My alarm went off at 4:45am and I immediately jumped out of bed. I showered, grabbed my backpack and raced out to the front of the ship where I met 8 other students waiting for a van- ready to take us 2 hours away to what may be our last afternoon. Shark diving. That's what I was going to today. I honestly don't know what possessed me to sign up for such an "adventure." Although I've learned in Marine Bio that sharks are more afraid of me than I of them, I am still deathly afraid of them. Don't get me wrong, my favorite week of the summer is "shark week" on the Discovery Channel, but that's watching them from afar, in the comfort of my own home from behind a big glass box.
The drive was relaxing; I slept the entire way there, trying hard to dream of anything but my impending doom. When we arrived they served us breakfast and sent us out. It was a fairly grey day. But when we stepped onto the boat and sailed out a little ways we were engulfed in a blanket of fog. Crap! As if I wasn't nervous enough, now the element of blindness made it that much worse. A few people were cracking jokes about open water and the black pearl was coming to hijack our boat... but they weren't really funny. And to top it off, the swells of the boat were making me seasick. 80 some days on the ship and I barely got sick once, and then I get on a little dinky boat that holds maybe 3% of the people our big ship holds and I feel like I'm going to hurl.
An hour later we reached our destination, open water near a "island" where seals liked to hang out- the perfect meal for great white sharks. We were about get in the world with great whites, right at their peak time to migrate through South Africa. Awesome... They lowered the cage into the water and a group of six people bravely dawned wet suits. They crew of the ship through out a tuna head on a line to lure a shark and within 10 minutes one came slowly and gracefully before it thrashed to bite the bait. ...... I was seriously reconsidering whether I'd be getting in that water.
I watched each group slide in the cage and come out smiling, but I was still unconvinced this would be a pleasant experience. My friends joked (I hoped) that if I didn't get in the cage, they were just going to throw me overboard. I think I would prefer to be in the cage than free diving, so when the crew called for the last group to put on their wetsuits I went down to pick mine up. I was hoping they wouldn't have one in my size, then I would have a perfect excuse not to get in, but they did. It took me ages to get on, I had to have someone help me stuff me in the suit. I was given a mask and shuffled over to where one enters the cage. I stepped on the ledge of the boat, swung on the rope they gave me to get into the cage and HOLY SHIT! THE WATER IS SO COLD! I was not expecting the water to be that cold! It was 55 degrees and I was shivering in a cage, trying to keep my hands and feet inside the cage so I didn't become some shark's midmorning snack. Of course because I weigh about as much as a feather, my wet suit kept me buoyant and my feet would float out through the holes of the "safe" cage. (I would like to say however, I have gained weight on this trip! Success!) So far, this excursion was taking a significant down turn.
I smelt the chum before it came splashing over my head to attract the shark. How that could even be remotely appetizing is beyond me, but the shark seemed to like it because minutes later one came swimming by. I ducked my head underneath just soon enough to catch the tail end of it and oh my gosh, the fish was huge! Most likely three times my size. We waited shivering for a bit more until it came around again. I dipped under the water, careful to keep my body as closed in as possible. I felt the nose of my mask fill up with water and slowly my vision fogged up, but not before I got a good look as the shark's head went by. I swear it looked right at me and grinned. That was it, I got out of the water after that. I had seen a shark, I was cold, and ready to get out. I was glad I did, right afterward a new shark (the biggest one yet) came barreling into the cage as it took the tuna bait.
As we sailed back to shore, I felt a little more at ease with sharks. I'm still a bit scared of them, but they were surprisinly docile creatures. They didn't seem that interested in eating me. They are endangered, so I really hope we can work on saving them. I think I would like to go back and dive with them again, now that I know a litle bit more about them. I just hope there are enough of them left the next time I go out.
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