great white shark diving in South Africa
 

What are the months of September and October like for great white shark diving off the coast of South Africa? What are the chances of not seeing anything? Any recommendations? Thanks.

At Seal Island in False Bay, September and October are "low season" months where shark activity is not at its peak, although there are still some sharks there. The link above will give you information on Dyer Island, which is a little to the west of Cape Town, and which is the location visited by most of the shark diving operators.

Chris

My understanding was that the best shark diving was at Gansbaai, Hermanus...

Sorry, I meant Gansbaai was east of Cape Town ...

Chris

The website link lists September/October as Peak season. Can you clarify? Thanks

There are two locations being discussed and they have different peak seasons. White Shark Ecoventures (the link above) takes people to Dyer Island and sails from Gansbaai. Apparently they feel that the peak season out there includes September and October. I cannot comment on that, other than to say that this is a reputable operator that several members of this Forum have been out with.

The second location is Seal Island, in False Bay. This is the location where all of the "breaching shark" specials are filmed, and the operator who goes out there is African Shark Eco-Charters, owned by Rob Lawrence and Chris Fallows. They sail out of Simon's Town. The peak season for sharks there is June and July. We went out with them there in September 2003 and saw a few sharks, but none would hang around the boat. When we return in 2008, we are going in June to have the best chance of seeing lots of sharks. Lynn from this forum (atravelynn) is going to be there a couple of weeks later for the same reason.

If you go to Rob and Chris's sites, each of them keeps a monthly shark diary and you can see the activity they report in various months:
www.ultimate-animals.com
www.apexpredators.com

Hope this helps.

Chris

i went in september in gansaabi, it was amazing! although, the water is very cold

Sharks are there throughout the year.
August is the "hottest" month for shark actvity.
It's a wild environment, so who knows what your chances of being disappointed are. My guess would be that if the weather closed in you wuoldn't go out and that would cause you not to see sharks, so suggest you give yourself a choice of days to make the trip.

The multi trip approach is a good one. I am planning 5 trips to the sharks because I figures some will be cancelled in mid-July.