14/03/2016

Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 14.2’C + 13.3’C
Depth: 11.1m + 9.2m
Visibility: 1.5m + 0.5m
Number of Sharks: 10 + 9
Conditions: Clear skies with small swells and a increasing easterly wind.

The first boat out on the water, we were welcomed into the Shallows with blue skies and a light easterly wind. Once on anchor it did not take long for our sharks to arrive and once the first one showed up more kept coming. Close to 30 minutes into our trip, whilst our first cage was still enjoying their face to face time with the sharks, we had a surprise as a juvenile male shark breached clearly out of the water meters into the air, not giving many of us the time to react and snap that once in a lifetime photograph. One of our divers was lucky enough with some fast fingers that earnt him a beautiful picture of the flying shark that he has shared with Marine Dynamics here. Things just got bigger and better! It appeared that there was a trend this morning, each new shark that arrived kept getting increasing in size with the arrival of the largest shark we have seen in several months. This impressive animal came gliding in deep from the front of the boat and even from a distance we knew this was going to be a huge animal! Once in front of the cage she surfaced and we were greeted with the amazing sight of a 5.0m White shark. The size of this animal was not the only exciting thing but also her activity as we are used to only a few of these big sharks showing up and when they do they do not stick around and rarely get close, however she did both! Looking back through our database she was identified as a female we have been monitoring since 2009 and had been given the name “Steamtrain” all those years ago when even then she was considered a large shark. A real treat to on those on board including the crew. The afternoon trip arrived at the dive site to two white sharks circling the cage already, a fantastic indication of what turned out to be another amazing trip. The conditions had picked up a little for this trip. This increasing wind brought some murkier water through with the visibility decreasing as we progressed through the day, but like we always say we would prefer to have sharks and no visibility rather than clear water and no sharks! The sharks were active and plentiful today thankfully making up for the lack in water clarity. Many of the sharks that visited the boat and group this afternoon were the same as this morning, unfortunately with the absence of “Steamtrain”, however the two “Rosies” and our feisty, recently tagged female “Paisley” were seen again. It was definitely a lovely day out at sea with amazing sharks and a lot of sunshine…

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.