Osprey Reef: Sharks in 3-D

One little bit of advice to seafarers: If you say “I never get seasick,” you’re doomed. I survived 20 hours cruising out to Osprey Reef with my stomach turning, and I’m about to take my first dive. We left Port Douglas around 5 p.m. Saturday, and after 20 hours of steaming through 20-25 knot winds and 6-foot seas, we arrived at Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea. We’re so far from land that there’s nothing but ocean in every direction — 100 nautical miles from the coast of Australia and nearly halfway between Australia and Papua New Guinea.  “Get in the water right away,” Cat tells me, “You’ll feel so much better.”

After sleeping on the deck in the seabreeze overnight, and being one breath away from hurling every time I step below deck, I can hardly focus on the safety briefing let alone wonder how my first dive around sharks will go. I’m trying to listen to dive instructor Chris Witty through my nausea, but my brain wakes up when he says, “You really don’t want to go missing out here. You may not last long enough to die from exposure.”

He’s referring to the sharks…

But sharks aren’t the only safety concern here. Because of tomorrow’s new moon, we’ll see a 9 foot difference between low and high tide over the next few days. This adds oomph to an already swiftly moving current. Chris implores us to follow every safety precaution, “We’re too far away for any other boats to aid in a rescue. We’re too far for helicopters to reach us. If you get sidetracked by manta rays and swim away from the reef, basically you’re lost. It’s nearly impossible to see you in the waves unless you wave your safety sausage.” It sounds cute and funny to me in his Australian accent – heck, maybe it sounds funny in any accent -  but I sure as heck don’t want to be out there having to wave around any safety sausages, hoping the sharks don’t nibble the dangly bits below the surface.

Osprey is a reef that formed around a seamount that rises 6,000 feet in the middle of the Coral Sea.  And it’s a hotspot for whitetip reef sharks, grey reef (whaler) sharks, and silvertip sharks. The occasional tiger shark and hammerhead also pass through. Osprey lies some 80 miles outside the Great Barrier Reef system, which is the largest interconnected living organism in the world. We came here to film the final scenes for Expedition Shark, where shark wrangler —  aka biologist and filmmaker —   Richard Fitzpatrick and his crew are observing previously undiscovered behaviors for whitetip, grey and silvertip sharks.

Richard grew up in Rockhampton at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. “Me and my best mate used to collect on the reef,” he tells me. “I started snorkeling at 6, and diving at 15.” He collected all kinds of things, but particularly the dangerous things —  stonefish, sea snakes, blue ring octopus, cone shells. And his fascination with sharks started when he collected some epaulette sharks for his marine aquarium.  He went on to get a degree from James Cook University and is now working on a Ph.D. there, but has spent the last 20 years working in marine biology, most notably with sharks.

During the past months, Richard and crew placed devices on these sharks that reveal where they travel and how deep they go. Over the next few days they will catch the sharks to retrieve the tags, from which they will be able to see where and when and how the sharks use their reef and offshore habitat. They’ll also film other wonders of the Coral Sea, including the chambered nautilus —  an ancient relative of squid and octopus —  and glowing flashlight fish on a night dive.

Last night during dinner, I sat with Mike deGruy, a veteran filmmaker who both helps catch sharks and shoot video footage for this documentary. I notice the jagged marks on his right forearm and joked that it must have been a shark attack. Turns out, I’m right. I’ll save the story for a future blog, but suffice it to say it didn’t calm my nerves when I further asked what species and he laughed and said, “You probably don’t want to hear —  it was a grey reef shark.”

As I suit up and get ready to test out my “sea feet” I feel a bit like a seal out of water in my flippers and gear, but all the nausea, the mild anxiety, the talk of shark attacks falls away when I take a “giant stride” entry off the boat into the ocean below.  I look around, and see coral reefs on two sides of me, with clown fish, parrotfish, damselfish, and butterfly fish flitting around and two other divers right near me. We sink lower into the ocean and about 50 feet down my dive buddy, boat skipper Sean Ryan, puts his hand on top of his head —  the underwater signal for shark —  and points to the sandy ocean floor. There before my very eyes is the creature that terrifies so many.  Words can’t describe that moment when I see it. I literally feel like I’m swimming through a 3-D IMAX shark film. I am in absolute awe. I wanted to jump up and down, which is kind of difficult to do underwater. I want to say “That is so freaking cool!” but I can’t speak underwater.

We continue our dive through a cave that we’ll return to at night, and back out through a gully where the current is so strong I can barely swim upstream. We arrive in a more open area where it feels like a gigantic swimming pool. I twist around like a dexterous seal. We spot two more whitetip reef sharks on our dive. The last one I swim so close to that I can almost touch it. It’s time to ascend, and I’m waving goodbye to it, watching it become smaller and smaller as I near the boat.

Tomorrow, Richard and crew plan to retrieve the first of the radio tags, and we’ll possibly do a night dive we had to abort tonight because of too-strong currents. One thing is for sure around here – plans change every 15 minutes.

Blog Extra: Listen to Wendee's audio interview with Earth Live.

Images: Wendee and Cat aboard the Undersea Explorer; Richard Fitzpatrick; Fish in the Coral Sea; Whitetip reef shark.

Photos: Cat Gennaro/DCL|Courtesy John Rumney

Comments

[Sharon Guynup]

What an awesome adventure--and important work. Sharks are almost extinct--and so widely hated or exploited for their pricey fins that it's a tough sell to protect them--but no ecosystem can thrive without its top predators!

[Melody Smith]

Way to go, Wendee! I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of your adventures. I hope the sea sickness eases up. Have fun & keep up the good work!