Photo by Tami Kaschke A great white shark that showed up April 9, Kaschke's birthday, demonstrating what is seen daily off the coast.

Photo by Tami Kaschke A shark's nose breaks the surface of the water near the boat, with tiny parasites on its nose. Researchers don't yet know how much the parasites affect the sharks.

Courtesy Photo­Image Kaschke at left, with Marine Biologist Alison Towner on board.

Photo by Tami Kaschke A male shark named Slashfin with a partial fin, which has been seen every year since 2004.

Tami Kaschke of North Platte recently traveled halfway around the world to see her loves -- Great White sharks.

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In March Kaschke went to Gansbaai, South Africa to be closer to the Great Whites, also known as Carcharodon carcharias.

Kaschke said the big sharks are “amazing creatures that stole my heart four years ago when I first saw them,” when she was a volunteer in 2009.

She returns every year for nearly three months, working as a research assistant, helping learn and inform people about the lifestyles of Great White sharks.

Great Whites are not nearly as fierce as people generally think, she said. Their vicious reputation stems from such movies as Jaws, the 1975 blockbuster that became the highest-grossing film in history at the time.

In the movie, a monstrous Great White shark terrorizes a vacation town in New England, biting off the limbs of unsuspecting swimmers with a single chomp.

Sharks can be deadly creatures, but such stories paint a highly exaggerated view of reality, Kaschke said. On average, all sharks worldwide kill between 7-10 people a year, while on the other hand, humans kill an estimated 100 million sharks a year.

Particularly devastated are the sharks that are slaughtered for shark fin soup, Kaschke said. Often, shark fins are cut off and the rest of the animal is thrown back into the ocean to drown.

Great White sharks are an endangered species and most researchers estimate there are less than 5,000 in the world.

White sharks congregate in the Gansbaai area on the southern tip of South Africa.

In the winter months, the sharks swim in the area of Geyser Rock, which has 50,000-60,000 cape fur seals, making it a prime spot for feeding. In the summer, the sharks move towards inshore areas and can often be seen in shallow waters just behind the breakers that hit the beach.

“We are privileged to see up to 20 different sharks on a daily basis,” Kaschke said.

Kaschke works with a company called Marine Dynamics and the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, which places a high priority on conservation and also funds research projects. It is an eco-tourism business as well as a research effort, rolled together.

Kaschke said scientists do not have answers for many questions about Great Whites. Although Great Whites tend to stay near Gansbaai for two weeks to three months, no one knows exactly where they go from there.

But in April and May, global positioning tags were placed on 14 sharks while they were in the Gansbaai area. The tags will provide real-time movements of the animals for the next two years. Questions about distribution, gathering sites, migratory routes and maybe even mating and birthing areas will be discovered and better understood, she said.

It’s already clear that the sharks are constantly moving along the South African coastlines, Kaschke told the Bulletin.

“It is going to be really exciting in the coming months and years to see how their movements change during the different seasons,” she said.

In the Marine Dynamics operation, tourists go out on a cage-diving boat. As many as seven people go underwater in a cage at one time and stay there for approximately 25 minutes, watching the sharks.

Kaschke said there is absolutely no fear of attacks.

“The cage is completely safe and there is not an opening that is big enough for the animal to get in. On occasion a shark will approach right at the cage, but again, no danger at all,” she said.

In South Africa, the cage-diving industry has provided jobs on the ocean that are about conservation instead of killing the sharks. Also, the researchers speak to about 40 visitors a day and educate them about the real Great White sharks, Kaschke said.

One of the best known great white sharks in Gansbaai is named Slashfin, a male that has come to the area every year since 2004. Slashfin was once bitten by another shark, damaging his dorsal fin. The wound healed but left its damage. Slashfin is nearly 15 feet long, Kaschke said.

He's one of her favorites.

For more about the shark cage diving tours, click HERE.

This report was first published in the June 13 print edition of the North Platte Bulletin.