In March 2012, Mick Todd, my Manchester United afflicted dive buddy and I, spent four days in Byron Bay, New South Wales, diving Julian Rocks with Byron Bay Dive Centre. My goal: to see and photograph Leopard sharks - Mick could only hope we found some.

Byron Bay is about 800 kilometres north of Sydney and is the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. The bay is quite large and exposed to the elements. Over the years many attempts have been made to construct jetties but these have all been destroyed by storms. Without a port or jetty, Byron Bay dive centres use Rigid Inflatable Boats for dives, launching from Main Beach. And this means that if the sea is too rough to launch a RIB, no diving is possible - which is exactly what happened on our fourth day in Byron Bay.  

Julian Rocks lies just 2.5 kilometres from the Byron Bay shoreline and in the course of nine dives, we dived The Needles, The Nursery, Anchor Mooring and Cod Hole Mooring. On our first dive, a guide showed us round a couple of dive sites frustratingly taking us away from a couple of Shovelnose rays. I was hoping we would see them on another dive. But we didn’t. The water was quite green and murky but to my delight and no doubt Micks relief, we saw numerous Leopard sharks. Mission accomplished. We also saw Turtles, Bull and Manta rays. The poor visibility made photography difficult but what was most noticeable was that where there was clear water, marine life was sparse whereas in the mainly murky water it was prolific with Spanish Mackerel, Sweetlips, Jewfish, Snapper, Cod, all congregated in the dirty water for safety.