Your chance to go shark cage diving – through the lens of a new short film

You’ve prob­a­bly heard of shark cage div­ing. It’s that buck­et-list activ­i­ty that you can do in the remote and mag­nif­i­cent Nep­tune Islands Group Marine Park at the entrance to Spencer Gulf in South Aus­tralia – one of only a hand­ful of places in the world that offers this unique experience.

But did you also know that thanks to a col­lab­o­ra­tion between gov­ern­ment, sci­en­tists and the cage div­ing indus­try, South Australia’s shark cage div­ing is also a lead­ing exam­ple of inter­na­tion­al best-prac­tice for nature-based tourism, under­pinned by South Aus­trali­a’s White Shark Tour Licens­ing Policy?

You can learn more about this mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar eco-tourism sec­tor by watch­ing the new short film, Great White World.

About Great White World

Com­mis­sioned by Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia, Great White World fea­tures con­ser­va­tion­ists Valerie Tay­lor (OAM) and Andrew Fox, and UK celebri­ty Andrew Brady, and aims to cre­ate aware­ness about great white sharks and the wider ecosys­tem they live within.

It also pro­vides an insight into what a shark tour is like and show­cas­es the Nep­tune Islands Group Marine Park and high­lights the amaz­ing research that under­pins South Aus­trali­a’s White Shark Tour Licens­ing Policy.

This is an impor­tant pol­i­cy that sets rules and guide­lines to ensure the Nep­tune Islands Group Marine Park, the great white shark, and its pre­cious marine ecosys­tem will con­tin­ue to be cared for, and the state’s shark cage div­ing indus­try remains sustainable.

Watch the film:

Great White World 

How impor­tant is the industry?

Nep­tune Islands is the only estab­lished great white shark tourism site in Aus­tralia, and one of only a hand­ful in the world.

Three adven­ture tour com­pa­nies – Rod­ney Fox Shark Expe­di­tions, Adven­ture Bay Char­ters and Calyp­so Star Char­ters – are per­mit­ted to under­take white shark tourism at the Nep­tune Islands.

Wildlife tourism plays an impor­tant role in ocean aware­ness through edu­ca­tion and experience.

Cus­tomers on these tours have an expec­ta­tion that they will come away from the tour with greater knowl­edge of white sharks and the wider marine ecosys­tem they live in.

Rod­ney Fox pio­neered the devel­op­ment of South Australia’s great white shark tourism indus­try in the ear­ly 1970s with the sec­tor now con­tribut­ing more than $10 mil­lion to the state econ­o­my annu­al­ly, and sup­port­ing about 70 jobs. 

Shark cage div­ing is just one buck­et list activ­i­ty that you can cross off in South Australia’s nation­al parks. Read our sto­ry to find out what else to add to your list:29 must-do adven­tures in South Australia’s nation­al parks.