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