Theunis
Contributor
I had an awesome shark diving trip on The Protea Banks, KwaZulu -Natal, South Africa from 28 March to 5 April 2009. I have already posted this trip report in the Shark Forum thread but decided to post it here as well!
Some background info - Protea Banks is located 8 kilometers offshore from Shelly Beach, just north of Margate, KwaZulu-Natal. I have been diving on the Protea Banks for the past 5 years during our annual vacations to KwaZulu-Natal and have been a scuba diver for 25 years.
Protea Banks is not a proclaimed nature conservation and thus is shared by anglers and scuba divers alike. This reef is well-known as a shark diving spot with regular sightings of Zambezi (Bull), Tiger, Hammerhead, Black-tip, Ragged-tooth (Sand-tigers) sharks and many more.
During my stay I did 5 dives? 1 baited dive and 4 non-baited dives.
My first dive was a baited dive. We left shore at 08:00 for our 8 kilometers trip to the Protea Banks. The dive operator uses GPS to get to the correct location. In went the bait and after about 20 minutes the sharks were circling. Our dive master gave the command to get ready and we went in. This was an awesome 100 minutes dive. We saw many Bull (6 circling the whole time) and Black-tip sharks, as well as a Tiger shark. The sharks came in close, basically swimming among us. At 100 minutes our cylinders were close on empty and the dive was called. During our time at sea and dive we had drifted about 11 kilometers with the current as the sea was very rough and we had a tough bouncing trip back to Shelly Beach. We were 4 hours on sea from time of departure to time of arrival.
My next 4 dives were non-baited dives. These are all advanced dives due the depth and current. The current can be more than 3 knots (about 6 kilometers per hour). The depth varies between 30 and 40 meters and I prefer non-baited dives due to the depth challenge. During my 4 non-baited dives we saw many Bull, Black-tip, Hammerheads (Great and Scalloped hammerheads), Tiger sharks and some huge Giant guitarfish (Sand sharks) on the bottom (40 meters). These non-baited dives last for approximately 40 minutes and include safety and decompression stops.
I'm posting a few pictures which were taken by Roland Mauz from African Dive Adventures, (with his kind permission to use these excellent photos which were taken during dives), the dive operator on the Protea Banks, due to the fact that regrettably I don't own an underwater camera (yet). Enjoy!
Blacktips
Hammerheads
Tigers
Bulls (Zambezis)
Some background info - Protea Banks is located 8 kilometers offshore from Shelly Beach, just north of Margate, KwaZulu-Natal. I have been diving on the Protea Banks for the past 5 years during our annual vacations to KwaZulu-Natal and have been a scuba diver for 25 years.
Protea Banks is not a proclaimed nature conservation and thus is shared by anglers and scuba divers alike. This reef is well-known as a shark diving spot with regular sightings of Zambezi (Bull), Tiger, Hammerhead, Black-tip, Ragged-tooth (Sand-tigers) sharks and many more.
During my stay I did 5 dives? 1 baited dive and 4 non-baited dives.
My first dive was a baited dive. We left shore at 08:00 for our 8 kilometers trip to the Protea Banks. The dive operator uses GPS to get to the correct location. In went the bait and after about 20 minutes the sharks were circling. Our dive master gave the command to get ready and we went in. This was an awesome 100 minutes dive. We saw many Bull (6 circling the whole time) and Black-tip sharks, as well as a Tiger shark. The sharks came in close, basically swimming among us. At 100 minutes our cylinders were close on empty and the dive was called. During our time at sea and dive we had drifted about 11 kilometers with the current as the sea was very rough and we had a tough bouncing trip back to Shelly Beach. We were 4 hours on sea from time of departure to time of arrival.
My next 4 dives were non-baited dives. These are all advanced dives due the depth and current. The current can be more than 3 knots (about 6 kilometers per hour). The depth varies between 30 and 40 meters and I prefer non-baited dives due to the depth challenge. During my 4 non-baited dives we saw many Bull, Black-tip, Hammerheads (Great and Scalloped hammerheads), Tiger sharks and some huge Giant guitarfish (Sand sharks) on the bottom (40 meters). These non-baited dives last for approximately 40 minutes and include safety and decompression stops.
I'm posting a few pictures which were taken by Roland Mauz from African Dive Adventures, (with his kind permission to use these excellent photos which were taken during dives), the dive operator on the Protea Banks, due to the fact that regrettably I don't own an underwater camera (yet). Enjoy!
Blacktips
Hammerheads
Tigers
Bulls (Zambezis)
