Daily Blog 15 April 2017 (Trip 1 + 2 + 3) | White Shark Diving Gansbaai

Guest comment: “We had an amazing experience, both out and in the cage. A family memory we will have forever. Thanks!” – The Harrison-Read Family

“Great trip with very knowledgeable staff. Everything was organised very well – thank you!” – Katie + Anthony

“One of the best experiences with wild animals in Africa. Such a rush and something we would recommend to our friends!” – Derrick + Kelly

15/04/2017

Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 16.0’C + 16.3’C + 16.4°C
Depth: 10.2m + 7.9m + 8.6m
Visibility: 0.5m + 0.5m + 0.5m
Number of Sharks: 9 + 7 + 6
Conditions: Medium swell with an increasing east wind causing some choppy conditions.

It has been two days since we were last on sea due to some not so nice weather conditions so we were not sure what we would experience today however our first trip had our first White shark sighting within 15 minutes with a juvenile female we first encountered with year only a few days ago, with easily distinguishable marks including a scar on the right trunk and stunning behaviour around the boat she turned out to yet again be one of the most active of the trip. Soon after her arrival more sharks appeared including some of our favourites, “Mini Nemo” the juvenile male with a shortened right pectoral fin and “Sarko” a juvenile female we were able to get to know very well last year. Towards the end of this trip our smallest and largest sharks of the morning showed up with a small, pale shark estimated at only 2.0m in length and a large female approximately 4.5m in length rounding out the trip. This trip also had he Short-tailed stingrays coming and going from the surface. We made our way back to land around Danger point due to low tide conditions in Kleinbaai harbour.

The second trip of the day picked up where our first ended with a trip back around the point and into the Shallows with sharks re-appearing 15 minutes after arrival as an estimated 3.5m and 3.0m female were spotted. “Mini Nemo” and the female with the scar on the right side returned for this trip as did the Short-tailed stingray. The smallest of this trip was a 2.5m juvenile and the largest a coming in at an estimated 4.2m in length.

After launching for our third trip we were heading straight to our dive site in the shallows. As we got to our cage we already spotted a shark circling it. We quickly go dressed into the wetsuits and were ready to have a close up experience with these mystic creatures. Our first shark was a 3.5m female, which we had around the boat the last few days already. She was with us during the whole trip and was showing up nicely. In total we spotted six different individuals and the biggest one was estimated to be around four meter. On this trip we also had a Giant Petrel coming closer to the boat nibbling on the bait line, as a shark tried to take a test bite of this large pelagic bird. Luckly the bird got away this time! After great shark activity we packed up and were slowly heading back home towards Kleinbaai.


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

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