The White Shark Trust Field Research Assistantship is proud to introduce you to our assistants:

Benjamin WESTROPE (Wilmington, North Carolina, USA) is in Mossel Bay assisting the joint Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) research expedition to attach near-real-time SPOT Satellite transmitters on White Sharks.

Alex RILEY (Nottingham, England) and Giacomo PALAVICINI DE WITTE from Mexico are assisting the White Shark Trust fieldwork at Dyer Island.
Thursday the 13th of May 2004 turned out to be a beautiful day... some lingering long swell, but otherwise a windless day at sea. We observed seven different White Sharks... One of the Sharks remained around Lamnidae for 30 minutes and played with us... Giacomo's first day as the "Master Baitor". We tried to see some Sharks or Dolphins near the beach, but no luck that side...
Friday the 14th of May 2004 was an even more beautiful day than yesterday... the sea was flat for once... We only observed five different White Sharks today which is quite a contrast to the number of Sharks observed up to a few days ago... But two of the Sharks visited Lamnidae for over three hours each! And we had non-stop Sharks around the research boat for six hours! Amazing day!
We also welcomed Tom Peschak on the boat... his book "Currents of Contrast" is now in its finishing touches, and should be available by the end of the year.

Our third Shark was very curious and always came to the back of Lamnidae poking her head out of the water to look at us, or bite the engine covers... Great model to photograph!
Celebrating a great day with a couple of delicious milkshakes at "Cafe on the Rocks' in De Kelders... Now that was a really great idea!

We also heard that the first Southern Right Whales of the season had been spotted during the past few days in Walkers Bay, but no luck with the Whales... Tom spotted two Whales, not five minutes after we left De Kelders!