Tofo Oceanfest 2018: It’s ON again at Fatima’s Nest in Tofo, Inhambane, Southern Mozambique this 2018!
Tofo Oceanfest 2018
Tofo is most definitely the most happening New Year’s celebration!
Right on the beach, with years and years of celebrations behind this Tofo Oceanfest 2018, once again – Fatima’s is going to absolutely rock you into the New Year.
Daily activities and a music programme will keep you entertained all day long.
Volleyball, surf lessons, yoga and beach football will make sure!
With the beach right out front, Fatima’s hosts the Tofo Oceanfest 2018 each year, which culminates in the biggest New Year’s event. That goes to the sunrise every time! Guest DJs and local outfits blend together to create the right mood for the right time, every time!
See you there!
About Tofo…
Tofo is the nicest little surf/fishing/diving village, right on the beach at Praia do Tofo.
The surfing in the bay is ideal for beginners. The point around the corner for when you’ve learned a bit!
Fishing is fantastic, this time of the year. Get in touch on umzimkulu@gmail.com for more information.
And the diving…well it’s acclaimed to be amongst the best spots worldwide. For Manta Rays, Whale Sharks and Turtles.
The Inhambane Bay is huge and waiting for you to explore it’s magical and calm waters. You can hook up a dhow cruise right from the bar at Fatima’s. Seahorses and the rare dugong are first prizes on these trips. Backed up by Flamingoes, dolphins and all sorts, in and around the islands and channels. Fantastic snorkeling, beach combing (for the famous Panzy Shell/Sand Dollar) and visiting the remote but cool restaurants and resorts over at Linga Linga make up a really full day trip.
All these activities can be arranged right at the reception at Fatimas.
It’s totally wild down there as GoFish blows it up!
Gofish Cameras. Totally wild.
When we first reviewed a bunch of underwater recordings shot with GoFish trolling cameras – of fish attack behaviour, that we made out off of the Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies recently – some crazy sounds came booming from out of the studio.
More and more gasps and exclamations, hoots and howls from the reviewer – until he crescendoed with an almighty bellow, “COME AND SEE THIS!”
Bull shark on a Mydo trace
Myself and Callum Roberts (visiting shark scientist and the reason for us targeting Zambezi Sharks as he completes some serious scientific research work at the BCSS) bounded into his office, only to be exposed to the most eye-widening imagery ever seen by either of us. Mainly Zambezis – the particular troublesome species we have been targeting for spatial monitoring and movement tagging.
But also King Mackerel – reckless and lethal as they were hunting in packs – they operate together. Amazing to see. Even the big ones. And when your livebait starts to panic like it would after a few minutes in these waters, make no mistake your bait is being stalked and charged from all angles. What was amazing is that they turn away so often. It’s about one in ten charges – that the ‘couta actually hits the bait. The pack seems to goad one of them into eventually taking on strike duty. And they all hang around and share the spoils after the striker gets the bait off the trace! Which happened surprisingly often.
The Zambezi’s were the same, as in there was never only one of them. Up to six at a time were recorded happily sitting barely two metres below the propellers, easily keeping pace with us as we dragged a dredge and a bunch of lures around behind us, at quite some speed. Obviously, as we had a strike, it was barely a few seconds and a shark would climb on.
The Cobia acted the same. And often swam with the sharks. In amongst them. Huge fish.
As did the Talang Queenfish we were lucky enough to film off of Paradise Island. We scored an unlucky flying fish that flew onto the boat. About 5 inches long. The trace we had was too heavy for starters, but a bunch of queenfish came in and inspected, mock charged, turning away every time. A custom trace with light nylon would have gotten that strike. But we did get one on spoon, which may show a relationship between strike rate and live baits in the water.
A beautiful Talang Queenfish from the waters near Paradise .Island. Released
Yellowfin Tuna, at these initial stages of fish behaviour analyses, have been the most wary and sensible. The bonito and skipjack footage that we recorded in our wake following us – unbelievable. Like an over-stocked aquarium, there were fish everywhere, and going in all directions!
This particular application of video technology to our favorite past time of fishing has potential to completely shift the way we see and treat the ocean and it’s fish. It was far more of a thrill seeing what had happened as recorded and reviewed through the day than actually catching and fighting the fish.
The following video was compiled to study the king mackerel as they come in hot and fast onto the target. You will see that they definitely come in from the flank or rear, and that they go for the tail first. In this clip, one couta actually removes the tail completely with a lightning-fast strike. And then another of the three featuring king mackerel comes in and takes the bait right off the trace. But he hooks himself. And then, in a flash, he just shakes the trace free. All we could see from the boat, was a few dips on the rod tip. The fish never even took drag, since they were coming in for the strike in the general direction of the boat ie towards us! And for sure the camera was always deployed on a real stiff big gun. Tackle just too much for them. We lost quite a few cameras in the end. Sharks and other beeeeg fish we will never know about.
But basically, without the GoFish camera, we would have experienced none of the thrilling wildlife action going on barely a few metres behind the boat. It really has made an effect on us as we now are using this information to make new sfyle traces. But more about that in another article.
All the imagery we attained on our last three weeks of shooting underwater with GoFish cams, has been processed into data and video and is studies. Some of which you can see online at the following links:
You can study predator fish attack behaviour yourself by viewing these files, or by getting ahold of your own GoFish camera or two, at the following link:
Everyone is welcome to celebrate clean beaches and ocean conservation at Shark Weekend
Scottburgh 8 to 10 June 2018
The annual Paddle Out for Sharks (POFS) and World Ocean’s Day (WOD) events will culminate in the 2018 Shark Weekend – a full programme of talks, clean ups, surfing competitions and beach activities geared towards marine conservation running at Scottburgh from 8 to 10 June.
Shark Weekend has a number of interactive activities planned suited to the whole family. The full programme starts at Scottburgh Beach at 3pm on Friday, 8 June with a ‘Healthy Ocean’s Talk’ and beach clean-up. The conservation celebration continues on Saturday, 9 June from8am with a Paddle Out for Sharks ceremony at Scottburgh Beach and Backline. There will be a number of beachside activities including a treasure hunt, sand shark art, snorkelling lessons, as well as adaptive surfing demonstrations and surfing competitions.
Throughout the weekend, Scottburgh’s Premier Resort Cutty Sark will play host to a number of Shark Weekend activities including Aliwal Shoal’s Shark Photo Exhibition, the Mares Dive Gear Exhibition as well as Conservation Talks and Videos. In addition to the generous venue donation, Premier Resort Cutty Sark is running a weekend special room rate of R350 per person, per night.“The 7th Paddle Out for Sharks, in conjunction with Word Ocean’s Day on 8 June, gives us a chance to highlight the impact of human actions and how we can positively turn the tide for shark conservation and good health of our oceans,” said Shark Weekend organiser, marine biologist, shark researcher and member of Shark Angels, Jess Escobar.
“For me, the annual Paddle Out for Sharks celebration has become an opportunity for all different ocean-users to stand together and show their support for shark and ocean conservation. It is reaching more and more people every year, converting the misguided fear around sharks into a respect and willingness to protect them. I am so happy and excited to see such a great support for our sharks and ocean conservation in our area.”
Paddle Out for Sharks started in 2012 after several sharks were killed in nets along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline. The diving and marine conservation communities converged to protest against the nets in support of shark conservation. This tradition has continued every year with more voices calling for protection of sharks, an animal which forms a crucial part of the oceanic ecosystem.
Forming an integral part of the Shark Weekend programme will be an address by renowned ocean activist and founder of the NPC, Breathe, Sarah Ferguson, on Saturday, 9 June at 3pm.The former national swimmer took to ocean swimming six years ago and decided to do something more meaningful with her swimming.
“I decided to start a foundation centred on ocean conservation, so I established Breathe,” recalled Ferguson. “I then started training to become the first African woman to swim the Kaiwi channel in Hawaii which I successfully completed in July 2017.”
Her 30-minute talk, entitled ‘Swimming to Fight Plastic Pollution – Live Deeply & Tread Lightly’ outlines her passion of swimming and the global epidemic of plastic pollution.
“We cannot ignore this issue,” said Ferguson. “They recently found a plastic bag at the bottom of the Mariana Trench – the deepest part of the ocean. Education is critical to change behaviour and create awareness about this relevant and growing epidemic. Change starts with the individual and needs to come from the public as well as at government level. Together, we can all change the statistic that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish.”
Special thanks are extended to all Shark Weekend sponsors, including Premier Resort Cutty Sark, Scuba Xcursion, Mares, Pollywog, Blue Wilderness and Made for More.
Video: Croc couta caught off Southport – KZN Lower South Coast
Croc couta caught off Southport – KZN Lower South Coast. See the video after the story below…
It was a lekker early launch with little comparable drama as the Niteshift plowed her way over the sandbar, bashed a few waves, and got us out the back. Captain Brian Lange (my Dad) has done this before!
Soon we found ourselves sounding around for bait – there were very many other boats out there this Sunday 24 March 2018. Louis Posthumous, his son Shawn and Noel Allchin already had bait they were so early. And were slow trolling comfortably in position. Boats were up and down this normally quiet piece of water.
But the bait eluded us and for a while, and we wandered around the usual mackerel hangouts but got only little useless orange fishies and a few cigar shaped maasbankers, or karapauw if you are up north. But then our lady crew on board, Ansie van Biljon (she was meant to bring the luck too), had her rod buckled over as a whole shoal of mackerel jumped onto her hooks. A full and tangled line later the mackerel were swimming lekker in their new home. Our live bait hatch. Ansie went down again and straight away got into it on the way down. She pulled and pulled and next thing three tiny little bonito come flying through the air. Bang! This was our ticket.
We pinned the first one onto a Mydo #1 with two solid 5X trebles and a new trace, and as Dad dropped the anchor to hold us where the baitfish were, I let the bait out the back. The current was winding and I set the Mydo at 10 metres deep, and turned to work on the other two bonnies. But as soon as I started, the TLD 25 screamed blue murder and we sprang into action.
Ansie cleared the lines and tidied the boat. Good crew that she is. And my Dad fired up and jammed the boat into reverse to pop the anchor. It all worked for a change (most times when we try this, the anchor holds stubbornly) and next thing we were loose!
But the fish had taken a steam train run first off and the backing was in sight. And next thing, as we get into the backing – a crossed line! I just backed right off as my Dad got us going, let all the line go, to the spool, and then started again properly. I got all the line back on the first chase, but when the fish saw us, he bolted again. All the line off the reel, even though we were motoring after him. But we got the line back again. We had drifted about 3 kms so far, the current was so strong.
The second run tired the couta out and we closed the deal with little fuss, and the gaff went in!
Ansie caught some nice reds and a few barbel, and then the second bait screamed. Not quite as fast, but fast enough to get all excited again, pull the anchor a second time, and give chase. What a fight! It was too strong to be a couta, we realised after 10 minutes. It might be anything the way it darted around and ran so fast.
Then all of sudden there was a blacktip shark. Or spinner shark, as they spin their way into the sky in amazing leaps. We got away with a clean release,
Then a hammerhead took our third bait…and it was time to get back in the mouth before the tide dropped too low.
If you want to get in on this type of action, get in touch with The Umzimkulu Marina at the link below.
