In January 2010 my dive buddy Mick Todd and I drove to Port
Lincoln from our home town of Sydney.
I thought the long journey would give me sufficient time to enlighten Mick on
the inadequacies of his UK
football team, Manchester United and to offer him salvation through conversion
to following that ultimate football colossus: Arsenal Football Club. Sadly
there was enough time even though we detoured to photograph Leafy Sea Dragons
at Rapid Bay,
stocked up on wines in the Barossa Valley
and took in an emergency stop in a pub to watch on television the closing
stages of an unlikely Australian comeback against the Pakistan
cricket team. Another time then.
Eventually we reached Port Lincoln, checking into the Marina
Hotel. We were hoping to see Great
White Sharks and were up early the next morning ready to board Calypso Star at 6.30 a.m. for our journey south to the Neptune
Islands where Great Whites are
often seen. We had great sea conditions, dolphins playing around the bow of our
boat. Mick slumbered oblivious.
Once Calypso Star reached the Neptune
Islands, a shark cage was lowered
in the water and “chum” thrown into the water around the cage. In all Calypso
Star had nineteen clients aboard and we were split into groups of four, each
group to have 45 minutes in the cage. The chum quickly attracted a large number
of Bronze Whaler Sharks, a shark I had never seen before. Then and all too
briefly, a three metre Great White Shark cruised by. It looked very menacing. The first Great White I had ever seen and I
was just stunned by how powerful it looked, certainly more intimidating than any
other shark I had seen before.
Mick and I were the last to enter the cage. The Great White
was long gone but the Bronze Whaler Sharks were still there in great numbers.
Suddenly one of the Bronze Whalers stuck its head right into the cage and I
managed to capture the moment with a photograph. Of course I was hoping that
the Great White would return and we were generously given eighty minutes in the
shark cage but we were out of luck on this occasion.
Three months later I returned to Port Lincoln with Mary
Royal, my fiancee and again Calypso Star took me in search of Great Whites.
This time however the weather was awful. Most of the passengers were sea sick
with the notable exception of Mary but the unfortunate inclusion of myself! In
the big seas and poor underwater visibility, no one would have known if a Great
White had been present.
Bronze Whaler Shark approaches the cage2 d1691