Scuba Divers Face Off With Great White Shark In Australia
A pair of scuba divers in Australia recently came face to face with a great white shark while in the water, and they have the pictures to prove just how close they were to the undersea predator.
Adelaide University Scuba Club divers Mark Sutcliffe and Jan Busch were diving off the Glenelg tyre reef last weekend when the great white approached them, according to the Daily Mail. The shark appeared from nowhere, startling the two divers, who described the animal as the “largest fish” they’d ever seen. Without the safety of a shark cage, the pair could do little more than watch as the great white circled them three times before moving off into the murky depths.
Posting on the group’s Facebook page, Sutcliffe called the experience an “interesting dive.”
“Well done Jan Busch for snapping these shots while I had half my body inside a tyre tetrahedron and breathing my a** off,” he said.
“We waited until it cleared off before exiting the water. Omitted the safety stop on the way up!”
Gail Jackman, president of the Adelaide University Scuba Club, said that the group would review its safety policies after the divers’ run-in with the great white, the Daily Telegraph notes.
Currently, each boat has a shark shield attached to its anchor line. As the Inquisitr previously noted, this device, used by surfers and divers, emits an electrical field that serves to keep sharks, even large ones like great whites, safely at bay. In the future, the club may ensure that each group of divers has a shark shield with them underwater.
“Sharks are always there – that’s the risk you take as a scuba diver,” Jackman noted.
“Safety is the most important thing.”
White sharks are certainly no strangers to Australian waters, responsible for a number of attacks over the last few years. A proposal to use baited drumlines to cull the sharks was rejected by Western Australia’s EPA earlier this year, amid concerns that the policy would have an uncertain impact on local marine populations. A three month trial cull had a disproportionate effect on larger sharks, particularly great whites.
[Images: Adelaide University Scuba Club/ Facebook, via the Daily Mail]
