Guest comment: “Dear shark squad, thank you for the amazing experience! Tiger is da man!” – Evert
“What an incredible experience seeing these beautiful creatures up close! Brilliant staff. Thank you very much!” – Amanda
“What a great experience! From start to finish it was a great day and exceeded my expectations. Great crew!” – Shelby
18/01/2017
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 12.5’C + 12.7’C
Depth: 11.2m + 11.4m
Visibility: 1.0 – 1.5m
Number of Sharks: 4 + 4
Conditions: Flat seas with a slight west wind seen to increase during the afternoon.
Trip 1
We were back on the water this morning after a day off due to some strong east winds that came through the area yesterday. The conditions could not have been more different this morning than yesterday with a flat, still bay and on arrival we were surprised to find the water relatively clear, with divers estimating visibility between a 1.0-1.5m underwater and whilst this may not sound like much to many of you this is infact not bad for our Summer season in the Shallows especially after the previous choppy day! While the conditions were great the sharks were a little on the slow side but with great patience from our guests and an anchor move we had our first White shark of the day a large female approximately 4.0m in length with a large, triangular notch on the bottom of the trailing edge of the dorsal fin. This female has been seen every now and again around our boat but is not one to stick around and today was no different however thankfully we had other arrivals with two juveniles that also did not stick around but probably for good reason as a large male over 4.0m in length dominated most of the last bit of our trip. This male has significant bite scars on his head and trunk and is in fact a shark we know well and is nicknamed as “Tiger” due to the stripe-like appearance of the bite scars. Welcome back “Tiger”.
Trip 2
The second trip of the day launched and we had a similar experience to the first in that we had to be patient. The first White shark took it’s time, slowly zigzagging up the scent trail but thankfully made it to the boat to much excitement from our guests and crew. This was a large female with quite a few healing wounds that we did not recognise as a current regular around our boat this season so far. She came and went through out the trip as did a large male very clean bar a few freckles that we have been seeing frequently lately in the Shallows. The last two sharks were juveniles, both under the 3.0m length, one of which was quite happy to get nice and close to the cage helping us all to have a good look. These four sharks this afternoon were completely different to the four that were spotted this morning, so by the end of our day eight different White sharks had been spotted around Slashfin.
A big thank you to all those who joined us today for your patience with your crew and these magnificent and wild creatures.
If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then Cage Diving in South Africa, 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.
