Sustainable swimming with white sharks

Charlie’s Travels: Many companies offer 'cage diving tours.' How do you approach this?

Zilé de Kock: In South Africa, we are not allowed to dive or swim with Great White Sharks. You do need a permit to do that. We observe the sharks from a distance and also get into the water, but in a cage attached to the side of the boat, floating on the surface. So, you don’t need diving experience and you don’t have to be able to swim to do this.

Often, the animals are attracted using a dead fish. How do you handle that?

We don’t feed the sharks at all. In fact, feeding or providing food to great white sharks is never allowed according to the established code of conduct. Instead, we create a sort of ‘scent trail’ that they can pick up. Anyone on our boat will definitely not see any fish products on board. We have a tank at the back of the boat, containing sardines and similar small fish. A small pump pumps water into the tank with the fish, and the water is then pumped back into the sea – the sharks can "smell" that.

So you don't feed the animals, but you just attract them?

We only use attractants to draw the sharks' attention. With the oily "scent trail" that we release at the back of the boat, we pique their interest. Most people want to see the sharks underwater, so we do our best to lure them to swim around the boat.

Why do you need to attract the sharks?

Animals like whales need to come up to the surface to breathe, so they are easier to spot. However, great white sharks are almost invisible unless you attract their attention. When a shark is near our boat, we often can't even see it clearly, but only track it with a directional microphone. So spotting a great white shark is not as easy as you might think!

Why do you still organize these tours?

Only when people can see how extraordinary these animals are can we encourage them to commit to shark conservation. People need a personal connection experience. ‘Cage diving’ is really the only way to introduce people to the impressive great white shark. We aim to raise awareness to help preserve these sharks.

What makes the Great White Shark so endangered?

Uit onze regionale schatting is gebleken dat er maar 800 tot 1000 witte haaien in de Gansbaai-populatie zijn. Doordat de beesten veel rondtrekken, worden deze haaien geconfronteerd met veel bedreigingen in zuidelijk Afrika. In Mozambique en voor de kust van KwaZulu-Natal worden jaarlijks zo’n 40 witte haaien gedood in vangnetten, door trommellijnen en door kustvissers. Er wordt veel gepraat over hoe slecht haaien-toerisme is, maar de net genoemde factoren zijn veel slechter voor de dieren.

We cannot see the sharks all year round?

No, great white sharks undertake extensive and long coastal migrations and can sometimes be absent from Gansbaai for over a year. The animals spend time along the coast during their migration and often visit sandy beaches, whether there is fishing activity or not.

If we were to drive the Garden Route, where could we stop to swim with the sharks?

And more importantly: how can we tell if the cage diving operators are ethical? In South Africa, you can typically do cage diving in Gansbaai, Simon's Town, and Mossel Bay. Marine Dynamics is certified with the Fair Trade Tourism label for responsible and sustainable tourism. You should look for this certification when traveling! The great white shark is an extremely endangered species in South Africa. We aim to approach this similarly to the successful conservation story of the mountain gorilla in East Africa: by raising funds through tourism, we can ensure that we track, monitor, and research these animals. We're confident that if our boats weren't out on the water every day to follow the sharks, these incredible creatures would be poached. Only through research and tourism can the animals be saved.