Travel - Cape Town / Great White shark cage diving

[Matt_TYRCZ]

Planing to visit Cape Town for KOTA


Any tips or advice for Shark trip ?
- best place to go
- best time to go
- average price

[ScoopZ]

There was an article saying a lot of them have disappeared due to predation.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissacri ... 4fddd467e5

[piccio]

went once 4 years ago in gaansbai ,we choose boat departure 12 morning so we left cpt around 9,about a couple hours driving.
we found muddy waters and long soft waves moving the cage all the time so 20 out of 25 tourist on board suffered terrible sea sicknes because we were all the time looking down instead of looking far at horizon .remember to look far away most of time and down only when staff calls shark!
for the first hour we had around the boat a couple of shark 2 mt long that disappeared when a big one 4,5 mt came to visit.
unbelieveble! big!so big! unforgetable!
6 or 7 going in the cage at time so I suggest spend your dive when the big one cames. about 100 euro price .
about 7 8 authorized boat tour in gaansbai ,one only in Simon town, closer to cpt, leaving early in the morning going to seal island.
someone says the company in simon town is better because less tourist ,more time in the cage.....cannot say.
anyway it a must!!!!
ciao

[peppedurso]

Hi,

Please don’t do it! It’s quite non ethical practice.
There is so much more to do in South Africa!

[wrogu]

Go swimming with seals instead. They seem to quite like it too. Remeber no feeding and touching wild animals.

[Strekke]

+1 for the seal swimming thing, it is awesome! Guaranteed interaction with the seals because they are always there, and they are curious and come check you out and jump around etc. It's in Houtbay so a lot closer than Gansbaai, and you can combine it with Houtbay market in summer to get great food and some beers afterwards. Check out https://sealsnorkeling.com/

Shark diving is further away, no guarantee of seeing sharks, and worst of all you are teaching the sharks to interact with people and they can start associating us with food. So think about that when you are bodydragging to your board at Kitebeach

[gilesb]

Hi,

Sad to hear there are less sharks about.

I've been to Cape Town several times and have avoided shark diving. Other kitesurfers in Cape Town said that it frowned upon by the surfing community, as it was causing an increase in shark attacks.

These articles talk about ethics of it:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news ... ig-sharks/
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006 ... tsholidays

I understand desire to see these things, particularly with them disappearing from the world and ending up in soup. I asked the wife about it (she is a neurobiology researcher), she said simple worms can very quickly develop a learned response to food so chances are highs shark develop way more complex responses and start associating humans with food. I decided that I did not want to risk being part of the problem.

Regards

Giles

[Havre]

Good point. I never thought about that.

I was thinking of going on a shark trip myself, but ended up doing Aquila Safari instead. Cool place. The horseback safari was great. Really cool to ride alongside Zebras trying to stay away from the Rhinos.

Obviously it is more like a "outdoor" zoo than a proper safari, but it was nice to break things up a bit with something else.

[Van Hunk]

Hi everyone

As with most things in South Africa, this matter is not black and white, but a multitude of shades of grey.

As a local, kiter, free diver and frequent water user I used to be vehemently opposed to shark cage diving, until I spent time with some of the operators and saw the following first hand:

1) The shark cage diving industry provides jobs for many people in coastal towns where there are no other industries to speak of. And the harsh truth is that if these guys were not running shark tours, they would be poachers of abalone, crayfish and of the great whites themselves. What the industry has basically done is turn a large number of hunters into protectors. Ironic I know.
2) The shark cage industry has provided a mountain of data on the great white to institutions like the South African Shark Conservancy. Data that the South African government simply does not have the money to compile. (e.g 20 000 digital photos of dorsal fins providing the clearest indications of GW populations ever compiled - at no cost to the tax payer)

So make up your own mind, but be cautious to cast blanket aspersions on an industry in a country which is extremely complex.

VH

Hi,

Sad to hear there are less sharks about.

I've been to Cape Town several times and have avoided shark diving. Other kitesurfers in Cape Town said that it frowned upon by the surfing community, as it was causing an increase in shark attacks.

These articles talk about ethics of it:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news ... ig-sharks/
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006 ... tsholidays

I understand desire to see these things, particularly with them disappearing from the world and ending up in soup. I asked the wife about it (she is a neurobiology researcher), she said simple worms can very quickly develop a learned response to food so chances are highs shark develop way more complex responses and start associating humans with food. I decided that I did not want to risk being part of the problem.

Regards

Giles