Great White Shark Cage Diving

A Great White shark breaching

A shark's breach is the result of a high speed approach to the surface with the resulting momentum taking the shark partially or completely clear of the water.  This is a hunting technique employed by Great White sharks hunting seals, specifically Cape Fur seals at Seal Island in False Bay, South Africa.  The topography of the ocean floor around Seal Island allows the sharks to swim down deep and pick up the speed they need as they shoot towards the surface of the water and completely take a seal by surprise. Amazingly, the seals sometimes get away!  They're nimble little swimmers.

The Cape Fur seals at Seal Island

Cage diving to view Great Whites and other sharks in their natural habitat is controversial.  There are those who claim that chumming the waters around humans creates a Pavlovian response in the shark, associating humans with food.  But there are other experts in the field who state there is no evidence of such a correlation.  For one thing, in South Africa, tourists are taken to "shark alley" - the waters near Dyer Island where Great Whites are known to hunt.  The water is chummed but sharks are not fed.  When finding that following the chum does not result in a satisfying meal, a shark moves on.  Ongoing research indicates that sharks would need to be properly fed intensively for a prolonged period of time in order to develop the ability of associating a new foreign stimulus (humans) with food.  Interestingly the Dyer Island population of Great Whites is non-residential, and individual sharks have been identified moving out of the area every two to three weeks.

What cannot be argued, however, is the immense good done by shark tourism. This form of tourism originally came about to help communities see there is more value in a live shark than in a dead one, thus conserving the animals.  A single set of Great White jaws can fetch a one-time price of up to $30,000.  However, that is a fraction of the tourism value of a live shark, a more sustainable economic activity.  For example, the dive industry in Gansbaai, South Africa (the departure point for Dyer Island and "shark alley"), currently consists of six boat operators with each boat guiding 30 people per day.  With fees between $75 to $225 per person, a single live shark that visits each boat can create anywhere between $13,000 and $40,000 of revenue daily.

Fear or fascination, there is simply no middle ground when it comes to the Great White shark.

TJ will tell you how much he enjoyed his experience diving with the Great Whites.  On the surface their movements appear frantic as they thrash about, following the chum.  But below the surface, in the silence, these beautiful predators move effortlessly and schools of fish part as they approach.  Their world seems so serene and they rule as king.

So, who would like to jump out of a perfectly good boat into shark-infested waters?