SHARKS!!!

Taken from the top of the boat... that's a GREAT WHITE SHARK eating the crap out of that tuna bait!

Great White Shark cage diving was AWESOME. I went with three other volunteers. They picked us up at 4:15 AM, and I slept the entire way to Gansbaai. I'm told it was about a two hour drive from Cape Town. We went with a company called White Shark Projects. They're heavily involved in conservation and keeping track of the declining Great White Shark numbers in the area. More on that later.

In the area, there are a bunch of different companies that also do cage diving with great whites. As luck may have it, we picked the right company to go with that day, as our boat saw NINE great whites, and at least 3 other boats saw nothing. And you don't get refunds.


We got on the boat, and went out about 20 minutes on the water. In the summer months, the sharks spend more time in shallower water, as the ocean is actually colder in South Africa during the summer. In the winter, the boats head out to deeper water between Dyer Island and Seal Island. Dyer Island houses a colony of penguins, and we often get a lot of injured birds from there. As soon as they dropped anchor, we immediately heard the call for us to get into our wetsuits as quickly as possible, as they were already attracting sharks. They chummed the water with anchovy oil and a huge chunk of tuna.

Five of us threw our wetsuits, goggles, and weight belts on as fast as we could, and jumped into the cage. Within minutes, we saw our first shark from under the water. We had an underwater camera, but we were way to excited to use it. The visibility wasn't that great in the water, so I don't know if pictures would've turned out that great either. So, no pics of that.

But rest assured, after EVERY shark swam by, or made a lunge for the bait, I held my breath for as long as I possibly could to watch them until they disappeared into the murky water, then propelled to the top of the cage, and loudly proclaimed how awesome it was. Every time. I was pretty much the only person talking. But damn, I was excited.

The cage is in the bottom right of the photo. The sharks came so close you could touch them. However, this was not advisable, especially if you enjoy having limbs.

Okay, so the water was about 11 C (which I think is like... 45 F? 50?) Either way, it was COLD! But so worth it. The sharks got so close you could see their gills moving, the texture and details on their skin, and their massive, massive teeth and jaws. I couldn't tell you how long we were in the cage for, the time FLEW by. We saw 6 sharks total during that first run alone. A second group went in, which is when I went up top and got these pictures. After they got out, I got back in with a couple of others and we saw three additional sharks. The biggest shark we saw was about 10 feet long - and those aren't even up to breeding size. Apparently, Great Whites can't even mate until they're at least 15 ft long.

It was so incredible to see these massive creatures in their natural habitat. There's predictions that as soon as 10/15 years from now, Great Whites could be extinct. A main issue is the illegal fishing and trade of their fins and jaws. A set of Great White jaws can get anywhere from 65,000 USD - 100,000 USD. It made me sad to think that there's a chance that was the first and last time I'll ever see one up close.

UPDATE:
Apparently, as I slept, Anderson Cooper has one-upped me. Can't hate him though, I love that silver fox.
And thanks to everyone who pointed it out.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/12/11/pip.shark.diving/index.html