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19/07/2008: "HAND-FEEDING QUEENSLAND GROPER ...... Beaver Reef"
When Friendship departed Clump Point, Mission Beach with day trip passengers for a Barrier Reef trip, it wasn't long before a trolling line was put out to catch a fish.
Spanish mackerel would be ideal. The fish would be for one of the giant groper at Beaver Cay and reef.
Skipper and owner Perry Harvey would provide an energetic and informative commentary over his PA system during the day and especially when something interesting suddenly appeared on the surface.
A whale, a manta ray, a school of dolphin. Something was always to be seen during the 40 minute journey to "the reef".
This kind of personalized day-trip service has since vanished as larger boats with temporary staff are more likely to exist today.
Perry Harvey was a local celebrity and for many years had the only regular, every day, boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef.
Consequently he became outspoken when issues like crown-of-thorns starfish threatened the reef he loved.
Other commercial reef tour businesses in Queensland "buried heads in the sand" and pretended the problem didn't exist. None would speak to the media - except Perry.
(I was touring the Queensland coast with underwater films at this time, showing the starfish plagues, and spoke with some of these 'silent locals.' They feared negative publicity more than wanting to understand the long term inevitable consequences if nothing was done. That's what exists today with dead reef everywhere. The positive side of this is - there is still sufficient live reef to satisfy demand).
Space does not permit the whole story - global warming and coral bleaching having replaced starfish who eat coral as the key problems of coral reef ecology. Is there a connection?
