Do you have a list of adventures you would like to take? If you don’t, you should. Someday I’ll post my list here. Sometimes placing them on a list is enough of a reminder to push us to work towards that goal. One of those items on my list was to cage dive with Great White Sharks. I had this opportunity during a trip I took to Cape Town, South Africa.
We signed up with a diving company and awoke early in the morning for our ride to Gansbaal – about two hours from Cape Town. Upon our arrival we enjoyed some breakfast during our pre-cruise briefing. Then it was time to board the boat for our trip out to sea.
The seas were rough and the water slightly cloudy, so visibility into the ocean wasn’t as good as we had hoped for. Nonetheless, we were getting closer and closer to our moment of truth. We donned our wetsuits and were given our instructions.
The cage was kept alongside the boat and it was big enough to hold three individuals. We stepped over the side of the boat and into the cage. This was it! The water was icy cold. The wetsuits helped to keep us warm, but it was still chilly to be sitting in the water. The cage had two sets of bars. The exterior set was the most important. It prevented the shark from coming into the cage! The second set was available for us to hold onto. There was a row of bars towards the bottom for our feet and a set for our hands. I made sure that the entire time I gripped the interior set. There was no way I was going to let anything slip outside.
Despite the name, we didn’t scuba dive. Great White Sharks are scared of the bubbles released from the tanks. Instead, the protocol was to wait in the cage with our heads above the water. The boat crew would toss out fish on the line to attract the sharks. When a shark would approach, the crew and fellow passengers would see it before we would. They would shout to go under while the fish bait would be withdrawn from the water. When timed right, you could see the shark pass by the cage. Let me talk about that for a moment.
Great White Shark Diving is certainly defined as an adventure, but it was a bit underwhelming. Years of Hollywood films, National Geographic documentaries and tour operator pamphlets had led me to believe that these sharks would put on a good show. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The behavior of the Great White Shark can be best compared to that of a Goldfish. There was no showing of teeth, no thrashing of tail and body, no death-defying leaps out of the water and not a drop of blood. Once the fish bait was pulled out of the water the shark would swim slowly by. I could have sworn that it smiled and waved hello at me in the cage. Apparently these sharks haven’t seen the film Jaws and learned how they were supposed to act.
The water was also too dark to get a great glimpse of the shark. This was one of the best photos underwater that I took. You can see the gills on the bottom of the shark. You’ll have to trust me that it was a Great White. Maybe if I had poked myself with a needle and spilled some blood into the water I might have had a better show.
The best views of the shark were from on the boat looking down into the ocean. Towards the end of our dive time we were given the option to extend our time in the water or return to the boat. Having paid more than $200 for the trip, I forced myself to stay in the water to get my money’s worth.
In hindsight, this wasn’t the best decision. I ended up getting sick from being tossed around from the ocean waves into the side of the boat. I started to get ill. When I did leave the cage I was too sick and cold to want to stand up and take more photographs.
This was the best photo I took of the shark. It is taken from inside the shark cage while I was underwater. To prevent the sharks from associating tour boats with food, the boats aren’t allowed to actually feed the sharks. They are supposed to pull the fish away at the last minute. That is the line that is coming from the fish.
All in all Great White Shark Cage Diving is up there on the list of one of the most extreme adventures I have ever had, despite the lack of thrashing and biting. But when I think about the big picture, it was an accomplishment of one of my dreams. If you work hard enough, and want it bad enough, you too can make your dreams come true.
What adventures do you have left on your list? And more importantly, what are you going to do to achieve them?
