Meet the ‘lounging’ shark

IT’S not often you stumble across an easygoing shark, as Dee Why’s Ian Donato did while snorkelling off Shelly Beach

A shark at Manly's Cabbage Tree Bay. Picture: IAN DONATO

IT’S not often you stumble across an easygoing shark, as Dee Why’s Ian Donato did while snorkelling off Shelly Beach.

Mr Donato was snorkelling about 50m offshore when he spotted this crested horn shark.

“That one was just lounging around – I was able to get right up and close to it,” Mr Donato said.

“He was in the shallows, going from about 5m to 2m (in depth).”

It is not the only shark he has seen recently in the Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve area.

Mr Donato said he recently spotted a port jackson shark with an “egg case” in its mouth and a 2.5m alligator that made him feel like he was “looking at an alligator”.

According to the Australian Museum, the crested horn shark is endemic to Australia and found from southern Queensland to southern NSW.

The species grows to 1.5m in length and is not considered to be dangerous to humans.

The Cabbage Tree Bay reserve area covers approximately 20ha, including the entire bay, rocky shores and beaches from the southern end of Manly Beach to the northern end of the Shelly Beach Headland.

The reserve is intended to conserve the biodiversity of fish and marine vegetation, protect the fish ­habitat, and facilitate educational activities and scientific research.

More than 160 species of fish have been recorded in the reserve.

It is a “no-take” aquatic reserve, which means you are not permitted to fish in it by any method