Dan's Adventure

Five minutes after chumming the water the first Great White Shark of the day appeared by the side of the boat. It circled around the boat whilst the first group piled into the cage to catch a glimpse of the shark under water. The rest of us remained on the top deck watching as the shark sniffed out the fish head being used as bait. The water is chummed with a combination of fish oils and blood to attract the sharks from over a kilometre away and the fish heads are used to keep their attention once they appear. I don’t agree with this practice 100 percent as it is messing with nature a bit, but it does give us the opportunity to see great whites up close. My shark cage diving trip was with a company called Marine Dynamics who use the money the raise from the trips to fund research into the behaviour of the sharks and their movements. They assured us that the methods they use to attract sharks don’t harm them in any way.

Soon the time came for me to enter the cage. Everyone is under strict instructions to not let any body parts dangle between the bars. There was a bar at the bottom of the cage that you can tuck your feet under but I couldn’t see it, so my legs were flailing. Every time a shark appeared I would try and raise my legs and rest my back on the rear of the cage to prevent any limbs from being eaten.

The sharks got incredibly close to the cage. At times their tails actually brushed the sides. Staring into their open jaws was certainly enough to bring you back down to earth and remember that this really was a wild animal that could eat you alive.