Guest comment: “One of the best experiences ever! The team were very knowledgable and helpful during the visit, making it both educational and adventurous!” – Muhammad
“I have been to SA a few times and this day will stay in my memory for years to come!” – Chris
“Amazing! Exceeded my expectations. Thank you for this wonderful experience. Can’t wait to tell everyone back home in Malta!” – Christina
28/11/2015
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 13.7’C + 13.2’C
Depth: 8.0m + 11.2m
Visibility: 0.5m + 1.0m
Number of Sharks: 4 + 6
Conditions: Patchy cloud coverage with small swell yet strong winds.
We were back on the water today after a day off due to some strong winds coming through the area. These winds hadn’t completely gone but had decreased enough for us to head out for the weekend. Since Thursday things had changed a little in the bay, for one, the water temperature had taken a massive dive, down from approximately 18’C to 13’C, a decrease our divers really felt today unfortunately! The visibility was changing throughout the day, which is not uncommon with such strong winds and colder waters. The sharks seemed to not be in the mood for some human watching this morning with an hour long wait for the first shark to arrive, but it did arrive and thats what matters! This shark was approximately 3.0m in length and was not too active, two other sharks, similar in size also appeared but they too were a bit on the shy side. A larger male appeared for this trip, around 4.0m in length making the divers in the cage feel dwarfed by such a large, graceful animal! The second trip launched this afternoon with our fingers crossed for the activity to pick up after a slow morning. We had arrived back on anchor, suited up and were waiting patiently for only 10 minutes when a very suspect looking shadow appeared in our further out in our scent trail, within moments of this big fish being spotted another one was spotted not too far behind, what a great start to the trip! These two came closer and from then on the activity was fantastic with sharks coming and going throughout the trip. “Mandy” our current daily shark paid us a visit of course and once she was around she didn’t leave till the end of the trip. We also had a large male, very dark in colour, that was really something special to watch as he made slow approaches on the bait and decoy line showing off his pearly whites!
The surprise of the day came in the form of a smaller shark, one that looked very familiar to us on board Slashfin, but didn’t fully register until we saw the left side of his fin. This was “Mark the Shark”, a juvenile male White shark we saw back in March, April and June of this year with damage to his dorsal fin most likely due to either another shark or possibly a boats propeller. It was fantastic to see this little shark back in the bay and also to see that his dorsal fin is healing over so nicely! Welcome back “Mark”, you can read more on his earlier visits here! A cool day, in both senses of the word…
If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then Shark 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.