Guest comment: “Had a wonderful time, the sharks were lovely and I have a new perspective on them!” – Karina + Stanley
“Fantastic! Loved seeing the sharks, learning about them and experiencing them in their natural habitat!” – Michele
“The staff were incredible and the sharks even more striking! A fantastic experience enjoyed by all!” – Frazor
23/10/2016
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 16.0’C + 16.4’C + 17.0’C
Depth: 8.9m + 9.1m + 5.9m
Visibility: 2.0m + 2.5m + 1.0m
Number of Sharks: 4 + 5 + 6
Conditions: Slight east wind changing to south with a medium swell and clear skies.
Trip 1
We were joined by a father and two sons visiting from Manchester, United Kingdom this morning who have seen the two largest shark species presently known in the world, a Whale shark and a Basking shark, and were hoping to catch a glimpse of the largest predatory shark…the White shark! We launched early from Kleinbaai and headed into the Shallows with our three divers showing great patience as we waiting close to an hour for our first shark sighting with a Short-tailed stingray coming and going during this time. In the beginning we saw a dark shadow just under the waters surface slowly making it’s way towards us, once at the boat it continued to circle at a distance. She came close enough for us to be able to identify her and it was none other than “Mulfur”, one of our adopted sharks that was named recently but we have seen visiting the area since 2014. She did not stick around but soon after another large female came into sight and made a few attempts on the seal decoy. The last shark to arrive was one of our smaller but feisty males that was acoustically tagged in September this year. We headed by the Islands quickly for a look at the Cape Fur seal colony on Geyser Rock before heading back to the harbour.
Trip 2
The second trip of the day laucnhed and was off to a fantastic start with two sharks around for the first cage. This was a large male that took some fast passes and leaps by the cage as our divers were getting ready and a small female with a bite wound on it’s head. However after these two sharks things became very slow, with a anchor move decided on after an hour and half into our trip. Once in a new spot we yet again had no sightings yet towards the end of this trip multiple sharks arrived and the activity started to pick up with three very well known females making an appearance, “Sarko” the small juvenile female, “Nala” a larger and very pale female and our last shark of the trip “Kylo” a female that was part of our tagging efforts in September. A fantastic second half to the trip for our very patient guests.
Trip 3
The third and final trip of the day launched and like our first trip had close to an hour wait for the sharks to arrive and with one anchor change. The first shark to appear was an estimated 4.0m female known to the team at Marine Dynamics as “Scarlett” who was closely followed by another female the similar in size. Once these two sharks arrived more continued to make an appearance with another three large White sharks and on the other end of the scale, one of the smallest White sharks we would see in this area estimated at just under 2.0m in length, and covered in scratches all over it’s snout as if it has been learning a few lessons about hunting prey.
If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then Cage Diving in South Africa, 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.
