on about these fish. I watched every documentary doing the rounds but nothing satisfied my curiosity about them.
One thing I did know, there was obviously much more to these persecuted, beautiful and delicate animals than what was being portrayed back in the mid 1970's.
Eventually, I landed my dream job, working alongside these fascinating fish. I followed my passion, I lived the dream and dived with these so called "man eaters".
There are over 500 species of sharks in the world. I've only seen 28 in the wild. They are shy creatures, approximately 100 million are killed every year by humans. That's one every three seconds.
Sharks are protected around Andy's Island. Jump in and see a few:
Over the next thirty years or so, I read everything I could get my hands on about these fish. I watched every documentary doing the rounds but nothing satisfied my curiosity about them.
One thing I did know, there was obviously much more to these persecuted, beautiful and delicate animals than what was being portrayed back in the mid 1970's.
Eventually, I landed my dream job, working alongside these fascinating fish. I followed my passion, I lived the dream and dived with these so called "man eaters".
There are over 500 species of sharks in the world. I've only seen 28 in the wild. They are shy creatures, approximately 100 million are killed every year by humans. That's one every three seconds.
Sharks are protected around Andy's Island. Jump in and see a few:
Whale shark (Rhincodon typus)
Whilst living in Mozambique, I became a volunteer research assistant and eventually a guide on Ocean Safari's. Taking tourists out on a 5.8m RIB, we would look for whale sharks to snorkel with and photograph. The photo's I took were added to a database to help build up a picture of the migration patterns of these mighty fish.
On one occasion an 8m individual decided to empty it's bowels all over me while I was taking photo's. Being covered in the poo of the world's largest fish doesn't happen every day.
On one occasion an 8m individual decided to empty it's bowels all over me while I was taking photo's. Being covered in the poo of the world's largest fish doesn't happen every day.
Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)
These sharks have a bit of a bad reputation with the uneducated. I found them to be a very curious and cautious fish. if one came a little too close, a wave of the hand or any sudden movement would be enough to make them alter their course.
White shark (Carcharodon carcharias)
Quite simply, the most incredible, beautiful, inquisitive, powerful, misunderstood shark that I have ever encountered.
Sunday November 1st 1992 was the day I saw my first White shark. In fact I saw four. Having blagged my way onto a research vessel owned by The White Shark Research Unit (WSRU) in South Africa, I watched in awe as these huge fish circled the boat we were in. A day etched in my memory forever. Luckily, I have a copy of the footage the Director of WSRU took that day, now transferred onto DVD.
Rather than satisfying my yearning to experience these creatures, it only served to fuel my passion. My encounters with White sharks started from the deck of a boat, transferred to viewing them from a cage until, eventually, I had the privilege of meeting one face to face whilst scuba diving.
Sunday November 1st 1992 was the day I saw my first White shark. In fact I saw four. Having blagged my way onto a research vessel owned by The White Shark Research Unit (WSRU) in South Africa, I watched in awe as these huge fish circled the boat we were in. A day etched in my memory forever. Luckily, I have a copy of the footage the Director of WSRU took that day, now transferred onto DVD.
Rather than satisfying my yearning to experience these creatures, it only served to fuel my passion. My encounters with White sharks started from the deck of a boat, transferred to viewing them from a cage until, eventually, I had the privilege of meeting one face to face whilst scuba diving.
White sharks migrating from Guadalupe Island
November 2015: exciting news from Andy's Island.
We had some visiting white sharks pitch up off the Island shore all the way from Isla de Guadalupe in the Pacific Ocean.
How do we know they were from Guadalupe? Well, we just know that kind of stuff.
Hope you like the photo's:
We had some visiting white sharks pitch up off the Island shore all the way from Isla de Guadalupe in the Pacific Ocean.
How do we know they were from Guadalupe? Well, we just know that kind of stuff.
Hope you like the photo's:
A Sad Tale (the story of a white sharks will to live)
One of the many, many fascinating aspects I find about white sharks is their will to live:
In 1968, an 8 foot male white shark was caught on hook and line near Sydney, Australia. The animal was played on the line for several hours before eventually, exhausted, it was landed.
Manly Marine World in Sydney had plans to put the poor creature on display in one of its aquariums.
The shark was dragged onto a beach, dumped into an unfiltered tank on the back of a pickup truck, driven over bumpy roads for 45 minutes, taken out of the water then hauled up several flights of stairs in a stretcher. Finally it was deposited in a shabbily constructed exhibit crammed with turtles, nurse sharks and an assortment of other fish. Most other sharks would have already died by this point, but this white shark had a will to live.
After 3 days in captivity, the shark began to feed, however, he refused to feed on the dead fish offered by the aquarium divers. Instead, he chose to eat his fellow tank mates.
Why not? He's a predator.
After a week of feeding on the snappers on display, the aquarium owners began to have concerns about the safety of their divers: it was time to let the shark go. Unfortunately, the aquarium was not equipped to extract a live, healthy juvenile white shark.
Their solution was to KILL IT.
Not wasting an opportunity, the aquarium sold tickets to the public to watch the event. The Australian Post newspaper ran the headline "The White Pointer Was Mad, It Had To Die Before It Emptied The Aquarium".
Ten days after the arrival of the hapless animal, a group of divers entered the aquarium armed with "bang sticks" (power heads usually tipped with 12 gauge shotgun cartridges).
In front of a sellout audience, the divers approached the shark and raised their bang sticks into position. It took 7.....that's SEVEN....bullets from the bang sticks to dispatch the animal.
After spiraling round and round for several minutes, the life of this juvenile shark ended at the bottom of an aquarium in front of a paying audience.
In 1968, an 8 foot male white shark was caught on hook and line near Sydney, Australia. The animal was played on the line for several hours before eventually, exhausted, it was landed.
Manly Marine World in Sydney had plans to put the poor creature on display in one of its aquariums.
The shark was dragged onto a beach, dumped into an unfiltered tank on the back of a pickup truck, driven over bumpy roads for 45 minutes, taken out of the water then hauled up several flights of stairs in a stretcher. Finally it was deposited in a shabbily constructed exhibit crammed with turtles, nurse sharks and an assortment of other fish. Most other sharks would have already died by this point, but this white shark had a will to live.
After 3 days in captivity, the shark began to feed, however, he refused to feed on the dead fish offered by the aquarium divers. Instead, he chose to eat his fellow tank mates.
Why not? He's a predator.
After a week of feeding on the snappers on display, the aquarium owners began to have concerns about the safety of their divers: it was time to let the shark go. Unfortunately, the aquarium was not equipped to extract a live, healthy juvenile white shark.
Their solution was to KILL IT.
Not wasting an opportunity, the aquarium sold tickets to the public to watch the event. The Australian Post newspaper ran the headline "The White Pointer Was Mad, It Had To Die Before It Emptied The Aquarium".
Ten days after the arrival of the hapless animal, a group of divers entered the aquarium armed with "bang sticks" (power heads usually tipped with 12 gauge shotgun cartridges).
In front of a sellout audience, the divers approached the shark and raised their bang sticks into position. It took 7.....that's SEVEN....bullets from the bang sticks to dispatch the animal.
After spiraling round and round for several minutes, the life of this juvenile shark ended at the bottom of an aquarium in front of a paying audience.
There are squillions of websites devoted to the subject of sharks, some good, some not so good. These are a few worth looking at for further information:
The Shark Trust The Florida Museum of Natural History Shark Research Committee
The Shark Trust The Florida Museum of Natural History Shark Research Committee
“Sharks have everything a scientist dreams of. They're beautiful―God, how beautiful they are! They're like an impossibly perfect piece of machinery. They're as graceful as any bird. They're as mysterious as any animal on earth. No one knows for sure how long they live or what impulses―except for hunger―they respond to. There are more than two hundred and fifty species of shark, and everyone is different from every other one.”
Peter Benchley
Peter Benchley
