Still Intact: Our Great White Adventure

This past weekend, in a somewhat strange observance of Valentine's Day, Callie and I traveled to Port Lincoln, South Australia in order to dive with the great white shark. Port Lincoln is a small coastal fishing town and is close to the Neptune Islands, which is home to a colony of New Zealand fur seals, a favorite meal of the "white pointer." Needless to say, we were both excited and nervous, but now that we have returned to Sydney in one piece, we can safely recount our adventure.

We left Sydney on last Friday morning for an early flight to Adelaide. For regular readers, you will recall that we spent some time in Adelaide on our last trip, but this time we had only a short layover before catching a small regional flight to Port Lincoln. Port Lincoln is about 35 minutes by air from Adelaide and is home to a large proportion of Australia's tuna fishing industry, yet another reason that it is frequented by the great white. We arrived mid-afternoon and spent the remainder of the day walking along the harbour foreshore and enjoying the lovely weather. We had dinner at the hotel and went to bed soon thereafter given the early start the next morning.

The Neptune Islands is about two and a half hours from Port Lincoln by boat, which meant that we had to be at the dock at 6:30 A.M. The journey out was a a little rocky and some of our companions (there were about 20 of us in total) began to look a little green around the gills. Callie, on the other hand, had taken two dramamine and was having trouble staying awake, but once we reached the Neptunes, things began to get exciting. The crew began chumming the water with a mixture of fish innards, blood and tuna pieces while making as much noise as possible in order to attract the sharks. This ritual continued for about forty-five minutes before the first visitor arrived and the cage was in the water.

To say that the great white is a large animal is a gross understatement. Not only is it long-the ones we saw averaging about 15 feet- but it is thick and heavy, and given how powerfully it moves through the water, it is no wonder that we are afraid of it. However, after observing the sharks once they arrived, they did not seem to be overly aggressive or violent; rather, they appeared to be curious- like a really big dog with really big teeth. Nonetheless, when we got in the cage (yes, Callie got in as well), it was hard to not be somewhat overwhelmed by their presence. 

 

We were the fourth group to get in the cage, which was good because it gave Callie enough time to see that others had survived the experience without incident. There were four of us in the cage at once and we each had a regulator (like on a scuba system) to breathe through that was connected to an air compressor on the surface. The cage sits near the top of the water and is attached to the stern of the boat so that you are always close to help. Each group was in cage for about forty-five minutes, and during that time, sharks would come and go, circling the boat and trying to eat the bait in front of your face. In what was probably the most aggressive moment of the day, a shark went for the bait and instead bit down on the corner of the cage where I was standing, which prompted all of us inside to move back a little bit. You could hear the grinding of the teeth and the violent thrash of the jaws shook the cage in the water, but we returned with all our limbs and extremities intact. 

*Please note: that is a large black garbage bag in the bottom left corner of the picture- just so you can appreciate how large the shark is. 

Over the past several weeks, many people have asked me why I wanted to do this, and I always say that ever since I found out that we were going to Australia, this was something I just had to do. I have always loved the ocean and the chance to see arguably the world's most sophisticated and lethal marine predator in person was something that I couldn't pass up. Having safely returned to Sydney, we again feel extremely lucky that we could have an experience like this one, although I'm not sure that Callie will entertain the thought of another high adrenaline Valentine's Day next year.