When you hear what David does for work, you might think it seems dangerous. But he's on a mission to change that

Every day, David White works with what is widely considered to be one of the world's most vicious animals, but he's here to change that.

White is the owner and operator of Solar Whisper, a crocodile tour business in the Queensland Daintree Rainforest.

When people find out what he does for work, they often assume he's risking his life day in and day out, but White tells nine.com.au that it's nothing but "a common misconception".

Hailing from Sydney, White made the move to Queensland more than 30 years ago.

He started out teaching people how to snorkel, before moving to a land-based job and eventually deciding to get his commercial coxswain's ticket and complete a few courses to become a tour guide.

"I got a job working for one of the other [tour] companies and did that for a while, and then I heard about a permit for sale," he says.

"It was the last permit available for the Marine Park in the Daintree River. So I bought it and started my own business in 2002."

White recalls the first few years as being "hard at first" while he tried to break into an already saturated industry. But now, 24 years later, his business is thriving, and it might have something to do with one thing he's doing differently.

White operates the only tour business on the Daintree River that uses zero-emissions boats.

"They're nice and quiet and clean, they don't have exhaust or fumes. And we can sneak up on the wildlife without disturbing it," he explains.

"And it's very nice for the customers as well, they're all very relaxed and no fumes or exhaust."

But even though tour-goers always end up relaxed, White says that there's often some nerves when they first arrive.

One of the most common questions he gets is, 'Are the crocodiles going to jump up on the boat and eat us?'

But, White assures that "there's no danger at all" in going on a tour.

"I've got a dog that's come out with me for many years on the boat. Crocodiles love dogs, but he doesn't like swimming, so he stays in the boat.

"Obviously, we just look at the crocodiles; we don't feed them, we're not allowed to, it's illegal in Queensland to feed them in the wild, which is a good law.

"And it means the crocodiles don't associate the boat with food, so they just totally ignore us and just go about their normal business and lie there and enjoy the sun."

White explains that crocodiles are "very smart animals" able to recognise and remember the boats they see often. This means that he's able to get closer than private boats that might come by.

It's because of this familiarity with the animals that White can get involved in one of his favourite parts of the job: aiding in scientific research.

After 24 years, David and his team have come to know the local crocodile population and how they interact with one another, and the crocodiles have grown to be comfortable around him and his team.

"Scientists have told me if they go out to some remote location and put their boat in the water, the crocs all hide, and they can't find them to study them," he explains.

Because of this, scientists will often study the animals in captivity, which David explains changes their behaviour and temperament.

"Every time I've been to a farm or a zoo, the crocs seem very aggressive. And if you walk past their cage, they attack the fence," he says.

"Also, they feed them ... getting the crocodiles to jump up to get the meat on the end of the stick or get them to chase them around on the ground because they've got a bit of food in their hand.

"That all gives everyone the wrong impression that that's what they're like in nature. But they're not."

While Queensland has laws that prohibit tours from feeding the wild animals, those same rules don't apply in the Northern Territory.

White says that people seeing crocodiles that associate humans with food, and in some instances are practically trained to be aggressive, is what's led to the idea that they're "monsters".

"It always becomes a problem, and it's always the animal that ends up paying the ultimate penalty if it starts being attracted to humans because people are feeding it, then they always kill it, which is very sad."

The big ticket item on White's tours is a crocodile named Scarface. Despite being the boss of the area, White's never encountered an issue with the animal.

"He's about 4.7 metres long [and] he probably weighs around 450 kilograms," he explains.

"The area that we work in is his territory, and he's got about six girlfriends in that area. One girl in each creek sort of thing, and a couple of other males that sneak around and try to add to the gene pool when he's not looking."

Having worked in the area for more than two decades, White explains that it's now easy for him to tell the crocodiles apart, adding that they all have different personalities.

If there's one piece of knowledge that he hopes he can impart on his customers, it's that these animals aren't the monsters they've been made out to be.

"I hope that people get off the boat understanding crocs having a better appreciation of them because they are pretty awesome animals once you realise they're not the killing machines everyone thinks they are," he says.

"They're just nature's perfection; they haven't needed to change for millions of years. They've seen the dinosaurs come and go and haven't needed to change their design at all.

"They really are amazing animals, and the more we learn about them, the more fascinating they become."

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