Guest comments: “The three hour drive was worth it! Thanks for a great trip!” – Darius
“Amazing!! Very fun and informative- made our trip complete!!” – Claire
“Awesome experience, great day, great sharks, great crew!!!” – Gillroy
11/05/2018
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 16.2’C
Depth: 9.0 m
Visibility: Just over 2 meters at the start of the trip with the visibility dropping to 1.5 meters at the end.
White Sharks Seen: 4
Conditions: An enchanting day at sea with no swell and very little wind at the beginning, As the trip continued, the wind picked up a bit and it began to get choppy as we packed up.
Four.. Three.. Two.. No we’re not counting down for something. That’s how many of each species we saw today! Four white sharks, three bronze whalers (AKA copper sharks AKA bronzies), and two short tailed stingrays! Our only trip of the day began with the a heavenly glow as the sun’s rays penetrated through the clouds and onto the bay. The air was crisp but the excitement of what was ahead helped to keep everyone warm. We had some visits by a beautiful copper shark within minutes of anchoring, but the white sharks seemed to be eluding us. After about 40 minutes we decided to change our anchor location and see if we may have some better luck a few meters away. It’s amazing what a huge difference such a small distance can do! Within 2 minutes we had one of our baby white sharks approaching. It was the 1.4 meter girthy juvenile with very few marks on its body For being so small, it has a lot of muscle mass and is extremely fast and agile. It came and went throughout the trip, at one point breaching almost its entire body out of the water. Breaching baby white sharks, what a sight! Bitey, the 3.8 meter male, came by for a visit, sneaking up on us a few times and showing off for all of our divers in the cage and those on board. Our largest shark of this trip was a 4.0 meter long female with white scars on the top of her dorsal fin and top of her tail. She also had lots of other scars covering her body. She was big, fast, and loved to show off how graceful she could be, gliding so close to the cage that she actually swam by with the tip of her pectoral fin brushing the cage. She was soon joined by our final white shark of the day, a very fast 3.6 meter shark that was very light in coloration and had no distinct markings on its body. This shark was a bit more cautious, staying deep beneath the cage for a while, slowly rising in the water column, giving our divers a better look. The last shark to visit this trip was our first shark of the day, the beautiful breaching baby. As we began to pack up we had a few visits from a couple more bronzies and the largest short tailed stingray that I have ever seen! It was a fin-tastic way to end a fin-tastic day with a fin-tastic group of people! Thank you to everyone who joined us today!
If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then Cage 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.
