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17/04/2017
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 15.5’C + 14.4’C + 14.5°C
Depth: 8.4m + 8.9m + 10.7m
Visibility: 1.0m + 0.5m + 1.5m
Number of Sharks: 11 + 5 + 6
Conditions: Increasing east wind causing some chop otherwise nice conditions.
We launched early this morning to a stunning bay, as the sun was rising causing the sky and clouds to be coloured in purple, pink and orange tinges, and the water smooth and glass like. We were the third boat into the Shallows but as we cruised into the area we were lucky enough to see a shark on the surface, once on anchor it took a while for the sharks to truly appear but the good news is they did after some time! The first to come nice and close was “Sarko” a juvenile female we have been familiar with since 2016 when she was adopted and named and whilst her identifiable marks may not be as distinguishable as they originally were we can tell her apart from the others by the lightening-bolt shaped scar on the right side of the dorsal fin. We then had a few more juveniles before the big sharks started to come around including our largest shark of the trip, a 4.5m female, one we have been seeing the previous two days. The sightings became a little scarce for a while with sharks spotted in the distance but not approaching before “Mini Nemo” came by for a visit stirring things up with his usual active behaviour during our last cage.
The second trip of the day was off to a great start with sharks arriving quickly with two juveniles appearing and coming in nice and close for our first cage. Soon after a large male just under 4.0m in length appears and a female a little smaller however after these two activity yet again became quite for the rest of the trip. Luckily one more shark showed up for this trip slowly cruising by.
On our last trip we good shark sightings and the visibility was better than the previous two trips. In total we spotted five different white sharks around Slashfin. Just before the trip was over a 4.5m female showed up and was definitly the star of the show. It’s quite impressive to see such a giant shark so close. This if female passed the cage peacefully and was investigating the hairline a few times. The smaller ones we had around the boat were a bit more feisty and active. We have definitly been once lucky again to see the white sharks.
