Jambo! Yesterday was a challenging day for finding and tagging sharks. We went out in the Melia at around 0830hr with a small group of divers...headed several miles south past Chales Island to a spot known as Zig-Zag. Winds were already blowing about 10-12 kts from the north and surface was a bit rough. Solid overcast made aerial sighting tough too. After one drift dive we bobbed and drifted for a bit while Mike and Simon flew transects looking for sharks. Nothing seen so we motored slowly back to Kinondo and Pinewood village and were just about to turn into the lagoon when one of Volkers fishing boat charters spotted a whale shark a couple of miles further out from the reef. We headed that way and radioed Mike to liftoff again to help locate. The shark was elusive and we weren't able to find it again, but on Mike's way back to the beach to land he spotted one just outside of the reef. We quickly located it, Volker and I got in the water and were able to quickly tag it. I followed behind the shark as it swam slowly offshore along the bottom while snorklers on the boat got ready to jump in, but it disappeared into the murk. We searched a bit longer but soon had to return to the beach to prepare for the 2d afternoon sorty.
We had a quick pizza lunch and then headed out with a new group of hopeful snorklers and whale shark watching enthusiasts. Weather had picked up by 1330hr when we exited the lagoon and continued south again.....winds now around 18 to 20kts and 3-5 foot swells got everyone gripping hard to the boat and getting pretty wet. Mike and David French got up in the air right away and started looking over a broad area from Pinewood south to past Chales Island. After several hours of searching we turned back north to head in. Mike radioed just then that he and David were circling a shark just off Pinewood and just seaward of the reef. They stayed with the shark, but it took us about an hour to reach the spot. We finally got there and approached the shark closely...everyone got ready to get in but it moved offshore along the bottom and we lost track of it. After that we looked a bit more but headed in and landed around 1700hrs. A long day for everyone, but success in tagging one more shark bringing total to 9 tagged in 4 days.
Today we'll have one trip out at mid-day. The weather looks much better.....calm early this morning and clear. We'll hit the road towards Watamu late this afternoon and then hope to start tagging tomorrow morning.
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