Cage Diving in South Africa

Sharks are one of my worst fears. Ever since I was younger, I have been terrified of them for no good reason. When I was in Cape Town, South Africa, I was given the opportunity to go cage diving to get up close and personal with the scariest of them all: great whites. I debated, going back and forth deciding if this was something I really wanted to do. In the end, I knew I would be angry with myself if I missed out on such a cool opportunity, and I am so glad I decided to do it. We learned a lot of these terribly misunderstood animals and got a chance to get up close and personal with them.

We went with a company called Marine Dynamics. What I loved about this company was their commitment to responsible tourism and marine conservation. The man who founded the company is a marine conservationist, and the company conducts research on their boat tours all while striving to educate participants. There were other boats near us while we were diving, and you could tell the difference in how the captains of the ship and the crews viewed the sharks. The other boats were doing anything they could to lure the sharks to the surface, while our crew told us they could not guarantee any would even show up. I really appreciated that Marine Dynamics was so invested in the wellbeing of the sharks and ethical, research-based tourism.

The whole thing was very straightforward: we got on a boat that went out to a predetermined location, everyone got wetsuits and big orange coats to keep us warm (it was wintertime in SA), and in small groups we were able to get into the cage for about 10-20 minutes. While I was in the cage, a shark actually came right up to the cage and bit it! However, the water was so green and murky, it was very hard to see. Such a cool experience I would highly recommend. Here are some photos so you can see what we were able to see on the excursion: