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

Chris MILNES (Grantham, Lincolnshire, England), Andy CASAGRANDE (Santa Cruz, California, USA), Polly CROUCH, Alice CLARKE (London, England), and Rick HOLMES (Likely, BC, Canada).

Alan DUNCAN (Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) has been with us since the beginning of September. Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) invited one of our assistants to help them during their two week satellite tagging project at Dyer Island and in Mossel Bay on board the FRS Sardinops. Alan was the lucky assistant to join this joint research program with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). He joins the tagging team from the 3rd to the 17th of November 2003...
On Tuesday the 4th of November 2003, we finally went back to sea after three days of strong winds and bad sea conditions...

Very nice day, even for a light drizzle in the morning and some overhanging clouds... we observed ten different White Sharks today! It has been a while since we observed a two digit number of Sharks...

Our friend Ramon Bonfil (Wildlife Conservation Society) joined us in the afternoon to deploy some PAT satellite tags while waiting for the FRS Sardinops to arrive to Gansbaai from Cape Town. We managed to deploy one PAT tag on a large White Shark close to four meters in length.
After several attempts of luring the large Shark close to the boat, we finally succeeded in tagging the Shark with the PAT tag (four photograph sequence above)...

Rick jumped onto the Dyer Island Cruises' whale watching boat "Whale Whisperer" in the afternoon, and he had an amazing time with the Whales!
At around five in the afternoon, the FRS Sardinops, one of Marine and Coastal Management's research vessel, anchored in Holbaai near Dyer Island... They will prepare the specialized tagging gear overnight and start attaching SPOT and PAT satellite tags from Wednesday onwards...
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Warning

Some of the photographs shown in these pages depict hooking and handling Great White Sharks. These pictures do not reflect the White Shark Trust's foundation statement. The SPOT satellite tagging is a joint collaboration between the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Marine and Coastal Management (MCM). The White Shark Trust does not agree or support the hooking operation of White Sharks to attach SPOT tags to the dorsal fins. The White Shark Trust would like to see alternative attachment methods used without hooking and hauling the Sharks out of the water. The White Shark Trust does however support the PAT tagging program which involves normal spear tagging without direct handling.