Shark Cage Diving with Calypso Star Charters — Local services in Port Lincoln

I would like to start off by saying to anybody thinking of going with this company, PLEASE DO NOT BOOK IT. DISHONEST AND MONEY GRABBING. referred to this company by people around Australia that did these tour a few years back.Their advertising pictures are from years ago and also use pictures not from recent events on their social media pages. Booked a combo tour when boarding my flight to Port Lincoln was cancelled due to weather conditions last minute. Was offered a refund but was too late for me to go back home. I felt like I had to proceed with the single tours they offered otherwise I would lose money for days in my hostel and a return flight which was all paid for in advance. Nothing was offered for cancelling or wasting my money and I complained, a lady Jenna didn’t care less. I then asked her to call her manager they offered a free transfer $10 for the second tour on a different day, this was cancelled by them so no choice of mine, in my mind it should have been waived free of charge. No compensation offered. On the first day of the tour I was offered tea or coffee NO VEGAN MILK IN OFFICE!! Once on the boat there was fruit, a bread roll and falafels for lunch and snacks which were dry and boring when eating just them. We then head towards the Sealions, was told to get a wetsuit. I was give a child’s 14 wetsuit instead of an adults which was noticed by the team after I was struggling, it was embarrassing. After we took the a little boat ride towards the island we had to wait 30/40 mins until we had two Sealions in the water swimming away from us. We all had to swim to catch up with them and some people didn’t even get a second look. We literally had 20 minutes swim and we were all really disappointing. People on my boat that also hired go pros for the day $40/50 we’re still charged with nothing on them just the ocean floor which was disgraceful for them to even charge. The only reason i had some pictures is because I told a team member I was unhappy paying for highlights and they don’t even take pictures for you. We both also had to swim a lot to get this footage which was average anyway. Really disappointing tour. There were also two Chinese ladies on the tour which struggled with sea sick very badly and asked to get the money back for the shark tour the next day. They didn’t agree to this or half or even $100 back which was also disgusting and selfish. They didn’t even turn up the next day they felt that bad. Can I just mention you have to purchase sickness tables aswell, it’s not even free even with 5 metre waves! Done the journey and tried to get a shark for 6 hours, absolutely nothing. The guy throwing the bait also said to us he still gets paid if there’s no shark as some of us were moaning. That’s not professional nor fair and we are there for one thing, you can’t promise it then either offer a bigger refund, a voucher change so we can at least sell the ticket and some sympathy please. People that also hired go pros also again paid full price to video fish in the cage. Not fair at all. 30 mins due to leaving to get back to the harbour a lady that works for them started saying okay guys I’ve seen a fin out the water, it’s a shark let’s get in the cage. Everyone gathered outside, no fin, no shark. People were annoyed at this point. Everyone wasted their time getting back in the cage. Surely if there was a shark they would have smelt the blood and bait and at least tried to take it. Apparently it just swam passed.They also loaded onto there website that a shark was sighted when everyone on the boat can not vouch for this. Went home and heard they had another tour the next day . I asked to get on and Andrew replies if I pay $250?? Disgusting but I have no chance of coming back so I agree. Again another day waisted, NO SHARK. Even the footage on the boat is from 2011? come back I have to pay $140 each time until I see a shark.This company wants your money, doesn’t care if you see a shark, gets you in by the amazing advertisement and fake sightings. Wasted my money and would like refund/partial...

My husband and I are on our honeymoon. When planning it, our choices were to go to New Zealand (full north and South Island) or make a road trip to South Australia solely for the purpose of swimming with the sea lions and sharks. We chose South Australia even though we knew we would be taking a risk because it isn’t guaranteed to see anything. The sharks are more seasonal and this was our opportunity so we ditched the New Zealand idea.

Despite staying in multiple places in SA, our honeymoon solely rested upon seeing the sea lions and sharks and we had our fingers crossed!

Day 1: we saw sea lions on the rocks and in the sea. Up close and personal in THEIR environment and on THEIR terms. As a wildlife rehabilitator myself I will never agree with animal interactions in captivity. So this experience was amazing. We saw them when they wanted to be seen and they left when they wanted to leave. They were absolutely beautiful!

Day 2: the sharks! We went out to the north Neptune Islands and waited awhile and there were no sharks. I was praying at least one would come but nothing. The skipper, Simon, said we will go to the south islands because he wanted everyone to see a shark. This in itself is very commendable. He could have had a shorter day and said “sorry, there’s no sharks around today.” But he didn’t. He made the effort to take us even further out and did it pay off! We ALL got to cage dive and see multiple great white sharks! Not just for a short amount of time but for several hours. If he didn’t make the decision to go south we wouldn’t have seen any. He is a great skipper and he made our trip worthwhile, amazing and so memorable! Thanks Simon!!!

Now, let’s get to the food. I was expecting crackers and cheese or something along those lines. No. The crew literally cooked, in the kitchen, recipes. Seasoned chicken legs, Mediterranean pasta, salads, fresh and dressed breakfast muffins that were toasted, huge fruit platters, afternoon and morning tea, roasted vegetables, gravy, and the list goes on. I honestly couldn’t believe the food that was served on board. And not just that, the amount of food. There was so much so everyone got seconds if they wanted. I forgot to mention everything they made was delicious!!! They could easily buy some pre-made stuff and stick it in the oven but they made the effort to season and dress and cook everything themselves. How impressive!

The boat ride back was quite fun with all the waves as well!

Although this is more of an expensive experience you get what you pay for. Seeing the sharks, sea lions and wildlife alone justifies the price in my opinion. But then you add the food and the lovely crew on top and that is just a bonus!

We were also impressed with the young coxswain, Rivva. He was on board with us for the sea lions and sharks. He was always around doing something and getting things done. Very attentive and knowledgeable. He has a great future ahead of him!

Thank you so much for making our honeymoon so worthwhile! It depended upon this experience and you didn’t fail us!! Again, thank you so much to skipper Simon for making that extra effort to ensure we got to see the beautiful sharks!!!!

Xox,...

This company is in the business for MONEY, nothing else…

We went on 2 tours: both the sea lion trip and the great white day trip.

Let’s start with the sea lion trip: first of all, if you are used to diving/freediving/snorkeling in the ocean, this is not a trip for u. If you want to float at the surface in 50cm of water with dozens of other tourists around you, then this is a trip for you !

I asked for weights to be able to freedive a little bit and stay at the bottom to film the sea lions and they said no for “safety reasons”… Mentioning safety reasons given the fact that we “float” in max 1.5m of water is quite ironic… When booking the trip, it is said on the website that the trips is 5 hours but they never mention that you’ll actually spend only 30min in the water with the sea lions… There are regulations not allowing any boat to stay longer than 1h with the sea lions which is great to preserve the location and animals but the company took us back out of the water after only 30min… Moreover, during our short time in the water, we tried to move away from the other people in the water and we were constantly reminded by the company’s crew to come back to the group for no reasons… Needless to say that everytime he came to us, he came full speed with his dingy scaring all the sea lions away…

Now for the great whites: same as the sea lion trip, the boat is completely packed with tourists, about 50 people on board which in the end gives each person only about 35-40min in the cage, if no sharks are around during this short time, well you’re done… We didn’t see a single shark during that day which is not necessarily the company’s fault since we are working with wild animals. We are used to working with sharks all over the globe and know how complicated it can be especially when we are looking for pelagic species. A few questionable things happened during the day tho: while one of the crew member was chumming to attract the shark, another one was cleaning the boat with huge amount of chemicals that all ended up directly in the water of this protected area… The same guy also cleaned his sponge full of chemicals in the basket where all the masks for the clients were sitting… He also had the great idea to clean his fingers in that same basket after he finished eating his chicken wings…

All in all, I highly recommend to avoid this company as they are clearly here to take advantage of these animals to fill their pockets with money… Not a single time they talked about the animals, gave infos about them whatsoever… The boats were all packed with tourists in order to make the most money possible on each trip.

If you are looking to dive with Great White Sharks here and with a company that actually cares about sharks and the animals they work with, go out with Rodney Fox Expeditions !

(To calypso: if my name doesn’t appear on your bookings it is simply because I went with my girlfriend and she did the booking for 2 on her...