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28/09/2006: "PORT DOUGLAS .......tourist boat; JH & Ben Cropp"

Port Douglas is a departure point for day trips to 'the reef'. (top picture).

John Harding and Ben Cropp doing a brisk morning beach walk at Port Douglas where Ben lives. (below).

Ben Cropp is a regular visitor at lonely Batt Reef and has devised ingenius methods for filming sharks, rays, turtles and dugong in shallow conditions out there.

Our encounter with the very cranky shark (that chewed Ben's inflateable dinghy to shreds) also accured at Batt Reef. Those details in our archives 29 September 2004.

Originally thought to be a three meter tiger shark it now seems to have been a much rarer lemon shark.

A positive ID is yet to be made from the pictures, a scientific shark researcher states: it was not a tiger shark. Lemon sharks dont enjoy being followed by boats.