Grey Nurse Sharks

In the scheme of things diving on a Saturday is normally a stress free day out with the boys, but this last Saturday was an exception to the rule. I met up with a couple of guys from the local dive club and with what I do not mind admitting a tremendous amount of trepidation we set of for Scarborough, Brisbane and to get aboard the Ocean Cat and within 30 minutes of casting off for our 90minute trip to Hendersons Reef or as its called by the local Hendo’s.

On board the Ocean Cat was us and 7 other divers all busy getting their kit together and chatting about the up and coming couple of dives.

After a very smooth trip out to the eastern side of Moreton Island watching a number of Hump Backed Whales glide past we soon anchored in an almost flat calm sea above the reef.

When everybody was ready to rock the skipper gave us a brief on the dive we were about to undertake. My two diving buddys having done this dive a number of times before had already given me a good briefing of what was normally about at this time of the year so I was well prepared.

The other groups of divers were with an Instructor and a Divemaster so it was agreed that the three of us would fall in first.

Peter and Tony both know the area very well and I felt confident about diving with them both even though this was my first trip out with them.

We all three headed for the bottom just visible from the surface and bottomed out at 23mtrs. The vis was very good so I was told being in the region of 20 to 25mtrs and as normal in Australia teeming with reef fish of all colours and sizes, the names are still new to me but Goatfish, Emperor Angelfish, Jewfish, Trevally and so many others, its mind boggling and of course the much seen Wobbygong, very similar to an Angel Shark in Europe although Wobbies have great markings.

Peter then led off along the side of a rocky ridge with some interesting gulley’s, rocky outcrops and a nice sized cave.
It was at this point that Peter gave the sign he had seen our quarry - the Grey Nurse Shark and as we popped up over the ridge we saw another seven all around the 2.5 to 3.0mtrs in length.

I was lucky enough to see three Tiger Sharks once but they were far enough away that it did not bother me but these were just a few metres from us and did not seem at all bothered that we were there, to say I was in awe is an understatement, It took me a couple of seconds to realise I had not taken a breath for a minute. We just kept close to the ridge watching these fabulous creatures slowly swim around with effortless ease. One thing you do notice with the Grey Reef Shark is they have an awful smile, a mouthful of extremely nasty looking teeth and to be honest if the guys I was diving with had not assured me that they were totally harmless you could be forgiven and think they were about to snack out on one of your legs.

We continued watching them for a few more minutes until the other group of divers came along and started to get in the way, so we headed in the opposite direction and immediately bumped into a Hawksbill Turtle.

One thing that does not fail to impress is the quantity of sea life that inhabits the shoreline of Australia. I can honestly say that in the two dives we did I saw more varieties of fish, crabs, lobsters and rock crawling beasties than in all my diving experiences to date.

After an hour on board gassing off we dropped back into the water and headed back to the same spot, in normal times you would normally want to go somewhere different but believe me I could have gone down another dozen times and not been at all bored. Just to watch was all I wanted to do and after 45 minutes of sheer bliss we returned to the boat.

It was great listening to the dive school students talk about there time underwater, what a way to get people interested eh?

To ride a very fast sports bike, or have a great looking girl gives you a big smile, well diving with the Nurse Sharks is up with them all. In fact it’s possibly the best of the lot, I am finding it very difficult to get the day out of my head it was that inspiring.

I am not one of your tree hugging weirdo hippy type of people but to come that close to some of the greatest creatures on earth I can understand why some people do become obsessed with that lifestyle. So I am going to grow my hair (What little I have), drink real ale (No real ale in Oz), and drive a 2cv (Have seen one of them).
My big thanks to Peter & Tony for giving me such a great day out, it is certainly one that you do not forget in a hurry. In the words of Arnie, ‘I will be back’!