Neptune Islands, South Australia

When I first learned to dive, nearly twenty years ago, I was very certain that there were two things I had no interest in doing in the water. The first was deep diving. The second was diving with sharks.

Before long, as I became more comfortable in the water, I was routinely diving to depths in excess of one hundred feet. So I guess it was only to be expected when shortly later I became more and more interested in diving with sharks.

I still remember my first encounter with a shark; a small Caribbean reef shark no more than four feet long near Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas. As I approached a crevasse in the reef filled with a school of silver baitfish glittering in the bright sunlight, I noticed this small shark swimming through the school, apparently in an effort to secure a snack. Alerted to my presence, the shark immediately swam away from the crevasse and up to the top of the reef, keeping a wary eye on me as I ascended and followed it. Suddenly, the shark turned and swam directly toward me. Closer and closer it swam until it was only a few inches from my head, when suddenly, it veered off over my left shoulder. It was so close I could feel the wake from its tail against my head and face. My heart was pounding with excitement. Later, back on the dive boat, I couldn’t stop chattering about the close encounter with the shark, which, of course, was growing an additional foot in length each time I told the story.

Since then, I’ve traveled to many exotic destinations around the world to get in the water with sharks. I’ve seen schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos Islands, been surrounded by over a hundred grey reef sharks in French Polynesia, watched a graceful thresher shark in the Red Sea, and I’ve even been bumped by a whale shark in the Maldive Islands. But until a couple of years ago, I had never seen a great white shark in the water.

Great white sharks are few in number and aren’t found in typical, warm water, tropical tourist destinations. To see great white sharks, you have to make a special effort. You can’t go to a pretty reef, stop to admire “Nemo”, and then raise your head in time to see a sixteen foot great white shark swim away in the distance. And that’s probably a good thing, because “Nemo” would certainly be very frightened.

You have to go out of your way to see a great white shark. They’re found in temperate waters around the world. Three locations known for their great white sharks are the waters off of South Africa, Guadalupe Island, Mexico, and South Australia, all areas with large resident populations of pinnipeds.

I first went to South Africa in search of the great white in July of 2000, when rough seas and generally poor weather conditions hampered my ability to see the sharks. But this trip to South Africa whetted my appetite for shark diving and for great white sharks in particular. So last year, freed from the time constraints of my past corporate career, I conceived a plan to travel around the world over the course of a twelve month period in search of great white sharks.

Last July, I returned to South Africa and again attempted to dive with the great white sharks in “Shark Alley”. Several months later, in October, I traveled to Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Finally, last month, I went to South Australia to complete my mission.

South Australia was once the world’s hot destination for divers seeking encounters with great white sharks. During the late 1990’s, however, the shark population in the area declined due to over fishing. Word of mouth from divers spending thousands of dollars and many days chumming without success in search of the sharks, and a National Geographic Explorer segment in which the sharks failed to appear, resulted in South Australia becoming overlooked as a destination to experience the great whites. In 1997, however, the government of Australia enacted legislation protecting the great white sharks and since, there has been resurgence in the number of sharks here.

To begin this adventure, I flew for twenty-nine hours from Washington, D.C. to Port Lincoln, on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. From Port Lincoln, it was under a three hour cruise on the sixty foot long MV Calypso Star to the Neptune Islands.

The islands are home to a large resident colony of New Zealand fur seals, which in turn attract a large population of great white sharks almost all year round, from January through November. During the Australian summer, when water temperatures are in the mid-60°F range, mostly males can be observed. The larger females can be seen during the winter months when water temperatures are cooler (mid-50°F). Apparently, the only recent period in which there were no sharks to be seen at the Neptune Islands was during a two week period in which a tuna pen at the tuna farms near Port Lincoln collapsed and the sharks went there to feast on the remains of the trapped tunas.

The owner and captain of the Calypso Star is Rolf Czabayski, a round faced, red-cheeked, blue-eyed and white haired former East German who immigrated to Australia in the early 1960’s. Rolf is a cheerful and outgoing host who will go to great lengths to ensure his guests have an excellent experience and exciting shark action. Once an electrician and a successful businessman, Rolf has been operating charters to view the great white sharks at the Neptune Islands and Dangerous Reef for many years. Previously, Rolf fished for great whites, and his respect for these animals is great; he was once pulled from his boat into the water, chair and all, after he hooked a large great white while fishing.

Upon boarding the Calypso Star, my two traveling companions and I made a wager on how long it would take from the commencement of chumming for the first shark to arrive. My friend Steve, who had been to South Australia on several occasions in the past without much success, said it would take six hours or more for the first shark to make an appearance, based on his previous experiences. I predicted it would take three to six hours, and Dave, the third member of our group, said it would take less than three hours for the first shark to appear. In spite of our respective “predictions”, we were all surprised and thrilled when, in fewer than thirty minutes, our first shark appeared at the stern of the Calypso Star. For the next five days, sharks circled the Calypso Star on a nearly continuous basis.

Unlike the sharks I’ve experienced in South Africa and Guadalupe Island, these sharks were very aggressive; striking the bait, the cage and even the propellers and rear platform of the Calypso Star with authority. For bait, Rolf hung bags of fish oil from the side of the boat, ladled tuna blood and minced tuna into the water at regular intervals, and pulled large chunks of tuna steak or gills and entrails on a rope from the rear platform of the Calypso Star. Rolf used only fresh bait, unlike the dried out, freezer-burned bait I’ve seen sharks turn away from on other boats in South Africa and Guadalupe Island, and it no doubt explained the enthusiastic reception we received from the sharks!

Once, while I was alone in the cage, I watched a shark through the viewfinder of my camera. Approaching me head on, the shark grew larger and larger. Still closer it came until it completely filled the viewfinder. I quickly pulled away from side of the cage, keenly aware of the sharks’ aggressive behavior. From mere inches away, I watched in awe as the fourteen foot long shark stuck its head through the open port in the side of the cage, its massive jaws fully extended and its head thrashing from side to side, at precisely the same spot where my camera and hands had rested only an instant earlier.

Another day, I was fortunate to experience five sharks circling the cage at once. These sharks, all males, were between eleven and sixteen feet long. Having so many sharks around the cage was exciting, since the competition for the bait seemed to agitate the sharks. Occasionally, one shark would approach the bait, coming close to the cage and my camera, when another shark would approach the bait from another direction. Then, both sharks would startle, quickly turning and often slamming into the cage as they fled. Several minutes might pass before the sharks returned.

When there was more than one shark circling the cage, it was too easy to focus on one shark, approaching from a given direction, while another shark, silently and without warning, would suddenly hit the cage coming from somewhere else. This was not a place where I could comfortably stick my head and limbs out of the cage to position my camera closer to the sharks.

Later the same day, the weather worsened and increasing swells made continued observation of the sharks from the cage difficult. We continued attracting the sharks with the bait and the action remained intense as the sharks continued their competition. Seeking a unique perspective for my photos, I pulled on a rain jacket and pants, and so I could safely get low and close to the action, I crawled into the cage that had been pulled from the ocean and was now sitting at water level on the rear platform of the Calypso Star. In a frenzy of activity, the sharks lunged for the bait, raising their heavy bodies out of the water and thoroughly soaking me, and unfortunately, my camera, as they landed back in the water and with a sweep of their powerful tails sent forth a deluge of water to quickly change directions and avoid striking the boat or the cage.

The sharks were so abundant and active that on our fifth day at the Neptune Islands we actually ran out of bait, so we returned to Port Lincoln and, a couple of days later, home. I had thought that after traveling to dive with the great white sharks in South Africa, Guadalupe Island and South Australia, all in fewer than twelve months, I would be over my shark obsession for a while. But I’m not. I’m already considering a return to South Australia in the near future to dive with the big females when they come to the Neptune Islands, and I’ve begun searching the internet for possibilities to dive with other large and dangerous shark species. Let’s see, there are tiger sharks in South Africa...