Daily Blog 19 February 2016(Trip 1 + 2) | Great White Shark Cage Diving Gansbaai

Guest comment: “A great experience and a wonderful and informative day with brilliant crew, volunteers and sharks! Thank you!” – Sarah + Jonny

With a bit of patience comes alot of reward. Awesome!’- Ian

Awesome experience. Look forward to helping out with your research and conservation efforts!” – Tom

19/02/2016

Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 16.2’C + 16.4’C
Depth: 9.8m + 8.7m
Visibility: 2.5m + 2.0m
Number of Sharks: 4 + 3
Conditions: Calm, with a light yet increasing west wind.

Today was one of those days that made you feel privilaged to be out on the water enjoying the incredible animals and scenery this area has to offer. We launched early to a beautiful sky and flat, mirror like seas! Arriving in the Shallows we only had a half an hour wait for the first shark to be spotted, and whilst in the beginning things were slow it started to heat up for our first cage with a number of sharks showing up. The action quitened down during our second cage but our divers didn’t give up and their patience was rewarded with oursharks coming back and the new arrival of a beautiful female approximately 3.5m in length with a few parasites around the snout and dorsal fin. This animal displayed some amazing activity, some of the best we have seen so far in 2016, being a slow approacher with a liking for the decoy she glided on by constantly, every now and again opening her mouth wide! A real show stopper and very photogenic. The second trip of the day made its way back onto anchor and as we were getting our divers into their gear the first shark was spotted cruising around the back of the boat. This was the large, active female with parasites spotted towards the end of our first trip. This female was easily the shark of the day, sticking around the entire afternoon, slowly swimming by and flashing her pearly whites quite often! We also had two juvenile White sharks join us on this trip, a small female we saw yesterday afternoon with some scarring to her dorsal fin and trunk and a playful male with a few abrasions on its snout and head. Onboard this afternoon our youngest yet one of our bravest of the day took to the water, 7 year old Zach did fantastic in the cage with his father Chris there as his dive buddy. We’re sure he will have some amazing stories to tell his friends once back at school. We also had a soon to be bride on board, Stephanie, who’s big day is tomorrow and chose to take the dive before the big “dive”! All the best to you and your future husband. Once the trip was done we cruised slowly back to the harbour through the Shallows to see if we could spot anything else, it was here we found a number of Humpback dolphins frolicking, something extra for the day and a very nice way of finishing our trip! A FINtastic day out on the way, fingers and fins crossed that the sightings and activity continues…
 

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.

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Department: Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment

Cape Nature

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Plastics SA

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