Most scuba divers have that one marine creature, just that one special sighting, that will complete their underwater adventures. This is, of course, not true at all. No matter what you have never seen or what you’ve seen a thousand times, scuba diving will remain the miraculous adventure that it is – to me, anyway.
Regardless, you still want to tick a few things off your marine life sightings bucket list. They say size doesn’t matter, but in the underwater kingdom it does. (That’s unless you’re an apex predator, of course.) While some are thrilled by nudibranchs and other little critters, I want to see something big. I mean really big. In fact, up to 6m and 170kg big.
The motherlode.
The holy grail of sightings.
The majestic and somewhat shy hammerhead.
Despite the curiosity about the evolutionary reasons for its peculiar shape, this isn’t why I want to see one. The allure of the hammerhead is a singularly unparalleled one. Its vertical 360-degree view enables it to make sudden twists and turns. It can catch a tan from the sun. Females travel in large schools to avoid being bombarded by males when they’re alone and team up so they have some choice in the matter of mating. (#GirlPower) But let’s not get side-tracked, you can read more about the fascinating facts about hammerhead sharks in a future blog.
So now my hunt for the hammerhead begins.
Chapter One takes place on our very own coastline. Protea Banks – one of two major reefs on the KwaZulu-Natal coast. It’s about 6km long, lies at a depth of 27 – 40m, and has a reputation as a great shark diving destination. Bull (Zambezi) and oceanic blacktip sharks can be seen all year round, while you may also see great and scalloped hammerheads, tiger sharks, ragged-tooth sharks, and even possibly some dusky and copper sharks.
The reef is bursting with life and boasts a huge variety of other fish too and, of course, plays host to the annual sardine run. So, in a couple of weeks, I’ll do my first dive at Protea Banks and I’m beyond excited. I’ve never seen the reef, I’m yearning for some proper deep dives and it’s a good time to see scalloped and great hammerheads. Stay tuned for an update.
