Guest Comments:
“An awesome experience – great crew. Very helpful and friendly – Jax you’re very knowledgeable and thanks for a great tour.” – Denise
“Great day out! Staff helpful and informative, a little cold in the water, hot chocolate was fabulous!! XX” – Fraser & Joanne
“Jax was so knowledgeable. The volunteers were very attentive and helpful. It was a great experience. Thank you.” – Jessica
“Super!!” – Nada
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 15.5 C
Depth: 10m
Visibility: 0.5m
Number of White sharks: 3
Conditions: A little wind, a lot of sunshine and a relatively flat day out on the water.
We had only one trip today so we set out at around brunch time and cruised through the bay towards Jouberts Dam where we hoped to anchor. One of the greatest things about the ride out is that there is always a chance to spot some of the other wildlife in the bay and today we got really lucky when we had a mega flock of Cape Cormorants swarm.
These little black birds are just one of the many species of bird we have breeding on Dyer island and, much like our African Penguins, these poor little fellows are now considered to be an endangered species due to overfishing.
After we passed the birds, we dropped our anchor and began to look out for any dark shadows in the water. Shaun, our skipper, was the first to spot one behind the boat, only about 10 minutes into the tour. This is when the excitement really kicked in, and we quickly got our first group of divers into the cage, where a 4m Great White came around to say hi.
Being only about a meter smaller than the cage, this dark beauty was really a sight to behold though she did not stick around as long as what we had hoped. After seeing her for a couple of minutes, she disappeared into the murky water and so began the waiting game.
White Sharks are highly migratory by nature, and with these large predatory animals being constantly on the move, we’ve come to appreciate that their time with us is always precious and they can be gone in the blink of an eye, moving on to something else which may have caught their attention. After waiting a bit in one anchor spot, we went on to move to another position. This move led us to spot Clampy, a 3.8m female who we’ve been seeing around lately. Clampy seemed to be having a laid back Sunday, checking us out from below a couple of times before moving on with her day.
The last shark to show up was a male, who we’ve also had a couple of sightings of in the last few weeks or so. A bite mark on the gills of this gorgeous guy gives him away and we were pretty stocked to have him around after yet another few moments of waiting. This big dude was however, definitely worth the wait and he became very active around the cage, giving us an awesome view of his powerful jaws. Although he seemed to like taking the scenic route back towards the bait line after having investigated it, his enthusiasm when coming up more than made up for it. Once every body had had a chance to see this beautiful boy, we slowly made our way back towards the harbour to enjoy the soup awaiting us.
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.
