Swimming with great white sharks

Swimming with great white sharks is an “exhilarating experience” according to roving correspondent Brad Scott

With koalas, internationally recognised Ramsar wetlands and pristine ocean beaches of North Stradbroke Island, wildlife ecotourism is a wonderful opportunity for the Redlands.

While traveling around Australia we’ve admired the way people have embraced ecotourism opportunities. An excellent example is swimming with sharks off Port Lincoln in South Australia.

Human cage carried by ‘Calypso Star 2’

It was a picture perfect day in Port Lincoln when our tour date arrived and we would be taken 3 hours off the coast to swim with sharks. We were excited about what we may experience but were more worried about getting seasick than getting eaten.

There are only a handful of places on earth that allow controlled cage swims with sharks and there are only two operators in Port Lincoln, South Australia that are licensed to use burley and bait.

The operators are not allowed to feed the sharks or get them unduly worked up and all activities are recorded and also logged directly to the government agency. The objective was to provide more understanding of these creatures as opposed to increase any fears.

The site was reached, the cage was lowered and the safety briefings were delivered. Now we wait.

I had never scuba dived before so it took a little while (but not too long) to get used to breathing with a mouthpiece.

The tour is a nature tour and to that end the creatures we came to see are in their natural environment and not on any schedule or timetable. After 2 hours of attracting fish using burley and hoping for for some larger predators to be attracted we sighted our first shark. It was a bronze whaler.

Then the main event happened, two great white sharks arrived at different intervals throughout the day and swam by the cage.

At no time did the sharks aggressively lunge at the cage, they just wanted some fish…

These animals are truly majestic, powerful and primitive. To see them in their natural environment was exhilarating.

I recommend the tour to anyone who doesn’t mind getting wet.

Brad Scott

Brad and Narelle Scott

Brad Scott
Situation Tolerable

Brad Scott is a Redlander currently travelling at a leisurely pace around Australia with his wife Narelle in a caravan they’ve named “Situation Tolerable”.

Other stories by our roving correspondent:

• Yaraka offers a genuine welcome to visitors
• Does your town have a good vibe?
• Why I visited the Yarrowyck Rock Art

In 2016 Brad was The Greens candidate for the Federal seat of Bowman.