Okay guys, we're just going to cover off
how to handle yourself when you're
around, you know dangerous animals in the water,
like sharks, can be eels even.
There's a few different things that we need
to look out for while we're diving.
So, for me, you know, you might be up
in the whitewash chasing crayfish.
And once you're putting your hand in some holes,
you can't really see what's in there,
you need to make sure that you're
looking after yourself.
So chasing crays, there is definitely
the possibility of getting sea urchin
spikes in you.
There is massive opportunities for eels to latch on.
So making sure you've got a nice solid glove on.
It also makes it a bit easy grabbing them anyway,
'cause they're pretty sharp little critters.
But the big one that a lot of people
obviously think about, is sharks.
So, yeah with sharks, they're obviously
going to be an ever-present thing for us,
diving in the water and that's something
you just need to become comfortable with.
Typically, most of these guys are just inquisitive.
They're not going to be too dangerous to you.
And the easiest way for you to, you know,
get yourself into a position where
you might be put at risk, is not understanding
what's going on around you.
So having a look at the shark in the area,
for example, if you see them up on the top
of the water column and they have
their pec-fins down, what that means,
is they're going to be quite agile.
So, that means they're in a bit of
an aggressive or a hunting state.
If you see multiple sharks on the top
of the water column and you've shot
a few fish in that area, they're probably
a little bit wound up from you.
Now, the biggest thing for me is,
you know, I don't like to feed sharks.
So, if I've lost a fish to a shark,
I'm out of there, I'm getting in the boat.
I'm moving to a new area.
As soon as we start feeding fish to sharks,
it's definitely a possibility, that they're
gonna learn that the noise of a gun going off
is an easy meal.
So, if you see a shark on top of the water column,
in that top five, 10 meters of water,
even worse on the top of the surface, well within
10 meters of you, with their pecs down,
it probably in an aggressive state
and it's just probably safer to get back
in the boat, move on to the new spot.
With a lot of sharks in different areas,
you know, you might be diving off headlands
and encounter things like gray nurse sharks,
now, obviously these guys known to be
quite dull sharks, but just like any shark
you don't want to underestimate them.
There's definitely a possibility
that they can hurt you, especially
on the size of them.
So diving around sharks like this, you know,
keep your distance, keep an eye on them.
If they consistently keep coming in at you,
you know, you really want to make sure
that you just move on.
Especially if they start getting wound up,
after you've shot a few fish.
Obviously, sometimes you're gonna
get into a position where, you know,
the shark might be on you and getting right in
your personal space.
At that point, what I really like to do,
is you're obviously gonna be diving with a buddy,
you want to go pretty well back to back,
or at least side by side, so you can keep an eye
on each other and hold the gun out in front of you.
Now with that gun, you're going to be wanting to
push the gun off and push the shark off, sorry.
So, use the tip of your spear, put it on their nose
it's quite a sensitive place for them.
So, you know, just give it a light push.
Typically, they'll get quite annoyed
and they'll dart off.
Obviously the whole idea, is just keep them
at bay, until you get to the boat,
or the boat is obviously coming to you.
So, what I like to do, blow it up in the air,
above the water, so the boat driver knows
to pick me up, as soon as he knows, I see that
he's, you know, motoring over towards us,
you know, we're gonna be using this
just to prod that shark off.
So another one to think about when you're
out in the water, is stingers.
Now, in some areas, you're not going to have,
you know, the possibility of running
into an irukandji, or something like that,
that's going to really put the wind up you.
But, at the end of the day, any stinger's
a bad stinger, so what you really wanna
make sure of, is you've got a hood on your suit.
With a suit like this, where you're not wearing a hood,
you can obviously get one separately.
But the biggest thing, is that typically
what happens, is people swim directly into it.
So having that hood, will protect most of your face.
You also then have your mask tucked in
underneath as well.
So what I like to do, once you've got your mask on,
is run your finger up around here.
So you're putting your hand on the inside,
putting that up around your forehead
and then back down on the other side as well.
That'll make sure that your wet suit hood
comes right over the top, onto the skirt
of your mask as well.
So, that one time that you might swim into
an irukandji, you know, it could really
save your life, for sure.
- Thanks for watching.
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