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Daily Blog 10 July 2018 | Cage Diving South Africa
Guest comments: “Amazing first shark cage diving experience! Staff was very friendly and knowledgeable.” – Caroline
“WOW!!! Proud South African citizen!” – Shaheema
“It was a lifetime experience! It must be done in life. Thanks!” - Anita
10/07/2018
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 14.6°C + 14.8°C
Depth: 10.0 m + 10.4 m
Visibility: 2.5 m + 2
White Sharks Seen: 3 + 5
Conditions: Another beautiful day. Sunshine, minimal swell and minimal wind.
What a “fintastic” day in the bay! Slashfin launched this morning with beautiful conditions and we were excited to see what sharks would come by to visit. We only had about a 30 minute wait time before we had our first shark. It was a 4 meter white shark, possibly one we’ve seen recently, however it didn’t stay around for very long. Fortunately a familiar face arrived, a 2.6 meter male that often seems fascinated by the seal decoy and bait line. Today he spent the beginning of the trip investigating the decoy, then the other half of the trip investigating the bait line. He was joined by one other white shark, about 3.3 meters long with a bronze colouration. We ended this trip with a visit to shark alley to see why the white sharks frequent our bay: Cape fur seals! These cute marine mammals had us wishing that the wind was blowing the other direction as their stench like that of a wet dog was very strong today. Despite their smell, they were still a wonderful way to end this trip.
With the afternoon sun keeping us warm on the ride out for our second trip we were excited to see what we had in store for us. Within 10 minutes of anchoring up, we had our first shark, to the delight of our guests on board. As we got our first cage in the water this afternoon we were soon joined by a larger 3.7m male with some fresh scarring on his left flank and some white pigmentation on the leading edge of his dorsal fin. He cruised around Slashfin for a around 5 minutes and then was on his way. The first white shark came back again, the 3m male with pigmentation on the back right side of the dorsal fin. He stuck around with us for the majority of the trip, with some wonderfully close passes to the cage. It didn’t stop here however, with the 3m male with the clamp marks swimming up towards the decoy line and effortlessly gliding through the water checking out our divers. The activity and the sharks didn’t seem to let up on this trip, with another male joining us of similar size, a little darker in colouration, but very keen to show us what he’s made of. As we began to wind down towards the end of the trip, out of nowhere our fifth shark of the trip erupted out of the water for the seal decoy. Early warning signs of this are not always clear, but the scattering of the grey mullet in the water give us a heads up something big was coming, and at 3.8m this individual demonstrated the power that white sharks posses, but also the cunning as I completely missed this photographic opportunity. Maybe this shark hangs around over the coming days to try and capture some snaps of her acrobatics!
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.
