A Day in the Life of a WSP Volunteer

Volunteering for White Shark Projects (WSP) has been interesting.  Other than my love of sharks I came here knowing nothing about boats, seamanship, great white shark behavior or cage diving.  My first day going to sea, we were given a tour of the boat and told how it operates.  I learned that port side is the left side of the boat (“there is no port left in the wine bottle”) and starboard is the right side.  The bow is the front and the stern is the back.  We were taught how the GPS system and the motors work although we wouldn't be in charge of operating these.  Our boat, Shark Team, is a 36 foot split hull catamaran.

Shark Team

Unfortunately, for me, there is no current research going on here with this particular project.  We are only focusing on data collection at this time.  We chart the number of different sharks we see each trip out, their behavior, their size, their sex (if we can tell) and how much time they stay around the boat.  The crew is very good at telling the sharks apart by their scars.  It is hard for me to tell because the sharks don't spend too much time with their heads out of the water.   The crew members are quick though! 

Our day starts at 5am.  We meet the crew in the garage that is attached to our volunteer house.  We pack the wetsuits and the booties for the day's dives.  We pack the bait and chum components, the life jackets for the clients, the client lunches/refreshments and dry towels and blankets to give the divers once they come out of the cage.  All of those items go from the garage into the bucky (that's what a truck is called here) and then down to the boat.  First launch is usually around 6:30am.  

Boarding the boat. Ready to launch.

We assist the clients with putting on their life jackets as they board the boat and then we head to the dive spot about 3 miles offshore.  Once at the dive site one of the crew members gives a briefing to the clients about the area and some basic shark behavior.  We are currently diving at the "summer" location called Joubert's Dam in the Atlantic Ocean.  The "winter" location is further out to sea in a strip of ocean between Dyer Island and Geyser Rock, also known as Shark Alley.  The water is about 10 meters (33 feet) deep at Joubert’s Dam and unfortunately visibility is poor due to the sandy bottom.  Visibility is much better in Shark Alley where the water is only about 7 meters (23 feet) deep and the bottom is rocky instead of sandy.  

Joubert's Dam

Map of Dyer Island/Geyser Rock

The sharks don’t hang around Shark Alley in the summer time.  They wait for the winter when the seal pups are first learning to swim out on their own from Geyser Rock.  The pups are not wise to the ways of the sharks and are easy prey.  In the summer the adults are out in that water and they are smart, can avoid the sharks and they even fight back.   It takes too much effort for the sharks to prey on the adult seals. The sharks are therefore forced to come to Joubert’s Dam in the summer to feed on skates, rays, smaller fish, whatever they can find.

Geyser Rock

Once at the dive site we help the crew take the cage off the boat and secure it into place on the side of the boat.  The wind direction/speed and the current determines which side of the boat we place the cage.  Every time I have been out we have placed the cage starboard. The cage is attached to the boat with ropes to keep it from moving.  It is fully submerged in the water with the exception of about 12" that is above the water.  The cage can hold six divers at a time.   While the cage is being secured one person starts the chum slick and the rest of the crew drops the anchor.

The captain gives a pre-dive briefing to the clients.  He explains how to enter and exit the cage, cage etiquette and how the baiting works.  The clients are split into groups of six.  Once a shark is seen hanging around the boat the volunteers give out wetsuits, booties, weight belts and masks to the first dive group.  The wetsuits are very thick (7mm) to combat the cold water.  Average water temperature since I’ve been here is 13 degrees C (about 55 degrees F).  Apparently the water is colder here in the summer and warmer in the winter?  Weird.  The wetsuits make you very buoyant so you need a heavy weight belt to get yourself under the water to see the sharks.  The weight belts we use are anywhere from 15 to 18 pounds.

Divers enter the cage from the top.  Feet forward and back to the boat.  You “walk” down the front of the cage with your feet and lower yourself into the water.  Your feet rest on a bar that is situated inside the cage about 4 feet down and you grab the roof of the cage with your hands.  You CANNOT under any circumstances use the area in front of you to place your hands.  You can see from my videos that the sharks come very close to the front of cage, often with their mouth open, thrashing, and you can get unintentionally injured.  Rule number one……keep your limbs inside the cage :)

Waiting for a shark

Divers wait in the cage, bobbing around, until a crew member spots a shark.  The crew member working the bait yells which direction the shark is coming from and for you to go down under the water.  He uses the bait to lure the shark towards the cage and pulls it out of the water just before the shark can get a hold of it.  Sometimes the shark does take the bait but that is not the goal.  We are not out there trying to feed the sharks.  When the crew yells “go down”, you hold your breath, take your feet off the inside bar, push yourself down and then place your hands on the bar your feet were on.  You have to place your face as close to the front of the cage as you can to see the shark since visibility is so poor.  You do this as many times as the shark(s) stick around.  It’s a whole lot of waiting for a few seconds of visualization.  Most people stay in the cage for 20-30 minutes at a time although you can stay in as long as you’d like.  Some people get one look at the shark and then they are done.  Some people like to stay in the cage and get as many looks as possible.  

Bait Handler

Chum Master :)

View of shark from cage

On average we are at the dive site about 2.5 hours rotating divers.  There is one crew member dedicated as the “Movie Man” who takes a video of the entire trip for the clients to have.  Either a crew member or a volunteer is responsible for chumming the entire time we are anchored at the dive site.  Usually the skipper is in charge of data collection however, we are encouraged to help.

The Crew

Jerome

After the divers are done taking turns in the cage we prepare to head back to shore.  We hand all the divers a dry towel as they exit the water.  The volunteers are responsible for hanging the wetsuits on the side rails of the boat to dry.  We collect the booties, weight belts and masks and put them away.  The clients are instructed to put their life jackets back on and to be seated for the return trip.  

The cage is left at the dive site to be used for the next trip(s) to sea.  It is easier to do this than to load and unload the cage each time.  A large buoy is attached to the top of the cage to keep it afloat.  Two tuna heads are secured inside the cage with a leaking bottle of anchovy oil to help keep the sharks around.  After the last dive trip of the day the cage is loaded back onto the boat. 

Once the boat is back on shore the volunteers unload the wet towels, used wetsuits and any trash.  We reload the boat with new wetsuits, dry towels, more refreshments and additional bait.  After the boat docked for the evening we help the crew clean the boat. We wash the wetsuits and booties and hang them to dry for use the next day.

Our day is usually done by 3:30pm and then we are free to do whatever we like.  Most of us head to the local restaurant, The Great White House, for lunch.  It is literally across the street from our house.  Then we read, download our day’s photos and videos and decide who is going on what dive trips the next day.  On “no sea” days we can take day trips around the area or we can just hang out at the volunteer house.

The Great White House Restaurant

It’s been a great adventure and learning experience so far.  I have one week left to get my shark fill.   I had one good dive in the cage and the rest of the time I have viewed the sharks from the boat.  With the water visibility being so poor you can actually see the sharks better from the boat.  That and the water is really cold :)

I have been able to manage my seasickness with LOTS of medications.  The cocktail that seems to work best is two non-drowsy Dramamine (meclzine) and 8mg of Ondansetron at 5am when I get up.  Then at 6am I take two regular Dramamine and eat a piece of toast.  It’s a lot of medication.  One good thing about it is that I sleep well at night!  I tried to back down on the meds one day and it wasn’t good.  I didn’t actually get sick but I didn’t feel well.  This is my cocktail and I’m sticking to it!

"Better living through chemistry"