Jaws is my friend

  Port Lincoln, South Australia, Australia
Monday, March 2, 2009

The start of Autumn was enough to get me full of apprehension and excitement, happimess and nerves.
But not because I get excited at the changing of the seasons, more from what I had planned for the day. For its not every day you get the possibility of coming face to face with an animal that is best known for chewing limbs off people and biting chunks from surfboards.   

 So getting into a metal cage with Great White (or White Pointer) Sharks prowling round may sound a slightly crazy proposition but it really is a wonder of the natural world.

But as this is very much the wild world, there are no guarantees, either of seeing one or of it venturing near the cage while I was in it. This was where the apprehension came from. That I might not get to see one of the worlds greatest predators.

It seemed though that Sharkey and friends wanted some human company and came to see us. After a 2 1/2 hour boat journey to the North Neptune Islands, we dropped anchor and had to wait about 45mins to sight the first one.

It was at this point that I got suited and booted and grabbed my underwater camera. I jumped into the cage and waited, constantly sucking on the regulator that was feeding me air. And then it appeared, stalking the water like the enforcer of the ocean. They're very graceful and calculated beings - until they go for a piece of Tuna, which is when they snap into another mode for a split second.

It was this that I got to see at very close quarters as one turned and went for the cage right in front of me. It just flew towards me and ended up only centrimetres from my face. When it butted the cage I must have had a look of shock and amazement on me. I think I would have looked a bit white too had I realised that the shark had bent the ladder that was in between me and the shark. Unbelievable!!

After my 3/4 hour stint in the cage I was able to view the grey and white giants from the decks of the boat. We saw 3 different sharks during the day with the largest being about 4-4.5m in length.


It was an unforgetable day, and I feel so lucky to have been able to do something like this, and to actually see the sharks as the boat company had had a few lean days in January. And I not only saw them but almost got a kiss from one of them!!