SEAL ROCKS .......boat beach

Seal Rocks' boat beach has never been sand mined for minerals (like the larger beaches along the coast). Consequently it is super fine and squeaks under the weight of your footsteps.

Pictured is one of the last traditional fishing boats used for deep sea lobster and fish trapping. A heavy steel cable crossing the road was used to haul these boats onto dry sand.

As offshore fishing catches declined, local professionals restorted to set lines to catch wobbegong sharks - which resulted in some grey nurse sharks taking the baits.

It could not have happened at a better place. Underwater photographers were able to document the injured grey nurse sharks during their many dives especially organised by dive shops to see these sharks.

This photo evidence in the media helped lead to the existing and new protective ban on grey nurse sharks.

The boat loads of divers dropping in on the dozing schools of noctural feeding sharks are considered by some experts (Vic Ley, Peter Kemp) to be the reason why sharks made themselves scarce and had well-intending but ill-informed people screaming extinction.

(The Australian media doesn't employ many experts, but it does publish comments by people claiming to know best. The recent claim that only 500 grey nurse sharks exist is an example based on dive shop reports at the handful of regular sites diver tours know).

The welcomed protection on grey nurse sharks may yet backfire on scuba diver tours with a proposed $20 license fee per person for a dive with these sharks! What happens if no sharks are seen? What happens if only half the divers see a shark?

No incentive seems to exist for other grey nurse shark habits to be disclosed to the fisheries department.




JH on 28.02.06 @ 09:14 AM AEST [link]

Seal Rocks village .......watch this space

For decades just fisherman's huts and empty weekend shacks were located on the beach on the road to the lighthouse at Sugarloaf Point.

Following the passing of Mrs Seal Rocks (the guardian against development) the millionaires have moved in.

Two views of the beach are shown in larger form here as a record of how Seal Rocks looked recently, expect some changes to the value of real estate. A $1m. price tag on any block of land these days.

'Native title' owns land at the top of the sand hills with best views.


JH on 28.02.06 @ 08:41 AM AEST [link]

Seal Rocks .......eastern rock lobster

Pictured at left: Christine Danaher and Dennis Kemp set these lobster free after this photo session in 1988.

Pictured at right: Ron Taylor in 1964 at the first beach with his Quintrex boat, when catching a big crayfish was still a grand prize for all divers.

Footnote: Decades later big lobster became a protected species when they were eventually known to be the lobsters doing the breeding - always a theroy by diver Vic 'snowie' Ley but unfortunately for the lobster, falling mostly on deaf listeners.


JH on 28.02.06 @ 08:32 AM AEST [eastern rock lobster">link]

Seal Rocks .......a memoir

Australian fur seals also called seals and sea lions lived on the bigger of two offshore island-rocks until about 15 years ago.




JH on 28.02.06 @ 08:23 AM AEST [link]

SPEAR FISHING NEWS ......postcard from Darwin

Last weekend in Darwin the underwater visibility was brilliant. Rick Trippe (pictured in the twin pictures with the catch of jewies) emails:

I swam back to the boat and tethered the first Jewie. Matt just lost a snapper and I said “shoot them later, you will spook the jewies”

Paul lost a big one which snapped his cord losing the spear in him. As luck had it I found the spear an hour later, minus the Jew. Paul is still crying. Matt speared three, his best tally yet.

When the dust settled we had six Jews in the boat and up-anchored and went to the Bottle Washer. Short time later Matt swam back to the boat the 25 pound silver dream and again his best so far.

Matt swam into the ribs of the wreck again losing another. Three badly spent spears later he up- anchored and went to the Demoned with Paul diving down and hitting his head on the sand before he could see it. Visibility one foot – YUCK!

Back home matt did a fine job of filleting and cleaning the fish with his collection of knives

Next day (don’t let a neap tide pass you by) I jumped in out the front of my place.

Speared a mangrove jack and three other reef fish. Dropped my rig near a cave and swam several meters away.

Speared another fish and came back to put it on the rig and some rat bag had stolen two of the fish and put a big half crescent bite into the other two.

Dinner the last few nights, fresh jewie, olive oil, garlic, ginger, cracked pepper, dash of rock salt and just a tad under done.

SUPER YUM!!! What are the poor people eating? Jewfish!!!!

Cheers,
Rick





JH on 27.02.06 @ 05:24 PM AEST [link]

SEAL ROCKS .....a memoir

The big Seal Rock offshore from Sugarloaf Point lighthouse used to be base for a colony of fur seals (or sea lions).

We’d arrive in our 14 ft.aluminium boat to snorkel dive and spear fish – the arrival often scaring the colony into the water.

Sometimes we’d swim with the ‘seals’ and marvel at their agility, oblivious there might be a large predator watching all of us. Today we’d be more cautious.

Gradually the sea lion population dwindled away to nothing. The last two specimens leaving about 1986.

This collage (above) is of three original pictures circa 1964 showing the male and female of the species.

MYTH that sharks attack divers in a mistake believing them being a seal has expired.

Sharks have good eyesight and eat almost anything.


JH on 26.02.06 @ 09:36 PM AEST [link]

SASIMI FOR A SHARK

Dog tooth tuna at Lihou Reef, The Coral Sea.


JH on 24.02.06 @ 09:06 AM AEST [link]

LOOKING NORTH ......from newest, tallest building

This is Surfers Paradise today. The capital city of concrete by the beach. A cyclone combined with a Christmas-type king high tide will recycle much of what we see here.

copyright pictures: by countess pattie


JH on 23.02.06 @ 05:18 PM AEST [link]

WEST VIEW

JH on 23.02.06 @ 05:12 PM AEST [link]

SOUTH VIEW .....from new tallest building

JH on 23.02.06 @ 05:10 PM AEST [link]

GOGGLES .......

Hand-made googles from the Taiwanese aboriginal culture at Lanyu Island (Orchid Island) have a strong polynesian influence.

Diving to 20 meters with such simple equipment takes plenty of skill and a lot of self confidence.

Use search for underwater pictures of a polynesian freediver at kapingamarangi atoll; nukuoro atoll.




JH on 23.02.06 @ 02:28 PM AEST [link]

MANTA RAY

The manufacturers of underwater scooters once predicted the devices would become as popular as trail bikes! That hasn't happened.

At southern Queensland's North Stradbroke Island, at The Group there is a cleaner station where manta's visit.

Sometimes visibility is poor as Moreton Bay floods into the ocean here . Often, especially at high tide the visibility is super.

When the first dive shop was opened by Mr Kev Russell he was more than delighted when we told him mantas were regular visitors at The Group - small islands and rocks off the point.

Until then it had not been a scheduled dive site! We've been regular visitors to the island since well before any dive shop service was available, taking our own boat and compressor with us.

Pictured is a very happy Kev Russell with his scooter on a scuba swim at The Group.

JH on 22.02.06 @ 09:44 AM AEST [link]

WHALE SHARK

A great thrill to swim with.....but you need to be fit to keep pace with them.

Overseas oceanariums are displaying these giant sharks, in huge new tanks, it's unlikely to happen in Australia in any great hurry due to our protection laws.

The oceanarium at Naha, Okinawa has manta rays, whale sharks, (as large as that pictured above) plus a school of large tuna and other sharks - all swimming together.

Quite amazing to see through the giant glass walls from a perspective of being 40 or 50 feet underwater.

Better than any dive location I've visited in real life!

(I saw it all on a TV documentary while visiting Taiwan, and the sound was not in English).




JH on 22.02.06 @ 09:17 AM AEST [link]

LOBSTER LUNCH

About to cook a large eastern rock lobster at Seal Rocks New South Wales, circa 1964.

The blonde is Kay Milburn of Sydney Sea Hunters club. Camping on the beachfront was then permitted, as was the eating of these large crustaceans, since stopped for enhanced breeding opportunities.

Similar programs to protect fish during the high breeding seasons are slowly coming into force, especially in Queensland.

In a few weeks, just after Easter, the annual spawning of mullet will begin when the fish are netted especially these days for their roe.

One would think a good practice (in an ideal world) would be occasional seasons when no mullet were caught until after they had spawned.

Photo: Ron Taylor collection



JH on 21.02.06 @ 11:30 AM AEST [link]

LEGENDARY DIVE BOAT .......Riversong

The first known fishing boat prepared to take spear fishing groups on regular trips.

Wally Muller and Riversong were based at Yeppoon, Queensland – a fishing village situated almost on the Tropic of Capricorn.

Offshore are the Keppel Islands including The Man and Wife, Barren Island and Egg Rock. All top locations for big fish, fast dangerous sharks and occasional (highly venomous) sea snakes. Water visibility averages 10 to 20 meters.

Further east and stretching to the south are the Capricorn and Bunker reefs and islands – which includes the tourist resort of Heron Island. Visibility there is better but 30 meter days have become increasingly rare.

To the east is the most extensive southern region of Great Barrier Reefs called The Swain Reefs. Visibility up to 20 meters is common. Many small reefs forming a maze.

This was the territory that fisherman Wally Muller worked with Riversong, in the era when no charts or maps existed, 1940’s to about 1967.

Gulf Oil (USA) photographed the region with DC-3 aircraft and obtained the first charts.

Wally Muller with Riversong was hired to help them. The money Wal earned helped get him out of professional fishing and into the charter boat business with a new larger boat, Careelah and later Coralita.

Before this could happen, Riversong was an occasional spear fisherman’s mothership taking pioneer divers into The Swains and on one occasion a real adventure to Saumarez Reef in the southern The Coral Sea. There underwater vision is mostly 50 meters or better. A perilous journey in a small vessel.

On the Swain Reefs Wally hand lined for reef fish. Coral trout being the prize catch. His 4000 pound capacity freezer might take himself and his deckhand three weeks to fill with fish fillets.

Five spear fishermen achieved the same result in just 10 days in the Capricorn and Bunker Group, 1964 when coral trout were plentiful in shallow waters. "Difficult to believe today when seeing a single coral trout has become a rarity" says Ron and Valerie Taylor who dived the region two months ago.

Use SEARCH for specifications on the boat and more about Wally. The above picture is from Ron Taylor’s collection, taken in the early 1960's. Wally filleting fish on the rear deck. he later became a good spearman - ususual at the time for any fisherman to take-up diving.









JH on 20.02.06 @ 06:44 PM AEST [Riversong">link]

GOOD BOOK .........Mr Vincent Serventy

Vincent Serventy, (now aged 93) is a naturalist and conservationist extraordinaire. Over the last fifty years he has campaigned, lobbied and fought to preserve some of Australia's most remarkable sites, including Centennial Park, Fraser Island and Lake Pedder. This passion, combined with friends Patrick White, Gough Whitlam, Neville Wran, Spike Milligan , Ron and Valerie Taylor, Robert Raymond senior, David Williamson, have made his a fascinating life.

Fremantle Arts Centre Press about $21

Vincent’s book filled many gaps in my knowledge and understanding of Australian conservation issues. It'd be worthwhile, even essential for those considering a career within environmental awareness pursuits.

A good example of successful personal ego control and the associated benefits long term.





JH on 20.02.06 @ 09:35 AM AEST [link]

SPEAR FISHING .......Darwin identity Rick Trippe

Here is the keenest spear fisherman in Australia.

Rick Trippe of Darwin speared these on one of the local harbor shipwrecks.

Each year hundreds crocodiles are caught and removed from Darwin Harbor, so swimming and diving with them is a hazard quite extraordinarily different to anything we have in the southern and more highly populated cities.

Rick is a former Sans Souci Dolphins club president, and now a life member who took top honors in his division while competing in the national championships at Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Black Jewfish of northern Australia are very similar to the southern mulloway also called jewfish, and just as good eating said Rick on the phone this week.

I asked about his famous mud crab recipe:

”Break the crab into pieces and cook in a wok with lots a butter, pepper and garlic”
said Rick, “Then use crusty French bread to clean up the wok juices. Voila.”



JH on 08.02.06 @ 03:51 AM AEST [link]

MANTA in shark net

Pictured: Currumbin Beach shark meshing net snags another unfortunate creature.


JH on 07.02.06 @ 01:11 PM AEST [link]

NEWS

Clippings from the national newspaper this week offer some food for deeper thoughts.



JH on 03.02.06 @ 05:33 PM AEST [link]

CORALS IN TROUBLE .......as seen in 2003

Two years previously the same corals (as shown below) were exhibiting dead areas. These were described by an expert as being possibly man-influenced.



JH on 02.02.06 @ 10:43 PM AEST [as seen in 2003">link]

CORALS (continued) .........the most precious of all

Huge hemispherical corals are very old. Hundreds of years old. Therefore you would expect them to be precious, just as giant tree’s in an old forest would be national treasures.

Something is killing portions of these corals at Great Detached Reef (near Raine Island) and whatever it is, it appears to me to be coming in across the reef in the prevailing current from the surf and deeper water.

These massive corals are in channels or gutters of the reef and all seem seriously effected, which is something I’ve never seen elsewhere before in my many years of photography along the Great Barrier Reef.

I noticed this in 2004 and made photographs to document it. Experts who later viewed the pictures were baffled as to what the causes may be, one scientist suggested the damage might be man-made.

When I returned to the same region in October 2005 the situation appeared considerably worse with almost or possibly all these huge solitary hemispherical corals in trouble with the same strange deep dead furrows running across them.

I have never seen these huge corals effected exactly like this elsewhere on the Great Barrier Reef.

Something very unusual is happening here which deserves a study.

A poison leaking from something dropped by a ship has crossed my thoughts. Nearby is deep ocean water.

The exact location of these corals has been logged for future scientific purposes for those interested.

JH on 02.02.06 @ 10:10 PM AEST [the most precious of all">link]

Sydney Sea Hunters ......SS "Cornflakes"

My plywood boat with 40 horsepower Evinrude outboard was a standard outfit for pioneer diver-fishermen. Competitions concluded at 1pm so after the weigh-in and lunch we'd water ski.

This was cornflakes a 14 foot long ply boat. The under floor planks were nailed (not riveted) and leaked badly. Cornflakes was also the pen-name for our club notes as published in the Australian SKINDIVERS magazine. My introduction to freelance journalism.

The term cornflakes later went into popular use to describe large seaweed pieces underwater on the NSW north coast, seaweed which reduced our vision considerably.

Timber boats were replaced by aluminium and fibreglass versions. When this picture was taken at Sydney's Barrenjoey (Palm Beach) the largest outboard made was 75 horsepower.

Imagine a caravan park at the now very exclusive Palm Beach today?


JH on 02.02.06 @ 01:44 PM AEST [Sydney Sea Hunters ......SS "Cornflakes"">link]

SPEAR FISHERMEN ........Blue Groper (1963)

Sydney Sea Hunters Mike Melville, JH and Garry Flanaghan with the same blue groper.

This was a tongue-in-cheek example of how the same fish could be made to look larger by using a max depth-of-field setting on the camera. i.e. f22.

Several people photographed with the same grey nurse shark also happened all the time and contributed to the myth that divers alone were killing hundreds of these now protected, and apparently very migratory sharks.

It now emerges these and other probabilities have been studied by Australian dive culture historian Mel Brown. More info later.


JH on 02.02.06 @ 01:02 PM AEST [Blue Groper (1963)">link]

JH after a Birchgrove Park scuba swim 1966

The coal carrier or collier Birchgrove Park sank during a storm and settled into 160 - 180 feet of water of Sydney's northern beaches.

After much searching with just an echo sounder, the diving legend Wal Gibbins had located the wreck the previous year and so began one of the most exciting deeper dives available then using single 72 cu ft tanks and ordinary compressed air.

We'd do seven minutes on the bottom and then stage at ten feet until we ran out of air about three to five minutes later.

Sometimes we'd spear a fish - after exploring the wreck and just before heading back to the surface.

The good to eat boarfish (pictured) was taken using a handspear - a less complicated method which avoided spearlines that could get snagged and lead to other problems.

Deep diving was not without hazards. Once I over-exerted myself while lifting our heavy anchor and chain that had become stuck in wreckage.

While surfacing vertigo set in, then I felt as though my assent rate was being dangerously exceeded - i.e. the feeling I had was that of rocketing fast toward the surface.

In actual fact the assent rate was probably one inch per second, not the six feet per second it felt like!

A rather dangerous error if there was no anchor line to feel and judge the correct speed.

Easy to imagine how other young divers, some with far to many lead weights, failed to surface at all.

On our dive we'd had a 2.5 meter white pointer shark swim-in to check-out the anchored boats just after we'd all left the water.

Bob 'skippy' Delander managed to get out fast with his tank still strapped to his back!

From above water it looked like a simple grey nurse, but with a face mask inspection a clear ID was made.

Scuba spear fishing was later banned. The logic was more to give reef fish (especially in the 60 to 100 foot zones) a sanctuary away from most free-divers.


JH on 02.02.06 @ 11:35 AM AEST [Birchgrove Park scuba swim 1966">link]