The
day of the tiger sharks - the 27th of July
2007 is a date we'll never forget! For some days previous
the local authorities had been trying to deal with the
problem of disposing of some twenty tonnes of decaying
humpback whale that inconveniently washed up in the
middle of Margate's blue flag beach. The debate raged
for some time as to whose problem it really was and
how it should be dealt with. Wisely choosing against
the dynamite option (tried in the past with dramatic
results) another solution had to be found.
We had just finished our only dive of the day when
I heard the news from Roland "The Sharks Board
are three kilometers offshore already with the carcass
in tow! What do you think? Should we go and have a look?".
I must admit that I was slow to respond. In my own mind
I was already packing up to go home, but it didn't take
too long to start adding up the equation. One times
dead whale, plus a three kilometer chum slick must equal
plenty of sharks. Add to this some dive gear, cameras,
surface support and one very large stick and we're looking
at a real adventure.
Conditions could hardly be better
with a minimal swell and just the merest hint of north-east
luff to distort the sky's deep reflection on the ocean.
It doesn't take long for us to have the boat back on
the water and when we catch up with the sharks board,
they've stopped towing the whale and some of the crew
have lines in the water - no harm in a bit of fishing
on the job - seems like we're all anticipating a lot
of underwater activity.
Watching for a while we try to get
a feel for what's happening below. It's clear there
are a large number of sharks around, duskys, tigers
and small bronze whaler that nearly stranded itself
on top of the whale in its effort to feed. We're keen
to get in the water before we loose our nerve and while
there are still other boats around. This is an unknown
situation for us and as we backward roll I'm embarrassed
in trying to keep the large stick I brought along from
view. We're pretty sure we won't need it but there is
an awful lot of whale juice around and we have no real
idea how the sharks will react to us in this environment.
We drop in about fifty meters from the carcass
and drift parallel to the whale. Almost immediately
we see our first shark as a large dusky (C. obscurus)
comes straight in to investigate. Soon there are four
or five duskys around us and then we see the first tiger
shark, a female of about 3.5m. She seems very keen to
find out what we are about and she is soon joined by
a smaller female of about 3m. The two sharks work us
together like a tag team for a full twenty minutes.
Two divers and two tiger sharks, they circle us and
come in for some close passes, often sneaking up from
behind, we have to watch each other’s backs. Meanwhile,
the dusky sharks have moved out to the ring-side and
seem to be waiting for some kind of result.
Not having heard any boats for some time we start to
worry about our surface support and decide that's enough
for one dive. Surfacing almost two hundred meters down
current from the whale we spend some anxious minutes
in the slick waiting to be picked up. I'm surprised
at how much shark activity there is so far away from
the actual carcass. It's only on later reflection that
it strikes me how different this dive actually was from
our normal baiting experiences with tiger sharks. In
an artificial baiting situation the sharks are primarily
focused on a bait filled drum. On this dive however,
we were in and enormous chum slick and a long way from
the whale carcass. There was no drum in the water with
us this time and without it, we became the sharks' primary
focus for the full twenty minutes of dive. More
on baited shark dives...
Back on the boat again and next to
the whale, activity is increasing by the minute. The
tiger sharks now seem to be dominating the show. We
estimate at least fifteen individuals and only one very
large dusky is holding its own amongst them. Desperate
to see what's actually going on below, Roland holds
his camera over the side and takes some random underwater
shots. The results are startling! Every picture (he
took over 100) features either a shark, part of
a shark or multiple sharks.
Seeing these pictures we know we have to get
back in the water and this time we must get
closer to the whale to see how the sharks behave and
interact around the carcass. This is easier said than
done and we have some real concerns just having watched
a lot of large sharks in frenzied feeding. Staying rational
we tell ourselves that tiger sharks are ever cautious.
We are reasonably confident from past encounters that
we won't be devoured instantly and after all, is it
not better to regret something you have done than something
you haven't? Aware that this is the chance of a lifetime,
we backward roll and descend for round two.
Leveling off at about ten meters we
can just make out the white glow from the whale at the
surface like some strange sub-tropical iceberg. There
is a surprise install for us at first however, as there
is not a shark in sight. Then the first tiger shark
appears above us and the large dusky we saw from the
surface earlier, rushes past. Mesmerising bronze and
gold shark-skin reflections distract our attention and
turning back to look at the whale it takes us a moment
to register what we are now seeing. One, two, three,
... six tiger sharks have appeared almost simultaneously
and are speeding down towards us from the whale. I'm
suddenly thinking we made a big mistake here, a terrible
miscalculation. What was that about regret? I'm half
laughing and almost crying. No time to register fear,
they're with us now. Stand your ground! Some very close
passes and we recognise several from surface observation
earlier. There's the bloated one with the ragged dorsal
and the sharks board tag - she can't still be feeding!
Roland and myself don't have to communicate much to
agree on extracting ourselves from this situation. It
seems we are now drifting under the whale and towards
that very murky slick behind it - it's a place we really
don't want to be right now - so we start to backtrack
slowly and as we move further away the tiger sharks
gradually loose interest in us and return back to their
trophy.
Laughing, relieved and energised
we clamber back on board. The whole experience
has lasted only seven minutes and as we try to understand
what has just happened, we can't help thinking that
we may have been chased off deliberately. Like lions
at a kill, is it possible the tiger sharks are protecting
their prize? With so much food around you wouldn't think
it necessary but why then were all the other species
of shark so scarce as well? Perhaps, unlike us, they
know to stay back until the tiger sharks have had their
fill.
