PHOTOS Show Surfer and Sharks Sharing South African Ocean

Thursday was one of those rare hot, wind free, incredible summer days in Cape Town. I was in the air by 8am and spent nearly three hours flying along the coast, photographing our amazing marine wildlife.

The dusky dolphins were playing along the Blouberg shores, Table Bay was filled with baitballs and frenetic feeding activity and there were seven southern right whales in a mating group right just offshore from the Sea Point pool.

Large groups of seals were lying on the surface in Hout Bay as we headed down to Cape Point. False Bay was alive with activity and along the Muizenberg shoreline there were big shoals of baitfish (mackerel?) with the attendant predators in hot pursuit.

Unsurprisingly Surfers’ Corner was filled with surfers and there was no activity nearby but from Sunrise Circle to Strandfontein massive rays, bronze whaler sharks, thresher sharks, dolphins and even hammerhead sharks were everywhere.

Strangely enough there were no great whites around, at least none that I could see.

One lone long boarder out at Strandfontein was unwisely sitting at the backline right alongside (probably 100m away) from where the trek netters were busy pulling their nets.

I spent about five minutes circling overhead and finally managed to get some images with the surfer and sharks in the same frame…

I ended up spending 20 minutes altogether watching the shark activity at Muizenberg / Strandfontein.

On the first pass I saw five large sharks within a few hundred metres of the long boarder.

As I watched several of the sharks passed within metres of the longboard, with one even swimming right underneath it.

The surfer seem oblivious to the presence of the sharks even though it must have been pretty obvious that something was going on with me circling overhead for about 5 minutes.

At one point she even fell into the water while one of the sharks was nearby.

I was nervous for her sake as she spent a lot of time sitting on the board with her bare feet dangling in the water but the sharks were not interested in the slightest.

Just goes to show that the sharks really are not interested in humans, and in the clean water there was no problem with mistaken identity.

Hint to surfers: If you see a small white gyrocopter circling overhead, it’s not you I’m looking at!