Last Monday, I had the opportunity to spend the day with the local cage-diving operator in Mossel Bay. It was a freezing cold, cloudy day and they only had three customers for the whole trip.......which meant that I could jump in the cage with them for part of the day! After dutifully taking fin shots of the sharks that showed up, while also simultaneously noting scars, abnormal fin marks, etc (much like what we do on our daily chumming trips, just now on the tourism boat and without having to actually chum for the sharks ourselves), I was asked if I wanted to jump into the cage for an hour or so: OF COURSE I DID! I put on the combined total of about 10mm of wetsuit material, grabbed my camera, and jumped into the ice cold 14 C water. The visibility was somewhat lacking but the experience was amazing. It is one thing to be observing the sharks from on top of the water, but it is a completely different view from below the water line. These sharks were enormous, and inches away from my hands, feet and face. We had quite a few sharks crash right into the bars, not because they were man-eaters, but because the bait they were chasing was moved away right at the last moment (much like a carrot on string, leading a donkey.....same principle). It was absolutely amazing, and although the photos didn't turn out great, I'm hoping that I have more opportunities in the future to get that perfect shot of the great white face to face.
