Guest comment: “Great day with lots of sharks! Thank you!” Lori, Jeff + Carter
“Superb service and experience. Thanks a bunch!” – Kirsi
“Lots of sharks! Very nice and informative staff. Thanks!” – The Rae Family
19/03/2017
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 15.0’C + 15.9’C
Depth: 10.2m + 10.0m
Visibility: 0.5m + 0.5m
Number of Sharks: 7 + 4
Conditions: Clear skies with little swell but a strong east wind causing some choppy conditions.
A windy but beautiful day out around the bay of Gansbaai today with some strong east winds but otherwise nice conditions. The sharks appeared to not mind the choppy waters with our first shark of the day sighted not too long after we arrived and a few more only moments after. The beginning of the trip was slow with the sharks appearing as shadows but not approaching within nice viewing distance however this changed and they became more bold and edged closer. We saw three juveniles this morning including a tiny White shark approximately 2.0m in length and very pale in colour on the dorsal surface. The other three sightings for the morning were larger sharks over the 3.0m length including an adult male that was spotted yesterday sporting a somewhat fresh propellor injury to its left lower trunk. This male is actually the first shark to be seen two weeks ago after our 23 day period of no sightings. This injury was not witnessed at that time and appears to have been sustained in the last 14 days, and already appears to be in the healing stage, with the flesh a light pinkish/white colour. We hope he sticks around in the bay a little longer so as to monitor this injury and hopefully see him back in the future completely healed. Our youngest guest to venture into the water this morning has nicknamed this male “Anakin” after the fictional character from Star Wars. The last few moments of this trip were stolen by a very active shark that made flying attempts on the decoy, unfortunately this shark was so quick to appear and disappear from the depths it was extremely hard to get an identification, it’s behaviour was not consistant with the individuals we had seen previously on the trip and could possibly be another shark for the morning, the activity very similar to that of “Paisley” a sub-adult female that has been surprising us every now and again for the last few days but unfortunately never staying in view long, the photographs from the trip were able to clear up any uncertainties and it was clear that “Paisley” was in fact our seventh and final shark visitor for the morning trip.
Our afternoon trip experienced much the same success as the morning trip with sharks spotted not too long after re-arriving back into the Shallows. The first shark was however not one of the shark seen this morning but a large female estimated at 4.0m in length and with a fresh wound on the right side of her trunk towards her tail. This wound and her sheer size did nothing to slow her down and she was seen to be extremely active around the boat. The other three shark sighting of the second trip were a little smaller than the first with individuals seen between 3-3.5m, all of which were just as active as the first shark with our guests lcuky enough to see a few ambush attempts, breaches and leaps. A Short-tailed stingray also made an appearance, gliding up from the depths to investigate whilst the coast was clear and no sharks close by!
Best wishes to Martin from the crew of Slashfin and team at Marine Dynamics, who celebrated his birthday on board with us this morning.
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.
