Sea savvy

The latest trip to sea was a special one, we released a rehabilitated Cape Gannet. This was the Gannet that I ringed at Tenikwa over a week ago. After a smooth launch, we cruised away from the beach towards open water, and it was time! The bird was taken out of the transport box, which by this time stank of gannet, and was thrown overboard, which meant Mark leant over the pontoon and plopped the bird into the water. It had a good washing (ugh covered in human!) and then successfully had a water take-off and flew off into the horizon. The rest of the day was good, we chased down two whales and managed to get all the data needed from them, and I was able to spend some time taking photos of the whales from the chair. This was the last time I will be going out with Gwen and Meredith on the boat, as they now move down to False Bay to chase whales while I start work on the commercial whale watching boats. Let the work begin!

Cheers bird!

Freedom!

Flying off to the horizon.

Whale!

Whale with an arrow flying true.

A blow hanging in the air.

A view of Nature's Valley from the sea.

Me up in the lookout seat! Photo by Mark Brown.