A wetsuit is made out of rubber. It helps keep you warm in the water.
He glided swiftly, silently, steadily, through the murky water, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet at the tip of Africa. I was in the water. I couldn’t see the dorsal fin moving toward me, slicing through the choppy waves with ease. The bright rays of morning sunlight slashed through the ocean’s surface, making it difficult to see. I was unaware of the giant jaws and razor sharp teeth moving in my direction until I heard the yelling. “Dive down!” yelled the captain. I took a quick breath as my heart began to race. I followed his command, and submerged my head into the icy water.
A Great White Shark heads toward the seal decoy just beyond the cage.
I was cage diving in shark-infested water – not just any shark – this is the habitat of the Great White Shark. Some think it’s crazy to get near them. After all, there have been several cases of sharks eating humans in this area. That’s why I was in a cage. Great White Sharks are beautiful, powerful, fascinating creatures. They are not evil, but they are very curious. If they see a body splashing around in the water, they might very well take a bite to see if it’s tasty. After one bite of a human, they usually leave it. It’s just not as yummy as a seal. But that’s little consolation for the person who has just become an appetizer.
Our boat for the marine safari. Notice the cage at the back of the boat. It will soon be lowered into the water – for the people, not for the sharks!
Two weeks ago, I had posted information about the Great Whites on this blog. Click here to view the posting. It received so much attention from the Cottage Lane students that I thought I should do more research on these fascinating animals. Research doesn’t always mean reading books or googling information on the Web. Sometimes you have to get closer to the real facts.
Now I was getting what I had paid for – getting up close and personal with a top predator of the ocean. On the surface of the water, I watched the seal decoy bob in the waves. It was not a real seal. It was just material wrapped around a piece of foam. It’s thrown into the water to attract the sharks to the area around the boat. It looks like a tasty seal pup as the shark looks up from the ocean’s depths.
When I heard the captain yell, I dipped below the surface of the water. At first I could see only the small fish swimming in the sediment-filled water. A wind had kicked up the night before, stirring up sand and bits of debris. It was hard to see anything else until the large body of the shark was just a few meters away. He seemed to appear out of nowhere, but his destination was clear. He was headed for the seal decoy close to our cage. He knew what he wanted, and he was determined to get it. His streamlined body sliced through the water with ease.
About four meters long, he was more than twice my size, so I was grateful he was headed for the seal and not me. I was also glad I had the camera switched on. As he approached the fake seal, it was pulled into the boat so the shark wouldn’t grab it. He would have to continue his hunt for breakfast elsewhere. His life depended on it.
Watch this video to see what I saw while in the cage.
The cage is lowered into the water to keep the people separate from the sharks. That’s me in the wetsuit, in the middle of the boat, getting ready to go in the cage. The pink belt has weights on it to help me sink down under water.
I’m in the middle of the cage – a good place to be!
View from inside the cage.
Back in the boat, I saw several more sharks swimming nearby, about a dozen in all. Some of them were younger and smaller, about three meters in length. One, an adult male, was about five meters long! Each was fascinating and exciting to watch.
A seal decoy is not a real seal. It’s material wrapped around a piece of foam. A line is attached to it so it can be brought back to the boat.
When we were first approaching Seal Island, one of the crew members had thrown the seal decoy, attached to a rope, overboard. As we continued motoring, it did look like a seal swimming along. The captain told us to keep our eyes on the decoy, no matter what else was happening around us. It was hard not to look away when hearing the barking seals on the island, the screeching gulls, and the other unknown noises vying for my attention. But the captain was right. After a few minutes, in front of my very eyes, a shark’s large open mouth appeared from under the water. It grabbed the “seal” from underneath as it jumped out of the water, splashing back down and moving quickly out of sight before I had a chance to take a picture! The fishing line, attaching the fake seal to the boat snapped easily and it was gone. A moment later, the “seal” bobbed to the surface of the water again with new teeth marks, but no bite out of it. The crew brought it back on board to get it ready for its next outing.
At one point, I saw a hurt seal (a real seal) floating on the surface of the ocean. It was a sad sight to see. I felt so sorry for it. A few moments later, it was inside the mouth of a Great White! I was excited to the see the shark in action, sad to see the seal being eaten, and relieved that the seal’s difficult life was over – a lot of emotions to feel all at the same time! But it was a good reminder of the food web that ensures the balance of nature. The Great White Shark is an endangered species. I wonder how the ecosystem will be affected if they become extinct. I’ve come away with a new sense of awe for this powerful animal of the ocean.
Click here for more facts about Great White Sharks. Two thumbs up for Dylan, my student from last year. He’s the one who told me all about cage diving. He came across it while researching South Africa for me. I had never heard about it before. He told me I should definitely do this. Dylan, you were right! Watch this video for another visit from a Great White.
Climbing back into the boat from the cage.
I think that if the Great White Shark was no longer living the animals that it eats will over populate and witch will lessen the animals that they eat.
“It’s very interesting how sharks use the water to sense their prey!” says Ramsey.
“I never knew sharks travel in packs like that!” says Ingrid.
Cage diving seems scary and amazing! I (Jules) and Kara want to try. Do you know if there is an age limit?
Both of us never knew that the Great White Shark was a endangered species because we mostly thought it was a creature that didn’t have much problems to lead to being extinct.
Wow that looked scary. This was in Africa? The biosphere connects with the hydrosphere the animals are in the water while ms.christie-blick was looking at the shark she was in the water and the humans/animals were in the water too. It was really cool watching ms.christie-blick diving with the sharks. Where in Africa was this if it was in Africa? What company was this?
I think that it must have been very interesting to see those huge sharks up close in person, although I would have been scared. You are a very brave person!
We thought it was cool that the fake seal was able to lure in the shark.
very intresting but would the seal eventualy realize its a decoy
That looks so much fun but so scary i would so do that. I wonder if the shark knows that the seal is fake once he takes a bite on it.
that looks cool but what if there is a giant shark like megalodon and swallows your whole boat??? that would be really weird..
That must be cool and scary to go cage diving, but what happens if the shark tries to bite you?
I think i might shark cage myself that was really facinating seing a real great white shark I just have one question were you really scared I would of been.
WOW! That seems like an amazing thing to experience. If we were you we would be terrified. We think we would rather watch sharks on animal planet.
That is sooooo cool! I know that if I had to do that I would be scared even though I was in a cage. When you first got in the water were you scared at all?You are sooo lucky you get to travel all the time and get to experience so many fascinating things!! WOW
We didn’t know that the observers use fake seals to lure the Great White Shark in.
Wow! It must be scary to see a Great White shark underwater on camera! It would be too risky for me to go in a cage near a shark. On the other hand it would be a once in a lifetime experience to see such a large, scary sea creature up close and personal.I would try that but I would not want to be a fantastic meal for a shark!!
We would be terrified if we were in this position. Both of us jumped out of our seats when the shark popped up, ahhhh.
We thought that was very cool and scary. We would like to try that in the future.
Scary!
That’s AMAZING!!
WOW! That must of been so cool, How many sharks did you see? It must of been very scary!!!!!!
Hi Matthew. It was more exciting than it was scary. I think we saw about a dozen sharks, but maybe some of them came around the boat more than once.
cool was it freaky? Im sure it will be somehting you will always remember! *<:o)>
cool
Were you scared at the sight of a shark? I know if I was there I would have thought it was cool yet frightening!
I wasn’t scared because I was inside a cage. Also, the shark didn’t pay any attention to us. If he had come toward us with an open mouth, THAT would have been scary even with the cage between us!
THATS SO COOL!!!!!! I would be scared to do that.
I think that is cool that you got to see a shark come out of the water. I wish i was there
Scary! Do they tell you not to put your hands around the bars of the cage?
No, but they should! I was very aware of my hands and feet while I was in the cage. The cage is small, so it’s hard to keep them away from the outside edges. However, now that I’m looking at a picture of a Great White, it’s snout sticks out so much farther than its mouth that I don’t think it could just take a nibble.