Guest Comment: “A fantastic trip! Made our honeymoon! Thank you all!!” – Aaron + Samuel
“Jaw dropping stuff! Just when we thought the sharks were finished they came back for more!” – Guillaume
“Wow! I want to do it again and again and again! Such beautiful animals!” – Rachel
06/08/2016
Location: Geldsteen + Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 15.1’C + 15.4’C + 15.6’C
Depth: 19.0 m + 20.7 m + 23.0 m
Visibility: 3m + 4m + 4m
Number of Sharks: 3 + 1 + 1
Conditions: Full cloud coverage with it clearing up a bit as the day went on.
The seasons are changing, the sharks are moving and so are we. We started our morning in the Geldsteen, our dive location by the islands. This is where we usually find the sharks during the winter time. Our first trip had a little bit of a wait, but were so excited when a shark did approach the boat. They were especially excited because it was a large shark, measuring about 3.5 meters! It was quite a lazy shark, doing some lots of slow passes in front of the cage. I personally love the lazy sharks because they give everyone a great chance to see them entirely. We had 2 other sharks come to the boat, both about 2.2 to 2.3 meters in length. These younger sharks tend to be a bit more active, however today they were quite slow. One of these two sharks also joined us for the entirety of our second trip. While it was the only shark we saw on our second trip, it appeared that it had woken up a bit. It began with some slow passes but then got active and decided it wanted to have a go at the seal decoy and bait line. The shark gave us a great view of its pelvic fins, and we immediately knew that it was a female shark. The way to tell males from females is if you look between the pelvic fins and there is just a slit (the cloaca) then it is a female shark. If you see 2 extensions coming off, these are called claspers and it’s a male. Our third trip started a bit slow. We waited for almost an hour at the Geldsteen but were not having any luck. Our skipper decided to check out our summer spot, so we pulled the cage back onto the boat and moved the boat to Joubertsdam. It didn’t take long for a shark to be spotted in the distance. Everyone on board got very excited! As the shark approached, we realized it looked like the shark that our first two trips had seen, the 2.2 meter female. She was much more awake and gave everyone a great view of her. She went after the seal decoy with such strength that she actually bit the “tail flippers” off of the decoy! It’s always amazing to see how strong these amazing creatures truly are!
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.
