I think I may have pooped my pants just watching!
A guy I know from aerobatic club days was then a abalone diver. Hans had some great stories about Great Whites. One I remember from my time growing up down the Peninsula (remember when the shark in question was caught), Anyway, this mate of Hans was diving near Flinders getting his quota of abalone. It was murky water and he was done about 10 metres. Out of the gloom appears this monstrous White. He ducks down into a crevasse and this monster fish then tries to flick him out of this crevasse using its tale - obviously a technique used to flick out seals from nearby Seal Rock over at PI. Fish swims away and he takes off his reg and blows a stream of bubbles to the surface. The deckhand on the boat brings the boat directly over his bubbles. He then drops his weight belt at surges to the surface. The deck hand pulls him onto the boat just as the White lunges at him, almost biting him. Shaking, the diver tells the deck hand to take him straight to the Flinders Pub! This Great White was later caught and it was a female and estimated to be around 90 years old and weighed around 2 tonne. It was the biggest and fattest fish I'd ever seen a photo of - being a star in the local news at the time.
Big bull seals are another threat to ab divers. Hans knew another guy who had his shoulder blade bitten off by a big bull seal - I think he got too close to the bulls "harem"!
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 11:07 pm