DIVELOG JUNE 406

VALERIE TAYLOR ADVOCATES FOR Grey Nurse Sharks

:: words and images by Valerie Taylor AM

Valerie Taylor Swims with this stunning Grey Nurse shark.

M y name is Valerie Taylor. With my husband Ron we made a living mainly from underwater photography. Back in the late 1960s Ron discovered he could sell his 16mm black and white footage to Movietone news who would blow it up to 35mm for showing around the world in their little theatres. However, Movietone were only interested in shark footage. Fish, crab’s shrimps were unsaleable. Shark footage would sell at 35 pounds an item - more than the average weeks wages.

At this time Ron was my boyfriend, along with a pup, tent, mask, snorkel and fins we spent the good weather searching for sharks to film. We towed our tinny behind a little Volkswagen and started exploring offshore islands, rocks and reefs looking for sharks. One species easily found was these so called "killer" Grey Nurse. We were very careful around these spectacular, but according to the media and science, incredibly dangerous sharks. What surprised us both was how very peaceful the Grey Nurse seemed. They just drifted in sandy gutters minding their own

business. We discovered on a night dive at Big Seal Rock that they were nighttime feeders. They had abandoned their daytime resting place. We found them always alone moving around the kelp covered reefs. It was very obvious they were hunting for sleeping fish. By now we had realised that these sharks were very sweet natured, certainly not the danger the media claimed. We also realised they seemed to migrate north in winter.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #406 - June ‘24

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