South Africa 2009 Part 3 – Shark diving with Blue Wilderness

After the success of the Aussie team in the 1 day International test, we scraped together a few of the guys and went for a night on the town.  Although we had planned on diving with Mark Addison on Sunday, Rick didn't finish his beauty sleep until midday :)  Instead, we went into town with Corry and Jackie for lunch, and had a recovery day while Graham and Tony ran off to Durban earlier in the morning.

Rick and I were well and truly ready to go, arriving at Blue Wilderness headquarters quite early. Mark had been anticipating a bit of spearfishing too, so we threw our spearguns & cameras in the boat and off we went. There were reports from yesterday's divers that clean water was on the Shoal, and we were hopeful it held steady overnight. On the run out, we crossed over the current line.... hazy blue, to purple! It really seemed promising.

Mark is the original shark man – dedicating around the last 20 years – freediving to study sharks and all facets of their behaviour. He actively helps other commercial shark tourism operators, dispensing friendly advice on how to best arrange the boats trying to locate the sharks for their customers. His confidence in his process showed through as his crew dropped the marker buoy, and he took us wide, up-current from Aliwal Shoal to drift for blue-water species.

On entering the water, I could see the bottom clearly. I asked Mark "How deep are we here?"  His response "29 metres".  Easily 100 feet of visibility. Within 2 minutes of hitting the water Rick spots a big shark... actually a small Whale Shark. It swam casually past him. We alerted Mark – still in the boat – and he passed us our cameras to capture the great fish on film.

For a few minutes we followed the Whale Shark around, but I stopped briefly on a pinnacle of the reef to film some other species in the gin-clear water.

[sequence of Natal Wrasse, Parrot]

After swimming with the Whale Shark a while longer, we moved back to the marker buoy to find many Black-tip Sharks had come in for a feed. Their attitude and swimming pattern make up for their smaller size, keeping us nervous as we swam with them looking for good photo opportunities.

The Black-tips circle making sharp turns and fast runs, investigating all things up and down the chum slick. They look well-fed, yet hungry for any morsel that they can chomp.

Before too long, Mark is keen to complete a video assignment with Raggie Sharks (A.K.A Grey Nurse Sharks) back across The Shoal. We bundle back in the boat, bring up the marker buoy and head for the Raggie Cave. Mark and his Videographer Dan grab the SCUBA tanks and decend to work, while Rick and I are dropped back on our original drift.

We've got garfish swimming all around, and the Wahoo soon arrive. I've seen the outside of the school, but Rick has been in the middle of close to 100 15+kg Wahoo! Both of us watch carefully as part of the school come closer to investigate us. I look over to watch Rick swim at one, placing a shot mid-body. He has borrowed my Rob Allen 1.2m speargun, and with his swimming had plenty of power get the flopper right through the fish. Unfortunately his belt reel jammed, putting too much pressure on the fighting fish forcing the spear to pull out.  I tracked another Wahoo, patiently watching it circle behind me and swim up current below me. I couldn't get in range as each time I made any movement it would react by moving further away from me. Yet another Wahoo stayed up shallow, close to the surface, and just as I though I was as close as I would get I swam at the fish. I took my shot, and it was all over! My spear hit it's spine, removing the Wahoos' ability to swim away. 

[Wahoo photo]

After calling over the boat and hauling the fish aboard, we had drifted back onto The Shoal, near the Raggie Cave where Mark and Dan had finished their video assignment. A large Tiger Shark was circling cautiously wide around the bait drum, but it was a good sign. Mark called over the boat and had the baits reset and once another two Tigers appeared, pulled the anchor on the marker buoy.

We drifted for over an hour with these magnificent fish. I can remember – as if it only happened yesterday – the first close encounter with a Tiger Shark. I'm around 5m below the surface and it was swimming toward me, as they all had at one stage or another. But instead of veering away it continued, holding course for a direct collision.  The thing about these Tiger Sharks is that they were moving gracefully. Slow and steady compared to the frantic pace of the Black-Tips. Slowly the Tiger closed the gap, every moment of the way I thought "What do I do now? When do I reach out to try and force it away?" Just as I thought "Now!", it turned sharply, to make another arc and circle around the group. I surfaced, taking a deep breath and feeling the rush of adrenaline starting to fade away.

Toward the end of our Tiger Shark drift a Zambezi Shark (AKA Bull Shark) joined in with the tempo and grace of the Tigers. And not long after that, the Whale Shark made an encore appearance. At this stage we had Black-Tips, Tigers, a Zambezi and a Whale Shark – all within a 30m radius of the marker buoy. An incredible experience in beautifully clear water – a dive of a lifetime!