Foster and the Sharks

By Sharon Muir
A weekend scuba diving with the sharks in Foster sounded pretty exciting to me. Despite only having nine dives in the logbook, I was ready for a big adventure so rang Abyss to sign up. Carl was his usual self, promising wall-to-wall sharks, an array of teeth to collect as mementos, an experience of a lifetime. And for me anyway, he was right.

It was a perfect day to be loading up the car with all the gear. There were to be twelve in our group. I was lucky enough to beat the worst of the traffic out of Sydney. Carl had already left, and others would be heading off as they escaped from work. Rachel helped me gather my bits and had me going with her warning that the sharks might be a little disturbed by any hint of menstrual flow….”only joking!”

Perfect driving conditions, good music, and a strong sense of the weight lifting off my shoulders as Sydney was left behind. A bit of a detour brought me to Foster after dark, to find our 3 cottages at Lani’s Caravan Park all set up thanks to the local dive club. Cosy, warm and comfortable, we had a great base from which to head off adventuring.

Our first night briefing was a bit of a get to know you, broad outline of plans, what to expect. Carl and his twin Kevin had tried the local takeaway Chinese for dinner but paid a bit of a price overnight. Fortunately they were all clearned out by morning with a 6.30 rising time, to be at the boat by 7.30 and away by 8am.

The conditions could not have been more beautiful. Our host, John, of Action Divers in Tuncurry, has a new dive boat fitted out with huge powerful engines, plenty of space to move about and a pair of eyes painted on the bow which drew us in as we returned from the deep after each dive. His first mate, Clint, was the typically easy-going bloke who just got the job done with a minimum of fuss and made everyone feel welcome on board.

The sea was virtually flat and the journey out to the Pinnacles an easy one. The most difficult task was finding the buoy floating a few metres below the surface but with all eyes peeled and Carl doing his hero thing by jumping in to hold onto it we eventually hooked up and prepared to dive.

The more experienced divers headed in first. I dived with Carl, Kevin and Holger who had to do some skills for his course. After this was out of the way we headed into the depths reaching 35 metres briefly as we searched for sharks. The visibility was about 8-10 metres and there were lots of gullies and boulders that brought surprises as we moved around.

Kevin and Carl played sword fights with a couple of metre long Port Jackson sharks, amazingly placid having been disturbed from their rest. They didn’t seem to mind at all as I stroked their backs. There were so many different types of fish that I determined to buy myself an identification book to start to learn more about them. We were rewarded eventually by seeing a 2-metre long grey nurse shark heavily pregnant but very keen to keep out of our way.

Photo Karina Kaftanski

The prettiest thing were the masses of pure white “plants” attached to boulders all over the bottom and even at the base of the buoy anchor. I saw a few “leaves” floating free and thought that would be nice to show someone at home. But just as I tried to pick one, Carl became very cross and looked like he would have spanked me if he could. It turned out to my horror that I was attacking a nest of squid eggs and several babies probably suffered at my hands that day. I guess that was a lesson I’ll never forget. And since squid are such exquisite creatures I shouldn’t be surprised that they have such a beautiful way of reproducing.

I think I must have been experiencing a strange nitrogen narcosis reaction when we surfaced because I found I was so exhausted that I couldn’t even keep my eyes open, just had to rest in the sun. Maybe too much excitement, definitely odd because I couldn’t even try one of the Anzac biscuits that John’s wife Kathy had prepared for our snack.

Photo Karina Kaftanski

We motored over to Latitude Rock and had a one-hour rest break dozing and chatting before hearing from John about the possibilities in this next dive. We dived with the same buddies but with Carl’s knack of finding things a few more elected to follow him around to look for the giant turtle. And we covered a lot of ground looking. Came across many stingrays, even a pair that seemed to be having a romantic interlude. Certainly when the front one got fed up with us and swam off the back one looked pretty mad about it. Many beautiful plants, fish, rocks and gullies with a mist of algae in some areas that puffed into a cloud as we passed, purple and pretty. We did eventually come across a turtle, about half a metre shell and keen to get away from us as fast as possible. There were the usual blue gropers eagerly participating in the feast as sea urchins were opened for them.

Photo Karina Kaftanski

Time came for everyone to begin surfacing but Carl and I had one last search following a gully which went down to 15 metres in depth. At one point Carl became excited and signalled me to listen….sure enough I could hear the singing of whales not far away. It seemed to continue on for the rest of our dive. We had turned and were heading back to the boat when Carl suddenly pointed to a large rock below. There, peeking out from under a ledge, was the back of a huge turtle shell with one flipper visible.

We ventured down and found that the whole shell was about 1.8x1.2m and the turtle’s head was another 30cm beyond that. His shell showed all the markings of a long and tough life. His face was fairly unmarked but those jaws looked like they could have produced a pretty good wound if given the chance. In my excitement I slipped from my position and slid forward into the turtle, ending up with his right eye looking at my mask from a distance of about 30cm. Fortunately he didn’t seem nearly as excitable as I was and just looked. I guess he’s seen it all.

Of course, when it transpired that we were the only ones who had seen the turtle, Carl’s story grew in magnitude and the giant turtle became a monster. All in all, though, I can only conclude that the world under the ocean is a most amazing place and no wonder divers never tire of exploring it.

An easy journey home was highlighted by the pod of dolphins which greeted us at the harbour entrance and raced along under our bow. As Paul noted, one looked like it had had its front half dipped in white paint, being a piebald colour. They just seemed to want to play.

With two dives under our belt we had the rest of the afternoon free so everyone headed off doing what they fancied, including lunch, shopping, exploring. I curled up in the sun and finished my book then had an afternoon nap. With sunset approaching I drove out to Tony’s point and had a peaceful hour watching the changing light over the water of the lake as pelicans grazed, birds settled in for the evening, fish touched the surface feeding and all the colours of the rainbow crossed the sky.

When John came to set up the barbecue, we were still a few people short. Some of our younger men had not arrived back from the Memorial Club which seemed to be the hub of entertainment in Foster. They eventually turned up a little the worse for wear, ate dinner and headed off to finish the evening. Most managed adequate sleep at some stage that night. The food was delicious and John regaled us with his stories, a great end to a great day.

With the heater going overnight those of us in cabin 3 had warm dry wetsuits in the morning (takes women to think of these things). But the 5.30 start was a bit tough. We were at the boat soon after 6.30 watching the sunrise, all packed up and ready to go. Only Kevin started the day looking a little seedy. Sunday was the journey to Seal Rock (no seals left now since we humans shot and killed them all). Everything on the boat except suit/mask/fins, we formed a convoy driving south. Just as we parked John came around the point and moored off shore waiting while we donned gear and swam out to him.

Our journey to the Outer Edith Breaker took us through a fleet of yachts, spinnakers unfurled heading north and very colourful. Once anchored we geared up and had our briefing. Same buddies, current not too bad, potential for sharks, caves. The descent took us to 31 metres and a most amazing cave system. Once inside I found it a delight to sit and look out through a cloud of fish lit from behind at the entrance. They seemed not the least disturbed that we had invaded their safe haven.

Carl, with his torch, ventured further into the caves, through some more narrow passages and apparently found that the system continued for many more metres. Although others joined him I felt a bit spooked without a torch and headed back to enjoy the view in the main cave. Then we followed the rock gullies south and entered a cave surrounding a huge boulder in which two large black cod were sheltering. Each at least 1.5m long, they were too shy to hang around once we joined them. Always the huge variety of other fish wherever we turned, the time at depth was quite short and soon we were again ascending.

The swell being a bit more noticeable made nausea a bit of an issue for me during the break. At least one Anzac bikkie stayed pretty settled while we motored to Big Seal Rock. The build-up was huge…. ‘wallpaper” of sharks, watch out for the more dangerous wobbegongs, be careful of the current, stay close to the walls…. I think we were all ready for anything.

Because of the strong current we swam forward and descended to follow the gullies between tall rocky ledges. Sure enough, there was no shortage of grey nurse sharks, quite shy as expected but happily hovering along the sandy bottom. They ranged in size from 1 to 2metres and allowed us to come fairly close. Visibility was not fabulous so it required a lot of concentration to follow their movements. Carl and I took a detour toward the end of the dive to a deeper section looking for shark teeth. We were combing the sandy bottom when Carl tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to my left. I turned to come face-to-face with a metre long grey nurse shark which I could have touched, looking straight at me as if wondering what I was up to. We just looked at each other for over a minute until she turned and wandered away. Definitely a highlight for me and damn, I didn’t have a camera!

The current had carried Karina and Jeremy far beyond the boat so we loaded up and motored off to pick them up. Only a short trip back to the beach to pack up, jump in and swim for shore. It was a very happy and weary group that dragged itself up to the cars to peel off all the gear and prepare for the homeward journey. Amazing how just a weekend sharing these incredible experiences creates a bond. Everyone contributed to making this a great group and one I look forward to seeing again. Despite feeling salty and sticky, and very very weary, I had an absolutely fabulous time and can’t wait for the next underwater adventure.