DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA FEB 2025 ISSUE 410

Sharks like to spend much of their day resting and rebuilding their energy supplies. However, Large Hale’s Ornate Wobbies have been know to eat Port Jackson sharks

Wobbegongs. Wobbegongs remain in their territory year-round but they do migrate shorter distances. We see them on the deep wrecks around Sydney when the small fish like Nannygai are in great numbers. We often speculate how they find the wreck as it is a tiny pin point several kilometres away from the coast in a vast sandy desert on the sea floor. Around Sydney, Wobbegongs get very assertive in early winter. Normally, they are relatively placid but in June, their behaviour ‘revvs’ up remarkably. They will swim aggressively toward you with a very clear message. They are demanding “What are you doing in our territory?” This is true for both males and females. When an eight-foot Hale’s ornate Wobbegong is ‘agro’, you had better watch out. Wobbegong sharks have a very clear set of warning

Nurse that is close to three metres or nine or ten feet long, they are overwhelming in size. Due to the bending of light, they appear to be a gigantic at twelve to thirteen feet long and have a girth as round as a forty-four (200 Litre) gallon drum. The only time that I have known a Grey Nurse to threaten a diver was when a buddy must have inadvertently entered a love nest of a pair of courting sharks and disturbed them at the wrong moment. He said that he was intimidated by the aggression and quickly backtracked out of there to leave them to their love nest. The important thing to remember here is that the sharks allowed him to escape and the threat behaviour was enough to restore their privacy. Sharks display discretion when it comes to conflicts! They are also able to learn that dievrs are non threatening and will tolerate your presence.

White Tip Reef sharks

Bracheolurus waddi at Fly Point. Also called Cat Shark or Blind shark

DIVE LOG Australasia #410 - February ‘25 44

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