South Africa Shark Conservancy

• It was created in 2007 as a non-profit organization because at the time, there were no NGOs on commercially exploited sharks. The organization tries to promote best practices when dealing with sharks. It also performs ecological research in Walker Bay, which is the least researched area despite the major tourism industry there.
  
• There are around 400 species of sharks, with new species still being discovered. They inhabit all oceans of the Earth. There are many new species being found in Indonesian waters.
  
• Genetics has shown that some species are actually two or three different species. This is important because it helps to keep a tabs on the numbers of a certain species of shark.
  
• South Africa has one of the highest diversity of sharks in the world. Australia exceeds it.
  
• There are many shark species that are endemic (only found in) to South Africa because of a high variety of temperatures and habitats.
• The organization has many different ongoing projects, including:
• Bull Shark Project: caught the largest in the world (around 4 meters in length).
  
• The Effects of Shark Cage Diving:
• It is a great thing for people to interact with an animal in the wild.
  
• Many people go from scared to in awe of the animal. "The Great White Shark often changes human perception of sharks."
• Fin Photo ID has shown that different sharks have gone to the shark cage diving locations, meaning that the companies are NOT creating the only source of food for the sharks.
  
• There are many ethics behind it.
• Do not let the shark have the bait (You are NOT allowed to actively feed them).
• Do not let the shark thrash the cage. It is very harmful to them.
• In South Africa, you are allowed to use a seal decoy off the back of the boat to attract sharks to breech. This is NOT allowed in California, because it takes a lot of energy for the shark to do this.
  
• Companies are NOT independently monitored, which is a big issue.
  
• Around a 17 billion rand (17 million dollars) economy a year from it.
  
• The show Shark Men, now known as Shark Wranglers, came to South Africa to tag some sharks. Their website shows you where the sharks are at all times. This was a huge controversial issue in South Africa.
  
• There are many sport fishing competitions in South Africa.
  
• It is catch and release, however, many fishermen aim to catch sharks.
  
• SASC has informed the fishermen the best way to catch the shark without harming them.
  
• Many scientific research facilities have tagged sharks from sport fishing competitions. They have also told the fishermen what to look for and what lengths to measure for scientific research. This has saved science a lot of money and resources, which is good, because there is not a lot of money in shark conservancy in South Africa.
  
• The mako shark has a steak that is very similar to the swordfish, however, the swordfish steak is a lot more profitable and desired.
  
• Spot tagging is controversial because it required you to drill a hole in the shark's dorsal fin, and it may cause growth on the area.
  
• Over 100 million sharks are killed a year (between 73-140 million), based on fishery records. The biggest threat to sharks is shark fin soup, which is a large delicacy in Asian countries. In order to conserve the shark, one must ban finning of sharks.
  
• Shark skin is as good as sandpaper.
  
• Sharks have many distinguishing features different from other fish:
• skin
• cartilaginous skeletons
• Allows them to be lighter, and helps with floating because they do not have a swim bladder.
  
• breathing through their nose
• internal fertilization
  
• The shark's spinal column has rings, which helps to age the shark (similar to a tree).
  

The Whale's Tale

• Southern Right Whales mate when they pass by Hermanus and Manaus. They travel from Antarctica every year around July to November to do this. Kelp beds are safe to calf because it protects them from any dangers.
  
• Baleen Whales are called "Right Whales" because they were the 'right' whale to hunt. They were slow moving and had a swim bladder, which made them float once they were killed. This allowed an easy way to catch the animal.
• In order to feed, the whale will open its mouth and swim forward. This requires a lot of energy because they are moving against a very strong pressure of water.
  
• Their baleen are 6-10 feet long.
• Right Whales were hunted for their blubber, which was used for oil, and their baleen, which was used before plastic.
  
• The Southern Right Whales are better off than the Northern Right Whales, which only have around 400 remaining.
  
• They eat tiny plankton (krill and copepods). 
• Typically after a mother gives birth, she will breech, followed by the baby breaching.
  
• Ever since the Southern Right Whale started protection, the population has increased rapidly.
  
• There are Southern Right Whales along the coast of Argentina and Brazil, however, their skulls are a bt different. They do not intermingle with the whales along the coast of South Africa; they are two separate populations.
• The Northern Right Whale has not recovered because of food limitation. Once their numbers became limited, other animals started to eat their food source. Now that the whales are protected, they are having a hard time reclaiming their food.
  
• Baleen whales have two blow holes, whereas toothed-whales have only one. The Right Whale blows in a very distinct V-shape that can be seen miles away.
• They live in a large herd while feeding, but they are otherwise independent, much like cows.
  
• They do not have a dorsal fin.
  
• When mating, they will form surface groups of two males and one female. Both males will reproduce with the female, and the sperm must fight each other in order to fertilize the female. While one male is mating with the female, the other will hold the female up. 
  

Random Facts About South Africa

• Cape Town is the only area of the country that is a Mediterranean climate. This means that the area has a winter and spring rain, while the remainder of the country has summer thunderstorms.
  
• The Mediterranean climate is great for rainfall, making South Africa the #7 exporter of wine, as well as a large exporter of citrus fruits.
  
• There are very strong summer winds (December to early March) because of the easterly winds.
  
•  Cape Town is a great city to travel to during the change of the seasons.
  
• Up to where the convention center is located is all reclaimed land. This took place in 1948 when the government dredged out the sand to make the land habitable. They dredged 148 hectares of land, making it the largest reclaimed city in the world.
  
• Around 70,000 people live in the bowl of Cape Town (the area between Table Mountain and Lion's Head.
  
• The District 6 area remains empty because businesses made an anti-building pact.
  
• Trees grow at an angle on Hospital Bend because of the summer Easterly.
• There are two main highways in South Africa, the N1 and the N2. The N1 leads from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and the N2 goes along the southern coast from west to east. There is a lot of traffic on the N2 during morning and afternoon rush hours in and out of Cape Town.
• Around 80% of the population of Cape Town live in the Cape Flats. This is a very flat and sandy area that was once underwater.
  
• The West Cape relies on nuclear energy, while the rest relies on coal power.
  
• It would take 30 years to resettle the informal settlements of Cape Town.
  
• Around 15% of South African citizens live in informal settlements, which are houses that look like sheds or shacks. Some of the people in these settlements are waiting for homes to be built for them.
  
• The townships have schools within their perimeters. They provide lunch for the students, which is sometimes the only meal they receive each day. They are also provided with free medical care.
  
• There is not enough work to employ all of the informally housed people.
• Unemployment rate in South Africa is around 27%. It was previously 42%, so there has been a lot of improvement.
  
• There are "township taxis" that take the people from the townships to their jobs in Cape Town. These taxis are small buses that squish as many people as possible into them. The taxi owners have a lot of power.
  
• The purple flowers you may see are called "Lucerne," and they feed the cattle.
• Proteas, Ericas, and Reeds are Cape Bushes that require fire to spread the seeds. If there are no natural fires for 15 years, they will do a controlled burning.
  
• False Bay is the breeding ground for the Great White Shark. The largest concentration of the sharks in the world is located around Seal Island. The Southern Right Whale may also be found in this area.
  
• The False Bay's water temperature greatly varies depending on what season it is. The temperature may be in the mid 70s in the summer due to the Indian Ocean current.
  
• The Cape of Good Hope is the meeting point of two major currents, not oceans.
  
• The Steenbras Dam is one of the five dams used for the Cape water supply.
  
• There are over 450 million apple trees outside of Cape Town. There are four main types of apple grown here, including the golden delicious and the granny smith.
  They are exported to Europe through the United Kingdom.
• People in Cape Town have summer homes in Manaus, which is where the best land whale watching in the world is located.
  

South African Penguin Colony

    Penguins are very near Cape Town. A few have land-based colonies, but the others are located on islands to the north and south of Cape Town. Penguins are only located in the southern hemisphere, where polar bears are only in the northern hemisphere. The two species will never meet in the wild. The farthest north penguins on in the southern hemisphere is near the equator in the Galapagos Islands. For my marine biology field lab, we traveled to one of the land-based penguin colonies called Betty's Bay. This is a town of weekend homes for the people of Cape Town.
    The South Africa penguin is the second smallest species of penguin. The male and the female look very similar, so there is not a large size difference. Unlike many other animals, penguins remain in couples their entire lives. Even if a couple does not have a baby, or babies, the penguins will remain together. If the penguin has a thick black stripe across its chest, then this signifies that the penguin is physically mature. When the penguins become 18 months old, they begin to molt and learn how to swim. They do not eat during the molting process, but rather eat one month before and the month after the process is completed. They make a braying noise similar to a donkey, which gave them the nickname "the jackass penguin." They like to eat fish between 8am and 4pm, and are only threatened to be consumed by sharks and seals; humans do not pose a threat to their existence.
                                           

Up Close and Personal

     On my fourth day in South Africa, I traveled to Hermanus to go shark cage diving. My roommate and I signed up for this excursion over the summer, and we have been looking forward to it since the start of the semester. My roommate, Alaine, is a marine biology major, so this is one of her life’s dreams. Although the great white shark lives on the coast of California where she lives, they are very limited in number, and there is no commercial excursions to dive with them.

     Once we got to Hermanus, we checked in with the main office, then traveled to the office near the beach we would be leaving from. There, we waited a very long time before receiving instructions because the group that went out before us was having a hard time finding some of the sharks. Apparently, sharks are best seen during their winter, which is our summer. Also, they have been very spotty this year, where some months they would not see some sharks for a couple weeks.

     Once the other group returned, we were instructed on what we would be doing as well as the many safety precautions that we needed to know for the dive. After this, we walked to the boat and went in the water. We drove the boat for about ten minutes to get to the cage that was in the water. Once we got there, the crew hooked up the cage to the side of our boat, and the crew started to throw chum into the water to attract the sharks. Next, the first group put on their wet suits, followed by the second group (which I was in), then the third and fourth. Once the first shark was spotted, the first group went into the cage. Before we got on the boat, I was very nervous to see and be in a cage with great white sharks. However, once I saw them in the water less than a foot in front of me, I was not scared. It was really exciting!
                                   
     After the first group went, it was my group’s turn. I was able to get a video of the shark swimming by me underwater. It was so cool! The sharks swam right in front of us, as well as under our feet. It was definitely one of the most amazing experiences that I have ever done. It opened my eyes to a creature people think of as a killing machine.

 

A Walk with the World's Largest Land Mammal

     On my third day in South Africa, Alaine and I, along with a group of other girls, left the ship early in the morning to travel six hours away where we would go on an elephant safari. However, before we would do this, we were to travel to the world’s tallest bridge where several people in our group would bungee jump. I was originally one of those people, but everyone I know told me not to do it, so I took myself off the list.

     Once we go to the tallest bridge, the people who were going to bungee jump had to sign a lot of forms consenting to the dangers of what they were about to do. While I, and several other people, waited, we ate ice cream watching the bridge to see when our group would go. When it was their turn, we went inside the restaurant and watched them jump off of the television. They would line up on the edge with their arms out up to their sides, and the crew members would help them push off. It was crazy! I really wished that people at home encouraged me to do it, rather than to not do it; it is now the biggest regret in my life to not have done this jump.

     After we left the bridge, we traveled to the elephant park. We were late to the park, so we were unable to ride the elephants. We were all very disappointed because this was one of the highlights of the entire trip. However, our tour guide fought for us, and managed us to get a private tour of the facilities. We walked around the elephant cages in the main building, which is where they sleep every night. Each elephant has its own cage, and they know which cage is theirs. They are all different sizes because different elephants have different needs.

     Once we finished with their cage tour, we walked into the fields to join the elephants.  The elephants lined up behind a fallen tree so that we could feed them out buckets of chopped up vegetables. The elephants stretched their trunks across the tree trunk to where we held out our hands. They took the vegetables by using suction in their trunks. It was very warm and a little wet when they sucked the vegetables out of our hands. It was very cool!

     After we fed the elephants all of our vegetables, we were permitted to pet them. The elephants knew that we would approach them, so they all spread out so that we did not crowd them. We all took pictures with the elephants. When I was by the matriarch elephant, Sallie, I held up her ear. I suppose that this annoyed her, because she moved her ear forward, which knocked my sunglasses off of my head. We learned all about the elephants, including their daily habits. The elephants in this park know up to forty commands; they are very smart creatures! After we finished up with the elephants, we traveled to our hostel, which we would be staying at for a part of the night until 3:30 in the morning to go to the sharks.
                                   

 

A Whale of a Time

     For my field lab for marine biology, we traveled to Hermanus, which is one of the best whale watching places on Earth. When we arrived to Hermanus, we walked to False Bay, which is where the Southern Right Whale gives birth between July and November every year. They travel all the way from Antarctica to do this. Once we got there, we easily saw a mother and a pup. After the first sighting, we saw at least three other pairs of mother and child. Many of them were resting, and a couple fluked, which is when the whale will turn or roll over and stick  one or both of their fins out.

     Just as we were about to leave, a whale breached the water, which is when the whale jumps out and flips over. Once this happened, the other whales came to the area, as well as seagulls. The whale breached again several times, followed by a baby whale breaching.  All of these events told us that this
whale was just born. Sea gulls surround the area to feast on the afterbirth mess that the whales leave behind. It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen.
    
    After this, we ate lunch, and then headed to the South African Shark Conservatory. This is a NGO, which raised awareness and conducts research on sharks in the area, including the Great White Shark. We talked about the positive aspects of shark cage diving, as well as the issues concerning sharks in the area. After this, we dissected a local shark.

    Once we left the shark conservatory, we traveled to one of the penguin colonies. There are several penguin colonies in South Africa, all of which are in the Cape Town area. There are two that are on the mainland, and the rest are located on islands around Cape Town, including Robben Island. Penguins can only be found in the Southern Hemisphere, and go as far north as around the equator in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Chile. The penguins at the colony eat fish from around eight in the morning until around four in the evening. Their only threat is being eaten by sharks and sea lions. They are not harmed by humans. We saw them during molting season, so it was interesting to see which of the penguins were newborns.

 


 

What Makes South Africa the Country that it is Today

     The region that we now call South Africa today was once inhabited by the San people, who were hunters and gatherers, some 10,000 years ago. Most of these people spoke the Bantu language. There were two main white colonizations in South Africa. The Dutch were the first white settlers to come to South Africa in the year 1652, while they were on their way to India for spices. These people became famers known as “burghers.” They had relations with the native people, which produced the “colored” population of South Africa. After the Dutch, there were many German settlers, as well as Scandinavian, French Huguenots, and Calvinists.

     The second colonization of people was when the British came to the region in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The British did not get along with the Boers, Dutch/German and San descent people who spoke Afrikaans, who were in South Africa. The Boers moved away from the British in an event called “the Great Trek.” When the British won the Boer Wars (1899-1902), a new country was formed. South Africa was formed in 1910. In this new country, blacks had no say in anything. The 1913 Native Land Act gave a tiny bit of land to the majority of the inhabitants of the country; this was the ground for Apartheid later on.

     Apartheid was a system of racial segregation by law. It separated people into the groups of white (including South Koreans as an honorary member because of trade), black, colored, and Asian/Indian. In 1950, the Group Areas Act separated cities by what race you were classified as. This created townships outside of the city centers where 1.5 million Africans moved into. In 1958, homeland nations were created. This meant that the colored and blacks of South Africa were no longer citizens of the country, so they tried to set up their own countries. However, the United Nations would not recognize then as sovereign states. By 1960, anyone who opposed Apartheid was jailed or exiled.
   
    In 1976, the Soweto Uprising took place. This was televised around the world. The uprising started in schools. Afrikaans were going to teach in black schools, and the people started to become oppressed by language. The students rose against this, and 600 people were killed. Many countries started to fight against the Apartheid by stopping trade to South Africa, as well as banning sports to go to the country. The Olympics was banned from the country. In 1977, no international sports was voted one of the top three most harmful affects of the Apartheid. By the 1980s, 25 countries placed sanctions on trade to and from South Africa. There was a large divestment in enterprises, and there were cultural protests as well. Apartheid ended in 1994, and Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa.

 

Meeting my Mama

     On my first night in Cape Town, I signed up for a township homestay where I would travel to one of Cape Town’s townships and stay the night in one of the family’s homes. We left the ship around four in the afternoon to drive to the townships; it was only la fifteen minute drive. We drove past the first township, which was very similar to houses in Ghana. They were extremely tight together, and constructed from metal shed roofs. The name of this township is Langa, which means sun. It was named after their chief, who died at Robben Island.  We then drove to the second township, which is where we would be staying. This township was much newer than the first township. It was constructed in 1998.

     We went to the main Mama’s house where we were put into groups to meet our respective Mamas. I was paired with a girl named Kelly, and we had Mama Numbailey.  Mama has three children: she has a son who is 32, a daughter who is 25, and another daughter who is 19. She had another daughter, but she was shot by her boyfriend (which exhibits some of the crime that the townships endure). She has 8 grandchildren, but they all live pretty far away. She picked us up, and we walked to her home. She treated us just like her own daughters. We walked to a market and bought some vegetables  that we would need for dinner. We picked up some peppers, potatoes, and cabbage. I never saw a guava before, so the gentleman gave us four guavas, and also gave us bananas and apples.

     After we collected our vegetables, we walked back to Mama’s house. We started to peel the carrots and potatoes, while Mama cut up the cabbage. While she was boiling the vegetables, we played with her 18 month  old grandson. After a while, we drove with one of her daughters to where her son was staying. His grandmother died that day, so he was dressed up very nicely to go to her funeral. He said that he cut off his afro that morning as well so that he could look clean-cut. It was really interesting to be able to drive through the  different townships. After we met Mama’s son, we went back to the house and ate dinner. We ate stiff pup (which looks like mashed potatoes, but it is a little harder and is a maze dish), chicken stew as gravy, jem squash, carrots, cabbage, and potatoes.

                                               
  
    After dinner, Mama told us all about her life and dreams. She was born and raised in Port Elizabeth, but wanted to move to Cape Town so that she could make more money. Once she moved to Cape Town, she worked in a fish packing factory. This compant allowed her to take out loans so that she could build a home. It took three years to build her home because the workers were untrustworthy. As soon as Mama would go to work, the men who were building her house would leave her house and go to another area to do a different job. They only worked when she stood there, which she couldn't do because she had to be at work. Once her home was complete, she and her children moved in. It rained that day, and the rain came straight through the roof. She did not care what people said about her faulty roof, because she finally had a house in Cape Town, something that people told her she would never have in her life. After a couple years, she hired a colored man to redo her roof and add on a room in the house for her son. He finished this job in four days time! He worked from 7 in the morning until 11 at night in order to finish this job for her. He would not leave the house until her daughters were asleep, because he wanted to make sure that they were safe. Needless to say, her home is very safe now, and they have remained friends. Mama wanted a room around the back of her house for her son because "she was a single mom, and she knew that he would be bringing girls over a lot. She did not want a fight over girls in her house."

     We talked to Mama about movies and books that she liked. She said that she really likes action movies, so I asked her if she liked James Bond. It turns out that she has seen ever James Bond, and her favorite actor was Roger Moore. She agreed with me that the new James Bond movies are very good, but we do not consider them to be James Bond. Unlike with her movie preferences, Mama likes books with romance complications. One of her favorite books is The Thorn Beds, which was also made into a movie.

     Mama said that if she could go anywhere outside of South Africa, that it would be to go to the United States. Having heard this my entire trip, I asked her where she would like to go in the United States, and why. She said that she did not have a preference in where she went in the United States, as long as she went there. She wanted to see what it is like to have black, white, and colored people all living together, and not being separated. Although South Africa is starting to improve, they are nowhere near our equality levels in the United States. Although people may argue that the United States has a long way to go for equality of race, it is doing a hell of a lot better than South Africa. South Africans look at the United States as a role model for what they want to be like one day. She did say that she would like to see where the twin towers were. She said that South Africa was also affected by 9/11 because it was a world-wide tragedy. She asked, "Who would do this? All those people still in the buildings. Who could do that?" It really opened my eyes to the fact that what goes on in our country is not just out issue, but the whole world does feel the effects as well. The world is more interconnected than we would think.

     Upon coming to and leaving the township, many children would run up to us and hug us. Mama told us that they are raised to hug and greet every white person that comes into the township. She said that seeing white people in the townships is a hope for the residents. It is a sign that what they fought for so hard during Apartheid is starting to come true. They are starting to become desegregated and equal, so seeing white people is there sign that it is real and it is happening. That is what really hit me the most on this trip.