Frequented divesites on the Aliwal Shoal:

Please bring your c-card!!
Scuba Diving is fun and a great adventure. Diving with sharks under guidance is a safe activity! Please note the depth at the different scuba dive sites and verify if it is within your scuba dive qualifications. The below described divesites can also seen on the Aliwal Shoal Map we created in 2000. Plenty of duplicates out there - they are been published without our permission. (Thanks “Who’s your daddy” J.Els. - little insider joke here…) But hey, they Aliwal Shoal Reef is for everybody and it was fun doing the mapping.

Raggies Cave

Maximum depth Depth 18m - Open Water Divers.
The place where you can view the “Raggies” ( Ragged Tooth Shark) during the shark season. This is likely the most popular and visited place on the shoal. You are not permited to enter the cave when sharks present! There is upfront of the cave a divine viewing place to kneel down and watch the sharks. It is also a good place to search for shark teeth when the raggies are gone. (Please note: shark teeth are the only thing you are allowed to take from the Aliwal Shoal. In this from current sheltered area you can also see some resident potato bass as well moray eels.

Shark Alley

Average depth is 14 m - Open Water Divers.
Groups of raggies populate this area during the winter. The depth is average by 14 meters. Although not overly aggressive please do not approach the sharks too closely. If there are surgy conditions this divesite needs to be dived very carefully.

Pinnacles

Maximum depth 14m - Open Water Divers.
A perfect site for the beginner or open water diver to get some Aliwal Shoal feeling… :-). Plenty of potholes creating protected nurseries for juvenile fish. The are plentyful anemones with clownfish to observe. Large potato bass seem to hang out on occcassion.

Cathedral

Maximum depth Depth 27m - Advanced Divers
A “must” for an Raggie fan! During Ragged Tooth Shark season been sightings of 40 and more of this placid sharks resting within this amphitheatre. Great place to get the perfect shot if you into UW photography. During the southafrican summermonth watch out for hammerheads and stingrays.

Inside Edge

Maximum depth 22m - Open Water Divers
The Inside Edge includes the entire inshore oriented edge of the aliwal shoal. You can see larger species of fish and rays there. Yet it seems to be more suitable for smaller sightings as octopus, scorpionfish, firefish eels and nudibranchs. The top of that edge is 14 to 16 meters and this dive can be enjoyed by open water divers if they stay within there limits at the upper edge.

North + South Sands

Maximum depth 15m - Open Water Divers
The classroom on the shoal! This large sand patches are often used by scuba instructors for practice sessions with scuba dive students. Dolphins been seen to play and rubb themself in the sand.

Manta Point

Depth 15m - 22m Mainly Advanced Divers
Crayfish and Cleaner-Shrimp prefer the hiding option between crack and holes. Good place to see all kind of rays, in particular Manta ray during the season.

Eel Skin

Maximum depth 18m - Open Water Divers
Situated to the south-western tip of the Aliwal Shoal reef are plenty of sand gullies and reef clusters with some swim throughs. The reef exhibits here fossilized rock formations. Many tropical shoaling fish on display.

“Produce” wreck

Maximum depth 32m - Advanced Divers
This steel cargo ship Produce was carrying molasses when it hit the reef and sunk in 1974. It is lying on its hull in 3 sections. The stern and bow are more or less intact but the centre section has collapsed. A favourite haunt of Lion Fish, and everyone who dives here is hoping for a glimpse of the two giant Brindle Bass which are rumored to weigh around 400 Kg ! Look out for the big moray eel which lives in the wreck toilet. The very rare Harlequin Goldie (which is indigenous to this area) has been seen here. You may be lucky enough to see a Tiger Shark if the visibility is good.

“Nebo” wreck

Maximum depth 27m - Advanced Divers
The wooden wreckage of this old steamer which sunk in 1884 lies approximately 1 Km north west of Aliwal Shoal. It is still possible to see the propeller and the boiler on the wreck. There are many eels and large shoals of baitfish at all times of the year. You will see many different species of shrimps around the boiler area. Keep an eye open for Barracuda and Tuna which are hunting the smaller fish which shelter here. There have been sightings of paper fish and frog fish on the wreck.

Safety First

Bring your C card….
We want to emphasize again, for the ALiwal Shoal as for all other destinations: PLEASE bring your brevet / c-card!! We are required to check your current qualifications. No C-card = no diving with Shark Society. Sorry, safety first as with all our activities.

The Aliwal Shoal is app. 5 kilometers offshore south of Umkomaas. As a reference, the coordinates northern point of Aliwal Shoal, where the wreck of the Produce are laying are 30°15.636′S and 30°830′E.

Umkomaas serves as the gateway to the Aliwal Shoal and is the home to the majority of the Aliwal dive charter operations. The Zulu name is Umkomanzi, which was given by King Shaka Zulu himself in 1928 on one of his royal processions with his ‘Impi’ (warriors). During a hunting sojourn, he saw a number of cow whales and calves which were basking in the shallows a short distance out to sea from the river mouth. The name Umkomanzi, literally translated means ‘The watering place of the whales’.

Under the Umkomaas bridge on the river (uMkomazi) mouth is the launchsite for the Aliwal Shoal excursions. Pending on conditions / tidelevel you will man the semirigid boat (RIB) still in the river or direct from the beach into the surf. Thats where the difference to “regular resort diving” starts!

There is staff to load and secure your scuba equipment and get the boat ready, however - at times you may be asked to lend a hand to push the boat in the surf….

After that it’s all as explained in the briefing beforehand: feet’s in the footstraps and hold on for the first exiting part of your Aliwal Shoal trip! A surflaunch with an 8m, twinpowered semirigid boat (RIB) passing the surfzone is a “thrill” on itself. At more rough conditions it can be a bumpy event with plenty of oceanspray…

After an 20 min. boatride you are at the Shoal. The Aliwal Shoal can be an testing divesite if you are visiting the first time. Again: NO resortdiving!! All dives ( well, almost all..) are drift dives, the dive leader, either DM (divemaster) or instructor will deploy an top-service signalmarker as reference for the skipper as well for the scuba divers while guiding the dive. An description of all Aliwal Shoal divesites as Raggies Cave, Shark Alley, Cathedral and others you find here or you use the site-search.

We apologize for any inconvenience browsing our shark divers website. Shark Society is re-designing (with a helping hand from the Wwwizzards) and some of the pages are temporarily not available or not complete. Launch date for the new, 2008 season website design will be middle of February 2008. Many new features and several NEW dive locations in Mozambique and Madagascar. Stay tuned, it will be worth the waiting. In the meantime you may want to check out this Tigershark video from the Aliwal Shoal. We are not into chumming or baiting the sharks yet the producer of this video was….:( Continue Reading »
New Shark Society website design