Guest comment: “Amazing. A great learning experience and very well organised!” – Melissa
“An awesome once in a lifetime experience!” – Lordanna + Rafael
“It was a once in a lifetime moment for us! Absolutely thrilling and something we won’t forget. Your team was amazing and very knowledgable!” – The Shah Family
11/05/2016
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 13.9’C + 14.1’C
Depth: 11.5m + 10.4m
Visibility: 1.0m + 1.0m
Number of Sharks: 10 + 8
Conditions: Calm, flat day with little wind and clear skies.
We are inching ever so closer to our Winter season yet the weather and conditions on sea have been absolutely fantastic and today was no exception. We headed out this morning to a calm, clear day and even before we were on anchor something was spotted in the distance and we veered in that direction to investigate. It was a large pod of Common dolphin, approximately 30-40 individuals large and very active as they porpoised around the boat. An amazing start to any trip, we left the dolphins and headed onto our site to see if we could have some more luck with the sharks. Once on anchor we did not have long to wait with our first shark spotted almost instantly, our first divers entered the cage and we had 4 different individuals around the during this early part of the trip however the activity quitened down and after some time we decided to move and try our luck somewhere else in the bay. The second anchor spot proved to much better and we had mutliple individuals around, including some of the more familiar animals in the bay at the moment including a large female, our largest of the morning measuring in at approximately 4.3m in length, a smaller female with what looks like entaglement scars infront of her dorsal fin and a juvenile male with a bite mark on its head. We also had a Short-tailed stingray this trip, at both anchor sites, gliding up out of the depths every now and again. Before heading back to the harbour we had some spare time and headed to the Island to observe the always interesting Cape Fur seal on Geyser Rock. The second trip of the day yet again started off well with sharks around not long after returning to the Shallows however we had no need to move site during this trip as the activity was fantastic from beginning to end with a number of activity sharks, with the sightings most dominated by a male with a rolled over dorsal fin and also our small but fiesty male from the previous trip. An interesting addition to this trip was a juvenile White shark that has been part of a study conducted through our conservation trust, DICT, in which tissue samples were taken from some sharks for behavioural, genetic and toxicology studies. This same shark also appears to have had a critter camera attached to its’ dorsal fin to observe its natural behaviour and movements. A stunning day out in the bay with some stunning sightings of the White shark…
If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then White Shark Diving in Gansbaai, 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.
