South Western Australia - First Dive with Great Whites
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Dangerous Reef, Neptune Islands, South Australia, 1974 - ABC American Sportsman challenged Peter to go diving for the first time with real great white sharks. He couldn’t say no.
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Pictured here Peter is headed down and later described the experience as “bobbing alone in a flimsy cage in the frigid sea, tumbled about like dice in a cup.”
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ABC Sportsman’s boat and crew – Peter’s first memories were that he was “blinded by blood and nauseated by the taste of fish guts, whale oil, and putrid horse flesh.”
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Peter with Rodney Fox, a miracle survivor after being attacked by a great white shark and badly bitten around his chest and arm at the age of 23, was the guide for this dive trip.
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Stan Waterman, lead underwater photographer for this trip was well known and highly experienced for his classic shark movie Blue Water, White Death
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Wendy reading on the ships hull – in those days women were not overtly welcomed to join the divers, but she would be the only one to see the shark cage rope caught in the sharks mouth.
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Peter and the ABC Sportsman team preparing for a dive in the shark cages
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Peter going down into the icy waters near the end of the Earth.
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Peter could see rows and rows of spare teeth buried in the gum tissue, each tooth a holstered weapon waiting to be summoned forward to replace a tooth lost in battle.”
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Below the surface the length of rope drifted into the sharks gaping mouth and got caught between its teeth; that rope was Peter’s lifeline.
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The shark circles the cage – and sensing alarm or entrapment, it suddenly seemed to panic and started violently shaking the rope and with it Peter inside the cage
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While all this was going on, the crew and cameramen were transfixed, so Wendy was the only one to see that the rope was caught; she rushed down to pull it free.
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Peter emerges from the experience shaken AND exhilarated by the beauty of the powerful creature that was just inches away from possibly killing him
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The excitement is over, the great white is gone, and the shoot is wrapped. Finally, Wendy gets a chance to check out the shark cage.