Shark Bait

Shark Bait

By far, the most anticipated part of our trip to South Africa as a whole was going shark diving. Its usually a crowd favorite among volunteers and a large tourist attraction of Cape Town and when we checked into the hostel the first thing we asked to book. Friday morning came with great anticipation. We were to be picked up from our hostel at 6 am and driven to the town where the boats launch from. We woke up, made sure to get a bit of food in our bodies and when the hostel doorbell we all jumped up saying, “He’s here!” like it was Santa Clause bringing a bag full of presents.

When we arrived in Gaansbaii we were given a small breakfast (in order to take our Dramamine), were debriefed on safety and procedure, then made our way out to the boat. Gaansbaii is a coastal village along the migratory patterns of the apex predator, the great white shark. The bay is typically a bit warmer than the open ocean so sharks will come in to feed, check things out, get bored, and then move on. Every day brings new sharks; even each launch in the same day will see different sharks. The boats will go about 5km off shore drop their cage in the water and start chumming. The boats bring out tuna heads to use as bait and federal regulations limit the amount of bait per boat (so that we’re not just out there feeding sharks all day). Your time in the cage is not limited, the captain and the skippers try their best to judge how much “viewing time” you get with the sharks, and they do a pretty good job.

Within a few minutes of being out there, the sharks came to check out what was going on. After our first few sightings the bait was ready and the crew asked “Okay so who’s first?” Only crazy people willingly jump into freezing cold water with sharks first. The four of us thought, well we’re Peace Corps Volunteers, we’re already crazy, and this is probably safer than much of our lives back in Namibia. So we jumped in.

The cage was big enough for 5 people and was held afloat by buoys tied on the inside (probably as a buffer for when people freakout). There was a bar to hold on to at about chest height and when a shark came by you were supposed to pull yourself under and look in the water with your goggles. You will only see the shark for a short period of time as it passes so there’s no need for breathing equipment, you just hold your breath. Even if we had a mouth piece, you wouldn’t use it underwater, chances are your mouth was open anyways from screaming, gasping, or just having your jaw drop. The cage was also just like a normal cage…like with openings big enough to stick an arm, leg, or god forbid head through. You just had to be trusted that you weren’t stupid enough to try to touch the shark.

I’ll admit, it was scary. We jump into this freezing cold water and are just sitting there, waiting. Visibility underwater was only a few meters so you were only going to see a shark when it was right in front of you. So were floating there, in a cage, shivering, seeing a tuna head on a rope thrown out in front of us and pulled back right in front of our faces, just waiting… we were in the water about 10 minutes when the first shark came by. We threw ourselves underwater and gasped, screamed, probably peed, and definitely swallowed plenty of salt water. Its really cool and almost like a HD movie to see the head and gills and fins go by but when that tail comes by, getting within feet of your face and feeling the current off of it, that was my Oh Shit moment. Like this thing is ACTUALLY right there! The sharks never hit the cage while we were in it, although it did a few times with other people while trying to get the bait. But there were a few times where it turned around very suddenly towards us and the tuna head and we jumped.

Being in the cage itself was incredible but even just being on the boat was cool enough. Cage diving or not, just being able to see a great white shark up close was fascinating and something that The Discovery Channel just cant replace.

Upon reaching dry land we ate a wonderful lunch and were educated a bit more on the sharks that visited us. There were 6 different ones, all female I think, and anywhere between 2-4 meters long. In general the sharks that come up to the boat, that anyone would interact with while cage diving, are the young inquisitive adolescent ones. The older “Great” whites have a more fine tuned sense of smell and know that the chummed water is just that and there is nothing to explore, it would be a waste of time and energy. So these monsters that we saw were actually just awkward teenagers.

Definitely cool, definitely a highlight and definitely worth doing if you are ever in Cape Town. Even if you are not interested in jumping in the water, there were a few people that joined us on the boat just to watch and get good pictures.