Guest comment: “awesome and uniqu experience. Definately a must-do in South Africa!” – Riddhi
“We had the most amazing time, saw great sharks, really friendly people too. Unique experience, thank you to everyone!” – Charlie + Marta
“Awesome experience! Staff is amazing, keep up the good work. Thank you!” – Christine
03/07/2016
Location: Geldsteen
Water Temperature: 15.4.’C + 15.4’C + 15.4’C
Depth: 15.9m + 16.2m + 16.7m
Visibility: 4.0m + 5.0m + 5.0m
Number of Sharks: 9 + 8 + 6
Conditions: Clear skies with a light increasing wind and a little swell.
Trip One
It was good to be back on the sea after three days off due to some not so nice weather conditions. The tides today mean’t that we had an early launch from Gansbaai Harbour, however the sunrise was lovely to witness and within 30 minutes we had arrived at the Geldsteen, our dive site for the day. Not too long a wait for our first shark to arrive, this trip was dominated by the feisty, juvenile Whites and whilst many people wish to see a monster-sized shark it is usually the smaller ones that are more active! We had a few of our well known sharks including three males that go by the nicknames of “Bruce”, “Sawyer” and “Cutfin”. The largest shark of this trip was a 4.0m male that was not too keen to come close and did not stick around but allowed the little ones to have a bit of fun.
Trip Two
The second trip of the day picked up straight from where the first finished, with a shark spotted around as we arrived. This was a smaller female we had spotted at the end of the first trip, and one we are not familiar with. This is not uncommon, especially for the smaller sharks as it is possible that this is the first visit to this area for the young female. Many of the sharks from the first trip were yet again present for the second one, with the activity just as nice and exciting! Yet again we had a shark turn up right at the end of our trip, one we know and one that has been part of a collaborative study concerning White shark behaviour, genetics and toxicology. She was biopsied last year and has not been observed from our boat for some time, it was fantastic to see her back and even more so because she appears to be very healthy and grown quite a lot.
Trip Three
The third and final trip was greeted almost instantly by a shark, one of the smaller females from the previous two trips. Soon after arrived one of the males and also some newcomers to the boat for the day including a large female, the largest shark of the day, measuring in at approximately 4.5m, she is well known to the crew and has been in our database now for quite some years. We also saw two acoustically tagged animals this afternoon, a nice addition to any day, enabling us to show our guests the sort of research that is conducted through Marine Dynamics and Dyer Island Conservation Trust.
A fantastic day of shark cage diving to end the week.
If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then Shark Diving in South Africa, and more specifically with Marine Dynamics, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience you won’t want to miss. Book and pay online with us and get a free video of your encounter with the world’s apex predator.
