I grew up in Sydney, learnt to dive in Sydney and had my first shark encounter in Sydney. The waters off Sydney are home to Port Jackson sharks, crested horn sharks, banded wobbegongs, the odd bronze whaler, blind sharks, numerous ray species and the infamous grey nurse shark.
Grey nurse sharks (Carcharias taurus), also known as the sandtiger shark in the USA, were once found in large numbers along the east coast of Australia, from southern Queensland and New South Wales. Once thought to be a man-eater and blamed for almost every shark attack off Australia, even in areas where they were not found, grey nurse sharks were slaughtered. The sharks were decimated by spearfishermen, shark nets and more recently, commercial and recreational fishermen.
Though fully protected in New South Wales since 1984, the first shark in the world to be protected, their numbers have continued to decline. It has been estimated that there are only around 500 grey nurse left on the east coast from recent diver surveys and a tagging program. Even though the numbers have dropped there are still dozens of dive sites where these majestic sharks can be seen in New South Wales and southern Queensland.
Off Sydney, grey nurse sharks were
always
found at Long Reef, a rocky peninsula with numerous caves, walls and gutters for
the sharks to shelter in. This was the place that I saw my first grey nurse off
Sydney in 1987. It was a very brief encounter as the four foot long shark was
very shy and quickly disappeared into the blue.Fortunately, in 2000 a new grey nurse shark aggregation site was found off Sydney at Maroubra Beach at a site called Magic Point. At this time I was now living 600 miles north at Brisbane, but in 2001 I headed back to Sydney for Christmas and took the opportunity to dive Magic Point.
Maroubra Beach has always been one of my favourite shore diving sites. The southern end of the beach has a rocky headland with two broken up shipwrecks and abundant reef fish. Magic Point was a lot further from the sites I use to dive, so most divers were doing this site as a boat dive. However, a friend told me it was possible to dive it from the shore, with the right conditions, so gave me the marks to find the site.
A few days later the weather was perfect to dive Magic Point. My wife, Helen, acting as shore master, allowed me to dive alone with the grey nurse. Having done quite a few solo shark dives I wasn’t concerned, and it also meant I had the grey nurse all too myself, as they are sometimes skittish with several divers in the water.
The walk to the dive site was quite long on a hot summers day, first across the soft sand and then over rocks. Around a mile in full scuba gear and with my camera in hand. I didn’t need the marks as luckily a dive boat was anchored at the site.
Conditions were perfect, calm flat seas and blue water. Once the boat pulled up anchor I jumped in off the rocks. The visibility was beautiful, around 60 feet (the visibility off Sydney varies from 10 to 100 feet). I swam over boulders and kelp until I reached a drop-off in 30 feet. I glided over the wall to 50 feet and then had to decide, left or right.
I turned right and fortunately I did as around the first corner I suddenly found myself surrounded by grey nurse sharks.
I love watching grey nurse, they are a graceful, sleek and very mean looking shark, but are completely harmless. Their dagger-like teeth are designed to catch and grip fish, not saw through flesh. For the first minute I just watched in awe as these beautiful sharks glided through the water.
The sharks were slowly swimming around a cut out in the wall where a dark cave could be seen. I counted a dozen sharks in the clear water, both males and females ranging in size from four foot to ten foot.
Time to take some photos I thought. The grey nurse are a curious shark and if not chased by divers will come in close to investigate. I had positioned myself on the edge of the area they were patrolling, so it didn’t take them long to come over to check out the new guy blowing bubbles. Shark after shark would slowly cruise by, peering at me with their beady little eyes.
I was in heaven, shooting photo after photo. I was after shots of several sharks together, which was easy to do in the clear water. Swimming with the sharks were small schools of silver trevally and yellowtail. As I watched one shark the yellowtail would scrap their bodies along the shark’s side. I had seen this behaviour before and it is thought that the yellowtail use the sandpaper like skin of the shark to remove old scales and parasites.
The biggest sharks had the best spot, closest to the cave, and at times they disappeared into the back of the cave and out of my view. New diving regulations for swimming with grey nurse sharks in Australia forbid you to enter shark caves to avoid harassing the sharks, so I kept to the edge.
With my film finished in only 10 minutes (I would have loved a digital camera on that dive) I spent the next 20 minutes just observing the sharks swim by. I had noticed that two of the sharks were sporting fish hooks in their jaws, victims of recreational fishermen. The sharks with hooks in their jaws generally survive, it is the hooks that get caught in their stomachs that kill them.
Returning to the surface I was buzzing. Helen couldn’t shut me up as we walked back to car. That shore dive at Magic Point with the grey nurse sharks is easily the best shore dive I have ever done.