While you technically can swim with great white sharks, doing so safely almost always requires a protective steel cage. Known as "cage diving," this activity allows you to observe these apex predators from the safety of a submerged enclosure while they are lured near the boat. Swimming with them "freely" (without a cage) is considered extremely dangerous and is not offered by legitimate commercial tour operators. Although professional divers and biologists occasionally swim with them to study their behavior, it requires expert knowledge of shark body language to avoid a predatory strike. Because great whites are unpredictable and hold the highest record for unprovoked human fatalities, they are treated with the same caution as wild tigers. Any encounter in the open ocean carries a significant risk of a "test bite," which, given their immense power, is often fatal for humans even if the shark is only curious.