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Diving
With Sharks:
A Coral Sea Adventure
Want to be sure to encounter sharks on your dive visit to Australia?
No worries, a number of different operators offer dive trips with excellent
opportunities to encounter sharks.
All kinds of sharks:
The Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea Reefs have a number of species of
sharks that are encountered by divers, ranging from the Whale Shark, the
largest shark in the world, down to sharks that are so small and so oddly
shaped it is hard to think of them as sharks at all.
The most commonly encountered sharks are the Black-tip and White-tip
Reef Sharks. These range in size from one to almost 2 meters. While they
can feed aggressively on fish, they are not thought be a hazard to divers
that follow the instructions of the divemasters. Divers, especially on
the Coral Sea Reefs, also frequently spot larger species such as Grey
Reef,Oceanic Silvertip,and Hammerhead sharks.
The Coral Sea Reefs: Ideal locations for encountering sharks.
Located out in the open ocean outside the Great Barrier Reef, these isolated
reefs are the destinations of shark encounter dive trips. The open ocean
isolation also draws in large pelagic fish such as dogtooth tuna, mackerel
and barracuda. These clouds of fish draw in the sharks. Osprey, Holmes,
and Flinders Reefs are the most commonly visited by shark encounter trips.
Some operators (Taka Dive, Mike Ball Dive and Coral Sea Diving Company)
offer a shark feed dive, where sharks are drawn in to a feeding station.
Mike Ball uses a protective enclosure for divers, while the others follow
a protocol that allows divers to be in the open. Be sure to follow the
instructions of the divemaster on these and all dives, you are a long
ways from medical help out here.
The fourth shark dive operator, Undersea Explorer, offers a very unique
opportunity. They conduct an active research study, and offer divers the
opportunity to assist them with the capturing, data collection, and tagging
of sharks at their study sites.
Amazing visibility, and a variety of dive opportunities.
These reefs also offer a combination of diving, from dramatic wall dives
to intricate coral formations, huge soft corals and reef flats. The diving
and snorkeling are great, although the trips tend to draw largely divers.
Four to Seven day trips.
Trips to the Coral Sea Reefs range from 4-6 days in length. While the
diving is adventurous, some of the boats are extremely comfortable, even
luxurious, in terms of the food and comfort they offer aboard. Most trips
going to Osprey Reef usually do a day or two of diving on the Ribbon Reefs
and Cod Hole, which also offer outstanding diving. There are a number
of different trips to choose from, one may suit you perfectly!
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Encounter
Dive Trips |
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