Guest comments: “Thank you so much for a phenomenal experience! The sharks are beautiful and you guys do great work!! Best birthday ever!!” – Renee

“Loved it! Thank you so much! Keep up the goodwork and research.” – Heather

“Fantastic start to the day!! Even though it was quite early we were very happy seeing 6 different sharks!” – Maria

14/04/2018

Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 15.2’C + 15.4’C
Depth: 10 m + 11 m
Visibility:  0.5 m + m
White Sharks Seen: 6 + 4
Conditions: A bit of swell with a light breeze in the morning and the wind getting stronger as the day went on.

We really had an exciting time out in the shallows today, with just enough swell to make for an awesome roller coaster ride out the harbour. The very first trip of the day were treated to a moody sunrise on anchor, after launching at the crack of dawn. This early morning was, however, made worth it when the first of our White Sharks appeared only 20 minutes after we had reached the anchor site! She was none other than the lovely White and Bite who’s been making our trips an absolute pleasure as of late. She’s almost 4m in length and definitely a sight to behold, so we really enjoyed having her about.

The second Great White of the day was around the same size although she gave us only a couple passes before moving off, presumably to go and do some other sharkie stuff.  The 3rd to arrive was Clampy, who gave us a few more passes. Clampy has quite a unique dorsal fin and was one of the animals included in some tagging that we undertook last year in an effort to learn more about these misunderstood predators. The 4th  shark was our smallest of the day, coming in at 3m and remaining a little elusive after coming in for a closer look. Our last sights for the day were two big boys ho decided that they’d also strut their stuff. One of them has a bite wound on his gills, which could be from another shark. Luckily, it seems to have healed nicely with only a couple of black scars giving away his story. After a successful trip out,  we head back in to give the second group of the day a chance to dive with these remarkable creatures.

Our second tour got off to an exhilarating start, with us tackling a bit of swell as we excited the harbour. This definitely added to the excitement of the experience and after about 20 minutes or so of cruising, we re-anchored, eager to get the diving going!

We waited a little longer on this tour for the first shark of the day, which was the 3.8m male with the bite on his gills. He gave us a good show, launching himself at the bait a couple of times before disappearing into the depths for a bit, but this did not stress us too much as only minutes later, we had a second Great White around. this one surprised us at the bait line and then gave us a couple more good passes before shark number 3 showed up. We had 2 sharks around for the cage for a brief moment, which is always awesome to witness as these animals are generally solitary, unlike many other shark species who are more comfortable with the idea of schooling.

The last to arrive and the last to leave was Clampy, who appeared just before noon. We know Clampy  because she was fitted with a CATS Tag last year, so we’re glad to see that after almost a year, she has returned to the bay. A correction to what I mentioned on the boat, Clampy was not actually tagged on Slashfin but rather from our research vessel, Lwazi. I have, however, attached a picture of a 2.5m male about to receive a tag, with this male being tagged in June last year, around the same time as Clampy would have received hers.

The sightings slowed down a bit after Clampy had passed a few times, although we did have a Short Tailed Stingray pop up once or twice. We head back to the harbour after this, content and ready to watch the trip footage that Clarence had captured for us.

Happy birthday to Renee! Thank you so much for choosing to spend your birthday with us and our shark friends!

The shark tagged from Slashfin in June 2017:

If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then Great White Shark Cage 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.