Great White Shark Cage Diving

Since pioneering shark cage diving over 40-years ago, Rodney Fox and his son Andrew have been at the very forefront of human interaction with Great White Sharks. As primary advocates for these creatures, their expeditions and research have educated the public and attracted adventurers from around the world.

Join the Fox's aboard the "Princess II" for the worlds ultimate shark adventure. Tours depart Port Lincoln in South Australia out to the famous Neptune Islands, which continues to be the very best place in the world to see and photograph Great White Sharks.

Rodney Fox is the only operation in the world to actually cater for qualified SCUBA divers in our special submersible cages. These dives desend safely down 18m (60ft) below to the sea floor. Here right on the bottom we enjoy vastly superior shark viewing opportunities, as well as being surrounded with other local sealife, including the worlds largest stingrays, southern eagle rays, giant blue wrasse, and many other fish species found nowhere else.

Non-certified SCUBA divers can also participate in our regular surface cage dives by simply breathing air from a "hookah line", a surface fed air supply. Our dive masters gently and patiently encourage and guide all new divers! Here the cage floats right at the water surface, and is fixed directly to the boat.

During the adventure, expedition members are encouraged to go onshore and explore the Neptunes. A wonderful variety of wildlife, including many birds, dolphins, fur seals and the rare Australian sea lion are commonly seen at these remote and scenic islands.

We strive to make each and every great white shark expedition a comphehensive and ultimately satifying adventure for every special guest. We like to show our passengers a real taste of South Australias remote natural beauty, a taste of our local wonderful food and wine, all while staying out on location, living onboard the Princess II, our comfortable liveaboard home.

To reliably expect to see Great White Sharks in South Australia, we need to travel out into the clear blue offshore waters of Australia's largest seal colony, the famous Neptune Islands. These remote offshore islands are reliably accessible only to larger ocean going live-aboard boats such as “Princess II”.

Even though a majority of our initial inquiries request shorter length tours, we feel that it is unrealistic to expect success with only a day or two spent on location. Despite the huge number of people willing to part with good money and gamble on doing a shorter trip, we strongly recommend a minimum of 3 days on location to maximise the potential success of each expedition date.

Our various 3-5 day length tour agendas are designed to firstly allow us time to get out to our viewing locations and back, while also allowing for finding productive spells of weather and reliable shark action. This agenda gives passengers a more realistic chance of enjoying at least one extraordinary magical day when all the conditions favourably come together.

More time spent onboard allows expedition members to spend more quality time with this most spectacular animal. These precious moments always seem to go way too fast, and many photographers or passengers, who are travelling from overseas to make this trip the focus of their entire travel to Australia, often do consecutive back-to-back tours to maximise their exposure.

Despite this reasoning we get ever more requests for shorter 1 or 2 day tours. We will not risk offering a day trip for mixed groups, but can arrange this schedule for entire social groups, or family group charters under certain conditions. This often works out well in these situations as the goal of the tour is more of a social adventure, and the possibility of seeing a minimal amount of shark activity is seen as a bonus to the rest of the adventure. 

During our days at sea, we also encourage shore parties, and always look for an opportunity to stop off at a special place to snorkel with Australian sea lions on the way out. There are many options to fill our days with interesting activities.

Interestingly, after each expedition, most passengers comment that they would prefer to return with us for an even longer agenda next time (see testimonials). These comments are regardless of the amount of shark activity they experienced and many also end up changing their mind about this being "a once in a lifetime only experience".

So to see everything there is to see, and to have the most enjoyable time, we highly recommend that you spend as long as your time and budget will allow. You will not regret it and chances are you will want to come back with us again!

Port Lincoln-Port Lincoln Itinerary

Departure Day

Guests will board the vessel on the morning of departure at 9AM. We travel out through the sheltered gulf waters and islands of the Spencer Gulf and Thorny Passage.  Depending on the weather, group wishes, and recent shark activity down at the Neptunes, we often look to stop off at Hopkins Island to snorkel with the extremely rare and beautiful Australian Sea Lions.  If the weather is not suitable for the Sea Lions, we go directly to the Neptune Islands and the Great White Sharks.

On location with the sharks

Once on location we start chumming and watch out for sharks. We start cage diving in the surface cages on the first day, and usually wait until the second day to lower the submersible cage dives to the bottom. When conditions allow we also offer island excursions. After a test dive to orientate new divers with the shark cage, divers are encouraged to enter and exit the cages at their leisure. There is plenty of time to just relax, get involved in our research programs, or just enjoy the shark action topside. Our activities revolve around the shark activity, the shore parties, mealtimes and special talks. After dinner and our special talks, the nights are free to stargaze, view the days video and pictures, and story telling. We generally stay on location during the day, and usually only move location during the night to give us maximum daytime productivity.

Last Day Arrival back in Port Lincoln

After a full day on location we depart after 6pm for the return journey back to Port Lincoln, arriving to our homeport after 10pm. Most passengers stay onboard the vessel again this night and depart  the following morning. Alternatively, it is possible to pre-arrange alternative accommodation in Port Lincoln with a late night entry. Please see our Accommodation page for further details. Flights out from Port Lincoln can not be taken until the following morning.

Those passengers taking on back-to-back dates with us have a day onshore every 3-4 days back in Port Lincoln. Here you base from the vessel accommodation while we are berthed in the Port Lincoln Marina, and you are free to enjoy the surrounding tourist attractions, or just spend a relaxing day onshore.

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