Solomon Islands - PART 1

Solomon Islands are a small island chain northeast of Australia, about 4 hours flying time from Brisbane. Tim Wilson and I thought we would drag our spearfishing gear along for a Solomon Islands adventure.



The Marovo Lagoon region is located in the Western Province, and seems to cater for the lion's share of tourists. With our spearing and camping gear packed, transport options were restricted by the luggage weight allowances on the small domestic aircraft (only 16kg per person).



We had plenty of warning from friends and relatives about the what to expect, and sure enough, much of the advice was very relevant. Solomon Time is a real phenomenon and pervades most aspects of life. It's not a bad thing so long as you anticipate its effects and go with the flow.






Foreboding airport mural: a sign of things to come?







Loading chaos: hundreds of people stuffing their luggage and cargo onto the ferry.

Ferry Trouble

Or, the trouble with Ferries! We visited the ticket office of the MV Solomon Express to pre-purchase tickets for our journey into the Western Province. Being a little worried about the overcrowding, we arrived at the wharf super early to claim our place on the Ferry. Several hours later, I took our tickets back to the ticket office. Upon displaying the ticket, the clerk refunded our money, but couldn't explain why the Ferry didn't show.



This was a real pain for a few reasons. The villagers at Peava were expecting us, we had no accommodation arranged for Honiara, the next ferry doesn't depart for another two days, and our plans relied on that ferry running in the coming weeks.

Our second attempt at departure two days later was a success, and we were finally heading west.






High & dry: ferry grave on the shores of Honiara.






Unloading chaos: the skipper allows about 3 minutes to disembark on a 5m slab of concrete.

Peava Village

The home of The Wilderness Lodge, Peava Village is nestled in the farthest southeastern reaches of Marovo on the Island of Nggatokae (Gatokae). We visited the nearby Islands of Malemale, Mbulo and Minjanga – all have good spearfishing spots. Ocean currents dominate the fish activity making local knowledge a definite requirement.






Glass off: excellent conditions for putting around with a 10HP outboard!



We were quite lucky to have very calm weather.. the south-east tradewinds that normally push 15 knots this time of year had vanished. Quite literally they disappeared when we arrived, and returned as we left.






Divin' Ivin: keen!



Ivin, is a Peava Spearfisherman who guided us to his favourite spearfishing grounds. Most days we headed out in a 19' fibreglass canoe with a 9.8HP outboard on a new adventure. Fuel is SBD$14/litre, or around A$2.40/litre – the conditions and the efficiency of the little outboard kept the costs down. We spent about $50 each on fuel... for the whole week. That even includes an excursion to Mataki seamount and a FAD in a larger boat!









Dive boat: also our ferry transfer service.





The Wilderness Lodge is a tourism enterprise operated by the Peava villagers with the help of Corey – an ex-pat Aussie – and his wife Waelinah. Corey is quite busy with the Lodge, but we didn't have to twist his arm too hard to get out for some spearfishing.



Amazingly, the distance between the near-side reef of Malemale and the Peava barrier reef is only 600m, but drops away to a massive 200m. Wahoo, Blue Marlin and Sailfish are regularly hooked or spotted in the current right there! The dominant underwater structure of these areas is the sheer drop of the coral reef – straight down more than 50 metres – often much more.



After the delays trying to depart Honiara we were keen to get under the water as soon as possible. We arrived at Peava around lunchtime, and our gear wasn't out of the boat long, before we had most of it back in again ready for a dive. What an eye-opener! Hectic bait fish, clear warm water and sheer drops.



Sharks are ever-present, but only occasionally go hard for the speared fish. We quickly learned to shoot straight and bring the fish in before swimming for the surface.

Matakai Seamount

Corey had a chance to get away from work, and we scooted out to Mataki Seamount in his larger aluminium boat. We had Steward and Ivin on board who were quite excited to get out beyond their local grounds. Unfortunately Ivin's Marovo Speargun was mis-firing and he couldn't use it. I was hoping to see it put to use and capture some of the action on video. Steward – from a nearby village – takes Wilderness Lodge guests snorkelling and spearfishing under the banner of Bluewater Solomons.



20 nautical miles out to sea, with hundreds and hundreds of metres-deep water all around Matakai comes up to around 15m. Most drifts took us from 200m up-current amongst Wahoo, onto the reef edge with the Dogtooth Tuna, back across 2km of coral flats with Maori Sea Perch, Jobfish, Coral Trout and various Cod. We both saw good Doggies, but embarrassingly missed with the spear falling short! Wilso got into the Flowery Cod, and I crossed paths with an enourmous (6+ metre span) Manta Ray. I took one of the two 20+ kg Giant Trevally swimming in its shadow.



Steward had a suggestion to go find a FAD that he had found weeks before. We found small Wahoo, Dolphinfish, Yellowfin Tuna and 2 Blue Marlin. Wilso nabbed a Dollie, and we all got onto the little Wahoo. Corey and Steward saw a 250+ kg Blue Marlin smashing Rainbow Runner right in front of them right before a small Blue Marlin cruised past me... but on the other side of the FAD. I didn't have a clear shot, so didn't take it. An amazing fish to see in the water.. brightly lit in feeding mode. None of us got the timing right to dive on the Yellowfin for a shot, although Corey got close enough to spot some XL models below the babies.








[L]Dolphinfish
[R]Giant Trevally



Once back at the village, the weather was still perfect and our bodies not completely spent, so we transferred the gear into the little boat, and zipped over to Malemale for a quick evening dive. Wilso elected to have a swim with the video camera, while Corey and I paddled around looking for what was making the baitfish so anxious. The light was slowly fading and the schools of Rainbow Runner a little more energetic. I had started for the surface when Wilso grabbed my leg and pointed at a big shape in the gloom. With the video rolling, I reached out and planted a shot in the Spanish just as it was reaching the end of range. It fired up and made a good run taking the gun, 25m of rope and 10m of bungee before I grabbed the float and went for a ride.






Spanish Mackerel



Each day our host grabbed a fish for our dinner, and all the rest went into the village. The village kids were keen to check out the catch each day.






Big Fish: well, for a little guy.



Have a browse through the photos on flickr:


Solomons 2009 - Before Peava

Solomons 2009 - Peava Village



Part 2 to follow soon

First Crayfish of the Season

Yesterday a howling westerly wind kept the air cold and the ocean flat. After checking a few of the regular spots, I found my first two crays of the season. There is plenty of talk about it being a bumper season for crays, so hopefully they will arrive in larger numbers and size.

Eden - 3 Way State Championships

The Mosman Whalers Skindiving Club had more than our normal contingent of divers make the journey to Eden for this years 3 Way Championship.

We collected Mussels and Abalone to complement our fish, making a big seafood cook up. Gerry made some great pasta with crayfish from Narooma and mussels and fish from Eden. I made some fish cocktails with rice flour beer batter, and Jen made the abalone fritters.

Saturday is the eve of the Championships, and serves as scouting day. We search out the locations where the hard-to-find fish are aggregating. Three species were our targets – Nannygai, Sea Sweep and Boarfish. We travelled an hour south of Eden to launch the boats in Wonboyn Lake, but had to walk next to the boats to float them out to the ocean in a few inches of water! Luckily the tide was running out when we launched, and was running back in just before dark. All three species were found, and locked into the chartplotter as GPS marks.

Sunday is an early start as we all needed to register for the Championships, as well as launch the boat and organise all the gear. With over 40 boats registered, the boat ramp was busy. 130 competitors took to the water at 8am, returning at 2pm.

The race to the first fishing spot is a solid 25 minutes flat-out! Thankfully no other boats wanted to fish this particular spot first, and we managed to get the species we were looking for. Moving on to the other spots, and spearing the other species, the time passes quickly. Unfortunately the spot where I saw a Boarfish on Saturday was already being fished by another crew. As luck would have it — at the last spot — right before we needed to go back, I found a Boarfish to add to my bag of fish :)

Such a big event takes quite some time to process all the divers' fish, and tabulate all the scores. To add to the delays, the scorekeeper's computer had a few failures taking several more hours to overcome. So while we all waited for scores, we had a few drinks and caught up with other competitors. It was great to catch up with Rick, after returning from our South African trip a few weeks earlier.

My point score was 722, putting me in 18th place overall.

Waiting on photos from friends....

Narooma – Humpback Whales

On the way down to Eden, we called in at Narooma and took the boat out to Montague Island. We had been spearfishing the western side, when we spotted Humpback Whales on the South West corner.

I managed to take some footage of the commotion, however the water visibility was not good enough to see them clearly under the surface.



The whales moved further away, and we went back to spearing fish. We each had a crack at the snapper swimming around nearby. Paul and I picked up one each. The tide had increased the water level, so we ventured in close to check for crayfish. We say plenty, but only grabbed one big enough to keep.

[UPDATE] Weeks later I've seen more Humpbacks close to the coast at Dee Why. Some were around 1km out, and a single small whale closer than 100m from the surfers at Dee Why point!

NSW State Titles 2009 - Ulladulla

Based around Ulladulla in 2009, the event is run over two days to decide the best spearfishermen for NSW. The format is a shore dive, meaning all fishing is done by leaving the shore and swimming to find fish – no boats allowed! Its a very challenging event, and removes boats and GPS from the equation. Similar to the National Titles, its normal to swim over 4 kilometres each day.

Saturday was held at Berara, close to Sussex Inlet. The day started well, and I had a few good fish in the first half of the allowed time, but I spent the last half looking for fish and only getting two more. I didn't leave much time to get back, and swam very hard pulling all my fish to the shore and scurrying up the beach and path to reach the finish.

My result for Saturday was 68.8% of the best score of the day, Garth Byron on 579 points.

Sunday stayed close, and was held at the Ulladulla boat ramp. I and a few other guys decided to run north over the headland, avoiding some of the swim from the boat ramp out to the main fishing grounds. My fish shot was into a cave to spear a Ling, but the spear bent and jammed! Thankfully the bend wasn't too severe and did not break. I think that managed to get all my bad luck out of the way early, and I speared my first ever Zebra Fish soon after that.

Sunday's result was 61.4%, with an Intermediate age group diver with the best score, Jack Lavender on 820 points.

That put me in 14th place overall, on 130.2%.

Even though I was diving well after South Africa, I was not feeling well from lack of sleep. There were at least a few species each day that I should have had in my catch. Another factor that certainly made things more difficult is having not previously dived in the area, let alone knowing any "spots" for the competition areas. At least in South Africa we had a chance to scout the area, and Graham had a few spots for us to target. There's always next year.

South Africa 2009 Part 3 – Shark diving with Blue Wilderness

After the success of the Aussie team in the 1 day International test, we scraped together a few of the guys and went for a night on the town.  Although we had planned on diving with Mark Addison on Sunday, Rick didn't finish his beauty sleep until midday :)  Instead, we went into town with Corry and Jackie for lunch, and had a recovery day while Graham and Tony ran off to Durban earlier in the morning.

Rick and I were well and truly ready to go, arriving at Blue Wilderness headquarters quite early. Mark had been anticipating a bit of spearfishing too, so we threw our spearguns & cameras in the boat and off we went. There were reports from yesterday's divers that clean water was on the Shoal, and we were hopeful it held steady overnight. On the run out, we crossed over the current line.... hazy blue, to purple! It really seemed promising.

Mark is the original shark man – dedicating around the last 20 years – freediving to study sharks and all facets of their behaviour. He actively helps other commercial shark tourism operators, dispensing friendly advice on how to best arrange the boats trying to locate the sharks for their customers. His confidence in his process showed through as his crew dropped the marker buoy, and he took us wide, up-current from Aliwal Shoal to drift for blue-water species.

On entering the water, I could see the bottom clearly. I asked Mark "How deep are we here?"  His response "29 metres".  Easily 100 feet of visibility. Within 2 minutes of hitting the water Rick spots a big shark... actually a small Whale Shark. It swam casually past him. We alerted Mark – still in the boat – and he passed us our cameras to capture the great fish on film.

For a few minutes we followed the Whale Shark around, but I stopped briefly on a pinnacle of the reef to film some other species in the gin-clear water.

[sequence of Natal Wrasse, Parrot]

After swimming with the Whale Shark a while longer, we moved back to the marker buoy to find many Black-tip Sharks had come in for a feed. Their attitude and swimming pattern make up for their smaller size, keeping us nervous as we swam with them looking for good photo opportunities.

The Black-tips circle making sharp turns and fast runs, investigating all things up and down the chum slick. They look well-fed, yet hungry for any morsel that they can chomp.

Before too long, Mark is keen to complete a video assignment with Raggie Sharks (A.K.A Grey Nurse Sharks) back across The Shoal. We bundle back in the boat, bring up the marker buoy and head for the Raggie Cave. Mark and his Videographer Dan grab the SCUBA tanks and decend to work, while Rick and I are dropped back on our original drift.

We've got garfish swimming all around, and the Wahoo soon arrive. I've seen the outside of the school, but Rick has been in the middle of close to 100 15+kg Wahoo! Both of us watch carefully as part of the school come closer to investigate us. I look over to watch Rick swim at one, placing a shot mid-body. He has borrowed my Rob Allen 1.2m speargun, and with his swimming had plenty of power get the flopper right through the fish. Unfortunately his belt reel jammed, putting too much pressure on the fighting fish forcing the spear to pull out.  I tracked another Wahoo, patiently watching it circle behind me and swim up current below me. I couldn't get in range as each time I made any movement it would react by moving further away from me. Yet another Wahoo stayed up shallow, close to the surface, and just as I though I was as close as I would get I swam at the fish. I took my shot, and it was all over! My spear hit it's spine, removing the Wahoos' ability to swim away. 

[Wahoo photo]

After calling over the boat and hauling the fish aboard, we had drifted back onto The Shoal, near the Raggie Cave where Mark and Dan had finished their video assignment. A large Tiger Shark was circling cautiously wide around the bait drum, but it was a good sign. Mark called over the boat and had the baits reset and once another two Tigers appeared, pulled the anchor on the marker buoy.

We drifted for over an hour with these magnificent fish. I can remember – as if it only happened yesterday – the first close encounter with a Tiger Shark. I'm around 5m below the surface and it was swimming toward me, as they all had at one stage or another. But instead of veering away it continued, holding course for a direct collision.  The thing about these Tiger Sharks is that they were moving gracefully. Slow and steady compared to the frantic pace of the Black-Tips. Slowly the Tiger closed the gap, every moment of the way I thought "What do I do now? When do I reach out to try and force it away?" Just as I thought "Now!", it turned sharply, to make another arc and circle around the group. I surfaced, taking a deep breath and feeling the rush of adrenaline starting to fade away.

Toward the end of our Tiger Shark drift a Zambezi Shark (AKA Bull Shark) joined in with the tempo and grace of the Tigers. And not long after that, the Whale Shark made an encore appearance. At this stage we had Black-Tips, Tigers, a Zambezi and a Whale Shark – all within a 30m radius of the marker buoy. An incredible experience in beautifully clear water – a dive of a lifetime!

South Africa 2009 Part 2 – 1 Day International between South Africa and Australia

Strong winds had been forecast and after an early briefing, during which the teams decided on a 4 hour competition, we launched at Rocky Bay. We had plans to dive some distant locations, but due to to shorter format and rough conditions, decided to dive a similar location to the one where Graham had sighted the Great White 2 days earlier.  This proved to be a good decision as the South African A team wasted time getting to a distant location and did not give themselves enough time to spear enough fish to win in the shorter duration competition.  The SAUFF team were not fairing much better.  They had elected to dive the deep Scottborough area closer inshore where we had been in the Interprovincial competition 2 days earlier.

We dived 4 spots without moving too far and spent a lot of time in the water, bringing in quality high point scoring fish at a steady rate most of the day, but did not land much during the last hour of the competition.  Rick left a reel gun in a cave after his spear was stuck and his reel jammed.  In hindsight we should have visited a 5th spot an hour before the end - instead we stayed on the fish we had at our 4th spot.

We had about 23 fish in the bag for the day and were not at all confident of our fortunes when we beached.  however it soon became apparent that the other teams had not done particularly well either.  A large Black Muscle Cracker speared by SA captain, James Lawson-Smith - the most prized fish and envy of all the spearos who had attended  the 4 days of competition diving!  A great fish worthy of recognition and for a moment I had a feeling of being done yet again.  Upon collecting my thoughts i noticed 3 crates of fish and recognised ours as the middle one - also the fish looked heavier and more numerous in that crate.  A moment later I looked up and the story in the expressions was told - we had won the day by an incredible stroke of fortune and some lucky decisions which went our way. 

James' fish stole the show on the final day, but we were happy to take the honours for our combined efforts, which included quality fish, amongst which were a Red Flush Cod, 2  large Rubberlip, Santer Englishman and Green Jobfish. Afterwards we attended a great prize giving dinner at the Shelly Beach Ski-boat Club.

While we all had our attention focussed on the weigh in, a thief walked off with Graham's dive bag - a gentle reminder that we need vigilance when travelling abroad.

We can't say enough to thank our hosts, the Hibiscus Underwater Club, their Chairman who also chairs the SAUFF, Brent Addison, his son Mark and the use of his facilities at Blue Wilderness in Rocky Bay, the Shelly Beach Ski-boat Club for the use of their facilities, Gyula Plaganyi for the use of his double cab ute, Ryan Hanson for the use of his boat, and so many others.

On behalf of the AUF and my fellow team members, Graham, Rick and Rob, I would like to extend our sincere thanks for a great time in South Africa.  We hope, that in the not too distant future, we can host a South African team on our shores

South Africa 2009 Part 1 – South African National Titles

The competition area, Southern KwaZulu/Natal, from Hibberdene to Port Edward, had also been proposed as the venue for the 28th CMAS World Titles in 2012.

This would be an opportunity for Australia to scout and acquire valuable information in the lead period to the 2012 World Titles.

Buoyed by the success of our friends at the Inter Pacific, Tony Heugh, Rick de Vries, Graham Carlisle and Rob Wills arrived in Durban, South Africa, early on 2 May.

Narooma

Travelled to Narooma for the Far South Coast Championships, my first time diving in the Narooma area.

On the trip down, the conditions were rough and a planned dive with Wilso around Bass Point was canned.

Gerry & I were diving with PC out of his boat, and Gerry bringing a boatie!



Unfortunately the comp was not held... but we still went spearing at Montague Island on both days.

Saturday was too rough to cross the Narooma bar, so we travelled to Bermagui and had a quick run up to Mystery Bay, and then out to Montague. Drifting the boulders on the Western edge, I shot a ~2kg Snapper. Between the three of us we had a few of the normal species, but no Boaries or Blue-Throats were seen.

Missed out on the two-up, and met up with Huffy and Dutchie at the pub.

Sunday was too windy! The bar was completely flat, but there was a wind warning and the organisers can't risk safety of the competitors by holding the comp... so we headed out and came back early before the big wind gusts (~40 knots) fired up after midday. Vis was down, but still good in places. Gerry and PC grabbed a couple of Abalone and Crays each, and I wandered off and found a lone Long-snout Boarfish.

Although I took all my camera gear, I lacked the motivation to drag it out on the water.... so only some phone-photos from the friday evening.

Tweed Coast

Looking at the forecast models, there was a short window of calm conditions for South Qld/North NSW. I organised a dive with Paul OS & Ryano out of Tweed Heads.



We found some clean water out on 9 Mile, and patchy water in at 5 Mile. The current was reasonably strong on both reefs, and made the drifts fairly quick.

9 Mile we saw plenty of sharks, cod, grouper and rays. A pair of Giant Trevally were around, and I had a chance to spear the bigger one :)



5 Mile turned up a few small Spanish Mackerel, and one big one. I managed to spear a smaller one (~7kg) at the end of a drift.

On the way back in, we checked Fido's , but the swell was breaking and the water was filthy!

Naturaliste Reef, Western Australia

After the Nationals competition proper had finished, we organised a friend of a friend to take use out to a well known fishing spot north of the Cape.



This video was shot on a FujiFilm F40fd, and edited in iMovie.