Eye to Eye with the Great White

When people refer to the ‘big five’ in Africa, we’ve learned that they’re making a gigantic mistake. Because if the Great White Shark doesn’t deserve to be on that list, then somebody hasn’t done their due diligence.

In Chicago, we have a fantastic aquarium, and one of the tanks has quite a few sharks swimming the reef. The powerful yet graceful swimmers never fail to generate a visible, emotional stir amongst viewers. And while everybody always spends a few extra minutes in front of that tank in hopes of seeing the deadly beast in action, it seems most of us have always ‘just missed’ a feeding.

Our cage dive with the sharks couldn’t have been a more different experience.

While the marine biologist who shared her unique perspective on the great white called them ‘elegant’ and ‘largely misunderstood’, I’d say that outside the Hollywood sensationalism, they’ve earned every ounce of reputation that they have. And after yesterday’s adventure, I’ve seen their viciousness firsthand.

After taking the boat out to Shark Alley, they dropped the cage into the water and 7 brave souls suited up and took the dive into the frigid waters of the Indian ocean. The crew chummed the water, and then threw out a decoy that cast a sea lion shaped shadow as well as a line with a fish head the length of my arm. They would toss them both into the water, leave them be for a while, and then when a shark was sighted, they would reel them back in towards the cage, entice the shark to swim closer.

How close? Close enough for us to stare it in the eye. And believe me, I blinked first.

To read the rest, along with student accounts of the day, visit the Discovery Student Adventures: South Africa blog!

2 Comments

Sue Waters
6/7/2009

Sounds like you are having an excellent time in South Africa and I might be a bit jealous.

Yes I don’t believe in the killing of sharks but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to watch out for them. Each year Great White Sharks kill people in Australia. Here in Western Australia we have planes that fly during summer shark spotting. How scary? One of these sharks kill a man in knee high water at a crowded swimming beach.

When you get home you might enjoy watching this video of these Great Sharks around Tuna cages in South Australia (now that is a dangerous occupation).

Enjoy the reset of your trip and watch out for the hippos. They are even more dangerous