Guest comment: “Awesome experience! Sharks were amazing and staff was helpful and knowledgable!” – Jaclyn + Christine
“Great staff. Very knowledgable and cared of rthe safety of everyone. Had a great time!” – Nick
“So informative and enthralling. I did not feel well bit it was still the best part of my South Africa trip so far. Thanks!” – Reid
21/01/2017
Location: Joubertsdam
Water Temperature: 15.5’C + 15.6’C + 15.6’C
Depth: 10.0m + 10.1m + 10.9m
Visibility: 0-1.0m
Number of Sharks: 7 + 8 + 9
Conditions: Clear skies with swell and wind increasing throughout day.
Trip 1
Starting the day early we had sharks around the boat within 45 minutes with one of the small male White sharks appearing at Slashfin this morning and starting the trip off with some fantastic activity. More sharks followed soon and it looked like with each new arrival the sharks increased in size as our small male was replaced by an estimated 3.5m shark and then a 4.0m female and just over 4.0m male. The activity really picked up with the arrival of another juvenile male, this one with some fresh damage to the dorsal fin, and whilst this injury looks fresh the shark appears to be moving well and is quite feisty. Along with this playful male came another of our most active sharks of the morning, a larger male named “Sellendilloh” by the research group that tagged him, Ocearch. This is an American based group that visited the area in 2012 and deployed a number of SPOT tags, global tracking devices that monitor the horizontal movements of these sharks. Sellendilloh visits the area twice a year and can be found to move up and down the east coast of South Africa, which can be seen by his tracking data online here. We also had a quick visit from a Short-tailed stingray this morning.
Trip 2
The second trip of the day saw sharks arrive quickly with the first shark appearing a new one for the day, as “Mini Rosie” an estimated 3.5m female with distinctive white pigmentation on both sides of her dorsal fin making an good first impression on our guests. “Sellendilloh” also re-appeared this trip and we had “Mini Nemo” a smaller male named for the stunted right pectoral fin show up. These three are some of our best known sharks in the bay at the moment and all visit twice a year and at similar times. Two juvenile males we are currently seeing frequently rounded out this fantastic trip.
Trip 3
The third and final trip of the day followed the previous two in that sharks appeared quite quickly and a great number were seen with some fantastic activity. “Sellendilloh” and “Mini Rosie” yet again were present and this group was lucky enough to see some impressively large males also join for the afternoon that were not seen on the morning trips.
If you are looking to get up close and personal with the great white shark then Great White Shark Cage 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.
