A Close Encounter with Great Whites

The day started off very early with morning call at 4:30am. I got ready and made my way outside. At the entrance to the port, we grouped up and met some of the others joining us on the trip, and waited for the shark-dive company to pick us up. By the time they got there, we got into the van, and left it was 5:45. There were 12 of us on a 2 hour drive, most of which we slept. For the short time towards the end that I was awake for, it was beautiful as we passed over roads adjacent to the ocean and green cliffs to our left, and through beach towns of newly painted buildings. We arrived at Gansbaai, the great white capital of the world, around 8. At the main building I enjoyed a breakfast of delicious granola while we waited for the Barracuda, the ship we would be traveling in, to return to the dock. We were told that it apparently had 6 great whites circling it at the time… AWESOME. We waited outside for a short while, enjoying the beautiful weather and beach, and as soon as the boat returned, we made our way to the dock. The Barracuda was a small vessel, two-floored, and seemingly new. It was definitely weird to be on such a small sea vessel, especially after our month on the MV Explorer. This was the first time since the 9th grade that I was on a small boat. Leaving the dock, we sailed out about 10 minutes, braving waves and water swells. This boat definitely would be destroyed by some of the swells the Explorer experiences on the open ocean. Reaching our “spot” we laid anchor, noticing another boat already there. Our leader, who was the brother of the founder of the shark diving company who was one of the leading shark experts in the world, began talking and instructing us about safety, what we were going to do, and other instructions. “Blah blah blah... oh look a shark.” He said it so casually, but the moment he said it all of our heads just snapped in the direction and peered over the side of the boat. There swimming only 5 feet from the Barracuda was a Great White Shark..... SWEET!!! We all got changed into our wet suits, and the first group (Ben, Nick, Kathleen, Megan, Howard, and another guy) made their way into the cage. The workers threw a lure into the water with bait at the end of it, and then we waited. Within a minute or two, we had a shark sighting. Let the fun begin!!! After that we saw a number of normal sized sharks. Normal meaning 2-3 m. This was exciting enough until we spotted a big guy. This one was around 4-5 m in length (around 15 feet). It was so awesome to watch this, and I hadn’t enough gotten into the water yet. We were actually getting lucky, the other two boats (one more had anchored shortly after us) were not getting much attention from the sharks. After 30 minutes, we switched group and I got my turn to experience the awesomeness. The water was actually not too cold (I’m sure the wet suit was helping a lot). And there comes our first shark... DIVE!!! Getting into the water and seeing the sharks in their natural habitat was an experience that cannot be put into words. In the water it was completely silent, providing this eerie feeling that was just not the same as being on the boat. I saw the shark, a beautiful monster, as it lurched for the bait, missed, turned and dove out of sight. It was like being in one of those animal documentaries (like Planet Earth or Blue Planet). I could hear David Attenborough’s voice in the back of my head, and imagined him describing the situation to me in his awesome voice. I got out of the water out of breath, and astounded by what had just experienced. This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done (tied with ATVing at Aquila). But no time to think, the next shark was on its way... DIVE!!! My group was luckier than the first one, and we got much more sightings. Being in the cage was weird because we were constantly looking forward, and not looking at our back... we were constantly worried about a backside attack or from beneath. But thankfully we had the cage of course to protect us (although there were scratch marks on parts of the cage from shark bites). Our time was up, and we switched with the first group again. It felt nice to be out of the water, but after a while I started feeling really cold. There were seagulls trying to get their share on scraps from the bait, and we were joking about a shark possibly taking one of them out. When the group’s turn was up, my group got back in, for the second and last time. This time it was more calm than our first time. Not that many sightings at first, but we were in for a treat. The big guy paid us a visit, and stayed with us for the first 15 minutes of our dive, and would give us some of the coolest sightings we had seen yet. Towards the end of his period of visiting, we saw the coolest thing ever. The shark came right at us (since the bait was right in front of me, a few feet away). When he missed the bait, he came straight at me. At the last second, before hitting the cage itself, he turns to my right. The was a brief moment, in slow motion, when his eyes met mine. In that 1.5 second period of time at point blank range, I felt a connection to him, as if he was staring into my soul. A truly creepy yet deep feeling welled up inside of me. As the shark turned and left, he left us a go away gift: he slammed the side of the cage, a foot away from my face, with his tail twice and then disappeared into the murkiness of the water. As we came out of the water, we were greeted by the screams of the first group, and then we began screaming ourselves. Did that really just happen? That was unbelievable! That was my third experience in South Africa where I was close to danger and something that could have easily killed me (the other two being the rock on Table Mountain, and the water buffalo at Aquila). At that moment when our eyes met, I was so tempted to touch the shark, I mean he was RIGHT THERE only 5 inches away from my face. But self-preservation got the better of me... thankfully; who knows what may have happened if I had touched him. After that we saw no more of the big guy; his slap to the cage really was like a go-away gift. However, we were soon joined by another shark. This guy was smaller, but he was also more curious as he was staying in relatively closeness to the cage for longer, and forcing us to stay underwater for longer. This was difficult because we could of course only hold our breath for so long, but yet we felt compelled to stay underwater and watch the shark for as long as we could. Towards the end of our diving time, we saw the shark swallow a small piece of the bait and for a moment he seemed to be choking on it as he started shaking his front body a lot. Then he suddenly stopped shaking, dived, and disappeared beneath us. After a few more passes from a third shark, our time was up. We got out of the water, changed, and had a snack from the food reserves on the boat. At this point I became really cold and so put on the jacket the company provided, and my own jacket. The Barracuda then raised its anchor, and we made our way for Seal Island. On the way, we ran into two right whales: a mother and her calf. These whales were huge, even the calf, and were easily the size of the Barracuda. When they got within 20 feet of the boat, they surfaced for a long time, giving us the opportunity to view their entire top for a good amount of time: such serene and powerful creatures. They then dove under the boat, and we did not see them after that. Soon after that we arrived to the island. And oh boy, there were A LOT of seals. No joke, there were probably around 4,000 on them on and in the water near the island, which was no more than a ½ square mile. One of the largest concentrations of seals in the world. It was quite a sight. And of course, since there were so many of them, the experience was accompanied by other seal characteristics. For one, the island stank: it was one of the strongest and most poop-like smells I have ever inhaled through my nostrils. Another was the din. The seals were barking like dogs, but the sound they were making sounded a lot like sheep. The ones in the water, were playing, would surface, look around (especially at us, then flip over and dive back in, only to surface again shortly after. We marveled at this island for about 10 minutes, sailing slowly from one end of the island to the other, and then took our leave and started back to the docks. We got back to land around 1, and made our way back to the main building. There were enjoyed some delicious and warm vegetable soup for lunch, which was much needed after our chilling experience in the water. While eating, we watched our dive video and then a documentary about the plight of the sharks. Apparently there are only 1,000 or so great whites left in the wild, and from the looks of it our leader said that it was likely that our children  will never be able to see them (Great Whites cannot be kept in aquariums because for some reason not that have been in captivity have survived for long). This is really sad because many sharks are killed a year only for their fatty fins (the rest of the carcass being thrown back into the water) or just because of people afraid of them (thanks “Jaws”). The funny part about that is that more people are killed a year by coconuts than sharks, and more people are killed by shark soup than sharks. After that eye-opening video, we got thanked the leaders, got into the van and started back to the ship. I stayed awake in the front and kept our cool driver company while everyone else passed out. The scenery was so beautiful, and our driver was offering to drive us to hermanus (the land-based whale watching capital of the world) for no extra charge. However since everyone else was sleeping, I could not make a decision for them (especially since I didn’t know half of them). So instead he stopped at the top of the hill 30 minutes away from Cape Town. There we enjoyed a stunning view of the low-lying land in front of us, the mountains and cliffs to our right, the ocean to our left, and Cape Town in the distance. When we got back to the ship, the others went to their rooms to do their own thing (shower, sleep, etc), and so I decided to go back out and get some more internet time to skype. At Timytz I ran into Amy, who joined me, and so we both headed into the V&A mall. There I skyped my mom for the first time since the middle of Spain; it was great to see her again. After talking for some time, and a number of disconnections due to bad free-internet connection, my battery was dying, so I had to make my departure. Back on the ship, I got dinner with Alyssa Rizzo (my extended family sister) and talked to her about her experience in a local Human Rights program. There she had a conversation with the killer of Amy Bell (the girl whose death started the program), who was working at the place out of sorrow for what he had unknowingly done. I decided to wander the mall for a little while, before running into Teisha, Alyssa, and one of their friends Emily. I joined them as they went into the mall to get internet. After leaving them some time after, I met Nick and joined him to find Ben. We found him with Megan, Nathalie, and Howard, and we then chilled the mall for some time. I left and for the ship an hour or two later, and began working on my blog. Apparently people are actually reading it, which makes me feel good. So I have to keep the quality up.
-Nimish
October 6, 2010