Port Lincoln: Sashimi school

Swimming with tuna at Port Lincoln in South Australia. Photo / Tourism South Australia

How do like your tuna? Lightly seared with a soy, ginger and lime sauce, or served gracefully as gossamer-thin layers of super-fresh sashimi? How about speeding past your face underwater at 70km/h?

In a world where you can cage-dive with great white sharks, swimming with a school of one-metre tuna is not your everyday experience - especially when one of them might nibble your toes.

The toe-nibbling experience of South Australian Tourism Minister Jane Lomax-Smith is just one of the anecdotes that Matt Waller of Adventure Bay Charters relates as we head for Port Lincoln's tuna farms 1km offshore.

Tuna has been good for this once-sleepy South Australian fishing town. Locally harvested tuna can bring A$5000 ($6175) in Japan, and Port Lincoln's steady supply of sashimi-grade fish has given the town the highest proportion of millionaires in Australia. Super-yachts line the Port Lincoln marina.

As we arrive at a floating pontoon ringed by two netted pens filled with darting tuna, I calculate that I'm about to dive into about half a million dollars of the world's freshest sashimi.

They're the same kind of pen that Port Lincoln's piscine entrepreneurs use to fatten up their tuna before they're despatched to the famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.

In nearby Baird Bay, swimming with sea lions and dolphins is on offer, but today only tuna is on the adventure menu.

Some of the fish weigh 150kg, and a steady supply of pilchards is keeping them eating and moving so the water is roiling with a restless energy from the smoky-black muscular fish.

Donning a mask and snorkel I lower myself into the water just as another shower of fresh pilchards rains down. In the crystalline water the mayhem is amplified as the tuna whizz past centimetres from my face. It feels like I'm crossing a busy street in a big Asian city, and just like in Saigon or Bangkok, the fishy commotion effortlessly parts and goes around me.

Back on the pontoon a few non-snorkelling spectators are handfeeding the tuna, gingerly dipping their pilchards centimetres into the water. The impact is instantaneous as tuna dart over, tuck in, and move on.

Other tuna fans descend into an underwater viewing tunnel, staying dry but still experiencing the sublime speed and grace of the fish.

Meanwhile, I descend through a silvery, shape-shifting cloud, feeling the sleek fish brush my torso remembering that Matt, our boat skipper, said: "Be careful to keep your fingers tucked in".

But by now my confidence is building and I proffer a fresh pilchard in the water. Tuna come at me from all sides and the winner is a plump, but still speedy fish.

This morning I was looking forward to tuna for dinner, but after this up close experience, maybe a nice kangaroo steak instead.

IF YOU GO

Swimming with tuna with Adventure Bay Charters off Port Lincoln is one of the stops on overland camping trips with Nullarbor Explorer from Perth to Adelaide or vice versa.

House of Travel has Adelaide to Eyre Peninsula Nullarbor Traveller packages which also include optional activities such as swimming with sealions and the Great White Shark Experience.

The package includes return economy class airfares to Adelaide flying Air New Zealand direct from Auckland, or from Wellington or Christchurch via Auckland, a five-night/six-day tour featuring a camel trek, swimming with the tuna, all meals, tented accommodation and two nights pre or post-tour accommodation from $1899 per person. (Additional cost applies for sea lion and great white shark activities.) Available until August 30 for travel on selected dates May 1 to August 31. Contact House of Travel, 0800 838 747.

* Air New Zealand flies from Auckland to Adelaide and Perth.

Brett Atkinson travelled to Port Lincoln courtesy of the House of Travel and the South Australian Tourist Commission.

- DETOURS