21 May, 2011
Back in Port Lincoln, Southern Australia on Saturday morning, riding out 30 ft swells and wind gusts to 40mph for the next 48 hours. Glad to have a port in the storm. The first 7 days of the trip were spent at the Neptune Islands diving aboard the Princess II with the great white sharks. Amazing, amazing animals. Graceful, sleek, formidable, gliding through the water effortlessly and undeniably the apex predator of the oceans. They are so beautiful and unpredictable. We are with Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions and Rodney and his son Andrew were both on board for the first week, with Rodney sharing stories of his exploits with sharks both water based and land based. You can’t help but fall in love with Rodney. He is warm and kind with an engaging smile, a kind word and a slap on the arm to make you feel like you have known him a long time when you have in fact just met him. Rodney survived a great white attack in the 60’s and after 400+ stitches to his torso has gone on to start a foundation to protect and research these wonderful but threatened animals. His son Andrew is no less engaging with a wry grin and infectious laugh and it is he who has really taken on the research of great whites and growth of the foundation. After most dives, Andrew can be found late into the night documenting and cataloging the photos and “fingerprints” of the various sharks seen on the days dive and compiling this information with a determination that is remarkable. After seeing the sharks and listening to Andrew talk about them like family members, I have a new appreciation not only for him but for his company and foundation. This is not a commercial venture built to exploit this species but a true labor of love built to help all of us hopefully appreciate and preserve this great shark.
The shark dives happen each day, beginning about 9:30am when the first cage is lowered to the seabed with 3 divers and one dive master where the cage rests on the ocean floor or on some days when the seas are too rough to sit it down, it simply swings back and forth with the movement of the boat.

Cage about to descend
Water temperatures are in the low 60’s and visibility ranges anywhere from 20ft to maybe 60 ft on the best day. The sharks eventually arrive and we have been very lucky, seeing 4 to 10 sharks average per dive. They will circle the cage, some coming in for a closer look and at times to munch on the cage, to see if it is edible. Like people, they each seem to have a different personality and the overriding feeling of them is one of awe and appreciation of their magnificence, rather than fear of them. Make no mistake, they are unpredictable wild animals who can change with the introduction of one new member who somehow “sets them off” into a much more aggressive behavior pattern, nosing between the bars of the the cage or banging it around eating the tuna heads attached to draw them in close to us, but the shark of “Jaws” is nowhere to be seen, wildly attacking with a single purpose of devouring us humans at any cost.

Andrew will tell you that these are not the great white sharks to dive with in open waters. Some other locations in the world may offer this opportunity. Places where the huge sea lions proliferate and allow the sharks a constant food source. But here, at the Neptune Islands, the sea lion population is small and the seals themselves are not the huge ones you see elsewhere. So these sharks are hungry and because of that are possibly more aggressive than their counterparts in South Africa or Guadeloupe Islands. But then, so little is really known about great whites that any of this is conjecture – but I trust Andrew when it comes to knowing and understanding the sharks here. I trust him enough to go down to the ocean floor in a cage with him and slide open the door to get better shots and know that if the situation changes with the temperament of the sharks, Andrew will sense this and instruct all of us in how to stay safe in a hostile environment.

Shark circles cage
We stay down on the bottom for about an hour – depending on depth and air consumption. The cage is fitted with backup air tanks should be run out of air before our deco time and I must admit to using them on more than one occasion, proving myself the air hog of the cage. On a good dive we had several shots where the sharks were within a few feet if not inches from our cameras and there wasn’t a dive when we weren’t all jazzed to be here, having this opportunity to witness them in their home environment. There was also the chance to get into surface cages and see the sharks at the top of the water but it is a bit more unnatural to have them here at the top, cruising around bait attached to lines. It is the stuff of tv drama – the shark following the bait pulled toward the camera and I admit the rush of having one inches from my domeport, teeth gnashing, sent chills down my spine and a rush of adreneline. But I realized that this is us producing this look, not the shark. They seem much more natural on the sea floor where they glide along and hunt on their own accord.

Great white from cage
In the last few years, 90% of all big fish in the oceans have been fished or destroyed for sport by man. We kill somewhere around 75 million sharks per year. Many of the shark species teeter on the brink of extinction. Most are caught for shark fin soup, their bodies dropped back into the depths once the fin has been removed – where they die without their fins. Some are fished and killed as trophies, out of the mania brought about by Jaws and other movies where they are portrayed as cold, ruthless killers. What people don’t realize is if we destroy all the sharks, our reefs will die and the domino effect on the oceans and the fish in the oceans will leave us with a much different world. One in which the oceans we know now will no longer exist. Maybe it’s time to pause and reflect before we kill all of them in an effort to feed some cultural ritual or to rid ourselves of the fear of something we don’t understand. If you are interested, Shark Savers and Wild Aid are two organizations that can provide more information about the continued decimation of the world’s sharks; it’s effects on the world’s oceans and how you can help.

The Princess II with cages mounted on stern
I fell lucky and blessed and thankful to Andrew and Rodney and the entire crew for this opportunity to see these amazing animals and meet people dedicated to their survival and protection.