Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Too many sharks to count (Mar. 22/09 - Osprey Reef, Coral Sea, Australia)

Before we went to bed last night, the captain estimated that the overnight 70 mile ocean crossing to Osprey Reef would be a 5 out of 10 in terms of difficulty. Taking that to mean average, let's just say that I would hate to know what a 6 or 7 would feel like... The ocean was so rough that we were tossed around in our beds all night, thrown up against the wall, and stuff was being launched off shelves all night. It was impossible to sleep until we got in behind the reef around 6am. Needless to say, it was really hard to get up this morning, though the thought of skipping the dive didn't even cross our minds. We were moored at North Horn at Osprey Reef, which is an extinct volcano that has collapsed into an atoll. 1000 metres of water sat beneath the boat, while just a short swim away, the reef came up to almost the surface. Being such an isolated structure, the walls are a favourite hangout spot for all sorts of sharks, and we spotted the first couple even before reaching the bottom of the mooring line. White tipped and grey sand sharks cruised the blue water and the deeper parts of the reef, each with a few tag along remoras that occasionally got the boot from their host shark and bee-lined it for us, since we must look somewhat sharky to them! They tend to suction-cup themselves to your leg or your belly, hoping to catch any fish scraps we might miss during a mid-dive snack. We followed the steep wall around to the east until the current became too much, but we should've gone further because a few guys saw a hammerhead shark out there! We zigzagged our way up the wall, watching sharks cruise by (sometimes within 20 feet or so), plus a Napoleon wrasse and a lone potato cod. With over 100 feet of visibility and some big toothy guys to keep us company, it was a great dive to start the day and make us forget all about the barfy ride out here.


The next one was said to be one of the best dives of the trip - the shark feed! We jumped back in at North Horn and took a seat to watch the action unfold. The sharks clearly knew what was going on, as dozens of them hung around, at least 40 of them but likely more, circling the bommie that they have been fed at before. Everything from snapper and damselfish up to potato cod and reef sharks milled about, turning the water into a swarm of fish. The guides hooked a line to a permanent pulley fixed to the reef, where they pulled down a garbage can delivered by a zodiak that was full of fresh tuna heads chained to a float. The sharks prodded the can and waited impatiently, until the guide released the lid and the buoyant chain of bait lifted out of the can. The sharks were on it instantly, ripping and tearing at the heads, trying to pull them off the chain. It became a huge mob of shark flesh twirling in a frenzied ball, and when one would successfully rip off a chunk, it would zoom away trying to choke down their catch before someone else stole it out of their mouth. The potato cod were right in there too, grabbing what chunks they could. A minute later, a few massive oceanic silvertip sharks came in, dwarfing the other sharks and taking over. When most of the meat was gone and only the bony head skeletons remained, the guide pulled the heads off the chain and basically started another free-for-all. A potato cod managed to catch one of the heads, which was so big that he barely had room for it in his mouth, though there was no way he was going to chew it! The action slowly dissipated, sharks returned to simply circling the reef, and we were free to swim around for the rest of the dive. It was definitely an adrenaline rush, being within mere feet of 40+ sharks fighting over lunch!


A short hop down the reef is a site called The Entrance, where the steep reef wall plummets into the abyss. Zodiaks dropped us south of the boat, leaving us a long stretch of reef to follow back. The walls were encrusted in hard corals, especially lots of plate corals that overlap like fish scales on the wall. Pretty little square spot anthias (males are bright purple with a pink square spot on their sides) are endemic to Osprey Reef, and they hover around with a harem of females, defending their territory. We made our way north toward the boat, spotting a white tipped sand shark lying in the sand right below the mooring line. We also did our fourth and final dive of the day here too, swimming along the sand alleyways between the massive coral bommies. A little sand shark was sleeping in the sand where we were headed, so he kept relocating a few metres forward, over and over again, to stay out of our way. At one point, we had found a small cave that looked big enough to swim into, but when we got down to shine our lights in, two small sharks stared back. Oops! Good thing we checked first! We did find a big open cave that had a bright skylight to swim through at the other end, so we passed through it and then made our way back toward the boat. The surface was a choppy mess by the time we got up, which was in stark contrast to the calm serenity beneath the waves...


After a much needed shower and an awesome dinner, we watched today's video footage on the big screen tv. It turned out so well - vibrant, action-packed, and set to perfect music. It was an incredible experience to be amongst to many sharks of all different shapes and sizes today, all majestic, and sadly, all threatened by fishing. It's sad to think that being able to swim amongst forty sharks could soon be a thing of the past, so we definitely appreciate the chance to do it now and gain a greater respect for them.

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