White Shark Adventures

By George J. Smit

The Great White shark that is one of the most feared and completely misunderstood creatures in the ocean became part of my 38 years of free diving and spearfishing on the South African and Mozambique coast. I had several encounters with this creature and not only the White shark but numerous of the other shark species were encountered during this time. Since the White shark fascinated me and although I had some close encounters, I never felt that this shark was a man eater but rather a curious creature wanting to inspect the unknown. A swimming human kicking with the legs will attract a White shark and most swimmers are bitten on the legs. All of this was motivation to start a cage diving operation to introduce the White shark to the many tourists that visit South Africa. This book was written to give people an insight into part of my experiences and also better understand the Great White shark.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Nov 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466961371

George J. Smit

After thirty-eight years of free deep-sea diving, I feel that my experiences should be shared with other divers and prospective divers. My experiences with the white shark along the South African coastline and an attack on me and my son and my later involvement in white shark cage diving for a period of twelve years has motivated me to write this book. I grew up near Cape Town and later qualified as an electronics engineer but nature has been a great part of my life. I retired as electronics engineer at the University of Stellenbosch and decided to pursue the new venture, taking tourists to sea and educating them about the white shark.

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Contents

ONE : WHERE IT ALL STARTED

TWO : I STARTED FREE DIVING

THREE : WHITE SHARK AND BRONZE WHALERS OF HANGKLIP

FOUR : MY DEEP DIVE

FIVE : LOST MY BOAT IN A STORM

SIX : DIVERS ATTACKED BY 30 SHARKS

SEVEN : PLETTENBERG BAY SHARK ATTACK

EIGHT : WHITE SHARK AND STING RAY AT BUFFELS BAY

NINE : SPEARFISHING AT AGULHAS

TEN : MY NEXT TRIP TO AGULHAS

ELEVEN : BOETIE KRIEL’S BOAT TZITSIKAMMA COAST

TWELVE : DIVING IN MOZAMBIQUE COMPETITION

THIRTEEN : SINKING MY BOAT ON ANVIL ROCK

FOURTEEN : 1966 DURBAN COMPETITION

FIFTEEN : BELLVILLE UNDERWATER CLUB

SIXTEEN : THE WHALE AT PRINGLE BAY

SEVEN-TEEN : 1968 COMPETITION

EIGHTEEN : NEAR DEATH BY MALARIA MOSQUITO

NINETEEN : 1972 MOZAMBIQUE PONTA DU OURO

TWENTY : HAMMERHEAD SHARK AND BULL SHARK AT TOFO

TWENTY-ONE : ATTACK ON DAWID SUNDAY 11TH OCTOBER 1987

TWENTY-TWO : GANSBAAI

TWENTY-THREE : SHARKS OF THE HMS BIRKENHEAD

TWENTY-FOUR : TRANSPORTER ARNISTON

TWENTY-FIVE : WHITE SHARK ADVENTURES

TWENTY-SIX : TALKING TO A WHITE SHARK

TWENTY-SEVEN : RIVALS IN CAGE DIVING

TWENTY-EIGHT : OPPOSITION TO CAGE DIVING

TWENTY-NINE : CARCHARIAS

THIRTY : WHITE POINTER

THIRTY-ONE : WHITE POINTER CREW PROBLEMS

THIRTY-TWO : WHITE POINTER THE UNSINKABLE SANK

THIRTY-THREE : WHITE POINTER LIVES AGAIN

THIRTY-FOUR : THE DAY A WHITE SHARK GOT STUCK IN THE CAGE

THIRTY-FIVE : MY LAST DAYS ON WHITE POINTER

ONE

WHERE IT ALL STARTED

All of this happened with Peter Benchly’s Novel Jaws. The book that has taken the world by storm after Steven Spielberg created the spine-chilling movie, about which every person on the globe now knows. Jaws have created such a storm that every movie director was scheming of ways in which he could benefit from this newfound movie attraction.

People conditioned into believing that the Great White shark was a man-eater and along the coast of South Africa a new breed of fishermen started going to sea in search of the Great White shark with the sole intention of killing these monsters of the deep. So serious were they to eradicate the killing machine that a number of drums with cable and hook attached placed in the sea. When a Great White would come to the surface to take the bait, it would hook itself and the ensuing struggle will mean the end of the shark since the shark was not capable of dragging the drum to the bottom. The fishermen would go and collect the sharks caught by this method and in most cases would cut out the jaws discarding the rest into the ocean since their 16-foot boats could not carry the load. Only the largest shark of the day’s catch will be towed back to shore for photographs.

Great White shark hunters from False Bay coastline were some of the many who would regularly go to sea, and many White sharks died at their hands. During the 1950s, I was involved in line fishing from a fishing boat, the Heronetta which was moored in Gordon’s Bay. During that time, the fishermen were talking about the Submarine and I was very interested to see this monster of the deep. One day we were out fishing for Cob in the Macassar area in False Bay, and one of the fishermen shouted: Watch out guys the Submarine is here. As I looked over the side, there was this Huge Great  White  shark cruising along side the boat. The sight of the shark sent a chill down my spine, and a feeling of fear came over me since I have never seen a shark of this size before. The Heronetta was a small wooden fishing boat with sleeping quarters below the deck. It was fitted with a marine converted Leyland engine.

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The owner Hennie Liebenberg, brother of the well-known wrestler Willie Liebenberg, was very proud of his boat and would always be busy in the engine room cleaning and keeping it spotless. The boat is much larger than the other smaller fishing boats and has a length of 36 foot. Hanging over the side, I judged the length of the shark, and it was about half the length of the boat. The girth was about 3 feet, and the shark looked very impressive, and I was thinking about what would happen if this shark should suddenly attack the boat. The fisherman who lost his large cob to the shark showed us the head of the cob on his line and said, I think if we want to catch some fish we would have to move since the Submarine will not allow you to take out a single fish. The shark stayed around the boat and had an easy meal taking off one Cob after another. The fishermen then became very frustrated and eventually we decided to lift anchor and move, to my relief.

We moved to the Seal Island area where we made a new anchor. We did not catch a single cob for the rest of the day and was unhappy with the Great White patrolling the area where the cob was. The rest of our catch consisted of a few bunches of Red Roman and Red Stumpnose which we caught in the area close to Seal Island. Seal Island is a rocky outcrop in False Bay some 5 miles from Simonstown harbor and has a Cape fur seal population of about 60,000.

During these years, the culling of seals were still at the order of the day and regular trips were undertaken to Seal Island by a group of seal hunters using their clubs to kill the seals. Culling was aneffective method to control the seal population. A few months later during one of our trips, we had another White shark at the boat and when it took a fish off the line, the line wrapped around the propeller. Hennie, the owner, said that there was no way that we were going to leave the area with the line wrapped around the propeller since it would chew up the bearing. Someone would have to dive and remove the fishing line.

The fishermen were all looking at each other possibly thinking that the owner was crazy. With great hesitation, I volunteered to do it. I got undressed and only in my underpants went overboard. I was as nervous as hell as I dropped into the water looking around for a sign of the shark. I took a couple of deep breaths and relaxed since the water temperature was pleasant. I had no mask, so I opened my eyes underwater and swam down towards the propeller.

My vision was blurred, but I saw the propeller and shaft with the line twisted around the propeller shaft and swam towards it. While I held my breath and was busy removing the line, my eye caught a shadow on the far side. The profile of a Great White shark sent cold shivers down my back! I slipped away from the prop and reached for the surface, taking a deep breath and now looking around me for the tell tale sign of the shark.

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It did not appear on my side of the boat, and the fishermen assured they had seen nothing.  Veryreluctant I swam down towards the propeller and started cutting the line that wrapped around the propeller shaft. With the knowledge that a shark is in the area, I felt extremely uncomfortable and kept looking out there for the shape of a shark. I removed all the nylon doing several dives, and as I pulled the last strands off the shaft, I turned to ascend and looked directly into the eyes of the shark approaching with the mouth half open.

I froze the moment felt like minutes as we were staring at each other. I let out a scream underwater and the shark shot away at top speed leaving me behind in the swirling water. I could not believe that the shark was right behind me and has been wondering what its intentions were.

Was it possible that it was sneaking up from behind to take a bite at my moving legs while I was removing the line from the propeller shaft? Of course, I will never know.

During the years that I fished from the Heronetta, I have seen the Submarine again, but I cannot be sure if I have seen this shark before. Somehow, this shark looked a lot narrower in girth than the previous one I have seen. The fishermen were convinced, but I asked them how they knew it was the same shark. They had no logical answer to my questions, so we left it at that. Fishing from Heronetta was always fun and was never done for reward since all the fish caught was given to, Hennie, the owner of the boat and I had to pay R2.00 for a site on the boat. Even though I later became the skipper, I still had to pay. This did not really bother me since my experience as skipper was going to play an important role in the future. The only fish that I ever took home was Mackerel, considered bait. I built a smoker out of a 44-gallon petrol drum, and Sunday afternoons after the fishing trip I would spend some time smoking the Mackerel.

TWO

I STARTED FREE DIVING

During 1960, I bid the Heronetta farewell and then started focusing on free diving and spear fishing. With the new wetsuit that I bought from Zero I filled, the bathtub with cold water donned the suite and climbed into the bath. The first thing I learnt was that I needed a weight belt since I was floating like a cork. The next day I went back and purchased a weight belt but all of this did not really satisfy my curiosity, and I could not wait to get down to the ocean to try it out. With a Cressi sub mask, Cressi flippers and a pneumatic pump action spear gun from Nemrod, I now challenged the ocean to see what it will provide. My very first dive was in the Steenbras River mouth since I had the idea that this was going to be a very calm area. I forgot that after a calm period, a set of big swells came through, and this caught me unaware lifting me up to the nearest rock. In the swirling water, I could not see until the glass of my mask smashed against the rock. That was the end of my dive for that day since I then needed a new mask. This did not dampen my enthusiasm for this newfound sport. I was back to dive the next weekend armed with a brand new mask. The sea was rougher, and I decided to give the Steenbras River mouth a miss. I drove up along the coast past Rooi Els (Red Needle) and across the neck to Cape Hangklip.(Cape of the Hanging Rock) Down the dirt road that took me past the Hangklip Hotel (Owned by Sakkie Siebrits) to a small inlet where boats are launched. The bay with the launching site, known as Maasbaai is a very popular fishing area. From Maasbaai, I walked across the dunes towards the lighthouse and discovered a protected bay known as Moonlight Bay.

A number of reefs protect the bay from the sea, and the bay is always very calm. This is an ideal place to start my diving career and the white sandy beach along its edge was suitable for the family to spend time in the sun waiting for my return with a fish or two. The kelp beds in this bay not only produced fish but also have an abundance of lobster and abalone.

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During my early diving days, Moonlight bay was my most popular dive spot since it is accessible in all weather conditions and produced a number of Galjoen and Hottentot during each diving trip. The lobster and Abalone was a bonus after every day’s Spearfishing trip. Sometimes we would bring some firewood along, and we would enjoy a braai (barbecue) on the beach. Abalone can be very tough if not treated correctly, so we would killit by using a stone and hitting it very hard on the nervous system under the foot. A bladed instrument is used to take the meat out ofthe shell, and remove the intestines. The meat scrubbed on a rock until it is clean.

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The shellfish would be very tender and can be prepared in any way, but we preferred putting the Abalone steaks on the coals very briefly, about 90 seconds on either side or until it is golden brown. With a spread of garlic, butter, lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt, the abalone is simply delicious. The lobster is cut lengthwise in half and washed in seawater. It is filled with garlic and butter then placed on a grid over the coals. It is a seafood feast and is always the highlight of our Spearfishing trip in this area.

During this time, I met a diver named Robin Lobb who popped into myshop very often. We soon joined forces, and while he was working forthe railways, he often had time off, and we would go to Hangklip fora dive. The Sea Fisheries inspectors would sometimes come around tocheck the size and quantity of Abalone and Lobster we have takenout. They were never athreat since I alwaysstayed inside the legallimit. During one ofthese visits, we had abraai close to the Maasbaai slipway, and wehad some large