Tag: barra

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Shipspotting with AIS

Shipspotting with AIS

If you are smart enough to run a smart phone, then you just can’t be dumb enough to get bored…ever again.

Take this ship for example…

Just buzz on over to marinetraffic.com, zone in on your carpark, and see the names and even missions, of all those hunks of metal cruising the horizons. Even yachts!

You may get bored after a while and have to switch on over to some other entertainment stream, but you will definitely find your self loading up all this cool ship data again and again – especially in that carpark with an afternoon onshore and a quart in your hand.

Even some some ski-boats are equipped with AIS transponders, but for the most part, its mainly large vessels travelling trade routes that use the system to obviously avoid collisions. There is the pirate drawback, but you can turn the transponder off of you like, but for the most part it AIS has become a valuable all-round source of cool data.

Wikipedia is gonna be much better at explaining it than me, this morning…

“The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is an automatic tracking system used on ships and by vessel traffic services (VTS) for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data with other nearby ships…”

Check out the full story right here…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System

Marine Traffic (http://marinetraffic.com) even have a really cool App that you can get for free from the Play Store or equivalent, on your phone. Or just access through a browser – any browser will do!

 

Big news today is the launch of Offshore Africa Port St. Johns’ Web 3.0 website. Rob Nettleton and co’s IN YOUR FACE photography will get you checking that your wetsuit is hanging nicely, and ready for next year.

Click on over to http://offshoreafricaportstjohns.com and look around, like and share…

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Whitesands Holiday Specials in Barra

Whitesands Holiday Specials in Barra

WHITESANDS

If you have never been to Whitesands at the very end of the fantasmical Barra Peninsula in Southern Mozambique, this is your chance!

With the ocean on one side, and the huge Inhambane Bay on the other, there is something here for everyone. The newly famous African Kirra surf spot has been just up the beach for all this time – it’s a quick run to the paddle out and you can surf yourself all the way home!

Fishing in the same spot at night time for stumpnose and kingfish will surprise you…and gamefish come right into the huge lagoon. King mackeral are caught all the time, year round, in certain places right inside and completely sheltered from the sea.

Panzy shells and seahorses fight for attention with dugongs and dolphins in the estuary. You can go out and buy fresh seafood like sardines and calamari right off the netters dhows at Panzy Island and surrounding islands.

Deep sea fishing is excellent, check out the following for more details and keep checking thesardine.co.za for news on the current striped marlin and sailfish run. It’s been fantastic with some local boats getting multiple strikes every day.

Bathing in the idyllic and completely calm waters in front of the resort is completely safe and loads of fun.

For more information and contact details for Whitesands, click here.

The huge Inhambane Bay. Whitesands to starboard, Linga Linga to port. Panzy Island dead ahead. Sunscreen causes cancer! Get your shade on instead!

HOLIDAY SPECIALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2015
R3000 for 2 people sharing Log Cabin for 7 nights including one meal per day.
DATES: 2015
1 March – 25 March
15 April – 25 Junie
21 July – 30 September

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Kayaking Barra with Lalaland

Kayaking Barra with Lalaland

Staying at Lalaland kind of gives you everything. Peace and quiet. Beach and sun. And yet you are so close to all the offerings Inhambane has to offer…
Lalaland hosts Chad and Heidi make a point of facilitating anything you need around the Tofo area. Horseriding. Inhambane town tours. Ocean Safaris. Scuba diving. Fishing. Surfing. Kayaking…

Barra is just over the peninsula from Lalaland – and is home to acres upon acres of mangrove forests. They grow happily in the saltwater – at high tide some are completely submerged! They grow randomly, but create intriguing channels through the wetlands. And it’s these channels that you can negotiate on kayaks – putting you face to face with the bird and marine life so prolific in the huge Inhambane estuary.

IMG_2447
Laland is set in PARADISE! You can kayak the Inhambane estuary, surf the Tofinho point, dive Giants and spend time touring Inhambane town. Contact afontelda@gmail.com

The estuary is 40 times bigger than the Knysna lagoon – and is much more populated. Mangrove and blue crabs, flamingos, squid and fishies are among the main attractions – but just paddling about in clear warm water is enough to make you stoked!

Lalaland still has a few rooms open for December 2014. For more info please mail afontelda@gmail.com

Continue reading Kayaking Barra with Lalaland

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Netted Whale Shark: Oh so that’s what’s been happening…Duh?

Netted Whale Shark: Oh so that’s what’s been happening…? Duh?

This jaw dropping image was sourced by Carlos Carvalhos, evergreen conservationist and activist from Maputo…Carlos has been crusading for marine wild life in Mozambique and Southern African waters for years, and his work will be published in thesardine.co.za as often as possible, in the future…Carlos has been patrolling the waters of Southern Mozambique – through it all.

So, since I started working in the Inhambane waters, 7 years back…I would say the decline in whale shark encounters I have had, has been about 90%. I mean, this whole last trip myself and Roosta just did, for 12 days, Ponto D’ Ouro to Pomene, and we never saw one!

Sure they used to disappear back in those early years, for months at a time – but always came back with at least a few shows of strength…I once counted 70 whale sharks around my boat, off Praia da Rocha. 70!

So while the world watches TV and is focused on this Pistorius clown and Rhino’s…quietly, someone has been simply removing our whale sharks. And whatever else can be removed, out over the horizon or in the dark of night.

I have to align with Mr. Carlos Carvalhos, conservation activist and journalist in Maputo, when he asks – “What is being done by the plentiful NGO’s and conservation associations, littered around Mozambique and Southern Africa in general”.

I have never seen them intervene, or bring any of this slaughter to attention. It’s usually just covered up and forgotten. Granted, there are many individuals out there in the field, totally committed to the conservation of these animals, but the bureaucratic organisations with all the required resources and budget…do very little at all, except give lectures and drive around spotting the last of the marine life, just as it just disappears beneath the waves forever.

Whose role is it then, to intervene? Someone with all the required resources and mandates? Someone who signed up for the job?

Many thanks to Carlos Carvalhos. Follow him on MOZ INFO by clicking here…

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IGFA reports new world record King Mackerel

IGFA reports new world record King Mackerel (Scomberomerous Scevalla)

Well it ain’t the ‘couta  we get, according to science, but it sure looks like an outsized but slightly skinny Scomberomberous Commersoni – the version of King Mackerel we catch in Southern African waters.

Unfortunately, although our species has a strong will to survive and has been increasing in mean average size caught lately, this does not mean they are a healthy stock of fish.

In fact, when a species mean size average is on the up, it generally means the species is on the way down. ie…the last lion or elephant in a region is the wiliest strongest and meanest!

Rodrigues’ king mackerel
Brazilian angler Guilherme Rodrigues was trolling off Brazil’s Itzcolomi Islands on January 9th, when the Rapala he was trolling on a light tackle outfit got crushed by something much larger than he was expecting. One hour and 10 minutes after hooking up, Rodrigues landed an impressive king mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla) that tipped the scales at 33.96 kg (74 lb 13 oz) – heavy enough to qualify for the potential new men’s 8 kg (16 lb) line class record, which currently stands at 32.31 kg (71 lb 4 oz).
New IGFA pending world record King Mackeral (the American version) on 8kg line…by IGFA
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