Shark chase
The year was 1993 and I was on board the vessel NJoy visiting multiple sites along the northern outer Great Barrier Reef, Queensland (see the team in the bottom left image - I'm in the yellow t-shirt). We were scuba diving to sample fishes at each reef. On this particular day we arrived late in the afternoon at Moulter Cay, a small vegetated cay and known turtle nesting locality. We decided there was time to do a dive and collect fishes. We split into two groups of 3. Tom Trnski, Mark Westneat and I went in first followed by Steve Keable, Sally Reader and a third person, possibly Cliff, the cook. The second group snorkelled about half way to the cay swimming over deep water when they saw a huge grey shape swim directly below them. They immediately decided not to dive, and returned to the NJoy.
In blissful ignorance Tom, Mark and I continued to swim to the cay. When it was shallow enough to see the bottom we descended and began to use micro spears (top right images shows me using a micro spear) to collect a particular species of damselfish that was being targeted for a research program. Our activities peaked the curiosity of the local fishy predators. We turned around at one stage to see a massive Queensland Grouper that looked the size of a VW Bug. It didn't trouble us but shortly thereafter a small shark (possibly being chased by the Grouper) slammed into Tom's shoulder. Before we knew it we were surrounded by agitated small Grey Reef Sharks (bottom right image). We quickly agreed to head towards the cay. As we were approaching the island the water became shallower and we found ourselves swimming over the reef flat in less than 2m of water. Just before the refuge of the sloping sand beach we stopped at a gutter in the sand that ringed the cay. Crossing the gutter reminded me of crossing a busy road but instead of cars there were many sharks to dodge. It was a case of 'look right, look left and look right again before we swam like mad across the gutter and crawled up onto the sandy beach.
There was no way we were going to swim back to the boat so we took off our tanks and waved our hands about until someone on the NJoy noticed us and brought the runabout to pick us up (see top left image). In the meantime we found a number of pieces of turtle shell with crescentic shark bites removed from them.
That late afternoon we broke a bunch of fundamental diving safety rules but fortunately nobody was harmed. The experience left us with an enduring memory.