Sunday 18th October 2020

Nick and Kev had seen a school of Dusky sharks yesterday at Blue corner, along with one that had been entangled badly in rope.

As we had a small group I suggested that we do a drift from Turtle cave around to Blue corner and out wide into the blue so everyone could see them. Nick was pretty confident he knew where they were, and we always spot them here every October.

Visibility was 15 metres.

We saw our first Dusky sharks at the corner of Turtle cave, their silhouettes in mid water as we were deeper at 27 metres.

As we headed around the corner from Turtle cave Nick deployed his SMB so the boat would know where we were. We spotted a school of small Bonito Tuna.

Nick signalled to ascend slightly, I was at 20 metres and the guys were at about 14 metres at this stage. We wanted to stay close together so we didn’t scare the sharks if we came across them.

As I went to ascend however, they started to appear….1,2,10,20…50…100 there were sharks everywhere! I looked back to signal the guys but they weren’t looking my way, I started filming whilst making shark hand signals, hoping they would eventually see me.

As I did a 360 there were sharks everywhere, all around me in every direction, above and below me. I knew the guys were drifting out of sight but this was an opportunity I couldn’t leave. I made the decision to stay with the sharks instead of heading up towards the guys.

I knew this meant I would have to also deploy an SMB from depth so clipped off my camera. As I went to tie off my reel to my SMB a shark b-lined straight towards me. Great timing I thought with my hands full! It turned away once it got close.

Once I deployed my SMB I hooked it onto my BCD so I could film with two hands again.

There was a shark that had been entangled in marine debris and it wore the weight of this around its neck.

I checked my computer and dive time was at 30 minutes. I figured the boys wouldn’t be too far away, we were drifting in the same current after all. So I decided I would surface at 45 minutes.

The sharks stayed with me the whole time. I ascended to 12 metres and the sharks were still with me. I couldn’t help but wonder if a bigger type of shark was going to turn up soon as I knew I was quite far away from Blue corner now.

I could hear the boat and saw it on the surface waiting for me.

I ascended to complete my safety stop and said goodbye to my travel companions.

The guys had seen some of the sharks and had surfaced 5 minutes before me 100 metres away.

This dive reminded me of the Galapagos, it was so beautiful seeing so many sharks together in Australia. The Dusky Sharks are exciting to watch, inquisitive, and gentle. It’s rare to get so close to sharks on open circuit but they didn’t seem to mind my bubbles, confidence in numbers I guess.

I would estimate there was at least 200 sharks on this dive. Definitely the best dive I’ve had at Stradbroke Island.

Check out the video footage of this dive here:

Disclaimer *I hold solo certification and often dive alone as its better for filming, I carry redundant gas and surfaced with 120 bar in each of my tanks.