ON PAGES 122 & 123 OF THEIR EXCELLENT BOOK ON THE CARCHARODON CARCHARIAS, RICHARD ELLIS AND JOHN McCOSKER PROVIDE A WORLD MAP SHOWING ITS KNOWN DISTRIBUTION. ACCORDING TO THIS MAP, OVER TWO THIRDS OF ’S COASTLINE IS HOME TO THIS SHARK, YET THERE’S ONE AREA THAT’S REPEATEDLY REFERRED TO IN THE BOOK AS THE EPICENTRE - IN ’S . hooked on In June 2003 I travelled back to Port in the presence of the Great White - and Lincoln, seven years after my first visit, to that’s just what they do, grace you with try and realise a long held ambition to dive their presence - but let me simply state with the Great White shark. The Spencer that to see these sharks in the cold waters Gulf is one of only three places in the world of the Spencer Gulf is to see a creature in where it is possible do this with any degree total command of its environment. of certainty, the other two being the Farallon Islands in Southern California The whole experience is really quite and Dyer Island in South Africa. unique and one that has left an indelible impression on me. First of all I had always To be in the water, albeit from the safety of been under the impression that the Great a shark cage, with what is almost certainly White is just a totally ruthless killing the ultimate underwater predator is machine and it only required a few drops something I have wanted to do since I first of blood in the water for it to home in read about the incredible exploits of Ron from miles away and devour anything that & and many was in the water. Well the reality that I years ago. found is that these sharks are actually very cautious and will often take a great Many people, far more eloquent than me, deal of time to actually take a bait and the have written about the experience of being best way I can think of describing them is divesites great whites

::TEXT AND IMAGES DON SILCOCK

SPORTDIVING MAGAZINE 25 hooked on great whites basically they are a huge ‘non-linear’ . choppy crossing to Dangerous , the Great whites are magnificently equipped By non-linear I mean they are just not delicate aroma of burley drifting through due to aeons of evolution within their predictable unless they are hungry and it the boat severely challenged my stomach environment.Those famous (or infamous?) is how hungry they are that seems to retention capability! teeth are self-replicating, their sensory dictate their behaviour - they’re definitely organs are barely visible to a human eye not an insatiable monster that will devour However all that’s quickly forgotten when yet can distinguish particular smells or anything anytime it crosses their path. the sharks approach the cage to take one behaviour from great distances.Their of the tuna baits. I couldn’t get enough of range, mating or breeding habits are still The second thing that will remain with me this awe inspiring sight, so in January this largely unknown in both north and south is the smell and taste of the burley used to year I again travelled back to Port Lincoln hemispheres, but successful satellite entice the sharks to the boat. This evil to do the trip. This time we went to North tagging projects have been done in potion consists of minced tuna gills and Neptune Island as South Australia’s Parks Australia in recent years. guts, selected because they are and Wildlife Department has stopped particularly rich in blood – what can I say charter companies going to Dangerous Scientists at CSIRO Marine Research but it smells and looks awful! If that isn’t Reef. (CMR) are studying the movement patterns of white sharks in southern Australian enough, when you actually get in the water waters using a variety of different tags and you can taste the burley! After the second We had sharks in both locations, but there from the observations of both recreational day I found that it didn’t bother me too were more of them and they were more and commercial fishers. much, but on the first day after a night aggressive (hungry...) at The scientists hope to discover: spent in one of Port Lincoln’s hotels and a than they were at North Neptune. The * whether white sharks mix between different areas within Australia and whether they leave Australian waters (for example do the white sharks off South Australia move and mix with white sharks in NSW); * where they go in different seasons and whether that changes between years; * what areas are important to them (such as feeding, breeding or nursery grounds); * what pathways they follow; and * how long they stay in and how frequently they visit particular places. www.csiro.au

They are beautifully balanced marine machines and cameras don’t accurately capture their true physical proportions. Anyone who’s seen them on the move in the water remembers their massive chests, their big efficient pectoral fins and the powerhouse of tensed muscle when they move in to take prey or bait.

Marine scientists worldwide are endeavouring to map the habits of these

26 SPORTDIVING MAGAZINE visibility was typically around 5 metres I have never actually met Rodney Fox, but If Rodney Fox is ‘victim turned maximum during the four days at I have read so much about him that gamekeeper’ then Rolf Czabayski is the Dangerous Reef, which meant that these I feel like I have. Rodney is famous for original ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’ - he creatures – and we saw a total of 10 narrowly surviving a savage mauling by a is a real character who is truly passionate different ones varying in length from 2.5 Great White off Adlinga Beach, south of about Great Whites he used to hunt as a to 5 metres – are almost invisible until Adelaide, in 1963 whilst competing in a champion big game fisherman. He started they appear in front of the cage. competition. The actual story off his charters in a 35’ Bertram boat of the attack and how he survived is several years ago and then invested in his The visibility at North Neptune was much equally spine chilling and miraculous, 57’ custom built motor cruiser better, which meant we could see much which when you add the fact that Rodney Calypso Star. Both my trips were with more of the five sharks that visited the was back in the water spearfishing three Rolf and I have nothing but praise for boat. months later and went on to become an what he does. Check out Australian champion the following year is www.calypsostarcharter.com.au for more. The Charter Companies nothing short of incredible. There are now only two operators offering Great White Trips - Rodney Fox and Rodney pioneerAustralian great white Rolf Czabayski, both of whom are very cage diving and now runs his expeditions interesting people who will do from Adelaide with his son Andrew everything they possibly can to make your aboard the Falie. Their website is trip special. www.rodneyfox.com.au/expeditions.htm

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SPORTDIVING MAGAZINE 27 Getting There GREAT WHITE SHARK FACTS & FICTION Port Lincoln is on the western side of the Spencer Gulf and about 40 minutes flight from SIZE: Great White Sharks are big creatures - Whales – dead ones – also provide Adelaide. It is a very prosperous town, with but just how big do they get? Before cage excellent opportunities for a very long many ‘tuna millionaires’and is well serviced by diving allowed actual interaction with them lunch and there have been many both Regional Air Express (REX) and Airlines of the sharks that were actually caught, and examples of packs of Great White South Australia. those that got away, established the sharks feasting on a dead whale maximum size.The former should be the carcass.The shark’s incredibly sensitive What To Take more accurate, for fairly obvious reasons, sense of smell can detect the intense and in their book Ellis & McCosker actually ‘aroma’exuded by a dead whale, Underwater photographic equipment is right at investigated in detail some of the legendary the top of my recommendations and you will monster shark tales - such as the ‘Azores spread by and currents, over great need wide-angle lenses to get decent shots of Giant’, a 29-foot Great White reportedly distances which explains why so many the sharks because they are big! Basically the caught in July 1978 off San Miguel Island in of them congregate at the carcass. wider the lens the better and if you have a full the Azores, 800 miles west of Portugal. So frame fish eye, take it because you will really be big was this shark that it was to go in the In their book Ellis & McCosker detail a able to use it in the cage. Don’t bother with Guinness Book of Animal Facts & Feat and reliably reported incident in October strobes as they get in the way whilst in the cage Richard Ellis actually travelled to the Azores 1987 when a pack of seven Great Whites and will only highlight the amount of burley in in the early 1980’s to try and find out if the working together in concert to push the the water! reported size was really true. Ultimately he carcass of a dead pygmy right whale out established that there was no way the 29 to sea so that they could devour it in The waters of the Spencer Gulf are cold and feet size could be proved and reached the open water.The dead whale had been of 18-20 degrees Celsius are conclusion it was all a fairly wild washed ashore at in South common in summer with winter going down to exaggeration. Africa, where Dr Peter Best of the South around 15 degrees, so a good - or better African Museum was called to inspect still a are essential. Similarly in the British Museum in London a it. He had removed parts of the dead set of jaws ‘belonging’to a 36.5 foot Great whale for laboratory analysis and then It is possible to combine diving with sea lions White reported caught off Port Fairy in had the carcass pushed out into the whilst on these trips. It is done in shallow water Australia in the 1870s, were ultimately found surf zone, where the blood and intense near one of their habitats and is safe because to belong to a 16.5 foot long shark by smell attracted the sharks. the Great Whites will not come in to such comparing actual jaw and tooth size to shallow waters. I actually did this during my first So how much do Great Whites actually those from an accurately measured shark – trip back in 1996 when we spent a week at the need to eat and how many ‘miles per yes, a 20 foot typo.... without seeing a single great seal’can they do? Possibly one of the white, however I have to say that whilst the Overall it seems clear that the maximum, clearest indicators of this was experience of being in the water with the proven size that a Great White shark can contained in the paper published in sealions was great I was very nervous all the reach is 21 feet, or around 6.5 metres. 1982 by Francis Carey of Woods Hole time I was in the water! Oceanographic Institution in the US, APPETITE: Great Whites will try and eat based on a unique incident in 1979. On both my recent trips I declined the chance to anything, anytime - right? Well there is very Carey was lucky enough to be advised repeat the sea lion experience and my rationale little doubt that they are voracious when by local fishermen of five Great White was that I had just spent days in the cage they do feed, but there is much more to the Sharks feeding on the carcass of a fin surrounded by burley, so my dry suit must have picture than that.Whilst young Great White whale off Montauk Point, Long Island in a certain aroma.... Call me a coward, I don’t care sharks are known to eat smaller sharks New York.Carey was able to attach a - there was no way I was getting in the water such as leopard and dusky sharks, plus transmitter to one of the sharks, which smelling like lunch! stingrays and bony fishes such as sea bass provided water and depth, and halibut, the food of choice for adults is plus the sharks position and So unless you want to arrange a visit to the large pinnipeds - seals and sealions. temperature for the following 3.5 days. sealions before visiting the great whites, my During that time the shark swam at an suggestion is don’t even bother taking anything It seems that when they are younger a Great average of 2 miles per hour and covered White has the in-water speed and agility to more than wet or drysuit, mask, hood and a total of 168 miles. As a result of that gloves because you won’t need it. catch a variety of food, but as they mature data Carey was able to calculate that the their very size denies them the ability to 15 foot shark was able to survive for 45 catch such prey and so they have adapted days on 66 lbs of whale blubber and themselves to food supplies that are both actually had a lower basal plentiful and rich in nutritious fat. It’s no than many smaller shark species. coincidence that the best places to see Great Whites - South Australia, the Farallons GREAT WHITES ARE MAN-EATERS! in Southern California and Dyer Island in Movies like Jaws and the way the press South Africa - are homes to large seal and report shark attacks have created a sealion colonies. strong belief in most of us (me

28 SPORTDIVING MAGAZINE divesites included!) that all sharks are dangerous and the Great White is the most dangerous of all. So bad was my personal paranoia that prior to my first cage diving trip I remember wondering about the possibility that the sharks would be able to bite the rope securing the cage to the boat, then if they did that they could then nudge the cage away and attack us away from the boat…

There is strong evidence that Great Whites are not actually the man-eaters they have been painted to be.The facts are that in the majority of reported shark attacks on swimmers or divers, although the attack victim often died, it was from blood loss and injuries sustained in the initial encounter - not being eaten by the shark. Obviously this may be of little consolation for the victim!

There have been incidences where the attacking Great White ate the victim, but these are very much in the minority in the reported cases.Whilst researching this article I spoke at some length with Vic Hislop, who basically makes his living from catching and killing sharks and his very strong opinion was that the reported cases are only the tip of the iceberg and many more people go missing every year due to shark attacks and are not reported.

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