Guest comments: “It was an experience and time. The crew was wonderful, kind, and helpful. Would totally recommend it.” – Niklas
“7 great whites- wow! Service great, boat great, crew great. We got what we hoped for. Thank you!” – The Granters
28/04/2018
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 16.7’C + 16.9’C
Depth: 8 m + 8.5 m
Visibility: 1.5 m + 1.0 m
White Sharks Seen: 7 + 5
Conditions: Some swell with a bit of choppiness caused by the wind. Beautiful sunshine keeping us warm!
E is for elasmobranchs, of which today we saw many! Elasmobranchs belong to the subclass Elasmobranchii, containing cartilaginous fish: sharks, rays, and skates. All of the members of this subclass have skeletons made of cartilage, just like ours noses and ears. Our first trip launched a bit later than usual due to a low tide, however we were treated to a shark investigating our motors within 5 minutes of anchoring. It was a very curious 3.6 meter white shark with lots of scars covering its body. It was quickly followed by a very active 3.4 meter male who stole the show as he lunged after the seal decoy. We also had a visit from the 3.8 meter male white shark with the bite mark on his left gill slits. He came and went throughout the trip, constantly making attempts at both the seal decoy and bait line. He would occasionally disappear into the depths, giving other sharks the opportunity to come by. In total we had 7 different white sharks on this trip, with a few familiar faces such as the 4.8 meter white shark with the large patch of copepods on its head, the 1.3 meter baby shark and a skittish 3.2 meter white shark. We also had a beautiful 4.0 meter male white shark who is very dark in coloration. Not to be out shined by amazing white shark activity, a bronze whaler appeared, showing off its beautiful metallic coloured body, coming quite close to the cage, giving our divers an amazing view of its rows of small sharp teeth. We also had 2 “sea pancakes,” or short tailed stingrays, come up for a visit with our seal decoy. These bottom dwelling animals are related to sharks and also have a cartilaginous skeleton. The great activity made up for the rocky seas and we couldn’t have asked for a much better start to our day!
For our second trip the 3.8m male was the star of this particular show. He was with us pretty much instantly and throughout the trip! He gave us some absolutely spectacular photo opportunities today, seemingly wanting us to capture every side of him! We had a steady turnover of sharks on this trip, with a 3m female and clampy joining us for a couple of very graceful passes and moving on. We had a larger female at around 3.7m come out of absolutely nowhere to smash the decoy and get up close with our cage divers, a thrilling thing to witness from the waterline. As we were coming to the end of this trip we saw a very large dark shadow approaching Slashfin. This dark shadow turned out to be the largest shark of the trip, the 4.8m shark with the copepod patch around the right side of the head. This shark hung a deep in the water gently crusing round the boat and checking out what was going on. Shark success and off we went back to the harbour!
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.
