Marine Conservation photographer Jean Tresfon has been documenting life on and in the Cape Town seas for years and graciously shares his pictures with the world on his Facebook page.
A week ago he ventured up into the sky on a flight with his daughter and described the scene as “a rare calm day when the Mother City hit the pause button and gave them a moment to stop and breathe”.
They were greeted by a pod of dolphins on the hunt and in no time encountered shoals of baitfish in Table Bay.
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“Nice to see the fisheries patrol vessel “Lilian Ngoyi” out and about in the bay as we headed around the north side of Robben Island and found a few southern right whales on the south west side of the island.
“After taking a few ID shots we continued back to shore and followed the coast westwards towards Oudeschip spotting a few small baitballs along the way, each with a cape fur seal energetically smashing through the fish for a meal,” he said.
There were big shoals of sardines past Cape Point, Rooikrans and Buffels Bay, and even sharks visible from the air in the gaps as the fish parted around them.
The weather in Cape Town has been particularly warm and the seas have been showing over with azure blue waters.
Tresfon concluded their scenic flight over Simon’s Town and Noordhoek where they uncovered endangered fish.
“At Simonstown the treknet fisherman were out and waiting for an instruction from the mountain based spotters to pull out the net. In the bay at Fish Hoek I found a big shoal of what I would guess to be white steenbras which appeared to be spawning. These fish are critically endangered and are a no sale species in SA and it was awesome to see such a big shoal,” he said.
There are many ways to experience the grand old Mother City but the air has a vantage point few others offer.
