November 6th, 2006

 

Yesterday I went to AQWA to do my dive with the sharks and was accompanied by Tash and Sue Yen for moral support. After many comments and shark bait jokes I entered the main tank. Funnily enough, I wasn’t scared at all leading up to it and even when I was in the water, no sense of panic set in. All up there were 19 sharks varying from 3.5 metre long Grey Nurse sharks to 0.5 metre Port Jackson sharks. Seeing these creatures up close and personal is such an amazing experience! They just cruise around the tank slowly and boy do they have an impressive set of teeth on them!! The sting rays were HUGE ranging from 2-3 metres in width and when they glide over you their shadow leaves you in darkness. The logger head turtles were very inquisitive and came VERY close to me… the beak on them could do some major damage I tell ya! Apparently they’re a bit dopey and their brain takes snapshots of what’s in front of them at intervals so they swim into things a lot because their brain doesn’t register that something has moved in their path.

 

When you get suited up to dive, they negatively weight you so that you have no buoyancy. This way you are kept at the bottom of the tank and don’t interfere with the flow of the fish. Even though it’s a shallow dive of 4.5 metres you feel like you’re diving in the ocean… until you look to the side and see a little kid with his nose pressed up against the window as he waves at you.

 

For those of you who have your diving license I definitely recommend doing a dive with the sharks… it’s truly an experience to remember… Thanks again Tash for the awesome pressie!