Caution: Shark infested waters

(Halle) While leafing through a travel magazine, I stumbled upon an article about diving with great white sharks in South Africa. I stared in awe at the bone-chilling picture of a shark with its mouth wide open, exposing its teeth with a scuba diver in a cage behind it. I immediately put this on my bucket list. Now here we are in Cape Town, driving to the waterfront, and I knew it was too late to back out.

It was pitch dark as we boarded the boat. We were given fuzzy ponchos to keep warm on the chilly boat ride. I almost didn’t see the huge metal cage strapped onto the back of the boat. I noticed the unpleasant odor coming from the back of the boat – a bucket of dead fish sitting in a puddle of blood. We headed for Seal Island also known as the Ring of Death. This island has over 40,000 seals on it plus some penguins. It was so foggy on the duration of the boat ride that we couldn’t see more than 100 feet in front of us. We immediately knew when we arrived at Seal Island because it smelled foul.

The first hour was spent searching for great white sharks. Early in the morning, seals leisurely head back home from feeding several kilometers out in the deep sea. With their bellies full it’s the prime time for the great whites sharks to feed on the seals. We dragged a fake seal behind the boat to lure the sharks because they target slow seals that have strayed from the pod. About 15 minutes later, a huge great white shark surfaced and bit into the fake seal. Once the shark realized it didn’t taste like a real juicy seal then it began hunting again. The crew pulled in the fake (now shredded) seal and you could see the shark’s teeth marks. Now that I’ve seen the dagger-like teeth, what crazy people would want to swim with them?

The crew dropped the cage into the water, tied the bait to a string, and created a mixture of water and blood to attract the sharks. Auntie Francine, cousin Greg, and I watched attentively to see what we were actually getting ourselves into. Dad, Greg, and I quickly slipped into our wetsuits, booties, and head masks. The hardest part was taking off your clothes because it was so frigid. As soon as I jumped into the cage, the cold water poured into my oversized wetsuit and I almost jumped back out because the water was arctic. They closed the top of the cage and handed us regulators to breath through. We gripped our hands tightly on the handrails, knowing there was no going back now.

As soon as the people on the boat yelled “SHARK” we went underwater and saw the sharks. I discovered that great white sharks have a torpedo-shaped body with a pointed snout and rigid fins. They usually grow to be 15-20 feet long and weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. They have whip like tails with lobes to make them swim faster. These animals have about 3,000 teeth arranged in several rows. Their teeth are triangularly shaped with serrations on the edges. The first two rows of teeth are used to catch and eat the prey and the other rows rotate when the other teeth break or fall out. Great white sharks have highly developed senses and their best sense is smell. Their nostrils can smell a drop of blood in 25 gallons of water. I hope I don’t have any open cuts!

The sharks swam close enough to the cage that you could probably touch them but I didn’t want to get my feet or hands bitten off. Since the water was murky, you couldn’t see where the shark was coming from. When the spotter yelled “SHARK” I looked anxiously above, below, and all around. Suddenly, I saw a shark swimming full speed with its mouth wide open trying to catch the bait. It’s like entering a haunted house and you don’t know where the shark will pop out at you. We spent a good twenty minutes in the 50 degree water. Dad, Greg, Mom, and I were the only courageous ones who ended up going in the cage. The others either chickened out or thought the water was too cold for their liking (yeah, right). It was a jaw-dropping experience seeing the sharks swimming and I’m glad I have checked the box on my bucket list.