My trip will start the 2nd week of June. SEAL guys, I will probably see you all at Mboyti at some point. That's if I'm welcome there still.
Anyhow, see you all at sea and may the best boat find the first action

I'll use this thread for updates as the trip continues.
Having just flown from East London, the activity has picked up abit but the vis is crap. Been doing mostly topside stuff. Hopefully a weather system will come in and clear up the water!
No superpods of common dolphins, only pods of a hundred or so. Same for the gannets. Haven't looked for sharks as the water is too dirty to try.
Thus it begins...

Nice one Drew...

Looking forward to the coming reports..

Dive safe

DeanB

Good luck Drew - may the weather and viz be on your side mate!

We're going to try to get images and text from Drew as he's away (to post on the front page). Hopefully, GPRS will be fast enough for Drew to send some images over.

Unlike Eric (who is rumored to be online 24/7 and posts from sit down time )
I think I'll work on the text and let Shawn deal with the pics. Always let it be said that Drew is lazy on holiday. Plus he has other things to do besides sit on a boat.

Well, the start of the first day and the team is eager. Numerous reports of 'activity" including superpods and gannets. Viz is still crap but it's about finding the right conditions with action.
New equipment to the run for me is the HVR-DR60, the Sony hardfisk which allows cache prerecording of up to 14 seconds before you hit the record button, essentially catching the stuff human reflexes (slow like mine) misses.
Also the other problem of the wetsuit neoprene shrinking a bit so the fit is "snug".
Will update once we get into the water. The Beeb come in a few days and they may miss the party. There's a french Imax crew down in Port Elizabeth (who aren't really here) trying to catch the surface action.
Seems production crews aren't done with the run.

Dude - Good Luck :)

Pilot schools have started showing up.
The Wetpixel boys got in with small sardine baitballs throughout the morning, in viz varying from 16-24ft (5-7m). Superpods have formed and there are common dolphins everywhere.
Birds are arriving early so it seems the sardines will run pretty well this year. Oh and my skipper insists it's due to the aloe plant blooming bigger this year.

Hope the wetsuit shrinkage does not make your voice too high pitched. Never saw underwater aloe.
Sounds like all hell is about to break loose!

Today brought some big smiles to the boys. The morning started with a few hundred birds diving on sporadic action, then 3 different species of dolphins converged (pan tropical spotted, bottle nose and common) and were everywhere. Since South Africa was playing Australia in rugby, my skipper insisted the weather(while sunny and nice) was going to go "pear shape" at 1.30 sharp (the match was at 3). As we rode in, I spied a pectoral fin of a humpback splashing about a mile away. Turned out to be 3 humpbacks trying to get bottlenose dolphins off their backs. The dolphins were again everywhere and thus the boys jumped in to enjoy the dolphins when the humpbacks circled round while trying to shake off the dolphins.
Suddenly the team was in the water with 3 humpback whales as they tried tail and fin slapped dolphins. Unfortunately, in the ensuing euphoria, NickJ put his camera in tele mode and Jbonehoss didn't set up his camera correctly. ShawnH was miffed he didn't get any clear shots.
Still not a bad 3rd day for newbies, some of whom have been devirginated for uw humpback encounters X 3.

Day 4:
Started with almost zero activity. A few dozen gannets flying south and no dolphins. Almost like the sea swallowed up the life.
After a break for tea humpbacks whales decided to show in force. We'd spotted 5 different ones when suddenly a group of 6 humpbacks started breaching and showing all sorts of behavior including peduncal throws, head, jaw and tail slaps. It seemed the bulls were fighting for escort duties for the female.
We followed the whales for 3 hours as they argued and tussled, when suddenly a bobbing shape popped in and out of the surface. This mysterious figure was swimming fast and went right under the boat... it turned out to be a cape fur seal, a good sign as they tend to follow the sardines up from the Cape. As even more humpbacks came out, cape gannets began showing in numbers heading south, indicating the main show is about the start, which means we should have something awesome to look forward to the next week.

man oh man... am i jealous

good luck all of you

I'm with Mike ... gits ... i could live during those months down there .. like a ground hog day .. and drew said we didn't even get it that good .. i am dying to see some pics !

Sounds like you guys are having a great trip. Hope it continues to get better!

Cheers,

Tony

This all sounds like it's very exciting stuff... Has anyone managed to get any good shot to show us yet?

Hey Drew, Is this just an add on to the actual camera unit? Does it fit into housings or this just for topside use? This cache system is what the real high end cameras have and definately has to be the way forward...

Day 6
Started with huge breaks which cancelled our morning launch. While we idled away the morning at Silaka Reserve, I spotted activity at sea and phoned the skipper, stopping him from playing golf to attempt a launch, since the wind and sea had quiet down a bit. After battling 25 mins at the river mouth through 3-4m tight swells, we broke out to find a mini superpod of about 400 common dolphins where the boys jumped in to shoot them a few times.
Lots of bad things happened in a camp north of us. 5 divers were lost at sea for several hours when their buoy sank. The high seas made spotting them hard and only after having 2 microlight searching for the divers did they find them. Thankfully no one was hurt in that ordeal.
Not so lucky was another video shooter who was bitten by a shark in bad viz while in a baitball. The viz had been dropping from 2m which in my mind isn't a safe environment to put divers in. Fortunately it only required stitches and with a bit of plastic surgery, the scar should be minimal.

Day 7
With Imax and a local production crew arriving, we launched to be first on the activity. After the baitball died out, the light still wasn't enough to jump in. So we followed the birds north until I managed to find a good baitball for the boys. NickJ blew an o-ring while under (and did not notice as he was shooting) so his dive was cut short. Still the others stayed with the action for 30 mins before the predators moved on.
The great news is that the predators all returned in force so it seems the action is still yet to hit full steam.

Graham, it may fit some housings and has been great for dolphins and breaches.

ouch....

Day 8
The morning started with about 1000 gannets diving over a 5km area, mostly in dirty water. With the newly trained runners now able to respond to commands almost militaristically, the team was ready to jump at any moment.
Still nature is quite the teaser as the action was in dirty water so we decided to follow the dolphins when a humpback whale BREACHED 5 FT from the boat. As we tried to avoid the whale, it was breaching often within 20ft of the boat. Somebody was pretty frisky. This was by far the best topside whale action I've ever seen on the run.
After we managed to shake our cetacean behemoth, all the predators seemed to disappear along with it. It was like we drove into a big void in the ocean. Seemed even the ocean inhabitants take off for lunch, so we had ours too.
Then the oceans woke up with a pod of playful bottlenose dolphins, with leaping bulls 'displaying' their wares in great spinning leaps. The team spent time in the water with them.
As we prepared to call it a day, the ocean began to bubble with life. 4-500 gannets were diving on the fast moving common dolphins as they chased red eye herring. We noticed a spout in the midst of the chaos. The skipper and I immediately thought....Bryde's Whale! We followed the pandemonium as the predators continued to hit the fish and suddenly the Bryde's whale came rising out from the depths, mouth wide open and engorging the baitball (and probably a few gannets too). The action was too fast for the divers to get it even though they tried.
Sharks were ever present everytime they jumped in the water. And the wind was making the waves choppy. With the fading light, we went home reluctantly as the action still went on.
Today all hell broke loose, and what a hell it was!

that sounds pretty amazing, Drew.

r.

Day 09
With the reported main school of sardines 150km south of us, our attention was forcefully and happily turned on the cetaceans. First a pod of 300 common dolphins got the gannets into a frenzy of diving, really for nothing . The blonde birds of south africa are known to do what I coin as "desperation diving", just diving when dolphins are around just hoping there'll be food where dolphins are. However the dolphins were not feeding but just relaxing.
As they traipsed north, we turned our (long) lenses onto 4 charging humpbacks, challenging for escort duties with the female. They steamed on like runaway freight trains. In fact they were going so fast, we abandoned following them for 2 other whales travelling at a more relaxed pace. So what did they do to greet us? A double breach continued by even more breaching and head slapping. We followed the pair for an hour or so til they tired. But so were we. But the cetaceans didn't stop coming as we spotted a large disturbance of white water on the flat seas. We rushed out to meet the turbulance, revealing a pod of 70 odd bottlenose dolphins charging at speed. There's nothing like charging dolphins to get the blood racing, inspiring us to humm Wagner's Die Walkure. What a great way to end the day.

Day 10
What the ocean giveth, the ocean taketh away. The seas were barren. A manta, a shark, 2 whales, a loggerhead turtle and 3 dozen birds were all that were left. I believe the conspiracy of the boat skippers was responsible. Tri-Nations rugby between the All-blacks and Springboks made the skippers make up all sorts of excuses to watch the match live. Except the most used excuse of bad weather was obviously not going to work because the seas were flat and temperature was in the 70s. After so many campaigns, I'm seeing a trend of inactivity during big rugby matches. Such is the power of the rugby sangorma. In fact I'm writing this as we watch the Springboks kill the All Blacks.

Only "A manta, a shark, 2 whales, a loggerhead turtle"....!!!!
We're almost feeling sorry for you guys!

Update... all blacks won!

Oh good, balance has been returned to the universe

Day 12
3 of the guys fell to some sort of stomach bug that kept them off the boat. We still launched to find humpbacks in force, 14 sighted in all. However other than that, the day was pretty dead. But with reports of sardine activity only 60 km south of us, the spirits while dampened remain relatively good.

Day 13
In truth, balance did return to the run universe today as we had over 600 common dolphins, 100 oceanic bottle nose dolphins, 2 mola mola and 5 humpback whales all in the space of 3 hours. Of course the 6-700 gannets diving like a waterfall right in front of the boat made the day for all the guys after a few days of inactivity. Add to that high seas caused by strong winds and ocean swells, the ocean was boiling with life. Sardines arrived in patches but the seas were too rough to dive on them. The school was so thick the dolphins didn't even form a baitball, hence the gannets had no luck reaching the sardines which came up to maybe 25m, just a little beyond the range of the gannets.
Hopefully the winds will die down tomorrow and the action will still be around. It's coming down to the last 2 days for this group so it'll be close to find that perfect ending to their expedition.
Wish us luck!

25m JUST out of reach for the gannets?!?! Wow! that is an impressive bird!

Sounds wonderfull Drew
Looking forward to seeing some images from you guys.

Day 14
The South Westerly front blew hard blowing out any chance of shooting topside or getting in the water. Other boats launched and beat themselves up in the white caps and high windy seas. With not much activity and bad conditions, I decided against launching.

Day 15
The Wetpixel boys decided to extend a day and were giving a nice parting gift in the way of a humpback whale encounter while swimming with dolphins. Unfortunately, one of the boys suffered a flooding and his camera was rust toast. The boys left with some of the best humpback and dolphin encounters I've seen so far.

Day 16
The new group has 2 wetpixel members, giftie and falsa orca. The other 2 are non-shooters. Their first day couldn't start better when we had 4 baitballs in marginal viz, 2 with a cape fur seal. 400-500 gannets were diving on the action all day as the sardines came up in pockets that were spread out. So the predators had their fill as they travelled along the coast.
After that we had a few breaching whales to end the long day.

Day 17
Started very promisingly with 500 odd birds diving all over the place and a large spread out pod of common dolphins chasing fish. We deduced from the speed of the dolphin action and bird diving, it was red eye (herring) the predators were feeding on.
Then all hell went silent for 3 hours as there was almost no life to be found. And again, life sprung out with a breaching whale (17 times) followed by a large pod of bottlenose dolphins. As 3 of our group were snorkelling with the dolphins they had a seriously big awakening when 4 humpbacks popped up right next to them!

I'm so jealous of you guys!!!!

Sounds absolutely amazing...

Wish we have the equivalent here on the East Coast of Oz.

Just back from S Africa yesterday. Amazing trip although the famed mega bait balls were rather elusive. Got some good u/w shark and dolphin action though, and a lot of incredible topside activity - tons of humpback whales, big dolphin pods, clouds of diving gannets etc. See attached - one of the best of my still shots, but I was mainly taking video. Jbonehoss has some truly amazing breach shots which I'm sure he'll post later. I have yet to see how my topside video has come out - moving boat etc.

ShawnH had a truly incredible u/w interaction with a playful humpback right on our last day. Three close passes nose to nose and his LMI running the whole time. I'm sure he'll post on WP in due course.

I'll update my website over the next few days and keep you posted. I have nothing of 'Blue Planet' quality, but certainly a very fun trip - and the LMI bluefin held up really well despite it's continuous beating and thumping on the boat. Drew was a great host, and v well organised for this, his eighth, trip. Our boatman for the run - Peaky (PKEE) is one of the best, and known to many of the dive fraternity. His beach launches through 5m swells have to be experienced to be believed - more adrenaline rush than any bronze whaler encounter! Great spotter too.

Drew is still out there with a second team and I believe they are getting some good bait ball activity now.

More updates once I get through my 700+ emails

Day 18
Blow out!

Day 19
Started with a very tough launchat the river mouth which kept many boats off the sea.
Then we spotted bird activity throughout the area. Estimates of 800-1000 birds flying around diving on dolphins. Since the activity was scattered and nothing was solid, we followed a large pod of bottle nose dolphin when we spotted an albino baby dolphin... all white! We tried to photograph it but the rough seas and elusive little guy made it impossible.
We jumped in on the dolphins to attempt an underwater shot but were surprised with a humpback which came over to check us out.
After that the birds filled the skies again when the common dolphin pods started hunting. We dived in on baitball activity which turned out to be red eye herring and anchovies, not sardines.
With all the predators around, and the visibility to match, the next few days will tell the story.

question: whats the diff between a herring or anchovie bait ball compared to a sardine one?

sounds like the former are not as good as the latter...

is it the way they school? Perhaps not as tightly packed? Size of the school? Size of the fish? Not as tasty to predators?!?

Seems that red-eye (so called becasue their eyes turn red after capture) don't school as tightly as sardines, and they scatter faster when the dolphins break up the balls. Means that you have to be in the water very quicky to see the action, which doesn't last as long and is less spectacular than the sards....

Day 20
Again the day started with random action that amounted to nothing and then things hotted up in the afternoon. This year seems to throw all conventional wisdom out the window with a lot of action happening in the afternoon, probably because the type of fish which surfaces up to feed during those hours. The sardines are popping up in pockets and mixed with "red eye" herring, anchovies and a host of other baitfish including halfbeaks and shards. What makes it frustrating is the water viz has remained barely workable, in the 3-5m range.
The afternoon was topped by charging dolphins with hundreds of birds diving on them and a Bryde's whale joining the charge. This year the topside stuff has been spectacular!

Day 21
With the winds picking up, we detected sardine activity on the fish finder sonar passing deep. There aren't enough common dolphins around to gather the action so they remain deep and outside the range of the gannets. Hence no action underwater.
Still the afternoon action heated up with the bottlenose and common dolphins hunting at the surface followed by 2 whales which continued to head and jaw slap, breach and spin, often one after another. In fact the one double breach we had was so close I overfilled the frame and cut off the head of the other.

Day 22
At least today started like a day from the past... birds diving early in the morning on fish. We dived in with a redeye baitball with lots of birds diving on our heads, exhilirating since the baitball was no more than 2m wide. The thumping splash of the birds was very exciting for the newbies.
The baitball lasted for over an hour and was very difficult to track as the predators pared down the fish.
The great news is the fishfinder is locating large pockets of sardines... we just need more predators like the common dolphin superpods!

Wow...i feel like I am still on the Run with Drew. Amazing how cosistent the type of actitivity has been this year from week to week.

Unless you are fortunate enough to stay for a long period it seems to me to be a bit less dramatic than last year.. But this seems to be the way at the moment throughout the Natural World...

Dive safe

DeanB

Day 23
Nature was a cruel tease in a day of could've and should'ves. First baitballs everywhere but no viz. 3 mad scientists looking for data braved the murky waters filled with sharks to no avail.
Then we attempted to find the superpods farther out to sea. Instead we found a mako shark swimming on the surface. All attempts to dive with it were foiled by slowness on our part and a shark determined to avoid divers. Still seeing one very clearly from the boat was nice, seeing how they are in perilously low numbers worldwide.
We found the superpod afterward...in mini-superpod groups of 600 and 400. Plus they weren't very friendly. A day of battling for action with no real results, we called it a day at 2 and licked our wounds. It's also party night tonight!
The BBC(Beeb) have wrapped as have the IMAX and local south african crew. No production crew left satisfied this year as the viz was simply difficult. Our test samples showed more redeye herrings than sardines in the water.

Day 24
We had the flattest seas to date. The water temperatures are down and visibility was looking decent inshore. Still only redeye herring and baby shads were been hunted by the common dolphins. Which meant action was too fast for diving with. Still it presented great top side photography opportunities.
Later in the afternoon, we snorkeled and dived with 3 different dolphin species, the bottlenose, common and the pan tropical spotted. The spotteds are very athletic and wonderful leapers. I was working the main pod when a black shadow in the deep blue came like a runaway bus at me.... a small humpback whale came to check the commotion caused by my bubbles. It proceeded to buzz pass everyone in the water before taking off.
Everyone was so elated to have dived and snorkeled with a big animal and decided to go in early today.
Other highlights of the day were a jumping sailfish and incredible diving gannet action with common dolphins leaping out of the water.

Drew if you stay there any longer you will become a citizen.

Sounds like an amazing place.

Day 25
Last Day
The wind was howling but we braved the launch on our last day. We were rewarded with hundreds of birds and a pod of common dolphin mobilizing around a bryde's whale, which promptly ended much of the action with one big gulp. Too dark to jump into the water, we watched from the boat, anxiously waiting for the sun to rise higher. Sharks were visible from the surface so without good light, it'd be suicide to jump in. However, the wind picked up and we had to call it quits.Thus ended the team's campaign in 2007. As if it were deja vu from 2006, we watched from the cliffs as thousands of gannets dived on action in the huge swells.
Good news is the scientist boat has invited me to join their boat to help identify predator behavior. Can't say no to that! So day 1 (clock restarts Wed) will continue!

Just when you think you're out... they pull you right back in!
The sardines that is.
Got a report on serious activity with sardine baitballs and am headed down there today again. It continues!

Great News Drew,

You lucky git...Need a tea/coffee maker...

Dive safe

DeanB

You lucky bugger Drew!

An honorary boffin!

Keep us posted won't you?

I thought it would be fun to share an exhilarating encounter on the last day of our Sardine Run trip with Drew this year.

We were in pretty rough seas hoping for a last chance at some baitball action when we came across a some bottlenose dolphins. We decided to give it a try and see if they were interested in playing with us while we snorkeled. Unfortunately with my weightbelt and FX1 Bluefin housing in tow, I was no match for the speed of the dolphins and more importantly some of the other Wetpixel crew members As such, I quickly tired of the chase and resolved to float alone in the tossing seas by myself.

Soon a few curious dolphins approached me and began whirling around me. They were quickly joined by the entire pod and I was surrounded by dozens of playful dolphins. Then things took an unexpected turn...you will have to watch the video to find out

Couple of video notes (well excuses ):
-Overcast day
-Rough seas
-Sequence is cut exactly as experienced with no fancy edits or change of time order
-Fixed focus at .3meters
-Auto exposure
-No CC filter

and...all wildlife approached me and in some instances I did my best to create distance to avoid injury

Wow amazing footage.

How big was the humpback ?

I would guess 9 meters but it was hard to judge under the circumstances

Ah, ya had to rub it in eh Shawn... Awesome footage!

Shawn that was way cool.

Hows the Whale...so careful not to wack you.

I bet that made your hairs on your neck stand up.

Can't watch it...

Just get a broken Q picture...

Sounds good though

Dive safe

DeanB

Do humpbacks normally swim upside down (?), because it sure looked like he was playing with ya!

Nice footage Shawn. Those encouters that come along when you've pretty much wriiten off a dive are always the best! Thanks for posting.

Cheers, Simon