Kick-butt underwater gardens- diving the arches at the Poor Knight Islands

Diving the bottom of the arches at the Poor Knights Islands kicks the butt of any flower garden I've ever seen for colour and beauty- except most of what you are looking at down there are colonies of animals not plants...the diversity of life, shapes and colors is staggering!! Diving these arches gives you an insight into what you would see diving way beyond recreational diving depths. The constant lack of light allows large colonies of animals to thrive that would not normally be seen in such shallow water.

Last week I spent the day out at the Poor Knights Islands with Dive Tutukaka. Here's a little snippet of the footage that I shot 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD5UxqmpJNg

Also here are some of Craig Anderson's pics that he shot while diving together 

If you're ever diving the arches and you want to see these colors make sure you take a good torch... it's dark down there!!

Go well

Steve

I've just been away with the Sir Peter Blake Trust, Young Blake Leaders expedition to the Kermadec Islands.

30 Kiwi students were handed picked from hundreds of applicants to head out to NZ's northern most territory (about 1000km NE of Auckland city) on board the HMNZS Canterbury. This trip of a lifetime was organized by the Sir Peter Blake Trust and generously hosted by the NZ Navy.
Joined with some of NZ's most outstanding leaders, marine scientists, journalists, TV crew and a virtual field class of thousands. They experienced these remote pristine islands for themselves....I had the privilege of filming their "in water" experience.

Check out more about the expedition here:
http://www.sirpeterblaketrust.org/kermadecs-expedition/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCp3cI7fGg

Turtle release at the Poor Knight Islands.mov

Yesterday I headed out to the Poor Knights on board Dive Tutukaka's mother ship "Perfect Day" to film the release of 2 turtles that had received rehab from Kelly Tarltons Underwater World.

It's always a fun day hanging out with good mates at one of the best diving locations on this planet... but seeing these turtles happily settling into their new surrounds took it to a whole different level!!

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