Marine Dynamics / Dyer Island Cruises

Although I was booked onto the White Shark Project I actually ended up volunteering for a company called Marine Dynamics. This was because there was going to be no room at the white shark project house.

At first I thought "what to hell" but Marine Dynamics are just as good than white sharks project and they also have a sister company -
Dyer Island Cruises which do whale watch trips.

So far I have been on the boat every day except one (due to bad weather) and have dived 4 times. The last time was the best as I ended up being the only person diving (everyone else was sick - my jinx again!) and was in the water for over an hour with sharks coming right up to the cage. One even rammed the cage and thrashed around right in front of me! Unfortunately I never got any good photos as I only had a throw away camera.

The best thing about the two companies is that as well as doing the shark and whale research they also do the following projects:

Faces of Need Which is a project to place artificial nests for penguins on Dyer island. The penguins used to be able to burrow into the guano but it was all removed for fertilizer before WWII making the nests vulnerable to Seagull predation.

Animals in need which basically means that they transfer any sick or injured birds or mammals to a rehabilitation centre in Cape town. I have already seen a penguin and a Cape Gannet be sent by them.

Nolwandle Project which involves training local people in crafts for making gifts to sell to tourists.

They also help with phd students research and have established a recycling system around the Gansbaai area.

Of course the very best thing about the company is I get to work with Mooi Meisie's