In January Natalie Scadden and I travelled up to South West Rocks from Nelson Bay for two dives with South West Rocks Dive Centre. Both our dives with Mike O’Shea were at Deep Gutter and we were treated to a brief distant glimpse of Hammerhead sharks as well as the usual close encounters with Wobbegong and Grey Nurse sharks.
In November I returned for four more dives with South West Rocks Dive Centre. As in January I dived from Viper, one of the dive centre’s three vessels. I was there for what was becoming an annual pilgrimage – trying to improve upon my 2006 and 2009 shots of the classic “Fish Rock shot” namely Grey Nurse sharks entering the shallow cave with blue water behind. These sharks had tended to frequent this cave entrance mostly in November and December but one shark apart I had not seen any there since 2009. Already I had missed the opportunity of numerous sharks in the shallow cave entrance in 2016. Most had gone, quite probably because of the unusually warm water temperatures at Fish Rock. There were still a few sharks left and I was pleased with my photos of these solitary sharks entering the cave.