into the world: The Amazing Great White

One more post about Africa...

In South Africa, you have the rare opportunity to dive with sharks. Its really not diving, instead you lower yourself into a metal cage suspended on the side of the boat. I did not want to pass this opportunity up, although they catch a bit of grief from the surfing community who say that it increases shark predation on humans. After this experience, I believe firmly that sharks attack based on all sorts of behavior and a surfer in shark territory is dealing with an inherent but very small risk either way. Still, waves kill far more surfers annually than sharks do.

This was an outstanding experience. In short, a boat heads offshore to a nearby seal colony--prime feeding ground. They drop the cage in the water and chum with fish blood but no whole or edible fish. In the eyes of the company, this makes a difference because they are never feeding sharks, only attracting them with scent. Once there, everyone sits and waits. If you are lucky, you see the a fin pop out of the water as it approaches the boat. More often than not though, you see only a dark shadow just beneath the surface. The crew is very serious and very direct. We were told that once we are in the cage, should we let even a toe slip through the bars, consider our leg gone. The cages are very strong and any images that come to mind about Jaws disintegrating the enclosure are really just the creations of movies. When the shark approaches, a crew member yells for the people in the cage to go down, meaning take a deep breath, drop down into water and get ready. In the mean time, the crew and other divers look down from the boat and can see the shark approaching. Because visibility is so so, we are only able to see the shark when its within 20 feet of so. This made the experience much more intense; as you are plunging into cold murky water you know that a Great White Shark is swimming towards you yet you do not know where it is and from where it will come. So amid water filled with seal and albotros crap and tuna blood...you pull yourself down and look out. First...nothing...then a shark bigger than a station wagon comes out of nowhere and skims but the cage. Amazing.

All in all we saw five sharks, all great whites. The largest was 5 meters and was very thick in the middle. The photos below do this no justice and look nothing like what you would see on Animal Planet as those photographers are usually diving without cages in clear water. The man who owns the company is Mike Rutzen. He is a pioneer wildlife photographer who films footage for National Geographic and Discovery. He has the conservation of sharks in mind and has done some amazing stuff. He is also an outstanding guy and he and his staff took care of Kori while I was out (meaning they fed her endless teas and coffees). Kori didn't want to go because the waters were choppy but after the experience she wishes she had. Next time for sure.

A few brief stories:

A baby seal was lost on the other side of the boat maybe 400 meters away. One of the crew members was keeping an eye on him and saw him eaten by an approaching shark.

The cage hangs off the boat at an slight angle so when you drop down to see the approaching shark, you have to keep you legs bend back or they will shoot out through the side of the cage lying beneath you. This is normally not a difficult thing but i could not help but think about what would happen if I slipped.

At the end of the experience, I can say emphatically that sharks are every bit as awesome as lions, gorillas or other of the popular species in the wild. They just get a very bad wrap because peopleTheir populations are falling and this is a sad thing. There is something amazing about knowing that these animals are out there at any given time, patrolling the ocean and doing their part. If you have a chance in your life to experience this, I hope you do.

Information about Mike and better photos of the experience can we seen at his site http://www.sharkdivingunlimited.com/index.html

Seal colony

This little guy was on death's doorstep as he was eaten a few minutes later

This bouy is used to draw shadows from above to attract the sharks. It was very thick and would not have split if hit by a axe...ie, these sharks are very powerful