South Africa offers some of the very best scuba diving in the world and passionate divers should make it a priority to travel here and explore the extraordinary underwater landscapes on offer.

Alas, the great white underbelly of South Africa’s amazing undersea wildlife is the growing phenomenon of shark cage diving—where tourists (mostly unlicensed divers) pay between $110-$150 to swim in a submerged steel cage right next to great white sharks who have been lured next to these boats with chum (dead fish, offal, and blood).

It is Not Authentic

Sharks are, by nature, timid animals. Any diver who’s spent any significant time in the water with sharks (without a cage), knows that that they are inquisitive, but cautious creatures who will disappear at the sight of humans. Some larger sharks will approach for a better look, but in my experience, sharks very rarely stick around. They are busy predators hunting their next meal and need to get on with it.

It is Not Sustainable

In Gansbaai alone, there are 8 different shark cage diving operations, each averaging 3 trips a day. Depending on the most conservative numbers by locals, that equals 5,000 visitors per week. This adds up to over 250,000 human encounters with sharks per year, which equals an inordinate amount of blood and chum being dumped along the South African shoreline every day.

It Perpetuates Myths

Despite claims that such close encounters with great whites help “raise awareness”, the motivating factor and resulting reality of the entire shark cage diving industry is the thrill of recreating a “Jaws” moment for paying customers.

It is Not Good Conservation

Nearly every shark cage diving operation claims to be involved in some form of wildlife conservation, yet deeper investigation yields little results from these claims. Other than operators taking photos of the sharks and picking up trash from the ocean, I see very little evidence of the shark cage diving industry giving back to the oceans.

In my opinion, shark cage diving makes a mockery of real conservation efforts to preserve an animal that is in rapid decline.

What do you think?