The very mention of it polarises people and almost everyone has an opinion on whether the activity is pro-conservation or completely anti-conservation. I had worked in the dive industry for a few years and had heard every opinion: It teaches the wild animals a domesticated behaviour, it brings the massive killing machines closer to surfing beaches, operators used whole goats on link chains to lure them… I had heard it all.

I had also been fortunate enough to be in the water with a fair few sharks over the years, including some Great White Sharks in Western Australia, so my curiousity was always peaked when I heard somebody else’s opinion on cage diving.

I began to realise that there is really only one way to fully appreciate and understand the pros and cons of it and that was to do it.

Shark diving is most popular in Australia, Mexico and South Africa because this is where the Great Whites are most prevelant.

I travelled to South Africa a couple of years ago as part of a bigger trip. When I arrived in Capetown I still didn’t know if I was actually going to do it and the myriad operators and spruikers touting cage diving in the city made me wonder again if I really SHOULD be doing it.

Being the anal retentive nerd that I am I did some solid research into the operators before choosing one that I was fully comfortable with. It was true that a few of the operators I spoke to seemed very ‘cowboy’ about the activity but the company that I eventually chose spoke in depth about the conservation of the animal and their worry that other operators doing stupid things were in fact bringing the whole industry into question.

Most of the cage diving in South Africa is done near the pretty little town of Hermanus. This place was originally built up on the back of the Great White industry but since then has developed its own tourism identity and there are several hostels and other cool little places to stay here.

We left on the boat pretty early from Hermanus to make the short (maybe too short) journey out to “Shark Alley”. This is the area that our operator used due to the clarity of the water, the relative shallow depth and the resident seal colony nearby which ensures quite a few sharks meandering through looking for a feed.

Once at anchor, the crewmen started to “chum” the water. They used shark livers to entice passing sharks to have a closer look at the source of this strong scent.

At first, nothing happened. At least one hour had passed and there was still no sign of anything bigger than a few passing tuna in the water.

Then, silently a shadow passed underneath the boat. A massive shadow. The first of the Great Whites had arrived.

The silence in the water was matched by a weird silence on the boat as well...

(To read the rest of this frightening account, check out the rest of this entry at Nick Bowditch Travel).