Bottlenose Dolphins Surf at Woody Cape
By Lloyd Edwards

1. News

After having spent the morning around Bird Island looking for sardine run action, we had lunch in the channel between the old guano jetty and seal island. We watched the coming and going of the 250 000 strong Cape gannet colony, the largest on the planet.

We then headed towards the shore at Woody Cape, the Eastern extremity of Algoa Bay. What a privilege to see it covered in dense coastal thicket which drops off onto sandstone cliffs and the sandy shoreline below. Almost immediately we spotted a school of around 200 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. There was a fair swell running and skipper, Jake Keeton, kept our catamaran “My Bru” just out of harms reach behind the backline.

As the waves thundered in, so the dolphins started their surfing antics. I was extremely lucky to get a mother and calf breach clear of the water surrounded by a few other airborne individuals. What an absolute joy to be part of the “Bottlenose Dolphin Capital of the World” which we launched in 2016 with the Minister of Tourism.

Captured with a Nikon D810 full frame, ISO 600, f/8 and 1/125th second. Note the mother and calf in the center of the photo. There is another older calf and mother to the left.

The coastal thicket atop Woody Cape can be seen above the dolphins.

This one leaps clear of a wave just before it crashes down on the shore.

A light offshore wind is responsible for lifting the spray off the face of the wave.