Diving with Giants: The World’s Best Pelagic Dives – Jack Jackson (editor)
Pelagic creatures are those that live in the open ocean. They’re generally large, fast, or both. Diving with them is thrilling – I will never forget my first glimpse of a whitetip reef shark on a deep dive in Sodwana this month.
This book is another of Jack Jackson’s coffee table books – the other one I have read is his Dive Atlas of the World. Like that volume, this is a large-format, beautifully illustrated volume that combines contributions from various local experts. Chris Fallows features once again with an article about the great whites in Cape Town. Our sevengill cowsharks appear to be a well-kept secret!
There are many places where you can dive with sharks and rays in relatively shallow water, making for an awesome dive experience. We are extremely fortunate in the Cape to have such a variety of shark species on our doorstep. The sardine run and the whale sharks and manta rays further north into Mozambique are also close by.
I was interested to read several cautions agains wearing light-coloured fins in these articles, because the sharks apparently mistake them for something more edible than rubber and plastic!
The photographs in this book are magnificent and it’s sure to be a conversation starter (or stopper – if you get too absorbed)! You can get a copy of the book here.
