Australia is famous for its sharks. Truly, anyone who wants to dive or snorkel with a shark can do very safely in Australia. Anything from the small and tame White-tipped Reef-sharks to Tiger Sharks – that have a ferocious reputation mostly because of their name.

Tawny Nurse Shark in the shallows and an excited onlooker.

A group of over 20 Tawny Nurse Sharks gathered in the shallows at Lorna Cay, allowing the whole expedition to swim with them. Sharks are an invaluable component of the tourism economy of the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea. These docile Tawny Nurse Sharks were one of several species we swam with, including the more intimidating Grey Reef Sharks. By the end of the trip most people had overcome their fears.

This encounter was with an unusual and completely harmless shark that inhabits the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Tawny Nurse Sharks have grinding teeth and eat crabs and other sea-floor living animals. They’ll even beach themselves in desperation to grab and eat hermit crabs … something we were lucky enough to see, though we couldn’t really believe our eyes. It was early morning and there was this massive writhing mass on the beach. It wriggled its way back to the water before we got close enough for a photo. Most of the sharks we were seeing were females and they stuck around for the whole time we were at the island. Everyone got amazing views.

Have you ever wanted to see a shark in the wild?

Why not try Eye to Eye Marine Encounter’s FAR NORTHERN EXPEDITION with John Rumney (sitting on the left in the above video)? It was voted this year, one of National Geographic’s Top 100 Trips of a Lifetime 2011.

Tagging Tiger Sharks is just one of the research components included on the Far Northern Expeditions.