Shark Cage Diving

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am infinitely intrigued by sharks and that Shark Week on the Discovery Channel is always my favorite week of the entire summer. I find sharks both fascinating and terrifying, so obviously I would never miss an opportunity to jump into the ocean for an up close and personal experience with them.

We had a 4am wake up call to meet the tour company in Cape Town at 5am. From there we had a two hour bus ride to Gansbaii, which is known as the Great White Shark Capital of the world. We then hopped on a boat for a 15 minute ride to a channel referred to as “Shark Alley,” lying between Dyer Island and Geyer Rock, home to nearly 60,000 Cape Fur Seals. Before departing, we all loaded up on Dramamine to avoid getting seasick and got a false sense of confidence on our drive out to the channel while we were all excited and bragging about not feeling sick. We know now that this excitement was premature.

Once we got out to the channel our guide started chumming the water and describing how the cage diving was going to work. He explained where to put your hands and feet while you were in the cage so as not to lose any extremities by a shark passing by and what to do if a shark started ramming the cage Surprisingly this wasn’t enough to make any of us nervous, but rather our impending sea sickness was making all of us eager to get off the boat and into the water!

As everybody headed to change into their wetsuits, the first shark appeared and so it was a race to see who could get ready first to jump into the cage. The cage holds up to 5 people at a time and there were about 20 people on board. I ended up being the last person to join the first group of people in the cage, jumping in and promptly putting my hands and feet in the exact position they had advised us against. Oops! I’m sorry, but when you get into water that cold and there are sharks swarming around you, all logic goes out the window. The water temperature was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which wasn't too terrible, but it also wasn't bath water.

While you’re in the cage, you sit at the top of the water until you hear the guide yell “Down! Down! Down!” which means that there is a shark approaching and you’re supposed to hold your breath and go as far as you can under the water to view the shark. You are so close to these sharks it’s unreal to think you’re seeing it in person rather than on the TV in an episode of Shark Week. We had an underwater camera that turned out to be mostly a failure since we found it quite hard to capture a decent photo of anything except the cage. It proved to be impossibly difficult to take a good picture while trying to hold your breath, find the shark, keep all limbs inside the cage, stop your body from shaking violently and snap a nice photo all at the same time. We managed to get a couple, but unfortunately nothing you’re going to see on the cover of National Geographic anytime soon.  Amy and Laura got to join me in the cage after I had been in for about 10 minutes, and as soon as they got in, a shark came shooting out of the water attacking its “prey” from beneath. It wasn’t exactly like the “Air Jaws” episode from Shark Week, but it was close enough for me (picture below, sort of.) It was one of the the best experiences ever, and we were literally 2 feet from the shark’s wide open mouth. Every person’s dream!

After swallowing way too much salt water, we all got back onboard in time to see Amy make it to the other side of the boat to lose her lunch. In an effort to not get sick ourselves, Laura and I went to the top of the boat where you can see the sharks coming from all different directions. It’s a pretty incredible experience getting to view them in their natural habitat, and since the tour company can’t guarantee that you will see any sharks while diving, we felt very fortunate that we got to see so many. All of the sharks that we saw were Great Whites, and while they were all juveniles, they were all still really big. Sea sickness and all, this was by far the best excursion that we’ve done thus far!

Getting ready to board the boat

Our boat

A bird flying with us on the ride out to the channel

Our skipper

Amy and I on the boat before getting into our wetsuits

The cage

The first shark!

Another shark circling the boat

The picture that I am the most proud of- it's harder than you think to get an action shot of a shark!

Me after I just got into the cage.

Laura in the cage. Nice and warm!

Amy in the cage. For some reason Amy and I were the only people to get wetsuits that didn't have hoods attached. We certainly got the short end of that deal!

 

The shark that jumped from the water as soon as Amy and Laura got in the cage. Ok, it's not perfect, but I'm still proud of it.

More shark shots

All of us on the boat after our dive

Gansbaii