Diving with Sharks…
It was something I’d been looking forward to for weeks leading up to arriving here in South Africa. You might say it’s stupid…or too scary…or unnatural, but having the chance to go underwater and enter the world of these incredible creatures isn’t an experience I wanted to pass on.
Having fought my way through the minefield of adverts and booking agents I worked out there is in fact only one operator who leaves the Shelley Beach harbour and heads out to Protea Banks – rocky reef around 7.5 kms from the coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal.
The reef is a series of caves which sit up from the ocean floor offering shelter from the currents for the resident sharks which change throughout the seasons. Hammerhead, Tiger, Great White and Reef Sharks frequent the area but at this time of year we are only likely to see Ragged Tooth – oh well better than nothing I suppose!
The weather on the morning of the dive was just about perfect. With no wind for the two days leading up to my morning meet, the ocean was perfectly flat with just the usual Indian Ocean swell rolling in from the east.
As we pulled into the carpark ‘African Dive Adventures’ inflatable the ‘Black Pearl’ was easy to spot on the trailer with our dive tanks stacked around and a few guys wrapped up warm against the morning chill.
Roland, the Divemaster, was there to welcome me and introduced Kyle our skipper and the other 3 divers for the trip. Is that it? Just six of us! I’d expected a boat-load at least. Oh well less people in the water has to be better…or does that increase the probability of being eaten!?
Once I’d found some kit that a) fitted and b) worked with leaking air (a little worrying!) we loaded it all onto the boat and walked down to the water’s edge. It’d be too much weight for us all to launch from the trailer so we walk into the shore-break and climb onboard there…or that’s what they tell us, personally I think it’s just to make sure we’re all awake!
Kyle times the launch and then powers the Black Pearl through the incoming waves and we head out into open water, the sun’s rays just starting to warm the side of my face as it breaks the cloud on the horizon for the first time today.
Its quite deceiving you know; back on the shore the waves seemed pretty small and there was hardly any surf, but out here the rolling ocean swell is much more noticeable and our little boat seems dwarfed as we pitch up and down.
Once we reach the dive site there are three other boats out here already, fisherman all out with the early worm hunting for that elusive game-fish which are common in these waters too. But were not here for such small fry, oh no this is shark territory!
Roland runs through our safety procedures and announces we’ll be dropping straight down to nearly 40 metres below the surface to maximise our bottom time and our interaction with the beasts below. This could be interesting –I haven’t dived this deep for a few months and hope my ears hold up with the pressure.
Camera at the ready, masked prepared, regulator in? With a quick backwards roll I hit the water and start to descend. Passing 5, 10, 15 and into 20 metres of 24c Indian Ocean which as first glance looks pretty murky. Not ideal.
Dropping this quickly and trying to keep up with the group needs constant equilisation so I’m wiggling my jaw and filling my nose to clear the pressure in my ears almost every other second. We finally start to level out around 35 metres and for the first time I can have a look around at my surroundings.
The water down here is much clearer than up high, it appears we’ve dropped through the algae and plankton that’s above and entered the colder, clearer waters below with visibility up to around 25 metres.
The bottom is mainly rock interspersed with sand and compared to the Great Barrier Reef pretty devoid of life…maybe I’ve just been spoilt over the last few months! There are fish swimming around with a few colourful stripy ones being particularly curious of my camera.
But were not here for the small stuff – we’ve come here to see Ragged Tooth sharks who rest up here on the ocean floor during the daylight hours after a hard night hunting their prey!
As we swim over an opening in the rocks I see for the first time the entrance to the first cave and the familiar outline of sharks below. My heart rate starts to quicken…
Following Roland’s lead we descend into the cave and as my eyes adjust to the darker conditions I start to make out the outline of loads and loads of them – there must be at least 30 Raggies all congregating here!
Once I’m on the bottom I notice my breathing has accelerated in anticipation and I deep breath to bring it back under control – I do not want to run out of air too quickly, this experience is amazing.
As I film the larger of the sharks become more active and start to swim over and around us taking large circling routes above our heads which makes great pictures but also raises the stakes of the game slightly. This is what you’ve come here for Ben so enjoy it.
Ragged Tooth aren’t known for their man-eating abilities but at this stage that doesn’t matter – when these 3 metre creatures come within a few centimetres of you their huge rake-angled teeth look pretty damn mean I can tell you!
We sit on the bottom and watch for a few minutes and the sharks swim around us, checking us out, sizing us up or maybe just trying to get slightly further away from these weird bubble-blowing objects sat in their midst.
With more still to see and a ten minute decompression stop still to do Roland leads out of the cave and across the reef to another entrance, this time a swim-through. We descend into the darkness and follow each other through a small, restrictive tunnel – if your claustrophobic this is definitely not for you!
As we break the other end we enter another cave, this one slightly deeper and on the bottom there are our carnivorous friends again, about 20 of them circling slowly in the weak neap tide current below.
There are very few other fish around, probably a good thing if you’re the prey of a shark I know, but its very noticeable and some say that the area has become too popular with local sport fisherman or maybe its just the lull before the storm of the Sardine Run which starts in a few weeks time.
This incredible spectacle transforms these waters into a massive feeding pot for a few weeks every year as the migrating sardines moving from the cooler water off the Algulhas current enter the warmer waters of the Benguela current and come inshore. In fact so inshore that millions of the tiny fish actually beach all along the Kwa-Zulu Natal coastline much to the delight of local fisherman who net them, the birds that attack from above and the game-fish, dolphins, sharks and whales who reap the rewards from below. It is truly awesome.
Having spent around 25 minutes in the bottom at 35 metres there is a long decompression stop to do on our ascent so we leave the cave and head back up towards the sunlight above. The murky waters above are actually quite interesting when you have to hover and wait in them for ten minutes. The plankton, tiny creatures and jellyfish all swim about on their own little missions and its interesting wondering what they are all about – or maybe I’m feeling narc’d after the dive!
Once we’re back on the boat, de-kitted and warmer Kyle starts the engines and we turn back to the mainland. We didn’t get to see a Tiger or a Great White but we did have around 70 Ragged Tooth’s and I’m happy with that for my first real shark dive.
On the way back we get just one more little bonus as a school of dolphins race along in the waters next to us just in the range of my camera. Perfect.
It was great to finally have the chance to dive in South African waters after coming here for so many years on holiday but without a PADI qualification and the day delivered exactly what it promised. It will be great to get back to Australia and see the multitude of life that is there on the Great Barrier Reef but for now I have whetted the appetite to dive with sharks.
Now, where can I find some bigger and more deadly ones…
Ben 
