April 2011 "Under the Wharf"

Here is my April article that was published in the "NZ Fishing News" magazine it is about diving under the wharfs in NZ's busiest port. 
"Port of Tauranga" contracted me to film under their wharfs - what I found surprised many!



http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/76640873?access_key=key-vgtcyqfq5gwr7z97805

March 2011 "Pinnacles Oceanic Oases"

Here is my March article that was published in the "NZ Fishing News" magazine it is about diving pinnacles.



Pinnacles are some of my favourite dive sites, as they are places that life can be very abundant and large schools of fish love to congregate

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/76640880?access_key=key-85uwwk45d334eivskh1

Diving with Bronzies

Here is my February article that was published in the "NZ Fishing News" magazine it is about diving with Bronze Whaler sharks.
Each summer Bronzies regularly make the headlines of our newspapers as they make their summer migration to our beaches...the headlines and timing of them are as predictable as the air temperature dropping when the wind blows from the south

http://www.scribd.com/doc/76640887

Merry Christmas!! On Boxing day I was filming Orca with Dr Ingrid Visser on board her research boat. The Orca were in Whangarei Harbour (North east North Island, NZ) feeding on the plentiful Stingrays there. Here are some frame grabs from my video footage. The ray in the shot is a long tailed ray, the depth is about 13m (40ft) and the visibility was a lowly 2m from the recent rainfall. (my wide angle lens makes it look way clearer than it actually was!!)

While on board the boat and watching the pod of about 10 Orca feeding in the harbour, Ingrid noticed that 3 Orca were working the same spot for a while- she said they would be trying to catch a long tailed ray...sure enough when I got in the water and eventually found the ray she was right! It was a very large ray that the 3 Orca attempted to pick up numerous times for almost 15 minutes. 

It was very dark and a little eerie in the murky water, but amazing watching the oceans apex predator at work...this time though the ray lived to see another day (not what can be said about countless eagle rays this day!). The ray eventually found itself a small hollow in the sand. It managed to swim there and hug the bottom, making it virtually impossible for the Orca to lift a wing off the bottom and get a good hold of it. 

It was very cool to have my son Dylan (8) onboard for the first time as the research assistant... he did amazing and had a great initiation receiving a face full of Orca snot later in the day : ) He was actually quite the pro at spotting Orca in the choppy seas once we left the harbour.

This day was the best early Christmas present ever!!

I finally found the action... a very large ray knowing it was in big trouble! 

Numerous attempts were made to pick it up off the harbour floor

After managing to lift it up, the ray is dropped

With just a corner of the wing in the Orcas mouth, the weight proves too much again and it's released

The size of both the hunter and the hunted is hard to appreciate with these pics!

Finally the ray finds a hollow in the sand to hide in and lives to tell the tale

                         

Goat Island Movie

Here's a short clip from the Goat Island movie that I've produced. It's playing down by the beach on a large outdoor screen over summer.

Goat Island was NZ's first ever marine reserve (actually the first no-take marine reserve in the world!). When I started filming underwater it made sense to practice somewhere that had lots of fish - Goat Island fitted this bill well, not only is it just down the road from where I live, but it's loaded with plenty of fish that are easy to film!

Historically it was not somewhere that I would spend much time, as I only wanted to get in the water to catch fish and not just look at them. But the more I came here to film the more I realised how special this place was...the fish life and crayfish were way more abundant compared to the rest of the surrounding coastline outside the Marine Reserve. It was glaringly obvious how different it is and what an incredible recovery it has made.

Spending lots of time here I also got to meet some of the older locals who would tell their fascinating stories of growing up around this beautiful coast. About how prolific fish life used to be and then the steady decline during the 60's and 70's. I heard stories of the incredible battle that took place for over ten years to finally make this area a total no take zone.

When Goat Island finally became a Marine Reserve in 1975 many predicted that no one would want to visit this beach - as apparently there was nothing left to do there anymore.... But now approximately     350 000 visit this tiny MArine reserve annually, bringing close to $20 million into the local economy each year.
Goat Island Marine Reserve not only holds a special place in NZ's history, but it's legacy is felt around the world.

I've fallen in love with this stunning slice of NZ's coastline and love bringing my kids here. It's a taste of what the marine life would have been like many decades ago and a place where many thousands of Kiwi kids get to enjoy seeing and swimming with fish for the first time.

The beach movie shows the different varieties of fish you could encounter, some of the history of the Marine Reserve, and also some snorkeling safety tips... there are a lot of people who come here that have very little water experience and get themselves into trouble!

It's great that the Department of Conservation and Water Safety NZ have endorsed what we are doing down at the beach.

The musical track was written and performed by my bro-in-law Andy Gibson
www.andygibson.co.nz/

My "NZ Fishing News" Diving articles - January 2011

Over the next month I will post some of my "NZ Fishing News" articles from earlier 2011

Check it out below:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/76196988

Filming Orca in NZ

Here is the BBC trailer that links in with my article in this months New Zealand Fishing News Magazine. It is about Dr Ingrid Visser's research on Orca in NZ and I was very fortunate to be the underwater cameraman for this project. It will be screened in NZ early next year on TV3. It is called "The Woman Who Swims With Killer Whales"

Also here are some pics from Orca filming expeditions

                               Photo: Cassie De Colling

Filming for BBC, with Bigwave productions, UK: After a very successful mornings filming in the Whangarei harbour, Ingrid does a few pieces to camera as we follow the pod heading south.

                                Photo: Cassie De Colling

Inside Whangarei harbour- this Orca is called Putita. I filmed him a number of months before this day, on that occasion he was stranded on Ruakaka beach from hunting rays in the surf line and getting caught out going in too shallow - I filmed the rescue and spent a couple of hours up close to this magnificent animal (check the blog- Wednesday 21st September for video footage of that day)

Above - My boat was following Putita and 2 other Orca as they hunted on the shallow banks in the upper harbour, 3 times he stopped hunting and did a big swooping turn backtracking behind my boat and then stopped directly underneath my fins staring up at me.... Yeeha!!! Apart from being an incredible experience, it made me wonder if he actually recognised me from our previous encounter!!

                                Photo: Cassie De Colling

Following a pod down the Northland coast. In this pic is a Orca calf that Ingrid said was probably only a couple of days old (as you could still see it fetal folds) The interesting thing is that it's fin had been bitten off! She was not too sure if it would survive from this at some a young age, but to our delight we have seen this orca about 6 months later with a healed, but very recognisable fin!

                                Photo: Ingrid Visser

Here Grant Liebezeit and I are holding up the remains of 2 eagle rays. I picked them up just after I'd filmed them being torn in half by a couple of Orca.... both times it was a interesting moment as I picked up the ray off the sea floor, then held it in one hand and the camera in the other.... to have a large Orca return and look at me from within 2 meters.....hmmm, do you want your lunch back? I was thinking as I held the ray out towards him.

Photo: Cassie De Colling

A orca turns slightly to grab a ray off the bottom directly below me

                      Photo: Andy Kent : )

This is the first ever photo of an Orca grabbing a ray in the UK!! My good mate Andy Kent sent me this just after he had watched the above BBC doco in the UK.... he managed to capture the action in his bathroom sink... priceless!!

Next months New Zealand Fishing News article is about a place where fish and other animals love to live - inside underwater arches. I will put up a video with some awesome footage shot inside arches from around NZ's Northland coastline.

Maitai Bay- Diving deep pinnacles

This is the video clip that links with my article in the November "NZ Fishing News" magazine.


I've done heaps of spearfishing around the KariKari Peninsula in the far north of NZ, but I wanted to check out what lies beneath the zone that I'm so familiar with. The zone that I can't visit with only one breath! 
I was pleasantly surprised with what I found! 


Next months article in the NZ Fishing News is about my work filming Killer Whales underwater.

Tawharanui crayfish.mov

This is the video blog associated with my October article in the NZ Fishing News. It was shot just before the Tawharanui Marine Park was just about to change it's status to a marine reserve and become NZ's latest MR (the opening was 28th August). There is not much that changes in reality for this MR as it has been a total no take since 1981- the boundaries have changed slightly and now DOC administers it.... the one change that made me want to film this was that there is no feeding of fish and crayfish in a marine reserve, but in a Marine park there is no such rule.... and also Tawharanui has one of the biggest cray populations around, with about 1000 crays per hectare....there are some feisty crays there

Lucas on drums.mov

Filming mission at the Poor Knight Islands

These pics are from a very successful 3 day filming mission at the Poor Knight Islands....visiting these islands should be on the bucket list of every Kiwi. Not only is the topside scenery stunning, but checking out under the surface is as good as it gets!  

Thanks to Dive Tutukaka for all their help!!

Dan Chapman parked up in RikoRiko cave at the Poor Knights Islands

Just to give you an idea of the size of this cave- there's 3 boats in shot and room for plenty more! This is the director of the shoot, Robin Shingleton

From inside the cave

Night diving, with the lights down on the bottom at 13m shining up on the ceiling, the photo doesn't do it justice...it was truly stunning... as was the diving!

One of Dive Tutukakas fleet at the Knights

Grant and Gabriel after a hard day at work : )

This is Putita being rescued- it screened on Closeup.... about 4 months before I filmed him in some underwater sequences with the BBC

This is when I was filming for the BBC doco - it's inside Whangarei harbour and the Orca is called Putita... this Orca stranded itself about 4 months before this photo as it was chasing stingrays in the shallows of a surf beach. I also filmed it on that occasion as Ingrid (www.orcaresearch.org) and a team of helpers gave it a helping hand getting back out to sea..... it wasn't that long ago that people thought it was a lost cause trying to re-float whales and dolphins, as they thought their organs would be crushed and they wouldn't survive.
Putita and many other Kiwi Orca are testament to the fact that they more than survive.... a number of re-floated Orca have given birth since being stranded also

I was out for a test flight on this yesterday. We're using it for a filming shoot next week...we have exciting plans in the wings : )

Rodney Times Article

Click here to view a recent article featuring me in the Rodney Times

Radio NZ Interview

Click here to listen to a recent Radio NZ Interview I did

The Woman Who Swims With Killer Whales

Waterhouses Poor Knights Trip Mar 2011

Here is a clip I shot and edited for my friends the Waterhouses in March. We went out to the Poor Knights on my boat.

The vis was not as good as you would expect by the Poor Knights usual exceptional visibility, but even on a ordinary day this place is awesome and one of the top dive locations in the World!! If you've never been there put it on your bucket list