February 2012, Aliwal Shoal, near Durban, South Africa
I found myself with a week-end in South Africa (again!!!) during a work-related trip and this time I decided to go down to Durban, rather the regular Cape Town jaunt that I did on previous week-end breaks. Now Durban is famous for 2 things (in my mind) - the Bunny Chow and some spectacular diving! So I did the natural thing and started to look around for dive centers. One of my colleagues, Tiago Machado was also free for the weekend and joined forces with me on this trip.
Diving booked, hotel sorted (got the concierge at my hotel in Johannesburg, to transfer my room for the weekend), car hired and both of us happy to split up the 6 hour drive each way between us - we took off.
We showed up at the Umkomaas Dive Lodge at Aliwal Shoal early the next morning, not really knowing what to expect. There had been some talk of diving with the sharks - but the details had been ambiguous till that point - cage/no cage/soft cage, what kind of sharks etc. I had not dived in over 6 months and had put on some weight in this time, so was anxious around my buoyancy control. Tiago had not dived since he was 18 - so fairly more anxious than I was. Tiago agreed to come along with me and maybe do a simple reef dive as a refreshar, but was not feeling up to a shark dive and was going to stay on the boat.
During the briefing, we realised that there would be a soft cage (made of nylon fish-net) if one wanted it and they also said that if a shark was to go for you, then the soft cage would not provide any prptection, so it was only psychological. The way in which the brief was delivered made me feel that only wimps went for the cage!!!
We waded through a fairly murky river and loaded ourselves on to the boat (we were warned to stay close whilst wading through the river as there were small bull sharks around which may mistake your legs for something else and try to take a bite!!!). Needless to say, we made quick work of getting on to the boat. The boat took us out to a dive site called Howard's castle, where the 'chum bucket' was dropped along with a large Dorado carcass to attract the sharks and we went out to another site for a warm-up reef dive - while the chum bucket did it's job and attracted the sharks. The reef dive was nice enough and we saw loads of fish, but our minds were all the time focussed on the on upcoming shark dive.
By the time, we finished the dive, got on to the boat and went back to the spot where we had dropped the chum bucket - we were gutted to find that that the bucket and thhe carcass were untouched. The Dive coordinators then suggested that we went around the site in the boat with the engine revving (to make noise) and dropping the chum from the bucket around (to spread the scent). We did this for about 30 minutes but still no sharks. We were gutted! All this effort and no results. The Dive master started pulling the chum bucket out and preparing to leave, when we saw a huge shadow pass under the boat.
The Dive master lowered the chum bucket immediately and the trampoline to 12m and announced "Guys, we have tigers in the water." There were 5 of us in the group and we got kitted up and dove into the water and followed the line down to the trampoline, which we were told to hold on to (as they wanted us to stay together and stray away aftre all, it was a group with different levels of diving competence). When I reached the trampoline, I saw 2 large tiger sharks circling around and taking the occassional bite out of the chum bucket. The bigger of these two was at least 5 meters long and the other just over 4 meters. I then saw 3 smaller tigers join them, initially swimming in an outer circle (almost as if they were trying to assess the pattern establushed by the bigger two, so they knew when there was abreak for them to go in for a bite). After a while, the bigger tigers slowed down their frequency of coming in to the chum bucket, at which point the smaller tigers (between 2.5 to 3 meters) started coming in more for their share.
The bigger Tigers then started circling around the area and often coming in close to the group for a better inspection of the tourists. However, I must add that at no point did I feel threatened or at risk. Moreover, the safety divers who were with us (around 3 of them) would immediately swim betwen the shark and us at any point that it seemed like the shark may come closer than 5 meters. By saying this, I do not want to undermine the risk of the situation in any way. The closest land equivalent that I can think of is standing in the middle of the jungle, around 5 meters from a pride of lions, who were being attracted to us because we were hanging out a deer carcass for them to feed on. The only point I am trying to make is that although the overall situation was very intimidating, the dive was managed very well by the dive coordinators and I for one, did not feel lie I was under threat.
Video - http://youtu.be/YHk7HtV_ya0
Photos - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10150585275072887.384666.704152886&type=1&l=cdc4a95acf
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on Tiger Sharks - 'The tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier, is a species of requiem shark and the only member of the genus Galeocerdo. Commonly known as sea tiger, the tiger shark is a relatively large macropredator, capable of attaining a length of over 5 m (16 ft). It is found in many tropical and temperate waters, and is especially common around central Pacific islands. Its name derives from the dark stripes down its body which resemble a tiger's pattern, which fade as the shark matures.
The tiger shark is a solitary, mostly nocturnal hunter. Its diet includes a wide variety of prey, ranging from crustaceans, fish, seals, birds, squid, turtles, and sea snakes; to dolphins and even other smaller sharks. The tiger shark is considered a near threatened species due to finning and fishing by humans.
While the tiger shark is considered to be one of the sharks most dangerous to humans, the attack rate is surprisingly low according to researchers. The tiger is second on the list of number of recorded attacks on humans, with the great white shark being first. They often visit shallow reefs, harbors and canals, creating the potential for encounter with humans.'
Hanging on to the trampoline for about 50 minutes, watching the Tigers circling around and swooping in to take a bite from the chum bucket was a mersmerising sight, due to the gentle grace with which they moved in the water. I have to add that the chum bucket was a 3 ft blue plastic barrel, which disappeared into the mouths of the bigger two on multiple occassions - just to give you an idea of the size of the Tiger's bite.
The sight of the big Tiger coming in to bite off the Dorado carcass and the way she swung her head (and the whole body responding) to free the carcass from the rope it was tethered to,with the gills quivering as she strained herself was just awesome.
You are supposed to surface when you have arond 50 bars left on your tank, so you always have air in reserve for emergencies. But since it was a simple ascent that required no decompression time - I hung on till I had about 20 bar left and then surfaced with great regret at the spectacle being over. As I hauled myself on to the boat, I was filled with realisation that this was probably one the most incredible experiences that i would have in my life (certainly a story, I'd tell to many).
Oh! Did I mention that once we saw the Tigers under the boat, Tiago decided that he was not going to sit on the boat and joined us for the dive.
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