Raggie Cave — Aliwal Shoal

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Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Aliwal Shoal location page.

Overview

Series of overhangs where ragged-tooth sharks rest mid-water during their winter mating aggregation. You can drift slowly along the ledge and watch dozens of sharks at arm's length. Whale and dolphin sounds often audible during the sardine run.

What you'll see

3 species curated

Ragged-tooth shark
seasonal
Peak: Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov
Bottlenose dolphin
year-round
Humpback whale (audible)
seasonal
Peak: Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Ragged-tooth shark
medium confidence
Last confirmed
Nov 2025
Recent records
45 within 10 km
Cluster months
Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
Wildbook (Sharkbook, Whale Shark, Manta Matcher) — Wild Me
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	24–26 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Feb	24–26 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Mar	23–25 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Apr	22–24 °C	10–20 m	moderate
May	21–23 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Jun	19–21 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Jul	18–20 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Aug	18–20 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Sep	19–21 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Oct	20–22 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Nov	22–24 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Dec	23–25 °C	10–20 m	moderate

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

Gear for this site

Beyond the basic kit

5mm wetsuit — Cold winter water.

Next step

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