11/02/2026
A few shots from a lovely dive in Jervis Bay last week. We are extremely lucky to get an aggregation of Grey Nurse Sharks in the bay. These sharks are considered critically endangered and have been protected since the early 1980s. Even after over 40 years of protection the most recent population estimate for the east coast put their numbers at just 2,000. Population recovery is slow as they take around a decade to reach sexual maturity, and females bear only one or two pups every one or two years.
It is illegal to kill Grey Nurse Sharks and illegal to deliberately target them when fishing. Despite this it is distressing to see 20%-30% of the sharks we saw were trailing fishing tackle.
We spent time with about 20 of these beautiful animals on this dive. The larger ones are around 10ft in length. While they look the part of an apex predator they are actually designed for catching and swallowing fish not munching on divers. They have lots of sharp needle like teeth which are great for grabbing and holding fish. This is in contrast to potentially dangerous sharks like Great Whites, Tiger Sharks and Bull sharks which have large serrated triangular teeth which are good for cutting through flesh.
I think by coincidence rather than design this aggregation site is within a no-take marine sanctuary zone. Unfortunately though, one of the three marker buoys for the zone has sunk, and the other two are poorly positioned sitting just 10m off the shore, whereas the sanctuary zone extends 30m off the shore. Unfortunately this means people are fishing within the sanctuary zone, and right over the top of this critical Grey Nurse Shark aggregation site.
