Guide · 2 grounds · 5 operators · their own rules
The cage floats at the surface.
What you need is a calm stomach, not a dive licence.
Shark cage diving sounds like the most dangerous thing on this site and is one of the least demanding: the cage hangs at the surface beside the boat, you climb down a ladder, hold a bar and look down through a mask while sharks circle a few metres away. No operator here asks for a dive licence, most not even for swimming. The questions that matter are different – how old your children must be, whether you will be seasick, and which sharks are actually still there. On Oahu's North Shore the answer is Galapagos and sandbar sharks, nearly every trip. In Gansbaai, once the capital of great white cage diving, the white sharks have largely gone since orcas arrived in 2017. Below: the rules of five operators word for word, the cheapest bookable trip on each ground, and what the shark-bite files and the science say about the cages.
Operators' own limits on 2 grounds
You need neither a dive licence nor, usually, the ability to swim. Both on Oahu and in Gansbaai the cage floats at the surface with its top above the water; you hold a bar and look down. North Shore Shark Adventures says you do not even need to know how to swim, Hawaii Shark Encounters that you only need to climb down a short ladder and hold a handrail, Marine Dynamics puts weak swimmers in a life jacket until they are in the cage. Gansbaai's operators use no snorkel at all – you hold your breath and duck when a shark comes past. The only physical requirement is getting down and up the ladder in a swell.
Age is the real rule, and it is low: 5 at Hawaii Shark Encounters, “all ages” with an unexplained asterisk at North Shore Shark Adventures, from 4 at Marine Dynamics (which recommends the cage from 10 with a parent), no minimum but not under 6 at Apex in Simon's Town. Pregnancy is handled differently too: up to seven months at North Shore Shark Adventures, “consult your doctor” at Apex. What every operator warns about is seasickness – the boats anchor in open water for hours.
| Ground | Stop | Weight | Age | Also |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oahu | Shark cage · three miles off Haleiwa | no swimming or diving needed – you hold the bars | 5+ (Hawaii Shark Encounters); “All ages*” at North Shore Shark Adventures | surface cage for up to 8, about 20 minutes in the water; up to 7 months pregnant at North Shore Shark Adventures; mostly Galapagos and sandbar sharks; no wetsuits provided |
| Cape Town | Cage diving · Shark Alley, Gansbaai | no dive licence; breath-hold, no snorkel or scuba in the cage; weak swimmers wear a life jacket until they enter | from 4 (the site also says 2); cage recommended from 10 with a parent; Apex: no minimum, not under 6 | wetsuit and mask provided; mostly bronze whalers now – white sharks “less predictable since 2017”; no shark activity = voucher, a shark seen from the boat counts |
Cheapest bookable offer per ground, as retrieved Sept 29, 2026
On Oahu a North Shore trip costs about $90–135 for two hours, with about 20 minutes in the cage; Haleiwa Shark Tours charges $95 for children. In South Africa a Gansbaai day costs ZAR 2,700–3,655 for international guests (roughly $150–200) direct from the operators, plus a small conservation fee and transport from Cape Town; the booking platforms sell it with pick-up from about $135. Read the no-shark policy before you book: Hawaii Shark Encounters charges nothing if you see no sharks, Apex gives a free repeat trip, Marine Dynamics a voucher – but counts a shark seen from the boat as a success. The table lists the cheapest bookable trip per ground.
| Ground | Offer | From | Reviews | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oahu | Oahu: shark cage dive on the North Shore | $87.41 | ★ 4.9 · 1,766 | Book → |
| Cape Town | Shark cage diving from Gansbaai, with Cape Town pickup | $135.43 | ★ 4.7 · 857 | Book → |
We found no case of anyone killed by a shark inside a commercial cage. There is no central register of cage incidents, so read that as “none on record”, not as proof. The International Shark Attack File counted 65 unprovoked bites and 9 unprovoked deaths worldwide in 2025 – nearly half of the victims were swimmers or waders, a third surfers – and does not list cage diving as a category at all. The incidents in cages have been near misses: a white shark lunging at the bait broke into a cage at Guadalupe Island in 2016 and the diver climbed out unhurt (CBS News). The deaths linked to the industry were at sea, not in the water with sharks: three tourists drowned when a Gansbaai cage-diving boat capsized in a freak wave in 2008 (NBC News). On Oahu, Hawaii's land and natural resources department lists six bites since 2019 on tours about three miles off Haleiwa – all on “swimming with sharks” trips outside a cage, all classed as provoked, none fatal (DLNR).
The other question is whether the tours make sharks more dangerous for everyone else. The studies say no: on Oahu more than 98 % of the sharks at the cage sites were Galapagos and sandbar sharks, species rarely involved in bites, and bites on the North Shore did not rise after the tours began (Meyer et al. 2009); in South Africa a WWF study found it “highly improbable” that cage diving conditions white sharks to see people as food, provided they are not fed (Johnson & Kock 2006). The rules follow from that: Hawaii bans shark feeding in state waters, so the tours anchor beyond the three-mile line; South Africa's permits forbid letting a shark take the bait.
65unprovoked shark bites worldwide · 2025
Plus 29 provoked bites; 9 unprovoked deaths (12 shark-related deaths in all). United States 25 bites, Australia 21, South Africa 1. Swimmers and waders 46 %, surfers 32 %, snorkellers and free divers 15 %. The file has no cage-diving category.
Source: International Shark Attack File, Florida Museum of Natural History
>98 %Galapagos and sandbar sharks at Oahu's cage sites
Species rarely implicated in attacks; no increase in shark bites on Oahu's north coast since cage diving started; the tours' effect on public safety judged negligible.
Source: Meyer, Dale, Papastamatiou, Whitney & Holland, Environmental Conservation 2009
2017the year the white sharks left Gansbaai
Five white shark carcasses washed up in 2017, four with their livers removed by the orcas Port and Starboard; the sharks left the area and sightings collapsed. A 2025 study found the decline unrelated to cage-diving activity. Bronze whalers now dominate the trips.
Source: Towner et al., African Journal of Marine Science 2022
Source: Operators: North Shore Shark Adventures, Hawaii Shark Encounters, Marine Dynamics, Apex Shark Expeditions
Usually not. On Oahu North Shore Shark Adventures says you don't even need to know how to swim because you hold onto the bars; Hawaii Shark Encounters only asks that you can climb down a short ladder. In Gansbaai weak swimmers wear a life jacket until they enter the cage. Apex in Simon's Town says swimming skills are not required, but you should be comfortable in water.
No. The cages on Oahu and in Gansbaai float at the surface; you look down with a mask and snorkel on Oahu, or hold your breath in South Africa, where no snorkel or scuba is used. Only liveaboard trips with an ocean-floor cage, such as Rodney Fox's in South Australia, require certified divers.
5 at Hawaii Shark Encounters, “all ages” at North Shore Shark Adventures, from 4 at Marine Dynamics in Gansbaai (which recommends the cage from 10 with a parent), no minimum but not recommended under 6 at Apex. Children under 18 need a parent's or guardian's signature.
On Oahu, no – the sharks there are Galapagos and sandbar sharks, occasionally a tiger shark. In Gansbaai, probably not any more: since orcas killed several white sharks in 2017 the whites have been “sporadic and random”, and trips now mostly show bronze whalers. Operators still sell the white shark; read the no-shark policy before you book.
About $90–135 on Oahu for a two-hour trip, and ZAR 2,700–3,655 (roughly $150–200) for a Gansbaai day for international guests, plus transport from Cape Town. See the price table above for the cheapest bookable trip on each ground.
As far as the record shows, no one has been killed by a shark inside a commercial cage; the deaths linked to the industry were three tourists drowned when a Gansbaai boat capsized in 2008. The six bites on Oahu tours since 2019 all happened on cage-free swimming tours. Keep your hands inside the cage and take seasickness tablets.
The studies say no, as long as the sharks are not fed: bites on Oahu's North Shore did not rise after the tours started, and a South African study judged it highly improbable that cage diving conditions white sharks. That is why Hawaii bans feeding in state waters and South Africa's permits forbid letting a shark take the bait.