Monster SAWFISH
JH on 30.03.05 @ 04:10 PM AEST [link]
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Wednesday, March 30th John Michael Harding ........1915-2004
 One of the pioneer divers, photographers and a keen golfer who had THREE holes-in-one. JH on 30.03.05 @ 02:31 PM AEST [link] Monday, March 28th JMH at the Friend in Hand Hotel
 Australian pubs can have odd names, the term Friend in Hand refers to a horse under reins. John Harding was the licensee for about ten years. A golfer who later shot three holes-in-one, and a spearfisherman with his own dive boat, but took holidays on the Great Barrier Reef and The Coral Sea. All during an era when the inner Sydney city suburb of Glebe was home to fruit barrowmen and waterside workers - a few forced to be petty criminals in order to make gambling ends meet. Stolen goods were often sold out of the back of a car outside. Lobsters were raffled in the bar, along with frozen chooks on Friday pay day. An SP bookie operated in the lane almost next door off Cowper Street with a 'cockatoo' on watch. One night, after a busy weekend, thieves forced-open the doors downstairs and took off with the safe believing it contained heaps more cash than a usual. The takings that weekend were not in the safe downstairs but under John's mattress upstairs. He knew his patrons well. Next week the police found the blown-open safe in the sand hills near Kurnell and returned it. The safe had only contained twenty pounds ($40) worth of pennies and half-pennies. The thieves were so pissed off they left the copper coins and bolted. Picture shows John inspecting the returned safe and coins, some bent by the blast. The crooks must have felt pretty silly. It was rumoured Safecracker Bob was 'in' on the job. APRIL 5: email from current owners of Friend in Hand Hotel (58 Cowper St Glebe NSW) re the above story: Thanks for the story I'll try and find a place on the wall Peter JH on 28.03.05 @ 05:54 PM AEST [link] Sunday, March 27th Friday, March 25th John H. senior ................on the best trip of his life.
 A freediving holiday aboard the famous Coralita to the very remote Chesterfield Islets and Reefs (in The Coral Sea) was the most enjoyable times my late Dad enjoyed, he recently told me. Here he admires a healthy coral trout which we dined on that evening, thanks to Capt. Wally Muller. JH on 25.03.05 @ 04:07 PM AEST [link] Wednesday, March 23rd Blue Pointer Sharks .........Isurus oxyrrinchus
 Also called mako this is the blue water cousin of the white pointer shark. A spectacular shark when hooked - a very dangerous one too. They'll spin head over tail in the air; smash through the hull of a boat (when heading for the surface); or crash aboard a boat during their final jump. A serious problem indeed. The line and wire trace leading to the hood can easily become as lethal as a knife during the final moment before the shark is tagged and released, or gaffed. This is an Australian record, captured by Odile Foster while fishing off the NSW south coast village of Bermagui - a location made famous in the 1930's by big game fishermen from USA - and the legend lasts today with many small boats heading offshore to Montague Island during the holidays. To Eat: The blue pointer is popular as a boneless fish fillet and sells well. Woolworths at Burleigh Heads says it is their biggest selling fresh fish. Probably loaded with the heavy metal mercury and therefore not a good choice for food, as are marlin, swordfish and other sharks. I wouldn't touch any of them. In Japan this shark is ground into a paste called surimi. Diving Still a rarely photographed shark underwater. Only small versions seem to have been photographed. The most spectacular shark of all, especially when a large specimen is involved. An oceanic blue water pelagic which most scuba divers inshore in shallow water will not encounter. Teeth More similar to those of a grey nurse shark - being longer and pointed, like fingers, whereas the cousin white pointer (often called great white shark by media non professionals) has large triangular teeth in the upper jaw and narrower trianular versions below. JH on 23.03.05 @ 01:21 PM AEST [Isurus oxyrrinchus">link] Monday, March 21st White Pointer has lunch
 Police name shark attack victim. Police named the victim of a fatal shark attack off Western Australia's mid-west coast as 26-year-old Geoffrey Brazier. Mr Brazier, of Perth's riverside suburb of Alfred Cove, was taken on Saturday by a six-metre shark while snorkelling with tourists off the Abrolhos Islands group, 60km west of Geraldton. Police said he had been skippering the luxury vessel, The Matrix, updating their earlier advice that he had been working as a deckhand on the boat. Police and fisheries officers spent Sunday searching for the shark and Mr Brazier's remains at the scene of the attack at Wreck Point, off Pelseart Island, which is part of the Abrolhos group. The Matrix, a charter vessel, was on its maiden voyage on the Perth to Kimberley route when the tragedy happened. Police are continuing to interview others who were aboard the vessel when the attack happened about 2pm (WST) on Saturday. The boat's owners, Matrix Ocean Adventures, declined comment on the tragedy. JH on 21.03.05 @ 07:59 AM AEST [link] Sunday, March 20th South Australia's fresh water springs
 Valerie Taylor decending into Piccaninnie Ponds, Tanya Binning snorkels on the surface. One of the first 35mm stills to win an International Photo Comp in the sixties. Ron Taylor stopped off at these ponds while returning from a Kangaroo Island (SA) spearfishing championship in January 1964 and did brilliant pictures with his bride, Valerie, (diving without a wetsuit in the cold crystal clear springs). And so began several years of photography and filming in the region where numerous limestone caves and sink holes offered a new world of underwater adventure. In 1966 a 16mm uw documentary "The Cave Divers" was sponsored by .......(ahem)... tobacco company WD & HO Wills for free hire from their library. It shows many uw photogenic dives possible in the Mt Gambier area of South Australia. The Pines, Hell's Hole, Ewen Ponds, Piccaninnie Ponds, The Shaft. The next year a tobacco company, Rothmans, commissioned a 35mm theatre commercial (based on the content of that first Ron Taylor documentary) titled The Hands of Man. It was to re-creat discoveries made in underground water-filled springs at The Pines - where the high-calcium content water was preserving bones of extinct species of kangaroo. The same uw team was hired along with an above water crew of more than thirty film production people. It was a BIG project over several days with truck-loads of gear from Sydney. But the expensive production never saw the light of day. Axed before completion. The fickle world of advertising. In the following years several tragedies occured, in one terrible example three young divers (two from the same Sydney family) were lost in the infamous location The Shaft. More about this location eventually. JH on 20.03.05 @ 07:47 AM AEST [link] Friday, March 18th Making Surf Movies .......Noosa Heads
 We bet you've not seen this image before! With 16mm Bolex movie camera's are Ron Taylor and Paul Witzig (in hat), on the beach at Queensland's Noosa Heads shooting the intro scene's for their first surf movies. Surf Scene (Taylor), Hot Generation (Witzig). Behind are the original beach homes of Hastings Street, 1965. The star's L-R Robert Conneeley, Valerie Taylor, Russell Hughes, Tanya Binning. Obscured is (the late) Kevin "the head" Brennan - noted for winning both junior and senior Australian championships on the same day. JH on 18.03.05 @ 04:51 PM AEST [link] Tanya Binning .......surfgirl pin-up, actor, model.
 Tanya at Point Lookout, Queensland with a whaler shark courtesy of Rodney Fox. The shark appeared only in Witzig's film - a brief above water scene as it was brought ashore. Surfers and divers travelled together for the joint filming venture. Underwater scenes were recorded at Flat Rock and Flinders Reef (north of Cape Moreton), a lengthy trip in two small boats with single 40 HP outboards. Not without accident. At Noosa Heads we were returning from Double Island Point a similar distance to that mentioned above, when the main shaft of my outboard broke. Left at anchor, four of us, including Tanya, waited for Ron Taylor to return and give us a tow the final 10km home. It was well into the night when he found us in pitch darkness. He'd only just made it back, using my remaining three litres of fuel. (Otherwise both boats would have run out of fuel)! We got home about 10pm with a big surf running in Laguna Bay. Using both anchor ropes tied together we were able to haul my boat in through the surf without rolling it. It was a big day! JH on 18.03.05 @ 04:27 PM AEST [link] Aussie Surfers in Hawaii 1969
 Looking like a young Paul Hogan, John "Wheels" Williams (front) and the late Peter Clare enjoy a beer at The Pipeline after a dive on a calm day at surfing's famous location. JH on 18.03.05 @ 04:00 PM AEST [link] Wednesday, March 16th NUDE GIRL WITH DOLPHIN
 Are dolphin aroused by nude women? Yes, according to Kathy Troutt a mermaid of the seventies who worked with dolphin in two Hollywood movies and swam with several in a daily, live pantomine' in London for many months. It's an interesting story which has not been explored for various reasons. Limited reseach material? Few oceanariums seeking the exposure? I believe Kathy is exceptionally qualified to form a valid opinion. I accept her view on face value, (without needing to personally see an aroused male dolphin). December 31st 2005 A Jewish millionaire from London has married a male dolphin this week, according to reports. Sharon Tendler, 41, and 35-aged male dolphin wed in Israel's Eliat resort Wednesday. Miss Tendler had received the approval of trainer Maya Zilber for the unusual ceremony. Tendler met this dolphin fifteen years ago, when she visited Eliat's dolphin reef. The British music producer immediately had a liking for the mammal, and since then has been visiting the resort several times a year. The bride was wearing a white dress to the dock on Wednesday, when she married the dolphin before a huge crowd of astounded visitors, a local newspaper has revealed. The dolphin was waiting in the water and after vows were exchanged, Sharon was tossed into the water by her friends so that she could swim with her new husband. "I'm the happiest woman," the bride was cited as saying. "It made a dream come true". JH on 16.03.05 @ 09:33 AM AEST [link] Monday, March 14th Manta Ray meets Leopard Shark
 Where Moreton Bay spills into the ocean the marine life can be interesting. On this morning I was using scuba alone, in about 12 meters of water. Visibility was limited, but I found a pocket of clear water. 20 meters vis on one side, less than half this in the murk spilling out to sea from the bay. The manta swam past a leopard shark at rest. It's not every day you can frame your lens to capture a pair of non-related high profile subjects. Elsewhere were dozing shovel nose shark-rays, a turtle or two and a few large stingray. Quite fasinating and a good place for a return visit. Being alone on a dive has merits. You become the sole intruder and get to see 'everything'. But you can easily have thoughts to yourself of being the 'sole food' should that tiger out there in the murk be eyeing you off. So concentrating on your camera over-intensely may not be such a brilliant plan. Keep a wary eye open. JH on 14.03.05 @ 09:09 AM AEST [link] Sunday, March 13th Whale Shark ID tracking project
 Here is fasinating project to track the migration of whale sharks through photographic encounters by divers. First get a photo of the pattern on the side of the shark, behind the gills and respond as we have by emailing.This big shark was off Exmouth, West Australia. and the Shepherd Project will use this information to assist scientific research and global conservation initiatives. The information that you have submitted has been encapsulated in an "encounter" that we track. Each encounter is assigned a unique number, and you can view that encounter at any time using the link below or by going to the ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library (http://www.shepherdproject.org/overview.jsp). We will keep you informed of any changes to your submitted encounter, and email you if the shark is matched to another shark within the ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library. We will also let you know if/when and where your shark is resighted by other community members. JH on 13.03.05 @ 12:59 PM AEST [link] Saturday, March 12th Minke Whale UW picture 1991
 We saw the whale surface not far from the stern of the boat, which was anchored. Quickly, I snorkeled over. No whale visible anywhere. I freedived down, .....as I cleared my ears.....the whale swam into view. This happened three times. The whale seemed to hear the faint squeal of my ears clearing. On each occasion it appeared a split second later - as though it was hovering just beyond my limit of underwater visibility - listening and watching me with sonar. JH on 12.03.05 @ 06:35 AM AEST [link] Friday, March 11th Rhapsody in Blue ............why we enjoy to dive!
 Blue water, a school of big-eye trevally in north Queensland. Beautiful. Details: www.poseidon-cruises.com.au (A Port Douglas day-trip dive boat we recommend is Pete Wright's POSEIDON). JH on 11.03.05 @ 08:09 PM AEST [link] Thursday, March 10th BROOME West Australia (Travel)
 Every diver should consider a winter holiday at Broome in the NW of West Australia. This is the pearl diving capital of the world, and work is available on the pearl farms for people of all ages, but it's rough and rugged, as can be social life in the actual township. The Beach Resort is therefore a sanctuary for those not wishing to speak with drunks in the street, (speak with them at the resort instead). Best time to spend a month in town is winter, say June-July, but it's also crowded as to Perth people this is to place to be in winter. Weather features lots of cloudless blue skies. Daytime temperatures are in the high twenties and low thirties. It's the most cosopolitan town in Australia with ancestoral links brought by the pearl divers at the turn of the 19th century and beyond. Japanese, Chinese, Malay, aboriginal and European. A drive down the coast to Exmouth and a chance to swim with whale sharks is a good extension trip during April, but often later too. April can be a bit too quiet in Broome. Check out the old Sun Pictures semi open air movie theatre and Divers Camp Hotel at Cable Beach. West Australians are a friendly but shy bunch elsewhere. It's like visiting another country. A new Coles supermarket keeps food prices managable. Take a tent - it rarely rains. Sunset viewing from Cable Beach can be spectacular with sunsets over the sea. Just thought I'd remind you to start planning. The drive takes about five days from Sydney. Try Route 66 from Rockhampton to Katherine in the Northern Territory then turn west. JH on 10.03.05 @ 12:16 PM AEST [link] Wednesday, March 9th Banded Morwong in tank
 More sluggish than red mowies, and seemingly anorexic by comparison, with thick slime covering the scales. Obviously a difficult fish to properly prepare in the kitchen and for this reason neglected by commercial Australian fisheries.....until now. Found in cooler southern NSW waters and beyond to Tasmanaia where these were netted. Rare around Sydney (except in restaurants). JH on 09.03.05 @ 11:48 AM AEST [link] Red Morwong
 Red morwong or mowies are the staple diet of young Sydney spearmen. Once easily speared and of quite acceptable table quality, when filleted with skin removed. Stories told by the older club members of clouds of mowies seemed exaggerated. As time passed mowie's at Long Reef (Sydney) would 'take-off like a Snapper'. Competition spearfishing pressure had changed the once semi-docile nature of the species into a new one of self preservation with speed. But the infamous clouds of mowies stories did have merit. At Byron Bay where the above picture was made, the mowies have returned since a sanctuary was declared. No clouds of red morwong exist anywhere near the cities, anymore. A southern cousin, the banded morwong looks similar, and with dark vertical bands. These are now netted in Tasmania for the live fish trade. Sad to see them on the marine equivilent of death row outside cafe's in Sydney's Dixon Street, but......that's the way it is. Torture in tanks with bright lights before the inevidable end. Diver and natural health guru, Tony Flook purchased a live mud crab - took it home to cook, felt sorry for the creatrure, then released it alive into Sydney Harbour. It's unlikely any benevolent patron will do the same for the near-extinct Sydney banded morwong, but what a great cause. Release a few hundred adult banded mowies in Sydney Harbour near Middle Head and see what happens. A valid project for further promotion? Or too handicapped by potential fisheries department red tape? JH on 09.03.05 @ 11:17 AM AEST [link] Tuesday, March 8th Shipwreck: THE SUN .............Northern Coral Sea
 Relatively close to the borber between Australian and Papua New Guinea, in the northern region of The Coral Sea are a pair of coral reefs. Ashmore Reef and Eastern Fields are not include on dive tourism itineries, being still a little too remote for visits, but yatchs en-route to Murray Island may call in. At the northern corner of Ashmore Reef is an ancient shipwreck, positioned near a ledge which drops onto a shelf 40 meters below, and then falls away into presumeably very deep water. It was interesting country with hump head maori wrasse and tuna. The sort of place where anything could swim by if you were in the water long enough. The shipwreck scattered in shallower water is The Sun and has a connection to an early white settler, Frank Jardine of Cape York and his long-lost treasure of gold. Shipwreck explorer Ben Cropp believes the two large iron anchors (pictured) were sitting on the deck of the ship - the timber having long since rotted away, which would explain why they are elevated from the surrounding flat coral platform. There can be an eirie feeling around such a tragic site - which, in it's era, would have been equivilent to an airline crash of today. Bit's and pieces scattered everywhere. Time was against our brief visit as we were heading for Murray Island to film turtle hunters at work. We'd definately enjoy a return visit one day. JH on 08.03.05 @ 10:52 AM AEST [link] Monday, March 7th Powerhead burst
 Perhaps the worst case of powerhead mis-use involved a friend, Captain Wally Muller of Coralita the famous dive vessel that pioneered diving in The Coral Sea from 1970 onwards. Wal wanted to collect a nice specimen of coral for a scientist friend. Deciding he'd blow-away the base of a small table coral (acopora) with the blast from a .303 powerhead! Not a good idea. The powerhead detonated as planned and fired the spear back like a missile (as we now know they do). The end of the spear smashed the diver's face mask and punctured his face, in the cheek below his right eye, to a depth of some inches)! Re-cap: This is the skipper of a dive boat 250 nautical miles offshore in The Coral Sea. To make a situation even worse, he was the only person aboard who knew how to run the engines. For two and almost three days Wally lay on his bunk, too ill to move. The international diving guests, normally used to experiencing at least three different anchorage locations each day had to be content with not moving. Eventually the captain recovered his strength and was able to stand on his feet long enough to continue the trip. He came close to perhaps a more serious outcome. After that episode, powerheads were banned on future dive trips, and the trend spread to other ships. It wasn't the only accident people had, but it was a very serious lesson. As stated elsewhere, powerheads are more of a serious hazard to divers than most sharks. This above picture is from Fathom No.2. JH on 07.03.05 @ 07:13 AM AEST [link] TWO DIVERS WHO SURVIVED SERIOUS SHARK BITES
 Rodney Fox (left) was lucky the white pointer didn't bite any harder than it did, Henri Bource lost his lower left leg to the same species. Pictures from Fathom magazine No.2 The Sharks issue. Additional Fathom pictures at: JH on 07.03.05 @ 06:57 AM AEST [link] Sunday, March 6th The early era of adventure diving
 John Harding (Jr). with the first white pointer. Photo: John Harding (senior). 1916-2004 JH on 06.03.05 @ 07:16 PM AEST [link] WHALER SHARK and QUEENSLAND GROPER with diver on beach
 Replacing the heavy and slow 12 gauge shotgun powerhead which first appeared during 1963, was the tiny .303 powerhead that was attached to a spear - offering greater range. At last the early divers had a device to stop sharks. The fear of being eaten was replaced by a challenge to 'get even' for all the (exaggerated) fears built-up over years of concern. It was also a different era, with more sharks and of course more fish. The big fish like giant Queensland groper were not immune to powerhead attack either and many a monster fish ended it's days alongside the shark. It's different today. Powerheads on spears are illegal, but not on handspears, (in some states). While still regarded as a working device to discourage sharks - especially aboard lifeboats - the use of powerheads as 'protection while diving', proved in time to be more danderous than a shark. Occasionally, even today, a loaded speargun with powerhead attached is thoughtless brought back aboard a private dive boat and is definately not tollerated by the more experienced. This picture was made late one afternoon, near dusk, at Point Lookout about 1966. So dark I loaded a clear PF1 flashbulb into the Rolleimarin for this black and white shot. The big whaler shark had come in to look at the Queensland Groper - or was it the other way around? Anyway, both ended up back on the beach. The freediver was working in 20+ meters of water. The speargun rubber was on half power too. (The cord had slipped off the wire bridle on one side but the rubber was jammed into the gun stock and would still work - just). This was to be the largest whaler shark I've ever seen taken by a diver. About three meters in length. JH on 06.03.05 @ 06:36 PM AEST [link] On the Beach at Point Lookout ....... the early years of Ron & Valerie Taylor
 Same line-up as shown below. Posed mode. A first time published photo. JH on 06.03.05 @ 01:32 PM AEST [link] Saturday, March 5th Vintage: Marine-Photography ........ same Shovel Nose (cont.)
 A picture is worth many words...... This collectors print signed illustrates the early careers of those shown, Rodney Fox, Henri Bource, Ron and Valerie Taylor and fisherman Les Nash. Rodney Fox is a celebrated shark bite survivor who lives in Adelaide. Is there anyone who has not seen the horrific wounds pictures before and after doctors sewed his chest up? Henri Bource was the Victorian survivor after a white pointer shark removed his lower left leg with a single snap. He was fortunate there was still a knee-cap which helped him wear an artificial limb much faster than otherwise. Henri used self-hypnosis. It helped him cope with phantom pains i.e. an itchy toe in a foot that wasn't there. Ron Taylor looking down into his camera viewing screen, is carefully snapping a b&w still photo that will appear in magazines world-wide for decades. The subjects: 'shark bite survivors inspect shovel nose rays'. Members of the shark family and therefore adding variation in feature magazine coverages of sharks. His camera is a wide angle Rolleiflex in a custom housing - Ron's main stills camera for many years. Henri Bource was working on his Savage Shadows, a feature length documentary - his comeback to diving after the shark bite. Released on 35mm and later home video it failed miserably in the marketing. What we divers didn't realise, Henri enjoyed a double life, one as a filmmaker and diver, the other as a musician who played sax in a leading Melbourne rock band, The Thunderbirds. His life story is quite amazing. Leaning against my sturdy 14 foot aluminium boat (a deHavilland Tempest) is Valerie Taylor who is a most unique and celebrated Australian female diver. She's chatting with pro fisherman Les Nash a former at-sea whaler from the recently closed Tangalooma Whaling Station on nearby Moreton Island. (Les was the first professional fisherman to not spit venom at spearmen. A gentleman in an era when pro fishermen treated freedivers like the plague. They thought we frightened fish away, not realising they were catching most of them!) North Stradbroke was a good coastal region for shark activity and maybe still is, but not anywhere in the same numbers as back then. It was my favourite poor man's alternative to the Great Barrier Reef because of the clear ocean waters. Today real estate (on the hill in the photo background) is grossly over-priced. Eventually a bridge may connect the island to the mainland and then it will become the northern Gold Coast and another Kings Cross. We are fortunate to have known these places as they once were. JH on 05.03.05 @ 08:05 AM AEST [link] Friday, March 4th Surfer Postcard .......including era background trivia
 The road into Seal Rocks NSW still today has 3km of dust and dirt at the arrival end - but it used to be much worse. It has been a road where max speed was 10kph, yes - just ten k's per hour. The team on the postcard would have chewed dust all the way with their back window down on the old panel van. An old bed matress protected the malibu's. The era? 1967 'The Beatles' music had become psychadelic, Jimmi Hendrix was experimenting, 'The Beach Boys' had "Help me Rhonda" on the charts and I'd just finished ten days work, ten hours a day at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. The ten days was spruiking Terror's of the Deep (a sideshow featuring stuffed sharks) which paid me enough to buy a brand-new Rolleimarin housing with a Rolleiflex medium format camera, (which made the above postcard photo possible). Unfortunately film for me was very expensive then, so just this single frame was exposed. It captures the early era of longboard surfboards. At auctions such as this weekend's Noosa Festival of Surf a well-preserved malibu from the sixties will fetch maybe $2+K if it's a top brand in good shape. Also attending are both Endless Summer surfers Robert August and 'wingnut'. But a screening of the movie (which everyone has seen a million times) discouraged at least one person from attending the weekend. Footnote: Scott Dillon - the surfing legend, now aged about 76 is attending the festival (in his hot V8 Sandman panel van with an enterage of six young women. They'll be based complimatary as VIP's in Noosaville at The Islander. Scott is a great inspiration for all of us. A true Peter Pan of the marine world that the more serious diver fraternity is beginning to appreciate. Remember, Scott was spearing fish five years before young Wally Gibbins. JH on 04.03.05 @ 08:58 AM AEST [link] Thursday, March 3rd Beware of boneless fish fillets .........people eat sharks too.
 Whoever caught these 20 carpet sharks and a now protected grey nurse shark didn't have a use for the fins. Dorsal, pectoral and tail fins, which when dried are worth 30 times more than the cleaned body 'trunks'. But they did take the jaws of the grey nurse (foreground). Last year carpet shark brought an average $3 per kilo at the Sydney Fish Markets while mako and hammerhead shark sold for slightly higher prices. People do eat a lot of shark - sometimes without knowing or careing. Anything to avoid the bones of fish. Fishermen often at sea for months may decide to take only the shark fins and save freezer space for more valueable species, until near the end of the trip. In Taiwan shark 'trunks' are processed into many things including 'fish balls' which end up in soup. The taste is OK but the hidden hazard is mercury and other nasty things from the food chain. JH on 03.03.05 @ 11:30 AM AEST [link] Wednesday, March 2nd Big Fish .........a tame Turrum
 At Low Isles (offshore from Port Douglas, Qld) a huge turrum has established a territory. Fed by visitors, the big fish has now been sighted daily for more than 12 months. It does the rounds of the anchored boats at this National Park within the marine parks. No fishing has been alllowed here for years. The fish soon get to know this. What a different world the sea might have been if we didn't rely on seafood so much. Fish so tame it is hard to imagine. Food is always the key. When food is offered, all sea animals can be conditioned to respond or to be trained. Sometimes this isn't such a brilliant idea. A point the shark-cage-diver boats might consider when they add chum or burley to the ocean, near populated places. How close is too close? With tame fish, it seems a crime to catch them....and at Low Isles it would be. But all fish can be trained.......what I'm trying to say is........more sanctuaries are needed. A balance at least. JH on 02.03.05 @ 01:29 PM AEST [link] Tuesday, March 1st Beautiful Reef ............mystery in North Queensland
 "The reef top is dominated by Acropora (Staghorn Corals)" wrote David Barnes PhD of Townsville. We had hoped for a guess or even an identification of the actual reef location. It's somewhere north from Cairns and looks quite special. But the actual location, it now seems, will possibly always remain a secret. These pictures are from the very last roll of underwater film taken by one of Australia's most talented UW cameramen. Sadly, the owner never saw these pictures before he died. They were found in un-processed form in one of his Nikon F camera's still within it's Canadian-made housing with 24mm lens and motor drive. JH on 01.03.05 @ 10:15 AM AEST [link] |
