Daily Blog 31 August 2016 (Trip 1) | Shark Diving South Africa

Guest Comment:  “The most amazing experience 🙂 A life long dream for a shark lover! Thank you to all the crew for the best day! xx #sciencesavessharks xx” – Bekkie

An early start (3 AM) and sea sickness is worth every single second of what we saw today! The guys help, support, and delivery of information towards saving sharks was fantastic!” – Pete

“Great experience, despite a little sea sickness. Very helpful crew & volunteers (& cameraman)! Will definitely buy the video and brag about it to everyone!” – Edda

31/08/2016

Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 16.1’C
Depth: 11.1 m
Visibility: 0.5-1.0 m depending on sunlight
Number of Sharks: 4
Conditions: A sunny day with seas that were a bit choppy, a breeze, and medium swells.

We had an early launch today from Kleinbaai to ensure that we were able to see some white sharks before a storm rolled in this evening and we were very successful! We arrived at Joubertsdam, our divers got suited up and within 10 minutes of anchoring we had a shark swimming right next to the boat. It was a 3.6 meter long female. She did one slow pass in front of the cage then dipped beneath the boat. Everyone on board was scanning the sea in order to spot her. After 5 minutes, she surprised all of our divers with a sneaky and beautiful breach at the bait line. She made several passes in front of the cage, then slipped back into the shadows. It didn’t take long before a 2.1 meter long white shark swam past the decoy and directly in front of our divers. It circled around and as it began to pass the cage again, it thrust its tail and took off very quickly towards the bottom.

Suddenly “Scarlett” came up out of the darkness and slowly tasted the seal decoy with her teeth. “Scarlett” is a 4 meter long female who is covered in scars. She has several bite scars and wounds on the side of her face and is missing a chunk off of the top of her caudal fin (tail). “Scarlett” is a crew and crowd favorite as she is a very slow and graceful shark, fully in control of all of her movements. She loves to play with the decoy, softly biting it and bouncing it on her snout. Another shark we love came by as well. She is a newly adopted 2.3 meter female shark named “Taryn-It-Up” and she is known for tearing it up! She constantly surprises our guests with breaches on the bait line and decoy. She has quickly become a crowd favorite. We loved seeing her and we feel that all of our guests did too!

We’d like to say congrats to the newlyweds on board, Marno and Sarah, and thank you so much for choosing us to spend your honeymoon with! And a thank you to all of our divers for choosing us to fulfill your shark dreams!


If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then Shark 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.

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Conservation Partners

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Department: Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment

Cape Nature

Overstrand Municipality

Plastics SA

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