WA shark spotters share stories of ‘life aboard’ in Bahamas – WA Today – WAtoday

A Perth couple have shared the story of their past two years 'living the dream' aboard a boat in the Bahamas, shark-spotting as a way of raising awareness for conservation.

Laura and Andy Corbe's life aboard a sailing boat, home-schooling their two daughters, is something Ms Corbe said she had worked towards for much of her life.

Ms Corbe's daughters get an underwater education as well. Photo: Instagram/@lauracorbe

Growing up as a surfer and ocean lover in Scotland, she studied zoology at university before moving toAustralia where she met her husband.

"[It was there] I really started to look at life under the water," she said.

"Our first trip toNingalooblew my mind."

Before long she was back at university to take a Master's in marine resource management, but it proved a difficult field to find work in, especially for a woman with young children.

The couple started a business that kept them flat out for the next five years but they were never too busy to keep planning their dream to take a few years out of the rat race and "live aboard".

In 2014, they sold their business and prepared to buy the boat when the previous government announced its controversial shark drum line trial.

"By chance we witnessed one of the first undersized tiger sharks being caught," MsCorbesaid.

"It was one of those glorious summer days when the sea-breeze holds off, making for a perfect day on the ocean. We'd taken the dinghy out for a quick spin and happened across some sea-lions that wanted to play and afterwards were mobbed by a pod of dolphins."

It was then they saw the capture of the firstshark.

"Such a stark contrast to the dreamy day we'd just had, it was truly sickening," Ms Corbe said.

"You might say at that point we were jettisoned into the world of activism."

They delayed their dream, bought a bigger boat and spent the next three months following, filming and photographing the drum line trial.

"All the things the government didn't want the public to see," Ms Corbe said.

"Sharks that had been attracted to the beach by bait, then bitten by even larger sharks while they were struggling caught on hooks, sharks that were released beside surf life saving clubs trailing plumes of blood from holes right through their head, and others that were supposedly released alive but that sunk straight to the seabed once they were in the water."

It was then they met other high-profile conservationists including TV's 'Shark Man' Riley Elliott and documentary filmmaker Mike Bhana, both from New Zealand, underwater photographer Juan Oliphant and business partner Ocean Ramsey,Hawaii-based freedivers dubbed the 'shark whisperers' after global media coverage of the jaw-dropping videos Mr Oliphant has made of Ms Ramsey interacting with great whites.

All had flown to WA for the massive protests, with Mr Corbe, Ms Ramsey and Mr Elliott taking part in a high-profile resuscitation of a bleeding tiger shark in the water.

"These guys are the salt of the earth and so knowledgeable about sharks, their biology, behaviour and conservation that before long it felt like we'd taken a crash course ourselves," Ms Corbe said.

It was only after the Environmental Protection Authority vetoed the continuation of the trial the Corbes left WA for the Bahamas, stopping en route to visit Ms Ramsey and Mr Oliphant at their Hawaii-based shark diving, conservation and research centre One Ocean, where their daughters also "fell in love with sharks".

Ms Corbe said life on board since had been everything they had hoped; but not as lazy as one might expect.

"There wasn't really an adjustment period for us like some families go though, I guess we'd been talking about it for years and we fell in love with life on the water," she said.

"We still never seem to have quite enough hours in the day.

"Home school takes up a huge amount of time, and there's always something to fix on a boat."

She said logistics, such as provisioning or refilling gas cylinders, often took up an entire day and that was besides the "whole lot of paradise to explore".

"Each day we go to bed tired but very happy," she said.

"More than two years on it's still one of the best decisions we ever made."

Ms Ramsey and Mr Oliphant recently joined the Corbes shark-spotting in the Bahamas on a "holiday" they spent taking film and photos in support of a campaignto create Australia's largest shark sanctuary, waged by ecotourism operators from WA's Shark Bay.

"I'm not sure the word 'holiday' fits into their vocabulary," Ms Corbe said.

"We had a hit list of sharks we wanted to film, with oceanic whitetip and greater hammerhead sharks taking the two top spots.

"We were incredibly lucky to check everything off."

She said people were always surprised by the calm feel of their photography and video, but while being alert was important around sharks, the calmer the swimmer the calmer the shark.

The best way to illustrate was to teach people to get into the water - or sometimes out of the water.

"That's happened to me only once so far," she said.

Ms Corbe and Ms Ramsey admiring local sharks that "seemed happy to hang around even with a dropping tide". Photo: Instagram @juansharks

"After two-and-a-half hours diving with a huge tiger she decided it was time we left her alone. She asked, in her polite, jaw snapping, sharky kinda way, and I didn't wait for her to repeat the request."

Ms Ramsey said the WA couple were among the most dedicated conservationists she had met.

"Working every day before sunrise without sleep in rough cold weather, watching the animals you love being killed," Ms Ramsey said.

"Now they sail from island to island and it's a great reminder that sharing your voice for marine life and the ocean everywhere you go is so important."

Nearly 300,000 Ocean Ramsey followers on Instagram alone have now seen the Shark Bay campaign signage.

Meanwhile, the Corbe family plans to eventually head to the Pacific Ocean and home to Australia but is in no hurry, and they are not the only ocean lovers promoting the Shark Ark campaign.

WA mermaid stunt artists Hannah Moy, Jessica Bell and Amelia X are all 'Shark Ark Ambassadors', promoting the cause at the recent Asia DiveEXPO.

There, they recruited oceanographer and National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Sylvia A. Earle, called "Her Deepness" by the New Yorker and the New York Times, "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress, and first "Hero for the Planet" by Time magazine.

Campaign instigator Leon Deschamps is pushing for an audience with Fisheries minister Dave Kelly to discuss shark conservation and the possibility of prevention 'trophy hunting' of sharks in WA waters.

While the Nationals' election commitment of $200,000 to build a shark museum in Shark Bay or Denham is no more after the change in government, local MP Vince Catania told WAtoday he hoped the new government would show support.

"There is a fascination with sharks in the community," he said.

"It would also bring tourism into Shark Bay the perfect place, given its name and shark population, and it would be a huge boost to the local economy, which relies on the tourism industry."

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WA shark spotters share stories of 'life aboard' in Bahamas - WA Today - WAtoday