White shark encounter

[scubaculture]

This has to be my favourite dive of all time!

We were diving pinacles on Protea Banks. We were relaxing under an overhand watching the fish and a pretty big Tiger shark, it was around 4m long. Next thing the reef just went quiet, no fish, the Tiger swam off. We looked at each other and said ok lets go up

As we swam out from the overhang a MASSIVE White shark swam over us, she was at least 5.5m long and absolutely HUGE. After the initial shock we sort of calmed down and went back under the overhang, she swam past us three times and was realy eyeing us out, you could almost see the curiosity in her eyes. We hit our minimu air and decided to ascend, she followed us up all the way to our saftey stop, staying around 3m away from us at all times. Needless to say it was an interesting safety stop!

We deployed our SMB and looked up to make sure the boat was above us, we ascended to underneat the boat and my buddy went over first. The White shark was still around 3m away from me just below. I took my chance and bolted over the side of the boat, I was shaking so much from the excitement. We then looked over the edge and she lifter her head out the water to check us out again. She circled the boat a few times, raising her head out the water 3 more times and then she swam off.

This was without a doubt the best White Shark encounter I have ever had, she was the biggest I have seen and it was an amazing experience.

I have been in the water quite a few times with White sharks, mostly on the wreck of the Birckenhead, but this was the first time one so big was around and in such clear water.

 

[stallion]

Goose bumps I tell you! Her staying with you the whole time during the safety stop would have freaked me out, I am pretty sure I would have filled my wetsuit.

Otherwise that sounds like an AWESOME encounter! I bet you wish you had a camera on that dive.

But now I have focus my nerves cause I am heading down to margate next weekend and i'm hoping to get a couple of dives in on the banks.

 

[scubaculture]

Yeah I take a camera on every dive now

Have you dived banks before? Awesome dive site and you should see some Tigers

 

[fishnchips]

Almost S**t in my pants just reading your post. 5.5m long? That would be huge! And you have it within to hang around for safety stop while this creature merely 3m away? My o My I have to give it to you.

 

[archman]

Personally, I'd have been more interested in the tiger shark. Pretty sweet that you saw two big sharks of different type on the same dive.

 

[scubaculture]

I was weary of her but she did not seem aggressive at all.

I must be honest I am more scared of the Zmabezi's (Bull) sharks than the Tigers or White sharks.

 

[stallion]

Scubaculture, I've dived Protea banks only a few times.

The last time we had two zambezi's which also circled us the entire safety stop. I'd expect I'd be a LOT more nervous having a huge great white circling me.

 

[farrakhan]

Can you tell us a little about the wreck of the Birckenhead. Location-depth-size of thewhitey's you've seen there. Living in South Australia there is a deep rooted fascination with white pointers and I have yet to have the experience of seeing one of these magnificent creatures up close and personal.

 

[scubaculture]

Some info on the wreck:

Design Stats 64m long displacing 1918 tons. and 11.3 m wide.
Date of Wreck: February 26, 1852 at 02h00.
Depth of Wreck: 21-meters
Site of Wreck: Danger Point South Africa
Impact to Sinking: 25 minutes
Passengers: 638 -Ship Crew, Soldiers, Women and Children
Casualties: 445 men went down with the ship. All the women and children were saved.
Manifest: Military stores, Horses, £300,000 in gold coins (never recovered).
Historical Relevance: Set the precedent of "Women and Children First" as naval protocol throughout the world.

It can be quite a challenging dive, not just because of the White sharks but conditions need to be good, vis is often quite poor. The sharks I have seen have been of moderate size, 3 - 4m so I think they are probably juveniles.

If you do dive there make sure you go with someone who is experienced in the area and with a skippr topside that can get you out of the water quickly if necessary

 

[Mike Veitch]

Damn, now thats a heck of a story!

I really need to get to SA.
With camera of course...