4-to-6-hour cage diving experience in Cape Town With an experienced captain and crew
Please note that the timeslot selected is an estimated time for when the Shark Cage Diving boat will launch. Pickup time will be earlier to allow enough travel time from Cape Town to arrive for pre-trip briefing at the Great White House in Gansbaai.
Great White
The life span of the great white shark is about 70 years; however, many do not live that long. The ancestry of great white sharks seems to date back 400 million years – as long as the dinosaur! Great white sharks have severally rows of ragged teeth and have about 300 in their mouths at a time. They will lose an average of 30 000 during their lifetime. When one falls out, another will simply take its place. These incredibly private creatures have never been captured on film mating or giving birth. Pups are also kept in nurseries, but we do not really know where they are. The great white sharks have jelly-like sacks in its snout that can pick up the vibrations of its prey.
The peak season for great white sharks is June to August and Mossel Bay’s great white sharks show-off with their
notorious hunting behaviour – the breach.
Bronze Whale Shark
The bronze whale shark is also known as the copper shark gets its name from its fantastic colour. They live about 30 years and have about 70 narrow, smooth, triangular teeth in their mouths. These guys are real ‘summer babies’ and prefer temperate waters to cold. The copper shark is known for feeding on whale carcases but will also team up with dolphins to hunt prey. Females can deliver anywhere from 7 to 24 pups per year.
They can be seen all year round in Gansbaai and Cape Town. These sharks are very cool to cage dive with, as they tend to arrive around the boats in great numbers and stay around for long periods.
Cow Shark
The cow shark also known as the Sevengill shark is often identified by the absence of its first dorsal fin. Most sharks have five gills, but this shark gets its name from the fact that it has seven gills. Their lifespan is around 50 years, and they can weigh in at about 100kg. The cow shark is known for being non-aggressive may be due to its preference for deeper waters. Though there are several species of cow sharks, some do prefer shallow waters as well. The female cow shark does move into shallow water to deliver up to 80 pups at a time
Mako Shark
The mako shark can grow up to 4 metres. The shortfin Mako shark has a lifespan of about 32 years and has been placed on the endangered species list by the International Union for Conservation Trust. This may be due to the low birthing rates where females deliver 4 to 18 pups every 3 years. Do not make the mistake of underestimating these young sharks, they have a bite measure equating to 1300kg of force.
These beautiful animals are found in the warm, pelagic waters offshore. cc
In fact, South Africa’s coastlines are one of the top three global hotspots for shark and ray diversity, with 204 different species recorded (one third of the global diversity), of which 69 species are endemic to South Africa.
These range from the Hammerhead Sharks that in the tropical waters of east coast to the tiny Puffadder Shysharks that roam the kelp forests along the southwest coast.
Of the various species of shark found off South Africa the majority are harmless and are rarely encountered. Only a few species have been implicated in attacks on humans, with only one recorded shark attack in South Africa on a scuba diver – and that was on the surface.
The origin of sharks is obscure, but their geologic record goes back at least to the Devonian Period (419.2 million to 358.9 million years ago). Fossil sharklike fish appeared in the Middle Devonian Epoch and became the dominant vertebrates of the Carboniferous Period (358.9 million to 298.9 million years ago). Modern sharks appeared in the Early Jurassic Epoch (201.3 million to 174.1 million years ago) and by the Cretaceous Period (145 million to 66 million years ago) had expanded into the present-day families. Overall, evolution has modified shark morphology very little except to improve their feeding and swimming mechanisms. Shark teeth are highly diagnostic of species, both fossil and modern.
Sharks’ geographic ranges are not well known. Their extensive movements are related to reproductive or feeding activities or to seasonal environmental changes. Tagging returns from large sharks on the east coast of the United States indicate regular movements between New Jersey and Florida, and blue sharks have been recovered after crossing the southern Atlantic Ocean. A tagged spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) was recovered after traveling about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) in 129 days. Advances in tracking technologies include the use of satellite tags that continuously beam a signal to orbiting satellites whenever the shark surfaces and in that manner reveal north-south movements, transoceanic movements, and roaming and migratory patterns that are beginning to be understood for many species.
Some members of the Carcharhinus genus—most notably the bull shark (C. leucas)—enter fresh waters. Riverine sharks are small to medium-sized and are exceptionally voracious and bold. cc cc