SEASCAPE Green Island (Taiwan)

What a view, what a dive site. The water was blue with 100 foot visibility. Nearby groups of Japanese students on motor scooters, already dressed in wet suits motored to a spot to rock-hop off the volcanic shore.

A dive shop near the wharf lists 19 hot spots, including a wreck. Nobody spoke English. A pity.

A cafe in a nearby village had ink impressions on art paper, framed, of a type of black cod or Queensland groper (grouper) maybe 100kg or more, caught by rod and reel off the rocks. TO GET HERE GO VIA TAITUNG

Taitung has many features that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors and tourists each year. These features-- the east coast on the Pacific, the long narrow valley, the Southern Cross-Island Highway,and the two off-shore islands-- Lanyu AND Green Island include the beauty of the Pacific scenery, the cultures of six different aboriginal tribes, places of unusual historic or scenic interest, and the many subtropical plants and animals.

Since 1989, the East Coast National Scenic Area Administration has been taking charge of the operation, planning and contruction of more attractive natural resources.

Among all the six different aborigines are Amis, Paiwan, Lukai, Bunun, Puyuma, Yami. Visitors may enjoy their historic heritage, pure aboriginal songs and dances celebrated at particular festivals in their traditional costumes all the year round.


Photo John H/fathom collection
JH on 23.07.04 @ 12:20 AM AEST [link]

SALVAGED MACHINE GUN ....... from WW2 aircraft.

The aircraft was underwater at near Cape York, a prawn trawler had snagged her remains. She was upside down. Tail missing. Wheels exposed. Visibility shocking. Dean Cropp groped his way around, avoiding stone fish, sharks and deadly jellyfish and live ammunition.

At great effort he removed this old Browning machine gun from the fuselage. It was donated to an aircraft museum in his loungeroom. Dean hopes to learn the complete history of this aircraft.

Photo John H/fathom collection
JH on 22.07.04 @ 06:56 AM AEST [link]

PEOPLE OF THE SEA John, Pete, Dale with Ben Cropp

About to make a mini discovery. Four experienced divers with something like 180 years total underwater experience between them prepare to gear-up.

Below on a sandy floor 32 meters deep was a mystery shipwreck, maybe 80 or more years old, steel structure, but with the masts torn off by the passing nets of prawn trawlers. A few coral trout, brown spotted cod and other tropicals have made the wreck their home.

It was reported as 'a beaut dive' but a typical larger tourist dive group would stir-up too much sediment too soon. It is close to Port Douglas with some potential as an exclusive 'swim'.

A great heap of valueable netting and otter boards was snagged onto the wreck and will probably remain there forever. The purpose of the dive was exploration not salvage. This is a good example of information sharing between the skippers of prawn trawlers and responsible divers (what a terrible term that was, almost as bad a live-aboard dive boats and underwater camera shoot-out for a photo competition)!

Further north are many other noted prawn net snags. The man in the blue suit has dropped in on some of these. Old pearling luggers from the turn of the 19th century would be the prize find. Many have been WWII aircraft that ran out of fuel while returning to base.

Unfortunately the underwater visibility where the prawn nets constantly drag across the sandy floor is always poor, down to 3 meters or less. This curtain of silt hangs some seven meters above the bottom. The surface water may be 15 meters vis but not so down deeper.

If this signed photo of divers were a signed photo of surfers, the original picture would be a serious item at any of the regular surf memorabilia auctions it might fetch $40 unframed. Some long boards from the sixties go for several thousand dollars each. Even clothing from the past has a value as do books, surf movie posters and surf-themed music.

Diving history is much more sensible. Imagine an auction with brass divers helmets ($5000 or more). A speargun used by a world champion, original Tarzan wetsuit, shipwreck artifacts? Maybe not.

It's a thought for the future. The dive industry should look at the sucess of surfing. A dive museum? Scott Dillon has Legends Surf Museum on the highway seven kilometers north of Coffs Harbour, where he lives. The museum has a million dollars worth of boards, posters and collectables within,PLUS DIVING EQUIPMENT FROM THE WALLY GIBBINS COLLECTION.

UPDATE Oct 21st 2004: Pete West added a hi def Sony video camera to his extensive array of (rentable) professional underwater equipment.
Photo: Lynn Roberts/fathom
Pete www.numa.com.au
Ben www.bencropp.com.au
JH on 22.07.04 @ 06:36 AM AEST [link]

JUST FOR FUN Unusual technique - dive instructor.

Teaching breath hold diving via a new technique. The candid camera went to Balmoral Beach in Sydney to see how a new dive school was making out.

Following the principle of no face masks, this particpant is taught how not be terrified with water being in contact with eyes. Conventional methods keep the face dry within a face mask.

Potentially very useful later when progressing to Tanya Streeter style extra deep breath-hold dives in more mature life when only a nose-clip is worn to equalize ear pressure. A face mask avoided by many to prevent 'squeeze'.

Chief instructor: AJ "Tony" Flook is no fluke with his results from young students, like daughter Sasha (pictured).

Tanya Streeter www.redefineyourlimits.com

Photo: John H/fathom collection
JH on 21.07.04 @ 06:57 AM AEST [link]

SEASCAPE calm Great Barrier Reef sea

On the Great Barrier Reef a windless morning like this makes travel very tricky. The mirror calm surface of the sea carries the reflection of the sky. It's impossible to see reef which may be just a few inches below the surface.

Usually such reef is easily seen and a course is steered around the coral, but not on a mirror calm day with no breeze rippling the surface.

The only solution, apart from not moving, is to travel at slow speed with someone spotting from the bow for reef not seen until a few meters away. A quick reverse of engines then prevents a collision, but that is never guaranteed.

Captain James Cook 'discovered' the great maze of coral reef which he wrongly termed a barrier reef (instead of reefs) by running aground upon one. He didn't know they were there until he climbed Lizard Island and took in the view. (In 1967 Wally Muller see 'feet' July 12 entry climbed the same lookout in his tough bare feet before there was an easier track to the summit).

This picture was taken near Great Detached Reef 2003

Photo John H./fathom Collection

JH on 19.07.04 @ 08:20 AM AEST [link]

SEASCAPE Wild Tasmanian Sea (B&W)

Nature protecting the sea reserves. No abalone diving, fishing or diving on a day like this. Not much good for surf either.

Tasmania has heaps of history hidden by the sea, no wonder why either. The regular wild sea shifts sand to uncover any of the countless shipwrecks. Good discoveries can still occur underwater, but a good weather day required. A picture like this is also a reminder never pass up a calm day in the hope it will be the same tomorrow.

This territory near Bass Strait was formerly pirate-infested and dangerous for all who dared enter.

The designer for this very web site was heading from his forest mountain retreat when he stopped to capture this graphic image of a wild sea near the village of Penguin earlier this month.

Photo by John D. Steed 2004
JH on 18.07.04 @ 09:03 PM AEST [link]

PEOPLE OF THE SEA Pioneers - Hans and Lotte Hass

Perhaps an inspiration for Valerie Taylor was Lotte Hass (nee Lotte Beirl) who talked her way aboard a diving expedition in 1938 and later married the boss, Dr Hans Hass the Austrian-born underwater adventurer who was a forerunner to Jacques Cousteau.

While Hass experimented with closed circut re-breathers, Cousteau devised a regulator for compressed air and later did very well with the patent and trade mark. The twin hose regulators became known world-wide by the trade mark Aqua-Lung.

Hans Hass was only 19 years of age when he produced the worlds' first underwater documentary "Stalking Beneath the Sea" as the title suggests, a spearfishing adventure.

He was not lazy with his writing and pumped out several fasinating adventure books translated to English from German originals, but it was his feature length documentary Under the Red Sea (1952) which brought fame and revenue.

The magnificient three-masted timber ship Xarifa became the floating research facility for his foundation International Institute for Marine Research, although Cousteau's Calypso was a name easier to remember and pronounce and may have been a factor to assist Captain Jacques-Yves gain a lead which he never lost.

Early Hass documentaries were purchased by ABC for Australia, in the the era of Sea Hunt and later The Aquanauts all of which promoted diving in 1961 very nicely, the Hans Hass material was factual, the other fiction.

Hans and Lotte Hass last visited Australia ten years ago for an underwater festival. During his lecture presentation, he blamed his inability to capture the necessary USA TV sales of his films on the fact "Ve ver on zer losing end of ze var" (We were on the losing end of the war, as compared to the French).

Definately the more handsome, and with a stunning and curvaceous wife, Hans and Lotte inspired many to seek their own adventures with the sea. His mass-produced underwater camera housing for the Rolleiflex 6x6 cm medium format was a masterpiece and remains a collectors item today worth upwards of AUS$1500 without the camera and depending upon condition.

In 1972 Melbourne diver, photographer and businessman Irvin Rockman promoted the Hans Haas Manifesto in Australia, a document of collected signatures urging the banning of conventional spearguns but allowing the use of handspears. It was a vision that the ocean would become a desert and in hindsight a more practical and simple method of protecting the larger breeding stocks (who produce more eggs than the small fish).

In other words we have got it all wrong. Take small fish and leave the bigger ones to breed. The idea is so simple and yet it is still to catch on.*

Note The supporting cast listed on the above historic movie poster went on to bigger things. Al Giddings did the underwater cine camera for Titanic and other major Hollywood films; Stan Waterman's highlight was the first white pointer shark story Blue Water White Death (with Ron and Valerie Taylor) and later TV films; Ernest Brooks** began an underwater photography school at the University of Santa Barbara campus, California.

It was a golden era for many.

JH on 18.07.04 @ 06:16 PM AEST [link]

KAY MILBURN - QUEEN OF THE SEA Ron Taylor Lobster picture.

Sydney Sea Hunters was a small inner city spearfishing club of the past, it no longer exists but they had lots of fun without winning anything major in the battle of the clubs at monthly Alliman Shield competitions.

Kay Milburn was invited to be the club's entrant in the annual Queen of the Sea quest about the time this picture was made at Seal Rocks, NSW.

This picture will surely quicken the heart beat of her long-lost friends from the days when the Underwater Skindivers and Fishermans Association was a lot more active than today, (as the Australian Underwater Federation). USFA somehow seemed a better name in a better era.

In coming 'editions' we'll examine the nostalgia of this bygone era, a time when the largest outboard was 75 horsepower and only a few dozen guys owned scuba tanks in Sydney. Girls sat on the beach while the boyfriends went spearfishing. Every club had boats so there was always water skiing and a barbeque in the afternoons.

Today the big rock lobster (pictured with Kay) would not be collected. They didn't guess it back then but these big ones are breeding stock and are best not removed.

It took 'authorities' (aka NSW Fisheries) decades to 'wake up' and protect big lobster.

Professional fishermen once left these captives in traps as 'callers' or live bait to entice others.

We used to name them crayfish but this was changed to rock lobsterfor export acceptance.

Some still believe these NSW rock lobster to be the best of all, but they are in short supply, and are grossly over-priced.

Wise folk never eat them. There is a link between the regular eating of rich foods like lobster and crab and aseptic bone necrosis (commonly and mistakenly thought to be caused solely by inadequate decompression staging during diving).

There is a crevice at Seal Rocks that used to be favoured by these huge migratory lobster. When discovered it held more than a dozen giants all 5kg to 7 kg each, some with eggs attached. Such a find would be very unusual today especially in shallow water (less than two meters deep).

Bowen Island at the southern entrance to Jervis Bay was another place the big fellows were regularly seen. The overseas lobster with pincers like a crab are in the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific or Indian Oceans.

Photo: Ron Taylor archives
JH on 17.07.04 @ 10:57 PM AEST [link]

STINGING JELLYFISH UW picture

How much intelligence is contained within what most would consider 'a very low-level life form'?

Bathers at Melbourne's Brighton Baths, which is a bayside 'ocean' pool protected by anti-shark steel bars watched in amazement as a large jellyfish changed shape to a narrower form to pass through the bars. The jellyfish had to get out of the pool, somehow it measured the width of the bars without too much trouble.

Off Coffs Harbour underwater photographers 'harrased' an open ocean jellyfish giant by taking sufficient pictures to (a) cause the creature to spread its stingers over a much wider defensive area, maybe six times larger than the initial posture, and (b) cause the creature to dive deeper by some ten meters to avoid the bright flash.

While in Taiwan, the human intellingence has found methods to dry jellyfish into a form that is edible when reconstituted. Imagine eating jellyfish?

(How fantastic if the Taiwanese, who are proud of turning any sea creature into food, could find a method of making crown of thorns starfish edible)?

Then there is the box jellyfish with stingers that leave scars on our skin no worse than that which might be from 'an electrified whip of steel'?

Pictured is an unknown (to me) variety, a relative of the common 'pink stinger' Sydney divers know so well. Heavy rains had reduced water visibility turning blue into green.

There is intelligence within a jellyfish, but how they see, why they travel is a human mystery. Some forms on the GBR pulsate with a raibow of brilliant colours within their transparent shapes. If NASA found such creatures in space the tabloids would go berserk. Inner space is taken for granted.

Photo:JH fathom collection
JH on 15.07.04 @ 12:17 PM AEST [link]

JUST FOR FUN .......Wally Muller's walking gear.

A modern day Matthew Flinders, a real explorer of the outside edge of the Great Barrier Reef is a man who has never worn shoes, Wally G. Muller.

His entire life from a teenager onwards has been aboard boats, initially as a professional fisherman and later when the first opportunities arose, a tourist charter boat captain and owner.

Feet aboard a boat are often almost as essential as hands. Toes can hold ropes and do tricks we terrestial 'shoe prisioners' can only marvel at.

In future briefs we'll showcase highlights of the life of this remarkable man who has been so inspirational to many.

His mentor? Matthew Flinders of the Royal Navy. Like Flinders our modern legend was able to visit all the reefs in The Coral Sea originally chartered by Flinders almost 200 years ago. Like Flinders, these reefs were located by sextant and compass in the era pre GPS navigation aids. Wally built the famous diver liveaboard charter boat Coralita in 1969, but this too met with disaster and exploded and sank in 1990 without anyone aboard, fortunately.

May 18 2005: Wally Muller passes away at Yeppoon Queensland, three days short of his 75th birthday.

Photo JH/fathom collection
JH on 12.07.04 @ 09:39 AM AEST [link]

MARINE ECOLOGY ..........the hidden 'price' of wild prawns

Fishermen have a tough time catching prawns for the barbeque. A aweful lot of other stuff comes up in the nets. Some goes to market, (crabs, lobster) most becomes food for other sharks, dolphins and even prawns missed by the net. It's a cycle. The underwater dammage is to weeds or corals and over-turned rocks that would form shelter or a home for something smaller. The exotic sea pen would be a rare item today.

Wild or ocean-netted prawns are now widely recognised as more tasty and healthier to eat than the farmed versions (all containing antibiotics which build-up and create serious problems).

But eating regular prawn and lobster meat will not do you much good in the long term. Start saving for an artificial hip (or two) and trust you don't pick-up golden staph (MRSA) during the process.

So is eating prawns and lobster such a good idea? My reliable source of information says don't!

OK what about the well-meaning folk who contribute to the 'save the sea marine causes', do these people inadvertantly contribute to the imbalance of the sea by eating prawns without realising the background to their harvest? Of course they do.

One would think more prawn farms would be the answer, but this is not so. There are problems with the discharged waters killing mangroves and causing worse problems than what the trawlers have done.

Do you, as a supporters of the 'save the sea' have time to understand that at your dinner parties and in restaurants, while 'the chat' may drift lightly to conservation causes, your simple ordering of prawns from the menu has many implications both positive (for the fishermen) and negative (for the sea).

Well meaning marine conservationists may not realise 90% to even 99% of the bi-catch (aka 'waste') brought up with each net 'shot' contains a lot of other things besides prawns. Try and spot the few prawns in the picture. Some are visible. This is every night aboard the hundreds of trawlers working the coast. But their numbers are being reduced with a buy-back of licenses.

Sadly all this shocking waste has been accepted as necessary for far too long. There is nothing much anyone can do about slowing it down either. But if you order prawns remember, if you eat prawns, you are part of a slow death of the sea and far from a blemish-free conservationist.

If you really care for our future marine world think twice. (Once for your family's future health; twice for the bi-catch and other inhabitants of the depths having some merit to exist also).

The shocking truth is: Humans find changing any habit, even in the face of survival information, a difficult effort.

Wild prawns will continue to be netted and cooked. "The sea floor is already ruined"said John Barlow, a former Sydney diver and former trawlerman from Burnett Heads near Bundaberg, Queensland. "They are just farming it now".

Footnote: As the bi-catch was being sorted and slid steadily back over the side behind the streaming trawler, several dolphin arrived to feed. They were fussy, accepting some things - and in an impressive split-second decision, rejecting inferior material. The deckhand and I witnessed, under the bright-as-day lights illuminating the waters nearby, a three-meter whaler shark, (feeding on the bi-catch alongside the dolphin), suddenly take a BIG SNAP, a mouthful of flesh from an adult dolphin's side! This says something about the unpredictability of a shark. They don't have many friends.

photo: JH/fathom
JH on 11.07.04 @ 09:27 AM AEST [link]

PEOPLE OF THE SEA ......TV documentary celebs Ben and Lynn

Off Port Douglas are a number of coral reefs which form the great barrier reef. The correct term would be the great barrier reefs.

The late Dr Robert Endean was promoting the plural version within his university lectures but it has not caught on. The mass of thousands of individual reefs is destined to remain a singular, indicating to some visitors there is a barrier of unbroken reef running north-south.

Lynn Roberts (right) has appeared in six TV documentaries as Ben Cropp's underwater model. Together they have marvelous adventures aboard Freedom III and overseas as well, having visited the USA film festivals, Egypt and the Nile River, Inca ruins of South America and Easter Island.

A tropical lobster dinner at Ben's Port Douglas home base would top off a great day out on the reef.

Photo: John H.


JH on 10.07.04 @ 02:55 PM AEST [link]

SHIPWRECK ....... COOMA propeller, North Reef memoir

If you watched the TV series Flipper in the sixties, (a dolphin equivilent of Skippy) you may have seen regular but brief scenes of this huge propeller in every other episode. It was a stunning sequence.

This picture was taken during a spearfishing trip with Wally G. Muller aboard his 48 foot licensed fishing boat Riversong. A trip on the Riversong in that era was today like a flight aboard the space shuttle (if you were a 22 year old spearo like the young man pictured here)!

About 1970 unknown salvage divers seperated the bronze propellers, presumeably with great difficulty into individual blades. We know this because one of the blades 'got away from them' and floated into the shallows where it became lodged. Maybe it's still there?

A similar photo to this was a cover shot on SKIN DIVER in 1965 for Ron Taylor.

Note: the Calypso-Phot French 35mm still camera. A good condition of this forerunner to the Nikonos would today be worth more than the scrap metal value of a single bronze propeller blade pirated from this wreck site.


JH on 08.07.04 @ 07:43 AM AEST [link]

SHIPWRECK .......... Steamship Cooma at North Reef, QLD

The removal of the Cooma bronze propellor would become in time 'the greatest single man-made disaster to tourism anywhere on the entire Great Barrier Reef.

The big 'prop' was in the surf surge zone at North Reef, within view of the lighthouse. It would have been a hazardeous and at times impossible dive. But what a magnificent one. Heron Island is within range with a fast boat.

With a wide angle lens the pictures would have been absolutely stunning and could have been published internationally for decades.

Maybe limiting the tourism kiss of death saved other marine assets? But either way, the theft of the big propeller was a photographic and travel tragedy.

The brass "M" from Cooma name plate was hidden amongst a tangle of wires and twisted brass long since melted down and recycled.

A few divers had swam on the site, already. But it was an expensive boat trip out there from Gladstone. North Reef is about 80 km from the nearest township on the mainland.

Serious wreck hunting in this era was all about explosives and 'salvaging the loose material' traded for cash to scrap metal dealers.

So the new question is:What are divers doing today, in their ignorance, that will be so terrible in 2044?

Photo:Ron Taylor. circa 1964


JH on 08.07.04 @ 07:16 AM AEST [link]

PEOPLE OF THE SEA Wal Gibbins and Jacques Mayol

A possible victim of Severe Depression Virus was the late Jacques Mayol who made a serious decision to leave this world on Dec 23, 2001 in Italy.

Jacques Mayol (centre) with Australia's shipwrecks expert Johnny Sumner (left) and Australia's legendary diver Wally Hamilton Gibbins in 2000 at Las Vegas, USA discussing the "Mr Wally Expedition" to the Solomon Islands, amongst other things, including Hollywood movies.

(Wally Gibbins 'blacked-out' near the surface after a 135 foot free dive with speargun, bag and weight belt in Tahiti 1965, which put Wally out of competiting in the World Spearfishing Championships).

The cult movie The Big Blue (1988) was based on the freediving skills and rivalry between Jacques Mayol and his mate Enzo Maiorca.

Jacques was born in Shanghai to French parents. An exciting time for his conception. The city is described then as: Whore of the orient, Paris of the east, city of quick riches, ill-gotten gains and fortunes lost on the tumble of dice; the domain of adventurers, gamblers, swindlers, drug runners, idle rich, dandies, tycoons, missionaries, gangsters and back street pimps - Shanghai 1927". Lonely Planet CHINA.

Jacques Mayol learned to freedive in Japan at age 15. His inspiration to become a world record breath-holding free diver was sparked while watching nude girls decend 75 feet without flippers (aka fins) to collect pearl shell oysters. Not a bad start to his diving career.

The fact that his own father was later to die in a diving accident is worthy of note.

At the amazing age of 56 years, Jacques Mayol set a world free diving depth record of 105 meters, yet less than 20 years later he chose to end his own life with a rope. Many prisoners on death row would have gladly changed places with him. But the depression virus is a powerful enemy.

Update: October 20 2004. Wally Gibbins admitted to Coffs Harbour hospital. (Peter Fields preparing major interview for popular magazine featuring this legend of the sea, born 19 January 1930). Wally's collection of spearguns and diving gear is ear-marked for Legends Surf Museum (Scott Dillon 02 6653 6536).

UPDATE JAN.7 2005. Only a brief but 'scary' stay in hospital. A burst blood vessel and great loss of blood. Back to normal as of this moment.

Photo: John Sumner collection


JH on 07.07.04 @ 04:56 AM AEST [link]

PEOPLE OF THE SEA .....Hec Goodall and Ben Cropp

Legendary diver and documentary film maker Ben Cropp recently visited the Coffs Harbour Pet Porpoise Pool where he caught up with manager Hec Goodall.

They knew each other from the days of Jack Evan's porpoise pool at Tweed Heads but had not been in contact for more than 40 years. They had much to speak about.

Hec spoke of the probelms the Pet Porpoise Pool had during the 1980's when poorly informed authorities had almost closed the pool; about new extensions to the pool due for completion later this month.

Ben Cropp has made more than 100 films for television. His latest "The Vanishing Grey Nurse Shark" has received acclaim from NSW Fisheries and the CSIRO for the archieval content showing divers with sharks and powerheads more than 40 years ago.

While in Coffs Harbour Ben planned to catch up with another old mate and underwater legend, Wally Gibbins who is preparing his boat Mr Wally for an lengthy expedition to the Solomon Islands with pioneer divers Johnny Sumner and Des Woodley.

Wally Gibbins is featured in many of Ben's films made when the team filmed almost around Australia a series of documentaries in the 1980's. During that period Wally salvaged the ships bell from Yongala near Townsville, the site today being one of the most significant tourist-dive destinations in the world. The bell is displayed in a Townsville maritime museum today.

The forthcoming trip to the Solomons (where Wally worked for several years salvaging WWII wrecks) will concentrate on deep water salvage with a mechanical grab.

Meanwhile Ben is preparing his own northern Great Barrier Reef filming expedition aboard Freedom III which will involve a culinary adventure to find and prepare exotic seafood in the freshest possible form.

Photo John H./fathom


JH on 06.07.04 @ 11:05 AM AEST [link]

SEASCAPE Stunning Sunrise over the Sea

The ideal sunset, or in this case a winter sunrise, is a cloudy sky with a strip of blue in the far distance to allow the rays to 'light-up' the sky.

In northern Australia sunsets are brilliant, helped by smoke and red dust in the air. My favourites have been Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia. Fannie Bay, Darwin, Northern Territory, (where the effect is even more brilliant 20 minutes after the actual sun sets).

This shot is my current screen saver. Thought it was worth sharing.

This location: Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. Photo John H
JH on 05.07.04 @ 08:06 AM AEST [link]

JUST FOR FUN ........Blowing UW Bubble Rings

Like cigar smoke rings in air, underwater bubble rings are fun. The technique was thought to have started during lengthy decompression stops. Divers hanging at 30 feet or less for maybe an hour had time to play.

Al Giddings may have originated bubble blowing as shown on a Skin Diver magazine. A talented person in Vanuatu is said to be able to make double bubble rings!

Dean Cropp learned the technique and demonstrates it perfectly while breath-holding during a shallow snorkle swim.

Photo: JH/fathom

"If something's too hard to do, it isn't worth doing" Homer Simpson
JH on 04.07.04 @ 07:34 AM AEST [link]

SEASCAPE underwater wave poster - first of it's kind.

We printed 500 on 240 gsm paper. Everyone liked the shot. There are no copies left.

Poster size is 686cm X 1010 cm. They looked great with a 250 watt spot lamp to highlight.

Everyone who has owned one of these tells me of the many constant compliments received.

A limited edition with no reprints. The original 35mm transparency was lost by the printers.

I didn't initially realise how popular this underwater wave poster was. Originally they were a promotion for the 16mm film show "Australian Seafari".

One poster was nicely framed for the foyer of Crescent Head Country Club, near Kempsey NSW. The following year the manager asked if any other were for sale. "We get a dozen or more people every day during holiday time asking if they are for sale".

A couple of years later some surfriders were seeing looking at length at the poster. Later staff noted it was missing.

Cresent Head township is off the highway with a single road out of town. Police were alerted and retrieved the photo from the young surfers before it got too far away....no charges made.

Photo: John H

JH on 03.07.04 @ 12:30 PM AEST [link]

JH HISTORY "fathom" magazine shark cover

In the 1960's spearfishermen had at last a defense against the sharks (they were attracting by spearing fish).

It was the shotgun and later .303 powerhead. Promoted in USA magazines by shark hunter Scott Slaughter (his real name), the original shark hunter who inspired Australians but is rarely credited.

The Australian researchers (Ron Taylor, Ben Cropp, Ted Louis, Dave Rowlings) were experimenting with chemical injections on sharks that were far too slow working. The powerhead had an instant result.

The quest in the sixties was a practical defense for shipwreck survivors, anything better than coloured dyes or plastic bags. Sharks are always a problem under certain unusual circumstances.

In the sixties divers hunted sharks to overcome a fear of them. Grey nurse sharks were for amateurs, and they were not commonly seen. The more courageous free diver sought dangerous species, tiger, whaler and white pointer, but these were rare too.

A single powerheaded shark might be photographed several times, each time with a different person posing for the photograph. It gave the impression a lot of sharks were being killed by divers. A myth.

The grey nurse shark 'myth' in recent years became so over and wrongly quoted it 'snow-balled' into protection for the species. (But who complains about that except a few fishermen? It's good for dive business and is unlikely to 'backfire' with a plague of this quiet species. They were never prolific anyway).

The Sun's news journalist Mike Perry wrote in 1966 "sharks can't tell the difference between brave men and fools".

It was also a time when there were far more dangerous sharks in the sea. In three consecutive summers, three experienced snorkel divers were badly bitten at Aldinga Reef near Adelaide in southern Australian waters, and another elsewhere in Victoria who was swimming with seals (sea lions).

The consolation divers had for decades was "no scuba diver has never been attacked by a shark". This was to change as the sport became more popular and now several have now been eaten. The dive store sales people lost a valueable and often quoted 'line' to help sell courses.

More recently it is surf riders who have become popular targets for white pointers. The fin of the surf board possibly resembling that of a dolphin snack.

Dive stores had always down-played shark hazards until they woke-up it was the 'shark thrill' that attracted business. Today they offer (sell) shark dive courses and tours galore.

This page is a small part of the sharks issue published by Fathom 1971. Main picture is shark bite celebrity Rodney Fox with a large whaler shark he attacked at Point Lookout late one afternoon 1967 with a .303 powerhead (pictured).

Small pictures. (left) Rodney Fox the day after doctors removed his stitches, following a white pointer shark 'mouthing him'; this famous photo by Ron Taylor in December 1963.

(centre) Henri Bource lost half his leg to a white pointer in 1964, he overcame his fear of sharks with self hypnosis, made his 35mm release shark film "Savage Shadows" and became a shark bite celebrity when he wasn't playing sax in a 60's rock band revival. (He was a 1960's rock n roll star with Melbourne's "The Thunderbirds" band).

(right) Wally Gibbins with his 11 foot 1 inch tiger shark from Sykes Reef, (near Heron Island). In 1964 'the biggest and best result' achieved in Australia. It showed what was possible. Not very acceptable today.

See additional FATHOM pages: www.xanga.com/thejhh

Photographs by Ron Taylor and John Harding

JH on 02.07.04 @ 09:07 AM AEST [link]

JH HISTORY "fathom" magazine cover 1971

FATHOM was a 48 page glossy with 16 pages in colour, printed in Hong Kong to a standard much higher and more affordable than anything available in Australia at the time. In this era it was the best looking dive magazine in the world, (according to countless letters) with a print run of 7,500 for the above issue it was a unique publication of that era.

Overseas diving magazines were not publishing shark information. None had the courage to run a major feature covering the common dangerous species rating their level. Shark pictures were 'bad' for retailers.

The mainsteam press was over-sensationalising info on sharks. People had just begun to swim with them and learned they were not going to be eaten instantly, as had been thought.

In Fathom we had 100% control. For the first time, sharks were presented from a true skindivers viewpoint. The opposition publications gritted their teeth, and still do, years later.

We received letters of praise and compliment from many of the world's inspirational divers. Philippe Cousteau came especially to Australia and offered an interview, something he had refused granting Skin Diver in USA.

Dive shops were slow to advertise and we needed their business to survive. When Rick Poole took a full page colour, Rick's business boomed and stayed that way.

It was a great experience while it lasted but I saw more potential in motion pictures and screening my 16mm shark films in cinemas. With TV advertising the show, we toured coastal Queensland setting box office cinema records with what was basically my home movie of sharks and the sea, pre Jaws era There was no soundtrack in the early days, I narrated each screening live, from a bright portable xenon projector filling huge screens to full houses in large theatres. An underwater nude sequence of a young mermaid got people talking. More free publicity. More about this later...

The hammerhead shark, pictured on the second issue of Fathom that became caught in the beach meshing net off the Gold Coast, Queensland. The nets reduced the shark hazard but they become a problem for other forms of marine life, occasional whales, manta rays and turtles. Many folk falsely believe the nets to be a barrier while in fact they are a simple trap.

FOOTNOTE (March 12 2005) Pages from Fathom 1, 2 and 10 at: www.xanga.com/thejhh

fathom issue 2. 1971. photo JH
JH on 01.07.04 @ 08:41 AM AEST [link]