Guest comment: “Great fun, awesome day out and all staff and volunteers are lovely and very informative. Thank you!” – Michelle
“Truly impressive! Exciting and safe. Thank you Marine Dynamics for the great job you do!” – Tharyn + Froylan
“EPIC! Most awesome experience. Enjoyed receiving knowledge and the personal touch!” – Lesley
26/12/2016
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 19.2’C + 19.9’C + 19.9’C + 19.8’C
Depth: 9.0m + 7.5m + 9.9m + 9.7m
Visibility: 2.0m + 2.0m + 1.5m + 1.0m
Number of Sharks: 8 + 7 + 4 + 9
Conditions: Flat seas with a slight wind and light cloud cover.
The Marine Dynamics team was excited to get back onto the water after four days off the sea due to some not so nice weather conditions but of course were a little anxious to see how the shark activity would be after such a break. The first creature to show up was actually a stingray, to be precise, a Short-tailed stingray. These animals can sometimes signal a decrease in shark activity as White sharks are generally solitary animals and not always willing to be around other animals however not long after the stingray appeared so did the morning’s first shark. The smallest of the trip, it was “Gigi”, a juvenile female estimated at 2.0m in length, she is a feisty little shark that we have been seeing on and off for close to 5 weeks now, at the other end of the size range, the largest shark of the trip was estimated atleast double the size of “Gigi” with one of the largest females we have seen lately cruising into sight. Just a little smaller than this large female was “Paisley” one of our acoustically tagged sharks that we are happy to see has retained her tag for the year. To round off our sharks off this trip we had a stunning male arrive exhibiting some beautifully active behaviour making him the star of the morning!
The second trip of the day started off very well with a shark spotted on arrival back into the Shallows! This was closely followed by one of our well known White sharks in the bay at the moment, a juvenile male we know as “Spaghetti” due to the small attachment under his dorsal fin on the right side that looks much like a spaghetti tag would, something used in recapture studies. This trip then saw a nice mix of sharks coming and going constantly with a few juveniles, sub-adults and to round it off a adult male just over the 4.0m length.
The great shark activity continued into the afternoon with our third trip of the day having a shark turn up just after we did. This was a new shark for the day and one we have not seen since the start of our Winter season. A larger male approximately 3.5m in length, he is easily recognisable by the rolled tip to the dorsal fin and is nicknamed “Tum K”. A big welcome back to the bay for this shark! We were then visited by two juveniles, “Spaghetti” the small male back again and a female with lots of scratches around her snout, the last shark however was one of the most exciting of the trip as “Mini Rosie” an estimated 3.5m female come cruising into view and really showed of the sheer length and girth these animals are capable of growing and she isn’t even fully grown yet. Her appearance also caused much excitment around the boat as her behaviour was beautiful to watch as she slowly glides close by and every now and again makes fast, jaw open approaches on the lines.
The day ended well with our fourth and final trip, whilst the wind had picked up and caused some chop on the water this in no way altered our shark sightings or activity with a fantastic number of sharks seen and nearly constant activity. First to arrive was “Spaghetti”, not to miss out on our last trip he stuck around for the rest of the afternoon coming and going from our sight. We then had a number of juveniles around before the larger sharks came to investigate including an estimate 3.8m male which is missing the upper lobe of the caudal fin, a female similar in size but with a very darkly coloured dorsal surface, whilst these two were impressive in size they did not appear interested in coming close or sticking around for long. “Mini Rosie” then made her last appearance for the day, staying with us till the end of the trip, her presence the deciding factor for many divers to take the plunge back into the cage to see her under the water.
If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then 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.
