HARD CORALS ....... safe from bleaching

Here in deeper water, hard corals are packed wall-to-wall.

Hundreds of kilometers of healthy reef – tourists won’t get to see any of this due to constant rough conditions.

Deep, cool waters with no chance of coral bleaching.

Charter boats only visit sheltered regions of coral reefs.

This weather-side of the outer edge of the vast chain of separate – separate to each other - is the Great Barrier Reef (s).

It is a wonderland I unfortunately have rarely explored.

A bit hazardous for groups of more than half a dozen people in the water at any time.

Currents, deep water and almost anything that swims will be there.

Plus a big surf breaking on the shallow reef area and a long trip back to home base are all part of the problem the divemaster has to consider.

Far easier to dive on a bommie in the lagoon. Which is why the weather-side remains a frontier of the reef.

Jan 31. "I noted the report on the GBR in yesterday’s press. There a quite a few scientists who would go along with that idea – and there are many scientists who get research funds because of notions of global warming. I note that Jennifer Marohasy has criticised the idea of the demise of the GBR in today’s Australian, pointing out that the GBR may simply extend further south as the oceans warm up". (1whoknows)




fathom on 30.01.07 @ 03:22 PM AEST [safe from bleaching">link]

TAIWANESE BBQ SQUID ...... Street Food

With spices added during cooking. Later, chopped into small pieces, bagged and presented for eating via a wooden skewer. About AUS$4.40 or less. Not too bad.


JH on 29.01.07 @ 07:48 PM AEST [Street Food">link]

VEGETARIAN GOURMET FOOD .... self serve

There’s an amazing vegetarian restaurant off ChungSiao East Road, Taipei (around the corner from a McDonalds).

Food is self serve and paid for when weighed at the check-out.

Rice (either brown or white), tea and soup are free. Prices are in line with quality.

Much cheaper than Sydney prices. AUS $6 or less for lunch/dinner here.

It would make an interesting franchise business to develop for Australia if one had the recipes and the desire to offer decent food at a reasonable price.

The owners have had interest expressed from international visitors as impressed as I was.

The language barriers would make negotiations time consuming. A good project for someone.



JH on 29.01.07 @ 07:37 PM AEST [self serve">link]

SELF PORTRAIT ....... in Taipei cafe

On the third of four visits to date to this interesting country that should be officially called Taiwan but for international political reasons can't be.

Picture was taken with my guide's camera and then copied direct from her LCD viewing screen with my new camera. That's why the pixel's are showing. I look happy and was happy. The attitude and friendliness of Taipei people toward us westerners exceeds anything I've experienced elsewhere.

Recently, I met an international airline pilot who attended the same school as I had many years ago in Sydney, although at a different time.

He has lived in various Asian cities and today is based in Taipei - which he says is his favourite city of them all due mainly to the friendly locals.


NEWS TODAY
President Chen Shui-bian has accused China of "provoking" his government by targeting Taiwan with nearly 1,000 missiles, stepping up the rhetoric against Beijing.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN broadcast over the weekend, Chen insisted that China had put Taiwan on the defensive with its provocative acts, rejecting Beijing's claims that he was to blame for cross-strait tensions.

"It is China that is provoking Taiwan," Chen said.

"It passed the `Anti-Secession' law. It never formally renounced the use of force against Taiwan," the president told the cable news channel.

"(The Chinese government) has also begun to complete three-stage preparation work to invade Taiwan in the future," Chen said during the interview.

"What this government, the people of Taiwan, and this administration have been doing is merely defending the sovereignty, dignity, and security of our country," he said.

Chen said he was merely trying to maintain the peaceful status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and he lashed out at China over what he called a massive increase in the number of missiles pointing at the country.

Chen told CNN there were now 988 short and medium-range ballistic missiles pointed at the country.
"Back in the year 2000, when I first became president, the missiles deployed along the southeastern coast of China were about 200, and now they are almost 1,000. They have increased almost by fivefold," the president told CNN.

Last week, the Ministry of National Defense said that Beijing had built up a huge arsenal of missiles facing Taiwan, up from 160 ballistic missiles in place in 1996.

"As of now, the Chinese have stockpiled 880 ballistic missiles and more than 100 cruise missiles, placing the whole of Taiwan under their range," Taiwan air force Major General Wang Cheng-hsiao told reporters in a regular press conference in Taipei.

Taiwan has deployed three US-made Patriot PAC-2 anti-missile batteries to defend the densely populated greater Taipei area.

Chen also pledged to continue his drive for a new constitution and to join international bodies like the UN and WHO - goals which are strongly opposed by Beijing.
(www.TaipeiTimes.com)






JH on 29.01.07 @ 02:27 PM AEST [in Taipei cafe">link]

vortex on 22.01.07 @ 09:47 PM AEST [link]

DEEP THOUGHTS

Captain Wally Muller - post The Deep filming charter


vortex on 22.01.07 @ 09:45 PM AEST [link]

SHARKS TREASURE ...... Hollywood movie

Written, Produced & Directed by Cornel Wilde Filmed underwater, not on the Great Barrier Reef, but at the diving paradise of Marion Reef in The Coral Sea.

Wally Muller took this film crew, and others, to our favourite dive destination of the 1970's aboard Coralita. Doug Smith and an Australian crew was hired to help film the underwater shark stunts.

(Doug Smith was to later vanish while spear fishing from his Cairns-based dive charter boat, thought to have "been taken by a large shark". Apparent teeth marks on a weight belt, with a speargun nearby was all that remained).


JH on 22.01.07 @ 05:27 PM AEST [Hollywood movie">link]

THE SWAIN REEFS ..... Beginnings

Ron Zangari - diving deckhand & RIVERSONG

Ron Zangari (top picture) was employed by Wally Muller of Riversong for several years in the early 1960's. The two men attempted to bring home 4000 pounds of fish fillets from each trip. This mostly occured as they were the only fishermen working this area.

Despite the good catches Ron Zangari often complained of not getting paid in full. In time bitter feelings developed. A consequence of too much time spent in isolation at sea together, often with bad weather preventing work.

On shore Wally had two young sons (born 1956; 1960) running wild. That marriage eventually failed.

Ron Taylor and Ben Cropp were working guests aboard Riversong who made the first underwater films and photographs in the Swain Reefs. They paid for their passage by spearing fish, mostly coral trout.

A large tiger shark was caught by Wally Muller in The Swains, Ron Zangari posed for graphic underwater pictures (at the time) which helped skyrocket the Taylor & Cropp names around the world.

(Bottom picture) Wally Muller at the stern of Riversong.

The Swain Reefs remained unchartered until the mid-1960's. Wally Muller was the only navigator known to go there for many years. His dream was to explore The Coral Sea further east and that would require a larger boat. In time he dreams came true only to be later destroyed by a combination of factors, especially the dreaded drink called rum.

Fishermen know to avoid the northern Swain Reefs east of Mackay, Queensland, known as Rip Tide Country.

The currents flow far too strong for most vessels. It is the last true frontier of the Great Barrier Reef(s). Note the extra "s" which could easily be included, a suggestion promoted by (the late) Dr Robert Endean the University of Queensland reader in zoology.


Both photo's: Ron Taylor collection. circa 1961, 1963


fathom on 22.01.07 @ 02:42 PM AEST [Beginnings">link]

THE CORALITA PHOTO FILE ............. (Continued)

Dianne Widdowson (above) worked aboard Coralita as a diving hostess for three years. Later she continued her career in Truk Lagoon amongst the war wrecks.

Capt. Wally Muller and wife Denise (below) enjoyed collecting sea shells during night dives in The Coral Sea.

Their regular light was a bright 500 watt underwater movie lamp left behind from a film crew doing action sequences for The Deep (author Peter Benchley's sequel to JAWS.)


fathom on 21.01.07 @ 06:08 PM AEST [link]

NIGHT DIVERS ....... seashell collectors

Wally Muller (1983) in The Coral Sea


fathom on 21.01.07 @ 05:58 PM AEST [seashell collectors">link]

QUEEN OF THE SEA Best Ever..... "in the world"

Valerie 1974

Photo of: The Ron & Valerie Taylor Archives 2007


JH on 19.01.07 @ 09:26 AM AEST [Best Ever..... "in the world"">link]

DRIFTWOOD ........ Great Barrier Reef

On one of the northern islands between the coast and the outer barrier reef. South-easterly tradewinds decorate the shorelines with drift plastics and the original driftwood.

Remote beaches may have dozens of large (all plastic) fishing buoys washed ashore. Oliver River being one example where few people bother collecting such treasure.


JH on 18.01.07 @ 03:27 PM AEST [Great Barrier Reef">link]

DEAD CORAL REEF ....... Northern Great Barrier Reef

(Top) Mushroom-like colony of rock oysters thrives near the edge of reef

(Below) Dead coral reef. Rock oyster colonies in distance.

A rain storm occuring during a very low tide (when coral is exposed to air for an hour or more) may have been responsible for killing this reef.

How long before the reef returns to it's former glory?

Most of the inshore reef in the far north (of the Great Barrier Reef) is in similar dead state.

How often are pictures of dead coral reefs published?

Perhaps our sun is changing in a cycle not yet understood?

Are sun spots becoming more frequent and extending closer toward earth? These questions may soon have answers as new space probes seek information on sun spot activity - similtaneously from various angles for the first time. A 3D image of the sun.




vortex on 18.01.07 @ 01:14 PM AEST [Northern Great Barrier Reef">link]

TWO CLAMS ....... on a dead coral reef

Small clam (left) has attached itself to the remains of a giant clam shell Tridanca gigas.


vortex on 18.01.07 @ 12:57 PM AEST [ on a dead coral reef">link]

STAGHORN CORAL ...... first signs of bleaching

Great Detached Reef, far northern Great Barrier Reef


fathom on 18.01.07 @ 11:07 AM AEST [first signs of bleaching">link]

EARLY SEA SNAKE ENCOUNTER ...... aboard Riversong

Stokesi sea snake; spear fishing safari - Heron Island area, 1963


vortex on 17.01.07 @ 10:34 AM AEST [aboard Riversong">link]

AUSTRALIAN SKINDIVER ........ Circa 1964

Photograph by Richard Swansborough

Imported wetsuit is high quality French Tarzan brand with nylon lining, yellow tape, hood attached.

Outboard motor an Evinrude 40 horsepower- suitable to push a 4.5 meter aluminium boat with a crew of four divers in almost any conditions at full speed.

Diver - John Michael Harding aged about 49, always keen to get away from his Sydney pub for a few days. Pictured on a camping trip to Seal Rocks, NSW.


fathom on 17.01.07 @ 10:07 AM AEST [Circa 1964">link]

BLUE GROPER ........ Newport Reef, Sydney

Miss Kay Overell circa 1967. BG are protected today.

Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5 Planar lens. Ektachrome 64 f5.6 1/60, PF-1 flashbulb






fathom on 16.01.07 @ 06:44 PM AEST [Newport Reef, Sydney">link]

BLUE GROPER ...... Handspear caught, circa 1962

Sydney region, fish is about 11kg


fathom on 16.01.07 @ 06:35 PM AEST [Handspear caught, circa 1962">link]

WHAT FISH? ..........skeleton

batfish


fathom on 15.01.07 @ 12:40 PM AEST [skeleton">link]

UNDERWATER MODEL ....... in outback Australia

Christine Danaher runs the 16mm Beaulieu film camera in central Australia (above) and underwater, models for seafood pictures. (below).

The adult rock lobster and potentially poisonous (if carelessly cleaned) puffer fish pictures were both published. The lobster as a cover for an international seafood magazine.

As a traveling companion Christine helped with our film shows. Her experience working in a cinema was an asset. Starting as my cashier and later appearing in new film on camera.

Christine became an excellent and confident diver (taught by Dianne Widdowson of Coralita).

Christine has a rare affinity toward all animals – very confident in most situation.

She features regularly in these pages. Use Search for more.

fathom on 14.01.07 @ 10:53 AM AEST [in outback Australia">link]

UNDERWATER MODEL (Cont.)....... Christine

fathom on 14.01.07 @ 10:47 AM AEST [Christine">link]

CAIRNS HARBOUR ...... Coralita pre 1st accident

TSMV Coralita

While tied-up to the wharf at Cairns, Queensland, Coralita was accidentally squashed by a vary large visiting warship as it attempted an optimistic turning manoeuver against the current.

The foreign navy involved was prepared to make a payment on the spot for damage it had caused.

Australian authorities advised (in error) against this.

Alby and Irene Ziebell, (the second owners) of this famous scuba adventure vessel were heartbroken, to say the least. With a young family they had moved north to Cairns to service the increasing interest in Cairns as an international destination to The Coral Sea.

(Coral reefs beyond the outside edge of The Great Barrier Reef in a crystal-clear, cobalt blue, sea frontier where few vessels venture).

Albie's expertise as an adventure marine diver, (also as a former professsional abalone diver in Tasmania) and skipper were outstanding.

His underwater photography was to rival the best in the world. Albie's life was then cut short.

(More, use SEARCH).


vortex on 13.01.07 @ 11:11 AM AEST [Coralita pre 1st accident">link]

ADVANCES IN UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY....... !

ALDI grocery stores are selling this item from next Thursday. Quite amazing to consider an underwater photograph can be made so cheap.

The camera is said to be re-useable, what about the underwater case?

We might argue that the quality wouldn’t be much good. This doesn’t really matter, if the subject has news value.

A newsworthy subject, photographed with the cheapest of camera’s is still going to be published, enhanced, colorized - regardless.

The $9.99 underwater camera and goggles would be worthwhile aboard any small boat even by persons who were not familiar with basic photography.

How to get the best shot with such a simple camera? Two tips. 1. Have the sun behind you – if possible. 2. Squeeze the shutter slowly and gently.

Years ago a New York artist was taking photographs of celebrities using an instant-type Polaroid camera. The selected print was copied while blown-up to A3 size print for gallery exhibition.

The subject mattered more than quality. The lack of quality being the art form.



vortex on 12.01.07 @ 11:12 AM AEST [!">link]

SUMMER HOLIDAY PICTURE ..... Fisherman's wharf

Swedish ladies are pictured on holiday at Wooli (New South Wales) circa 1986 We filmed them underwater with 16mm enjoying themselves in the shallow warm water after this still was taken.



A Letter to the Editor

Gidday John,

"All the best for the New Year. I'm looking forward to another year of your
site. It's a ritual every morning now when I log on to my computer at work.
The first thing I do is go to your site and check for new entries.

I'm really disappointed when you have missed a day or two, but by the same token
if I've been away for a few days it's great when I log on and there is aheap of new stuff.

Had a couple of swims with a speargun on Sunday up at Thomas Island (bottom
of Whitsundays). Visibility poor (big tide), no fish and actually not a lot
of life at all.

All the hard corals covered with weed and algae. I think
years of fertilizer, super-phostphates and chemicals-glysophates from Cane
farm runoff has taken it's toll.

I think our generation has seen it as good as it ever will be. I take my
two sons (7 & 9 year olds) snorkelling with me and they think that the weed
and algae are the norm.

I intend to take them out to the wider reefs early in the year and show them some reef as it should be or used to be.

Anyway have a great year and keep up the good work.

Keep posting the Wally (Muller), Coralita, Careelah, Riversong stuff coming as well as those gorgeous girls from years gone by.

(P.S. - Mackay, Queensland)







vortex on 11.01.07 @ 04:43 PM AEST [Fisherman's wharf">link]

JOHN HARDING ...... at Ayres Rock

Ayres Rock (Uluru) is a worthwhile visit for any diver. Arriving from the west can be a memorable drive when returning from Perth to the Queensland coast via the Great Central Road. This 4x4 road passes through aboriginal reserves in two states which require permits arranged in advance. The road does not pass through actual settlements.

For a marine photographer-diver, getting away from the coast is a real holiday. Experiencing the Australian outback with all the red sand and blue sky is an amazing treat, for a short visit. It makes an appreciation of those cobalt blue waters of The Coral Sea even better.

On my first visit, with a Nikonos camera, I made underwater photo’s in a rain water rock pool on Uluru – tiny fish were seen. Quite amazing.



vortex on 10.01.07 @ 09:29 AM AEST [at Ayres Rock">link]

TOM BYRON ..... Portrait 1983

Tom Byron (left) is a publisher, author and photographer of dive guide and history books.

Barry May (centre) at the time was skipper and owner of Auriga Bay - a Cairns dive vessel.

Barry Andrewartha (right) publisher and editor of Skindiving in Australia and New Zealand magazine, later launching Dive Log (the dive shop free monthly newspaper) and Sport Diving Magazine.

This was aboard the first scuba diving expedition to the far north of Queensland. We departed Cairns, flew home from Thursday Island.

There was a memorable dive on the SS Quetta shipwreck in a very strong current which appeared in the video-released documentary Reef Safari the following year.


vortex on 09.01.07 @ 04:29 PM AEST [Portrait 1983">link]

PLONGEES (1965) .... Ron Taylor - world champion

The French publication Plongees had the best covers of any dive magazine.

Ron Taylor in Tahiti after winning the world championship, the only Australian to achieve this status to date. The beautiful bronze trophy alongside, photographed last month in Sydney.


vortex on 02.01.07 @ 07:38 PM AEST [Ron Taylor - world champion">link]

vortex on 01.01.07 @ 11:27 AM AEST [link]

HIGH ADVENTURE DOWN UNDER ......Tropic Reef Seafari

There was an Italian photographer, underwater, in the 1960's early 1970's who did interesting work. Roberto Merlo. It was borderline by today's standards.....(if viewed as natural history), yet in it's own way was an original art form.

Likewise the Italian magazine Mondo Sommerso, a large format marine publication that combined diving, fishing, spear fishing with boating, published material in this genre by Roberto Merlo often.

(Merlo was voted International Underwater Photographer of the Year by the film festival held at Santa Monica, California in the old days).

The magazine would run several pictures of the same subject, as viewed from different perspectives. Educational for us young underwater photographers, however few saw the magazine in Australia.

Spearing of manta rays, moray eels or anything was fair game but only in Mondo Sommerso. It encouraged others to follow this vandalistic attitude underwater as the pictures would be purchased.

The media ultimately taught us – indirectly. We’d to conform to market demands. In later years this became increasingly conservationist and natural history inspired. It was not always like this.

I helped organize the Mondo Sommerso assignment to Australia by arranging for a dive charter boat, Ron Isbell would be their guide aboard Sea Hunt.

They got plenty of good pictures with the world champion spearmen Marsimo Scaparti along yet were very disappointed.

The GBR had been "over-sold" to them in documentaries as being the greatest destination on earth and it simply did not live up to these expectations. Perhaps The Red Sea had spoiled them?

Tropic Reef Seafari did well as a traveling filmshow here in Australia. The tiger sharks were gaffed by professional gamefisherman deckhands while I was filming marlin sequences that were later sold to a major Hollywood movie requiring stock shots.

Underwater tiger shark feeding scenes were filmed with a pole camera. Unique even today with a dozen of these big sharks had a feast on a large black marlin.

The model is Jocelyn Edwards, a New Zealander who was the star of the film both above and underwater.

Her part-Chinese, part-Polynesian and European ancestry may be traceable to Taiwan, now considered the origin of these seafarers who colonized the Pacific Ocean especially the atolls beginning about 800 years ago.

Original tiger picture: 64 ISO Ektachrome, 24mm lens, f16 @1/60th





vortex on 01.01.07 @ 10:52 AM AEST [Tropic Reef Seafari">link]