When people find out that I have a passion for scuba diving their first question is often related to sharks and what my opinions are of them. So, I figured I would write a post explaining my first encounter with the fascinating creatures and let you create your own opinions about them.

November 2017

I spent a few days on a liveaboard diving the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns Australia. I had become good friends with my dive group over the course of the week. There were the two Brits, Pete and Simon who had been road tripping across Australia surfing along the way. And there was my dive buddy Alex, a tall, slender Canadian that never seemed to be satisfied with the amount of food we received while on the boat. To everyone’s amusement he would often be seen sneaking back into the food line for seconds, which was somewhat frowned upon until after everyone was served. I doubt anyone cared anyways, how could they? We had all been soaking up the Australian sun and diving uninterruptedly for days. We were free from cell service, TV and all the trappings of modern society. As far as I was concerned, everything was “no worries”  

There was an added level of excitement at dinner on our last night aboard.  The majority of us at the table would be going on our first night dive later that evening. Luke, our instructor had told us we were at a prime spot for sharks. Not to mention the dive crew was going to be throwing bait in the water while we were underwater, so the smarter people, who preferred not to dive at night could still have a chance to see a shark from a safe distance.

After our massive spaghetti dinner (even Alex seemed full) we headed below deck where the dive equipment was stowed away. We geared up and did our buddy checks before heading down the stairs. As we made our way to the dive platform, I asked Luke, “what are we supposed to do if a shark does approach us?” He casually responded, “no worries mate, just shine your torch on yourself and show the shark how big you are!” (Flashlights are called torches in Aussie).

Here goes nothing…

I didn’t bother with a reply, I just held onto my mask and took a giant stride into the ocean right behind him. It wasn’t long before the rest of the group had made their way in and soon enough, we were descending down 60 feet. We were fortunate to have a full moon, so visibility was somewhat better than I expected but with all things considered it was still comparable to looking through a straw of light.

The last thing I wanted was to get separated from my group in the middle of the ocean at night, so I kept a close eye on the red and blue Chem-Lights Luke had attached to his tanks. As we approached the reef, I couldn’t help but notice all the large fish swimming just below me, often bumping into my fins. This never would have happened during a regular dive, most fish generally keep a safe distance from divers, if not avoid us all together.

I am sure no one noticed but I occasionally shined my light up and down my body, you know for safety precautions. We saw a few parrot fish and a juvenile octopus, but it seemed to be a pretty tame dive for the most part. Which isn’t surprising when your vision is limited to the beam of your torch. I had almost dismissed the possibility of seeing a shark by the time we began to ascend. I even turned off my GoPro as we slowly made our way up.

Seconds later

I felt a tug on my leg and saw Simon skeptically pointing up towards the back of the boat. If I hadn’t had a respirator in my mouth, my jaw would have dropped to the bottom of the ocean floor. There were two large reef sharks circling less than 10 feet over our heads. I frantically turned the GoPro on with one hand while trying to keep the torch aimed towards the sharks with the other. Not as easy of a task as it sounds.

Eventually one shark descended to our level and got almost with arms reach. (You will see in the video below if you watch till the end) The majestic white tip sharks showed neither fear or curiosity towards us . For the most part they acted like we weren’t even there. They didn’t even show aggression towards the hundreds of bait fish being chummed up.