The smell was overpowering. It drifted over in great waves, mixing with the salty tang of the sea air. I was bobbing up and down in a small fishing boat off the coast of South Africa, and in front of me was Dyer Island, home to 40,000 fur seals and their yapping, newly-born pups. But it was not the putrid stench of dung and afterbirth that was uppermost in my mind. What was my prime concern was the prospect of pulling on a wetsuit, clambering into a flimsy wire cage and being dunked in the sea among a school of rather hungry-looking great white sharks.
Dyer Island is one of the best places in the world to see great whites.
Until a few years ago, it was the haunt of fishermen and the odd spear-diver. Now it has become the focus for a booming tourist industry. In the little fishing village of Gansbaai, which faces Dyer Island, six companies now offer visitors the opportunity to go cage-diving with great whites. Swimming with a great white shark seems hardly natural, whichever way you look at it. At that size, it would be bigger than the boat I was now standing in.