Tuna swimming

I couldn't possibly write about sharks and not give equal opportunity to the tuna of Port Lincoln!

Before I talk about our swim with the tuna, here is some background about this fascinating creature:

Southern bluefin tuna (SBT) are large, fast swimming, pelagic fish (ie. living in the open seas). SBT are found throughout the southern hemisphere mainly in waters between 30 and 50 degrees south but only rarely in the eastern Pacific. The only known breeding area is in the Indian Ocean, south-east of Java, Indonesia.

SBT can live for up to forty years, reach a weight of over 200 kilograms, and measure more than 2 metres in length. Breeding takes place from September to April in warm waters south of Java. The juveniles migrate south down the west coast of Australia. During the summer months (December-April), they tend to congregate near the surface in the coastal waters off the southern coast of Australia and spend their winters in deeper, temperate oceanic waters. After age 5, they are seldom found in near shore surface waters. (http://www.ccsbt.org/site/about_bluefin_tuna.php)

Basically, all I knew about tuna was that they were very big, quite fast, but apparently don't seem to mind having humans bobbing around in their territory.  We took the tuna catamaran out with a large group of people, and reached the tuna pontoon:

This image has been conveniently labeled with all the important stuff! We got into our handy dandy wetsuits and hopped into the water.  Being in the water with these guys took a little getting used to - any slight brush with any object in the water elicited shrieks for the first 10 minutes or so, but then you become accustomed to your surroundings.  The guides stood on the feed platforms with buckets of fish and threw them out to the people in the water.  You would have to catch it, or quickly grab it from the water to have a chance to feed the tuna.  For tuna feeding, it was recommended that you lie on your stomach and hold the dead fish out from your body and deep under the water.  Sometimes it felt like you were holding it for ages before a tuna took interest, other times it would grab it from you almost immediately.  It was startling to have an 80+ kilogram fish hurtling at you at ripping this thing from your hand, but also very cool.  There were little fish swimming about as well, and sometimes a group of them would swarm you and try to feed on your fish.  The little fish were surprisingly strong!We also swam in the middle area, which contained some local fish but it was not nearly as exciting as the tuna.  

When we had our fill of swimming, we got rid of our wetsuits and headed down to the underwater observatory where we got a different perspective.  We had the option of partaking in a 'sausage sizzle' on the tuna pontoon but at that moment there was nothing less appealing to me!  The boat ride back was not very long, but it felt like it took ages, particularly since they cruised by the harbour and gave us an overview of the history.  Jeremy was smart and took some 'Quells' before we left, but I was an idiot and thought I would be fine without them...I did end up being fine, but had a few moments of nausea and thought it might be disastrous!

I loved swimming with the tuna.  I don't know why I enjoyed it so much, but it was fun and a great way to spend my birthday.  

Shark diving with Calypso Star

So many things have been going on that it's hard to find the time to catch up and write about all of them. I would be remiss if I neglected our once in a lifetime experience of cage diving with great white sharks, so I'm going back a few weeks here.

I'm not sure why this picture turned out so tiny, but this is a group shot of the people in our cage.  We don't know the girl on the far left (who turned out to be a gynecologist from Colombia or something, strangely enough??) but the others are all people we know.  There is Pam, Jesse, me, Jeremy and Claire.

Some shots of Jeremy and I possibly going to our imminent death - luckily that wasn't the case!  Hehe.  We were the first group into the water, and we got to stay in the cage for about 45 minutes.

SHARKS!!!!!  We saw three great white sharks during our time in the cage, and I think there were about seven lurking around our boat over the course of the day.  Calypso was very clever and had underwater cameras that we could borrow.  It was really surreal, and hard to get the right timing for photos, but we managed to get some decent ones.  In the middle picture of the set, you can see a red cloud in the water, which is from the bloody goo ("chum") they were throwing in to attract the sharks. It was a little strange to have little pieces of flesh floating down over you while you were inside the cage.

 Here's one of Jeremy and I inside the cage.  There were six of us down there, three on each side of the cage.  Plenty of time for photo ops :)

This is definitely the best shot of the day!  Jeremy caught Claire and the shark at the perfect moment for an amazing shark 'selfie' (yes, technically not a selfie since she didn't take it, but...it is what it is!)

We were on the boat for a total of 12 hours.  Being the first ones down in the cage was cool, but it also meant that we had to wait for 6 additional groups (x 45 minutes each) to have their turns.  It was a beautiful sunny day, so we took the opportunity to nap on the upper deck of the boat.

Shark cage diving was a great experience and I would highly recommend it.  It's not something I ever feel the need to do again, but I'm glad we took the opportunity to do it and were accompanied by friends. Anyone else tempted?

Some additional info about cage diving from Wikipedia:

Cage diving is most common at sites where great whites are frequent including the coast of South Africa, the Neptune Islands in South Australia,^[73] and Guadalupe Island in Baja California. Cage diving and swimming with sharks is a focus for a booming tourist industry due to its popularity.^[74][75] A common practice is to chum the water with pieces of fish to attract the sharks. These practices may make sharks more accustomed to people in their environment and to associate human activity with food; a potentially dangerous situation. By drawing bait on a wire towards the cage, tour operators lure the shark to the cage, possibly striking it, exacerbating this problem. Other operators draw the bait away from the cage, causing the shark to swim past the divers.

At present, hang baits are illegal off Isla Guadalupe and reputable dive operators do not use them. Operators in South Africa and Australia continue to use hang baits and pinniped decoys.^[76] In South Australia, playing rock music recordings underwater, including the AC/DCalbum Back in Black has also been used experimentally to attract sharks.^[77]

Companies object to being blamed for shark attacks, pointing out that lightning tends to strike humans more often than sharks bitehumans.^[78] Their position is that further research needs to be done before banning practices such as chumming, which may alter natural behavior.^[79] One compromise is to only use chum in areas where whites actively patrol anyway, well away from human leisure areas. Also, responsible dive operators do not feed sharks. Only sharks that are willing to scavenge follow the chum trail and if they find no food at the end then the shark soon swims off and does not associate chum with a meal. It has been suggested that government licensing strategies may help enforce these suggested advisories.^[76]

Amazing!

I am turning into one of those people who just goes on and on about how great everything is!  How annoying.  I just had my 31st birthday over the weekend, which was spent in Port Lincoln/Coffin Bay with Jeremy and some lovely friends.

Jeremy picked me up Friday evening at the airport and I couldn't help but notice the gift box on the passenger seat of the car.  I truly was not expecting anything as I had told him that I was buying myself a birthday present - a ticket to the musical 'Once' (which is one of my favourite movies, introduced to me by Jeremy just before we left for Australia).  It turned out to be a gorgeous sapphire necklace (with a diamond as well!)  I am not a huge jewelry person, but I love things that are meaningful and it was just very special.  I posted a photo on Facebook but it won't post here at the moment...I'm sure most people have already seen it anyway!

We went out for dinner at Peacock Gardens, the Chinese/Thai restaurant in town.  I couldn't help but notice that the woman next to us had a definite North American accent - I was thinking US.  We ended up talking with the two ladies for about half an hour...turns out one was from California...and the other woman was from SA and starting up a tour business.  I have her card, so who knows..we might meet up!  We also got together with Jeremy's friend Bianca, a midwife who is from Adelaide but is working in Port Lincoln.  She was beautiful and reminded me of my bestie Tracee and made me a bit homesick.

Saturday was my actual birthday and we did something super cool - swam with tuna!  My friend Maria and her new husband Shane were coming out to Port Lincoln for the long weekend and obviously we took this opportunity to meet up.  They are the most wonderful couple (Irish folk, not so surprising!)  Jeremy and Shane get along tremendously, and I think Maria and Shane are both fantastic, fun people :)  We got on the boat and sailed out to the 'tuna pontoon'.  We donned our wetsuits and hopped into the water with loads of tuna weighing around 80 kg.  The guides threw us little fish that we could feed to the tuna, and it was such a surreal experience to have an 80 kg fish swimming at you and grabbing the food out of your hand!  There may have been a slight amount of screaming as we got used to it (even Jeremy, who rarely startles, let out a couple of yelps...hehehe)  It was so cool.  I can't believe I haven't even written yet about our diving with great white sharks experience, but that probably deserves an entry of its own!

After the tuna swimming (which I think Jeremy really did like, despite claiming he would prefer to be having a nap) we went and got cleaned up before having Maria, Shane, Orla, and Dave over for board games.  I have already introduced Maria and Shane...but I don't think I mentioned that Maria works with me at Griffith Rehab Hospital as an Occupational Therapist.  Orla is a Physio who is currently working at Griffith who actually got her job through Maria.  Orla is also Irish and her boyfriend Dave is an Aussie who grew up on Kangaroo Island but works now as a train conductor based in Port Augusta.  Whew!  I think that's everyone.  Honestly, it was my dream birthday - surprise jewels, tuna swimming, getting to see Jeremy, friends over for board games, dinner at Sarin's (I tried oysters for the second time in my life...felt like it was an obligation being so close to Coffin Bay which is world famous for oysters...and I still don't get the big deal...sorry), a drink at the pub next door, and then back to Jeremy's place for more board games with fun and spirited people.

The next day, we ventured on to Coffin Bay which has some spectacular scenery and I met Jeremy's supervisor, his wife and their two kids but I think I might save that for another post...I need to get to bed!