The Great White Shark

One of the reasons I came to South Africa was to see Great whites in person and boy have I done that. Kleinsbaai is the great white shark capital of the world - you are basically guarenteed to see them here as they feed on fur seals around False Bay. So why the interest in great whites? When I was young (long ago!) Jaws was one of the first films I went to see but it wasn't it that got me 'hooked' on great white sharks. Just after Jaws a new comic came out called 'Action' and one of the story strips was of a great white shark called 'Hook Jaw' which went around devouring everyone it could. The strip was graphic and gory and I loved it. I've been trying to find any info on the strip but could only come up with these:

Hook Jaw

Lost issues of Hook Jaw

Here are some facts about sharks:

You are more likely to get killed by a coconut than a great white shark but I don't think replacing programs like "When Sharks Attack" with ones called "When Coconuts fall" would have the same impact.

Female Great whites sharks are bigger than males and reach sexual maturity at about 20 years of age. They can give birth to up to 9 live young - each over a metre in length.

Over 1/3 of a Great white sharks brain is dedicated to smell.

The great whites that come to Kleinsbaai are actually only transient - staying for up to 2 months before moving on. A shark tagged here has turned up in Perth Australia - over 4000 miles away.

One of their main feeding areas here is shark alley, a stretch of water between two islands, Dyer island which has a colony of penguins and Geyser island which has a large colony of fur seals. People nickname it as the shark equivalent of a Macdonald drive-through. (I'll have a mcfur-seal and a penguin shake to go please.)

For every human killed by a shark, there are over 10 million sharks killed by humans.

Marine Dynamics / Dyer Island Cruises

Although I was booked onto the White Shark Project I actually ended up volunteering for a company called Marine Dynamics. This was because there was going to be no room at the white shark project house.

At first I thought "what to hell" but Marine Dynamics are just as good than white sharks project and they also have a sister company -
Dyer Island Cruises which do whale watch trips.

So far I have been on the boat every day except one (due to bad weather) and have dived 4 times. The last time was the best as I ended up being the only person diving (everyone else was sick - my jinx again!) and was in the water for over an hour with sharks coming right up to the cage. One even rammed the cage and thrashed around right in front of me! Unfortunately I never got any good photos as I only had a throw away camera.

The best thing about the two companies is that as well as doing the shark and whale research they also do the following projects:

Faces of Need Which is a project to place artificial nests for penguins on Dyer island. The penguins used to be able to burrow into the guano but it was all removed for fertilizer before WWII making the nests vulnerable to Seagull predation.

Animals in need which basically means that they transfer any sick or injured birds or mammals to a rehabilitation centre in Cape town. I have already seen a penguin and a Cape Gannet be sent by them.

Nolwandle Project which involves training local people in crafts for making gifts to sell to tourists.

They also help with phd students research and have established a recycling system around the Gansbaai area.

Of course the very best thing about the company is I get to work with Mooi Meisie's

Danger Mouse V Great White Shark

Hi my name is Danger Mouse or DM and I fear no man or beast.

Today I joined the team of Marine Dynamics to go Shark Cage diving.

Here I am on 'Shark Fever', Marine Dynamics boat ready to go on our epic voyage.


There are a lot of jobs to be done on the boat.
Here I am chumming to attract the sharks.



And here I am helping put the cage into the water.



They even let me drive the boat!



Time for the shark dive! I had to go down with my sidekick Ray as they did not have a wetsuit small enough for me.



I seen some sharks down there but I am a fearless mouse so I decided that I WOULD SWIM WITH BAIT:

Here I am attached to the bait.



Come and get me shark!!!!



Is that the best you can do!! That was easy. Time to get back - my idiot sidekick ray took a video using his camera but stupidly decided to do it in the portrait position - tosser!



At the end of the trip we have to wash down the boat.



On days off (which are few!) we get to go on day trips. Here I am at Cape L'Auglha- the southern most tip of africa.



And here I am up the lighthouse at Cape L'Auglha



Bye for now - I'll be back again soon.