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All 12 Gansbaai Attractions »

White Shark Ecoventures

Gansbaai, South Africa
+27 21 532 0470
Website
Beautiful, majestic and scary all at once
Mergulho
Mergulho
Mergulho
18 visitor photos
Ranked #5 of 9 tours in Gansbaai
4.0 of 5 stars 32 Reviews
Type: Tours
Owner description: White Shark Ecoventures is widely acknowledged as one of South Africa’s leading shark cage diving and viewing specialists and is part of an industry... more » Owner description: White Shark Ecoventures is widely acknowledged as one of South Africa’s leading shark cage diving and viewing specialists and is part of an industry attracting over 40 000 visitors per annum to South Africa. Driven by her passion for these animals, our CEO Cindy Thornhill was co-founder of the White Shark Cage Diving industry in South Africa in 1992.Our MD, Mariette Hopley was the founder of the Great White Shark Protection Foundation in 2001 and is still the chairperson for this foundation. She wrote the constitution for the WSCD Industry and invited operators to join the Section 21 registered Foundation. Due to her efforts and input, she managed to ensure that the WSCD industry was accredited as a responsible industrial body in the non-consumptive sector with MCM (Marine & Coastal Management) and Government. Mariette has also been nominated to be appointed to the Robbin Island Portfolio Committee, as the nature conservation portfolio member. Mariette’s involvement in conservation and rehabilitation of all wildlife species over the years, have earned her an international contract with IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare). During the war in Iraq in 2003, IFAW deemed Mariette as the only person qualified enough to be send into the war stricken area of Baghdad, where hundreds of highly stressed, abused, injured and war stricken animals at Saddam Hussain’s palace and the Zawra Park Zoo. Her expertise with marine , rapture and water birds, as well as other animals such as bears, lions, tigers and smaller predators, made her the ideal candidate for this very difficult task. After her initial assessment of the severity of the situation, she selected and deployed various other specialist members from across the globe to come out to assist her with her tasks in this war stricken red zone. Her experience also lead to her involvement in 3 major oil spills around the South African coast line, namely the Apollo Sea, Cordigliera and most recent Treasure Oil Spills. Here she was the Logistical Co-ordinator for IFAW and was deployed to built facilities and to rehabilitate and clean more than 33 000 African Penguins. Due to her expertise in the field, she had a very high success rate with all 3 these project.. Mariette is also actively involved in the lobbying of species for international CITIES listing and have participate in various campaigns opposing canned lion hunting, large predator breeding programs, illegal ivory trade and culling of elephants. Mariette was instrumental in the lobbying of Great White Sharks to become listed on CITIES and was the Executive Committee Chairperson for SANCCOB for two consecutive years. Mariette has also designed the MH feeding box and pen divider for SANCCOB, for marine birds which are kept in quarantine. Both these inventions were specifically designed to ensure that stress is reduced to a minimum, when handling the birds.In parliament, Mariette was nominated to serve on the National Minister for Environmental & Tourism Affairs (Fishing Industry Task Team), as the non-consumptive representative for the WSCD, mariculture and scuba diving. Here she performed the task as advisor to the Minister and spokesperson for the non–consumptive industries. « less
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32 reviews from our community

Visitor rating
    17
    5
    2
    1
    7
Date Rating
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
1 review
“An amazing start to our very special holiday”
5 of 5 stars Reviewed 30 March 2012

We booked online a couple of weeks prior to the tour. Everything from that moment till the drop off after was handled with expertise. I mailed Ecoventure on a number of occations to confirm and reconfirm and they were extremely proffesional. But let's focus on the actual experience. AMAZING!!!!!! The tour was conducted proffesionally. We learnt much more about these... More

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Leicestershire
Contributor
11 reviews 11 reviews
Reviews in 10 cities Reviews in 10 cities
6 helpful votes 6 helpful votes
“Fantastic Experience”
4 of 5 stars Reviewed 19 March 2012

We booked the excursion through Into the Blue Scuba Dive Centre as we were doing some diving with them. We received a call the day before the trip to confirm start times and fortunately it was a midday start so not such an early start for us as it takes approx 2 hours to get to Gansbaai from Cape Town.... More

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Orange, CT
1 review
“Best Day of our Honeymoon”
5 of 5 stars Reviewed 7 March 2012

They divemaster and captain really did an excellent job. The visibility was hard to see the sharks further then 5 feet in the cage. But we saw 6 different sharks that kept coming up to visit. The sharks were an awesome site outside the boat as well. I wanted to stay in the water and thought about going on the... More

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2 reviews
2 helpful votes 2 helpful votes
“VERY EDUCATIONAL AND AMAZING EXPERIENCE!”
5 of 5 stars Reviewed 10 February 2012 via mobile
2
people found this review helpful

My family and I visited White Shark Ecoventures on the 4th of Jan and found their excursion highly educational and informative.  Both my kids love sharks and to them this was a life dream come true!  Well done to owners and staff for a fantastic, highly recommended tour.   J Wisemann

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1 review
1 helpful vote 1 helpful vote
“AMAZING EXPERIENCE!!!”
5 of 5 stars Reviewed 10 February 2012 via mobile
1
person found this review helpful

I went shark diving with this company 21 Dec 2011 and experienced an amazing tour with very caring staff. I couldn't have asked for better weather on my first day we saw about 5 different white sharks - all close to the cage and boat.  What an amazing experience… I was very impressed with the company, everything was well organised... More

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2 reviews
2 helpful votes 2 helpful votes
“VERY EDUCATIONAL FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE”
5 of 5 stars Reviewed 10 February 2012 via mobile

My family and I visited White Shark Ecoventures on the 4th of Jan and found their excursion highly educational and informative.  Both my kids love sharks and to them this was a life dream come true!  Well done to owners and staff for a fantastic, highly recommended. John Wisemann

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Australia
Reviewer
4 reviews 4 reviews
Reviews in 4 cities Reviews in 4 cities
1 helpful vote 1 helpful vote
“Awesome experience with one natures perfect predators”
5 of 5 stars Reviewed 7 February 2012 via mobile

The service sensational - collected at airport to fit in with my need to leave car there for a colleague The tour guide Wiehann was extremely knowledgable about great whites and other ocean details and was a credit to White shark ecoadventures Very friendly strong recommend

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New York City, New York
2 reviews
Reviews in 2 cities Reviews in 2 cities
1 helpful vote 1 helpful vote
“Worst Customer Service”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed 29 January 2012

They refused to accept Credit Cards. Cash only. Why is that I thought? Later when they owed me a refund I learned why. That is because they don't want to refund. And make it impossible to get anything from them. . WHen you call, they ask to email, when you are there, they say to contact their boss. That was... More

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white-shark-diving, Owner at White Shark Ecoventures, responded to this review
31 January 2012

We have been operating successfully for 18 years and the only way you can reserve a space on this tour is by completing a booking form where you are required to provide your credit card details. You are therefore attacking the wrong company as there are 8 companies who do shark diving in the area, and we certainly have never... More

London, United Kingdom
Reviewer
3 reviews 3 reviews
Reviews in 3 cities Reviews in 3 cities
4 helpful votes 4 helpful votes
“Worst customer service ever - worst day of my honeymoon"”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed 14 November 2011
3
people found this review helpful

On Sept 8 my husband went to get a shark diving experience. 5 min after start of the boat journey, a very serious storm started and high swells which made many of the other boats return right away. The Ecoventures trip stayed in the ocean even though there were serious risks for the boat and the passengers. As there was... More

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white-shark-diving, Owner at White Shark Ecoventures, responded to this review
10 January 2012

We have been operating successfully and accident free in this area for 18 years, as we have always put safety first. The captain of the boat who has thousands of sea-hours in these waters understands the weather and will never hesitate to cancel a tour if he has the slightest hesitation with regards to the safety of the passengers and... More

Singapore, Singapore
Contributor
15 reviews 15 reviews
Reviews in 10 cities Reviews in 10 cities
9 helpful votes 9 helpful votes
“Great shark viewing, average service”
3 of 5 stars Reviewed 24 October 2011

You get what you pay for. We paid, saw the sharks (about 4 of them), took nice photos, got served by fairly friendly folks and had edible breakfast and lunch. 20 of us on the medium sized boat plus 6 burly crew so it wasn't that comfortable but it was the sharks we were here to see. Worth at least... More

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