I recovered a photo recently that holds huge sentimental value to me. I want to share the story that explains what the photo in question represents. So begins shark attack Australia.
It all starts here.............
It was the summer of 2012 and I'm on an incredible one month holiday at this place, a tiny island six hours off the coast of Queensland. Lady Musgrave Island takes 10 minutes to walk around, there are no other people, just birds, thousands of millions of birds and their excrement and giant centipedes and the occasional tropical cyclone. One month of camping, spear fishing and scuba diving, like a real wild man.
We didn't have enough food for a month because the intention was to eat a plethora of fresh fish.
So, I bought one of these.....
.....so I could feel like this...............
After a few sessions of this....
I was catching these guys regularly.
They were curious, unsuspecting and sat out in the open more than they needed to. Unfortunately, I have a poor record with dangerous animals so tend to be apprehensive around things that can bite me. What I soon realised was that every time I fired one of these off.....
One of these would turn up.
And while they were inquisitive and probably wanted to be friends, it was too late because....
...mr shark attack Australia mind raped my perception of all sharks years ago. Spearing around the ever present sharks was an ordeal at the best of times, but I persevered, luckily I could hide behind my spearing mentor or swim back to the boat when I caught a fish, which was every time because they would try and take it. I soon learnt how to read the shark's behaviour and how to react to it's signals. Shark signals 101: Swimming on the ocean floor was neutral, swimming under you was wanting what you were catching, swimming at your level was checking you out, circling around you was definitely sizing you up, swimming at you and darting away at the last second is testing you for meal worthiness, nudging you is the last consequence lacking test, the next test is the bite test, I never got to this last test but I certainly learnt about all the others very quickly.
After two weeks, I felt like this....
But still looked like this...
But spear we must, and provide for our local residents we did...
Unfortunately, a little too much of this...
...caused me to think I could go spearing alone, no worries mate. So, the fateful day looked like this....
I decided to go spearing in the lagoon to catch one of these difficult to find delicacies.....
I was on edge because, it was known that a 14ft tiger shark inhabited the lagoon and it was nearing dusk.
I reached the edge of the deeper reef, about 100m from the beach, and began following this line looking for my fish. But, there was nothing at all, just an eerie feeling like the fish knew something I didn't. I have a habit that I know is paranoid, checking behind me every few minutes to see if I'm being followed. Today, I was completely not paranoid, only entirely correct because.....
...this guy....
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....and this guy....
...were following me at a healthy distance, the water visibility was poorer than usual and they kept dropping in and out of my sight range. They never came close, which was weird because they were both bigger than me, they just hung back but stayed on my tail. Eventually, I thought I better go in, because there were no fish and these sharks were behaving strangely. Just as I hit the edge of the shallow reef, I was presented with a chance, I nice sized coral trout popped out of a cave and I swam down and lined up the only shot of the day. I was apprehensive, I knew what the implications might be if I've a bloody fish in the water around two large hungry sharks so far from shore. The Bear Grills in me said, fuck it all and I slayed that fishy trout. The process of spearing a fish is interesting, your spear gun fires a spear from a tensioned rubber sling, the spear is attached to a 4m line attached to your gun. When you spear a fish it will often still be alive, so you must pull the line in and kill the fish as quickly and humanely as possible, this involves taking your leg knife and putting it through it's brain. I pulled in the fish, did the above method, but for some fucked up reason it took me 20 seconds to kill the poor thing. I don't like animal cruelty, I'm okay with hunting for your own food because I believe it makes you face the pain and death that goes into your meal, a very absent concept in our society. In that 20 seconds, three bad things happened; there was now about half a litre of blood in the water, I had drifted over the one metre deep reef and now my spear line was incredibly tangled in the coral, and both my shark friends turned up with a body language signalling feeding time. Suddenly, my thoughts of ever being this guy....
....alarmingly became this guy....
I couldn't get the bleeding fish off my spear because my line was too tangled in the coral. So, with one hand I slowly removed the line from it's coral prison, whilst watching two very frenzied sharks make swift passes at me and the bloody fish. When the line finally released, I swam to the surface, removed the fish and held it out of the water, with the other hand I hit the sharks with the back of my spear gun every time they made a pass. This is how it felt being in my very own shark attack Australia reality....
Being 100m off shore, holding a heavy bloody fish out of the water while trying to fend off two frenzied sharks bigger than you, in 1 metre of water, alone and possessing average to low bravery, is too many "this sucks" for my weak will. But preferring life from death, I did what any man would do, I just carried on, and for 100m until I clambered ashore, those sharks did not give up, every minute was tense and stressful, but I didn't give up my fish. I remember getting out of the water and seeing them swim around the waters edge angrily for no less than a minute before fading away into the deeper lagoon.
But I had won my trophy, I would provide food for the camp tonight, I had caught the elusive coral trout and I had fought off two sharks. I was both proud and emotionally traumatised from the cocktail of biting off way more than I could chew, choking on the mouthful for twenty minutes and then miraculously surviving in the least glorious way possible. There was possibly a lot of my urine in the lagoon that day.
This special photo captures the combination of pride and emotional exhaustion so robustly...
But first, for comparison, we have exhibit A) happy and proud...
Removing happy and adding shark related trauma, we have expression B)....
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| Shark Attack Australia trophy |
Shark attack Australia. That's it folks.
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