Guest Comment:

10/12/2016

Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 17.1’C + 17.1’C + 17.1’C
Depth: 10.0 m + 11.3 m + 12.1 m 
Visibility: 0.5 m + 0.5 m + 0.5 m
Number of Sharks: 7 + 8 + 6
Conditions: Light cloud coverage with a breeze building up as the day continued.

Trip 1
There’s a few things that we do here at Marine Dynamics. One is the shark cage diving and educating our clients about white sharks. Another is our research work utilizing acoustic tags. We don’t always get to show our clients the second side of our work, and our first trip of the day was lucky enough to see some of this work! Our first shark of the day was “Paisley” a female white shark that is 3.5 meters long and was tagged at the beginning of the year by our research team, The Dyer Island Conservation Trust. She was quickly followed by “Nala” a 3.8 meter long female with a black mark in front of her dorsal fin. They were soon joined by several other sharks, a 3.6 meter long male with a kinked dorsal fin, a 2.7 meter long male with several scars on its right side, and a 3.2 meter long dark white shark. “Paisley” and “Nala” hung around for quite some time and eventually were joined by some other sharks. One was a 2.5 meter long male white shark with possible propeller scars on his left side, and a 2.6 meter long female white shark named “Sarko” who has a black scar on the right side of her dorsal fin.

Trip 2
Our second trip of the day began with a 2.6 meter long female with black coloration about her gills on her right side. She was quickly joined by a newly named “Orion,” who is a 2.7 meter long male white shark with 3 black dots on his head that resemble the belt in Orion’s constellation. They were joined by a 2.5 meter white shark with a fresh wound on its left cheek area, and then “Pieter” a 3.5 meter long male white shark with 2 black scars on his right side near the pelvic fins and 2 white scars on his left side near his pectoral fins. “Gigi” arrived shortly thereafter and her bite wound on the top of her head has gotten considerably smaller since the first time we saw her. It’s amazing how well and how quickly these beautiful creatures can heal! The last 3 sharks were all i the 3 meter range, with the first at 3.1 with no unique scars, the second was a male at 3.0 meters long, and the last was one of our favorites, “Mini Rosie” a female white shark who is now 3.4 meters long. She’s named after the white rosies found on each side of her dorsal fin. Roses are like birth marks- some sharks have them and some don’t.

Trip 3
Our last trip of the day saw a few of the sharks that the first two trips saw. First we had a 3.3 meter long white shark with a black scar running down its right side. Then we were joined by “Orion,” “Nala,” “Pieter” and the 2.5 meter long male white shark with the propeller marks from first trip. We also had a 3.6 meter long white shark with a very dark freckle just behind its right pectoral fin. “Pieter” and “Orion” were the stars of this trip, making dozens of passes in front of the cage. They’re two of my favorite sharks and every day that they come to the boat is a true blessing!

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.