‘Mini Nemo’ returns T
he Dyer Island Conservation Trust (DICT) in Gansbaai is thrilled to announce the successful deployment of an acoustic transmitter onto one of Gansbaai’s most iconic white sharks. Known as ‘Mini Nemo’, the shark was first logged as a young 2.5m male by the crew of Marine Dynamics in 2013 and, according to marine biologist Alison Towner, “it was simply incredible to see him grow over the years, returning as a healthy 4m adult”. Since his first observation was logged, Mini Nemo has been seen visiting the area one to three times a year and is identified using the trailing edge of his dorsal fin, a unique feature to each white shark, as well as the many small notches and bumps, most likely caused by parasite attachment. The stunted nature of his right pectoral fin also allows for easy identification. Mini Nemo was named after the animated Disney movie character Nemo, a clown fish with a similar stunted pectoral fin. (DICT is also monitoring two larger females with similar fins named Nemo and Big Nemo.) The newly re-named ‘Not so Mini Nemo’ arrived back in the area on Saturday 13 February and was first spotted by Sharklady Adventures. According to Kim (Sharklady) Maclean they took two trips out from Hermanus with local tourists and were very excited to come across three great whites that day, a rare sighting indeed since these sharks started moving out of the area and staying away for longer periods of time. “On our second trip out on Saturday, we were in for an even bigger surprise when the male shark we’d come to know as ‘Baby Nemo’ arrived at our boat. This shark has been in our area for years and years but we had not seen
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PHOTO: Kelly Baker, sharkwatchsa.com
him in about two years. It was amazing to see how he had grown as the last time we’d seen him he was no more than 3m in length. Baby Nemo is missing most of its right side pectoral fin and must have dodged some perils in his life, but this disability does not seem to have stopped this little guy from visiting us again.” A few days later, early on the morning of Wednesday 17 February, two vessels of the Dyer Island Conservation Trust launched from Kleinbaai harbour, and anchored on the inshore to set about attracting bronze whaler sharks to the boat as part of a collaborative research project with Shark Spotters, Acoustic Tracking Array Platform (ATAP) and Save Our Seas Foundation, aimed at quantifying the shark species’ movement ecology and assessing their population dynamics in Southern Africa,” relates Alison. “The day started very well, with both a male and female bronze whaler successfully tagged by midday. Then, a large black shadow and dorsal fin appeared in the distance, heading straight towards the research boats. Much to everyone’s delight on board, it was the shark we had all hoped to see – Mini Nemo! “He arrived and began to slowly circle our vessel, rolling on his side and eyeing out our excited crew while making approaches at the bait. An acoustic tag was attached to his left side, and as we put our hydrophone into the water, we were able to record his tag ID. This incredible shark then proceeded to circle the vessels for another two hours – clearly the tag attachment did not faze him at all.” Alison says it was a busy field day all round for the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, with their third vessel Lwazi, also out at sea with team Sea Search on board. They were retrieving
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acoustic loggers (the devices that recently recorded the first ever vocals of a killer whale in SA) and were spoiled with humpback and common dolphin sightings near Dyer Island. “Marine ecologist Leigh De Necker along with Brandon Kilbride, were also on board to assist with tagging. Both used to crew on white shark diving vessels in False Bay and both had smiles stretching from ear to ear, after seeing their first white shark in over three years,” says Alison. “Much debate is currently ongoing regarding where white sharks have gone to from Gansbaai and False Bay, but one thing is for certain, the answers lie in the spatial movement data of this species. We look forward to seeing where Not so Mini Nemo goes to from Gansbaai, via the national array of receivers through ATAP.” Kim says the theories about where our great whites have gone include “global warming and climate change, changing currents, depleted food stocks for great whites in our area, as well as the Orcas and Chinese long-line fishing. “Whichever it might be, hopefully this was a sign that things are changing,” she says.
The iconic shark known as ‘Mini Nemo’ returned to our waters and was tagged by the crew of Marine Dynamics near Gansbaai on 17 February. PHOTOS: Dyer Island Conservation Trust
