NOW IN TAIPEI

Introducing JOHN HARDING the writer and photographer of many of the 700 pictures from Australia and the Pacific Ocean you can view here for free.

There is no commercial theme. Just pictures for your pleasure.

A tip. Go to ARCHIVES and then explore a calandar MONTH. Alternatively use SEARCH.

"In time I'll present new pictures taken during the coming weeks while I explore this fasinating city of TAIPEI, known in Australia for having the friendliest people.

Few locals speak much English apart from just a few words. Most are all keen to learn many more. It's a great city for young Australians to visit as English language teachers. The pay would be terrific too".


JH on 30.03.06 @ 01:22 PM AEST [link]

GREY NURSE SHARK NEWS

Top picture: Local Greg 'Thomo' Thompson catches squid off Seal Rocks village. Centre: Local fishermen net schooling bream. Lower: Grey Nurse shark school at big Seal Rock.

"13th March 2006. Visibility 10 to 20 metres on the inshore reefs. Offshore The Pinnacle has been 20 to 30 metres. Water temp up to 24C.

Up to 50 GNS on "The Barge" over the last week.

The GNS have moved out from the gutters of Latitude Rock, we think to The Barge.

The Pinnacle has schools of Kingfish and Jewfish whirl-pooling, together with attendant big black rays and just a few but BIG Grey Nurse sharks,

Seal Rocks on the weekend, visibility 20 metres at the Big Rock, with ONE HUNDRED Grey Nurse in The Grotto.

Dived Little Seal Rock as well on the weekend, great visibility and 40 GN sharks in the gutters there."
(Ron Hunter).





JH on 16.03.06 @ 08:57 AM AEST [link]

LYNN ROBERTS ........underwater model

The stunning blonde often in a black bikini as featured in Ben Cropp television documentaries is Lynn Roberts of Port Douglas, pictured here with painted crayfish during a day out on Batt Reef with Ben and I.

Together we have spent several months on the northern Great Barrier Reef with Ben as he filmed sharks and shipwrecks from aboard Freedom III.

Ben was curator of his own shipwreck museum for many years. His most noteable discovery was the wreck of HMS Pandora - the discovery credit was shared equally with Steve Domm who was conducting his own seperate underwater search similtaneously in the same area.




JH on 15.03.06 @ 06:29 PM AEST [link]

THE LITTLE KING .......John Gillies

Pictured with one of his many Australian and state spear fishing records, a Bonito at Sydney's Long Reef during an autumn morning.

The Little King died recently from the long and painful consequences of nicotine addiction.

Noted for his exploits on the Dunbar shipwreck site, he possibly recovered more gold coins than anyone else ever admitted to, in excess of 100 soverigns. (10,000 soverigns were part of the cargo).

To be continued....




JH on 13.03.06 @ 01:09 PM AEST [John Gillies">link]

EXPLORING TAIWAN AGAIN.........seafood, shops and people.

Well that's the plan anyway. I won't be lugging a heap of camera housings to Taiwan with me a la National Geographic.

There is a new Olympus digital that is water resistant to three meters, and you can drop them onto a concrete floor without stopping them. Maybe they come with a Marine Pack (underwater housing) available.

This is just what we all need. If the housing leaks, the camera isn't ruined.

I'll search the Taipei camera stores in the city and see what is available. There is one shop that gave good value and service last time with a Sony Cybershot T-1.

The housing leaked last October due to an error, even although the double O-rings had just been cleaned and checked, downstairs in the cabin. I'm thinking the new Olympus may be the answer for the future?

I'm not considering Taiwan especially for the diving. I can do plenty of that in Australia. I am interested in the price of wet suits and maybe finding a ScubaVision face mask at a huge sporting goods expo.

A swim in clear ocean waters could be nice at Green Island and maybe even Orchid Island which is further offshore and possibly with mostly blue ocean waters not effected by coastal rain and rivers.

If circumstances permit then a visit to the aboriginal cultures and islands on the east coast, where recent DNA testing shows positive links to the true polynesians who explored and colonised the Pacific Ocean 6000 years ago.

These seafaring people did not originate from South America as per the old Kon Tiki film guess-timate, but may have arrived there as well.

Use the search function for: Kapingamarangi atoll and Nukuoro atoll pictures. Both true polynesian cultures isolated from civilisation. Translate any page on this site to Mandarin Chinese if required, by clicking the red flag in the AltaVista box.

JH on 12.03.06 @ 12:33 PM AEST [link]

THE BLUE FRONTIER......presenting: The Electrolung

Walter A. Starck PhD (pictured) co produced The Blue Frontier his film for TV, the first in Australia to feature technical diving.

It was 1972 and with his 64ft by 28ft private research vessel El Torito, destinations in Australia and the coral reefs of the Solomon Islands became his new frontier for undersea challenge.

Walter Starck liked the Australian region and stayed.

To be continued.....






JH on 11.03.06 @ 12:47 PM AEST [The Electrolung">link]

CORAL TROUT .....Solomon Islands variety

Sighted during a night dive at Eupi Atoll, Solomon Islands. In the process of vanishing.




JH on 10.03.06 @ 10:23 PM AEST [link]

SHIPWRECK .....near Honiara, Solomon Islands

Bonegi II One of the Japanese war relics just off the coast. The stern is in deep water and in good condition.

Christine Danaher is pictured here in shallower conditions after a deep dive.


JH on 10.03.06 @ 10:20 PM AEST [link]

COURTSHIP...... GREEN TURTLES

JH on 10.03.06 @ 09:30 PM AEST [link]

ALBINO GREEN TURTLE ........amazing picture!

Albino green turtle discovered in turtle nest on beach in Mackay, Queensland.

“Normally they would not live long in the wild as they either get eaten, or badly sunburnt, and their eyesight is affected by the strong sunlight.

We are hoping he will survive, and if he does ReefHQ (at Townsville, Queensland) will be applying for a license to keep him in captivity, where he has a much stronger chance of survival.

He is eating well and very active in the tank, even diving to the bottom”.

Photo by Julie Jones (Photographic library).

copyright. www.gbrmpa.gov.au

JH on 09.03.06 @ 12:47 PM AEST [link]

CORAL TROUT .....by the boatload

Presenting this picture in the name of science. Note the average size of the coral trout caught by these expert spearmen.

The location was Fitzroy Reef (Capricorn and Bunker Group) in 1964. In the boat is Ron Zangari (left) with South Australian champion Brian Rodger.

Ron Zangari was the deckhand aboard Riversong,who was photographed with a tiger shark (and barbless spear) that became the cover of Ben Cropp's first book The Shark Hunters.

Brian Rodger was savagely chewed by a white pointer shark while spear fishing. He survived only through his own skills and determination, while bleeding with massive leg and arm wounds and facing a long swim alone. He used his speargun rubbers as a tourniquet.








JH on 07.03.06 @ 07:05 PM AEST [link]

WOBBEGONG SHARK ........also called a Carpet Shark

Captured by a diver, this one is headed for the local fish and chip shop where it will be filleted and sold as boneless fish or flake (the accepted other or alternate name for shark).


JH on 05.03.06 @ 08:44 PM AEST [link]

MIDDLETON REEF ANCHOR

Located at the southern extremity of The Coral Sea is Middleton Reef.

The former Queensland-based charter boat Coralita made two southern trips to Middleton Reef – Lord Howe Island. On both occasions she encountered a cyclone while at Middleton Reef – both occurring during the month of May.

Middleton Reef has many shipwrecks on the surrounding reef which has a shallow lagoon and is therefore not a safe anchorage for any large vessel.

Captain Wally Muller (pictured) found this antique anchor on a nearby shipwreck and transported it into the shallow lagoon where it presumably remains today.

With a chain and buoy attached, other smaller vessels should have been able to make use of it ever since, although it may not be in an idea lposition anymore.

Coralita dragged the anchor, plus her own anchor and chain some 300 meters during cyclone Colin when it passed through generating mountainous seas outside the reef.

Captain Wally explained “I like to anchor in about 60ft of depth during a storm. The anchor chain then acts like a spring. In shallow water this does not occur and slowly the anchor drags despite all the chain being let out”.



JH on 03.03.06 @ 09:49 AM AEST [link]

GIANT SWEETLIP ......or Moke

Not a target for spearmen, poor eating quality. Therefore that is why: (a) the picture has been taken at close range (b) the fish doesn't look worried (c) it quite mature and large.


JH on 03.03.06 @ 09:46 AM AEST [Moke">link]

AQUARIUS .....advertising image for the film

The original negative was photographed at Montague Island in 1964, inspired by Italian divers in the large format magazine Mondo Sommerso playing underwater with an obviously expired shark much small than this.

Dead shark pictures are not acceptable to advertise natural history films, not even to illustrate the past actions of pioneer explorers.

Meanwhile the same people who object to such things quietly eat animals (including sharks) without much thought.

Many silently tolerate the torture of countless other animals as being justified in the cause of cosmetic and medical research. Strange standards we have?








JH on 02.03.06 @ 10:26 AM AEST [link]

AQUARIUS ......people of the sea (1973)

The only surviving poster from the era of Aquarius, our first feature length documentary.

The film was re-titled Queensland Seafari when it was re-cut into a two hour travelling film show that set box office records along the coast at Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Gladstone,Yeppoon, Mackay, Bowen, Townsville and Cairns. All large coastal Queensland cinema's and with local's very patriotic toward the Great Barrier Reef.

Originally shown with one night stands, the film returned twice more with three day bookings showing in 800 to 1200 seat cinema's mostly filled to capacity especially with school sessions.

The inclusion of Jocelyn's underwater nude swim (filmed at 64 frames per second) may not have been such a brilliant plan but it certainly got people talking.

This was the ultra conservative Queensland era - ruled by Joh Bjelke-Petersen, a state premier and police minister (similtaneously) who narrowly missed being jailed for alleged corruption some years later.

Later the same film, with 40% new material became John Harding's Australian Seafari and has remained the same since. There have been several advertising posters ranging from black and white, then two color and finally four color editions.

Television advertising made a significant difference and accounted for the larger audiences being possible.










JH on 02.03.06 @ 10:05 AM AEST [link]

NURSE SHARK ......a Saumarez Reef local

Nurse shark glides over the rubble, of similar size to the one eaten by the tiger


JH on 01.03.06 @ 10:22 PM AEST [link]

TIGER SHARK ........ Honolulu, Oahu

We photographed this young tiger shark being removed from a set-line, similar to those positioned at Australian surf beaches..

We were in Hawaii especially to present underwater shark education adventure movies featured in The Australian Underwater Film Expo at Honolulu's International Center.

The shark set-line tour was on invitation. Tiger sharks are common and a bit of a problem for surfers in all the Hawaiian Islands. Lots of surfers and plenty of shark sightings. Occasionally they bite someone.




JH on 01.03.06 @ 10:11 PM AEST [link]

MONSTER TIGER SHARK......feeding underwater

The white line represents a length of two meters

I didn’t see the 6ft shark when it was caught by the boat crew with a hand line.

We were off filming underwater with the Wild Kingdom underwater TV team from USA elsewhere on Saumarez Reef, in Australia’s Coral Sea. (Beyond the outside edge of the Great Barrier Reef on the Tropic of Capricorn).

Late that afternoon the big tiger was spotted under the charter boat about 20 meters deep.

These pictures were taken as I dipped my head over the side of a dinghy and clicked with a Nikonos still camera.

Below was the biggest shark I’d ever seen and it was about to tear into the smaller dead shark which I’d assumed to be about two meters in length.

My eyes popped at the sight of this big creature feeding. Incredible power in the jaws.

Marlin Perkins (the TV show host) shocked me when he stated the size of the dead shark. It too was a big creature but dwarfed by the predator.

We can now guess at the size of the big tiger. Fourteen feet would be my minimum estimation.

Maximum? If the small shark was a nine foot specimen as Marlin Perkins indicated, then the tiger is certainly now in the monster-of-all-time category.

These pictures have never been published due to poor quality of the negatives. (Late afternoon and deep water).

With new digital film scanners, such images are possible to be shown with some detail never before practical with paper magazine production.

There are two seperate pictures above. In the lower bottom-right, see part of the great cloud of sand that was stirred up by the fierce ripping of the feeding predator.





JH on 01.03.06 @ 09:31 PM AEST [link]