Fantastic Orca sightings in Sodwana Bay caught on camera over the weekend.
Sodwana Bay National Park is a narrow strip of forested sand dunes located along the east coast. Proclaimed a national park in the 1950s, it is frequented by anglers and divers.
Classified as one of the top dive sites in the world this 50 km reef complex boasts around 95 species of hard and soft coral, sponges, other invertebrates and around 1200 fish species. It attracts 35 000 scuba divers every year. Vast 700m deep valleys, submarine canyons, are strewn over a distance of 2 km. It was in one of these that on 27 November 2000 that the coelacanth was rediscovered.
“Although it is believed that in recent years fish species have declined significantly in this area of the South African coast, nothing could be further from the truth. Sailfish, king mackerel and all other pelagic species of game fish especially the kingfish migrate south down the east coast of Africa.
The bay is famous for visits by endangered marine megafauna including whale sharks, great white sharks, hammerhead sharks, blacktip sharks, manta rays, orange-spotted groupers, potato cods, critically endangered leatherback turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, and even coelacanths, the ‘living fossil’ appear.”
The discovery of presences of Coelacanths made the region world-famous.
Whale watching targeting migratory or resident cetaceans is growing rapidly. Bottlenose dolphins live here and have been observed to swim with whale sharks rather regularly. Humpback whales migrate here during winter to spring seasons while southern right whales and other species are less common due to respective recovery statuses that were severely damaged by illegal hunts by Soviet Union and Japan in 1960s to 70s.
The Orcas are also currently in the bay waters as can be seen in the video being shared:
Another great underwater clip of the Orcas that were spotted in Sodwana on Sunday was also taken – this video was taken by fishermen on a dredge camera:
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