horny horn shark

I was fortunate enough to see some shark mating activity yesterday morning as I snorkelled over the rocks and sand weed just off of Shelly Beach in Sydney. I'll get to that in a bit.

Yesterday was the first family expedition to the beach. After boob and food for Alex we loaded the motor and headed for Manly, where we could get coffee and breakfast for ourselves and then head for the sand before the crowds arrived, which most assuredly they would with the temperature on its way to 31degrees.

Luck was with us; in fact, lady luck was smiling all day long. Weird; my luck is typically average. We found a superb free and unrestricted parking spot within an easy stroll of town and the water. Then we picked a random cafe that, despite looking a little poncy served suitably caf style fare. Well, it did to us, maybe the chef was hungover and didn't give a shit. Sal's pancake and my omelet seemed to have been slung on their respective plates. Some folks may give a toss, but we are not those folks and the nosh was top notch and the coffee on the good side of acceptable. Fed and watered we headed for the sand.

We got a good position in a shrinking patch of shade and were setup in next to no time. The Cancer Council beach shelter popped up and was staked out, towels were laid out and we settled in for the ten minutes of relaxation we were permitted before AJ's next feed. Being essentially boobless I was essentially useless, so I pulled on a rash shirt - I mean, how cold could the water be? - grabbed a mask and snorkel and with my temporary free-pass headed off to the water.

As it happens the water can still be really rather cold. But hey, I'd be able to warm myself once I came back out, and I didn't want to look too soft. A quick spit in my mask, dipped my head under water, sluiced the mask out and headed out towards the rocks. Maybe I should not have shaved into near extinction what little hair I have on my head; a small ice-cream headache started, but it passed and as I started to see a few fish all thoughts of being cold started to fade.

A quick aside. I can understand how easy it must be to drown. You lose heat rapidly when immersed in water, and most of us think the best way to stay warm is to move. Only it isn't. It fools you into thinking you are staying warm while actually you get cooler. And more tired. And if you do that while in water you can easily end up cold, numb, confused and exhausted. Not a great combination. I digress.

Almost as soon as I got to the rocks I say a Port Jackson shark, maybe 3ft long. I stopped to watch her (more of that later) and quickly realised how little natural buoyancy my legs have when not in a wetsuit. I ducked down the 10ft to get a slightly closer look. She had a mark near her dorsal fin that looked as if she'd been bitten; I didn't think too much of it. She started to swim off and I followed, on the surface. I followed her across the bay, looking every so often to make sure I'd not get run over by a kayak or surf-ski. We swam right across the bay ending up so close to the rock wall that with my mask half in and half out of the water I could see the shark over the weed below and walkers on the path above. Very cool indeed.

She started to swim in circles over the weed, moving quite lazily and in a manner that suggested she wasn't too pissed off with my company. After a few circles a smaller PJ came up out of the weed and started to follow her. He (more of that in a bit) looked like a kid following mum, if I may anthropomorphosize a bit. It was quite cute, especially in the very clear water. What was a little less cute was when he sped up a little, bit down just behind her dorsal fin and dragged her into the weed. She didn't seem to struggle that much, maybe a bit exhausted after the swim over the bay. But after a short while she shook him free and swam off. He stayed nearby, just ender me in about 4ft of water, which was a little too close to my feet than I was comfortable with, despite knowing them to be harmless. Hmmm. I headed back to shore, starting to feel a little chilled.

Right, I'm off home in a couple of minutes. A brief websearch has convinced me the activity I saw was not one shark attacking another, but rather a horny little bloke - he was only around 2ft - trying his luck with a larger lady. Good on him, that's what I say.