South Africa
Expeditions
South Africa
£2.50
Diving South Africa
South Africa offers some of the most demanding and most rewarding shark diving in the world. The Sardine Run along the Wild Coast each winter is the headline — vast shoals of sardines pushed north by cold currents, hunted by common dolphins, sharks, gannets and Bryde's whales in bait balls that form and vanish within minutes. On the KwaZulu-Natal coast, Protea Banks and Aliwal Shoal offer year-round shark diving, with tiger sharks in the warmer months and sand tigers gathering in winter. Conditions are frequently rough, and launches are made through the surf.
- Best time to dive
- Sardine Run roughly May to July; tiger sharks in the warmer months
- Difficulty
- Advanced — surf launches, current, swell and open-ocean conditions
- Water temperature
- 14–26°C depending on coast and season
- Visibility
- 5–30m, highly variable
Top dive sites
- •Sardine Run, Wild Coast — Bait balls with dolphins, sharks and gannets
- •Protea Banks — Deep reef with tiger, bull and hammerhead sharks
- •Aliwal Shoal — Sand tiger sharks and baited tiger shark dives
- •False Bay & Gansbaai — Great white cage diving, though numbers have changed
What you’ll see
Frequently asked questions
When is the Sardine Run in South Africa?
Broadly May to July, as cold water pushes north along the Wild Coast and enormous sardine shoals move with it. It is not a scheduled event: the timing, location and intensity vary year to year, and some seasons disappoint entirely. Trips are run as multi-day charters where you spend long hours on a boat searching for activity, then enter quickly when a bait ball forms. Most in-water time is snorkelling rather than scuba, since the action is fast and shallow.
Can you still see great white sharks in South Africa?
Yes, but the picture has changed. Great white numbers at the traditional Gansbaai and False Bay cage diving sites dropped sharply from around 2017, widely linked to a pair of orcas that have been preying on white sharks and appear to have driven them from the area. Sightings have become far less predictable and some operators have shifted focus to other species. Anyone booking specifically for great whites should ask operators directly about recent sighting rates.