405_April_24

A rare visitor to Wolf Rock is this tawny nurse shark.

the next ridge we encountered an aggregation of about six giant Queensland Groupers, one being particularly massive. Guess what else breeds here. Dropping over the ridge to about the 26m mark to see some more grey nurse, we found a second leopard shark, and had a flyby from three spotted eagle rays. Turning around at half our air we retraced our steps at a slightly quicker pace, and after finding a tawny nurse shark in a crevasse we didn’t inspect on the way down we had a brief pause at the ten metre mark before making our way up the rope to do a deco stop. This proved a bit problematic for me. I hadn’t realized that my dive computer was so pedantic about starting my deco at the 5m mark. At 5.2m, with one hand

on the rope and the other holding tightly to my cameras, it just wouldn’t give me any credit for trying and told me I had to start my deco as the other divers were finishing and beginning to ascend. Never mind, too much deco is better than too little, and in this case dive computers have to be obeyed. It would beep at me if I didn’t!! Back on the boat, dive computer happy, an hour’s surface interval and a change of tanks saw us do it all again. Trying to take in some of the smaller fish here is quite difficult. Snapper, Queensland yellowfin angelfish, dusky butterflyfish and more swam past, but it was hard to tear your gaze away from the magnitude of megafauna in close proximity to you.

These sharks are a brilliant first shark to dive with. They are large and toothy, but if treated properly are not a danger to people. Keep calm, move slowly, and keep your hands to yourself.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #405- April ‘24

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