Cage Dive!

I spent this morning living in a documentary about cage diving and Great White Sharks. Or that’s what it felt like--as if I’d stepped into an episode of The Blue Planet. This morning’s activity was a cage dive right here in Mossel Bay. 

We went out with an outfitter called White Shark Africa. They run cage diving outings in the bay every day and we frequently see them while we’re out on chum trips. The cage is dropped into the water and then tied to the side of the boat. You climb into and out through the top and, since the cage is sitting partially out of the water, you simply hold your breath when a shark comes by and duck under water. Cue recently acquired skills in free-diving! 

Giant fish heads for bait.

It was a phenomenal day for a cage dive. The visibility in the water was around 10 m (excellent for Mossel Bay) and the water temperature was around 16 ℃. Minutes after we anchored, a shark showed up and began circling the boat, showing interest in the gigantic fish head on the bait line. It was very nice, for a change, to be able to focus on just being a tourist while watching the sharks and compete for space along the rail in search of a fantastic shot. The cage holds six people at a time. Each group of six would go in for about 15 minutes at a time to ensure that everyone had a chance to see the sharks, in case one decided to disappear and not return for a long time. The rotation of people in the cage provided an added benefit of allowing time to warm up a little between times in the cage. 

The cage

We saw three different individuals while we were out, although we only got good looks at two in the cage since the last showed up right as we were leaving. The first one actually had tags on it (satellite and acoustic) from a project Ryan ran about a year ago examining the home range of sharks that spend time in Mossel Bay. (It was also made into a miniseries documentary for NatGeo under the name Shark Men. You can also take a look at the sat. tag telemetry data here: Ocearch Global Shark Tracker).

Now, enjoy the photos and yes, I took all of them! (There's also a video at the end.)

Me, Sarah, Megan, and Elayna on the boat.

Another intern climbing into the cage.

Inside the cage

A shark investigating the cage a little closer.