Shark diving in Mooloolaba

By Bobbi-Jo // 3 May 2010 // Comments: 0 // Related Categories: adventure, Best Backpacker Job, mooloolaba, Scuba, Things to do

Sharks are mean.

They’ll smell your blood in the water from miles away and sniff their way to you before they snuff you out.

I mean, we’ve all seen Jaws, right?

The thought of accidentally getting into the water with a couple hundred kilograms of killing machine does not sound like an activity that I want any part in.

The thought of deliberately hopping into a tank full of them and going for a stroll?

Madness.

Since getting my open water dive license in Manly Beach near the beginning of my trip, I’ve been diving with sharks a few times. I was nervous, yes, but also assured that they were barely as dangerous as puppies. Which I didn’t buy for a second, but it's a notion that I understood once I was in the water with them.

The sharks didn’t care that I was in swimming around with a big tank of oxygen strapped to my back, which probably helped me look way too big to be confused for food.

So when our hosts at Mooloolaba Beach Backpackers asked us what type of activities we’d like to do when we arrived, this is pretty much how the conversation went:

Mooloolaba Backpackers: Surf lesson?
Me: Sure.
MB: Paddle Boarding?
Me: Yeah that sounds fun!

MB: Australia Zoo?
Me: I suppose that’s what all the backpackers do, right?
MB: Shark dive?
Me: Yes. A THOUSAND TIMES YES.

Guys.

It was amazing. Underwater World and Scuba World in Mooloolaba team up to give you an unreal opportunity, that you don’t need a dive license to take part in, to hop into a tank teeming with sharks and stingrays and cute little fish - that occasionally get eaten by the some of the bigger fish - and spend a good half hour within arms reach from animals that are normally avoided at all costs.

Not that you want to stick your arm out. The sharks are hand fed, so the most trouble you can run into is sticking your arm out and having one of them confuse your fingers for food, but you’re warned about this, so if you lose your pointer finger, that’s probably nobody’s fault but your own.

I don’t know why heights, roller coasters and doing things like eating crocodile meat make me nervous, but sharks don’t anymore. This will definitely work in my favor to make my travel war stories more interesting. I can hands down say that the shark dive ranks in my top 3 favorite moments in Australia.

The staff makes sure, licensed diver or not, that you’re comfortable breathing underwater, that you know what to do if something brushes against you and how to properly get in and out of the water. The scariest part for me was (embarrassingly enough) turning around and mistaking my ponytail for a giant blob of underwater goo coming straight at my face. It’s that safe. In all the years that they’ve been running the shark dive experience, there’s never been an incident. If you’re on the squeamish side, this is like hearing that you’ve won the lottery.

While we were at Underwater World we also got to swim with an animal a little more beloved by the general public: seals.

Seals are cute. Like, too cute for words. The Seal Swim clocks in a little shorter than the Shark Dive at 15 minutes, and without a SCUBA unit or a snorkel you’re fairly limited in how much you can observe the seals underwater. But you do get a few minutes of one-on-one play time with them and a very sweet picture of you receiving a kiss on the cheek by one of the smaller seals.

Maybe it’s the newfound daredevil in me, but I much preferred the Shark Dive to the Seal Swim, even though I’d still much rather cuddle up to a seal than a shark. Depending on how well you can swim (you actually need to be a stronger swimmer to do the Seal Swim than the Shark Dive) and how comfortable you are under water and interacting with marine life, one or both might be right for you. Or neither. There are plenty of opportunities at Underwater World to see the same animals from the comfort of a stadium seat or behind a glass pane if getting up close and personal isn't really your thing.

I know for me, I wouldn’t have wanted to see the sharks any other way. I’ve not yet graduated to the mindset that I’ll need to stuff fish in my wetsuit and lower myself into the ocean in a cage hoping for a shark to come up and slam itself against the siding, but I’ll never forget my afternoon stroll with the sharks in Mooloolaba.

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Many special thanks to VIP Backpackers for being our gracious hosts throughout this trip! You can also receive amazing discounts the activities mentioned in this post with VIP Membership!