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17/07/2004: "KAY MILBURN - QUEEN OF THE SEA Ron Taylor Lobster picture."
Sydney Sea Hunters was a small inner city spearfishing club of the past, it no longer exists but they had lots of fun without winning anything major in the battle of the clubs at monthly Alliman Shield competitions.
Kay Milburn was invited to be the club's entrant in the annual Queen of the Sea quest about the time this picture was made at Seal Rocks, NSW.
This picture will surely quicken the heart beat of her long-lost friends from the days when the Underwater Skindivers and Fishermans Association was a lot more active than today, (as the Australian Underwater Federation). USFA somehow seemed a better name in a better era.
In coming 'editions' we'll examine the nostalgia of this bygone era, a time when the largest outboard was 75 horsepower and only a few dozen guys owned scuba tanks in Sydney. Girls sat on the beach while the boyfriends went spearfishing. Every club had boats so there was always water skiing and a barbeque in the afternoons.
Today the big rock lobster (pictured with Kay) would not be collected. They didn't guess it back then but these big ones are breeding stock and are best not removed.
It took 'authorities' (aka NSW Fisheries) decades to 'wake up' and protect big lobster.
Professional fishermen once left these captives in traps as 'callers' or live bait to entice others.
We used to name them crayfish but this was changed to rock lobsterfor export acceptance.
Some still believe these NSW rock lobster to be the best of all, but they are in short supply, and are grossly over-priced.
Wise folk never eat them. There is a link between the regular eating of rich foods like lobster and crab and aseptic bone necrosis (commonly and mistakenly thought to be caused solely by inadequate decompression staging during diving).
There is a crevice at Seal Rocks that used to be favoured by these huge migratory lobster. When discovered it held more than a dozen giants all 5kg to 7 kg each, some with eggs attached. Such a find would be very unusual today especially in shallow water (less than two meters deep).
Bowen Island at the southern entrance to Jervis Bay was another place the big fellows were regularly seen. The overseas lobster with pincers like a crab are in the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific or Indian Oceans.
