Jacques Cousteau once placed the Poor Knights Islands among the world’s top 10 dive locations and I can see why with underwater archways, tunnels, caves, and rocky cliffs providing endless opportunities for viewing many species of subtropical fish in the warm currents that sweep down from the Coral Sea. I saw soft coral, sponge gardens, gorgonian fields, forests of kelp and copious amounts of snapper, yellow tail kingfish and schools of trevally.
As I swam away from my dive buddy to get the classic ‘diver in the arch’ shot, I saw a flash of silver out of the corner of my eye in deep water on the other side of the arch. I swam down to investigate and was rewarded with this 3m Bronze Whaler that left the school of trevally that he was tormenting to come and check me out. This brought my heart rate up a few beats and gave me one of the most exciting and memorable underwater moments of my life. These magnificent sharks are on the IUCN red list of threatened species.
