Mark Addison has been baiting a few areas to the south of the main Aliwal Shoal reef body over the last six years and the success rates have been as follows:

1999: 16 sharks identified and 97% success rate of sightings per dive;
2000: 8 sharks identified 83% success rate per dive.
2001: 9 sharks identified 56% success rate per dive.
2002: 18 sharks identified and 93% success rate per dive (three sharks tagged with acoustic tags);
2003: 17 sharks identified and 100% success rate per day.

Activity at the ground station was poor and thus the surface and sub surface work did us proud and broke through to new levels of viewing quality and behavioural understanding. Some small males were in this mix. Observed 4 unidentified tigers scavenging on a whale carcass. 2004: 20 sharks identified and 100% success rate per day. Three scavenging events documented on turtles and six sharks tagged.

One option is to set up baits on the seabed at 15/17m and then observe the sharks as they come to the baits to feed. As many as 8 tigers at once may be expected but typically two or three are the norm at any one time. The animals tend to arrive around 09h00 and stay until the divers leave the site. The most number of passes (a pass is measured to within 1m of the divers) in a single dive (1h30) is 68 by Betty (a 4.5m female) in 2000. The subsurface drifting has surpassed this method and has delivered a maximum of 12 sharks at one time and seldom less than three. Average waiting time is reduced to between 7 and 40 minutes on the boat. The behaviour range that we have seen with this method has offered many new insights.

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The most number of continuous days without a tiger sighting whilst working at a bottom station is five, although we had a White shark, Hammerheads, Zambezi and Blacktips to take up the slack during this period.

Over the last three years (2002/3) I have been working on the surface and subsurface a la` the White Shark opportunity and it has been very successful, other than breaching we are getting all of the other behavioural stuff that they get down south.

The sub surface drifting and surface work has delivered 100% success over the last three years. 2003 offered high quality interaction. 17 sharks presented themselves to camera. Made up of 3 males and 14 females. The biggest animal was a return female, Marion, at 4.0m(pcl). Barbara-Ann arrived back after a years' absence and was a major player. One of the animals tagged in the 2002 acoustic study (Ashleigh 3.5m pcl) returned and was one of the nine regulars. The longest surface wait at one site was 40min and the shortest wait for sharks was 7min.

Typical visibility is from 5 to 40m and water temperature between 22 and 28 Celsius. Wind and swell conditions are usually quite favourable at this time and daytime temperatures range from 20 to 38 Celsius.

2004 delivered 20 identifiable animals and of these two were males. Ashleigh was back with Ella. Barbara Ann was around for a month and then disappeared and a host of new animals made themselves famous in dive logbooks and on the film circuit.

*Photos courtesy of Gavin Parsons