Globe Corner Blogs

Shark through cage floor - photo by Meghan

It was just one shark at first, then three, then five.  When the day was out, we had seen 11 great whites ranging from 7-16 feet in length, their dorsal and tail fins sticking out of the water like the slate-gray triangles you see in movies. The boat picked up speed and the captain tossed a seal-shaped piece of tire-rubber attached to a rope off of the back of the boat.  A shark took it.  Then he threw out another one, and managed to reel it back it – the number of teeth marks imprinted in the thing was astounding.  After witnessing this act, I decided that it was now or never: I volunteered to be the first (and ultimately the only) one to venture off the boat and into the cage.

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Shark Sighting - photo by Meghan

It is impossible to be a diver in South Africa and not consider, or know someone who has considered (who in turn forces you to consider), cage diving with great white sharks.  I too considered it.

And there I was, all alone, my chicken friends at home in their warm little beds.  I woke up extra early, it seemed like it was barely dawn, and set out to risk my life. I signed up for a great white shark cage diving trip a half hour or so out of Cape Town, in Hermanus.  I was going to the famed Seal Rock – where hundreds of seals gather, making a rock full of steaks for great whites who have been seen here – and virtually no where else – jumping clear out of the water to snag one.  With sharks this crazy-eyed and hungry, it seemed like the worst place in the world to be dressed in a wetsuit  with a hood, thus looking the most like a seal that I have ever looked in my life.  So what – this was an adventure!

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Breathing under water - photo by Meghan

There is nothing more exciting than breathing underwater.  And by exciting, I mean the awe-inspiring, nervous excitement that land-lovers get when they see the local view from the top of a really high roller coaster.  Watching bubbles leave your regulator and run for the safety of the surface is neither comforting nor an affirmation that you are doing the right thing in exploring this other world… but they are ‘pretty.’  Whether you’re snorkeling or using scuba – the strange sensation of staying in an environment that should kill you is a cultural experience in and of itself.  And a country’s underwater residents can be as varied and can eat even stranger things than their counterpart’s topside.  For these reasons, I love scuba.

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