The White Shark Trust Field Research Assistantship is proud to introduce you to our assistants:

Darren John HUNNIFORD (Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales), Chris MILNES (Grantham, Lincolnshire, England), Adam Nicholas SANDERSON (Ashby de-la Zouch, Leicestershire, England), Emma Louise BARKER (Beckenham, Kent, England) and Helen Clare JOHNSTON (Grassendale, Liverpool, England).
In the afternoon of the 13th of January 2004, after a very slow, unsuccessful but beautiful morning, we took a drive along the beach back to Kleinbaai... to try to see some White Sharks... We have been very successful during the past couple of months along the beach. We usually encountered either White Sharks or Dolphins near the beach every second attempt (when the weather allows us to go so close to the shore).

The water was amazingly clear and we could see every grain of sand on the sea floor... so we stoped Lamnidae and our assistants went swimming (someone was on the tower to keep an eye out for Sharks however)... The water was a bit cold, but it looked like the Bahamas!
A little further along the beach, basicaly where we usually go swimming from the beach, we spotted a White Shark swimming in about one meter deep water, less than 100 meters from shore and a group of bathers... The Shark was swimming with her dorsal fin out of the water, something that they really only do in the movies usually, and the people on the beach probably could have seen the Shark's fin if they had wanted to...

We then followed the Shark as she was moving along the beach, away from the swimmers... we just wanted to make sure that the Shark was heading away... Nevertheless, Sharks swimming close to the beach is common and people should (some do) just accept that the Oceans are theirs!

Craig Spencer from Nature Conservation was flying over the area on the 12th of January to look at the commercial cage diving industry, and he took this photograph (below) in which you can see Lamnidae, our research boat (above), in the middle to the right... Craig Spencer is also in charge of the Primate Project in Pringle Bay.