I was away two weekends aga, up in Coffs harbour, some 9.5hrs drive from Wollongong. I and 3 other guys dived the Solitary Islands, which had warm, blue water and many, many fish. Awesome diving. Except for the shark attack...
Water was very warm, but very murky on the Sunday. Saturday we had 20m viz. I saw Cobia, Spanish Mackerel, various Whaler Shark species and many, many Eagle Rays (see photo)! This area has a mixture of temperate and tropical fish, so seing the fish we get in Wollongong, swimming alongside a fully grown tropical Batfish was awesome.
In a cave in 18m I found some Soldierfish, which looked awesome! Pity it was so deep I only had time for one pic. I wish I could hold my breath for longer!
As for the shark incident:
I was diving to 4-5m to photograph some Gold-spot Surgeons when I heard a boom, and straight away knew it was either a shark or big Cod. I had heard the same noise up in QLD before when sharks accelerate quickly. About a second later something smashed into the point of my shoulder. Hard. 2 days later it still hurt. I raced for the surface, took a breath and looked around, to find the shark racing up at me, pec fins down and jaws open. My gun was still hanging of my belt, so I raised my camera up over my head (must protect the precious camera at all cost) and shoved my fin into the sharks face. It veered off, showing it was female, and then I realised it was a Grey Nurse Shark, a supposedly placid species, which is protected in Australia. I relaxed a little then.
Mistake.
She was now at the surface, back humping and pectoral fins down, with the upper jaw and teeth pushed out of its head. She turned and came at me again, and this time slammed into the tip of my gun (which I was now holding) which gouged a little groove in the skin, between the nostrils. She then disappeared into the whitewash caused by swell hitting the nearby shore. I still dont remember grabbing my gun off my belt. Lucky it was unloaded. I was shaken, but not stirred, and got the camera ready again, but no luck, the little shit wasn't coming back. ;-)
About an hour later I saw it again, some 100m away, sitting in a shallow gutter I was checking for Jewfish. There was whitewash over the top of the gully, and it was only about 4-5m deep. This time it was really placid. Still, I wasnt going to attempt a pic.
Later on Michael (Tuna), shot a 8kg Jewfish a short distance away, but never saw the shark when he was fighting his fish. Weird.
All in all a pretty good weekend.
pic: Pretty self explanatory really... the Grey Knifefish pic is one of very, very few ever taken of this species. They live in the whitewash around islands and estuaries, and never leave the top 1-2 meters, making them hard to see or photograph. Luckily I also speared one from the school (for the Museum collection), otherwise it may not been ID'ed...
The shark incident has been reported to the Australian shark attack file as it is one of very few confirmed attacks (well, bump really) by a GNS on a diver.
Water was very warm, but very murky on the Sunday. Saturday we had 20m viz. I saw Cobia, Spanish Mackerel, various Whaler Shark species and many, many Eagle Rays (see photo)! This area has a mixture of temperate and tropical fish, so seing the fish we get in Wollongong, swimming alongside a fully grown tropical Batfish was awesome.
In a cave in 18m I found some Soldierfish, which looked awesome! Pity it was so deep I only had time for one pic. I wish I could hold my breath for longer!
As for the shark incident:
I was diving to 4-5m to photograph some Gold-spot Surgeons when I heard a boom, and straight away knew it was either a shark or big Cod. I had heard the same noise up in QLD before when sharks accelerate quickly. About a second later something smashed into the point of my shoulder. Hard. 2 days later it still hurt. I raced for the surface, took a breath and looked around, to find the shark racing up at me, pec fins down and jaws open. My gun was still hanging of my belt, so I raised my camera up over my head (must protect the precious camera at all cost) and shoved my fin into the sharks face. It veered off, showing it was female, and then I realised it was a Grey Nurse Shark, a supposedly placid species, which is protected in Australia. I relaxed a little then.
Mistake.
She was now at the surface, back humping and pectoral fins down, with the upper jaw and teeth pushed out of its head. She turned and came at me again, and this time slammed into the tip of my gun (which I was now holding) which gouged a little groove in the skin, between the nostrils. She then disappeared into the whitewash caused by swell hitting the nearby shore. I still dont remember grabbing my gun off my belt. Lucky it was unloaded. I was shaken, but not stirred, and got the camera ready again, but no luck, the little shit wasn't coming back. ;-)
About an hour later I saw it again, some 100m away, sitting in a shallow gutter I was checking for Jewfish. There was whitewash over the top of the gully, and it was only about 4-5m deep. This time it was really placid. Still, I wasnt going to attempt a pic.
Later on Michael (Tuna), shot a 8kg Jewfish a short distance away, but never saw the shark when he was fighting his fish. Weird.
All in all a pretty good weekend.
pic: Pretty self explanatory really... the Grey Knifefish pic is one of very, very few ever taken of this species. They live in the whitewash around islands and estuaries, and never leave the top 1-2 meters, making them hard to see or photograph. Luckily I also speared one from the school (for the Museum collection), otherwise it may not been ID'ed...
The shark incident has been reported to the Australian shark attack file as it is one of very few confirmed attacks (well, bump really) by a GNS on a diver.
