While many expected Craig Ferreira to end up as shark food, the Cape Town shark diver instead landed the star role in a lucrative Discovery Channel documentary screened to a massive US TV audience last month.

Now the TV channel wants to immortalise Ferreira’s bid to dive with all of the world’s dangerous sharks in a multimillion-dollar, 12-part series.

But Ferreira has a more serious foe than two-ton underwater predators with serrated teeth — his father, Theo Ferreira.

He said the risks of diving with dangerous sharks far outweighed the benefits.

“Only an idiot free- dives with Great White sharks,” Ferreira snr said from Gansbaai, a small coastal town two hours from Cape Town and the centre of the country’s lucrative shark cage-diving industry.

“There is a very real potential danger of you being taken out, and the only thing that saves you is the fact that you are alien in their environment and that makes the shark a bit nervous.”

Heated disagreement between family members was a central feature of the film pilot, shot in Shark Alley off Dyer Island, South Africa’s notorious Great White breeding ground.

Craig this week played down the row with his dad and said he hoped the documentary would destroy the harmful stereotype of sharks as mindless killing machines.

To prove his point, the film crew plan to record him swimming with the world’s 12 most dangerous shark species, dubbed the Dirty Dozen.

“Contrary to popular belief, sharks are predictable. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to do it [free dive] ... We’ve learnt that they’re very stable animals with very stable behaviour. If you understand those parameters, you can take very good calculated risks,” said Craig. “But, at the same time, it’s like a gun. If you become complacent, it’s going to go off.”

Theo made headlines himself in the ’70s and ’80s when he was hunting a 7m Great White in False Bay nicknamed The Submarine. He later became a prominent shark conservationist, but distanced himself from the industry after being charged with harassing a Great White in False Bay in 2004.

The full documentary series will take the Ferreira family to some of the world’s most spectacular diving sites. (www.filmmaker.co.za)

Molo Says: Great White Sharks are beautiful creatures and amazing to see 'face to face'. Read more on Shark Cage Diving in Gansbaai or watch our online movie for an exciting and memorable experience! If you're scared of the sharkies why not snorkel with seals in the Cape Peninsula or have other adventures on the water in Cape Town.

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