Guest Comments: “We had a great time, despite the wind:) Thank you for all that you do for sharks and conservation.” – Dedra & Cornina
“It was awesome. Great experience to see Great Whites in their habitat. Can’t wait to bring our boys one day!” – Trip & Meredith
“It was fantastic! A dream that came true.” – Thiago
15/07/2018
Location: Joubertsdam
Water temperature: 14.1°C + 14.2°C
Depth: 9.2 m + 9.9 m
Visibility: 1.0 m + 1.5 m
White sharks seen: 4 + 4
Conditions: Cooler in the morning but warm and sunny in the afternoon with minimal swell.
We set out early hoping to spend the morning with some Great White Sharks. Before we were even done changing into our wet suits our first shark appeared. This was a 3m male that we have seen around before known as Clampy – a name given to him because of the two pigmentation marks on his dorsal fin likely from a camera tag. Clampy didn’t stay around for long but we had another 3m male take his place soon after. This male stayed around for the rest of our trip and was eventually accompanied by two other sharks also approximately 3m in size. These three sharks would take turns passing our cage giving us an opportunity to try and get a nice close view. Overall, it was a successful trip with a total of 4 sharks all 3m in length. Big thank you to everyone who was out with us this morning!
For our second trip, Slashfin launched from Gansbaai harbour on the northern side of Danger point. The swells were luckily quite low so it went rather fast to get to the shallows where the shark diving cage was left from the last trip. We were fortunate to have a white shark lurking when we arrived to the location, the first encounter did not take many minutes. The first shark, 2,6 meters long, came up to the cage not long after the anchor, while the clients were still changing into their wet suits. Not long after that a second, 3 meters long, white shark appeared, investigating the smell that came from the chum in the back of the boat. After a quick tour by the boat, the shark vanished. While we were waiting for the sharks to pop up from the deep, the sea birds kept us company. Not always to our advantage though, with one dropping a bird bomb directly onto our biologist’s face! They say its goodluck, and it seemed to be! Suddenly another shark appeared, this time a large 4 meter long individual, swept by in haste. Just before the last clients were climbing on to the boat from the cage, an active 3 meter long white shark chased the bait around, giving us a final exciting show before heading back to Harbour.
Written by Daniel Rooth and Danielle Kelly, interns at the Marine Dynamics Academy.
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.
