DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA FEB 2025 ISSUE 410

On another dive, I decided to imitate a famous American diver from the 1980’s, Chris Newbert, from Hawaii. He used to dive down to one hundred and fifty feet at night solo on a shot line and photograph pelagic marine life. One of the early ‘Blackwater divers’ in the early 1980’s. He also did the same with sharks in the day time. He did use a plexiglass ‘cage’ for protection some of the time because Hawaii is renowned for Oceanic White Tip sharks and big Tiger sharks. He created a ground breaking underwater photographic book, “Within a Rainbow Sea,“ with photos of planktonic squid, jellies and fish and of course sharks. He had the best photos. His reasoning was that shark behaviour would be very different for a solo diver than it would be for a group of divers. He was right! I decided to try it out. I went straight down to 40 metres by myself and found a large coral rock on the near vertical wall and waited. I had my back to the wall and gazing into the depths below that continue down into deep blue for thousands of feet. Watching the blue ... waiting. The anticipation of the unknown is exciting. It did not take long before several Silver Tip Sharks turned up. They were a little too excited for my liking but I was there to get some photos. I looked up to see the surface clearly. It was a very, very long way off. This was a great opportunity. Fortunately, the sharks stayed just far enough away and just below. After a few minutes, those Silver Tips started to get a little more frisky. I became aware of the increasing Nitrogen load and decided it was time to ascend. Lo and Behold, my Silvery friends decided to come with me all the way to fifteen metres! Thankfully, they decided to peel off and return to the deep blue. Wow, what a buzz! It was probably about the

same adrenalin rush as the three lions we met in Africa which were less than three metres from our open wall safari jeep. The photos were not as good as I had hoped. Mostly, you should never take photos pointing downward because of the dark background. I was using 100 ASA slide film so the available light was simply not enough. Also, the countershading of sharks helps them to blend in with the deep water when viewed from above.

When you see a Silver Tip Shark approaching you, you see five tell-tale white spots. They have a white (Silver) tip spot on their pectoral fins, dorsal, anal fins and Tail. The heartwarming sight of mother Silver Tip shark introducing her baby to us is one of my most treasured moments from 48 years of diving.

79

DIVE LOG Australasia #410 - February‘25

www.divelog.net.au