Lonely looking sky

It’s been all eyes on the water the last couple of months, as swimmers report scores of cool wildlife encounters due mainly to nutrient-rich waters

You know it’s been a lekker swim, and you’re due a free round, when your buddies think you spent part of it on the back of a whale.

This was Openwaterswim Tribe bus driver Dave Welensky’s buzz recently, after he and four mates bumped into a southern right calf and its mum, in the sea just off The Pav.

Dave told the CLDSA that the group, Johann Branehog, Pieter Emslie, Samantha Lustig, Sarahan Brophy and Roy Godfrey, had started from Broken Baths and swum to Saunders, last Easter Monday. They were regrouping to swim back, when one of them heard an odd noise, like a boat.

Not actually convinced it was a boat, Dave kept swimming, but started breathing to his left instead of his customary right. “I was sure there was a whale close. Then I saw it breathe parallel with me, before it did almost a complete turn on its axis. It was just metres away. I started swimming towards it and its tail was right above me.”

Dave thinks the mother whale had placed herself between him and her calf. “I was a metre away and could see it under my arm, until I saw its tail rising above me and thought, not a good thing!” He said that the whale’s power was very evident, and as it turned there was a whirlpool effect in the water.

Dave also had a large seal around Oudekraal that Saturday, and then two pods of dolphins at Hout Bay.

A group of 12-year-old schoolgirls from Somerset House school also had an encounter with an Orca during an island relay crossing earlier this month. There are no recorded sightings of Orcas on an island crossing, although they have been seen in False Bay. The girls went on to finish the crossing in 2hr20.

How about a pod of dolphins coming to commemorate your first Robben Island crossing? Phoenix Open Water Swimming Club member and Hot Choc Sunday regular, Rukeya Warner said it had been a bit of a shock to suddenly see a grey shape in the water under her, about 1km from shore! “Logic tells you dolphins are not dangerous, but your sympathetic nervous system just takes over, and I must admit I was a bit shaken!” Shaken, but not stirred though, as she went on to complete her crossing. (Lekker first crossing, Rukeya! Ed)

It transpires that well-known dolphin whisperer Ali Moals was on board supporting and swimming with Rukeya! That explains it! Ali has been known to summon dolphins at Camps Bay on a whim on hot chocolatey sort of Sunday mornings.

Cape Town marine biologist and open water swimmer Leigh de Necker says that favourable water temperatures and rich nutrient levels have attracted large numbers of small pelagic fish. This results in good “recruitment”, which is the process by which small, young fish transition to an older, larger life stage. “So all the fish, sharks (minus white sharks and seven-gill sharks) dolphins, seals and whales we’re seeing, are all attracted by the rich plankton, for those who are filters feeders, or the bait fish for everyone else” Leigh says.

And what better end to a day spent skippering a top Brit athlete on her False Bay crossing, than a pitch-dark, total blackout race home with a pod of finnys racing your boat home through ghostly, purple bio-luminesence trails? 

“It was completely dark, no moon, you couldn’t see a thing, and the boat was whipping along at 40, maybe 50 km/h. I kept getting splashed and I couldn’t work out why. Then I realised there were dolphins all around us. Then we hit a patch of luminescence which was just magical,” Big Bay Events director Derrick Frazer said.

Confirmed wildlife magnet, Lucy Taplin, who swam into a pod of about 50 dolphins the previous month, said she and a friend, Wim, were goggling up on Clifton Fourth beach when they saw a whale out in the bay. A little bit apprehensive, the two swam out to the kelp forest and were amazed to see a young humpback, larger than a small car, rolling around in the shallows, feeding on krill, but with no sign of any adult whales in the vicinity.

“He was waving his tail about and showing us the white underside of his fins, and then coming out vertically to show us his stripey chin! He played in the kelp for about 30 minutes, and we stayed with him. Each time he disappeared we were wondering whether he would surface right under us!”

Lucy said that each time the juvenile exhaled, you could hear and smell his decidedly “fishy” breath.

Open water coach Warren Fialkov, who himself has had plenty of encounters with things which zoot through the water, reminds water users to exercise caution when marine wildlife is near, both for the sake of the person and the wildlife. “Any marine life needs to be treated with respect. Especially if there are young around. The adage of not cornering a wild animal is as true for marine animals as land animals. Enjoy the privilege of seeing the animal up close and move away. Back up slowly, with no splash, no excited movements. Continue swimming with regular, predictable movements.”