How much more can I pack in to just a few days? Shark diving, a band gig and now a copyright infringement to be sorted. More on that later perhaps. This post is about our white shark cage dive trip to Stewart Island.
At 7.00 Thursday, we slid out of our sleeping bags on board the Candice-Britt, to meet the full compliment from Auckland who had driven down from Christchurch at 2.00 am. There would be no slap-up breakfast as we were all keen to get under way. Cage secured, boat fueled, a cup of tea and a cold pie, and we were out into the swell, crossing Foveaux Strait bound for the Titi Islands, off Stewart Island, NZ.
As it turned out, the swell had eased nicely and the crossing was a breeze, made easier by the fact that the Candice Britt is a nice powerful catamaran that cut through the waves faster than bad news spreads on Twitter. Not wasting any time, our deck hand Johnno got to work preparing some shark bait.
No boat on Foveaux strait goes unaccompanied. Mollymawks, or more properly, small albatrosses are your constant companions. We were tracked by Shy and Buller's albatrosses. Their soaring flight is just beautiful to watch, and fun to try and get a good shot of from a rolling deck. If you're not a gear-head, feel free to skip the next para:
I used my 100-400 f/4 L to good effect here. Its image stabilisation is the best thing since autofocus, but there were times when the 24-70mm got some nice shots too. I should add that most of my topside images were taken on my Canon 5DmkII or 7D, while I had my Powershot G12 and underwater housing along for sub-surface action. Just for emergencies, I had a 450D and a splash bag with a 580EXII and 540EX flash and some optical slaves at the bottom of my sleeping bag, along with a small flask of whisky, a cuban cigar and half a bag of corn chips. If you're serious about photography you really have to be prepared.
About an hour after leaving Bluff harbour, we anchored off one of the Titi islands. The Titis are also known as the Muttonbird islands. For centuries, local Maori have been coming here to gather the Sooty shearwater, a local delicacy - although those with an uneducated palate would liken it to a tough, greasy, salty seagull - only not as appetising.
It was time to gather sharks and our anticipation was building although you might not have noticed. I think the excitement was tempered by the thought of getting into that cold water. It's certainly not for the faint of heart. This is the southern ocean, 11 or 12 degrees C on a good day. If you're lucky, you'll last about an hour without a wetsuit before hypothermia gets you, although there are tales of some hardy types actually lasting over 12 hours and living to tell the tale. But the water wasn't going to put us off. There was work to do: A berley trail to be laid, bait to throw in, and just to tempt the big predators a little more, a little seal pup decoy made from foam. It made sense that the seal silhouette would attract sharks, but who'd have thought it would work on albatross too?
As we waited for the guests of honour to arrive, Mike got onto the hydraulic crane and lowered the cages into the water.
The main cage is nice and sturdy, with room for four divers. Mike Bhana's personal cage was a rather different affair however.
Our skipper had whipped it up from aluminium tubing the night before. One man could easily lift it, and I was thinking one large shark could easily pop it apart. That is, if it didn't want to just poke its jaws in through the massive gaps in the bars and pull you out. You'd have to be nuts to think you're safe in that thing with a big shark around. Or you'd have to be Mike Bhana. Mike's one of the most experienced shark shooters (as in camera, not gun) on the planet and I've seen him fend off dozens of big sharks with his camera. If you didn't know him, you'd think it was some kind of crazy machismo combined with a death wish, but he has a real love of sharks, combined with years of experience. I'm sure he'd get out of the water if he thought he wasn't in control of the situation. I'm just not sure if I've seen him do it yet.
Once the cages were in, there was nothing left to do but wait for the sharks to show. Luckily for us our skipper Mike Haines (did I mention his business, Southern Aqua Adventures?) knows just the best spot to find large white sharks, and some showed up almost immediately. This was the little one:
Skipper Mike had done his part. Now it was time to do ours. I'm not sure if it was the sharks or the water temperature, but there was a complete lack of gung ho about the moment, as a few of the lads just shrugged and began to suit up. We were about to come face to face with one of the planet's greatest living predators. Sure I was nervous. I hadn't dived in a few years, and the last time I was in a cage I found it terrifying, waiting for a Mako shark to appear from out of nowhere. This time the sharks were right there, and they were huge - nearly 4m long and of massive girth. But to be honest, this time, I couldn't wait. This was going to be my first chance to do some underwater photography, and it was with one of the most spectacular subjects I could imagine. I had a challenge to face, and I was totally focused on that. While the first divers went in, I prepped my camera and underwater housing, put on my togs, and suited up. My time had come.
More of this story in the pipeline.
Wow...these are incredible photos. Mark will be really jealous and all the more keen to go next time
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