Greetings to you from this altered reality. There’s nothing to report on the diving front, but I did want to draw your attention to an important biodiversity project that might help to lift the lockdown blues this weekend, after you bake a loaf of sourdough.
The rocky shore near Gifkommetjie
City Nature Challenge – Lockdown Edition
It’s the City Nature Challenge this weekend, from tomorrow until Monday (24-27 April). This year it’s a bit different than usual (like everything, unfortunately) – we’d love to be doing this on the beach or underwater. But it’s not to be. Spot plants, birds and animals in your garden, and log the sightings using the iNaturalist app.
You don’t have to know what you’re spotting; experts will assist with identification after the fact. Get outside, learn some more about your surroundings, and blow away those video conferencing cobwebs. There’s a facebook page here, with some fun challenges (Bioblitz bingo, anyone?) and a facebook event here.
Stay at home, stay safe, and we hope to see you again when this has passed.
I have students so I will shore dive both tomorrow morning and Saturday afternoon, after the marathon road closures. Sunday and Monday don’t look like good weather days.
Autumn on Fish Hoek beach
City Nature Challenge
Besides a few days of challenging weather for the long weekend there is a different and way more interesting challenge heading your way: the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge 2019. This is a worldwide bioblitz event, happening this year from 26-29 April, during which you get a chance to get outdoors, spot species, and do some citizen science.
Cape Town is participating! If you like competition, we’re pitted against other cities around the world (last year San Francisco had the most observers, who saw the most species, and logged the most observations). Otherwise, it’s a fun opportunity to go diving (or hiking, or paddling, or however you like to get outside), and to share what you see with others.
With the iNaturalist app (for iOS or Android) or on the website, you can photograph (or upload photos you took with your camera) and record all kinds of wildlife and plants. You don’t even have to know what you’re seeing – experts will weigh in with identifications if you are unsure. These citizen science observations are invaluable for mapping species diversity and distribution and are used for all sorts of projects. You can use the iNaturalist app (or website) any time, not just during the City Nature Challenge, and it’s a great tool for recording flora and fauna that you come across, even in your own garden.
We’ll be diving next weekend, conditions permitting, and hope to have some observations to contribute to the City Nature Challenge. We’d love it if you joined us.
After a successful Back a Buddy campaign, Shark Spotters launched their free shark safety smartphone app in the summer of 2016. The app has had excellent uptake by water users of all stripes, but I’d like to draw it to your attention in case you aren’t familiar with the ways in which it can make your beach life better and safer! Whether you’re a surfer, a diver, an ocean swimmer, a beach comber, or someone who looks forward to long summer days under an umbrella on the sand, the Shark Spotters app can make a difference to you.
The list of Shark Spotters beaches
Shark Spotters operate at eight beaches around the Cape Peninsula: four (Muizenberg, St James/Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek & Caves, Kogel Bay) year-round, and another four (Glencairn, Clovelly, Monwabisi and the Hoek, Noordhoek) from October to April, during the warmer months.
The app allows one to set a home beach – you can see from the image above that mine is Fish Hoek – and when you start the app, you’ll get information for your home beach immediately. Tapping on the home beach block at the top of the screen (where it says “Tap for more”) brings one to a series of screens that you can navigate through by swiping the bottom block on the screen.
Information on recent sightings at my home beach
Weather and sea conditions
Information on marine life activity
Information on beach facilities
Beach conditions video
Shark sightings history
The information provided is extensive. You can see information on the last three shark sightings at your home beach, the weather and sea conditions (temperature, wind direction, tides, moon phase, swell), and information on what marine life is in the area. This latter information is not a nice to have so you can look out for dolphins from shore, but an important indicator of the likelihood of a shark being in the area. Dolphins, rays and schools of fish can draw white sharks, while sunfish (and even seals) may be mistaken for a shark when viewed from a distance by an untrained observer.
There’s also information on what facilities are available at the beach, and a short video for each beach, usually taken each morning, showing the prevailing conditions.
All this information is available for all the Shark Spotters beaches, not just your home beach, and you can view a different beach by selecting it from the list that appears under your home beach on the home screen.
Digging into the app, you can find a detailed list of all the recorded shark sightings, and in the settings you can turn notifications of sightings on or off according to your preference. I have them switched on, because I like to be reminded of a world outside the office.
Shark Spotters app menu options
The further menu options, shown above, give you access to a large amount of data about the Shark Spotters program, the exclusion net at Fish Hoek beach, how the flag system works, great white sharks, and more. Most of the menu options also provide links to more detailed information online, if you want to know more.
We are headed to the Tankwa Karoo for some star (and moon) gazing this weekend, so I won’t be launching. Will see you all next week!
Shark Spotters app
The Shark Spotters mobile app has been nominated for an award for best use of tech by an NGO, and your help with voting would be much appreciated by the team. Go here to vote. It’s a lot of multiple choice votes but five minutes of your time would mean a lot! You can find links to download the very useful Shark Spotters app here.
Autumn is a good time for False Bay diving! False Bay is currently pleasant, not too cold and the weekend does look decent after the latest weather updates. My plan is shore dives on Saturday, when it will be a little more windy, and boat diving on Sunday. Let me know if you’d like to get in the water.
Spring low tide at Muizenberg
Shark Spotters binocular fundraiser
Don’t forget to donate to the Shark Spotters crowd funding campaign to raise funds for new high powered binoculars for the spotters. Shark Spotters does fantastic work – read more about it here and here. You should also make sure you download their very cool shark safety and beach information app – available for both Android and iOS.
Sunday: Early morning double tank dive, location to be confirmed
Conditions last weekend were pretty good. Not much wind or swell and decent visibility. The wind and swell for the weekend ahead look great with very little of either. False Bay, on the other hand, looks a little messy from some humping south easterly wind today.
False Bay this morning
The wind dies tomorrow and stays away for the weekend. I don’t doubt that both False Bay and the Atlantic will offer decent diving if you take the time to check before you choose. I plan to launch on Sunday as early as possible for a double tank dive somewhere clean. I have family arriving at midday from abroad and want to be done by then. If you are up for a early dive let me know and I will add you to the list.
Great news
The Shark Spotters mobile app is available – search for Shark Spotters in the Apple app store or Google Play store and download it for free!
Saturday and Sunday: early launches (around 7 am), location to be confirmed
I am working through some student dives as we enter the final quarter of the year, so am planning launches for both Saturday and Sunday. They will likely be early double tank dives, around 7.00 am, because the wind is forecast to pick up later in the day. The location – Hout Bay or False Bay – will be confirmed tomorrow afternoon when it’s clear which of all the contradictory weather forecasts are accurate! Want to dive? Let me know.
Diary
The usual Shark Spotters sign at Glencairn
Check out last week’s newsletter for links to info on the Oceans of Life photo exhibition (6 October – 25 November) and Diversnight (7 November). Also, the crowdfunded Shark Spotters mobile app will be launched on Thursday 13 October with music and comedy at the Earth Fair food market. Book tickets here.
Shark Spotters have been keeping bathers and surfers safe, and providing groundbreaking research on Cape Town’s white sharks, for over 10 years. They are currently developing a smartphone app that will provide information on sightings of sharks and other marine life, sea conditions, and other information pertinent to the Shark Spotters program.
Sunday: Boat dives from Simon’s Town jetty at 10.00 to the wreck of the Brunswick and 12.30, site to be determined on the day
Liam and Christo near the Brunswick
The cold front seems to have passed by and the second one that was meant to arrive tomorrow seems now to be giving us a miss. We had 40 mm of rain at home on Thursday, for which we are grateful. The break in the weather means there is a good chance some diving might happen this weekend!
I am going to shore dive on Saturday at Long Beach and launch on Sunday, the first dive being to the Brunswick, meeting on the jetty in Simon’s Town at 10.00am. The second dive will be at 12.30, the location weather and viz dependent.
If you want to dive, let me know!
Support Shark Spotters
Don’t forget to donate to help the Shark Spotters complete their beach info smartphone app! Also, there’s an auction and comedy evening (with Nik Rabinowitz!) at the Two Oceans Aquarium on Wednesday 27 July, also in aid of Shark Spotters’ research. There’s more information about the event here.
I know we are barely past the halfway mark of winter, but the last few warm and pleasant days have got me wishing summer was here.
Some swell and lots of south easterly wind are in the forecast for Saturday, so Sunday will be the better option for diving. We will aim for a later start to see how well False Bay fares during Saturday’s onslaught. If we decide to launch the boat it will be from the Simon’s Town Jetty at 9.30 and 12.00 and the most likely sites will be Photographer’s Reef and Roman Rock.
If the conditions aren’t boat-worthy on Sunday, we’ll shore dive at Long Beach.
An app for beach lovers
The Shark Spotters centre at Muizenberg
Shark Spotters, who do pioneering beach safety work and shark research in Cape Town, are crowdfunding a mobile app which will provide information on beach and surf conditions, shark and other marine animal sightings, and whether the Fish Hoek exclusion net is currently deployed. The app will be available free of charge. Watch this video for more information about the app, and give your support by donating here!
