boardingblonde

I am looking for a recommendation for a shark diving company near the Cape Town area?

atravelynn

Here is one reputable operation that respects the sharks. They do not lure them up to the cages by pulling bait into the cage. They do not chum the water around the boat. They don't feed the sharks to get them to come up to the boat and open their mouths. Depending on the time of year you go, this is the place where the Great Whites jump out of the water as part of their hunting tactics to kill seals.

That's why I chose CHRIS FALLOWS AND ROB LAWRENCE WITH AFRICAN SHARK ECO CHARTER IN SIMONS TOWN. They do their trips in False Bay.

If you are in Cape Town, they drive you to Simon's Town in the early morning for the departure and take you back--I think it is 45 minutes.

Here is a link to my report that has many details of the experience.

http://www.fodors.com/community/afri...o-charters.cfm

There may be other good shark companies too, but I spent a week with African Shark Eco Charters so I can personally vouch for them.

AmyH

So, it looks as if Chris Fallows and Rob Lawrence have parted ways. Rob still runs African Shark Eco Charters and Chris Fallows runs Apex Predators -- both are offering identical trips, identicalrates out of SimonsTown. Seems we probably can't go wrong with either one, but atravelynn and others would you recommend one partner over the other for any reason?

atravelynn

Thank you for the update, AmyH. I was happy with Rob Lawrence and my extensive communication pre-trip with Rob's wife was prompt, professional, and helpful.

I hope they still cooperate while on the water, which benefitted the clients on both of the boats.

kellyee21

We recently got back from Cape Town and did a trip April 20 with African Shark Eco Charters (found this from your great trip report atravelynn, thank you!). I highly recommend them as well and everything in atravelynn's report is spot on. Unfortunately we didn't see any sharks this day but we had a great time anyways. They were there, 3 times we saw fins and one completely severed the rope with a fish head attached, taking fish head, rope and all. But none that were "players". We also saw the end splash of a breach but not the shark. Rob was very determined, but a storm was rolling in and we had to abandon the quest. He did give us the option to get in the cage anyways before leaving, which we did but visibility was really poor and we didn't see anything but I was glad we tried. I will definitely go with them again. We were also offered and given a nice discount on the trip since we didn't get to see any sharks which they didn't have to do (they make it very clear on their website there are no refunds for non-sitings) so that was greatly appreciated as well.

Have a great trip!

atravelynn

Kellyee,

I hope you are able to try for sharks another time. April is early for shark activity so it was good that at least you got to see a fin.