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18/07/2008: "RED EMPEROR ............... Rare subject with diver"
Mission Beach was where regular reef trips could be guaranteed. Perry Harvey was the pioneering charter boat skipper who ran daily trips to Dunk Island and then Beaver Cay.
"Off the deep ledge on the southern side of Beaver Cay I had a few trained fish that would come up to the glass-bottom boat when they heard the engine" Perry told me on the phone today.
"There were four tame red emperor, two coral trout and a spotted barramundi cod. When I sold my charter boat MV Friendship the new owners neglected feeding the fish at Beaver Reef and thereby lost an important and entertaining asset."
Also neglected was the giant Queensland groper, a 250 kilo fish Perry and his crew were hand-feeding on the surface.
I exposed some 16mm film of the red emperor and giant groper. It has yet to be included in a production.
Crown-of-Thorns starfish by the hundreds of thousands and a cyclone have been through Beaver Cay recently. Perry estimates that the quality of the surviving reef is about one-quarter as good as it once was.
