White Shark Projects (WSP) comes to its 12th Africa’s Travel Indaba with news of an experiential travel product. This is a 24-hour volunteer programme, the operator’s response to consumer demand for a more in-depth shark encounter.
Participants will be collected from their hotel and taken to Kleinbaai, where they will board the shark-cage diving vessel. “A plunge in the Atlantic waters and a Great White in your face will certainly make you feel alive,” says Inge Altona-de Klerk, of WSP’s marketing team.
Volunteers then listen to an informative lecture in shark biology and take part in a community project and other activities in the afternoon. In the evening they get to cook, mingle and share stories. An early start the next morning heralds a second shark dive before return to Cape Town.
Says Altona-de Klerk: “A recent study conducted in Australia has revealed what we here at White Shark Projects already knew: diving with Great White sharks changes people’s perspective on sharks and turns them into shark ambassadors.
“Most clients expect to feel some level of fear but are surprised to hear themselves exclaim words such as ‘beautiful’, ‘peaceful’ and ‘majestic’ after they leave the water. Most clients are surprised by the sense of wonder and the emotional connection they experience through engagement with these amazing apex predators. Those same predators, who have been portrayed as evil villains for as long as we can remember, are in fact the innocent, helpless victims in this tale. Due to sharks’ negative image, their conservation efforts have often gone unsupported by the greater public.
“So, our message is this: responsible eco-tourism plays an integral role in changing mindsets, increasing awareness of shark conservation and educating clients on the vital role that sharks play in the health of our oceans and our planet as a whole. Sharks are worth more alive than dead, and they need all the help they can get.”
