We had decided to move to Australia and our days in Nauru were fast running out. Our things were going into crates at a fast rate to make sure we would not miss the monthly ship to Australia. If we missed the ship we would have to leave our crates on Nauru an extra month after leaving the Island which had some risks.

Before our diving gear went into the crates we decided to have one last dive and what better place to go than to visit the Cave, a place were we spend many underwater hours collecting shells, playing with a Giant Reef Ray that inhabited it or just laying in the sandy bottom.

The Cave was the only place on Nauru where one could enjoy sand and the sea. The only problem was that it was 30 metres below sea level. Many times I ditched the diving gear and lay down on the sandy bottom just to feel the sand rubbing on my body.

After work, one day, Filu and I got our gear ready and down we went to the Cave. It was as if the fish knew that this was going to be our last dive and therefore even the unusual inhabitants of the cave were there to farewell us. As we went down we were greeted by one of the giant groupers that lived deep down (some 525 metres deep) and sometimes would give us the pleasure (and some trepidation) of their company in shallow waters. The groupers due to their size were not afraid of divers and after circling around us a couple of times returned to its cave somewhere down where we could not reach.

We went into de Cave and were disappointed because our friend Giant Reef Ray was not there. This ray became so accustomed to us that at the end I was able to pat it... always watching its “spear” just in case. We swam around the cave and I decided to explore the outside whilst Filomena stayed inside digging shells from the sand and stuffing them in her glove.

I laid down on the entrance of the cave admiring the fish and coral around me when suddenly I saw our friend the ray coming from the deep and swimming into the cave.

As I watched the gracious animal gliding through the waters I noticed that Filomena had finished her explorations and was coming out. I realised that human and fish were in a collision path and furiously banged my tank with the knife to call Filomena's attention but in vain.

They collided at entrance of the cave and I do not know who got the biggest fright. The ray veered off flapping the wings furiously and Filomena almost destroyed the coral at the entrance of the cave with her head. Filomena recovered from the incident and swam away from the entrance and the ray got in and lay down in its favourite corner as usual. We went in after the ray and patted her farewell. I hope one day I may be able to dive again in the Cave and see my friend again.

From there we started ascending towards the Cantilevers when we found a nice Triton shell. Filomena picked it up - shame on her- and we continue our ascend. Half way up we met one of our Nauruan friends -Jimmy Olson- catching moray ells for a barbecue. Nauruans love barbecue Moree eel. The skin of the eel toasts like pork crackling. Jimmy was catching the eels and cutting their heads off and two white tip sharks were following him feasting on the heads. We swam passed Jimmy and I entered a small cave near the Cantilever, 10-12 metres deep. One of the sharks followed me in and when I realised that Jimmy was at the entrance of the cave watching me and the shark I thought straight away that this was my chance to kill a shark using my knife.

I do not know why, since I started diving in Nauru, I had this urge to wrestle a shark just to find out how strong they were; maybe because I spent too long in the tropics and the sun affected my judgement (in Angola we called it Cacimbo) or something else.

I waved to Jimmy to spear the shark which he did but when the shark felt the bite of the hand spear it rolled over itself, as sharks do when feel threatened, causing the spear to hit Jimmy's mask and break the strap.

I did not know about it at the time because as soon as I saw the spear hit the shark I put my knife through its head and pinned it down against the bottom of the cave. Well, I learnt two things that day. One is that sharks are really powerful animals and this one being slightly bigger than me thrashed the day lights out of the bottom of the cave. The other was that to be able to keep the shark down I had to grab a rock with the other hand. Having only two of those, left me hopeless holding a angry shark with a strong headache and thinking about what to do next. I could let the shark go and risk a bite from the disturbed animal -which would serve me right- or stay there until the air run out or the shark died or .... this was when Filomena came to my rescue.

Filomena watched all the going ons before the events, holding my camera and Jimmy's string of eels which we had passed on to her in preparation for the hunt. When she saw Jimmy swimming to the surface with the mask in his hands she decided to help me. She wrapped the strap of the camera and the string of eels around a coral outcrop and armed with the knife in her hand entered the cave to help me. Unfortunately she was shaking so much that she dropped the knife hitting my head. I signalled her to leave the cave and went back to my meditation exercise holding the shark in my arms and thinking: what do I do with this thing ?

On the back of my mind a little detail was worrying me; I knew that this shark had a partner and I wondered if the partner would not be very upset with me. Here I was at the bottom of the cave which at that time was all sand and shark blood, expecting to be hit at any moment by the other shark, watching a cut in the shark's head getting bigger and bigger as the shark thrashed in fury trying to get rid of me and the knife.

I kept thinking and thinking but found no solution until suddenly the shark stopped thrashing. To my relieve Jimmy had gone to the surface, fixed his mask, returned to the cave and broke the back bone at the tail of the shark.

It took some effort to bring the shark to shore, over the reef but Jimmy love shark liver and no way we would leave it in the sea after all the trouble we went through. I took the shark's head home and enjoy watching my young daughter Rita get the fright of her life when she entered her cubby house and found a shark head with the mouth open at the table.