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Baby Shark, Doo Doo Doo Doo

John Martin

I met my friends at the ferry, I had the day planned with delightful treats to eat & drink - yet the highlight I couldn’t guarantee.

I’d said to bring snorkelling gear, we ventured into the water and we’re quickly rewarded, being surrounded by a school of yellowtail (fish). Wade hasn’t experienced this before, being from Melbourne (via Canada), where the water is colder and arguably (somewhat) less inviting. He remarked - I was surrounded by the school, lost among them... Another highlight was the blue grouper, these are big fish long (~70cm) and thick, and a striking bright yet deep blue; they were swimming slowly, ignoring us, focused on eating plants off the rocks. The wave motion didn’t bother them, as it did us, they held their ground like a solid object - yet fluid.

And then we saw it, the highlight of the swim, an exhilarating sight despite it’s diminutive size - a juvenile dusky whaler shark, about 60cm in length. We swam after it, luckily we were wearing flippers and could keep up.

We swam back to shore and chatted about our fun and beautiful experience while enjoying the warm sunshine. What a great day; and it has just begun.