Spectacular Aquatic Life in Swartvlei by Neels Swanepoel

The ocean is currently quite rough, so we decided to have a dive in Swartvlei. Entering at the mouth we worked our way toward the jetty. Viz was a very pleasant 5m and there seemed to be hundreds of juvenile fish around. Beautiful baby Blacktails and Zebras were schooling in the sheltered water and to add to the underwater nursery school, we came across a juvenile Eagleray. It had a disc-width of 20cm and was coasting along just above the sand. I dived down to where it was (about 4m) and followed it around for a while. Looking up, another one came cruising by in mid-water. These rays were all over, and we saw between 15 and 20 of them. Awesome stuff!

Chanti, who was diving with us, came swimming up to me with eyes so large they almost filled her mask. She proceeded to explain that a big shark had just passed under her. Incredulously I told her that sharks very rarely enter our lagoon. I had hardly said the words when a Ragged tooth shark came past me. Another Shark! This was absolutely incredible. At least 2 raggies swimming around, one of about 1m and another of  1,7m. Not bad for a recreational lagoon dive.

 Following a raggie as it slowly made its way across the sandy bottom, with baby Eaglerays floating overhead, it was like a scene from an underwater Gotham City – only it’s not in the movies, it’s on your doorstep. 

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