Andy Murch: South Africa
South Africa offers some of the most spectacular and varied diving in the world. To truly enjoy its diversity you’ll need a shorty, a drysuit and every thickness of neoprene in between.
A few of the highlights include vibrant tropical reefs, soaring temperate kelp forests, crowded seal rookeries (complete with breaching white sharks), flourishing penguin colonies and the annual sardine run; a mind warping event that draws tens of thousands of dolphins, sharks, whales and diving birds to dine on uncountable numbers of hapless bait fish.
It would be presumptuous of me to think that I could sum up all that the southern tip of Africa has to offer in a score of images so this collection is merely some of my favorite captures from the last couple of trips I have made to that wonderful region.
Andy Murch is an award winning big animal photographer specializing in sharks and rays. He is also the founder of Big Fish Expeditions; an adventure tourism company that puts photographers and divers in the water with the world’s largest marine predators. An outspoken conservationist, Andy spends much of his spare time talking his way onto gill netting and shark fishing boats to gather controversial images of endangered species and bycatch for many international conservation groups.
Broadnose sevengill sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus) have large complex eyes but they seem oblivious to the presence of divers until at very close range at which point they appear visibly startled.
Walter Bernardis is one of the most experienced shark feeders in South Africa. Although his baited dives at Aliwal Shoal are officially tiger shark feeds, the encounters attract scores of oceanic blacktip (Carcharhinus limbatus) sharks .
Blacktip Shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, Aliwal Shoal, Umkomaas, South Africa, Indian Ocean.
A Blue Shark slides past the camera during a pelagic drift on the Atlantic Coast of South Africa.
Bamboo kelp provides a beatiful backdrop for images of broadnose sevengill sharks which hide in the forests to avoid great white sharks, their only natural predator.
Although at first glance this may look like a throw away shot of diver bubbles, there were no scuba divers in the water this day. The entire effervescent scene was produced by the cavitation of diving cape gannets and bubbles released by predators.
While diving off a small pinnacle inhabited by subadult Cape Fur Seals, I stumbled upon a game of frisbee where playful pinnipeds were tossing a dead catshark at one another underwater. I immediately thought of the many seal predations at False Bay.
Common dolphins feeding on the remains of a sardine bait ball. Sardine Run, Port Saint Johns, Wild Coast, South Africa.
Dark Shyshark, Haploblepharus pictus, Millers point, Simons Town, False Bay, South Africa.
Dark Shyshark, Haploblepharus pictus, Millers point, Simons Town, False Bay, South Africa.
A young humpback whale sends off a stream of bubbles from his flukes as I swim within arms reach off East London. The humpback whale migration coincides with the Sardine Run each year but the humpbacks have no interest in the sardines themselves.
Leopard Catshark, Poroderma pantherinum, Simons Town, Cape Town, South Africa, Atlantic Ocean.
Puffadder Shyshark, Haploblepharus edwardsii, Simon's Town, Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa.
Pyjama Shark, lined catshark, Poroderma africanum, Miller's Point, Simon's Town, Cape Province, South Africa.
An enormous tangerine fan coral flops back and forth in the surge, against a backdrop of False Bay's lurid green water. Virtually anywhere along False Bay's rugged coastline, one can find hundreds of unusual sponges and coral species.
Huge leathery tunicates cement themselves to the surge swept tops of the rocks at Boulders Beach. Simon's Town False Bay, South Africa.
South African Hagfish (Myxine capensis) - one more example of the sheer uniqueness of this region.
Spotted Gully Sharks (Triakis megalopterus) live in the caves formed between boulders that have rolled off the hills around False Bay. You'll need a buddy to swim into one end of the cave while you wait poised at the other with your camera.