Thursday 12/11/98

Brett & I launched at 5:15, went once around the shark nets & headed south. The water was so clear! However, just south of Newmouth the water was quite brown. Strangely, this is where we found a group of 5 – 10 bottlenose dolphins in a feeding frenzy. This frenzy took us 4.5 km south of Newmouth, close inshore. We have found humpback dolphins here many times, but only once have we followed them south from here. Usually they stay put, go north or go offshore. It is amazing how different these two species of inshore dolphins are! After feeding for about 45 min the bottlenoses started socialising and moved offshore a bit, they approached the boat, had a look at us and then carried on south. We decided to leave them and look for some humpbacks.

A little north of Newmouth we found three travelling humpback dolphins. Five minutes later they seemed to stop and feed and we promptly lost them. Since they’d been travelling north we decided to carry on that way but we didn’t see them again.

We came across an unusual group of birds, not far from the south breakwater. There were 3 different species of tern (2 of which we’ve never seen before) and a greyheaded gull. One of the terns had a rusted hook through its wing. We spent almost 20 min with them. Brett took some photo’s; we’ll have to wait to see if any came out.

Friday 30/10/98

This morning with my routine cup of wake-up coffee, I stood on the balcony and enjoyed the still air. We would definitely be able to launch our boat in this kind of weather and go and look for dolphins. While I stood there I wondered what amazing thing I would see out there today.

We were on the water by 5:15 but we were not quick enough to see the sun lift its head over the horizon.

Just after 11:00 the dolphins started travelling south west about 1 km offshore. They travelled slowly, they took 45 minutes to travel about 3 km. By then the wind had picked up and ruined our follow – we lost the dolphins about 1.5 km south of Newmouth.

Tuesday 27/10/98

It was a bit windy at the lookout but we had two European travellers with us that really wanted to see dolphins so we went out. It was actually quite pleasant but we knew it wouldn’t last.

We searched for an hour and a half before we found any dolphins. As usual, they were in the southern part of our study area. For most of the follow there were about 10 dolphins, 2 or three of which were quite young dolphins. Two were quite identifiable: one had lost most of its fin and we called it G’nfin. The other had a narrow white stripe across her head and blowhole: we called her White Stripe. I can say "her" with reasonable certainty because she had a small calf with her. The whole follow seemed to be very fast – the dolphins were rushing around and we were rushing around after them. After feeding "at pace" for 35 minutes there was a social interaction (I don’t know if it was aggressive or not) and then we followed one dolphin travelling at high speed in a northeasterly direction along the coast – it was Captain Hook. We thought we were leaving all the other dolphins behind but, as soon as Capt. Hook stopped travelling, we saw all the other dolphins we'd followed earlier were there too. The dolphins socialised and treated our visitors to a lovely sight of playing dolphins. We lost the dolphins after a total of an hour and a quarter of observation. We had to travel portward against the wind and waves and our visitors got sopping wet, but I think they enjoyed their excursion anyway. One day, Valerie Burgener will be a famous cetologist!

Friday 23/10/98

It was calm again in the morning so we launched the boat before 5:30. We looked for dolphins around the shark nets but didn’t see any there. We decided to check the end of the south pier to see if Mistral and her baby were around. They weren’t there but White Tip and Junior were, and they were with about 4 other dolphins, one of which was another calf that we’ve never seen before (it was quite identifiable since it had many nicks along its hump). They fed there for 55 minutes before they started travelling north. About 5 minutes later we saw Quasimodo for a brief minute and then we lost all the dolphins.

We went a bit offshore and searched around east of the harbour mouth in the northern part of the study area. We went over to Shirley T, the dive boat to tell them we were out searching for dolphins. We asked them to radio us if they saw any dolphins. Less than five minutes later we saw White Tip, Junior and Zipper. The very sad thing is that Pip wasn’t with them. They played and jumped and somersaulted around the dive boat for half an hour and then they were joined by three or four other dolphins (the same identifiable calf was part of this group). The whole group socialised around Shirley T for almost an hour before they started travelling even further offshore. At about this time the wind changed from a light northerly wind to a moderate-fresh north easterly. We soon lost the dolphins. Mark decided to have a quick swim before we headed back to port. He couldn’t hear any dolphins under the water and got out. Brett thought that a swim was quite a good idea and jumped in. Seconds later, bottlenose dolphins appeared. I got some photo’s of Brett in the water with bottlenose dolphins in the frame – hopefully they’ll come out. Minutes later there were humpback dolphins nearby too, so Brett had to get back in the boat. The seven humpback and 20-odd bottlenose dolphins socialised for a short time and then chased fish around like crazy. Even though the wind was blowing and the sea was very choppy we managed to follow the mixed group of dolphins for about an hour. We got to the edge of our study area and had to turn back because the weather was getting worse and worse.

In the afternoon I patrolled the pier from about 16:15 until about 17:30 but saw no dolphins. I stopped when my cousin Dale arrived from Durbs.

Thursday 22/10/98

It wasn’t very windy at 5:30 so we went to the lookout. It looked as though there was rain coming up the coast so we decided to wait a bit. At 6:30, it still hadn’t rained so we went back to the lookout. By now the rain looked even closer. By 7:30, it still hadn’t rained so we decided to launch. As we approached the north pier, Mark, Brett and I all noticed a dolphin at the same time. It turned out to be Captain Hook; he was by himself (or she was by herself!?). He travelled across to the south pier and fed there for about twenty minutes before we noticed some dolphins coming from the south. It was Quasimodo with a mom and a tiny little baby. We followed these three for a while and then we lost them.

Thirty-five minutes later we found them south of south pier. Their behaviour was "undetermined" for about 15 minutes – they didn’t form a tight social group but they often dived towards one another, so it was kinda social but not exactly. Then Quasi started feeding. Then the mom seemed to be feeding and the baby stayed close to Quasimodo –Quasi was being a "nanny" - this means to me that Quasi is not a he but a she. In retrospect, we’ve seen Quasimodo "nannying" before (see 15/08/98). Because the wind was cold (and because Sea Rescue went to rescue a yacht called Mistral a week ago) we decided to call the mom Mistral.

They started travelling across the harbour mouth. The dredger was speeding out and we were a bit worried that the dolphins might crash into the dredger because it was so close. They dodged it and went back to the south pier. Fifteen minutes later we lost them. We drove around looking for them. We went all the way to Newmouth but didn’t see any more dolphins. The weather was fantastic and we searched until 13:30 – a good 5 hour session just like the old days!

In the avie, at 16:00 I went to the pier. I have a new strategy – I don’t just sit at the end of the pier, I patrol the length of the pier. I have tripled the size of my search area. It’s so obvious – why did I never think of it before? Minutes before I was about to leave I saw a mom and a small dolphin from my normal spot at the end of the pier. It was probably Mistral though I couldn’t say with absolute certainty. Her and the baby were there for 8 minutes and then we saw them heading back to the south pier.

Sunday 18/10/98

My cousin Kathy (Hi cuz!) and her friend Lana came with Mark and I to look for dolphins. We went all the way to Newmouth and back without seeing a single dolphin! Now Kathy no longer believes me that there are dolphins in Richards Bay. You’ll have to come back some time soon, cuz, so I can show you – just choose the right day!

No pier in the afternoon because we went to Durban.

Saturday 17/10/98

The wind was light but the swells were pretty big so we decided not to launch. Instead Brett and I took Brett’s mom, sister and niece for a ride around the harbour. We didn’t find any dolphins. Because the weather in the harbour was so perfect we thought it might not be so bad out in the big, wide ocean so we went out and looked around the shark nets. No dolphins there so we nipped around the south pier. No dolphins there so we went a little further south. Eventually we found about 6 dolphins, one of which was White Tip. We didn’t manage to follow them for much more than ½ an hour because the swells were quite large.

At the pier in the afternoon, there was a solitary dolphin for a while.

Wednesday 14/10/98

Once it stopped raining we launched the boat. After searching for about an hour, about ½ way to Newmouth, we found 4 adults and two juveniles playing. They socialised for about ½ an hour and then they fed for about twenty minutes, all the time moving south. They then slowed down and started to rest. Usually we’re pretty good at following resting dolphins because they don’t move very far between surfacing but this time we only managed to follow them for ten minutes.

When we were almost at the s-breakwater we found two humpback dolphins. They fed for about 10 minutes and then they seemed to rest. Again, ten minutes later we lost them. Luckily, we found the same two twenty minutes later. I had to score their behaviour as undetermined because, for a while it wasn’t clear what they were doing. Then it was quite obvious that they were feeding. Fifteen minutes later they started to travel. They travelled easterly for about 20 minutes and then changed direction and travelled south easterly. For a while we were only following one humpback dolphin; then we noticed a group of about 30 bottlenose dolphins, with ANOTHER humpback dolphin as part of the group.

All these dolphins played and chased one another around. There did not appear to be any aggression between species. Zigzag, the one that we’d been following, stayed on the outskirts of the bottlenose group but the other little humpback was well integrated in the group. Zigzag was only around for about 20 minutes and then we didn’t see him/her again.

They’d all disappear under the water for a couple of minutes; then, suddenly the humpback dolphin would population up for air and then disappear again. A minute later all the bottlenoses would come up for air. It seems humpback dolphins might not be able to hold their breaths for as long as bottlenose dolphins can. But then again, this was a particularly small humpback dolphin. I bet this little dolphin was so tired when she went back "home" - the bottlenoses move around so much faster than the humpbacks do.

We saw a bottlenose dolphin jump about 3 m high.

Thursday 08/10/98

Brett gave the people at the Endangered Wildlife Trust a slide show. They’ve chosen some pictures and will publish the humpback dolphin’ story in their magazine.

Wednesday 07/10/98

It was raining at 5:00 (lookout-time) but by 6:30 it had stopped so we launched the boat. The rain had flattened the ocean and the waves were small. It was still and not much light was penetrating the clouds the so the water was like mercury. We didn’t find dolphins around the shark nets and went south to see what we could find there. Just before we reached Newmouth it started to rain again so we turned around and headed back to port just in front of the raincloud. By the time we moored the boat we were drenched and I had to attend a meeting of the Research Co-Ordinating Committee for the Richards Bay Effluent Pipeline at the Mhlatuze Water H/O. It was a real experience; all the stakeholders of the pipeline came together to discuss the environmental impact of the effluent. It seems like a lot of thought goes into this pipeline (as well as muck).

Got home late and only went to the pier at 16:30. It was pretty dark at 17:30 so I went home without seeing any dolphins.

Tuesday 06/10/98

There were still two dolphins there when I left at 17:30. Cycled home down Bayview Boulevard which has dune forest on either side of it – could hear birds & frogs and all sorts of soniferous nunu’s.

Monday 05/10/98

Very little news lately because I’ve been busy analysing results. This is usually a tedious task but I quite enjoyed it this time. Results must be checked and refined and then I’ll tell you what we’re finding.

Brett and I might be going to Uganda on Uganda Air to see the gorillas.

10:29 On East Coast Radio. Alarms in australian shark nets to keep humpback whales from getting tangled. These alarms have worked successfully in commercial fisheries.

Friday 25/09/98

Pat phoned to say he wants to put some of Brett’s pictures in the EWT magazine!

Thursday 24/09/98

We launched in the early morning in spite of a north-easterly wind and pretty big swells. At the pier we found 2 dolphins – Bottle and Captain Hook. They were feeding on the north side of the north pier. The water was quite brown – visibility was only 1.5 m. Saw the Sharks Board crew – they had caught a 2m great white and a Zambezi shark We were there with the dolphins for about 25 minutes before they started travelling offshore. We followed them but did not manage to stay with them for more than 5 minutes.

We decided to search in the harbour but found no dolphins. We did see a large fish eagle perched among the mangroves. Because it was a public holiday, there were many fishermen fishing off small bay boats. We saw some idiot bludgeoning a small shark to death because it had irritated him by taking his bait. I can’t believe some people! He looked all guilty whrn we went to ask him what he was up to, but I bet he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

In the afternoon, Brett and I went swimming on Newark beach (on the south side of the pier). Man o man, the swells were BIG! We couldn’t even swim 20 m off the beach because the huge waves kept pushing us back to shore. We went to Baboon Rock at the end of the pier at 15:00. Soon after we arrived two dolphins travelled over to feed at the pier. It looked a lot as though it was Bottle and Captain Hook again; but it is almost impossible to id individuals from the pier. Like all the other dolphins this week, they seemed to stay quite far away from net 99. However, quite a bit of feeding activity took place around net 5. One dolphin spend more than half an hour feeding about 50m in shore of net 5 while a tight-knit group of about 5 dolphin fed 50 m offshore of net 5. After a while feeding became really intense – dolphins chasing fish around the harbour mouth at great speed. Then everybody left and after about 20 minutes, Brett and I went home.

Wednesday 23/09/98

The weather was no good for launching in the morning but by afternoon it calmed down. We (Mark, Brett, cousin Dale and me) launched the boat at about 15:00. As we reached the harbour entrance, just as I was about to radio Port Control for permission to leave the harbour we saw two dolphins going into the harbour so we followed them. We had to stay quite far off from them because they were travelling in the channel and a big coal tanker was coming into the harbour. The dolphins stayed out of the ship’s way but they were quite close to it. When we managed to get a bit closer we recognised the one as a dolphin Mark has called "Bottle" (because she (or he) was with the group of bottlenose dolphins we saw about a month ago (see entry Thursday 06/08/98)). The dolphin with her had quite a hooked fin so we have called it "Captain Hook" (Mark thinks that it might be the same dolphin that was with Bottle on Thursday 06/08/98). After we’d followed them for about 1 km they turned around and headed out of the harbour. Just before we were about to leave the harbour Brett noticed that there was at least one dolphin near net 5; so we left Bottle and Captain Hook and went to the nets. We saw a young dolphin very close to the net. A little while later we saw its mom. Then, Bottle and Captain Hook arrived. Everybody fed for a while and then they were gone. Just disappeared. We went to look for them around the south pier but couldn’t find them. We put the hydrophone into the water and could hear humpback whales quite well.

While we were following Bottle and Hook we got a call from Port Control to say that there were dolphins in the harbour. We thought that they meant the two we were following because the pilot boat was going past the dolphins at exactly the time that we got the call. However, Steve, the Tug Master on RB2 had spotted a group of about 5 in the clean cargo part of the harbour.

Tuesday 22/09/98

The weather looked ok from the lookout at 5:30 but soon after we left the harbour the wind picked up and brought white horses. We searched around the nets but did not find any dolphins. We searched offshore of the harbour mouth for a while and then went over to the boat Shirley T whose diving crew is working on the sewerage pipeline that dissects our study area. They told us that last Friday (in very rough seas) about 6 humpback dolphins had played around their boat for ages.

We were back on the hard by 8:00 but launched again at 9:00 with Pat Fletcher from the Endangered Wildlife Trust. Just before we launched, the Sharks board crew arrived with a dead humpback dolphin (and two great whites).

This big male was killed in net 5 and when they retrieved him from the nets his body temperature was higher than the water temperature which means that he had not been dead for very long. Mark identified him as one of the aggressors involved in the big fight last Tuesday (see entry 15/09/98).

We showed Pat the layout of the nets and where the five dolphins have been caught this year (the first 3 were caught in net 99, the last 2, in net 5). Then we went a bit offshore to drop the hydrophone because Neil from Shirley T had radio’d us to say he had hear whales while he was diving. We could hear the whale noises but unfortunately not very well, presumably because the dredger was busy dredging nearby.

On our way back, near the north pier we spotted 2 dolphins. We spent only 15 minutes with them before they disappeared offshore. As they started moving offshore we noticed that they each had a fish in their mouths. It looked like they were going to have these two fish take-away!

We showed Pat areas in the harbour where we see the dolphins but unfortunately didn’t see dolphins.

In the afternoon, Pat came with me to the pier to watch for dolphins and to show me where the viewing platform is going to be. The EWT has raised money to build a observation platform (visit the site – search the page for "dolphin") on the north pier. Soon, people will not have to climb up on those scary dolosse to see out to sea. They are also going to have a plaque telling every one that they can see dolphins from there, if they just take the time to look.

Although we had to wait quite a while first, the dolphins eventually came to feed near the pier and for forty minutes we enjoyed uninterrupted dolphin viewing. They went pretty close to net 5 and were feeding quite intensely – this is quite frightening, especially since a dolphin died there this morning.

Monday 21/09/98

Too windy to launch in the am but went to the pier in the pm with my cousin Dale. The dolphins were already there when we arrived at 15:30. There were three of them, feeding, again near net 5. They went so close to the nets. I never know what I would do if the net buoy suddenly started bouncing around because a dolphin had been caught. I could never get there in time to do anything constructive.

The dolphins were there for more than an hour and a half before they disappeared. Ten minutes after they had gone, a lone dolphin turned up and fed in pretty much the same place. Seventeen minutes later he was gone.

I am nervous for these dolphins. They were too close for comfort.

Sunday 20/09/98

It was really windy but we really wanted to go searching for dolphins, so Kathy, Dale, Mark, Brett and I went around the harbour. We searched quite thoroughly but found nothing. So, we washed the boat and went to Mtunzini instead.

Dale and I went to the pier in the afternoon and waited patiently, but no luck. At about 17:30 we said we would give it another 5 minutes and then we’d go. Not a minute later 6 dolphins arrived. We managed to watch them in the twilight for about half an hour and then it was too dark. They often seem to pitch up just before, or as the sun sets.

Saturday 19/09/98

Spent ages at the pier with my cousins Kathy and Dale (Hi Kath!) but we didn’t see a single dolphin.

Friday 18/09/98

Wicked south-westerly blew like crazy and brought the rain so I didn’t go to the pier.

Thursday 17/09/98

Got a call from Shirley T’s crew to say there was a small group of bottlenose dolphins at the pipeline at 10:45. Mark was ill and I had to take poor Brett to the dentist so, even though it was quite calm we did not launch the boat. I did go to the pier quite late in the afternoon. Although it’s a pity not to be on the boat when it is so calm, the pier is a lot more pleasant without the wind.

Wednesday 16/09/98

I am pleased to report no dolphins were retrieved from the nets. Hopefully the wonky dolphin is recovering somewhere and will visit our study area again soon.

Yachties saw jumping humpback dolphins at buoys 3 & 4 (at exit to our small channel) last evening.

Tuesday 15/09/98

For the first time in what seems like an absolute age we watched the sun rise from our boat. As usual, the first thing we did was search around the nets but we didn’t find any dolphins there. We headed down south. We were almost at Newmouth at 07:00 when we stopped to measure the water temperature and visibilty. While we were doing this, we noticed some activity about ½ a kilometre away. we went over to investigate and found a group of 10-15 dolphins travelling. They soon stopped to play: jumping and somersaulting and spyhopping – Mark took so many pictures – he’s going to have lots of work tracing the fins of so many dolphins. After about an hour of play they started travelling, but then stopped suddenly, then moved on again, then stopped – I wonder what they were doing – I had to classify this behaviour as undetermined. And then we lost them – 15 dolphins just disappeared. We travelled a big circle around the last place we had seen them but… no luck. We decided to head back up the coast so that we could search the northern parts of our study area. At the entrance to the harbour we found Quasimodo (he had new teeth scars on his body), Dolly & Junior, Zipper & Pip. They moved into the area near net 99 and fed close there for more than ½ an hour before they moved offshore – one went so close to net 5 on its way out, it had us quite worried. Quasimodo did not come with the group of dolphins that we were following – it was Dolly & Junior, Zipper & Pip and A.N. Other. They played so nicely together, Mark & Brett photographed Junior jumping – hopefully we’ll be able to tell Junior’s gender from the pictures (We could - Junior's a female!). There also seemed to be a bit of flirting going on and suddenly 3 big dolphins came from the north and started fighting! It was so unexpected. These three dolphins ganged up on one dolphin (we think it was A.N. Other) and beat it up. The victim hovered close to the boat in between attacks and we could see all the fresh teeth marks raked along its side; this poor dolphin was not ok – it was all wonky, not swimming straight and seemingly seeking shelter near the boat. Dolly, Junior, Zipper & Pip had disappeared.

The fight lasted 10 minutes and then the three disappeared in a northerly direction while the victim moved inshore – right towards net 1. We tried to follow it but soon lost it – we searched around and around but couldn’t find any dolphins. What will the Sharks Board crew find in their nets tomorrow morning? I hope not a dead dolphin.

By now the wind had picked up and was tossing white horses around on the water’s surface. We had to go in.

Later, from the end of the pier, I’m pretty sure I saw Dolly and Junior with about 4 other dolphins. They alternated feeding with social behaviour for about an hour and a half by which time it was far too dark for us to see.

Thursday 10/09/98

The northeasterly blew all night but now (7 am) it has just swung, back to a southwesterly. The SAWB predicted some pretty bad weather for the next couple of days, so it’ll probably be all computer and no boat for a while.

Wednesday 09/09/98

‘Twas windy in the morning (southwesterly) but calmed down by midday so we launched. But the wind soon picked up from the northeast & we didn’t stay out on the ocean for long & we didn’t see any dolphins.

At the pier, I saw dolphins for the first time in 5 days. There were three of them and they spent the first 24 minutes resting more than 100 m from the pier and then they fed for 41 minutes, much closer to the pier – they must have been chasing some pretty fast fish because sometimes they moved so quickly.

Tuesday 08/09/98

Up early, but the sun was up before we hit the water. Louise and Annelis came along to find dolphins but, unfortunately, we didn’t manage. We got a call from Port Control to say that there were two dolphins at the coal terminal (berth 301) but at that stage we were chasing imaginary dolphins. Later, when the wind picked up, we went into the harbour to see what we could find. We didn’t see any dolphins and the tug chased us out of the area by almost backing into us. We went to fetch the hydrophone to see if we could hear any dolphins. Vic has recorded humpback dolphins’ sounds in the Richards Bay harbour but we couldn’t hear any dolphin sounds. Left the harbour mouth to see what we could hear out there. We heard humpback whales singing! There must have been more than one whale – what a wide range of sounds these animals make – how fantastic to float on the ocean and hear them. We easily spent an hour just listening.

Monday 07/09/98

Looked and looked at the pier but saw no dolphins.

Sunday 06/09/98

Perfect, perfect weather. The wind was still and the sea was so flat. We got a call from the helicopter’s night shift crew to say there was a group of dolphins near the south pier. We found them as we left the harbour. We followed them for about 20 minutes and then we saw there was a large group of bottlenose dolphins. Humpback dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, gannets and terns were all feeding madly together – the dolphins were moving so much faster than we are used to – at one stage they were going about 12 km/h. Unbelievably, we managed to lose them – I don’t know how – it was so flat and there were so many dolphins.

We headed down south to search for more humpback dolphins and, as soon as we found two we received a call from Port Control to say there were dolphins near net 99. We left the new dolphins and headed back to port because the most important data to collect is when the dolphins are near the nets. But, we couldn’t see any dolphins in the netted area. So, we headed south again and luckily found the dolphins we’d left. There were three of them and they were resting. Usually resting dolphins are quite easy to follow – the problem is we usually lose them as soon as they get a bit more energetic. For the first time ever, we managed to stay with the dolphins once they had awoken. A group of about 5 dolphins joined them and they raced and chased each other in the crashing waves, very close to shore. They did this for quite a while before they fed along the backline. We hovered just behind the backline which is a pretty scary place because any moment a wave could break into our boat. Anyway we managed to survive and watch dolphins for more than an hour….and then they were lost. We searched some more but couldn’t find anything. What started as a perfect day started deteriorating after midday, but we stayed out anyway.

We got a hydrophone (an underwater microphone) from Vic and we dropped it into the water – we could hear humpback whale noises. We couldn’t see any whales but Sea Rescue’s crew saw about 5 humpback whales 8 nautical miles offshore.

Saturday 05/09/98

We launched just a few minutes after 6 but it was too cloudy to see the sun rise. Soon after we left the harbour Port Control radio’d us to say that the helicopter pilot had just spotted a mother whale with her baby. We radio’d the helicopter and asked them where and they turned around and flew back and marked the whales’ location on their GPS. They radio’d us the latitude and longitude and we put the co-ordinates into our GPS and headed south-east. When we found them they were resting – the baby resting on the mom’s head – it was so new it needed to be supported. Every now and again it got a bit more energetic and disappeared under her – probably to suckle. After a while we left them in search of humpback dolphins. We went around the nets and then went north. We went all the way passed the lighthouse before we spotted a group of humpback dolphins. Although I couldn’t say for certain I would guess they were feeding. Suddenly they were gone.

On our way back we spotted a mom and baby humpback whale, very close to the shore. We don’t think it was the same pair, we think that this baby was much bigger, but we never got close enough to verify this. Brett got a shot of the mom’s dorsal fin and we can use this to tell if it was the same mom because the mom with the tiny baby had a barnacle stuck in her fin. We had to go back to shore early because Sea Rescue (NSRI) needed our boat to keep a careful eye on "The Shaka Challenge" which is a canoe/portage/running race that takes place in our harbour.

Back at home we were having lunch when the helicopter pilot, Wendy, phoned and asked if we’d found the whales. I told her about the tiny whale resting on its mom. Wendy offered to take us for a ride in the helicopter so we raced to the "helipad" and went for the coolest ride. We saw 3 whales out there – the mom and tiny baby with another (older juvenile?). The coolest thing was seeing the baby swimming under water. Also, we could see their whole bodies – we normally only see the parts they exposed at the surface of the water. We flew around them a couple of times and Brett took lots of photos. We were very lucky because we had an unusually long ride – they picked up a pilot from a ship going out, took him out to a waiting container ship. Then we went back (low and fast) and picked up another pilot off an exiting ship and took him to another, still berthed in the harbour. We got to see the harbour from a totally different angle. Saw a shark lying on a sand bank in the harbour

Friday 04/09/98

Computer stuff in the morning: looking at catch data. Pier early in avie. The sea was pretty flat – we probably could’ve been out on the boat. Dolphins were there when I arrived but they left soon after. About 2 hrs later, I saw them on the far side of the channel going into the harbour. An hour later saw them leaving the harbour. About ½ an hour after that, they came and fed near us. They moved inshore between the yellow and red buoys of net 5 – scary. We watched them feed in the moonshine – wow.

Thursday 03/09/98

Dolphins were there when I arrived and they stayed until after the sun had set – eventually it was too dark for us to see. They fed and socialised. I managed to recognise Dolly and Junior – this is the first time I’ve been able to id dolphins from the pier.

Wednesday 02/09/98

Launched late, found three travelling dolphins in the southern part of the study area. They joined up with a whole lot more dolphins and everyone started playing. One of the new dolphins had a HUGE hump so we called him Humphrey – hopefully we got some pics of him. The gentle southwesterly suddenly got violent and chased us off the water.

I sat at the end of the pier in the afternoon but didn’t see any dolphins.

Tuesday 01/09/98

It was too windy to launch so I had fun analysing my data instead. We wanted to see which area we are most likely to find dolphins in. However, it is very important to account for how much time we spend searching, for example, every day we go through the Harbour Mouth because this is where we launch our boat from – so we are far more likely to have found dolphins here than at the extremes of our study area. We divided our study area into three zones: North, South and Harbour Mouth. We compared our "search:find" ratio in these three regions. Even though we have searched equally in the North and in the South, we are far more likely to find dolphins in the south. And, even though we have found dolphins in the Harbour Mouth about as many times as in the South, we search the harbour mouth far more frequently. So, our conclusion is that the dolphins occur most often in the southern part of our study area. I wonder why.

No dolphins at the pier in the avie.

Monday 31/08/98

Launched with Mark and RB1’s tug master, Steve. We found a dead shark floating near net 3 and went to call the Sharks Board guys who were checking net 5. As we got closer we saw they had caught something in net 5. It was a young dolphin: number 4 this year.

We searched our study area but found no dolphins; we did find two humpback whales (they were definitely both humpback whales) heading south. I briefly saw dolphins three times from the pier but they did not stay very long.

Sunday 30/08/98

Spent 2 hr at the end of the pier and didn’t see a single dolphin.

Saturday 29/08/98

Weather’s bad, we haven’t launched since Thursday. I did watch dolphins from the end of the north pier yesterday and today for a few hours before sunset. Today they were feeding intensely; they must have been hunting fish that were quite big because I could see them struggling every now-and-again. Also, saw quite a few jumps. They spent a little more than an hour feeding and then they started socialising. Both of these activities took place on the south-west side of the north pier, close to net 99. This is worrying, especially since on Monday (23/08/98) the lifesavers retrieved a dead humpback dolphin from net 99. This is the third dolphin killed in net 99 since the end of May this year.

Thursday 27/08/98

We have had many interesting and exciting days since we started this project but, in comparison to today, all the other days pale. As we left the harbour, at +/- 6:30, before we had even gone 100 m past the nets, Brett noticed a plume of smoke but it disappeared. Then we saw another one. We realised it wasn’t smoke and thought it might be whales so we went to investigate. Indeed, there were two humpback whales. We managed to follow them for about an hour but something was bothering us subconsciously; Brett said, "Is one much younger than the other because one’s got calluses and the other hasn’t." but we couldn’t tell how old they were. Then one breached and I said "Is that a humpback whale?" and they said "Of course it is." Next thing, the whales seemed to notice us and came closer. There is an international law that states that you may not get closer than 300 m from a whale. Well, obviously no-one had informed the whales and they came very close to our boat – which is actually quite scary because these animals are HUGE and could easily accidentally bump/flip our little boat. When the animals were so close, we realised that the one was not a humpback, but a Southern Right whale.

Two whales of different species were moving about together. This is amazing and we wonder if this has been documented previously. We have written to Southern Right Whale expert Dr Peter Best of the Mammal Research Institute – he’ll know if this is unusual or not.

Sometimes the whales were close enough to our boat that we could smell the air they expelled from their lungs – the Southern Right’s breath was smelly!, the humpback’s wasn’t nearly so bad. After a while, a group of about 20 bottlenose dolphins arrived and dived around the whales; they seemed quite excited and we saw our first bottlenose jump. After a while the bottlenoses left and the whales moved on and we followed them. We saw Shy Albatrosses and Sooty Albatrosses, two species we’ve never seen before – we were having an incredible day. We even saw a bluebottle floating on the surface of the water (until it mysteriously disappeared).

A little later, Brett said, "Turn off the motors, I can hear something." We turned them off and we could hear the whale noises through the boat. We stuck our heads into the water and could hear even more sounds. I could see the southern right not far below the boat. We don’t know if only the humpback, or both of the whales were making the noises. The two whales slowly moved off and we just stayed floating where were because we didn’t want to ruin the silence by turning on our noisy motors. Five minutes later the southern right breached again so we moved off in their direction. We caught up with them and the three of us (the humpback, the southern right and our boat) travelled south alongside each other for a while – it was awesome.

When we passed the Betinga wreck buoys and could see the Mlalazi Lagoon mouth (Mtunzini) we realised we were quite far from home. The north-easterly wind started picking up and we decided we had better head home. The journey back wasn’t nearly as much fun as heading out, especially because we were travelling against the (stronger) wind. On our way we saw a whale shark but we didn’t spend much time looking at it. What a day!

Sunday 16/08/98

We watched a cool video about dolphin research – people trying to understand their communication and levels of intelligence, people catching and weighing and tagging them, people swimming with them in pools and in the wild. In the afternoon I went to the pier to see if the humpback dolphins were around. Boy, the sea was rough, some swells were about 3 m high. When that’s the case, I spend more time watching the waves than looking for dolphins (and thinking – I’m gonna get wet! I’m gonna get wet!). The nets had been moved by the sea and net 5, which is usually only about 200 m from the pier was about 500 m away and on the wrong side of net 4. I wonder if the pingers are still attached. I hope we haven’t lost our very important, very expensive equipment.

Saturday 15/08/98

After last night’s southwesterly, we did not expect to launch our boat today but at 05:00 everything was perfectly still. Our search started at 06:30. We searched the netted area but did not see any dolphins. We decided to head south and searched the inshore zone. At 07:17 we spotted dolphins playing (it’s often quite easy to see them from quite far since playing dolphins jump and splash a lot). It was a medium-size group of about 8 animals; we saw 2prong again. After about ½ an hour the adults started feeding but a small group of 3 or 4 younger animals just carried on playing. At 08:30 about 4 new individuals joined the group. We watched once animal play with its food, throwing it into the air. An hour later they started feeding and we could see big fish jumping out of the water. Then the southwesterly picked up again and by 10:00 it was blowing pretty hard. The dolphins started heading towards the northeast and we managed to follow them for a short while and then we lost them.

Thursday 13/08/98

The wind was strong in the morning but by the afternoon it settled. We launched at about 14:00. Before we even left the harbour mouth we found dolphins. Quasimodo was hanging out with a juvenile who seemed to be following his every move. It was very nice to see him interacting with other dolphins, we very rarely do. There were another 2 dolphins near by that were feeding. After a short while the dolphins started making their way into the harbour. By this time, group size had increased to about 7. When we got to an area with mangroves the animals started to feed. While they were feeding they moved around alongside the coal terminal and fed near the big ships berthed there. We followed them past the end of the coal terminal where some started socialising. It seemed to be pretty shallow and I said "you could stand here" and Mark said "Yes, but you couldn’t breathe" meaning that it was deeper than I thought. Good one, Mark!

A minute later we were stuck in the mud!!! We had to lift the motors and get out and push! Thank goodness it only took us 10 mins to get out. We lost the socialising dolphins but found others still feeding near the ships. After a while they started socialising too. Then they started travelling down the channel towards the harbour mouth. After about 15 mins, we noticed another group of dolphins travelling up the channel. Our group changed direction and went to meet this new group. It was so cool! Most of the dolphins in the new group were ones we recognise – we saw Dolly and Junior, Zipper and Pip, Huck Fin, Corporal Marks.

Another windy, windy day. Wicked southwesterly. Summarised an interesting paper called Pingers, Porpoises and Power: uncertainties with using pingers to reduce bycatch of small cetaceans (by Dawson Read and Slooten). Basically they think that studies like ours, where catch rate is low, are a waste of time and will not yield results. But we actually aren’t looking at how pingers affect catch rate but how they affect behaviour in the netted areas. I should stipulate what magnitude of difference I am looking for, i.e. statistical power, and the chance of falsely detecting a difference, i.e. level of statistical significance. They reckon everyone must study harbour porpoises to understand the mechanism behind pinger action, habituation, etc. in their view it is premature to ask questions concerning pingers and other species while so many questions stay open about harbour porpoises and pingers.

Thursday 06/08/98

We had such a cool day at sea today - it started off so calm, we found a
bunch of dolphins and followed them for about 2 and a 1/2 hours. They were
feeding for a while and then they started playing - it's so much fun
watching them have fun! Later we found a group of about 6 bottlenose
dolphins with 2 humpies! They were also playing around! After a while the
two humpback dolphins left and headed south at almost 10 km/hr which is
pretty fast!!! By now the wind had picked up which makes
chop-and-white-horses which makes watching dolphins difficult. We were so
proud of ourselves - we managed to follow them for 45 min in less-than-ideal
conditions. Then we got drenched coming home against the wind and at an
awkard angle to the waves. Even the sleeves inside my dry-mac were wet!

Vic went to the airport to fetch the two new pingers from Denmark. We should get them by Tuesday.

Wednesday 05/08/98

First time we’ve launched since Sunday. First time we’ve launched on a Wednesday for ages because vic didn’t even threaten to come through until Thursday or Friday.

Robert, RB4’s tugmaster came with us. Found Dolly & Junior with Zipper & Pip with A.N. Other not far south of the south breakwater. They seemed to be feeding. After awhile we spotted playing dolphins +/- 700m away so we went over. Saw Two-Prong again (from 10/06)

and Corporal Marks (from 25/04). After a while we saw Dolly et al again. Lost them near the waverider. Back on the hard early because a southwesterly blew us off the water.

Tuesday 04/08/98

Too windy at 05:00. Went up to the lookout with some coffee. While I was up there I spotted humpback dolphins! They were quite close to net 3 where Blessing & Co were working. Went to the pier, they arrived shortly after. They hung around for quite a while, feeding.

Worked with Mark in the afternoon, linking group sizes with follows.

Monday 03/08/98

Another windy morning at the computer and a windy afternoon at the pier. Saw dolphins sporadically, then suddenly loads of humpback dolphins surfaced in the same place one after the other in pairs and trios. There must have been 15 – 20 dolphins. They were only there for about 5 mins and then they were gone. After a while I went to check if they were at the north headland. Some fisherman said he’d seen some dolphins at 14:00. Nobody else had seen them coming in. I hadn’t seen them by the time the sun set so I went home.

Sunday 02/08/98

Out before 7, home by ½ past 9, just mark and me. Spotted one dolphin at 7:30 and that was it! Lots of bird activity!!!

At +/- 10:00 as mark was bringing the trailer around to the slipway to put the boat on the hard, cornell phoned again, more dolphins, same place. We rushed out there but couldn’t see them.

Saturday 01/08/98

Cornell the lifesaver phoned to say there was a big group of dolphins on the north side of the n-break. +/- 15:30.

Sunday 26/07/98

Very little wind and flat seas, out at sunrise, Mark, Mandy, Terence, me. Found dolphins nearly at Newmouth and then spent the rest of the morning around there. Kept losing the dolphins and then finding them again. Saw them feeding, socialising, and resting. Port Control radioed us to say there were 5 whales nearby, he said they were near the ships, so we raced there. Got there, no whales, radio’d for more precise information and found we were miles away, they were not that far from the waverider. It took us 45 min to find them. We only saw 1 properly, though we did see a pair of flukes far off in the distance. This humpback whale waved its flippers in the air mostly, sometimes doing backstroke. It rolled over periodically to breathe. It even breached a couple of times. We didn’t see its flukes nearly as often as we had seen the flukes of the 2 we followed last month, but then again, last month we didn’t see the flippers, nor the breaches. It had many scars and scratches; we guessed it was quite old because of this. The tip of its dorsal fin was missing. The whale started travelling after about ½ an hour. We followed it for a while but then stopped because the wind was getting quite bad.

Sunday 12/07/98