Thursday and Friday of last week were my last two chum sessions during my SA trip. I bait-roped during the first session and had the most aggressive, psycho shark ever.........aptly named "Nutter." It actually breached onto the platform I was baitroping from, and caught the safety bars in it's mouth, twice. I loved every minute of it, although it was very clear that this specific animal was one of the reasons that the white sharks have such a bad rap. There's always one out there (just like with humans) that ruins it for the other perfectly normal, friendly sharks. The second chum session I was in charge of photos, and tried my best to capture these Mossel Bay sharks in all of their glory. One particular shark loved our seal decoy, which was floating next to the boat. It spent most of the morning swimming in circles around the rubber seal and then peaking it's head up above the water to get a better look at it. These chum sessions have been the highlight of my trip, sometimes we have only a few sharks while other times we are inundated with their presence. It gives us researchers such an up close and personal glimpse at these species, and allows us to identify them individually, so it's just like an old friend is showing up at the boat when they reappear on later chum trips. I believe what has amazed me the most is how each shark I have seen during my 2.5 months in Mossel Bay, and that number might be close to a hundred now, has its own unique personality. Some are shy and timid, others are playful and quick, and a few don't care about the bait heads and are curious about the seal decoys or our engines. Maybe more people in the world would feel empathy for these sharks if they knew how individual they are, and that the crazy, aggressive ones (Nutter) are few and far between.
