Not So Close Encounters

The next morning we set off from the harbor towards Seal Island. Stepping on board, my first though was not, “We’re going to need a bigger boat,” but rather, “We’re going to need a bigger cage.” The shark cage is plenty wide enough for the two people meant to be inside it, but is only three feet or so deep. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of room to shrink away from whatever is lurking on the opposite side.

Unfortunately, that was not to be necessary. In one way, the tour was very much like “Jaws”. You know the first three quarters of that movie, where you don’t actually see the shark? It was exactly like that.

Instead of floating yellow barrels or the ominous beep of a tracking device, what you see is churning water and circling sea birds. When a shark misses on its first attack, the seal will jump repeatedly towards the shark’s tail, hopefully spinning it in circles and churning the water enough for it to escape. While this sounds impressive enough, witnessed from a couple hundred yards away, it doesn’t look like much.

Seal Island itself isn’t much more than a big smelly rock where a bunch of seals and sea birds hang out. Seals leave the island to feed in small groups, leaping on the surface to confuse the sharks. The Great Whites patrol around the “Ring of Death”, where the sea bottom drops out abruptly around the island. In the early morning, the seals can’t see the sharks below, but the sharks can see the outlines of the seals above against the sky. Our guides get a little nervous when seals get too close to the boat, given once an attacking shark leapt from the water and landed on their outboard motor.

Good story, and in theory very plausible. The problem was, the high winds of the previous day dredged up silt from the bottom, making for poor visibility and crappy hunting conditions. There were four or five attempted attacks, but no breaches, no kills and no visible sharks. We dragged a seal decoy around the island trying to get a hit, but no dice. As the sharks’ hunting time came and went, the cage was lowered and baits were put out on lines. A young Swiss guy and I wet-suited up and were told to be ready to hop in at a moments notice.

Two hours later and I’m starting to feel like a bratwurst someone left on the grill. The sight of a right whale and a large pod of dolphins earlier had heightened expectations, but the prolonged nothingness that followed grew tedious. In fact, one crew member had fallen asleep when the bait rope flew through his fingers. He yanked frantically to pull the bait to the surface, but the shark had bitten through the rope.

Fresh bait was put out and we prepared to get in the cage. Having never scuba-ed before I was fairly panicked, and the initial chill of the water doesn’t do much to alleviate the sense of shock. Two regulators were lowered from a tank on deck, and we were told to watch the end of the bait rope. Underwater, I could see (or rather couldn’t) that was going to be a problem. The rope was only fifteen meters long, but visibility was so poor that the end wasn’t visible.

Added to this, water kept creeping into my facemask, and a tear in my suit was allowing cold water to creep up my back. After ten minutes my hands started to shake, but as the captain had said, we didn’t get all dressed up for nothing. The Swiss kid and I exchanged the occasional questioning glance, but neither of us spotted anything. A couple of times I though I saw a dark silhouette round the boat on his side of the cage, but that was surely wishful thinking. After fifteen minutes, our guide tugged on our respirators and we disappointedly exited the cage.

An Irish couple gave it a go for a few minutes after us, but we never got another hit on the bait. The crew claimed that until the previous week the boat had spotted sharks every single day since March. Super timing by the Shaffer clan once again.

The next day Marnie and I weren’t too sad to be heading home. I’m sure the Cape is a much friendlier in peak season, but it didn’t seem to care for us too much. Despite Capetonians’ protestations otherwise, Cape Town is a nice place to visit, but Joburg is a great place to live.