Scuba Diver ANZ #27

MELBOURNE MAGIC

TALKING SHARKS

TEST EXTRA SPECIAL

NIGEL MARSH DIVES THE PIERS AROUND PORT PHILLIP BAY

INFORMATIVE QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GREAT WHITE EXPERT ANDREW FOX

RETRA FLASH PRO AND DIVE RITE XT FINS RATED AND REVIEWED

Dive into

PNG Don Silcock waxes lyrical about Papua New Guinea’s underwater delights

EXPLORING NEW ZEALAND’S POOR KNIGHT ISLANDS

+

UW photography

‣ Pete Mesley Q&A, pt II ‣ Sabah, Borneo

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CAIRNS

WHY DIVE ANYWHERE ELSE... ...when the best diving is at your doorstep

GATEWAY TO THE

GREAT BARRIER REEF

• Just a few hours from any major Australian airport • World’s greatest biodiversity • Globally celebrated liveaboards • Highest quality day boats • Best place to do your diver training • Iconic shipwrecks

www.dive-queensland.com.au /divequeensland

@DiveQueensland

#divequeensland

EDITOR’S NOTE DIVE IN TO SCUBA DIVER AND BE INSPIRED

Times are changing, and to keep the magazine free, we’re asking dive stores to cover their own postage costs. If you enjoy reading the magazine, think about helping out your centre with a small donation to help cover their costs.

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Mark Evans Email: mark.evans@scubadivermag.com

DESIGN & PRODUCTION MANAGER Matt Griffiths Email: matt@scubadivermag.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Over the coming months, Don Silcock will be taking us on a journey through culturally diverse Papua New Guinea, a country blessed with some of the world’s best diving.

Also, we will be focusing on this fantastic destination on the Scuba Diver website, with regular instalments on the best places to dive, along with insights to their unique culture, interesting history and much more.

The Scuba Diver ANZ website (scubadivermag.com.au) will also play host to monthly blogs from some of our regular contributors, award-winning photographers and film-makers. Mike Bartick will be posting his Blackwater World blog, giving hints and tips on blackwater photography and sharing some of his amazing images.

There will be a Photography Masterclass with Nicolas and Lena Remy, who are going to be sharing suggestions on a wide range of photographic techniques in their regular segment. Chelsea Haebich is keen to share her experiences of diving in South Australia - Chelsea will be bringing you stunning images in her blog titled Great Southern Reef Adventure. Marcelo Johan Ogata, AKA Bug Dreamer, will be sharing some of his mesmerising short films from his breathtaking experiences in Indonesia.

This issue, we continue on our state-by-state diving journey through Australia, this time Port Philip Bay in Victoria. Like South Australia a lot of diving is conducted around the numerous jetties that inhabit along the shoreline. These fairly innocuous structures are a haven for marine life, as Nigel Marsh found out.

Also in this issue, we look at the diving delights of the Poor Knights in New Zealand, the lesser-known dive sites of Borneo, and there are not one, but two, Q&As - Andrew Fox, from Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions, talking about great white sharks, conservation and much more, and the second instalment from tech guru Pete Melsey.

Adrian Stacey, Editor-at-Large (Australia and New Zealand)

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTHEAST ASIA TEAM

Adrian Stacey Editor-at-Large (Australia and New Zealand) Tel: +61 422 611 238 Email: adrian@scubadivermag.com

Mario Vitalini, Pete Mesley, Don Silcock, Nigel Marsh, Jamie Lee Thorpe.

Paul Lees Editorial Manager (Southeast Asia) Email: paul@scubadivermag.com

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PUBLISHERS

Rork Media ANZ Pty Ltd 193 Latrobe Terrace, PADDINGTON, QLD 4064 Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the publishers. Copyright for material published remains with Rork Media Limited. Use of material from Scuba Diver is strictly prohibited unless permission is given. All advertisements of which the creative content is in whole or in part the work of Rork Media Limited remain the copyright of Rork Media Limited.

is a registered trademark of Rork Media. ISSN 2515-9593

3

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MELBOURNE MAGIC

TALKING SHARKS

TEST EXTRA SPECIAL

NIGEL MARSH DIVES THE PIERS AROUND PORT PHILLIP BAY

INFORMATIVE QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GREAT WHITE EXPERT ANDREW FOX

RETRA FLASH PRO AND DIVE RITE XT FINS RATED AND REVIEWED

ON THE COVER

Dive into

PNG Don Silcock waxes lyrical about Papua New Guinea’s underwater delights

EXPLORING NEW ZEALAND’S POOR KNIGHT ISLANDS

+

NEER ER

UW photography

‣ Pete Mesley Q&A, pt II ‣ Sabah, Borneo

#27 | $1 DONATION

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IMAGE COURTESY OF: DON SILCOCK

REGULAR COLUMNS

FEATURES...

8 News

18 Australia

640,000 more baby turtles on the Great Barrier Reef thanks to the Raine Island Recovery Project, projects to improve water quality flowing on to the GBR, tragic stranding of hundreds of pilot whales in Tasmania, first Gold Coast shark attack fatality in 60 years, a new type of recyclable plastic, a whale lost 23km up a river, and how seaweed can help with the laundry.

16 Medical Q&A

The experts at Divers Alert Network Asia-Pacific discuss oxygen administration, and how to deal with bristleworms.

66 Conservation Corner

Conservation projects in and around Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia - this issue, the Great Reef Census.

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Acclaimed underwater photographer extols the virtues of the diving opportunities under and around the piers in Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay, habitats which are rich in marine life and can turn up some unexpected encounters both large and small.

24 Papua New Guinea

Well-travelled photo-journalist Don Silock provides an insider’s guide to Papua New Guinea. He is well-placed to deliver this introduction to PNG - which at the closest point of contact is just 6km from Australia - as he has visited the wild and exotic country many times over the years.

30 Q&A: Andrew Fox

We chat to Andrew Fox, who discusses the conservation and education work carried out by Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions, explains his uncanny ability to identify different sharks, and talks about the divisive subject of cage diving.

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CONTENTS

...CONTINUED

GEAR GUIDE

34 New Zealand

54 What’s New

Jamie Lee Thorpe and Simon Collins showcase just some of the many reasons that the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve is revered as one of the best diving locations in the entire country.

40 Underwater Photography

Underwater photography guru Mario Vitalini considers what the worldwide COVID-19 lockdown has done in terms of giving marine life and coral reefs a much-needed ‘break’.

44 Borneo

We explore the waters of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park in Sabah, Borneo, which is handily located close to the capital of Kota Kinabalu.

50 TECH: Q&A with Pete Mesley

Part two of our Q&A, in which we talk to Pete Mesley, a hugely charismatic figure on the international diving scene, who has carved a niche for himself in the world of tech diving and expeditions, both to world-class wrecks, and destinations famed for big-animal encounters.

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Round-up of new products, including the Mares Ultraskin exposure protection range, the Fourth Element OceanPositive Hydroskin rash guard collection, dive guides from Dive-Logs which can be taken underwater, and the Corsair BCD and Osprey F400 regulator from Ocean Pro (Australian Underwater Products).

56 Test Extra

This issue have a selection of Test Extras from Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans, Editor-at-Large (US and Canada) Walt Stearns and photograqpher Nicolas Remy, focusing on the Santi Diving Flex 2.0 heated undersuit and gloves, the Dive Rite XT fins, and the innovative Retra Flash Pro.

7

Each month, we bring together the latest industry news from the Asia-Pacific region, as well as all over our water planet. To find out the most up-to-date news and views, check out the website or follow us on our various social media (@scubadivermag) www.scubadivermag.com.au

MORE BABY TURTLES ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

Thanks to the Raine Island Recovery Project, the globally endangered green turtle is now fighting back PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREAT BARRIER REEF FOUNDATION AND RAINE ISLAND RECOVERY PROJECT

S

ince the project’s inception five years ago, led by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and its partners, it has delivered 640,000 turtle hatchlings to the reef, in addition to saving more than 600 turtle mothers. Millions more hatchlings are expected to emerge over the next decade thanks to the project’s efforts.

Some 90 percent of the reef’s entire northern green turtle population comes from Raine Island, a vegetated coral cay approximately 620km northwest of Cairns. The population was steadily declining due to nests being flooded, eggs drowning and fewer hatchlings surviving the harsh tides. In response to this concerning decline, the project has: • Delivered 640,000 extra turtle hatchlings to the reef.

• Saved 696 turtle mothers.

• Doubled the nesting area at the world’s largest green turtle nursery.

• Installed 1,750 metres of protective fencing.

• Moved 40,000m3 (equivalent to 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools) of sand to raise the nesting beaches.

• Doubled the nesting area above tidal inundation from 35,000m2 to 70,000m2.

• Flipper-tagged around 8,000 turtles and satellite-tagged 45 adult female turtles, providing vital intelligence about their movements and behaviours to help protect the species.

The Raine Island Recovery Project was the first large-scale adaptive management project on the reef. Brought together by the traditional owners of Raine Island - Wuthathi Nation

8

and Meriam Nation (Ugar, Mer, Erub) - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and BHP, it ensures a stable future for the reef’s green turtles and the island’s vital ecosystem.

Anna Marsden, Great Barrier Reef Foundation Managing Director, said: “Nowhere on the planet do more green turtles come to nest than Raine Island, which is why it’s so important for us to do everything we can to ensure a future for these animals. “This is a world-first conservation programme that’s saving our endangered turtles and restoring an incredibly important ecosystem.

“Working with our project partners including the Wuthathi Nation and Meriam Nation (Ugar, Mer, Erub) traditional

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owners, we’ve achieved a remarkable turnaround in the green turtle population.”

Traditional owners travel to the island regularly to represent their people and support the teams carrying out sand testing, sand movement, turtle monitoring and satellite tracking. They instruct new teams through the turtle monitoring process and lead a lot of the special fencing, which has been used to prevent turtle deaths from cliff falls on the island.

Peter Wallis, a representative of the Wuthathi Nation traditional owners of Raine Island: “My Grandmothers and Grandfathers, and many before them, used to go to this place, and for us, growing up in this modern world, it is pretty hard to get back to our history, so Raine Island is very important to us.

“By being directly involved in the project and travelling to the island with the scientists, it gives our people a better understanding of how to best look after the island through science. As an indigenous nation, our involvement helps us learn from the scientists, but it is good for them too, to learn from the traditional owners.

“I think they get a better understanding of our respect for the country and that we are all the same. There is no black or white, it is just about respect for the land and respect for others, which is how we have been brought up.”

Jimmy Passi, a representative of the Meriam Nation (Ugar, Mer, Erub) traditional owners, said: “I grew up with land and sea back home, so it feels natural to visit here, but then we also use all the technology here so it is an awesome experience.

“I don’t think there is any pressure because for us, it is like going home. Don’t get me wrong, representing my people is really big, because it can help keep our history alive. I really enjoy it and when I go home and tell my stories about the work and the island, it is having the effect of making other people in my community, younger ones, want to get involved too.”

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10

FRESHWATER QUALITY INNOVATIONS HELP GREAT BARRIER REEF Twenty-two fresh innovative solutions will create a step change in water quality improvement and support enduring impact at a scale never seen before, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation has announced. These projects have been chosen as part of the Foundation’s $10 million Innovation and Systems Change Programme, which sought out of the box solutions to work with farmers to improve the quality of water flowing to the reef. The great Barrier Reef Foundation Managing Director Anna Marsden said: “The Great Barrier Reef is an irreplaceable ecosystem, home to thousands of species of marine life but our Reef and its marine life are facing a growing combination of threats.

“We’re already seeing the effects of poorer water quality from sediment and pollutant run-off such as coral and seagrass being smothered, marine life being affected by the pollutants and more crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, and without help the outlook is bleak.

“Queensland’s farmers and agricultural community are already undertaking a high calibre of work to safeguard the future of the Reef.

“We’re proud to pioneer technologies, systems and financing options that will further support the future of the agricultural industry and of our Reef as well as help to reach the targets set out by the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan.

“These innovations will not only improve the quality of the Reef’s waters and conditions for the precious corals, they will also help to save our endangered turtles and dugongs that feed on the seagrass beds that need clean water to thrive.”

These innovative solutions include: • An artificial intelligence robot that can detect and spray weeds, reducing the amount of herbicides used on sugarcane farms by at least 80 percent.

• Using drones to map to scatter tree seeds at a large scale in riparian and wetland areas that are often dangerous and hard to reach due to threats such as crocodiles.

• Eliminating the biggest barrier to farm ownership for next generations (access to capital and land) by matching aspiring next generation farmers with those looking to retire from the land, whilst brokering improved management practises which will result in improved water quality outcomes as part of the transition arrangements.

• World-first insurance – prototype nitrogen insurance – that creates a safety net for farmers using sustainable practices by helping farmers manage the risk of reduced yields from reduced fertiliser application.

• Establishing a globally significant investment fund with a goal of market capitalization of one billion dollars, with a view to investing in agriculture in the Reef catchments to both produce a return on investment as well as achieve significant environmental improvements on those properties.

These projects will add to the more than 60 reef-saving projects the Great Barrier Reef Foundation are delivering right now with over 65 project delivery partners. www.barrierreef.org

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MASS STRANDING TRAGEDY LEAVES OVER 370 PILOT WHALES DEAD Tragedy struck the west coast of Tasmania in September with the mass stranding of over 470 pilot whales. Believed to be the third-largest such event on record, over 370 of the unfortunate creatures perished.

Although the exact cause of the mass stranding is not known, one theory is that the pod of pilot whales was hunting for fish too close to the shore and became disoriented. Pilot whale usually travel together in pods of around 20-30 members but can sometimes form super pods of up to 1,000 mammals. They are very social animals, and it is thought this could be the reason so many were stranded.

Once a few found themselves in trouble, they could have sent out a distress call which caused more and more whales to venture into this treacherous area.

A local marine scientist said: “Unfortunately, they do have a very strong social system, and these animals are very closely bonded. And that’s why we have seen so many in this case unfortunately end up in this situation.”

Macquarie Bay is a well-known stranding hotspot. The tide moves in and out of this natural harbour very quickly, and shallow sloping sandbanks make using the sonar that the pilot whales use to navigate very difficult.

A team of about 60 people used slings and other equipment to help pull the surviving whales off the sandbanks, so they were fully immersed in water.

Once the whales were refloated, they were guided back into deeper waters.

Rescuers said they had escorted 70 whales back into the sea, which they deemed a ‘success’.

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NEW MATERIAL REVOLUTIONISES RECYCLED PLASTIC Hope for the environment as scientists develop a new plastic material that can be recycled repeatedly without losing quality.

Of the 350 tons of plastic produced each year, only some 20 percent is recycled. One reason for this is that not all plastic is that easy to recycle, and even when it is, the process involved degrades it, which means it can only be remoulded into lower-quality, less in-demand items, such as carpet fibre. However, scientists from Colorado State University have developed a material called PBTL, which maintains all of its original qualities even after being recycled. According to them, when the PBTL is heated to 100 degrees C for 24 hours, in the presence of a chemical catalyst, it breaks down into its original ‘building blocks’ – molecular units known as bicyclic thiolactones – which can then be reassembled into new high-quality PBTL. The downside? PBTL cannot be recycled with other plastics, which could cause issues at recycling plants, unless it is widely adopted and used by manufacturers.

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FIRST GOLD COAST SHARK ATTACK FATALITY IN OVER 60 YEARS The Gold Coast recorded its first shark attack fatality in over 60 years at the beginning of September.

Local estate agent Nick Slater had been surfing at a popular beach in Coolangatta when what is believed to be a great white bit his leg. Nearby surfers found him floating in shallow water next to his board. He was rushed to shore and given first aid but died at the scene. Jade Parker, one of the surfers who tried to save Mr Salter, said: “I saw his board floating in the water and his body next to it, basically lifeless, I originally thought he’d been knocked out by his board. I never thought it was going to be a shark attack, especially here. There were baitfish swimming through the water near where was found, the whole idea that the shark was trying to single him out is not realistic, Obviously the shark was here for the school of fish.

“When we got to the beach, we noticed Mr Slater’s surfboard had a bite mark on it. It was probably about the same circumference as a basketball… and there was a tooth still lodged in the fibreglass, which I had to remove. It was an obvious white pointer tooth.”

WHALE CARCASS ATTRACTS LARGE SHARKS A dead whale attracted the attention of several large sharks at Bulli Beach, Illawarra, in mid-September. The whale, believed to be a juvenile humpback, had been floating in the ocean about 150 metres offshore when it was noticed and mistaken for a capsized boat. The spectacle attracted many onlookers and photographers, eager to witness the sharks feeding.

One particularly large shark, estimated to around four to five metres long and believed to be a great white, even had a nibble on the outboard motor of a small fishing boat, Anthony Turner from Surf Lifesaving Illawarra said: “It was actually quite spectacular to watch, nature at its best.”

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13

NEW ZEALAND ‘TRAVEL BUBBLE’ A POSITIVE SIGN FOR THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY New Zealanders have been granted access to Australia in the first opening of international borders by either nation since COVID-19 restrictions were imposed.

From 16 October, New Zealanders are able to travel to New South Wales and the Northern territory. The ACT is also part of the scheme.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said: “This allows New Zealanders and other residents in New Zealand who have not been in an area designated as a COVID-19 hotspot in New Zealand in the preceding 14 days to travel quarantine-free to Australia.”

Australia defines a hotpot as any area with at least three local infections per day across a three-day rolling average.

New Zealand’s most-recent locally acquired case was reported on 21 August and are considered to pose a low risk of COVID-19 transmission as they currently have no hotspots.

Australia’s Northern Territory had not recorded any infections in two months. New South Wales had not seen a locally transmitted case for a few weeks.

Mr McCormack added: “This is the first stage in what we hope to see as a trans-Tasman bubble between the two countries, stopping not just at that state and that territory.

“At first, travel will be limited to New Zealanders. We want to open up Australia to the world. This is the first part of it.

We want to make sure that we get as many Australians home, we want to make sure that we get as many visitors.”

Mr McCormack concluded: “The travel bubble as it stands only includes New Zealand, but other countries could be included. I know Foreign Minister Marise Payne is working

with many of our Pacific island friends at the moment.”

Asked when New Zealand might allow Australians to visit, Mr McCormack said that decision was up to the New Zealand government.

He said: “It’s very much in Prime Minister Ardern’s court at the moment. We want to make sure that there is two-way travel, and that would be something that I will leave to those negotiations between the two Prime Ministers.”

In further good news regarding international travel, from 8 October, Singapore lifted border restrictions to Australians, while closer to home, Queensland and New South Wales have eased border restrictions between the two states, with plans to fully re-open from 1 November.

HUMPBACK WHALE VENTURES INTO KAKADU NATIONAL PARK A humpback whale lost its way and ended up some 20km upstream in the Northern Territory’s Kakadu National Park, but thankfully, it managed to find its way out of the river, which is inhabited by crocodiles, and back into the ocean.

The whale entered the river with two other whales, but while they soon found their way back to the open ocean, the lone individual ventured further up the river, and there was concern it would end up in shallow water and ground itself.

When it was seen 20km upriver, it was the first time in recorded history that humpbacks had been seen that far into Kakadu.

There was immense relief when the experts who were tracking the lost humpback whale spotted the creature, dubbed The Kakadu Humpback, 9km off the Van Diemen Gulf.

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BLUE WHALE SPOTTED OFF SYDNEY

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A huge blue whale has been sighted off Sydney – only the third time in some 100 years that one has been seen.

The gigantic mammal, estimated to be more than 25 metres long and weighing more than 100 tons, was seen in the waters off Maroubra last month.

According to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), it is an extremely rare sighting as the massive animals do not normally come so close to shore. NPWS Project Officer Andrew Marshall commented: “The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet, yet it could have easily slipped by Sydney’s coast unnoticed.

“They are not often seen because they tend to live very far out at sea, their populations are widely dispersed, and we have very limited data regarding migration and critical habitat.”

He concluded: “We have unofficial records of blue whales off Sydney from observers at Cape Solander in 2002 and 2013, but this recent sighting is the first verified record of this species off our coast.”

WASH LAUNDRY AT LOWER TEMPERATURES – WITH SEAWEED Scientists have discovered an enzyme made by bacteria living on seaweed that can be used to help wash laundry at lower temperatures.

The research team from Newcastle University were looking into cleaning the hulls of ships when they discovered that the seaweed kept itself clean using an enzyme called phosphodiesterase. Working with Procter & Gamble, they found that by adding these enzymes into detergent, it would do a thorough wash but at a lower temperature. Another added bonus of washing at cooler temperatures is that it could also reduce the amount of microfibres that enter the water supply.

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The Divers Alert Network (DAN) is the diving industry’s largest association dedicated to scuba-diving safety. Serving divers for more than 30 years, DAN provides emergency assistance, medical information sources, educational opportunities and more. www.danap.org

FROM THE DAN MEDICAL LINE DAN medical information specialists and researchers answer your dive medicine questions.

ADMINISTERING OXYGEN (O2)

Q: When administering O2 to someone who may be suffering from DCI, and is fully conscious, there appears to be conflict about whether the person receiving the O2 should be laying down, or just be allowed to be made comfortable and allowed to sit down. What’s the general opinion? What is the correct / preferred recovery position for divers suffering DCI? DAN: The best position depends on the circumstances. If a diver has neurological signs and symptoms (e.g. severe headache, visual problems, impaired consciousness, weakness, etc) within say 60 minutes (typically within 20-30 minutes) of surfacing, we would be concerned about the possibility of inert gas bubbles in the arterial blood (i.e. arterial gas embolism) and the diver should be laid flat to reduce the chances of bubbles rising to their head and impairing circulation to the brain. If the diver is unconscious or nauseated, they should be placed on their side to protect the airway.

If a diver is conscious and has difficulty breathing, they may be more comfortable sitting or semi-reclined, although if they also have neurological signs/symptoms, it would be better for them to lie down if possible for the reason given above. In situations other than those described above, the diver can be managed in a position of comfort.

BRISTLEWORMS

Q: A bristleworm startled me by climbing onto my hand while I was taking a photo. Should I be concerned?

DAN: Bristleworms are spread widely throughout the world with species in all oceans. They are usually quite colourful and appear to many observers as a kind of caterpillar of the sea. Their length ranges from a few millimeters to around 15cm. Symptoms of contact with a bristleworm may include itching, inflammation, redness, burning and numbness. Treatment is symptomatic, which means its aim should be to directly address whatever symptoms occur. Adhesive tape can help remove any bristles that remain on the skin. Clean the affected area with soap and water and keep it dry. Over-the-counter antibiotic salves and antiinflammatory creams are commonly used remedies. Should you develop and blisters do not puncture them. Just let them dry out.

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN DAN’S COVID-19 STUDY

DAN is looking for divers and freedivers who have recovered from a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection for a long-term study on the effects of COVID-19 on diver’s health and fitness to dive.

If you have been infected with COVID-19, are recovering or have fully recovered, and are planning to return or have already returned to diving, please consider signing up for our study. In 15-20 minutes you can easily complete this initial survey and then over the next five years you will be contacted periodically by DAN to follow-up on your diving career and any possible medical issues: www.research.net/r/DANcovidstudy

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elbourne has some of the keenest divers in Australia. Each weekend (no matter how cold, wet or miserable the Melbourne weather gets) sees hundreds of local divers heading out on boats to explore spectacular shipwrecks and very colourful temperate rocky reefs.

But many more divers can be found shore diving in Port Phillip Bay, exploring Melbourne’s brilliant piers.

Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay is one of the most-unique bays in the world. The bay contains a massive body of water that funnels through a very small mouth, known as ‘The Rip’, which has claimed numerous ships. This huge movement of water in and out of the bay creates very strong currents and allows a rich mixture of marine life to thrive, most of which is endemic to southern Australia.

Port Phillip Bay is dotted with piers all around its length, but the best ones to dive are found on the Mornington Peninsula, about an hour and a half drive from Melbourne city.

MORNINGTON PIER

The closest to Melbourne is Mornington Pier, which is sometimes an average day dive, but transforms into ‘Cephalopod City’ by night. A two-metre jump into the water is a spectacular start to this dive, and being only 7m deep allows for a long bottom time to drift between the colourful pylons.

Slowly exploring the pylons and the debris on the bottom, divers will typically encounter rock shrimps, globefish, goatfish, cardinalfish, leatherjackets, scorpionfish, blennies and stinkfish. A close inspection of the pylons will also reveal a cute little fish that the locals call a dragonet, but it is actually a member of the thornfish family, the horny thornfish (Bovichtus angustifrons).

This little fish has a pretty marble pattern and very expressive eyes that make it a great photographic subject.

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Nigel Marsh extols the virtues of the diving opportunities under and around the piers in Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay PHOTOGRAPHS BY NIGEL MARSH WWW.NIGELMARSHPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

A two-metre jump into the water is a spectacular start to this dive, and being only 7m deep allows for a long bottom time to drift between the colourful pylons WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM.AU

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Octopus hiding in a discarded drinks can

Big-belly seahorse Spider crab on the march

Big-belly seahorses, the largest seahorse species in the world, are also common at Mornington Pier. These wonderful creatures cling to the seaweeds, ropes and other debris with their prehensive tails. Under Mornington Pier divers will also find a huge variety of sea stars. These abundant members of the echinoderm family are a feature of Melbourne diving, with southern stars and magnificent stars seen in their hundreds in a wonderful range of colours.

As mentioned earlier, Mornington Pier is best known for its cephalopods, and it rarely disappoints. Most divers head to the famous muck sites of Southeast Asia to see a wide variety of cephalopods, but the greatest variety of these intelligent molluscs are found in the cool waters of southern Australia. On a typical night dive you will see large Maori octopus, southern calamari squid and even the occasional giant cuttlefish.

However, the most-common octopus found at this site is the highly venomous southern blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena maculosa). They may be potentially dangerous, but they pose little threat to divers if treated with respect. Simply watch and photograph them as they stroll across the bottom looking for prey. Another unique octopus found under the pier is the rare southern white-spot octopus (Callistoctopus bunurong). These orange-coloured octopus live in the sand and emerge at night to feed, but quickly sink back into the sand if disturbed.

RYE PIER

Heading south the next great pier pleasure is Rye Pier. The clean sandy bottom around Rye Pier is often a good place to see small sparsely-spotted stingarees, much larger smooth stingrays and rare Australian angel sharks. Going no deeper than 5m you will have a lot of fun exploring the colourful sponge-encrusted pylons at Rye.

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Big-belly seahorses are particularly common, and on some dives I have found a dozen or more. Crabs, shrimps, nudibranchs and sea stars are also encountered in large numbers. Abundant fish reside under the pier, including flatheads, leatherjackets, morwongs and wrasse, which often attracts the attention of shags. It is quite a sight watching a sea bird swimming underwater between the pylons looking for a meal.

Occasionally Australian fur seals visit Rye Pier to hunt fish and cephalopods. On one dive I was joined by a juvenile fur seal that had decided that the pier made a good resting place.

The curious creature would join divers to see what they were doing. It was particularly fascinated by my camera housing dome, probably because it could see its own reflection, and we spent quite some-time simply staring at each other.

Rye Pier is also an excellent night dive. It doesn’t get as many cephalopods as Mornington Pier, but you will still see the occasional octopus or cuttlefish, and if lucky maybe a southern dumpling squid (Euprymna tasmanica). This small member of the bobtail squid family lives in the sand by day and emerges at night to feed. I think one of the reasons that few cephalopods are found here is because of predators

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Ornate boxfish

Ray relaxing on the seabed

Frogfish, master of disguise

feeding on them. On one memorable night dive at Rye Pier I encountered a large Australian fur seal zooming between the pylons that gave me quite a fright. However, I got even more of a fright several minutes later when a huge bottlenose dolphin swam by in the darkness.

PORTSEA PIER

The most-distant pier from Melbourne is at Portsea and its unique attraction are weedy sea dragons. A nearby kelpcovered reef is the best place to encounter the dragons, but they are also common under the pier. These dragons are not as colourful as their cousins in New South Wales and Tasmania, but they are still a joy to dive with. Going no deeper than 6m, divers will also find magpie morwong, a variety of leatherjackets, sea stars, hermit crabs, nudibranchs and brittle stars. Portsea Pier is also a good place to find elusive weedfish, large Maori octopus and the resident smooth stingray is also likely to circle you a few times.

Portsea Pier is visited by some very strange endemic fish species that are well worth looking for. Hidden among the old pylons and other debris under the pier are two species

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Marine growth smothers the pylons

MELBOURNE’S SPIDER CRAB MIGRATION A spectacular wildlife event occurs each year in Port Phillip Bay when thousands of giant spider crabs (Leptomithrax gaimardii) invade the bay, often near popular pier diving sites. The crabs walk in from the deep waters of Bass Strait, between the months of March and July, and form into giant mounds in order to moult. By grouping together during this vulnerable time, before their new exo-skeleton hardens, they overwhelm predators with their numbers. But smooth stingrays still make a meal out of them, as do an increasing number of fishers. Calls to protect the spider crabs during the moulting season have so far fallen on deaf ears, with the Victorian Fisheries Authority refusing to control fishing. A number of environment groups are continuing the fight to protect this very unique marine event. Visit the Spider Crab Alliance on Facebook for the latest news.

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Great tuition from beginner through to instructor training for family groups, small groups and one-to-one training. We are a PADI 5-Star IDC centre and offer 18 PADI Specialty course options on our Master Scuba Diver program.

Make an appointment for our personal fitting service, great for anyone wanting to get kitted out with scuba. We specialise in divers under 55kg and over 100kg with options to make you comfortable under water. 40 unique brands to choose from, we fit divers of all sizes.

02 96891389

Based in Huskisson, Jervis Bay on the South Coast of NSW and only 2.5hrs south of Sydney. We have a diverse marine environment that can be utilised all year around. With 2 dive boats, on site accommodation on the main street of Huskisson and over 50 dive sites we can meet all your diving needs. With everything you need to get started in diving or for that next dive adventure, we’re ready to get salty and show you what’s in our backyard.

BOAT DIVING

DIVE WITH SEALS

LEARN TO DIVE!

Take a tour through the pristine underwater environment of the Jervis Bay Marine Park.

Explore the underwater landscape at one of our two permanent seal colonies.

A unique experience.

If you’ve always wanted to become a diver, this is where it starts... The PADI Open Water Diver course.

judith@scubawarehouse.com.au

www.scubawarehouse.com.au 1/50 George Street Clyde, Sydney, NSW 2124

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Nigel Marsh is an Australian photojournalist, underwater photographer and author. Working with New Holland publishers, Nigel has produced a number of guide books for divers and snorkelers, and also a series of children’s books with marine related themes.

05/10/2020 13:25

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P: 08 8682 1656 • M: 0434 542476 info@wolfair.com.au • www.wolfair.com.au PO Box 1855, 4 South Quay Boulevard, Port Lincoln SA 5606

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of frogfish. Australia’s temperate waters are home to a great variety of frogfish, but they are much more cryptic than their tropical cousins. Both the white-spotted frogfish (Phyllophryne scortea) and prickly frogfish (Echinophryne crassispina) are found at Portsea Pier, but they tend to hide so are very difficult to find. Another unique fish to look for is the goblinfish (Glyptauchen panduratus). This strange member of the scorpionfish family has a square head, a humpback and blood-red eyes.

BLAIRGOWRIE PIER

Halfway between Portsea and Rye is Melbourne’s newest pier and hottest dive site, Blairgowrie Pier. This pier was only constructed 20 years ago, but has become a magnet for marine life and divers. Its pylons are completely encrusted with colourful sponges, ascidians, algae and kelp, and home to shrimps, crabs, sea stars, tube worms, scallops and nudibranchs.

Blairgowrie Pier is another good spot to find big-belly seahorses. But in the seaweed around the pier divers can also find a much smaller relative, the pretty short-head seahorse (Hippocampus breviceps). Another close cousin can also be found resting on the bottom, the very strange looking ringback pipefish (Stipecampus cristatus). These pipefish have a blunt head and, looking like a stick, are easily overlooked.

The fish life in and around the pier is brilliant leatherjackets, wrasse, zebrafish, trevally, yellowtail, globefish and even kingfish. This pier is often washed by a cross current, one of the reasons for a large variety of fish life. One of my favourite residents are the ornate cowfish, not only are they colourful but have the cutest face, with lips that look like they are always puckered for kissing.

Rays are particularly common at Blairgowrie Pier, with smooth stingrays, sparsely-spotted stingarees, spotted stingarees and southern fiddler rays seen on most dives.

But this pier is also one of the few spots where divers might encounter the Australian thornback skate (Dentiraja lemprieri).

A good variety of skates are found around Australia, but most

Myriad colours coat the reefs

live in deep water, with the Australian thornback skate one of the only species that venture into the shallows.

All of Melbourne’s piers are great muck sites, home to an array of weird and wonderful critters, but Blairgowrie Pier seems to have the highest concentration of these critters.

Commonly seen are dragonets, giant cuttlefish, common stargazers and giant spider crabs. A good range of octopus are found here, including southern blue-ringed octopus and southern keeled octopus, many of which inhabit the bottles and cans tossed into the water by fishers. At night southern sand octopus emerge from the sand and southern calamari squid dance around in your torch light.

Two of the most-unique critters found at Blairgowrie Pier are the southern velvetfish (Aploactisoma milesii) and the tasselled frogfish (Rhycherus filamentosus). Southern velvetfish rest on the bottom and are easily overlooked with their camouflaged skin. Even harder to find are the tasselled frogfish. These incredible-looking fish are covered in weedy filaments that look exactly like the weeds that grow on the pylons, so locating an eye is often the only way to spot them.

CONCLUSION

Fun with a fur seal

Melbourne’s piers can be dived year-round and are diveable under most weather conditions. Summer and autumn are generally the best time to dive these piers, not only because the water is warmer, but also the warmer temperature sees an influx of marine life. Water temperature in Port Phillip Bay varies from 20°C degrees to a chilly 8°C degrees, while the visibility averages six metres to ten metres, but can be over 15 metres at times. Diving Melbourne’s piers is a memorable experience where you will encounter a wonderful variety of rare and unique Aussie critters. n

MELBOURNE’S WONDERFUL WRECKS AND REEFS

In and around Port Phillip Bay are hundreds of wonderful boat diving sites where divers can explore shipwrecks and colourful temperate reefs. Outside the heads is the ships graveyard, the dumping ground for dozens of ships over the years. The most famous of the wrecks are the J-class submarines from World War One, but there are also old steamships and the most recent addition was the navy frigate HMAS Canberra. Offshore reefs, like Castle Rock, Boarfish Reef and Corsair Rock, are covered in sponges and kelp, and a great place to see temperate fish like blue devilfish, boarfish, Port Jackson sharks and even fur seals. However, the richest reefs, that are densely covered in colourful sponges, are found in ‘The Rip’ area and include Lonsdale Wall, Sanctum Reef and The Steps.

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he country that we call Papua New Guinea came into being in September 1975 when it gained independence from Australia, which had administered the former colonies of British and German New Guinea since the end of World War One. In retrospect, it was a rushed and flawed transition from a colonial administration to a Westminster system of government, and many of the current problems PNG faces can be traced back to it. The basic issue is the patchwork quilt of tribes and clans that form PNG, together with the principle of ‘Wantok’, where a person’s primary loyalty and allegiance is to those who speak the same language or dialect (‘one talk’…).

It’s a complex thing, in what is said to be one of the world’s most-heterogeneous countries – PNG has a population of around 7.8 million people, but over 850 languages, together with nearly 1,000 traditional societies and ethnic indigenous groups! PNG consists of the eastern half of the huge island of New Guinea, plus, the Bismark and Louisade archipelagos, the Admiralty Islands, Bougainville Island and numerous other smaller islands in the Bismarck and Solomon Seas. Physically, it is the world’s 54th largest country and the third largest island country.

PNG is located on the southern rim of the infamous Pacific Ring of Fire and it is volcanic activity that has created the amazing topography of the country, with massive, almostimpenetrable mountain ranges covered in dense rainforest dominating both New Guinea and New Britain islands.

While the coastal areas bask in the rich currents of the Indo-Pacific creating superb reefs and ecosystems, many of the remoter islands offer stunning locations that are almost once-in-a-lifetime experiences!

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FIRST CONTACT

When the first European explorers surveyed New Guinea island (the second largest in the world) in the 16th century, they saw the mountain range that runs down the spine of the island and assumed nobody lived up there. What they, and all that came after them, did not realise was that the mountains they saw from the south coast were not the same as the ones seen from the north!

In reality, there is a large rift valley (which those mountains form the sides of) inhabited by numerous tribes, living a village-based subsistence lifestyle and engaged in an evershifting series of conflicts. Most of the tribes had their own language or dialect, and were largely isolated from each other because of those conflicts. Incredibly, ‘first contact’ with the outside world did not happen until 1932, when an Australian prospector called Michael Leahy, from rural Queensland, entered the rift valley looking for gold!

Even more incredibly, given the year, Leahy owned a Leica camera and took an extensive series of photographs. Hence a unique visual record into an amazing series of events was established, and Leahy also fully documented his experiences on the expedition in a daily journal. Those languages and dialects, together with the long history of inter-tribal conflict, are the basis for the ‘Wantok’ system…

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An intro to an amazing country!

At the closest point of contact, just 6km separates Australia from Papua New Guinea, and yet there is so much that is different between these two close neighbours, as Don Silock explains!

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DON SILCOCK

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tion Resort

Walindi Planta

NEED TO R U O Y H C T CA ?

H T A E R B EMOTE R E H T R O F H C A RE

ADVENTURE ACROSS REMOTE ISLANDS As the world starts to slowly reopen, and as travellers make more conscious decisions about where they want to travel to next, we pose the following question – how about travelling to Australia’s closest neighbour, a mere 150km to the north of Cape York?

Remote natural beauty and rich diverse culture abounds right on your doorstep. Have you added Papua New Guinea to your 2021 bucket list yet?

Find your remote at www.papuanewguinea.travel

Vivid colours paint the reef

MARINE BIODIVERSITY

PNG sits at the very epicentre of the renowned Coral Triangle, the richest known area of marine biodiversity in the world. Much has been written about the Coral Triangle and the six countries that it covers from eastern Indonesia and Malaysia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Solomons.

The ‘Readers Digest’ version is that the incredible biodiversity of the Triangle is a result of the massive flows of water from the Indonesian Throughflow and the Southern Equatorial Current, both of which deliver nutrients from the deep-water basins of the area and distribute the eggs and larvae of the region’s species.

Uniquely, because of its location, Papua New Guinea is touched by both water flows, creating uniquely diverse locations that have to be experienced to be fully understood!

DIVING PAPUA NEW GUINEA

There is some tremendous scuba diving in PNG, but in such a large geographical area it makes sense to concentrate on one or two of the main diving locations. Unless, of course, you have unlimited time and money… In which case you should probably do them all – diving PNG is addictive!

New Guinea - From an overall scuba diving perspective, Papua New Guinea can be thought of as three primary areas, starting with the main island of New Guinea and the wellknown area of Milne Bay, centred around the town of Alotau on the eastern tip of the island. Milne Bay offers excellent diving and phenomenal biodiversity. There is also surprisingly good diving near the capital Port Moresby on the south coast of New Guinea, and excellent diving at Tufi

PNG is also home to shipwrecks

on the north-east coast. And finally, there are some really nice sites around Madang, farther up in the north-west.

New Britain - Going east into the island provinces is the large island of New Britain, where the diving on the north coast is centred around Kimbe Bay. Kimbe is to New Britain what Milne Bay is to New Guinea island – an incredible location with tremendous diving on the seamounts and reef systems of the bay.

It is also the base for the liveaboards that dive the Fathers Reefs in the remote eastern end of the bay, and the Witu Islands in the Bismarck Sea. On the north-east tip of New Britain is Rabaul, famed for its massive caldera and 65 World War Two Japanese wrecks now largely buried under volcanic ash after the 1994 eruptions from the Tavuvur and Vulcan volcanoes. While most of those wrecks are no longer diveable, a couple are, and there are several other really great sites in the Rabaul area.

Expect some local interaction

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The wrecks are encrusted with marine life

Finally, there is the remote south coast of New Britain, which can only be dived a few months of the year, but is both truly exceptional and a real adventure!

New Ireland - Located along the edge of the Bismarck Archipelago, the province of New Ireland forms the eastern flank of PNG and is quite remote from the main island of New Guinea, with its own distinct and interesting traditional cultures.

The province consists of the large, musket-shaped main island of New Ireland, together with numerous other smaller islands, the largest of which is New Hanover. Diving in New Ireland is centred around Kavieng, the main town and provincial capital which offers a broad smorgasbord of diving – with shipwrecks, World War Two aircraft wrecks, dramatic walls, dynamic channels, bustling reefs and schooling pelagics!

New Hanover also has some excellent diving with a superb mixture of rarely dived reefs and World War Two Japanese shipwrecks, including a completely intact midget submarine!

Some of the wrecks are in superb condition

IS PNG SAFE?

The $64,000 question… Hopefully, you now have a degree of insight into why Papua New Guinea is such a special and unique place – but is it safe, and should you go?

As a self-declared ‘PNG tragic’, that’s a question I get a lot and the honest answer is – as with anywhere in the world, to be honest - it’s not 100 percent safe, and there are areas of Port Moresby where you would have to be crazy to go to!

But stay away from them and I am certain you will be just fine, and once you get to your final diving destination you will be in excellent hands and have no concerns at all.

I was in PNG in March, when the pandemic really took off, and had to leave before the borders closed. That was my 24th trip in 20 years and I can honestly say that in all those journeys, I have never once had a real scare.

IN SUMMARY

I also get asked a lot why I am so fascinated by PNG, and the answer to that one is the place is just so different and quite unlike anywhere else I have been to. The history, the tribal cultures, the people, the topography, the marine biodiversity and the incredible diving are an amazing combination. Plus, which other major diving destination can you leave from the east coast of Australia in the morning, transit through Port Moresby and be at your resort or liveaboard that same evening?

Yes, it has its issues, but that’s actually part of the excitement of going there and after all – it’s Papua New Guinea, expect the unexpected! n Prepare for the unexpected

DON SILCOCK

In more normal times, Don is based from Bali in Indonesia, but is currently hunkered down in Sydney, His website www. indopacificimages.com has extensive location guides, articles and images on some of the best diving locations in the IndoPacific region and ‘big animal’ experiences globally.

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ALISON ‘ALI’ THERESA

GREAT WHITE SHARK ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME from international award winning conservationist, shark attack survivor and shark cage creator Rodney Fox. Over 50 years experience gives nature lovers and divers unrivalled education and research-based shark encounters. Snorkel with Australian sea lions, plus exclusive island access for nature viewing.

No certification needed for surface cage dives. World exclusive ocean floor cage for qualified SCUBA divers. Tours from 2-12 nights.

www.rodneyfox.com.au

RFSE is no doubt, one of the best products on offer in Australia. An experience which is unique, genuine, educational, enjoyable, shark lovers and photographers dream come true Teresa Zamora, Sydney

We chat to Andrew Fox, who is continuing the pioneering work of his father with Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF RODNEY FOX SHARK EXPEDITIONS

Q: Your father Rodney is famous for surviving a shark attack, his conservation efforts and for being a pioneer of the cage diving industry. But have you always been interested in sharks, was there ever any doubt that you would enter the family business?

A: At just five days old and freshly out of maternity hospital, I attended a restaurant lunch with my parents meeting up with shark experts Ron and Valerie Taylor. Dad had designed and made the first shark cage for filming great whites underwater, and Ron Taylor was to film the first underwater footage of great whites ever produced. I slept as they discussed the project, but maybe some of it sank into my subconscious.

At four years old, I seem to remember the crew arriving for the landmark Blue Water, White Death documentary. Here the great whites were not to be hunted and killed, but admired for their awesome majesty. Here I first met such greats as Peter Gimbel, Stan Waterman and the Taylors. I remember sitting on Valerie Taylor’s lap, delighting in the throaty noise she made teaching me how to get enough spit to defog a mask.

Close encounters are guaranteed

Great white hanging out with a ray

As I got older, I met many photojournalists, divers and filmmakers, including a major Hollywood project that turned out to be the famous horror movie Jaws. I saw my first great white up close at the age of seven when my father was first looking to produce sharks to feature in the film. Universal Studios sent out a little person as a shooting double so that in all our sequences, the sharks would appear twice as big. I loved the small half-size cage we built for filming and thought it was made for me, and used the wetsuits and other dive equipment until I outgrew them and threw them away. Little did I know the value these items now have to Jaws collectors!

As a teenager, I worked on dad’s filming expeditions as a shark wrangler, holding the important job of attracting the sharks and helping to prepare our shark cages for diving.

The Jaws movie frightened many people out of the water, but it also created quite a large group of people who wanted to see white sharks first hand. We started the first great white shark tourist expeditions in 1976, a year after the movie was released, and this activity continues to grow in popularity today. Cage diving, shark research and underwater photography has kept me keenly interested in great white sharks for 40 years now.

Each new expedition brought many interesting people from all corners of the globe into our lives: film crews and producers, TV personalities, shark conservationists and marine scientists. We’ve worked with outstanding underwater photographers like National Geographic’s David Doubilet, Jaws author-turned-conservationist Peter Benchley, even famous sports people and celebrities like Fred Gwynne from The Munsters, to name a few remarkable shark people.

For the first 30 years out of the 40 years now I’ve dived with great whites, I’ve hardly missed a liveaboard expedition, except when absolutely necessary for school exams. In the last ten years or so we’ve run liveaboard tours throughout most of the year, and I’ve needed to stay onshore at times to trying to live a normal life, get some family time in, and to work more on the business.

However, any trip I’m not on, I find myself dreading missing something. Taking up photography has led to even more ‘FOMO’ when those inevitable unique surprise opportunities arise.

The Jaws movie frightened many people out of the water, but it also created quite a large group of people who wanted to see white sharks first hand 30

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Great white at the surface

The ‘deep’ cage gets you eye to eye with the sharks

Q: It is very clear that shark research and conservation is a subject close to your heart, what projects are you currently working on?

A: Inspired growing up with leading shark researchers like the famous ‘Shark Lady’ Dr Eugenie Clarke and Dr John McCosker, I attended The Flinders University of South Australia, for a bachelor’s degree in environmental biology.

Afterwards, I wanted to continue studying sharks and to work with leading shark scientists and documentary films, and for the last 20 years, I have led the expeditions. Our associated Fox Shark Research Foundation (FSRF) has a mission ‘to inspire the appreciation and understanding of great white sharks through research and education’. Monies raised went toward educating the public and supporting other researchers.

In more recent times most of our research was in collaboration with prominent shark scientists Dr Barry Bruce and Dr Russ Bradford from the CSIRO. Now we are undertaking many new and exciting projects with the Southern Shark Ecology Group, led by Dr Charlie Huveneers and his team based from the Flinders University of South Australia. Current programmes include innovative and preferably non-invasive methods to explore white shark population structure, diet, behaviour, fine and large scale movements, with some focus to monitor any potential deleterious effects that cage diving has on the sharks we see. Good data allows careful management decisions to be better made in carefully regulating the cage diving industry.

Other research work over the years involves testing various shark attack mitigation technology and devices ranging from visual, electrical and chemical repellents through to new exciting developments with shark-proof wetsuits.

Q: You are well known for your ability to identify different sharks and for your catalogue of shark photos, do you name any of them and do you have a favourite?

A: Our Photo-Id catalogue is very important to us. Now, onboard our expeditions, the crew keeps daily records of size,

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sex and identifying marks plus the location of any tags for all sharks sighted. We also collect images from divers onboard to help add to our database. This information is shared with research groups, which helps in many research programmes studying the population biology of great whites.

I want to continue compiling a photographic index of individual sharks we see while out on location. We have now identified over 1,000 individual sharks over the years, including many dear old favourites that return to the Neptune’s each year. Some sharks like the 14ft spotty old male, Moo, returned to the Neptune Islands for up to 15 seasons in a row. Other sharks are known from only one year and even just one day. Currently old wonky-tailed Imax is sitting on 13 consecutive years, and we hope he can keep it up to break the record.

Out of the many hundreds of sharks I could at one stage identify individually, my favourite sharks included big Jonny, who was seen to capture stingrays, the formidable Mrs Moo, who could breach her five-metre body out of the water, and the explosive speedster Tinker, sporting a distinctive notch, with extensive white pigmentation flashes, on her lovely tail fin. Giant mature females such as Dolly, Jumbo, Rhea, and the incredible UFO in the six-metre class have become legendary and sought after by many passengers that join us, despite these big breeding girls often staying away from being recorded for years at a time.

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Q: Cage diving can be a divisive subject, what would you say to those who believe that this harms the animals or can influence their behaviour towards humans.

A: I fully appreciate any concern people may have to the sharks possibly being harmed during cage diving. The welfare of the sharks should always come first, and we detest any form of circus act-style operations that show a lack of respect for these important and magnificent creatures. Our operation has been heavily involved in helping develop governmentregulated policy over the decades that are now enforced by strict compliance in the modern era.

We do know from residency patterns and behavioural studies that the sharks we see don’t go into an ongoing negative pattern of aggressiveness. Responsible cage diving operation avoids directly feeding the sharks, and the sharks do not get sufficiently rewarded. We have observed that ‘experienced’ sharks are different to ‘naive’ sharks.

Experienced sharks show ‘negative habituation’ and even ‘extinction behaviour’, where they become less interactive with the lack of reward to a high-intensity stimulus.

Sharks have been observed and recorded through time to be less aggressive around the cage diving boats as a result of not being sufficiently rewarded. They’ve learned that the dive boats at Neptune Island means no feed and so they waste less of their energy on the chase.

We do use a bait line to lure the sharks into viewing range for observers, photographers and researchers. We only use this at the surface because the sharks wouldn’t viably present themselves otherwise, but restrict them from consuming that bait. If they do infrequently get a bait, all that’s usually left after the baitfish have finished with it is a nearly bare structure giving them little reward. In addition, a 15-minute review period with no baiting follows any bait taken. Another misconception is that ‘teasing’ without feeding can make the shark more aggressive, but that isn’t the case. Without a reward, they start to interact less, and we tend to see them less.

Residency patterns of the sharks are now equal to or less than before the cage-diving industry expanded. And, often, other locations surveyed on research trips that don’t have cage diving are shown to have more shark activity than the Neptune Islands, despite its large seal colony. Since 2015, we’ve recorded a definite decline in the overall number of sharks out at Neptune Islands.

Great white shark

Q: A question we always ask in our Q&As is, what is your most memorable moment in diving?

A: With thousands of deep submersible dives seeing great white sharks up real close, it’s extremely hard to rank the most-memorable moment from so many overwhelming and standout memories. As accustomed as anyone can ever get to experience great white sharks of various sizes and numbers, as a qualified scuba diver it just never gets old to get right down among them on the ocean floor. Even a single great white appearing is incredible enough, but of course some dives are even more mind-blowing than others.

If I had to choose a memorable moment, it’s probably not with the biggest sharks, but with the most sharks I’ve experienced at one time. Ironically this dive was taken during research testing electric shark repellent devices. There appeared to be so many unknown sharks arriving at our trials up at the surface that we decided we needed to better ID them for our records. I was not prepared for the spectacle and the challenge of identifying at least 19 great whites closely spiralling around the cage, in layers down to the bottom 30m below. Seeing just a few great white sharks at once is always an overwhelming spectacle for most, but with so many more sharks surrounding from all sides in a dive of just 15 minutes bottom time was a difficult experience even to comprehend. If not for the Photo-ID record, I might even now believe it to be only a dream.

Q: What is your worst diving memory?

A: It would be easy to believe that deep diving with great white sharks could involve many dangerous and scary memories, however any rare misfortunes seem to have been buried into insignificance with time. It is an incredibly safe form of diving and touch wood we haven’t lost anyone (or great white sharks) in over 50 years of cage diving. The

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Majestic great white in all its glory

excitement of being up close to such formidable animals, so many times, seems to wipe the drama of any problems away.

My worst memories involve experiencing great things underwater that for some reason I wasn’t able to capture on camera. One example of such frustration involves an incredible dive to the bottom where I was surprised by two of my very favourite mature female great whites, Jumbo and Rhea, at the same time. These two 5.5-metre giants were approaching close to the cage together and in perfect settings. But of all dives I had forgotten to put the memory card in the camera. This was devastating at the time, but thankfully I managed to get more opportunities on later dives that day.

Perhaps even more annoying now are those dives that I’ve done without setting my lens to autofocus before slipping it into the housing. I’m reminded of this horror every time I see the blurry thumbnails on my laptop from unforgettable moments with sharks and sea lions. Nothing ever happens the same way twice in the ocean and just like Eminem is trying to tell us, we often only get ‘one shot’. I can’t tell you how hard it is to get that rap tune out of my head whenever there is special action going on. The moral here like with every other story with diving equipment failure, is that it’s often a human error and you should always check your gear before the dive! I should also delete those thumbnails.

Q: What does the future hold for Andrew Fox and Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions?

A: There’s a lot more work to do. I wish to continue my father’s legacy that started 55 years ago, spreading a message that ‘we need to learn to live with sharks and not eradicate them through fear’. We want more people to feel comfortable about being in the water, and to love and appreciate the ocean environment.

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Incoming! The business end of a great white

We can do that through promoting more exhibits, museums and learning centres that promote the importance of sharks.

We have an extensive museum collection exhibit touring the world for the last nine years. However, we are currently building a new museum and learning centre home here in Adelaide, set to open later this year.

And as of last year, a huge new development in the history of our company is gaining an exciting new business partner in prominent Adelaide diver Mark Tozer. Mark founded the Dive for Cancer charity and is one of the regular MCs at OZTEK, the premier conference for diving in Australia. Mark’s business background expertise has allowed us to acquire a fabulous new expedition vessel, the MV Rodney Fox, of course, named in Rodney’s honour. After more than 55 years of operation, this 32-metre liveaboard ‘bigger boat’ was indeed just what we always needed. Sleeping up to 18 passengers, it allows us to plan even longer special expedition itineraries, including dives in other more-remote geographical areas off Southern Australia. Here we are looking to target other iconic species, including leafy sea dragons, Australian sea lions, and thousands of spawning giant Australian cuttlefish.

The world’s awareness of sharks can continue to benefit through our work in ethical shark research, and transfer the message by making educational shark documentaries.

Inspiring images and articles and then ultimately leading to a positive and exciting cage diving experience allows people to see the shark’s beauty first hand. We are looking to help produce more exciting in-house films with an increased educational and conservation theme.

We know the public want to get excited about sharks. We try to convert more people to respect the animal instead of fear it. Once you give them the environmental message, they do learn to appreciate the animal. But unfortunately, without a dramatic hook, there’s less attraction. n

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T he Poor The Poor Knights are revered as one of the best diving locations in New Zealand, and as Jamie Lee Thorpe explains, they truly deserve all of the accolades PHOTOGRAPHS BY SIMON COLLINS

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he Poor Knights Islands, located 23km off the Tutukaka coast, are the remains of a group of ancient volcanoes. The formation of the Islands boasts spectacular underwater drop-offs, walls, caves, tunnels and arches from as shallow as 6m to a staggering 90m. There are daily charters out to the Poor Knights Islands, where you can spend the day diving, snorkelling, sight-seeing or even paddle boarding these sensational islands.

In 1981, some of the islands were made into New Zealand’s second Marine Reserve (Goat Island in Leigh was the first in 1976). They became fully protected in 1998 and with over 20 years of protection, the Poor Knights are now teeming with life and represent what New Zealand waters should be like.

They are a divers’ dream, with fish happily interacting with snorkellers and divers in the water. They are so spectacular and diverse that they were named by the late Jacques Cousteau as one of his top ten dive sites in the world. And it’s not just underwater that blows the mind. Above water the sites are breath taking. The dramatic coastlines of the islands with its sheer cliffs, archways, tunnels and caves keep you clicking the shoot button on your camera.

Each spring, the Buller’s shearwaters return to the Islands, flying in from North America to their only nesting site in the world. And what a sight! It is estimated that there are around 100,000 breeding pairs.

It’s not just the birds either, the Poor Knights are pest free as it is illegal to land on the islands. The prehistoric Tuatara made its way to the islands when they were linked to the mainland over two million years ago.

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Diving is fantastic all year around. During the summer months of January to late-April, the water is warm (20-22 degrees C) and the water is clear, with around 20 metres of visibility. May to September no doubt has the best visibility (up to 30 metres), but is a chilly 14-16 degrees C. With the waters warming up in September through to January, the visibility can be slightly reduced due to the amount of salps, plankton and algae blooms in the water. However, withthis abundance of food around, the fish are plentiful.

There are plenty of dive sites to choose from at the Poor Knights, which are suitable for the novice divers through to highly experienced tec divers. Here are just a few examples of diving at the Poor Knights Islands:

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Rikoriko Cave is the largest sea cave (by volume) in the southern hemisphere. Most dive charters will take boats into the cave, spending time telling stories of the Poor Knights Islands and revelling in the amazing acoustics produced inside the cave

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BLUE MAO MAO ARCH

Blue Mao Mao Arch is probably one of the most-popular and photographed dive sites at the Poor Knights. Ideal for snorkellers and divers, situated in the Labrid Channel, Blue Mao Mao Arch can be seen as a low-lying archway above the water. When the sunlight comes in through gaps in the rock, the shafts of light shine through the water, giving it its iconic feel.

Large shoals of blue mao mao and two spotted demoiselles keep to themselves on either side of the archway. With a little bit of current bringing in the nutrients that they feed on, there can be literally thousands of fish covering the walls. It truly is a spectacular sight.

The colours look positively Indo-Pacific

RIKORIKO (DANCING LIGHT) CAVE

Rikoriko Cave is the largest sea cave (by volume) in the southern hemisphere. Most dive charters will take boats into the cave, spending time telling stories of the Poor Knights Islands and revelling in the amazing acoustics produced inside the cave.

Underwater, however, is even more spectacular. Due to the low light, deep water species live in just a few metres of water towards the back of the cave. Filter feeders keep the water clean and so the visibility in the cave is stunning.

As you enter into the cave, the steep walls are encrusted in colourful life and the floor is sandy with large rocks that have fallen from the ceiling. Schools of blue and pink mao mao group together in the shade. As you head towards the back of the cave, the light starts to fade and you can spend your time searching around the rocks using your light. There are the remains of a whale jaw bone located at the back that some divers like to search for. As you turn back and head for the exit, you will be treated with the light show of leaving the darkness of the cave to the open ocean.

When the sunlight comes in through gaps in the rock, the shafts of light shine through the water, giving it its iconic feel the wall and keep your eyes peeled for moray eels draped over the sponges and kelp. And don’t forget to take your eyes away from the wall occasionally to look out into the blue…

MIDDLE ARCH NORTHERN ARCH

Northern Arch, located at the northern end of Puketuaho Island, is hands down our favourite Arch. You never quite know what you are going to get. Due to its location at the northern end of Tawhiti Rati and on the end of Te Araara Point, it is susceptible to current and that’s exactly what makes it so special. The archway is quite short, but very deep. At 40m in the middle, the bouldery bottom tumbles away to beyond 50m at either end.

The currents that pass through the archway bring valuable nutrients to the sponges and encrusting life that cover the walls and floor, as well as feed the thousands of blue and pink mao mao and two spotted demoiselle that fill the archway.

Huge snapper and kingfish glide through on the current and stingrays can be found stacked up on top of one another during the summer months. If you are lucky you may get a glimpse of a bronze whaler shark, but these shy animals tend to be found out on the point hanging in the current.

If you swim out towards the 50m+ depths, the sponge life becomes more vast. And a swim or scooter around the point may even have you bump into a bronze whaler shark or something even more special, such as a hammerhead.

The same route around the point in the shallows is also a fantastic route to take if you have enough gas.

Middle Arch is one of my most-dived sites at the Poor Knights.

Its location means that it is often a nice sheltered spot for the boats to anchor. Again, this is another colourful and fishy arch, normally with less current that Northern Arch.

Blue mao mao and two spot demoiselles usually dominate the site along with some good size snapper. The terrain is very bouldery and hidden on the boulders will be scorpionfish and numerous nudibranchs. At the southern entrance there are large rock formations to explore and the bottom of the arch is home to porae, perch, mado and a variety of moray eels.

The encrusting life in the archways of the Poor Knights are so colourful it would be criminal not to bring a torch along to really appreciate them. On the rocks you will find nudibranchs, scorpionfish as well as other critters. On the left of the southern entrance there is a large cave, Bernie’s Cave. The floor of the cave is sandy and often has stingrays at rest. There is a shelf at the back of the cave approximately three metres from the floor. If you look up at the roof of the cave, you will see a silvery mirror-like reflection, this is an air bubble that is large enough for four divers to pop up into.

The Poor Knights

MAGIC WALL

Keen on macro photography, then Magic Wall is a great hangout for you. Spend your time slowly moseying along the wall taking in all the critters who call it home. Loads of nudibranch species, both big and small, can be found along

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Expect mass shoals of fish at the Poor Knights

divers alike. With easy access to depth, this dive site is very exciting. 30m is easily achieved here and so are deeper depths on the western side. As the currents flow through the Labrid Channel, you can find shelter in the lee of the rock, but the currents bring nutrients to the life that resides on the rock.

LANDING BAY PINNACLE Even the kelp has a golden hue

Landing Bay Pinnacle is a go-to deep dive spot for advanced divers at the Poor Knights as it starts at 6m just below the surface, making it perfect for safety stops and deco stops and as you descend its steep walls you can easily hit over 45m.

The top of the pin is colourful and kelpie and normally hosts an array of shoaling fish hanging out in the current or swell at the top. As the pinnacle drops away steeply, large schools of fish hang out in the blue close to the rocks.

TYE DYE ARCH (THE PINNACLES)

THE GARDENS

Often chosen as a dive site for beginner divers, The Gardens shouldn’t be underestimated. The Gardens is home to a number of juvenile fish. Close to the cliffs the depths range from 5m to 10m and it can hide some gems. Painted moke, scores of snapper, angelfish and even eagle rays can be found among the variety of seaweeds. If you are lucky enough to visit when it is full of shrimp, then you will not be able to see your buddy through the feeding fish.

As you swim away from the cliff you will cross kelp, sand patches and even sunken bowls where large snapper, giant boarfish and porae hide. As you continue on you will hit the sand line at the 18m mark and beyond. This is a great place during the summer to watch for stingrays.

NGAIO ROCK

Ngaio Rock is a pinnacle that has 40m+ around it. With nooks and crannies both at the surface and all the way down to the sand line, this site is fantastic to explore for snorkellers and

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About 5km south of the Poor Knights, but still part of the Marine Reserve, sits the Pinnacles. If you are lucky enough to visit here on a clam day, then you must visit Tye Dye Arch.

The entrance to the archway is at around 18m on the channel side. As you pass along the colourful encrusted wall and enter the archway, you will be met by an enchanting scene of light coming through two passageways full of fish.

Turn around and you look back out at the main archway. Here large schools of pink and blue mao mao congregate. During spring seals will join the snorkellers and divers, making an unforgettable trip. In summer this is a great place to see multiple stingrays and kingfish hang out in the currents.

SUGARLOAF

Sugar Loaf is the southernmost island in the Poor Knights Marine Reserve. Like the Pinnacles, this site requires perfect sea and weather conditions due to its exposed position. It is also home to hundreds of Australian gannets. Sugar Loaf offers amazing diving on its steep deep walls, with a great shallow kelpy bay for performing safety stops between the submerged rocks that are often surrounded by fish.

IN CONCLUSION

The Poor Knights Islands is a must-see destination. With so many great dive sites there really is something for everyone, and plenty to keep divers going back time and again. n

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PRESCRIPTION & CORRECTIVE LENSES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

As a diver, you know how important it is to be aware of your surroundings underwater. Unfortunately, we are not all blessed with twenty-twenty vision and this can impact your diving experience. Divers who are near or farsighted will find that the underwater world can seem a bit hazy. You do not want to miss out on a spectacular find just because you’re constantly squinting to focus or struggling to read your computer and gauges.

Luckily help is out there! There are ways to be able to see clearly underwater...

CAN I WEAR CONTACTS UNDERWATER OR WEAR MY GLASSES? As good as it sounds, unfortunately no, you cannot wear your regular glasses inside your dive mask – the main reason being your glasses wont fit under the mask & will break the silicon seal of your mask and will cause massive leaking.

That leaves contacts – while technically you can wear them – it is strongly recommended by optometrist to not wear contacts while diving.

Main reason is the increasing water pressure could cause the contacts to suction onto the cornea and cause permanent damage.

WHAT TYPES OF PRESCRIPTION OPTIONS ARE OUT THERE? There two types of reliable Prescription Masks Available in the market: pre-made & custom-made.

Pre-Made corrective diving masks generally come in standard powers – which is only rarely exactly what your script requires. The two types are “stick on” powers where you stick the insert into the mask – this isn’t a lasting option. There are permanent Pre-Mades which replaces the entire face plate – this is good if you can match your distance script and you do not have Astigmatism.

Custom Made prescription lenses which are tailor-made to your exact needs will give you the best vision possible.

This will require your prescription from your local optometrist, and you will not need to compromise on a dive mask as you can even use your own.

GAUGE READER LENSES

SINGLE VISION LENSES

BIFOCAL LENSES

For divers needing near vision correction, typically used for reading gauges. Divers involved in photography with reading scripts of +2.50 or less often select gauge readers.

Are for divers needing distance only correction. They distribute focus evenly over the entire surface area of the lens.

Snorkelers would benefit from this option.

Combine two prescriptions into a single pair of lenses. The top part of the lens corrects distance vision, and the lower part corrects vision for close-up focusing.

If you are ever unsure, contact your Local Optometrist and they will be able to help you with what you need.

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DIVE SMARTER GET YOUR EXACT PRESCRIPTION TODAY

MADE IN AUSTRALIA

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

GOOD THINGS

COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT Underwater photography guru Mario Vitalini considers what the worldwide COVID-19 lockdown has done in terms of giving marine life and coral reefs a much-needed ‘break’ PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARIO VITALINI

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itting at my desk, looking out the window at an early autumn sunset, I find myself daydreaming about warm-water dives with my camera. Some destinations, some dive sites – they have the right ingredients that make taking pictures not just more enjoyable, but also easier. A healthy environment with good corals, abundant (and when you are really lucky, cooperative) marine life and not many other divers… these are the hallmarks of a super photo dive.

And as 2020 draws to autumn, I have been wondering how will the last few months under lockdown have affected my favourite photo destinations? How will the reefs look the next time I’ll be able to visit them? The current pandemic has impacted almost every aspect of our lives, but dare we hope that 2020 will have been a good year for coral reefs?

I look to the Red Sea for an early indication. I first visited Egypt in the early 1990s as a newly certified advanced diver. I can’t really recall much of that trip, but the incredible fish life and spectacularly lush corals left a lasting impression on me.

In early 2000s, I went back to work as an instructor and for about five years I had the opportunity to dive almost all of the Egyptian Red Sea, from the northern wrecks and reefs to the offshore walls of the south. By the time I left in 2007, there was a general sense that the impact of this tourism was being felt on the reef ecosystems. The Arab Spring paused most diving for several months, and by the time I went back in 2012 I saw first-hand how quickly the underwater world can recover if given the opportunity. I was treated to flourishing, healthy reefs and bags of fish life. Sites such as Jackson and Yolanda reef were bursting with thick colourful soft corals and the hard corals at The Barge were showing a lot of signs of new growth. Anthias, fusiliers and red-toothed triggerfish were swimming around all the sites in big numbers.

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A classic Red Sea reef can always brighten up your day Whalesharks have been seen in numbers in the Red Sea

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Caribbean island nations have started to open for the winter season with their distinctive wideangle opportunities

In March 2020, almost the entire world went into lockdown.

Many dive destinations have been virtually dived since.

Otherwise busy sites have been almost deserted. Coral reefs will have had a break from all the pollutants found in suntan lotions, worn by snorkellers and divers. Most touristic and commercial boat traffic stopped altogether. This global ‘pause’ hopefully gave stressed ecosystems an opportunity to bounce back.

Today, although several popular destinations are still closed to divers, a handful have made tentative steps to reopen. It’s early days but the signs are very encouraging. The Red Sea, the Maldives, some Caribbean islands and offshore Pacific hotspots have been welcoming limited numbers of tourists since mid-summer. In each country, dive operators have had to go through a rigorous process of government certifications to be allowed to resume. Combined with pre-travel testing, extensive cleaning protocols, PPE and social distancing, dive operations are doing everything possible to welcome divers in a secure and safe environment. And after months on dry land, the dive guides are more enthusiastic than ever.

The photos and videos I have seen so far show suggest that lockdown has been especially beneficial for pelagics. In Egypt, an unusually high number of whalesharks have been spotted around the northern sites this summer, and divers report being the only ones at normally busy sites such as the Thistlegorm. In the Maldives, the manta rays appear relaxed and coming to the cleaning stations in large groups.

Ali Matha, another site that attracts many dive boats, has been packed with the resident nurse sharks and very few divers. There were concerns that the lack of diving boats has created a space for fishing vessels to move in, but the reports from areas like the Galapagos or Cocos show huge schools of hammerheads. This could be the perfect time to pack your

Dolphins, dolphins everywhere

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BIOGRAPHY: MARIO VITALINI

For nearly 30 years, Mario has sailed the globe and dived the seas, working as a PADI instructor and dive guide. Today, he shares his passion for underwater photography.

His students love his real-world expertise and patient approach. He has an extensive working knowledge of most underwater camera systems, having spent several years at the UK’s largest photo retailer. Mario’s images have won several awards and he has featured not once, but twice, among the top categories at the prestigious Underwater Photographer of the Year, including Most Promising British Underwater Photographer in 2015.

Photo Finish

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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY Relaxed manta rays have been especially numerous around the cleaning stations

wide-angle kit and head to your favourite big fish dive spot.

But while the reefs are bursting with life, many resorts and liveaboards are working at reduced capacity, and most offer the possibility for you to have your own cabin. When you carry loads of photographic equipment, the extra space is welcome on board – all the more so as a diver in 2020. And underwater, you should able to avoid other divers, photobombing your shots with pesky bubbles in the background.

We all have to get used to a new way of travelling, which includes the need for testing and potentially to quarantine when coming home. I understand this way of travel won’t work for everyone and these concerns will, without a doubt, dissuade many from taking long journeys. But for those that can make the journey, get your wide-angle lenses and dome ports out, pack your kit and you should find vibrant reef scenes, few other divers and impressive pelagic encounters.

As photographers, we are always being told patience is a virtue, and boy, this has certainly been true in 2020. But it looks like it’s been worth the wait. n

Being able to dive popular sites such as the Thistlegorm without other divers around is a treat photographers will savour

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3.0 16MP Resolution Flood Proof 4K Ultra HD Video RAW Image Capture

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SeaLifeCameras

Downbelow Marine & Wildlife Adventures’ Joanne Swann explores the waters of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park in Sabah, Borneo, handily located close to the capital Kota Kinabalu PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD SWANN / WWW.DOWNBELOWADVENTURES.COM

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ess than two minutes after take off from Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Sabah, the plane makes a sharp left-hand turn and the wing dips to reveal a bird’s eye view of Gaya Island and the surrounding sloping coral reefs of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. The occasional small speedboat can be seen transferring island day trippers and scuba divers between the five tropical islands. Vibrant green jungle rainforest meets brilliant turquoise water - it’s quite a sight and I can’t wait to return.

There are not many places in the world that offer a bustling city full of modern facilities and then right on the doorstep, just ten minutes by speedboat from the central entertainment district, a stunning tropical marine paradise with 50 dive sites to choose from. Sabah’s capital, Kota Kinabalu, is such a place, and the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, locally known as the TARP, offers some excellent scuba diving year round.

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Named after Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, covering an area of 50km², the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park was gazetted as a national park in 1974. Consequently, the area’s fauna, flora and marine eco-systems enjoy the protection of the government appointed body, Sabah Parks.

Five islands make up the landmass with Gaya Island the largest and arguably the most interesting. Site of the British North Borneo company harbour and razed by the rebel Mat Salleh in 1881, nowadays the 15 square km island is mainly uninhabited other than the eastern shore, which is home to a community of stilt villagers.

For the past 12 years, our PADI five-star IDC Career Development Centre Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures has been based here as the only operator.

Abundant wildlife thrives on the island, including the endemic proboscis monkey, macaques, hornbills, wild boars, snakes, lizards and many other tropical birds and insects.

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MEETS

ABOUT THE DIVE SITES

The remarkable biodiversity of Borneo’s flora and fauna is visible above and below water. Dive sites within the park offer some great scuba diving for beginners and experienced divers alike. Inner and outer coral reefs slope to 30m depths, while mangrove areas and sand flats provide lots of opportunity for macro enthusiasts and underwater photographers. The park is also ideal for conducting PADI dive courses of all levels from beginner to professional qualifications. With a good amount of local divers, there is a great vibe around diving, but it’s not too busy. We’re often the only dive boat on a dive site, and our guide-to-diver ratios are four divers per group.

THE INNER REEFS

Sheltered from the prevailing northeast or southwest winds, the inner reefs offer year-round diving and are a haven for macro critters. Nudibranchs are very common with many rare and varied species regularly encountered. Seahorses, ghost pipefish, frogfish, flounders, stargazers, mandarinfish, moray eels, lionfish, and many crustacean species are among the usual suspects and divers can frequently interact with

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reef

cephalopods as they slowly pulse along the reef. Although referred to as ‘muck diving’, many of these sites are in fact very pretty, with visibility ranging from eight to 20 metres.

Mid Reef is a great example. Situated in the centre of all the islands, this independent reef was probably once an island of its own. The shallow top reef, only 4m at low tide, is relatively barren with a handful of artificial coral blocks.

On the eastern side the slope descends to 20m and meets the remains of a small fishing wreck. Fish schools gather around the debris which attracts a variety of critters such as stonefish, scorpionfish and lionfish. Shrimps and crustaceans are plentiful. Moving away from the wreck and following the reef slope divers can find stick pipefish, spotted stingrays and an array of creatures confident in their cryptic ability.

A few minutes swim away and a wonderful section of shallow reef begins; layers of acropora coral bathed in filtered sunshine form a beautiful reef area at 12m. Here seahorses, cockatoo waspfish, razor fishes, moray eels, yellow-lipped banded sea krait and swaying anemones with their clownfish are often found. Surrounded by this beauty, it’s a challenge to end the safety stop and return to topside reality.

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Colourful crinoid on the reef

THE OUTER REEFS

The outer reefs are a kaleidoscope of colour and texture – large gorgonian fans, table corals, barrel sponges and staghorn corals are abundant. With slightly better visibility due to their location, these outer sites tend to attract pelagic species such as giant trevally, large schools of batfish, eagle rays and blacktip reef sharks. All still only about eight minutes from the dive centre!

One of our favourite outer sites is Edgell Patches. The reef top starts at 10m-12m. Large coral blocks and barrel sponges litter the shallow reef crest that slopes to 30m and the sandy seabed. Schools of yellowtail barracuda, yellow-striped snapper and fusiliers are among the reef’s residents. During the day, bamboo and spotted cat sharks can occasionally be found sheltering under the small coral overhangs. Turtles are fairly commonly encountered on inner and outer reefs year round and when schooling krill mass through March and April, whalesharks can sometimes be seen feeding around the islands.

The reefs are spectacular

Anemonefish

JOANNE SWANN

Joanne has worked in the travel and corporate world since 1992, and is a passionate conservation-minded marine and wildlife enthusiast who has been crafting specialists trips to Sabah Borneo for 15 years. Together with her husband Richard Swann, they founded Downbelow Marine & Wildlife Adventures based upon their own travel and dive experiences.

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TOPSIDE ATTRACTIONS

Posing by large gorgonion fans

THE WRECK OF KM KURAMAN

The ‘new kid on the block’ in terms of dive sites is the wreck of KM Kuraman. A British-built 30-metre-long patrol ship that served for almost 50 years with the Malaysian Navy under the name of KD Renchong, she was then transferred to Maritim Malaysia where she was re-named KM Kuraman (after an island near Labuan) and continued to serve for another five years, before eventually being de-commissioned in 2015.

In 2017, my husband and co-founder of our dive centre, Platinum PADI Course Director Richard Swann, was charged with the role of sinking the ship and she now lies in 23m of water just offshore Manukan Island. With divers in mind, Richard wanted to sink the ship in an upright position and clear her internally, so she was suitable for the marine environment. He also wanted to open up compartments to create penetration dive opportunities for suitably qualified divers to enjoy. She now lies peacefully and already hosts beautiful soft coral. Schools of barracuda, juvenile black tip reef sharks, ghost pipefish, frogfish and a variety of reef fish have become permanent and seasonal residents.

Dive sites within the park offer some great scuba diving for beginners and experienced divers alike

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Drawn to the state not only for its fabulous diving, we also fell in love with the mountains, jungles and rivers.

Sabah boasts the Kinabatangan River – a region with such wildlife bio- diversity it’s acknowledged by experts to be the most varied and easily accessible in all Southeast Asia. Deramakot Forest Reserve is the best place in Asia to see all five of Borneo’s big cats, along with around 200 different species of birds.

The majestic 4,095-metre Mount Kinabalu in the Crocker Range overlooks TARP. This great mountain has become an icon of natural history and successful conservation, while being the most accessible of high mountains to climb. With so many superlatives it’s hard to believe all these wonders are within one small state – and we haven’t even mentioned the endemic Borneon pygmy elephants and orangutans!

If a trip to Sabah is now on your bucket list, contact Joanne who specialises in crafting tailor-made itineraries that save you money and maximise your time in Borneo.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

We dive all year round and the best time to visit is October all the way through to June. The months of July to September is typhoon season for the Philippines, so we often get the tailwinds of these storms, which reduce visibility. It’s very rare for us to cancel a day of diving due to the weather.

Water temperatures are usually around 29 degrees C, though during the whaleshark season of February to April, deep ocean currents reduce the temperature to around 24 degrees C. One of the beauties of visiting TARP is the flexibility to fit any traveller’s budget – just minutes from the park are backpacker lodges, including our very own Downbelow Eco Lodge on the mainland, there are city hotels, five-star resorts and island retreats. This isn’t only a diver’s paradise; there’s great snorkelling, sea kayaking, trekking, plus lovely beaches.

Visitors can fly into Kota Kinabalu International Airport and, in fact, a recently documented challenge got divers into the water 60 minutes after landing. TARP is a 15-minute drive plus ten-minute speedboat journey from the airport. n

Curious turtle on the reef

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BEYOND TECHNICAL

www.narkedat90.com

We talk to Pete Mesley, a hugely charismatic figure on the international diving scene, who has carved a niche for himself in the world of technical diving and expeditions PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF PETE MESLEY

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We design, manufacture and retail scuba and rebreather equipment. We have fully equipped test and certification labs, and can pressure test large items in our vacuum chambers, as well as run fully automated leak test and dive simulations down to 400m. Our EMC and EMF lab is filled with state-ofthe-art equipment for testing electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic fields. We also have a large in-house laser for cutting and engraving on plastics and metals. www.narkedat90.com

Q: You are a celebrated underwater photographer, as well as a technical instructor. When did you first start shooting underwater, and what are some of the challenges when photographing monster shipwrecks that are sometimes deep, dark and gloomy?

A: I started taking pictures a few years after I started diving.

The main pastime in the UK (at that time) was hunting for souvenirs. Anything brass would come up the line! I was never any good at this and also realised from an early point in time, that most of the artefacts recovered off the wrecks ended up rotting away in someone’s garage (or hidden among the long grass between the garage and boundary fence of people’s homes). So I took to documenting these artefacts instead. My very first camera was a Nikonos IV. It wasn’t till I moved to New Zealand in 1994 where I took my photography more seriously.

But it was mainly to show people the incredible sights I was witnessing and to entice them to come diving with me. Over the years I just kept on working at it and trying, like most photographers, to get better by learning more what not to do!

What inspired me to start getting into more specialised imagery, was a picture taken of an engine room on the mighty Mikhail Lermontov. This image captured my imagination.

The camera was mounted on one of the railings and a diver swam into the black abyss systematically firing off the strobe, lighting up all parts of the engine casing. All the while the camera shutter was wide open on ‘bulb’. This image was way ahead of its time and this inspired me to start learning how to capture such creations. We were well into the digital age of camera systems now and there were a growing group of very talented photographers emerging.

In my mind’s eye I wanted to capture an image that would be impossible for a diver to see. The sheer expanse of an engine room, large chamber in a cave, or panoramic vista of a bow of a ship. I wanted to light up these areas to show their beauty.

Most of the time, I was diving in limited visibility, dark and silty environments. Having high powered BigBlue video lights set up over multiple areas, painting the darkness with light was (and is) a lot of fun.

It also helps considerably reduce the reflection of particulate in the water which gets more than a few divers saying ‘It was never that clear when I dived that spot’!

Over the years I have had to develop my gear to keep up with the imagery and now have probably the world’s longest selfie stick! I have a few carbon-fibre tripods which are just windowwashing extendable poles with three mono pods attached to the base for stabilisation. My largest one is ten metres long, but the one I use the most is the five metre one. Carrying this around tight areas in wrecks and caves is always a challenge.

Couple that with four to six lights and camera, one would not really call me ergonomic! All this for a picture – right?

The actual process of taking these types of pictures, for me, is really quite relaxing. While some are zooming around trying to see all parts of the wreck or cave, I am just trying

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BEYOND TECHNICAL

www.narkedat90.com

to capture one part of it in a manner that, I think, is cool and artistic. Most of the time it would take 20-40 minutes to secure the tripod and frame the image in the right spot.

All the while being very careful not to stir up the visibility.

One careless fin stroke would mean the end of the picture.

So, one of the biggest challenges is depth and time. It is not uncommon to spend most of the dive in one place setting up a shot racking up hours of deco before having fired off a single shot.

This image is taken of an 82-metre wooden steamer, Florida, built in 1889, which sank in 56m of water in Lake Huron, Great Lakes, USA. This particular shot took me about 26 minutes to find the frame I wanted, set up the tripod and lights. Then another 20 minutes swimming around the wreck painting areas with light while taking multiple shots to try and get it right! The shot was a 20-second exposure. So, all up about two-and-a-half hours in 4 degrees C water. Sound like fun? Welcome to my world!

This particular image, I took in 2014, is looking down from the skylights into the engine room of the Nippo Maru. This image took me five years to take. Once I had the frame in my mind I would go in, and very carefully set up the camera mounting on the tripod. As soon as I would get everything ready, at that precise moment, what would seem to be the entire boatload of divers would enter the engine room through every opening, hatch and doorway, swim around for 90 seconds, and kick up every molecule of silt in that area.

Orange clouds of silt would mushroom towards me, billowing out of every hatch. So, I would let out a sigh, remove the camera clamped to the side and try again in the next few days! So this is why this shot means to much to me as it took that long to take.

I have ventured into cave photography fairly recently and that comes with its own set of challenges. But what has been the biggest challenge is having such great visibility. When the water is gin clear and no ambient light, this is the perfect canvas for creativity. I went to visit some friends at Under the Jungle dive shop in Tulum, Mexico. What a place. This shot was probably my most-challenging image to date, but also the most fun. This site is called Nohoch Nah Chich, or ‘Heaven’s Gate’. This picture is physically impossible to take

Heaven’s Gate composite image

in one image. It is a multitude of images stitched together to form one. So basically three portrait images, each lit up over multiple 30-second exposures, and finally coming into one shot. The diver in the shot is over 50 metres away. That shows how clear the water is. So this entire shot took a little over three hours to do. Water depth was only about 6-8m and we were in about 1,500 metres inside the cave. What a fun day it was for sure.

Q: You have been based in New Zealand since 1994. You are a firm fan of diving in your local waters – what are some of the highlights underwater that visiting divers should not miss?

A: Diving in Middle Earth is probably some of the mostundiscovered diving on the planet. Its temperate waters pack a really mean punch of colour, life and energy round the coast. We have such a wide variety of environments in NZ, it’s breathtaking. The Poor Knights Islands, without a shadow of a doubt, is dollar for dollar, some of the best diving around. Thousands of schooling fish, bronze whaler sharks, colourful walls of hydroids, sponges and zoanthids. Stingrays, orca, dolphin. We really live in a special place. Then heading down to Fiordland and we really do enter another dimension.

Punching through tannic fresh water layering the first 5m at

Engine room of the Nippo E

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COMPUTERS • O2 CELLS • GAS ANALYSERS CABLES & CONNECTORS • REBREATHER PARTS PATHFINDER STROBES • SENSORS TOOLS • SOLENOIDS Crisp as surface support and safety divers, both veterans of deep expeditions, and Andrew Fock as medical support – one of the world’s leading hyperbaric physicians based in Melbourne, Australia. The entire two weeks was spent doing sub-80m dives. It was fun times indeed.

the surface. Punching through to emerald green, crystal-clear water. Stark contrasting life abounds there. Massive eightfoot black coral trees sit in absurdly shallow water with snake stars twisting and twining round the white fluffy polyps. Sea spiders weirdly walking over smooth kelp leaves. Thousands upon thousands of crayfish vie for real estate in every nook and cranny. Sea pens sitting up filter feeding in the currents.

So when people ask me how my year has been? Apart from having to cancel over 15 trips to places all round the world during these very, very difficult times. It’s been pretty tough but, having this on our back doorstep, I really can’t complain.

Q: You are in demand for leading and being heavily involved in expeditions. What are some of the mostmemorable expeds you have been on?

A: I am a firm believer in having the right people in a team makes all the difference in the world. Also doing the hard logistical and preparation work well in advance, proper communication and execution of tasks makes the experience fun and enjoyable on the day. I have been lucky enough to be part of many groups of divers on expeditions over the years on various trips. Learning each time from people way more experienced that I am about how to properly plan operations.

A major part of my business these days is all about this risk management and logistical support for remote location diving.

I just love the challenge of it. Probably one of the recent trips to the Solomons in August 2018 stands out the most. Here we had a group of 14 very experienced deep divers from all over the world. The prime objective of the trip was to dive USS Atlanta. A 165-metre-long, 8,000-ton light cruiser which was sunk during the Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942.

She lies heavily to port almost turtle with the bow sitting in 140m and props in 110m. Originally found in 1992 and first dived in 1998, this was the largest expedition to date on the wreck. We put 12 divers on the wreck for two days of beautiful conditions. With bottom times on average of 30 minutes each diver, the wreck was surveyed, photographed and videoed extensively. On that team I had Andrew Simpson and Tom

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Q: As we always do with our Q&As, what is your funniest diving moment?

A: Without a shadow of a doubt, the funniest moment has to be convincing my dive buddy to kiss the skipper’s butt!

Anyone in the UK circles who is a member of the ‘Bell Owners’ club knows what I am talking about. When you bring up a ship’s bell from the ocean floor and it’s on the boat when you surface, there is something you need to do. That is to kiss the boat captain’s butt. The story goes that when you lift the bell and it reaches the surface, if the skipper messes up picking up the bag with the bell attached, it will be lost forever. So when it comes up and it’s safely on the boat, he gets a pair of lips puckered up on a butt cheek. I have no idea where this weird custom originated from, we all just knew it. So when we located, dived and actually found the ship’s bell of the Port Kembla in 2006 for the first time, it was an amazing day. The funny thing was it didn’t take too much convincing to get my dive buddy to conduct the deed! (being ex-Navy might have had something to do with it!) As a result of the recovery, we could positively identify the wreck.

Q: On the flipside, what is your worst diving moment?

A: The 2009 Britannic expedition on a National Geographic shoot diving with undoubtedly some of the most-talented divers in the world. The team was led by Carl Spencer and the rest of the team comprised of Richie Kohler, Richie Stevenson, Evan Kovacs, Casey McKinlay, Jared Jablonski, Leigh Bishop, Danny Hague and Eduardo Pavia. The worst moment of my life and diving career was the death of long-time friend Carl Spencer while on the expedition. It happened while on our dive on Britannic - over a series of ill-fated problems, Carl switched to bailout, which resulted in him having a seizure underwater at his 40m decompression stop. Carl had to be taken to the surface by a safety diver as we could not replace his bailout regulator back into his mouth. Carl never recovered from the dive. We all terribly miss him and not a day goes by without thinking about my friend.

Q: Although COVID-19 has thrown plans through the ringer somewhat, what does the future hold in store for Pete Mesley, Lust4Rust and Shock & Awe Big Animal Diving?

A: 2020 has been a shocker, but enjoyed more family time, and diving in my own backyard of New Zealand. What’s for the future? Well, I am planning for 2021, 2022 and 2023 already so once the world gets to some normality, we will be kicking back into it with force. Looking forward to seeing all my friends again from all over the world. And if I never hear the word ‘Zoom live chat’ again, I will be very happy. There is just no substitute for face-to-face interaction. Looking forward to it. n

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What’s New

OCEAN PRO (AUSTRALIAN UNDERWATER PRODUCTS) CORSAIR BCD

Rear inflation BCD design offering optimal in-water trim and comfort, and is suited to local diving, yet light enough for travel, with a dry weight of 3.55kg.

The ‘O-Flex’ bladder construction with bungee allows for oversize inflation to 40lb of lift, while maintaining a slim profile during diving.

It has a deluxe comfort padded backplate pad, depth-compensating waist cummerbund and secure waist over-buckle.

Quick release swivel shoulder buckles provide a custom fit for all body types, and there are two shoulder dumps, and one lower rear dump.

It has a Snap-Lock weight release system, two trim weight pockets, Ocean Pro high-flow serviceable inflator, and a depth compensating adjustable position chest strap. www.oceanprosports.com

DIVE-LOGS DIVE GUIDES Dive-Logs Limited, who produced a wide range of diving logbooks and assorted accessories and inserts, has teamed up with wreck expert Peter Collings to produce some dive guides.

In July, they completed the first set – a guide to the Northern Red Sea Wrecks – and they have just completed a set for the Florida Keys Wreck Trail.

The guides comprise an introduction to the area, and then concise details of each shipwreck, with a location map, the history of the vessel, how it came to be sunk, and Peter’s personal dive notes and sketch of the wreck, with room for the user to add their own notes.

Both sets of guides are available in Dive-Logs three standard log refill sizes, but there is also a special edition that is totally waterproof and can be taken underwater in their wet notes system. www.divelogs.com

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FOURTH ELEMENT OCEANPOSITIVE HYDROSKIN RASHGUARDS

The latest range of Hydroskin rashguards from Fourth Element are made in the same smooth, high-performance fabrics you know and love, but with recycled polyester from ocean-bound plastic bottles; decreasing the use of virgin materials.

Part of their OceanPositive Collection, these Hydroskin rashguards are designed to wear under a wetsuit or semidrysuit, or as a UV shield for all watersport activities.

The fit of these rashguards has been improved with flattering panels, kept streamlined with flatlocked seams and are presented in a palette of classic and ocean-inspired colours with water-based prints on chest and back in complementary, contrast tones. The ultra-smooth fabric made with a combination of recycled polyester and stretchy elastane reduces friction between the skin and a wetsuit and helps to stop chafing of tight/ill-fitting suits.

These rashguards are the perfect garment to put on instead of applying extra sunscreen which is likely to wash off, which recent studies show has been contributing to the pollution of coral.

OCEANPOSITIVE We consume nearly one million plastic bottles a minute globally. This waste is not always necessary and not all of it is handled responsibly. Recycling is one solution to the problem, creating new products from old, but it is just a part of tackling the problem. Rejecting single-use plastic packaging and recycling whenever and wherever possible is a step in the right direction. With small changes in our behaviour, we can make a big difference.

Made with recycled post-consumer plastic waste, each Hydroskin prevents approximately seven plastic bottles from ending up in landfill or worse still, the ocean. The prints are produced with water-based inks, limiting the amount of chemicals used in production. Packaged in compostable bags made from cassava starch. www.fourthelement.com

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OCEAN PRO (AUSTRALIAN UNDERWATER PRODUCTS) OSPREY F400 REGULATOR

The Osprey F400 regulator has a pneumatically balanced second stage that enables the use of a lightweight spring, ensuring the easiest of breathing.

It has a comfortable orthodontic mouthpiece and the lightweight design alleviates jaw fatigue, while heat sink connection uses ambient water temperature to warm breathing air assisting in cold water environments.

It has a surge deflection front cover with high-grade chrome finishing ring, and comes with a lightweight, flexible braided hose offering supreme comfort.

The balanced diaphragm first stage offers elite breathing performance at all depths, and it is environmentally sealed, which eliminates contaminate ingress and prolongs life of regulator componentry.

It is nitrox compatible to 40 percent out of the box, and has two high pressure and four low pressure ports for custom hose routing.

It comes in environmentally friendly non-plastic packaging, and is part of the Ocean Pro ‘free parts for life’ programme. www.oceanprosports.com

MARES ULTRASKIN RANGE The Mares Ultraskin range is made from an innovative, three-layer material combining a fleece layer against the skin for the best thermal protection, a breathable and windproof internal membrane, and an external nylon layer for the perfect fit, durability and elasticity.

The characteristics of this high-tech material make it easy to don, providing great freedom of movement and resistance to wear.

In a range of styles, the Ultraskin line includes both male and female models, featuring a steamer, long-sleeved top, short-sleeved top, sleeveless top with hood, sSleeveless top without hood, shorts and long pants.

The versatile Ultraskin undersuits are the ideal choice for use with wet or drysuits as well as during other watersports activities.

The range also includes hood, gloves and socks. www.mares.com

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RETRA FLASH PRO | SRP: €899 ex VAT Nicolas Remy: Since 2018, the underwater strobes market has been more active than ever, with no less than nine products being released. In this two-part review, I am going to cover one of the latest models - the Retra Flash Pro. This article focuses on the flash itself, whereas next month I will cover the optional accessories compatible with this strobe. At the time of writing, Lena and I have spent 51 hours in the water with two Retras, 20 hours shooting wide-angle, 31 hours on macro work.

The Retra Flash Pro is a nicely built unit, with a brushed aluminium finish that feels sturdy and eases heat dissipation. It isn’t a small strobe, yet remained easy to move around underwater - being 130mm long, it was simple enough tucking it close to our macro port. The three controls (two dial knobs and one push button) are easy to grab and differentiate by touch, even at night with dry gloves. The Pro also comes with several innovative features, some being a first in the industry.

For instance, it can be connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth, to visualize useful data and customize strobe functions. Examples include a low-power mode or fine-tuning the focus light output. This is an evolutive strobe, and further customization capabilities are expected.

HSS (High Speed Sync) is another exciting capability provided your camera and your housing LED circuitry (if you are using one) are capable of transmitting HSS signals, you can use the Retra at shutter speeds beyond the camera’s maximum sync speed.

Lastly, the flash can be triggered by hand thanks to the rear push-button, which opens-up creative opportunities with long exposures on tripod.

In the water, I was impressed by the Retra’s very wide, even and warm light beam, a big advantage for wide-angle and large animal photography. In practice, I found it easier to completely light a big scene, while minimizing hard shadows, backscatter and avoiding ‘burn’ on fish scales.

Besides quality, the Pro also delivers quantity - this is a powerful strobe and we mostly found ourselves dialling it between 12-50 percent for wide-angle, and 1-25 percent for macro and fish portraits.

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Out of four Eneloop Pro AA batteries, we typically got around 300-350 photos per charge when shooting wide angle, whereas in macro we got around 600-800 shots, depending on subjects. I reckon this should be enough to cover a day of diving for most shooting situations.

In terms of recycle time, we haven’t felt constrained except when going above 50 percent power, which we seldom did.

If you feel you need more shots or fast recycling at high powers, consider the optional Retra Supercharger, which I’ll review next month.

Lastly, the Retra is well protected against water damage.

Dual O-rings secure the battery compartment, are easy to inspect (fitted onto the battery cover), and only require greasing every ten dives. What’s more, a leak detector is integrated within the battery contacts, which will trigger a visual alarm with as little as 2ml water ingress. This alarm tells the diver to stop shooting and clean battery contacts with fresh, soapy water as soon as practical. Doing so, there is a good chance the strobe will work again - a great ‘save-the-dive-trip’ feature. www.retra-uwt.com

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SANTI DIVING FLEX 2.0 HEATED UNDERSUIT | SRP: €550 Mark Evans: Santi Diving are past masters when it comes to exposure protection, and as well as being renowned for their drysuits (see last month’s issue for my review of the E.Lite+ trilaminate), they are highly regarded for their heating systems.

Being based in Poland, and having technical diving supremo Tomasz Stachura as their founder, Santi Diving know a thing or two when it comes to staying warm when the water gets cold. Now, at one time, heated undersuits were seen as being a part of the arsenal for tech divers spending multiple hours hanging around on decompression stops, but increasingly recreational divers who spend time diving in colder temperatures are seeing the value of having a heated undersuit.

I was diving in the new Flex 2.0 heated undersuit, which utilises the same inner heating technology as the BZ400 model, but is much lighter and more flexible. It is made of 180g Climashield Contur fabric, with additional doublethickness insulation around the chest area. I found it exceptionally comfortable, and I was able to twist and contort myself into all sorts of positions both wearing the undersuit alone, and once it was under the E.Lite+.

The heating wire is covered with ultra-soft silicone that is resistant to breaking, and the power cable neatly slots into a pocket on the front. If you are using the Santi heated gloves with the Flex 2.0, it even has built-in wires that just connect straight into the gloves. Very neat and effective.

The Flex 2.0 heated undersuit – along with the BZ400, the heated vest, and the heated gloves – make up the complete Santi Diving heating system. All of them are designed to work with either the thermoconnector (which mounts under a standard drysuit inflator), or the thermovalve (which was fitted to this test suit, which neatly incorporates the battery connector with a drysuit inflator in one unit), which links the heated element with an external battery. Santi prefer this set-up, as it removes any dangers associated with internal batteries.

I mounted the battery on a separate camband, and tucked it against my cylinder on the right-hand side, and could reach back to turn it on and off throughout the dive, as I found I was simply getting too warm if I left it on the entire dive!

There is only one heat setting, unlike some brands that offer multiple settings, but I found I could regulate my body heat to the perfect comfortable level by turning it on and off during the dive. With a 24Ah battery, you can expect a heating time of two-and-a-half to three hours, and the suit gets up to a maximum temperature of 45 degrees C – believe me, that is certainly toasty warm!

Santi advise you to wear the undersuit on top of a thin thermal or wool base layer, and I just popped it on over a basic

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thermal base layer that I wear mountain biking in winter.

The reasoning behind this is that the heat is then directed straight to the diver’s body, plus they figure it is safer than being directly onto bare skin. As well as the heating side of things, the Flex 2.0 has plenty of the nifty features we’ve come to expect from standard Santi undersuits, such as a P-valve opening, elastic gussets under the armpits, two side pockets, and elastic waist belt, two-way zipper, and nonsoaking net cuffs with rubber loops for your thumbs, and foot straps on the legs, which aid with donning the suit.

The Flex 2.0 heated undersuit comes in a special bag, and is available for ladies in a made-to-measure version.

As mentioned earlier, the Flex 2.0 can be paired up with the Santi heated gloves, and I had a pair of these too, so was experiencing the complete package. The gloves themselves are very warm and comfortable before you plug them into the battery, which from a 24Ah unit provide just shy of ten hours of warmth! Like the suit, these get up to a temperature of 45 degrees C, and it certainly keeps all your digits warm under drygloves (I was using the Smart gloves with the E.Lite+). If

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you are just using the drygloves without a heated undersuit, you can run the wires from the inside of the thermovalve/ thermoconnector down either arm of your drysuit and into the gloves, but as we said with the Flex 2.0 , it has the glove wires built-in. I can also confirm they will keep your hands warm even in the event of a flooded dryglove – totally usererror, I hadn’t got one of the gloves clipped solidly into place, but it was a real-world way of finding out just how warm these gloves are when completely wet.

So, heated undersuits and gloves. It is difficult to stress just how much more pleasant these things make a dive in cold water. Yes, there is a bit more faff as you need to carry the external battery, and yes, they are not exactly a cheap bit of kit, but if you are a tech diver, or a recreational diver who spends extended periods diving in colder conditions, they are well worth checking out for a future investment. Me? I’m already working out where I can strap the battery onto my mountain bike frame so I can have warm hands through winter riding! www.santidiving.com

59

DIVE RITE XT FINS | SRP: $265 Walt Stearns: Given Dive Rite’s origins as a manufacturer of cave diving equipment, their outlook on what they will produce and why has always been rather pragmatic.

In other words, best to not mess with a tried-and-true formula that works well.

Up in North Florida’s cave country (Dive Rite’s backyard), divers are always on the lookout for the types of equipment – from BCDs to fins – that can best handle the arduous day-to-day use of diving in subterranean cave systems. When traversing passages with high flow or stiff currents, the most desirable fins are those that offer a balance of power-to-work ratio, providing efficient finning for long periods of time.

To accomplish this, the most-proven design is the paddle shape as they still remain the most suited for extensive finning with a sculling motion done with a frog kick. This is one of the main reasons it’s hard to find a cave diver wearing split fins. At the same time, the criteria for a high-performance fin calls for the blade itself to be stiff, without sacrificing the appropriate amount of snap during the down stroke when a modified flutter or power kick is required. It is on all those merits Dive Rite positions their one and only fin in their product line, the XT.

While this affirms this particular fin has been around for quite some time, the question might be what’s different about them now.

To begin with, unlike the original Prestige, which were made of a polymer plastic, Dive Rite’s XT is fabricated with Monprene Thermoplastic Elastomer Compounds (TPEs), the material favoured by many technical diving equipment manufacturers for its blended rigidity and flexibility.

Differentiating the XT from its competitors is a slightly softer 61mm wide Monoprene centre strip extending from the top of the foot pocket to the tip of the blade, which is added in during the injected molding process. So yes, the trademark 2.4-inch wide black racing stripe down the centre is still in place, but instead of white, the rest of the fin comes in red, Royal blue and black.

Having this softer material down the centre of the blade allows the water to channel towards the middle and back away from the blade for added thrust during the down stroke. This is particularly important when using a modified flutter kick.

One thing that is relatively new about the XT Fin (updated in early 2020), is that it now features a POM swivel where the spring steel heel strap meets the fin’s foot pocket, allowing for easier donning and adjustment. The POM Swivel features two position points for moving the buckle’s locking screws so that the diver can adjust the fit of their straps a little more to their liking.

I imagine you are now asking ‘What is the

I have seen this fin before?

Given a set of these fins to try out, my mind flashed back to the later 1990s to another dive gear label called Apollo Sports, who had one set of fins in particular called the Apollo Prestige that came in one colour, white with a wide black segment that ran down the centre (from end to end) like a racing stripe. When Apollo decided to ditch all their full blade fins in favour of those with the split fin design, Dive Rite acquired the Prestige model from Apollo for their own product line.

60

Image by Alex Mustard An underwater photographer using 2x Retra Flash with Wide Angle diffusers attached observes a Blacktip shark.

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DIVE RITE XT FINS | SRP: $265 Dive Rite XT fin going to do for me?’ Looking at the chatter about these fins on forums as well as other reviews, the XTs seem to land in two camps; those who love ’em and those who leave ’em. The majority of these viewpoints centre on the stiffness of the blades while finning.

There is no way to objectively test a pair of dive fins to determine just how efficient they are. Fin tests in the hands of someone doing the evaluation is just that, a personal evaluation where the results are measured solely by subjective means.

Playing around with various fin strokes to see where they best serve in terms of efficiency and application, my first impression was ‘man, these babies are stiff!’ Even after allowing my legs to get acclimated to the XT’s characteristic stiffness, my own take away was that the XTs were a really decent fin for frog kicking, nearly as efficient when employing modified flutter, but somewhat unremarkable for mobility when it came to a standard flutter kick.

VERDICT Overall, the XTs are a robust, well-made paddle type fin with a comfortable foot pocket that will serve most divers in the cave and wreck diving persuasion well. I particularly liked the hinge effect of the POM swivel for taking the fins on and off in the water.

Dive Rite’s XT Fins are available in size small through X-large. The Monoprene materials used in the fins keeps the total weight of each fin down, with a dry out of the box at around 4.75lb, with a slightly buoyant nature in sea water, which is good for maintain trim while finning. www.diverite.com

62

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t: 07 34098888 e: info@mantalodge.com.au a: 132 Dickson way, Point Lookout, QLD 4183 Amazing diving all year round. Manta Rays, Sharks, turtles and whales along with a huge variety of marine life. www.mantalodge.com.au

t: 08 98417176 e: whale@divealbany.com.au a: 84b Serpentine Road, Albany, Western Australia, 6330 Diving Albany means diving anything from wrecks to reef, plunging drop offs to awesome canyons with unbelievable colours and fishlife. www.divealbany.com.au

LETS GO ADVENTURES t: 02 4981 4331 e: fun@letsgoadventures.com.au a: Shop 8W, d’Albora Marina, Teramby Rd, Nelson Bay, NSW, 2315 PADI facility Introductory dives through to Instructor Courses. Guided shore & boat trips for divers & snorkellers. Retail Sales & Servicing. www.letsgoadventures.com.au

SCUBA HAVEN t: 0407 457 542 e: info@scubahaven.com.au a: 20 Merrigal Rd, Port Macquarie, NSW, 2444 SCUBA Diving Port Macquarie and Laurieton Areas. Offering Dive trips, Courses, Introductory dives, Sales and services. www.scubahaven.com.au

SOUTH WEST ROCKS DIVE CENTRE t: +612 6566 6474 e: info@swrdive.com.au a: 98 Gregory Street, South West Rocks, NSW Australia’s best Shark and Cave dive. Family owned and operated for over 40 Years. swrdive.com.au

WINDANG DIVE & SPEARFISHING t: 02 4296 4215 e: info@windangdive.com.au a: Shop 1, 239 Windang Road, Windang, NSW, 2528 Scuba Diving Courses to Instructor. Spearfishing needs and servicing of all brands of scuba and spearfishing. www.windangdive.com.au

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64

OZAQUATEC SCUBA SERVICE CENTRE t: 07 3399 1413 e: admin@ozaquatec.com a: 4/89 Gosport St, Hemmant QLD 4171 Brisbane’s largest SCUBA servicing centre.

Servicing all brands of SCUBA gear, Air/Nitrox fills and SAI Global accredited Test Station for all your tank hydro needs. www.ozaquatec.com.au

PASSIONS OF PARADISE t: 07 4041 1600 e: Reservations@passions.com.au a: Reef Fleet Terminal, 1 Spence Street, Cairns, QLD Dive, snorkel and sail the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns onboard a sailing catamaran with locally owned Passions of Paradise. www.passions.com.au

SCUBA WORLD t: 07 5444 8595 e: info@scubaworld.com.au a: 207 Brisbane Road, Mooloolaba, 4557 QLD, Australia We create safe, comfortable, enthusiastic divers who always have a fun, personal and enjoyable experience at Scuba World. scubaworld.com.au

TASMANIA EAGLEHAWK DIVE CENTRE t: 0417013518 e: info@eaglehawkdive.com.au a: 178 Pirates Bay Drive, Eaglehawk Neck, TAS, 7179 We have world-class temperate water diving, with sites suitable for divers with skill levels from novice to advanced technical. www.eaglehawkdive.com.au

SOUTH AUSTRALIA RODNEY FOX SHARK EXPEDITIONS t: 08 8363 1788 e: expeditions@rodneyfox.com.au a: 107 Henley Beach Road, Mile End, SA, 5031 Great white sharks, SCUBA, Ocean Floor Cage, Surface Cage, Australian Sea Lions and our own wine all on the 32m liveaboard MV Rodney Fox! www.rodneyfox.com.au

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ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS HERE NEXT ISSUE! ONLY $42 Contact Adrian on +61 422 611 238 or email adrian@scubadivermag.com

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t: 0274 344 874 e: info@godivepacific.nz a: 66 Wellington Street, Picton, Marlborough, New Zealand Dive one of the biggest cruise ship wrecks in the world, the Mikhail Lermontov, suitable for recreational to advanced technical divers. www.godivepacific.co.nz

GLOBAL DIVE t: +64 9920 5200 e: info@globaldive.net a: 132 Beaumont Street, Westhaven, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand NZ’s Premium Dive Store. Leaders in Training, Servicing and Travel. Home of Fourth Element, OMS, Shearwater, XDeep, Light&Motion, DUI, Cinebags. www.globaldive.net

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t: 09 438 1075 e: info@divenow.co.nz a: 41 Clyde St, Whangarei We’re Northland’s largest SCUBA, Spearfishing & Freedive retail store offering great deals on gear along with SCUBA and Freedive courses. www.divenow.co.nz

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65

The Great Reef Census

A

lways excited to find new ways to educate and assist with research, Passions of Paradise are happy to confirm that they will be joining Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef and other operators to assist with their inaugural Great Reef Census.

The Great Reef Census will run from 1 October to 12 December and anyone, passengers or crew, are invited to participate in the census. If you can snorkel and have access to a camera, you can join in! The Great Reef Census is a world-first citizen science effort to survey the Great Barrier Reef. People from all different industries and backgrounds are invited to help Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef capture a large-scale image of the reef like never seen before.

From scientists and researchers, tourism operators and their passengers to recreational fishers and indigenous rangers - everyone is welcome to contribute. Citizens have recruited interested parties from Lizard Island to the Whitsunday Islands. During the ten-week period, citizen scientists will take photos of the reef they have visited and upload at least ten photos per reef site to the dedicated website. In November, these images will be available to view online and visitors to the site will be able to rate the images.

In 2020, Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef are aiming to succeed their target of 100 reefs photographed.

At Passions of Paradise, the census will be undertaken by their Master Reef Guide Russell Hosp, Kirsty Whitman and underwater photographer Sota Yamaguichi. Passions will be dedicating one day a week to passenger engagement. On this day, one of their master reef guides will offer passengers with cameras the opportunity to accompany them on a guided snorkel tour where the focus will be on capturing appropriate photos to assist with the census. With the assistance of the Master Reef Guide, the participating passengers can then upload the photos and reef site information while on the journey back to Cairns. Passions will also use the marine life presentation to education passengers about the census, encouraging them to jump on the website and view and rate other parts of the reef for themselves.

Passions are pleased to be part of such a huge collaboration. This census has received a vast amount of support across the board with major partners coming on board for this event. The opportunities to grow this year on year are endless, and Passions look forward to seeing expanding their involvement. Master reef guide Russell Hosp explained: “As we are only operating four days a week with lower numbers, this year is a good opportunity for us to trial the census engagement with passengers, to see how involved people actually want to be. Then perhaps next year you will be able to book a reef trip on Passions of Paradise that includes camera hire and census participation.� www.greatreefcensus.org

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