The usually sedate Kianinni Bay at Tathra in rough seas
Greetings all,
I don’t have to remind Sydney-siders how damn hot it was over the weekend but one thing is clear that the warmer weather signals the start of the summer holiday season and that can only mean one thing – more fishing on the way!
For a lot of people who haven’t dusted their rods off all year there is a temptation to pack the car and head off to the nearest rock ledge with no preparation apart from pulling into the petrol station for some frozen bait. Once at the chosen red hot rock spot they tend to throw caution to the wind and hug the edge of the rocks with little appreciation of the seas let alone knowing what the tides are likely to do throughout the day.
Now I must admit I didn’t really cut my teeth on rock fishing until my early 20’s but I’m thankful for the people I learned the craft with because we always made sure that safety was a priority. It may come as a surprise to a lot of people but this year in NSW alone between January to mid October 9 people lost their lives as a result of rock fishing. I haven’t got national figures but I can tell you between 1992 and 2000 there were 74 deaths in NSW due to rock fishing whilst Australia wide during the same period only 9 people died as a result of shark attacks!
So how can you play it safe when rock fishing?
The NSW DPI have released the following guidelines for safe rock fishing;
Never fish alone
Inform others of your plans
Wear light clothing and appropriate footwear
Carry safety gear
Observe first and fish later
Stay alert
Plan an escape route
They have also installed Angel Rings at 96 popular rock fishing spots in NSW. Let’s hope the vandals leave them all alone.
Oh, and for those of you that are interested there were actually 122 shark attacks in Australia between 1990 and 2008 but only 19 of those were fatal. When you consider that in less than 10 months in NSW alone we have lost 9 lives this year it’s easy to see why real fisho’s fear rocks more than they do sharks!
Let me know if the Angel Rings installed in your local rock spot are still in tact by clicking on the “no comments” button below. Also let me know if you don’t have any.
The broken English describes the impact of sunscreen
Greetings all,
Those of you following my posts and website www.skippermeggs.com will know that recently I had the pleasure of going on a cruise on the good ship Pacific Dawn. We visited four ports of call one of which was a small island called Lifou in New Caledonia where we were able to hire some snorkel equipment and explore their coral reefs.
On the main part of the island where most people went to snorkel you couldn’t help but notice that there were several signs asking people who snorkeled in the area to protect their coral reefs by not wearing sunscreen. Now I must admit I was a little sunburned myself already from swimming off Wala in Vanuatu a few days earlier and I planned to wear a t-shirt regardless of the signs posted. Selfishly I also thought that it would be much better for me to save myself from additional skin cancers than to worry about the potential impact on the local coral. Besides, I was quite taken aback with the idea that sunscreen was a coral killer and my first reaction was one of disbelief and much skepticism. With so much coral in Australia I thought I would have heard about any connection between dead coral and the use of sunscreen by swimmers and snorkelers.
So was this just an error of judgment from the Lifou locals or was there some substance in their warnings?
Well it seems as though I owe an apology to the people of Lifou and that you should seriously reconsider your use of sunscreen when it comes to swimming or snorkeling around coral reefs in any part of the world.
Apparently there are four common ingredients in most brands of sunscreen; paraben and UV filters cinnamate, benzophenone, and a camphor derivative and these elements can awaken viruses that lie dormant in an algae that commonly forms a symbiotic relationship amongst reef building corals. The algae is called zooxanthellae.
What happens is once the virus is triggered it replicates until the algae explodes thus transferring the virus across the coral reef. The ultimate impact is the bleaching of coral. Reef areas commonly frequented by swimmers and snorkelers are said to contain 15 times more of the virus than unexposed regions. With up to 6000 metric tons of sunscreen washing off swimmers each year this phenomena is alarming and impacting coral reefs worldwide.
So what can you do to protect yourself and the coral reefs?
Well I wouldn’t advocate going into the water unprotected. Try using other means to cover up with items of clothing such as T shirts and rash vests or a wetsuit. There is some talk of a sunblock being manufactured that doesn’t impact coral reefs but as far as I am aware this is not available yet.
I’ve just come back from fishing down at Lambeth Park along the Georges River in south western Sydney after chasing some bream. I managed a couple of small fish but didn’t get anything of any size and I burleyed the water with a mixture of bread, prawn heads, oyster shells, sand and salt water for a few hours all to no avail.
Whilst I was there I did notice that there was a lot of activity at certain times with fish jumping out of the water left right and centre so I thought a good topic for discussion would be to try and explain why fish jump. When you think about it all manner of fish jump out of water – everything from your humble goldfish in your freshwater tank to whales. There’s not too many whales in the Georges River and thankfully no goldfish either but still the likes of mullet and bream put on a show from time time jumping out of the water when you least expect it. So why is this so?
Ok, there are several schools of thought….
Some marine biologists believe that some species of fish jump out of the water to help them loosen their eggs prior to spawning (eg the salmon) or to get rid of certain parasites like sea lice or suckers like remoras. Another popular belief is that jumping out of the water and crashing back down is a great way for a fish to scratch itself! Some fish eg Coral Trout rush out of the water as part of their mateship and courtship ritual and some scientists even believe that such behaviour in larger fish may be due to the assertion of dominance amongst a school to attract a mate.
A popular reason for jumping fish is that some fish feed on insects that lie on top of of the water and when they see them they jump out of the water to catch them. This theory obviously has some merit as there a number of fish including trout that feed in this manner.
Of course some fish jump to move away from predators and this is a common sight when you are fishing offshore with both prey and predators jumping in and out of the water in a battle for survival.
But for me there is one major reason why certain fish jump out of water – it’s because they can! The higher up the food chain you go the ability for creatures to run around and have fun and expel excess energy by exertion through running, jumping or playing is commonplace. I firmly believe that most of the fish I see in the Georges River jumping are simply enjoying themselves being a fish.
In some places in the world jumping fish can be quite dangerous. Remember there was a fatality a few years back when a woman was struck by a stingray when it jumped out of the water and struck her whilst she was on a boat that was powering through the water in the Florida Keys.
The final reason as to why a fish would jump is so that it can get away from a disturbance in the water. When the population of fish is so dense that it is impossible for them to make headway jumping seems an easier alternative. Some leaping fish are serial pests and lets hope we never experience a carp invasion in the Georges River like the one below in Illinois….
Skipper Meggs crew in Lifou with the Pacific Dawn in the background
Greetings all,
Well what a couple of weeks it has been – with Skipper Meggs and his family celebrating his daughter’s 21st birthday on the high seas with the sensational P&O team and the Pacific Dawn. For those of you that have never been on a cruise I can thoroughly recommend it – the staff are absolutely fantastic and there is just too much to do on and off the ship to possibly fit everything in. My special thanks go out to people like Cheryl on the front desk, Madlene in the casino bar, croupiers Joah, Bunny, Gerald and Preciville and of course our cleaner Roy.
We did have a bit of a false start and lost a day of the trip which meant that we bypassed Luganville which was unfortunate because I had a mate who ran a plantation across from there on Aore Island and I was looking forward to that port of call. Anyway there is a different reason for this post…
Many years ago I read a book called “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston and I always remember the opening where he paints a picture of a guy on a plane throwing up in a brown paper bag. He describes in detail how a disease can travel around the globe quite easily if the germ associated with it spreads through a plane full of people simply by having them breathe it in. An airborne virus could have tragic results.
So what has this to do with The Pacific Dawn?
Well the ship has been made infamous in the past with its connection to Swine Flu and I’m not making any accusations that there is still evidence of any continued epidemic on board. What I will say is that all three people in my cabin and several others in nearby ones were all struck down by a mystery bug that caused vomiting, diarrhea and flu like symptoms (sore throat, cold, runny nose etc). None of our crew took advantage of a rumored $500+ doctor visit and diagnosis and the illness took place on the second or third last day of the trip. The staff explained to us that it was just sea sickness but clearly this wasn’t the case. I for one love the sea and the rocking of the boat actually sends me to sleep. I didn’t even notice any movement of the ship whilst I was sick because I was too worried about throwing up again! Both my mother (a veteran of many cruises without any hint of sea sickness) and I fell ill last Thursday night vomiting and going to the toilet every hour. My wife fell ill the following night.
I mus be one of the very few people in the world to have spent 10 days on a cruise and actually lose weight!
To further prove the point that it couldn’t have been sea sickness I got a call from my son last Sunday claiming he had “Land sickness” with the exact same symptoms as us. A few days later his prospective in-laws fell ill as well.
The dynamics of the cruise are thus; roughly 2000 passengers and 700 staff visiting 4 ports of call across a ten day cruise. The cleaning staff are fantastic. It was said that one guy’s cleaner was so good that when he went to the toilet in the middle of the night he came back and his bed was made! The cruises turnaround pretty quickly – they come into port one day and are gone the next. The cabins aren’t tiny but it’s not as if you can open a port hole to let some air in either. I’m not sure I’d like to be amongst the bunch of people staying in our cabin for the next trip and I wonder about the history of our room before we got on board.
Anyway, like I said – we did have a ball! I was upset that I couldn’t get to eat the chili mud crab at the Steak House because of my wife and I’s illness. I would have no hesitation in recommending the cruise and the Pacific Dawn to everyone and the proof of this is the answer to the question would I ever go again?
Too right I would!
If you’ve had a similar experience on the Pacific Dawn or any other cruise liner let me know by sending through your comments below.
