TRIP 1 PREDATION AND BREACHING: THE MORNING AT SEA
Meeting in Gordon’s Bay harbour at 6.15 in the morning , and launching soon thereafter , arriving on location at first light.
Seal Island in False Bay is the top location in the world for seeing White Shark breaching behaviour. A Seal colony of between 20 000 and 50 000 seals inhabit the island , and in the early morning it is quite common to see White Sharks hunting seals, with successful predation events 50% of the time.
The bird life is always very interesting, with sea gulls , Cormorants , Gannets , Terns, Petrels and Albatross often seen.
From time to time we encounter Dolphins, and from July onwards , it is not unusual to see Southern Right whales.
The first hour or so is spent observing the .seals, without any interference , and more often than not natural hunting of sharks on seals can be seen.
When the light quality is good enough, usually soon after 8 am , we start towing a decoy , cut out to resemble the shape of a seal.
Towing the decoy at slow speeds (3 - 4 knots), the sharks will do a very spectacular flying attack on the decoy - AIR JAWS!
The chance of seeing a White Shark Breaching on any given trip within season is better than 80%. However , it has to be noted that we are dealing with wild animals and raw nature out there , so breaching behavior can never be guaranteed.
After 10 am the sharks stop hunting, and breaching behavior stops. At 10.30 am we head back to the harbour.
Coffee , tea , bottled water and snacks are served on the boat.
There is a fine restaurant in Gordon’s Bay harbour, where hearty meals can be enjoyed after the early morning at sea. TRIP2: COMBINATION PREDATION, BREACHING AND CAGE DIVING
The first part of the trip is exactly the same as described above, except that after 10.30 the boat does not return to the harbour. Instead, we anchor and start "chumming", attracting the sharks to the boat.
The cage goes into the water, and divers get the opportunity to start diving, taking turns going into the 2 man cage.
Cage diving and surface viewing of the sharks continue for 3 hours and at 1 pm, anchor is lifted, and we head back to harbour, arriving there at about 2 pm.. BOAT , CAGE AND DIVING EQUIPMENT
We use a 10 meter Catamaran powered by 2 x Evinrude E-tec outboards. It is licensed for 12 passengers.
These engines are very quiet and completely smoke free, making low speed trawling a pleasure. The boat has a spacious cabin, toilet and upper viewing deck with great working space at the back. We use a round steel cage, floating at the surface next to the boat. Divers use surface supplied air, which is simply a normal scuba diving regulator on a very long hose going to the diving cylinders which are on board. We provide all diving equipment and have a range of standard sized wetsuits. Should you have any special requirements regarding wetsuits, drysuits or other diving equipment, please let us know so that arrangements can be made. The price of the trip includes the use of our standard diving equipment. Equipment for special requirements can be rented as needed. |
