Even by Andy Murch’s standards his Big Fish Expeditions’ “South African Endemic Shark Diving Safari 2022” was memorable. Originally planned as a two-week trip to five locations, False Bay, Plettenberg, Gqeberha, East London and Aliwal Shoal, I extended it three times to dive Sodwana Bay, then False Bay a second time and finally having contacted Covid-19, to self-isolate in a Johannesburg airport hotel! The two-week trip had become a month!

BFE groups always consist of some really interesting fellow guests and this group, Tig Fong, Jochem Bermon and Sebastien Lagree was no exception. With Ernest Salima looking after us underwater and Warren Hardenberg above, a good time was guaranteed.

South African shark diving offers a wide variety of shark species. False Bay is particularly good because it supports four species of easy-to-see catsharks, plus occasional encounters with sevengill sharks and spotted gully sharks, and the potential of a few other rarer shark sightings. On our first dive in Simon’s Town, we dropped in at a site called The Pinnacles. Descending to the seabed, our guide Ernest broke up a few little mackerel to bring in the catsharks. We could have seen the catsharks without bait but if you bring a little mackeral, they arrive much more quickly and come very close for better images. On that dive alone, we saw at least a dozen sharks including 5-6 leopard catsharks, 4-5 dark shysharks, and 2 pyjama catsharks. Our next dive was at Smitswinkel Bay. We were there because Tiger Catsharks had been recorded here on a BRUV; a baited camera that scientists leave on the bottom to see what species show up. We did not see this elusive species but we did attract a handful of pyjama catsharks and about a dozen Puffadder Sharks; the smallest member of the genus and one of the prettiest. In the afternoon we dived Simon’s Town Lighthouse and the next morning Millers Point where we hoped to see a sevengill. But were out of luck. However just as Andy had anticipated catshark species were easy to encounter and a bonus was an encounter with a hagfish, only the second that I had ever seen. Hagfish are vertebrates that, about 550 million years ago, diverged from all other vertebrates. That afternoon the wind picked up enough to make reef diving out in the bay uncomfortable, so we tucked behind the Simon’s Town harbour wall for a dive. The harbour sometimes has sevengills but again were out of luck. However the harbour wall itself is quite an interesting environment with lots of red corals and puffadders and dark shysharks swimming around but the standout attraction for me was the colourful sea hares.