Where is Shark Alley?
Cape Town, South Africa, is at the
very bottom of the continent--home to the famous Cape of Good Hope, the
bottom of the world, the path to the Orient from Europe sought with
great cost and loss of life during the 16th Century. If you drive East
from Cape Town, along the coast, about two hours, you come to the city
of Gansbaai.
An exhillarating twenty minute boat ride offshore takes you to two
small islands separated by a narrow straight. One is Dyer Island. The
other,
even smaller, island is Geyser Rock, home to literally thousands
of
seals who live and swim in the gap between the islands. The
concentration
of seals effectively catches the attention of migrating great
white
sharks who arrive with such predictability that the channel is now
world-renowned as "Shark Alley."
Todd swims with the sharks (Watch the video of this trip)
There are several companies offering cage diving in Shark Alley. But I highly recommend White Shark Ecoventures (www.white-shark-diving.com) who run professional, safe, and friendly tours out of Gansbaai. They offer great value for the money, and our boat saw five different sharks while nearby boats attracted one or even none!
On Saturday, 31 May 2003, Robert, the assistant skipper/divemaster/guide/medic/driver/host, picked me up from my Cape Town hotel for the drive East. We picked up several other guests and arrived in Gansbaai about 9:30am. After breakfast at a local coffee shop, we drove to the marina and boarded the boat.
Thirty minutes later we were
anchored in Shark Alley. The skipper, Hansie, baited a float (sharks
prefer to eat other
sharks, so that's what was tied to the float) and Robert deployed a
neoprene
decoy shaped like a floating seal (the shadow attracts great whites,
who
are surface feeders).
Just as they were preparing to
lower the cage into the water, and just as I was preparing my camcorder
(so it was not
yet running), a great white breached just off our stern. The shark
completely cleared the water. Judging from the skipper's reaction, the
breach was
so amazing and so rare that we were lucky to have been there to see it.
Unfortunately, only a couple of us on the boat did see it--not
including
me. Shark Alley is reportedly the only place in the world where great
whites
regularly breach (they're nicknamed "air sharks" because of the
behavior)
but even so it is rarely observed or caught on camera. In fact, our
skipper
had been living and boating in the region for years, yet he was visibly
giddy after seeing the full body breach--and continued to talk about it
even after we docked later that afternoon. (The breaching photo below
is
not from my trip, but can be purchased as a poster from Apex Predators.)
How'd you like to be sitting in
your boat and have this guy jump inside??!!
Anyway, once the cage was in the
water, we
took turns inside the cage--sometimes using SCUBA and sometimes just
holding
our breath. The sharks feed on the surface, so the cage can stay on the
surface and still have a great view of the action.
I've got some incredible video
from above the water (as I didn't have a waterproof case), but these
underwater photos
give you a good idea of what we saw from the cage. A couple of times
the
shark "kicked" the cage while passing, and once bumped its head into
the
cage after tearing at the meat on the float. They don't attack the
cage--and
are often afraid of it--but are curious about the cage and divers so
they
got right up close--as you can see from the photos.
Preparing to launch the cage.
Todd inside the cage.
What I saw above the surface.
What I saw below the surface. (Cue
soundtrack from "Jaws.")
"Hey, what's that in the cage? Looks like some sort of whale."
This is just before he (she?) hit the cage.
You might notice different
markings, because we saw five different sharks in all. The largest was
a female (don't ask
how Robert knew) at just under 4 meters (about 12 feet). The
interesting
thing about great white sharks is that they don't grow in proportion to
length
and weight, so they can vary from long and slender to huge round
animals.
Note that there are no cage bars
in my photos. That's because my arm and camera were outside the
cage, stuck through one of the holes.
If you're at all interested in
sharks or diving, you've got to check this out. Contact White Shark Ecoventures
for
more details.
For more information on sharks and shark diving, click here.
Updated 09JUL2009
Copyright Frog
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