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| Threatening
“cumulous congestus” build up on the West
coast of Mahe.
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18 September 2004 9:50 – 11:18
The first break in the clouds for a few days - the rain has been good for the water shortage suffered on the island! Flying into a 20 knot headwind it takes a while to get to South point. There are many white caps on the ocean and the sunlight is coming through intermittently with 6-7/8ths cumulous cloud. Water visibility is about 6-10m deep and the rough surface conditions do not make for not ideal spotting conditions.
As I fly past Police point, I finally glimpse the grey bodies breaking the surface of the water. There are three of them, all within a relatively small area. One large individual (+-8m) is working by himself running back and forth in a school of small bait fish just to the NW of Capuchin Rocks. The other two, a small 4-5m specimen and the other around the 6-7m range, are feeding together in a small area of 30 x 30 meters. They too are in the midst of a school of fish.
The smaller sharks were actively feeding on the surface, sometimes gulping mouthfuls of air, bodies exposed to the air as the big chop and waves heave them around. I find it interesting to watch these two as they are feeding in such a small area that they frequently get in each others way. Every now and then the little one would suddenly have to alter course with more than 90 degrees at times to avoid a collision. For 30 meters the sharks would swim straight, feeding near the surface, then feeding would stop while they do an abrupt 180 degree turn before starting the next run and commencing feeding again. They are not coordinated and therefore get in each others way every now and then. It is fascinating to watch as I could see the collision set up and then within 2-3 meters from impact the little one would do the bulk of course deviation. The larger one would accommodate at times when, I am sure, it sees that things are going to be a bit “too close”.
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Aerial
view of an 8m whale shark
feeding near Capuchin Rocks, SW
Mahe
Photo Milena Palka
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I continue on the survey to return almost 40 minutes later to find the sharks exactly as I had left them. I tried a couple of low passes to see if I could detect anything as to what they were feeding on but off course, as usual it was to no avail. (Plankton bits are small!) I did confirm the smaller fish as mackerel of around a foot in length. These were also very actively feeding on plankton as it was easy to see their mouths opening and closing in their habitual feeding mode. The school of mackerel and the two sharks were all feeding in the same small area and never did the sharks appear to move outside the school of mackerel. They would swim through the middle of the school and then just before exiting the school of fish, do an abrupt halt and turn, to again go, feeding through the thick of things. They fed for another 20 minutes while I observed with neither changing pattern in their feeding before I was forced to race back to the air port by strong rain.
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