Charles Filming a Manta Ray on Giants Reef
Above photograph is copyright Andrea Marshall
All other photographs are copyright Charles Maxwell

When my plane touched down in the small Mozambiquean village of Inhambane, I was unsure what to expect. I had been sent to Mozambique by French Television’s “Ushuaia Nature” on the TF1 channel to film manta rays off Praia do Tofo, a small village about 20 kms from the airport. On arrival in Tofo, I met Andrea Marshall who heads the Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna, a marine research and conservation organisation. Andrea’s work on mantas was to be the focus of this documentary. Previously, a French team was in Tofo working on the same production but they were unlucky with both sea conditions and manta sightings. I was now given only four days to get the critical underwater sequences.

Andrea briefed me on what to expect. There were a number of manta cleaning stations where the mantas would cruise up into the current and hover over the reef for a few minutes, allowing “cleaner fish” to remove parasites from their bodies. Another good example of a symbiotic relationship in the marine environment. This activity would afford me the ideal opportunity to get close up to these graceful monsters.

Sharks, skates and rays are all part of the same zoological subclass. Manta rays can reach seven metres in wing span, weigh two tons, live for up to 20 years and have the largest brain to body mass ratio of all sharks and rays. The Tofo population comprise of two species, reef mantas and giant mantas, the latter being migratory. While mantas have a formidable looking tail, they cannot sting.

Andrea Obtaining a Photo ID of a Manta Ray

The research consisted of photographic identification and electronic tagging of which about 20 tags have been deployed thus far. Conveniently, each manta has a unique pattern of black markings in its white underbelly, making identification relatively simple. The French producers had donated two tags that Andrea was to attach to mantas by means of a Hawaiian sling.

The first day was slow as there was hardly any current, a critical factor in enabling the mantas to hover in one spot while being cleaned. Fortunately, on the second day, the current picked up and we could start to get the critical shots. I have filmed mantas before in the Comoros Islands in the open ocean but this was very different.

The mantas approach the cleaning station, into the current and only a few metres above the reef. Then they rise in front and stall, waiting to be cleaned. It never ceases to amaze me how graceful these huge animals are as they swoop in and perform backwards loops. Andrea explained to me that, due to the manta’s large brain size, by making eye contact it is possible to interact with mantas and get them to loop around you, a sight that is quite spectacular to witness

A Manta Being Cleaned by Small Reef Fish
Note shark Bites on Manta’s Wing

The tag application method was critical. If the tag was inserted incorrectly it could fall out or injure the animal and, from a filming point of view, the manta would react instantly and speed off, that was not what I wanted. On this occasion the tag was perfectly attached and the manta remained in position long enough for me to film the tag in situ before the manta swam away.

The cleaning station I preferred was named “Giants”. At 30 metres, it was relatively deep. While this cut down on our bottom time, it meant that the boatloads of recreational divers could only have one dive there, leaving the reef to us for most of the day. Fortunately nitrox was readily available in Tofo, being the ideal gas mixture for this depth and allowing us two dives a day with minimal decompression time. As there was no decompression facilities available in Tofo, safety was of paramount importance.

A very noticeable and common feature of the mantas that I saw off Tofo was the semi-circular shark bites at the rear of the wings: not a good area to place a tag. According to Andrea, 75% of mantas in Mozambique have shark bites compared to the international average of 10%. Tiger and Zambezi (bull) sharks are thought to be the main culprits (see photo below).

Making Eye Contact with a Manta Ray

Besides mantas, the area is good for another sea monster, the whale shark. The reef structure off Tofo is interesting and varied with “bushes” of green coral, harbouring a variety of colourful reef fish. During one dive I caught a fleeting glimpse of a leopard shark. Whitetip reef sharks, grey reef sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks and weasel sharks have been seen in this area.

Reef Fish Seek Refuge in Green Coral

I was very taken by the village of Tofo. From where I presently sit, having breakfast at the Cassa Barry restaurant while typing this blog, a long and beautiful beach stretches all the way to Ponta da Barra some 8 kms away. In the early morning the beach is all but deserted. In fact, out of South African school holidays, the tourist pressure is small. With simple but good restaurants, comfortable accommodation and friendly locals, this is a great place for a laid back holiday. Casa de Comer is one of the many good restaurants in Tofo, specialising in Portuguese style seafood. If you like prawns, Mozambique is the place to be.

Besides the mantas and whale sharks, Tofo is renown for humpback whales that arrive in the sheltered bays to calve and mate during the winter months. On their northward migration, the humpbacks pass the Transkei coast at the same time as the famous Natal Sardine Run is taking place. As I am planning to film whales off Tofo this winter, I wondered whether, by some coincidence, I would chance upon an individual whose mournful songs I had previously heard while filming baitballs (see my Sardine Run blog) or the few that I had managed to quietly approach and film at first light while they rested near the picturesque Umkombati estuary, before continuing with their long northerly swim.

The View of a Deserted Beach from the Cassa Barry Restaurant

Finally my time was up. As I made my way to the surface Nick, my safety diver from Peri-Peri Divers, pointed down and I caught my last glimpse of a manta cruising the reef far below me. Hopefully I will be returning to Tofo soon.

Large but Graceful: A Manta Swoops Over the Reef

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The current extends from roughly Cape Point in the south, to Angola in the north. The current is driven by south easterly winds. Inshore of the Benguela Current proper, the south easterly winds drive coastal upwelling, forming the Benguela Upwelling System. The cold and often clear, nutrient rich waters that upwell from around 200-300 m depth in turn fuel high rates of phytoplankton growth, and sustain the productive Benguela ecosystem.
(ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benguela_Current).

However, once the south easterly wind drops or changes direction, the surface sea water temperature rises quickly, especially in summer. The temperature can rise from as low as 8 degrees to 16 degrees or higher. This causes the cold clear upwelled water to turn brown in a planktonic bloom. This is often associated with an increase in jellyfish. Sunfish (mola mola) move inshore to feed on the jellyfish. I have tried filming sunfish on a few occasions but found them to be very shy, swimming away from the camera at a surprisingly fast pace. So I was fortunate to get a fantastic photograph of a large Sharp Tail Sunfish swimming off Hout Bay from my friend, Jurgen Seier. Note the pilot fish beneath the sunfish, indicating that it had come from warmer water.

While nutrient rich, the reefs of the “Benguela Coast” are often quite bland from a diving point of view. However, along the Cape Point to Cape Town coat, with its impressive underwater profiles created by massive granite formations, patches of brightly coloured noble corals, seafans, sea enemonies and sponges can be found. Large sea caves and deep crevices create in ideal environment for certain reef life.

One of my favourite spots is Vulcan Rock near the fishing village of Hout Bay, close to my office. Recently we travelled by boat from Hout Bay to Cape Point. Due to planktonic blooming the water was too dirty to film underwater but we spotted the following without putting a head in the water: Humpback whales, seals, penguins, yellowtail fish (surface shoaling), sunfish, dolphins, blue sharks and various sea birds. Not bad for a morning at sea!

A Diver Enters a Granite Cave:
A Typical Geological Feature for this Area

Cape Rock Lobsters Shelter in a Cave

A Large Sharp Tail Sunfish Cruises near the Surface
Photograph Copyright Jurgen Seier, Cape Town

Colourful Noble Corals

A Coral Garden hidden in the Kelp

Bright Red Jellyfish are Abundant During a Planktonic
Bloom Event

This Delicate Jellyfish is Food for Sunfish

Copyright Charles Maxwell - November 2009

Now, as I sit in front of my computer, attempting to put the experiences of the past week into writing, I know that I will fail dismally in capturing the crazy excitement of being part of one of nature’s most impressive climatic events.

After a frustrating June working out of the port of East London, with only a few pockets of fast moving action and some huge seas, I admitted defeat and returned to my home in Cape Town. A few days later I received an excited call from Mark Addison of Blue Wilderness Diving Expeditions to say that he had done a recce in the Port St Johns area, to the north of East London, and had picked up a good baitball that included feeding brydes whales. Mark is the pioneer when it comes to diving with the sardine run so, when he gets excited, its time to get on the next available plane and that is exactly what I did.

Early the next morning we surf launched from Port Edward on the Kwa-Zulu Natal south coast and headed south by sea. Being a perfect sea day, we made good time. We decided to travel by sea rather than by road so that we could pick up any action en route. The coastline in this area is mostly untouched with the seabed quickly rising up to a rocky coast so, in spite of the low swell height that day, the waves were breaking heavily on the rocks, sending plumes of white spray high into the air. It was easy to see why this is named the “Wild Coast”. As we passed a pod of bottlenose dolphins, out for an early morning surf, I marvelled at the beauty and grace of nature.

Gannets can dive to over 20 metres

While we were enjoying the scenery, the lack of bird and dolphin action was of concern. Eventually, as we neared Port St Johns, we began to see common dolphins and Cape gannets swooping over the sea. These are the vital baitball indicators. The dolphins, operating in co-operative groups, work the sardines up from the deeper, cooler water, using a combination of their charging action and blowing bubbles. The gannets, their pure white plumage easily spotted from afar, are a vital tool for guiding us to the action. The gannets, along with a variety of other predators, take advantage of the common dolphin’s herding skills.

Suddenly we were on the action. Gannets flew over the baitball and the air was alive with their excited squawking. Others reigned down from above, hitting the water at an incredible 160 Km / hour with a loud thud. Once their impact velocity decreases, the gannets have the ability to use their wings and feet to continue chasing sardines to a depth of over 20 metres. Common dolphins were charging in from all sides. We could see sharks cruising near the water surface. One can only describe the scene as organised chaos. This is what I had waited for: it was time to get into the water.

Underwater, baitballs can be very noisy affairs, with the sound of plunging gannets mixed with dolphin clicks and distant humpback whale songs. These sounds add to the intense atmosphere. The predation on the baitball will sometimes go quiet for a short period, during which time the sardines regroup to form the classic round ball: thousands of little fish moving as if one entity. Then suddenly the dolphins charge in from below, exploding through the sardines in a curtain of bubbles. The sharks, hovering below, then come in for the attack. Once the baitball is sufficiently shallow, the gannets come into play.

Blacktip Sharks Fight over the Last Few Sardines

Looking towards the surface, I could see the birds flying overhead and plunging into the water, leaving a long line of silver bubbles behind them. It is impossible to describe the noise of the gannet’s aerial bombardment, being so intense that you can feel each of the thousands of thuds. It is like being in a war zone, adding to the feeling of exhilaration of being so close up to one of the planet’s greatest natural events.

From the second day we left for sea each morning at first light through the Port St Johns river estuary. The village looks up at a deep and imposing river gorge. Once at sea, looking back revealed the gorge shrouded in mist, and the flashing lighthouse perched on the sea cliffs. Bracing against the early morning winter chill we would immediately begin looking for action. An unforgettable sight is the sun, rising over the sea as a large red ball, with swooping gannets silhouetted against its brightness. The gannets, like us, were waited expectantly for sufficient light to start working. Once it was light enough to film we would enter the water. The 20 degree water temperature felt warm by comparison to that of the air.

It appears that this sardine run differed from those of previous years in that the biomass was far lower and did not penetrate as far as the Kwa-Zulu Natal south coast. This resulted in mostly small baitballs and a lot of very hungry and frustrated predators. The sharks became very aggressive on these small baitballs, perhaps seeing the divers as feeding competition.

From what I personally saw, the predators included common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, Cape gannets, Cape cormorants, blacktip, copper, bull and dusky sharks, brydes whales and small tuna. During this time, humpback whales on their northern migrating, pass this area, entertaining us with huge breaches and underwater songs. Other sardine run predators, absent from this run, can include Cape fur seals, African penguins and even orca whales. This is a true meeting place of marine animals.

It was interesting to observe the different hunting strategies of the gannets and cormorants. The former use a combination of a high impact dive and wing action underwater whereas the cormorants rely on their webbed feet to propel them down from a floating position on the water surface. To my unscientific eye it appeared that the cormorants were the more successful of the two hunters.

Another striking difference in hunting techniques is found between the common and bottlenose dolphins. I have described how the common dolphins do the hard work in creating the shallow water baitballs. They are sleek, fast and serious predators. By comparison, the bottlenose dolphins are far more relaxed, swimming slowly through the sardines. When not feeding they spend time playing, jumping out of the water and even surfing, so you can’t fault their lifestyle.

Without doubt, the brydes whales were the highlight of this sardine run. While I have seen them on previous runs, this time they were on most baitballs. Normally timid, they were lunging past me at high speed, at times so close that the wash from their bodies would push my camera off frame. While not large by whale standards, having a 25 ton animal charge past you, mouth agape, is an unnerving experience. “Bryde”, pronounced “brooda”, is named after the Norwegian consul to South Africa, Johan Bryde, who helped set up the first whaling station in Durban, South Africa in 1908 (closed in the 1960’s). These whales are interesting in that the northern hemisphere population feed mostly on krill whereas the southern hemisphere whales feed on small shoaling fish, including sardines.

A Brydes Whale Storms the Baitball

The last day was particularly eventful. The sea water had become very dirty due to river water that had been pushed to the north by the prevailing current. After a slow start we found some action and jumped in. We found a tiny baitball with every predator competing for a mouthful. The sharks were charging through the fish, snapping at everything, there were gannets everywhere and the dolphins were not to be found lacking in enthusiasm either. This intense predation was putting fish scales, blood and guts into the water, thereby contributing to the poor visibility. As the size of the baitball diminished before our eyes, the aggression became more intense. I was hit hard in the leg and stomach, nearly loosing my camera. In the meantime, Mark was fending off sharks that were attacking me from all sides. The dusky sharks were the most aggressive and also the largest.

As I tried to fend off a large dusky, my hand was scratched on its razor sharp teeth and, when I saw blood streaming from it, I decided to get away from the carnage as quickly as possible. As I swam away from the baitball, I noticed that the dolphins and sharks were swimming past me tightly packed and gannets continued to dive close to me. I thought this unusual as the predators are normally only this concentrated when close to the action. On turning around I realised that the sardines were following closely behind me, seeking the only refuge in this orgy of feeding.

In underwater visibility that had, by now, deteriorated to only about 4 metres, Mark and I made for the surface where I was relieved to see our diving boat close at hand. I climbed aboard, leaving a rather unimpressive trail of blood in my wake. I have often marvelled at how one can dive with potentially dangerous sharks and mostly get away unscathed or with minor injuries. As the aeroplane approached Cape Town, I looked out of the window. Below me was the Cape Flats, covered by a thin mantle of mist, with a cloudless winter sky above. Further to the south lay False Bay with the iconic Table Mountain, reaching out to The Cape of Good Hope. I caught sight of Seal Island, famous for white shark breaches and the location for my next filming adventure with my towcam. At that moment I felt eternally grateful that I had not chosen accountancy as my profession.

Why, however much I travel and dive in exotic locations, do I love to return to the often cold and murky waters of False Bay? It is a place with which I never tire. It may be the fact that I learnt to dive there many years ago or the amazing reef biodiversity or the fact that I can see anything there from white sharks, dolphins, seals and whales to a baitball as intense as any to be seen on the famous Natal Sardine Run. The kelp forests, that dominate the western shore of the Bay, support their own unique and complex ecosystems. Here may be found large sevengill sharks or small catsharks that roll into a ball, putting their tails over their eyes when held by a diver, thereby getting the local name of “skaamhaai” or “shyshark”.

A Cape Fur Seal Pauses for a Good Scratch

The reefs of False Bay may not host the colourful fish of the tropics but the vivid colours of the sea fans, sponges, sea urchins, sea anemones, nudibrachs etc more than compensate for this. These reefs are alive. Just drop a hydrophone into the water and listen to the crackle of the reef. This is often punctuated with the mournful songs of distant whales, the squeaks of dolphins and the characteristic grunts of cape fur seals. The reefs of False Bay can be noisy places.

A Typical False Bay Reef with High Biodiversity

False Bay is a large bay, flanked by Table Mountain to the west and the Hottentots Holland mountains to the east. To the north is the City of Cape Town while to the south stretches the southern Atlantic Ocean with the next large landmass being Antarctica. At the southernmost extremity of Table Mountain is Cape Point and further offshore the Agulhas Banks, the theoretical mixing zone for the cold Benguela and the temperate Agulhas Currents.

Geologically speaking, being part of Table Mountain, the rocks both above and below the surface of False Bay include hugh granite boulders. Granite, being an extremely hard rock, has withstood the onslaught of the sea for many millions of years. In fact, the geological process that formed Table Mountain began about 280 million years ago, making it one of the oldest mountains in the world (six times older than the Himalayas). These geological features result in the impressive reef structures of False Bay.

Whittle Rock in the Middle of False Bay

Besides the reefs, there are a number of good wreck sites in False Bay, mostly vessels scuttled to form artificial reefs. In Smitswinkel Bay, a bay on the western side of False Bay, there are five such wreck sites, richly covered by colourful marine growth. This is underwater photographic heaven.

It is not uncommon to have 10 or more sevengills around us, so unperturbed by our presence that they often bump into us. It is always fun to watch a relatively large shark swim through the kelp. Sevengills are rather prehistoric in appearance with their distinctive seven gills, the only fish with that number of gill slits.

While they appear very docile, sevengill sharks have been known to attack spearfishermen and sometimes feed on seals so they should, as with all sharks, be treated with respect.

Sevengill Sharks Come Close to Divers

The Distinctive Seven Gill Slits

A Sevengill Shark Cruises Overhead

A Sevengill Shark in the Kelp Forest

The anticipation mounted as the turtle was attached to the bait line and for some time nothing much happened so we released the carcass and allowed it to drift in the current. A sole tiger shark that had swum up to the carcass a few times and given it a tentative bump, finally took a bite at a fear flipper and swam off. I battled to keep up with it but got some good close up sequences. In spite of the fact that the carcass was quite old, an impressive volume of blood seeped out. This seemed to excite the tiger shark that started shaking the turtle, creating the illusion that it was still alive.

The current was strong and, by now, the action was fast. As a result I was unable to position myself correctly and was now up-current of the action. In other words I was working in the chum slick. I was so engross with the filming I was only vaguely aware that more tiger sharks had arrived. The introduction of turtle blood into the water had a rapid and impressive affect on the sharks’ behaviour. The first thing that I noticed that the tiger sharks were turning fast and with purpose back onto us after being pushed away. This reaction was very different to their normally relaxed behaviour.I felt myself being pushed forward. I was told afterwards that a large tiger shark had my diving cylinder in its mouth. At the same time another shark was taking a great interest in my camera. Not wanting to scratch my expensive glass dome port, I turned the camera around to hit the shark side on. When reviewing the footage later, that movement revealed Mark kicking and hitting a third shark that was going for both of us. It was impossible to work safely in these condition so we made for the boat.

Once I had composed myself, I leant over the boat, camera in hand, just in time to film a shark swimming towards the camera with the bleeding turtle in its mouth. Soon the turtle was dragged towards the seabed and all went quiet on the surface.

The amazing thing about this encounter was that, in the space of a few minutes, one relaxed tiger shark became nine very hyped up tiger sharks. Evidently sardines in a bait drum are rather boring compared to a ripe turtle. During all of the previous days we had never had more that a few tiger shark around the bait. How quickly things change when the right stimulus is used: rather like whale blubber with white sharks. 

A large and very dead turtle joins the director and I for a short boat ride

A hesitant tiger shark eyes the turtle suspiciously

Finally the tiger shark comes in for the “kill”

Once committed the tiger shark becomes more aggressive

After a good few mouthfuls the tiger shark lets go

Cape Point is situated at the southernmost point of the Table Mountain National Park. This impressive sandstone headland, sculptured by the sea over millions of years, represents the theoretical boundary between the cold Atlantic and temperate Indian Oceans.

Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to round the Cape of Good Hope in 1580, described this unforgettable sight thus: “This Cape is a most stately thing, and the fairest Cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth”.

While the inshore water is typically a cold and greenish 12 degrees C, the water about 40 kms offshore often 22 degrees C and blue, thanks to the Agulhas Current that sweeps southwards from the tropics. At this interface between cold and warm water is where much sealife is found. While famous for tuna and other gamefish, this area is also ideal for filming mako and blue sharks, seals, dolphins and pods of pilot whales.

The variety of sea birds life off Cape Point is astounding and includes penguins, gulls, cormorants, gannets, sheerwaters, various albatross and petrels. Little wonder that bird lovers from far afield come here to place more ticks on their bird lists.

We normally work near the “Canyon”, an area where the water depth quickly drops to 500 metres. However, the first quarter of 2009 has been a difficult time off our coast. The south easterly winds have persisted longer that normal and the water off Cape Point has often been cold and dirty with few tuna but with an increase in shark numbers.

I have been off Cape Point a number of times this summer. My most recent trip was on a day with green water and, therefore, I had few expectations but I had an interesting experience. On finding a raft of cape fur seals and some small blue sharks I jumped in with my camera. Below me I saw the familiar sight of longfin and yellowfin tuna darting in on our bait but the visibility was only about 6 metres.

We started throwing sardines into the water to bring the tuna to the surface, thereby making filming easier. As was usually the case, the seals were not interested in dead fish and only played with our sardine bait but the blue sharks had other ideas, darting in between the seals for the food. However, every time a blue shark went for a sardine, the seals would chase it away, often flowing the shark’s tail in a playful rather than an aggressive manner. This reminded me of the sardine run where I have witnessed seals “tailgating” blacktip sharks feeding on sardine baitballs.

This appeared to be a case of seals having some fun but, when they react in a similar fashion with white sharks, it is a matter of survival. If a white shark is unsuccessful in its initial attack, the seal will position itself behind the shark and follow its tail until it sees an opportunity to make a break for the safety of the island. Could it be that the seals, when amongst non-threatening sharks such as blacktips and blue sharks, practice for the real thing?

A few weeks later I returned to the Canyon once more. On this occasion the water was blue, the underwater visibility was 20 metres and there were more blue sharks in the water than I had ever seen before. As far as the eye could see in any direction there were blue sharks. They bumped the bait drum, swam into me as if I was not there and kept biting the monitor on my underwater housing. No problem with close-up shots on that day.

Published in The Callsheet - September 2008

CAPE Town-based underwater cinematographer, Charles Maxwell, has worked on numerous marine documentaries over the past 21 years, including the Emmy Award winning episode of The Blue Planet, Seas of Life; Planet Earth: Shallow Seas; and Air Jaws, which captured spectacular footage of great white sharks breaching in False Bay. With more than 40 years of diving experience, he is the first port of call for clients from the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Mythbusters when it comes to marine wildlife on the South African coastline. Charles surfaced for a chat about his underwater adventures.

How did you get into the industry?
I had been a professional diver doing cave diving as a hobby for many years when, in 1987, I was invited to head a team of divers to explore and map the newly discovered Dragon’s Breath Cave, the largest underground lake in the world, situated in Namibia. While assisting the Swiss filmmakers on the documentary of our work, I became interested in filming underwater and bought my first underwater housing shortly afterwards. My first paid underwater filming job was on the Green Point sewage pipeline that broke during a big May storm. After diving into a huge cloud of raw sewage, I realised things could only get better. It really opened my eyes to how we are destroying our marine environment, an issue that has been with me ever since.

How accessible have you found the international market?
While challenging and rewarding, it is a very competitive market. I’m competing with wildlife filmmakers from all over the world, often with far greater resources and contacts. This industry operates by word of mouth and therefore builds momentum over time, so I’ve built up a long relationship with the BBC, National Geographic and others. South Africa is very fortunate from a marine wildlife filmmaking point of view though. It’s an area of unique and rich bio diversity, both marine and terrestrial. Our waters offer three different marine ecosystems - cold, temperate and semi-tropical - as well as seasonal coastal migrations of certain sharks, marine mammals and birds.

What format do you prefer to work in?
I personally prefer video to film. In the past there were strong arguments for the quality of film over video, but video has become an increasingly powerful, modern tool. With the quality now available through HD, it’s generally a less expensive, more versatile format. With modern cameras, lighting has also become less important. The HD cameras give you fantastic colour, so I mainly only use lighting for close-ups and very deep or dark conditions such as caves and wrecks.

How have you approached your unique technical and logistical challenges?
I spend as much time in my workshop developing unique equipment with the help of marine technician, Mike Patterson, as I do underwater. One of the challenges we face in Cape Town is wave action, as it’s quite a rough area to work in. I have a nice housing for an HD Camera, which is very big, and therefore very stable, but in turbulent water it can be extremely tiring to hold it steady. My favourite pieces of equipment are the three towcams I use, which consist of torpedo-shaped tubes with fins and adjustable ballasts to change the angle of the camera, which is mounted facing backwards. This allows us to tow it behind the boat and get animals to follow the camera. We don’t even need bait or a lure because animals like sharks, seals and dolphins are naturally curious, so they will follow the towcam.

What have you shot recently?
Sharkville, produced by Obsessively Creative, will premiere in South Africa on 3 September 2008. The underwater footage was shot on HD in Mossel Bay, which is a great place for white sharks but the underwater visibility is often poor. However, my underwater housing has extremely good optics that enhance the picture considerably. The most exciting aspect of Sharkville was a night white shark breach captured on a heat-sensing camera.

I have recently finished with the BBC production, Earth’s Great Events, where I used a towcam to capture dolphins racing towards a baitball, and I am presently wrapping up with another big BBC production called Life. I have been utilising my towcam and other methods to get images of seals chasing white sharks. It sounds very odd - don’t white sharks chase seals? Yes, normally they do, but if a seal sees a white shark coming, it will try to get behind the shark where it is safe and follow the shark until it can make a break for the safety of the island. I managed to get this sequence on standard definition but I still need to repeat the exercise in high definition.

Do your clients ever have unrealistic expectations?
All the time. I’m often asked to get key shots because the producers can’t find what they need amongst the thousands of hours of footage available in image libraries, but that material usually isn’t there because it’s very difficult to get. I wouldn’t say any shot is impossible, but sometimes you need to make the person sitting in the office on the other side of the world aware that it’s not going not be easy.

What’s been the highlight of your career ?
During the Natal sardine run in 2000, I managed to get unique footage of a baitball for the Emmy-winning Shallow Seas episode of the BBC’s Blue Planet series. After a few frustrating days of chasing gannets and dolphins, I came across some concentrated dolphin action and jumped into the water not really knowing what to expect as this had not been filmed before. At first, all I saw were lots of sharks, more sharks in one place than I had ever seen before. I had also seen a lot of humpback whales in the area, so when I spotted a dark shape in the distance, I assumed this to be one of them and swam towards it. I was confronted by the most amazing spectacle. A huge mass of sardines was being ravaged. As waves of dolphins and sharks crashed through the baitball, a hole would briefly open up and close again behind the racing predators. It was a total image overload. I was like a kid in a toyshop.

What’s your favourite shot?
One of my favourite shots was taken while filming a baitball. My camera was framed for a wide shot with dolphins and sharks rampaging through the baitball. Suddenly and totally unexpectedly, a Brydes whale came so perfectly into frame that I did not have to move the camera. Its mouth was wide open as it scooped up sardines before exiting the picture. The framing was so perfect that I could not have done better had I seen the whale coming. Luck plays a huge role in underwater camera work, so the more time you spend in the water, the more likely you are to get good footage.

What was your most dangerous situation?
I have had some close shaves with sharks but the more I get to understand marine animals, the further I can push the limits with a degree of safety. Surprisingly, my most scary filming moment was with a whale. Often referred to as gentle giants, whales can be positively grumpy and aggressive. I was filming a mother and calf pair of Southern Right Whales when the calf decided to swim close to me. My excitement at filming a whale at such close quarters was short lived when the mother charged me. The next thing that I can remember was swimming frantically on the surface of the water as the whale closed in on me, its enormous head swinging from side to side, its callosities, (those large patches of hard, rough skin) only centimetres from my face.

In desperation, I sank to the seabed eight metres below. I looked up to see the whale sinking towards me. I was about to be crushed beneath 40 tons of blubber! The sandy bottom was churned up and I lost sight of the whale. As the sand settled, I found the whale had, thankfully, moved just to the side of me. After a few seconds, which felt like hours, the whale slowly rose to the surface and swam away. My camera was rolling throughout but most of it was out of control.

An angry marine predator is bearing down on you. Do you keep rolling?
That’s actually a very difficult one. The mind works in strange ways under pressure. Often a shot has been a year in the planning and taken two weeks of filming to get. It sounds mercenary but getting that shot is of paramount importance. It becomes an obsession. All you’re concentrating on in the moment is your focus, exposure and white balance. In at least one situation, I’ve carried on filming while I was desperately trying to figure out what to do. For the long-awaited South African episode of French Television’s Ushuaia Nature, shot during the winter of 2006, we needed footage of legendary French adventurer and presenter, Nicolas Hulot, and marine biologist, Laurent Ballesta, swimming unprotected with white sharks near Dyer Island. We had spent many hours underwater but the white sharks, while ever present, had never come sufficiently close for that critical shot. As we were about to leave the water, a large white shark suddenly turned sharply and sped towards us. Fortunately, my HD camera was on standby with iris and focus set, so my first reaction was to hit record. As I swung the large camera housing to frame the shot, I realised that the other two were unaware of their predicament. I was still trying to decide whether I should hold the shot or warn the other divers when Laurent spotted the shark and grabbed Nicolas’ arm. The shark veered off less than a metre from them, and we had the shot.

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Article Courtesy of The Call Sheet.
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Title: Shark Nichole
Producer: Rory McGuinness
Underwater Cameraman: Charles Maxwell
Production Company: Natural History, New Zealand

Story Line: Nichole is a white shark that was tagged in South Africa with a satellite tag and made an amazing journey from South Africa to Australia and back again, covering a total distance of 20,000 kms in only 9 months. During this period Nichole reached a maximum depth of 980 metres and endured water temperatures as low as 3.4 deg C.

Challenges: Firstly we could only work with female sharks on the wide shots. Then we needed long shots of white sharks swimming in a straight line. Not an easy task as one must use bait to bring the sharks to the camera but stop them from swimming in circles. Using my RIB, we rigged a bait on a pole with an Iconix HD polecam. Recording at 50P we could stretch the shots out on playback. This worked well but we has some nervous moments when the shark showed more interest in the RIB’s inflated pontoons than in the bait.

I also used my in-house developed towcam with a Sony V1 camera purchased from Visual Impact in Cape Town. This was the easiest way to keep the sharks in frame for a longer time as no bait was required, only a shark sufficiently inquisitive to give chase.

To supplement the HD footage I shot white sharks on both a Sony F900r and a Panasonic Varicam, both from Visual Impact. My HD housing, while large is well balanced underwater but very hard work in a gyrating shark cage. To stabilise my custom built shark cage, it was lowered to mid water.

Using RIB to Track White Shark

“Nichole” Follows Towcam

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Title: Earth’s Great Events
Producer: Hugh Pearson
Underwater Cameraman: Charles Maxwell
Production Company: BBC, Natural History Unit

Story Line: The Natal Sardine Run. As huge shoals of sardines move northwards along our coast during winter they are followed by a mass of predators including sharks, dolphins brydes whales, seals and gannets.

Challenges: I was to concentrate on the common dolphins, using two towcams and a side mounted camera. We operated out of East London and Port St Johns and had some great action. The water visibility was disappointing at times, making towcam work tricky but I ended up with plenty of dolphins following the towcam.

Blacktip Shark on Sardine Run

HD Housing in Action

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Title: Life: Mammals
Producer: Tom Clarke
Underwater Cameraman: Charles Maxwell
Production Company: BBC, Natural History Unit

Story Line: This segment looks at predatory interaction between cape fur seals and white sharks from the seal point of view. We were based at Seal Island in False Bay.

Challenges: Again using a towcam the “killer shot” is to get seals chasing a white shark. I have achieved this on standard definition but now we wanted it on HD. It is not uncommon for seals to lock in behind a white shark as this is the safest place to be. Once close enough to the safety of the island, the seal will usually break away and swim to the island at top speed. During the shoot, in spite of the prevailing winds coming from the north, the underwater visibility remained poor. I picked up a white shark following the towcam on the surface monitor in the channel, swimming within a few metres of a raft of seals but the visibility was too poor to get the “two shot”. I am presently on standby to get this shot. It will require many hours of towing. When a white shark suddenly appears on the surface monitor it can be exciting and sometimes scary when the shark charges the camera.

Seals in Shallow Water off Seal Island

Towcam in Action

Sun., July 29 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT (Encore Presentation)
Will punching a shark deter it? Can you use sharkskin as sandpaper? Are sharks really scared of their own image?

Hosted by the mad scientists of “MythBusters,” Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, this two-hour special sees the myth-busting duo planning, building and conducting experiments - with the help of respected shark experts - designed to determine the truth behind the public’s “accepted wisdom” about sharks.