Guest comment: “I learned a ton and the staff were also warm and welcoming” – Kim

“Very friendly and attentive crew. Very well organised ad great communication” – Michelle

“It was amazing the best experience ever!” – Sommer

14/07/2018

Location: Joubertsdam

Water Temperature: 14.3°C + 14.4°C + 14.4°C

Depth: 9.5m + 9.0m + 9.2m

Visibility: 1m + 2m + 1.5m

Number of Great Whites: 3 + 3 + 1

Conditions: Showers in the morning, with some changing winds but sunny afternoon

We walked down to Kleinbaai harbour and as we launched the sun started to rise over the horizon. After about 45 minutes the first Great White showed up, a 3 meter long female cruised by the cage and made the clients jump off their seats trying to get a glimpse of her. With a visibility of 1,5 meters under the surface, the first clients going in the cage could see her diving down next to the cage. Not even after 5 minutes another white shark swam by. This time a 2,5 meter long male was interested in the smell of the chum and the seal shaped decoy in the water. This shark stayed for quite a while before leaving us for the deep.

Although it was raining, it didn’t stop the clients from going down in the cage, and it certainly did not stop the sharks from showing up. After some time a third great white showed up, a large 3,6 meter long female this time, keeping the clients on their feet.

And after rain comes sunshine. Before we were departing, double rainbows appeared over the horizon, showing us sunlight before heading to the Gansbaai harbour.

The second Slashfin trip of the day set off from Gansbaai harbour at 11am. Once we arrived at the shallows and anchored we got our guests, an exclusive party from the US geared up and ready for the sharks. Not 15 minutes had gone by before we had our first shark sighting, it was a small 2.8 metre male Great White with a few marks around its dorsal and left pectoral fins. As our clients got into the cage we noted down some of the shark markings on the datasheets.

After a short period with no activity the first shark made his return, but this time he was not alone, he had returned with a second, slightly larger, 3 metre male Great White. After several passes together, including a particularly close one where the second shark got very close to the cage to the thrill and excitement of the clients. For roughly 30 minutes the two returned making individual runs before disappearing into the deep blue abyss.

Next up Alfred, our bait-line handler shouts “RIGHT! DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!” signalling the clients to go under, as a third male Great White came rushing in after the bait. His arrival was short-lived however as he only made a few passes in front of the cage, but stunning nonetheless.

The clients were in for 1 more surprise however. Roughly 200 metres from the harbour the boat slowed as a whale surfaced close to the boat. The Southern Right Whale surfaced once more and then was on its way, thus we headed back into the harbour. We finished our trip with the sun shining, a light breeze and 3 happy clients.

For our third trip, we went out with our fingers crossed that the shark action would continue throughout the rest of the day. After an hour wait, we were accompanied by the same 2.8m male White shark that was around earlier in trip number 2! We knew this right away by comparing the data sheets between trips and seeing that our previous biologist and intern noted a 2.8m male with two scratches on the left side of his gills – which is exactly what we had presented in front us. This is a new shark for us this season so we were sure to get some photos of his dorsal fin to use the permanent nicks and notches down its trailing edge for comparison to our fin data base. This shark did not fail to impress as he continued to come right up to us for all our clients to get a great close up view in the cage! This trip and day ended with some stunning sun rays beaming through the clouds as we headed back into the harbour.

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