New Years Eve Dive
31st January 2003
Angus & I decided it was a good idea to end the year in style with a feed of fresh scallops and a search for a cray and try out his new launch for diving. I met Angus & Belinda at their holiday batch 45 minutes late after following some diabolical drivers (road rage!!!) and after a quick bite we ferried the dive gear, children & ourselves out to the launch and headed out to Angus’s new scallop spot. After discussing the merits of this spot and with uncertainty in my mind we anchored up with the intention of swimming back to the boat as Belinda was not yet familiar with the anchor retrieval system, esp. while having to look after James & Jessica at the same time.
We hit the bottom and sure enough no sand but a pebbly bottom. So I set the compass and off we swam & swam & swam & swam until finally we hit the sand and eventually scallops, and good size ones. Having used up quite a bit of air and conscious of a swim back to the launch we headed diagonally across the current filling our bags as we went. The viz was great at approx 10 metres and there were plenty of small eagle rays and leatherjackets about. With MOF now diligently policing the law about sizing scallops under the water rather than once you return to the boat, Angus diligently attempted to count, size, keep the correct heading and monitor his air. Myself I just used my eye and counted. Once I had reached 60 to allow for any undersize I advised Angus and motioned as to how many he had gathered – unfortunately he had completely lost count.
Changing course we headed back hopefully in the direction of the boat and Angus continued gathering as his catch bag was a lot emptier than mine. Very quickly after, Angus became very low on air and we had to surface - my navigational skills were excellent as we were heading straight for the launch, unfortunately we still had a long swim ahead of us. I still had enough air to have reached the boat under the water but Angus was way short so we struck out on what was to become our last (and probably first) fitness session for 2003! Twelve minutes later we reached the launch and clambered aboard. We sized and counted our catch – I had 5 undersize, we weighed the anchor and moved over to the scallop bed and returned the few undersize and extras back to the sea.
Our view of the underwater sizing law is very clear – and unprintable!! Not only is it a dangerous practice but it penalises divers who are collecting scallops with minimal damage to the rest of the seabed and life, compared to boaties who dredge up everything on the bottom, have no idea how many scallops they have until the dredge is pulled on board, and usually have to throw numerous back – many of which are damaged by the dredge and will not survive. Come on MOF – how about lobbying Govt to create a commonsense law for a change.
We picked up a few more passengers and went in search of the elusive crayfish. After a brief swim to a likely spot I managed to find a cave which looked promising. Entering I noticed movement to my right and swung the torch beam round to reveal some beauties but well out of reach of all bar those with arms of giraffe leg proportions. More movement to my left and some more of good size, I managed to grab a 3 1/2 pounder and silted the whole place up. With Angus watching from afar I emerged from the cave, spent the safety stop amongst numerous butterfish and presented the cray to those on board the launch. So we had tea for New Years Eve and lunch for New Years Day. A great way to end the year! Hope you all had a safe and happy New Year. Lets be careful underwater this year, there have been too many diving tragedies of late. All the best for 2004.
Cheers John H
