Sharks, Sharks, Sharks

One of my favourite hobbies is scuba diving, I try to get into the water as often as I can but living in Johannesburg makes it very difficult. My favourite dives are shark dives. I really get a huge kick out of diving with sharks, any sharks.


Don’t get me wrong, I am not a crazy daredevil that is trying to kill himself. Sharks have got a bad reputation because they are misunderstood. I have just watched an episode of “Ultimate Survival” where Bear Grylls was on a raft and some Tiger Sharks came to investigate his raft. He made a big deal about how dangerous they were and how he has to be careful or he could be eaten. Stories like this are what give sharks a bad reputation. Tiger sharks are dangerous and they can kill you but it is very rear. From what I saw in the documentary they were only investigating his raft, since they are curios animals, and in not point was his life in danger. Of course Bear Grylls is a professional and he knows that he is safe so he is just going for some drama in his program but is his warning totally invalid?

No, it is not. He spoke about being careful when you jump into water from your raft without knowing what is around. Last year in June a lady was killed by a White Tipped Oceanic Shark because she saw a huge shadow in the water and dived on top of the shadow to see what it was. The white tip is an aggressive shark but it is safe unless you jump on top of it. So sharks are dangerous if you do stupid things without thinking about the consequences. You have to remember that you are in the shark’s territory and the shark is not in your territory.

I have dived with Zambezi sharks (Bull sharks), Tiger sharks, Black tips, white tips and manta rays. I am not the most experienced but I am very aware of the dangers and I am not going to put myself into a dangerous situation or do something without thinking that will put me into a dangerous situation.

To help me learn about sharks is a group called Sharklife, a NGO that concentrates on protecting sharks. One of the ways that they raise money is with shark awareness. In these courses you learn about sharks, how to identify them, feeding habits, where to find them, etc. To fully qualify in each course you have to dive with the shark that you are studying. You have to study a minimum of 5 sharks and do 30 shark dives to become a master shark diver. These courses are recognized by PADI as specialty dives. The money raised by Sharklife goes towards studying sharks in their natural environment, shark conservation and furthering shark awareness.

We are lucky, in South Africa, that we have three of the best places in the world to dive with various sharks. They are the Protea Banks and Aliwal Shoal on the Kwazulu Natal coast and then Cape Town is a fantastic place to dive with Great Whites, mainly False Bay where you can watch them breach.

My Christmas present to myself this year is to sign up for the Sharklife courses and write about them on this blog. I cannot wait and I am going to be upset if I am not able to get to the coast where I can see the sharks and complete the final part of the various shark qualifications.