SHARK DIVING PROTEA BANKS - Dive In Adventure Tours

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Shark Diving on Protea Banks is an Incredible and Absolutely Unique Experience

SHARK DIVING ON PROTEA BANKS IS An EXPERIENCE of a Life Time

Shark Diving on Protea Banks is known as one of the world’s top shark diving hotspots.

With Dive In Adventures, shark sightings and interactions on Protea Banks are almost guaranteed on every dive. We rarely have a dive without some shark encounter.

When Diving with sharks on Protea Banks, you can have close encounters with Tiger sharks, Hammerheads, Blacktips, Ragged-tooth sharks, Bull sharks and giant Guitar sharks. It’s also possible to spot Great Whites, Threshers, Copper sharks, Duskies, and Sandbar sharks, although not as often.

Dolphins are also regularly seen throughout the year, and Humpback whales give us a show during their migration season on our way to the site. We have amazing underwater encounters with these majestic animals.

The Protea Banks reef is divided into two main dive sites:

Diving Protea Banks Southern Pinnacle:

The southern pinnacle lies between 32 and 28 meters and features beautiful topography and lots of reef fish. However, people don’t visit the reef itself, but rather for the amount of sharks that live or pass by the area. The Southern Pinnacle of Protea Banks is mainly dived during the summer months. It is home to the Scalloped Hammerhead as well as the Great Hammerhead during summer. The endangered Giant Guitar Sharks also love to frequent this reef.

Diving Protea Banks Northern Pinnacle:

This area is most frequently dived during the winter months when the ragged tooth sharks congregate during their migration season. There are two caves, The dive starts at the larger, first cave. Divers then pass through the tunnel and the canyon to reach the second cave, which has several chambers, each with a wide opening overhead.

When the bottom time is finished, we start to ascend slowly to the surface, but do not think the dive is finished, don’t stop looking around. We can still see sharks, rays, whales, and dolphins and big shoals of game fish all the way up to the surface, including during our safety stop.

Protea Banks Shark Diving Season

Hammerhead Sharks

Viewing 1000`s of Hammerheads up close on Protea Banks it is a breathtaking sight!

From September to February KwaZulu-Natal hosts one of the biggest shows on Earth – the migration of thousands, yes you read correctly, thousands of Hammerhead Sharks. This magnificent migration is mind blowing and will keep you coming back for more!!!!

Ragged-Tooth SHARKS

Ragged-tooth sharks in South Africa make an annual migration that cover more than 1000 km.

They give birth during the summer in the cold waters of Cape Town. After they pup they swim to the warm waters of KwaZulu-Natal to sites where there are suitable rocks or caves like Protea Banks and Aliwal Shoal where they mate during the colder months from May to November.

Tiger Sharks

From about January to June we are privileged to encounter the magnificent Tiger Sharks in South Africa.

They are seen naturally on a normal reef dive on both Aliwal Shoal and Protea Banks, but this is rare and usually, these encounters are very quick. If you want to see a Tiger Shark up close and personal and get great photos, then the BAITED SHARK DIVE is for you.

BULL SHARKs

The Bull shark is the only species of sharks that can live both in salt and fresh water. The Bull shark is named Zambezi in Africa because it can be found up to a 100 km into the Zambezi River.

The Zambezi is regularly present in our baited dives and a permanent resident of the reef.

Oceanic Blacktips

Another permanent habitant of Protea Banks and a certainly present on a baited dive is the Blacktip shark. They are generally calm but they can also be easily startled. They are great to dive with, but it’s important to stay alert and keep track of their location in relation to you. A sudden movement could startle them. Their black-colored fins and playful behavior make them captivating to dive with.

Other marine life

In addition to sharks Protea Banks is home to a wide variety of game and tropical fish, Friendly Potato Bass A variety of rays are also commonly sighted including Round Ribbontail Rays, Eagle Rays and Manta Rays.

From June to December, we have the privilege to see Humpback whales everywhere above and underwater!

In winter the humpback whales begin their journey from the South Pole to the tropics as they travel from the Antarctic to breed and give birth in warmer waters. They come to South African waters during this time to breed and calve, coinciding with the sardine run, which attracts a variety of marine life, including other whales. Humpback whales undertake one of the longest migrations of any mammal, traveling up to 25,000 kilometers (16,000 miles) annually. Their migration to South African waters occurs during the cooler months, typically starting in May and continuing until October.