Hermanus in April and may 2011
These 2 months were incredible visually. We were inundated with whales, dolphins, seals, sharks and birds.
We experienced hump back whales fishing in front of the guest house. We have witnessed this on tv but never watched it unfold in front of us. The sea must have been full of shoals of small fish because the predators followed them in great numbers into our bay. We were walking on the cliff paths in front of us house when the sea just seemed to burst up like a massive bubble had come up from the depths. Out of this bubble appeared 5 humpback whales with their mouths wide open. They obviously had hunted as a pack and after trapping a shoal of fish gone underneath iy and then surfaced simultaneously with gaping mouths to scoop up as many fish as they could. This pattern continued over the 2 months numerous times every day. In between fishing they would lie around in what appeared to be family groups sometimes interacting within the group for hours.
The dolphins would come into the bay in their thousands. Where they came from we have no idea. The sea literally comes alive when they arrive. The speed that they travel is really a suprise, they fly through the water and when the are after fish they really fly. They seem to spend as much time flyling through the air as under the water. Standing on the cliffs watching them circle the fish they have caught and then and then devour them is just a privelidge. It seems as if the entire bay is full of dolphins and it is a big bay.
Seals the pattern was identical to the dolphins but they did not come as often. It was quite difficult to quickly distinguish between the dolphins and seals because their swimming pattern looked very similar flying at spped through the air and water.The sharks were a suprise. Looking out over the bay we were baffled to see what looked like big dolphins leaping out of the water at random intervals all over the bay. We struggled to identify what they were and what was going on. We phoned a friend who is a professional fisherman and he came down to the cliffs and after a while identified them as a type of shark with an extremely long and powerful tail. I think a common name for it is sjambok shark. Why they were jumping we still don't know but it was either for fun, joy, excitement or part of a hunting process.The birds were mindblowing. I did not know that so many birds existed or could even fly without knocking each other out of the sky. They would fly in a cloud over a shoal of fish and peel off in what looked like a waterfall of birds diving into the ocean competing with the predator fish swimming through the shoals.
This was Hermanus over these 2 months when the sea came alive.
We experienced hump back whales fishing in front of the guest house. We have witnessed this on tv but never watched it unfold in front of us. The sea must have been full of shoals of small fish because the predators followed them in great numbers into our bay. We were walking on the cliff paths in front of us house when the sea just seemed to burst up like a massive bubble had come up from the depths. Out of this bubble appeared 5 humpback whales with their mouths wide open. They obviously had hunted as a pack and after trapping a shoal of fish gone underneath iy and then surfaced simultaneously with gaping mouths to scoop up as many fish as they could. This pattern continued over the 2 months numerous times every day. In between fishing they would lie around in what appeared to be family groups sometimes interacting within the group for hours.
The dolphins would come into the bay in their thousands. Where they came from we have no idea. The sea literally comes alive when they arrive. The speed that they travel is really a suprise, they fly through the water and when the are after fish they really fly. They seem to spend as much time flyling through the air as under the water. Standing on the cliffs watching them circle the fish they have caught and then and then devour them is just a privelidge. It seems as if the entire bay is full of dolphins and it is a big bay.
Seals the pattern was identical to the dolphins but they did not come as often. It was quite difficult to quickly distinguish between the dolphins and seals because their swimming pattern looked very similar flying at spped through the air and water.The sharks were a suprise. Looking out over the bay we were baffled to see what looked like big dolphins leaping out of the water at random intervals all over the bay. We struggled to identify what they were and what was going on. We phoned a friend who is a professional fisherman and he came down to the cliffs and after a while identified them as a type of shark with an extremely long and powerful tail. I think a common name for it is sjambok shark. Why they were jumping we still don't know but it was either for fun, joy, excitement or part of a hunting process.The birds were mindblowing. I did not know that so many birds existed or could even fly without knocking each other out of the sky. They would fly in a cloud over a shoal of fish and peel off in what looked like a waterfall of birds diving into the ocean competing with the predator fish swimming through the shoals.
This was Hermanus over these 2 months when the sea came alive.
posted by Basil at 2:06 pm
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