Great white sharks are terrifying prehistoric creatures with hundreds of razor sharp teeth. They can swim over 35mph (56 km/h) and are literally killing machines. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to go cage diving with them in the middle of the ocean in Australia.
Theres only one place in Australia that you can do this- the Neptune Islands, where the movie Jaws was filmed. This area has many sea lions and fur seals, so sharks come here to hunt them. This is the perfect spot for the cage to be dropped- great white shark hunting grounds.
Shark Attack
Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions is the original company that started cage diving in the ocean. I started reading about how it got started and found it very interesting!
Rodney Fox survived the most gruesome non fatal great white shark attack of all time. He had 554 total stitches to cover his wounds! He suffered from a fully exposed abdomen, 12 broken ribs, punctured diaphragm, pierced scapula, uncovered spleen, exposed artery, and his veins nearly collapsed from a major loss of blood. After his miracle recovery, he became very fascinated with sharks. He wanted to study them further and up close, so he built a shark cage.
He started having film crews and tourists, ask if he could take them down in the water with his cage. So many people contacted him that he started a business that’s been running over 50 years now.
Rodney Fox Expeditions offers 2-9 day liveaboard trips, where they drop the cage to the bottom of the ocean! This is the only company in the world that will do this. While this seemed like an incredible experience, I didn’t have this much time.
I found another company that’s offers a 1 day trip – Calypso Star Charters.
Getting There
I took a 45 minute regional flight from Adelaide to Port Lincoln. The full day trip is about 11 hours, so you need to stay in Port Lincoln the night before and the night after. You don’t need to be scuba certified because it’s not a true scuba dive. Theres a hookah hose with an unlimited air supply instead of a BCD and tank. Make sure to take sea sickness medication, as the waves can get rough.
Calypso Star Charters had a van pick me up at my hotel at 6:15am and they provided breakfast and lunch. It was about a 3 hour boat ride to the Neptune Islands from the Port Lincoln Marina.
There were 12 people diving on the boat and we were split into 2 groups of 6. They briefed us on everything we needed to know and informed us theres a gap inside the cage for our cameras. They stressed how important it is to keep our gopro/hands inside the cage. Sharks are curious and they don’t have fingers to touch with. They bite with their mouth and spit it out if they don’t like it.
They prepared the cage and lowered it down into the 300 ft deep water (91m). The cage was only a few meters down and attached to the boat the entire time. I felt like the goat being lowered into the T-Rex cage in Jurassic Park.
Shark Diving
I strapped weights around my waist and climbed down into the cage. The water was about 60 degrees F (16C) and they provided 7mm wetsuits with a hood and booties. I looked around the bottomless ocean and within 5 minutes I saw the first great white shark. Out of nowhere, the shark swam from the pitch black depths, straight up in front of us and breached! He then swam straight towards our cage, looking into my eyes, and at the last second he turned and swam away. He was about 14 feet long (4.5m).
I stayed under water for over an hour and saw a shark every 5-10 minutes. Sometimes they were below the cage, next to the cage or in front. Even when I didn’t see them, I knew that they could sense we were there.
These sharks in the ocean had battle scars and gaping wounds all over their body from a ‘survival of the fittest’ way of life. Not at all like the well-kept sharks I’ve seen in aquariums. I thought I would be terrified under water but I wasn’t at all. It was truly fascinating to observe how these creatures move and I always felt safe. This was such a surreal, once in a lifetime experience that I definitely recommend.