Mar 2013 | Issue 26 www.africandiver.com Your Free Online Diving Magazine www.africandiver.com Contents REGULARS 3 Ed’s Logbook Destinations 5 Protea Banks Cover Photographed by Joe Daniels 26 Red Sea Wrecks and Reefs 26 Editors: Published by: Cormac McCreesh & Paul Hunter African Diver cc 35 Subscriptions: Postnet Suite 215 [email protected] Private Bag X10 FEATURES Advertising Sales: Musgrave Road [email protected] 4062 18 Mozambique’s Tutle Poaching Editorial Enquiries Tel: + 27(0) 73 036 5829 35 Women and Diving: Helen Garner Weaver [email protected] + 27(0) 83 391 8961 Cormac: 073 036 5829 Fax: 086 503 7177 56 Product: Deep Trekker Paul: 083 391 8961 Email: [email protected] Fax: 086 503 7177 www.africandiver.com 47 Joe Daniels Page 2 | www.africandiver.com Contents Ed’s Logbook From laid-back diving in the Red Sea with the guys and gals from the Marine to adrenalin-filled adventure diving at Megafauna Foundation, an organisation Protea Banks, Africa has it all. You can we have huge respect for. dive magnificent wrecks in the Red Sea or witness sharks raw and untamed off the We’re more than delighted to feature coasts of southern Africa. It’s all here, free-spirited, free diver and yoga teacher available and waiting for you. Helen Garner Weaver in our Women and Diving section. Helen has long been a In this issue we feature Protea Banks’ friend and supporter of African Diver exciting and adventurous dives where and soon she’ll be off to the Red Sea divers should be highly experienced, self- to explore her abilities and capabilities sufficient and very confident. If you’re diving freely on one breath. We hope this sort of diver and you’re up for some she’ll come back with a record or two sights of a lifetime coupled with an under her belt and we hope you’ll find experience you’ll remember for a very her story as inspirational as we do. long time, then Protea Banks is for you. It is not for the faint-hearted and you do Joe Daniels’ underwater photography is a need to be resourceful, but you’ll have delight to look at. His work is youthful, an unbelievable time and have many exciting and he exploits the limitations fantastic memories. of his equipment to the full. Enjoy his work and keep an eye out for him in the On the other hand, if you prefer your future. diving laid-back and languid then the wrecks of the Red Sea are perfect for Finally, we seldom feature products in our you. There are many wrecks there and magazine but the Deep Trekker product most of the operators know the best ones caught our eye. This is an ROV that is intimately. Wreck-divers, you’ll enjoy our affordable and easy used by recreational Red Sea wrecks adventure. divers. We think it has application for researchers, wreck divers, dive charter There’s been a lot of talk of shark and operators exploring new reefs among whale and dolphin conservation in much many other uses. of the media, but the little known problem of turtle poaching in Mozambique is due May your bubbles always be free. some attention. We’re lucky to be able to bring you the story of Jess Williams’ work Cormac and Paul. researching, educating and conserving turtles in Mozambique. Jess works Page 3 | www.africandiver.com Contents Page 4 | www.africandiver.com Contents Destination - Protea Banks Protea Banks, South Africa’s extreme diving shark hot-spot text by Paul Hunter Daniel Brinckmann Page 5 | www.africandiver.com Contents Destination - Protea Banks Paul Hunter December marks the beginning of summer in South Africa and also the As one of the migrants we packed our bags and headed for the KwaZulu start of the busiest local holiday season. Hot weather and more than 12 Natal south coast, otherwise known as the Hibiscus Coast, which consists hours of sunshine a day make this period perfect for the annual holidays. of about 75km of Indian Ocean coastline dotted with many popular holiday Just like the Great Migration on the plains of the Serengeti, many inland towns, blue flag beaches, nature reserves, hiking trails and fishing spots. It city dwellers leave their homes and head for one of the country’s beautiful is also home to one of the top-rated shark dive sites in the world; Protea coastlines to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of the cities. Banks. Page 6 | www.africandiver.com Contents Destination - Protea Banks Protea Banks lies 7.5km out to sea from the Shelley Beach launch site. The reef is about 6km long and 800m wide and lies at a depth of between 27m to 40m and is essentially a fossilized sandbank. These waters have been frequented by sharks and fishermen for generations because they are very rich tuna grounds. However, scuba diving on Protea only began in the early 1990s. The early pioneers did not know what to expect and would enter the water armed with bang sticks and spear guns. They were considered insane by the local community for diving in these shark-infested waters. Yet those that dared were treated to the dive of their lives with sharks from the moment they entered the water. This was the start of shark diving on Protea Banks and which is now enjoyed by divers from all over the world. We decided to dive with African Dive Adventures as they have been diving Protea Banks since 1994. They have a slightly different approach with regard to a dive center and setup, making use of an open-air-office in the Shelley Beach Small Craft harbor area. Upon arrival we were warmly greeted and given indemnity forms to complete. Once we had completed setting up our kit we were given a very thorough briefing. At this point I need to stress that this is an advanced diving site. It is recommended that you have at least 50 dives under the belt and are a competent diver. Boat launch from Shelley Beach by Johan Greyling Page 7 | www.africandiver.com Contents Above: Aerial View of Ski Boat Base Shelly Beach Below: Kit up area The reasons for this is that the dives are deep, exposed to strong currents and the visibility is not always great. The other thing I really like is that they take a mature approach to diving. Everyone that dives here should be experienced and thus responsible for themselves. Our first dive was to Southern pinnacle. We were rather fortunate that the launch was fairly easy and the sea flat, so got to the dive site in no time at all. Upon rolling back into the water and descending quickly to 28m we became aware of the strong current running southwards. Unfortunately the water was cloudy and visibility down to about 12m. Initially the current was very strong but reduced towards the end of the dive. As we drifted we scanned in all directions for any sign of shark. Page 8 | www.africandiver.com Contents Then it happened, we saw a few hammerheads in the Destintion - Protea Banks distance, on the very edge of our visibility. It wasn’t long and we had seen a couple of hundred hammerheads. Had the visibility been better this would have been a most spectacular experience. This is a great dive site offering a very good chance of seeing hammerheads. One of our next dives was a baited shark dive. Before this dive a full briefing was given on what to expect and code of conduct instructions to follow in order to provide the best experience with the sharks. A baited dive involves putting bait in the water to create a chum line which the sharks then pick up and follow to the source. The dive guide regularly checks the bait station which sits at about 12m to see if any sharks have arrived. This can Daniel Brinckmann take anything from 5 to 40 minutes. Once sharks are present we kit up and enter the water to observe these awesome creatures in action. We were initially welcomed by 6 or 7 blacktip sharks and later joined by 2 zambezi (bull) sharks. This was my first close encounter with zambezi sharks and I was just blown away. The interesting thing to me was the difference in behavior patterns of the two sharks. The blacktips were very energetic, moving in and out of view very quickly like excited dogs while the zambezi’s were more reserved in their approach. The sharks did not seem to mind us at all. They would come in and take a look and move on again never showing any signs of aggression or agitation. We got to spend over an hour in the water with the sharks. Page 9 | www.africandiver.com Contents The Dive sites of Protea Banks The three dive sites most often dived at Protea Banks are: Northern Pinnacle, Southern Pinnacle and Playground. Each dive site has its own particular characteristics and all three should be dived in order to gain a good appreciation of everything Protea Banks has to offer. Page 10 | www.africandiver.com Contents Northern Pinnacle This area of Protea has magnificent topography and is mainly dived during several chambers, each one with a wide opening at the top. When there the winter months. The reef is virtually untouched and there are two caves are no raggies in the caves, it is great fun exploring and collecting raggie’s which are used by ragged-tooth sharks (also known as raggies) on their teeth, which are generally plentiful in and around this cave area.