Dive Pacific Iss174 April, May, June 2020

ISSUE 174 - $9.90 inc GST 

April / May 2020 

NEW ZEALAND'S DIVE MAGAZINE 

NEW ZEALAND’S ONLY DIVE MAGAZINE 

P A C I F I C 


Turtle tagging 

adrenalin! 

P A C I F I C 

What makes the Poor 

Knights really unique? 

Why did 

DiveCat sink? 

www.Dive-Pacific.com 

Will Councils get a greenlight to close a fishery near you? 

Who are our female dive pioneers & heros? Have your say! 

Pyrolising plastics: A method to solve Pacific wastes? 

Spearfishers Notebook: North Island champs 

www.dive-pacific.com 1

contents 

12 

16 

IN DEPTH 

3 EDITORIAL: Getting out there when you are told not to 

Editor Gilbert Peterson 

SOUNDINGS Local and international news & comment 

2 Freediver drowned, with weight belt on: Coroners report 

5 Millions of dead tuatua wash up in Northland; 

6 A tribute for Steve Mercer, former NIWA dive leader 

7 Large find of freshwater off Canterbury coast 

8 Recovery effort for lost diver; World’s largest fish spotted in Bay of 

Plenty; Underwater Tour photo competition 

22 

9 Tubeworms in Gulf celebrated 

10 Motiti reef case has wide implications: Could councils could get the 

power to close a coastal fishery near you? 

21 Unknown species turn up on TV footage 

24 Greenland’s ice melting seven times faster than in 1990s; Tokelau 

gets new school boat; 

25 Methane from humans vastly underestimated, Tahiti to host surf 

Olympics 

SPECIAL FEATURES 

11 BACK IN THE DAY: Conservation Crisis - a feature from Jacques 

Cousteau 

26 

32 The Americans have lauded their women pioneer dive heros; 

who are ours? Dive Pacific needs your suggestions about who we 

should be recognising locally. Please send us your nominations! 

34 “I’ll never eat squid rings again!” writes Sarah Ford entranced by the 

egg laying behaviour of squid at Rajah Ampat 

36 Underwater 3D mapping. Case study: The Defender in Wellington 

harbour. MARINE ARCHAEOLOGY 

BUCKET LIST DESTINATIONS 

16 Are the Poor Knights really unique in the world? An unqualified 

Yes! from Australians Nigel Marsh & Helen Rose. ‘World class’ and 

‘incredible’ are other words that came to mind 

58 

26 The Solomon Islands, the perfect dive holiday destination… 

Waterfalls, caves, jungle walks, village markets, WWII relics, endless 

snorkelling… 

38 Turtle tagging, and tracking them – one of many vivid reasons why 

the Arabian Gulf holds such a fascination. 

2 Dive New Zealand | Dive Pacific


P A C I F I C 


April / May 2020 

NEW NEW ZEALAND’S ZEALAND'S ONLY DIVE MAGAZINE 

P A C I F I C 



P A C I F I C 

Turtle tagging 

adrenalin! 

What makes the Poor 

Knights really unique? 

Why did 

DiveCat sink? 

Will Councils get a greenlight to close a fishery near you? 

Who are our female dive pioneers & heros? Have your say! 

Pyrolising plastics: A method to solve Pacific wastes? 

Spearfishers Notebook: North Island champs 

www.dive-pacific.com 1 

Cover photo by Winston Cowie 

Diving on them is the preferred, 

if not the only way to catch a 

Greenback turtle. Its done to 

tag them with a transponder so 

they can be tracked, and their 

numbers and health monitored, 

in the Arabian Gulf as well as 

elsewhere. 

24 

38 

OUR EXPERT COLUMNISTS 

4 Diamonds and crayfish are our friends! LEGASEA UPDATE 

22 The North Island champs at Kapiti 

SPEARO’S NOTEBOOK! with Jackson Shields 

47 The Marblefish 

SPECIES FOCUS with Paul Caiger 

48 Disinfect your gear, especially rented regulators! Also, how to 

evaluate an unfamiliar dive operator 

INCIDENT INSIGHTS with DAN, the Divers Alert Network 

50 Should divers monitor their own bubbles? 

DIVE MEDICINE with Prof Simon Mitchell 

52 SHADES OF COLOUR: 

More stunning images from our regular photo competition 

34 

56 Lightness & contrast 

DIGITAL IMAGING with Hans Weichselbaum 

58 Let’s head underwater! (We’re done with the basics) 

BACK TO BASICS Underwater Photography, 

A Practical Guide for Beginners 

by Alexey Zaystev. Translated from Russian exclusively for DIVE PACIFIC 

GEAR BAG 

44 Applying pyrolysis to plastic wastes could be an answer to the 

Pacific’s wastes; resorts & dive operators could demonstrate their 

environmental credentials. Spinlock inflatable life jackets; PBZ 

metal detector; first kiwi diesel electric hybrid cat. 

62 Classifieds 

32 

Check out our website www.divenewzealand.co.nz 

Dive Pacific magazine is available in the lounges & 

inflight libraries of these airlines. 


SOUNDINGS 

LOCAL NEWS 

Freediver found to have drowned: Coroner 

freediver drowned when 

A diving off the coast of Titi 

Island in the Marlborough Sounds 

on January 2 nd 2018, the coroner 

has found based on a pathologist’s 

post mortem report. 

The coroner records that Robert 

McNab, 25, a farmer, had been free 

diving for about five years and had 

done so in Northland, Kaikoura 

and the Catlins. 

On January 2 nd Mr McNab was 

wearing a two piece camouflage 

wetsuit, booties, fins, a weight belt, 

mask and snorkel, and dive gloves. 

He had a dive knife attached to 

his right leg, carried a carbon 

speargun attached to a float, and 

a catch bag. At 2pm he entered 

the water with two others who 

were scuba diving. Shortly after 

the scuba divers surfaced, about 

40 minutes later, Mr McNab’s float 

was still visible but when that was 

retrieved it was found to have only 

the catch bag attached with the 

speargun at the other end. 

Emergency services were called at 

3.30pm, and the spot marked with 

a buoy. Though the search began 

right away, and with Police and the 

Coastguard arriving by 5 pm, it was 

not until the following day that the 

Police National Dive Squad (PNDS) 

located Mr McNab’s body at 12m 

depth. He was lying on his back 

wearing all of his dive equipment, 

including the weight belt, and was 

not entangled. 

The coroner said he is satisfied 

there is nothing suspicious to 


report. So could the death have 

been prevented? 

Conditions at Titi Island at the 

time were flat, with the current 

and tide not strong. Wind speed 

was 10 knots. Visibility underwater 

was 10-15 metres. 

Likewise there was nothing about 

Mr McNab’s gear that may have 

contributed. Except that his weight 

belt had a traditional buckle 

design, not a quick release. The 

buckle would require two hands to 

release it and may have hampered 

his ability to release it quickly. It 

was also suggested to Police that 

Mr McNab may have been over 

weighted. The coroner writes: 

“Mr McNab’s failure to abandon 

his weights could indicate a very 

sudden event that overcame him. 

This could have been due to panic, 

running out of air, rushing to try 

and reach the surface, or lacking 

sufficient experience to recognise 

the situation he was in. There is 

no evidence of any supervening 

medical event.” 

The PNDS advised the coroner 

of the risk in blacking out or 

becoming unconscious in the 

water when the brain becomes 

hypoxic (lacks oxygen). The 

coroner also records the risks 

associated with hyperventilating 

…He was lying on his back wearing all of his dive equipment, 

including the weight belt, and was not entangled… 

just before free diving, as advised 

by the PNDS. The report notes that 

the result of hyperventilation is a 

rapid decrease of carbon dioxide 

in the bloodstream. “As carbon 

dioxide causes the urge to breathe, 

decreasing it in the bloodstream 

shortly before a dive tricks the 

body into thinking it does not 

really need to breathe. However, 

hyperventilation does not increase 

the oxygen levels to compensate 

and those levels decrease as 

…The coroner also records the risks associated with 

hyperventilating just before free diving… hyperventilation does 

not increase the oxygen levels … and those levels decrease as 

normal, but without the safety mechanism of the high carbon 

dioxide resulting in ‘the need to breathe’ reflex… 

normal, but without the safety 

mechanism of the high carbon 

dioxide… resulting in the ‘need to 

breathe’ reflex. It is impossible to 

know whether Mr McNab hyperventilated 

on the day he died but 

his inability to seek help when he 

was in difficulty is consistent with 

a sudden vent, such as shallow 

water blackout.” 

NB Dive Pacific will be posting the 

full report on our website: 

www.dive-pacific.com 

P A C I F I C 

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P A C I F I C 

April / May 2020 Issue 174 


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P A C I F I C 

Diver Emergency Number, New Zealand : 

0800 4 DES 11 1800 088 200 (toll free) 

Australia : +61-8-8212 9242 

Publisher 

Gilbert Peterson +64 27 494 9629 

Dive Publishing 

11 Zealandia Road, Manly, Whangaparaoa, 

Auckland, New Zealand 0930 

divenz@divenewzealand.co.nz 

Advertising Sales Manager 

Colin Gestro +64 272 568 014 

colin@affinityads.com 

Art Director 

Mark Grogan +64 9 262 0303 

bytemarx@orcon.net.nz 

Printed by Crucial Colour Ltd 

Retail distribution 

NZ: Ovato NZ Ltd 

All rights reserved. Reprinting in whole 

or part is expressly forbidden except 

by written permission of the publisher. 

Opinions expressed in the publication are 

those of the authors and not necessarily 

the publishers. All material is accepted in 

good faith and the publisher accepts no 

responsibility whatsoever. 

www.DiveNewZealand.co.nz 


Registered Publication 

Dive Pacific ISSN 2624-134X (print) 

ISSN 2324-3236 (online) 


Getting out there when 

you’re told not to? 

During the lock down for this 

Covid-19 derangement we’re 

all deep into, we don’t get to 

do the fun stuff. Officially it’s not a 

four week, or longer, holiday. We’re 

to stay in our own bubble of family, 

whanau, or usual household group 

and keep a two metre gap from all 

others at all times. Very nearly all 

of us understand why this is, and 

remarkably, very nearly all of us are 

on board with it. But cancelling the 

fun is rough, and tough. 

What happens after some days of 

isolation when some of us, out of 

sheer frustration, break the isolation 

rule, just to get out and away. 

Many of us feel we just have to get 

outside for a walk in a park or bush 

track nearby. If others turn up we 

can still keep a two metre distance 

from them. 

When it was much worse 

Right now I’m reading The Kiss of 

the Mango by Albert Wendt, ONZ, 

and I’m up to where the Spanish 

flu pandemic of 1918 is about to 

impact. The novel takes a marvellous 

sweep through the lives of two 

or three generations over 100 years 

ago. New Zealand administrators 

allowed the SS Talune to dock in 

Apia though they knew the disease 

was on board, and the devastating 

effects it would likely have. The 

epidemic killed 8500 Samoans, 22% 

of the population, nearly as many 

as the 9000 who succumbed in New 

Zealand, my grandmother among 

them, one of at least 50 million who 

died worldwide, more than the toll 

from WW1. 

What to do 

When I began writing this in 

mid-March I was going to suggest 

you shouldn’t cancel your plans 

to go diving at an exotic location 

any time soon. BUT, I was going 

to suggest, do make your destination 

somewhere nearby, like the 

Poor Knights, or even Niue, the 

Solomons, or Tahiti. That’s all out 

the window of course. Now, instead, 

what we can do is get into some 

advanced research and planning on 

where, once this crisis passes, we 

can go and dive in future. Once this 

is over our Pacific neighbours will 

greet your visit with open arms. 

They will look forward to your visit, 

and love to see you more than ever. 

Also between then and now you 

might go want to go through all 

those dive photos you haven’t 

properly archived yet. And/or get 

your gear maintenance regime up 

to speed. 

Our shout 

You will see in this issue we 

have few ads. It’s no surprise 

that travel and all event 

advertising, on which Dive 

Pacific relies heavily, has been 

cancelled. 

TecfestNZ won’t happen til 

next year around this time, the 

Underwater Tour likewise. The 

Spearfishing National champs are 

gone (though we have an excellent 

report on the North Island champs 

in this issue) as is the Whitianga 

Dive Festival. It’s unfortunate 

and sad. And it means we will 

be making an extra big effort to 

promote them when they are 

rescheduled, urging everyone to get 

out and enjoy them all the more, 

because by then all of us will be 

extremely aware we can never take 

such opportunities for granted! 

The lack of ads means this edition 

of Dive Pacific is delivered at considerably 

less than it cost to produce. 

But we know too, that as you 

self-isolate, you’ll appreciate all 

the more the extraordinary photos 

and stories you’ll find here, to keep 

you engaged with the wonders, and 

responsibilities we all have to the 

oceans underwater. 

- Gilbert Peterson 

Editor 


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Sidemount 

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What's it like starting out with diving? 

The wrecks of Solomon Islands 

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Has Photoshop killed off the photographer's skill? 

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DIVE NZ D167.indd 1 20/11/18 5:50 PM 


LegaSea Update 

Diamonds and crayfish are 

our friends 

If diamonds are a girl’s best 

friend then crayfish must 

be a diver’s best friend. And 

no matter where you go around 

the country crayfish is a significant 

species for environmental, 

customary, recreational and 

commercial fishing interests. 

Recently our fisheries team 

submitted proposals in response 

for the future management of 

crayfish in Northland, Gisborne, 

Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Otago 

and Southland. We made 15 

recommendations to the Minister 

in the interests of both rebuilding 

our depleted crayfish stocks and 

doing more to protect existing 

stocks. The Minister, Stuart Nash, 

is due to make a decision by 

April. 

This submission process was a 

prime opportunity to collaborate 

with other representative 

organisations including the 

New Zealand Angling & Casting 

Association, New Zealand 

Underwater Association and 

Spearfishing New Zealand. By 

working together we were able 

to incorporate valuable feedback 

into our submission. 

Crayfish management 

Before any new catch increases 

are granted Stuart Nash must 

revoke the concession that allows 

commercial fishers to take male 

crayfish down to 52mm tail 

width, which is smaller than the 

recreational minimum legal size. 

These concessions impact on the 

Gisborne, Otago and Southland 

fisheries and they are no longer 

valid and are unfair. 

Affected areas 

The current status of the 

Southland stock, extending 

from Slope Point, Invercargill, 

to Fiordland is uncertain. It 

used to be a very large stock 

where commercial catch rates 

are the highest in the country. 

The concession must be revoked 

before Nash grants any more 

catch increases. 

The status of the Otago stock 

around the Dunedin coastline 

is also uncertain. We submitted 

against any catch increases 

there because history shows that 

annual commercial catches over 

120 tonnes cannot be sustained 

for long before cuts are required. 

For years the stock from Hawke’s 

Bay to Wellington was the 

second largest in Aotearoa. But 

abundance and catches have 

varied over the past decade and 

in our view it would be risky for 

Stuart Nash to increase commercial 

catches without updated 

information. 

From Gisborne to East Cape the 

fishery is declining. The catch 

is mostly males and the stock 

is estimated to be around 18% 

of unfished levels. Significant 

reductions in catch and the 

removal of the concession are 

required to rebuild crayfish 

numbers. 

We supported the proposed 16% 

commercial catch reduction in 

Northland, although this will 

only hold the stock at its current 

state, which is close to its lowest 

ever level. On the east coast the 

abundance of male crayfish was 

estimated to be below 10% of its 

original, unfished level. 

In the past crayfish were 

abundant and an integral species 

in the coastal ecosystem. It’s 

a concern that years of large 

catches have depleted rock 

lobster abundance in many areas 

accessible to the public. 

Irrespective of whether you 

treasure diamonds above 

crayfish, both are expensive and 

beyond the means of many New 

Zealanders. 

What we need now is more 

precautionary management. This 

would give us all access to more 

abundant fisheries, a healthier 

marine environment, and better 

fishing for everyone. 

More info 

Crayfish management submission 

– February 2020 

https://tinyurl.com/r7bopa 

Crayfish submission 1-page 

summary – February 2020 

https://tinyurl.com/qvum7ll 

Want to help? 

If you want to help this 

ongoing effort, please support 

us. 

www.legasea.co.nz/support-us/ 

Photo: Sam Wild 


Millions of dead tuatua litter 

Northland coastline 

Whangarei resident Lisa Hoeta 

was visiting the beach at 

Ahipara on Ninety Mile Beach 

when she was shocked to see the 

beach littered with millions of dead 

tuatua. 

The event occurred a week after 

half a million green-lipped mussels 

perished in hot weather combined 

with low tides on the same coastline. 

Hoeta said she visited the beach 

over two days, and on the first day 

the tuatua had popped through 

increasing.” 

Auckland University marine scientist 

Dr Andrew Jeffs said the forces 

that killed green-lipped mussels 

along the same coastline a week ago 

were likely to be the same behind 

the mass shellfish mortalities. 

“The mostly baby tuatua are 

basically getting too hot and 

stressed in the sun.” 

However, he said it may also be 

linked to other effects such as the 

region’s drought. “The nutrient 

SOUNDINGS 

LOCAL NEWS 

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Millions of dead tuatua on Northland’s west coast could be caused by climate change 

their burrows beneath the sand and 

were all over the beach. 

On the second day the beach was 

covered in sea birds and crabs out 

to make the most of the shellfish 

spread. Hoeta said the beach was 

covered with them for several 

kilometres. 

Coastal science professor Chris 

Battershill said the mass deaths 

of tuatua were linked to extended 

periods of extreme weather 

connected with climate change. 

“There have certainly been die-offs 

in the past and sometimes they 

grow to huge densities then become 

weak through lack of food. So when 

a hot spell occurs, they succumb. 

The issue is that the frequency of 

these die-off events seems to be 

supply that promotes the growth of 

microscopic plants that the tuatua 

filter feed may have been short of 

nutrients given the lack of rain in 

the North which washes nutrients 

off the land and into the sea. This 

could have also contributed to this.” 

He said we are likely to see more 

events like this. 

In March 2017, millions of tuatua 

died and washed ashore at Waihi 

which research confirmed was the 

result of strong sea swells. There 

were no sea swells recorded for the 

Ahipara event. 

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SOUNDINGS 

LOCAL NEWS 

A tribute to Steve Mercer 

(Former National Dive Safety Officer, National 

Institute of Water & Atmosphere - NIWA) 

by Kevin McQuillan 

“Would I consider it? I’d bite your 

hand off to go down there,” Steve 

Mercer told a group of scientists 

from Auckland University. 

The scientists had just been 

given permission to dive under 

the polar ice in the Antarctic and 

were finalising their logistics for 

the project. They had approached 

the Navy to assist but this was 

July in 1985 and the French 

Secret Service had bombed the 

Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow 

Warrior in Auckland Harbour. 

The navy was pre-occupied with 

helping track down the French 

perpetrators. They told the scientists 

to come back next year. 

…Right from the moment 

I jumped in the water I 

absolutely loved it… 

“But you can’t really say that to 

a scientist,” Steve said, “so the 

next level down was a civilian 

government diver and they asked 

us if we would consider going to 

Antarctic. 

“I was Diving Instructor for 

Ministry of Agriculture & 

Fisheries, (MAF now MPI) at 

the time,” Steve said. “We were 

regarded as a civilian government 

diving course and that 

carried some weight with other 

government departments.” 

The Antarctic dive in 1985 led 

onto great things, Steve said, 

because it enabled me to develop 

a training programme which we 

put in place for everybody who 

went down to Antarctica. The 

training took place at Lake Alta, 

a glacial lake at Queenstown, 

where they could simulate 

Antarctic conditions. 

Steve did more 

than 100 dives 

in the Antarctic 

between 1985 with 

his last one in 2003. 

“It was a little bit 

scary – can’t deny 

that. Had to drill 

a hole. Minimum 

thickness of the ice 

is two metres. Solid 

like the size of a 

room, and you have 

to ensure the hole is consistently 

wide enough to get down. 

“Then when you jump in, you are 

roped up. Sometimes you have 

communications so you can talk 

to the team; otherwise you are 

using lifeline signals, bells and 

pulls which is often sufficient to 

communicate with.” 

The main research assignment 

was to look at gradient changes 

from as far south as possible 

which was Scott Base, through to 

the northern end of Antarctica. 

Divers would film the ocean 

floor and collect core samples for 

analysis back in New Zealand. 

…I trusted him completely, and 

he gave me the chance to step 

up in the scientific diver field… 

Steve’s diving career began 

in 1972 when he joined the 

then Marine Department as a 

Technical Trainee. In July 1974 

he went to Devonport to do the 

three-week navy diving course. 

“Right from the moment I 

jumped in the water I absolutely 

loved it,” he said. 

Steve retired as the National 

Dive Safety Officer for MAF and 

Steve Mercer in Antarctica 

then from NIWA. At one time, he 

was responsible for 100 scientific 

divers. 

“The administration of diving 

is to make sure your divers get 

out and come back safely so I got 

involved with setting standards 

and codes of practice.” 

Steve was also heavily involved 

in the shellfish research group, 

primarily supporting paua stock 

assessment surveys. 

“It would always be weather 

dependent because we’d be 

working in Fiordland, Stewart 

Island, or on the Catlins coast, 

none of which have really stable 

weather patterns,” he said. 

His successor at NIWA, Crispin 

Middleton, says, “Without Steve 

scientific diving in New Zealand 

would probably be very different. 

By creating training for and by 

scientists, he really opened up 

research under our oceans.” 

Anne-Maree Schwarz, now 

with the Fisheries Ministry in 

Solomon Islands, said, “I often 

remember Steve’s calm support 

when we first started diving 

under the ice. I trusted him 

completely, and he gave me the 


Large freshwater find off Canterbury coast 

Scientists have discovered an 

extensive body of freshwater 

off the Canterbury coast between 

Timaru and Ashburton. 

NIWA marine geologist Dr Joshu 

Mountjoy says the discovery is 

one of the few times a significant 

offshore aquifer has been located 

around the world and may lead to 

a new freshwater resource for the 

region. 

The aquifer lies just 20 metres 

below the seafloor making it one 

of the shallowest in the world. It 

extends up to 60 kilometres from 

the coastline and may contain as 

much as 2000 cubic kilometres 

of water, equivalent to half the 

volume of groundwater across 

Canterbury. 

The aquifer is being replenished 

partly by groundwater flow from 

the coastline between Timaru 

and Ashburton though most of it 

became trapped offshore during 

the last three ice ages when the 

sea level was more than 100 

metres lower than it is today. 

The offshore groundwater was 

a chance find when a scientific 

drilling project in 2012 found 

brackish water 50km off the coast 

about 50m below the seafloor. 

Dr Mountjoy says that discovery 

led to a 2017 voyage in which 

scientists collected electromagnetic 

data recording variances in 

resistivity which is strongly influenced 

by the amount of salt in 

the water locked up in sediments 

beneath the seafloor. This was 

then integrated with seismic 

reflection profiling and numerical 

modelling to determine the 

amount of freshwater beneath 

the seabed. 

The findings have just been 

published in leading scientific 

journal Nature Communications. 

Dr Mountjoy says, “If you’re going 

to manage the groundwater on 

shore and near the coast, you 

SOUNDINGS 

LOCAL NEWS 

need to understand what the 

downstream limits are.” 

The next step is to take samples 

for analysis. “At the moment we 

have used remote techniques, 

modelling and geophysics. We 

really need to go out there and 

ground-truth our findings and 

we are investigating options for 

that.” 

“Hawke’s Bay is an (other) 

example of a region needing to 

manage what they’re dealing 

with onshore. They’ve only got 

half the picture if they don’t 

know how far out it goes, and 

how much is leaking into the 

ocean.” 

The study is an outcome of the 

MARCAN project funded by the 

European Research Council, 

the NZ Ministry of Business, 

Innovation and Employment, US 

National Science Foundation and 

the German Research Foundation. 

http://www.nature.com/ncomms 

chance to step up in the scientific 

diver field. 

“He is proof of how men could 

support gender equality in a time 

when not so many men were.” 

…The moment I met him, 

I instantly gravitated to his 

passion for diving, safety and 

adventure… 

Dr Ashley Coutts, Managing 

Director of Tasmanian-based 

Biofouling Solutions Pty Ltd, 

recalls: “The moment I met him, 

I instantly gravitated to his 

passion for diving, safety and 

adventure.” 

NIWA colleague, Rod Budd, 

remembers when Steve left him 

in charge of the dive ops. “I was 

simultaneously honoured and 

terrified, but it sent me down 

a path that has become very 

important to me.” 

So did he ever dive for pure 

pleasure? 

“I always wanted to dive for 

pleasure. It was a matter of 

fitting it in with the family. My 

wife, Liz, wasn’t a diver and I felt 

it was a bit selfish of me to go 

away.” 

His best scuba diving in New 

Zealand was his last one, 2007, 

when he attended a South Pacific 

Medical Society conference in 

Tutukaka, Northland. 

“Each day we had two dives at 

the Poor Knights. Brilliant dives, 

fantastic conditions.” 

He’d always been an outdoors 

man. From the cubs, scouts, 

adventurers. His father, Laurie, 

encouraged him to go tramping 

and Steve surfed with school 

mates. He was also a keen sailor, 

a 4WD enthusiast and a ham 

radio operator. And an active 

member of Search and Rescue 

Wellington. 

Steve died on March 2nd at 

his home in Waikanae from 

leukaemia, leaving behind Liz, 

two children and three grandchildren. 

Our thought are with 

them. 

Dan Forsman of the NZ 

Academy of Diving writes: 

I remember Steve fondly as the 

President of the Dive Industry 

Training Organisation, a position 

I assumed until its move to 

become the Dive Training 

Council, and he was a great 

advisor on matters diving though 

I had not seen him for about 10 

years or so (even if we two didn’t 

agree on the skills requirements 

for science divers.) 

Steve was a great and positive 

dive industry colleague and a 

major figure in the diving sector 

during my time which is over 

25 years now. 


SOUNDINGS 

LOCAL NEWS 

Recovery search for missing diver near 

Hen and Chicken Islands 

The search for a missing diver 

near the Hen and Chicken 

Islands in Northland soon became 

a recovery search. 

Police dive crews headed out on 

March 17th to resume the search 

for a man who was diving with a 

friend the day before. The alarm 

was raised just before 7.30pm that 

Nik Weyel, skipper of the Bay Explorer boat, was 

taking 19 passengers out to spot dolphins about 

11km off Mauao in the Bay of Plenty when they 

spotted a whale shark about noon on March 3rd. 

“We were out looking for dolphins.. there weren’t 

many dolphins out there,” Nik Weyel told journalist 

Zoe Hunter. “But then we came across this fin. I had 

never seen anything like it.” 

Weyel said the whale shark swam right up to the boat 

before going under it - that was when he got a closer 

look. 

Tauranga kayaker and marine conservationist 

Nathan Pettigrew who was on the Dolphin Seafaris, 

said whale sharks were uncommon in New Zealand. 

“But we do get them here. We have seen more of 

them because there are more people with phones and 

cameras to report them. 

night by his companion via a boat 

radio, after he failed to surface. 

Coastguard northern region duty 

officer, Nico Doodeman, said on 

the night of the incident, a rescue 

helicopter and two Coastguard 

vessels were called out to scour 

the area. The search was stood 

down about midnight, he said, 

then resumed at first light the next 

morning by air as well as on the 

water. 

“But there’s been no sign of him,” 

Doodeman said. 

All on-water searches were subsequently 

suspended though a dive 

crew was due to continue the 

search. 

World’s largest fish spotted in Bay of Plenty 

“But to put it into perspective, I have been doing this 

for years and it is the first I have seen a whale shark 

in New Zealand.” 

The whale shark was about 10 metres long 

Photo/Supplied 

Underwater Tour 2020 postponed, but... 

But….The Underwater Tour 

Awards international photography 

competition is well under 

way with entries closing on May 

30th 2020. Enter at 

www.underwatertour.com.au 

The organisers says that “due to 

the current international health 

situation we have taken the 

necessary steps to postpone the 

Underwater Tour 2020 for this 

year. The safety and health of our 

audience, speakers, partners and 

broader community near and far is 

of utmost importance.” 

“We thank our venues for working 

with us and are delighted to advise 

our esteemed international speakers 

and very valued partners have 

confirmed their ongoing presence and 

commitment. 

We are therefore pleased to reschedule 

our 2020 events for May 2021” 

Brisbane Thursday 13 May 

Sydney Friday 14 May 

Melbourne Saturday 15 May 

Adelaide Monday 17 May 

Perth Tuesday 18 May 

Auckland Thursday 20 May 

“We will of course honour all 

purchased tickets for our new 

dates and will be personally 

contacting all current ticket 

holders. These difficult times will 

no doubt pass and we look forward 

to brighter days ahead.” 

www.underwatertour.com.au 


SOUNDINGS 

LOCAL NEWS 

Tubeworm discoveries in Hauraki Gulf celebrated 

Scientists mapping the 

Hauraki Gulf seafloor 

have discovered huge 

colonies of tubeworms up 

to 1.5 metres high covering 

hundreds of metres and 

providing vital habitats for 

plants and animals. 

This is the first time 

the tubeworms (species 

Galeolaria hystrix) which 

are invertebrates that 

anchor themselves to the 

sea floor, have been found 

north of the Marlborough 

Sounds in large colonies. 

But NIWA marine ecologist 

Dr Mark Morrison says 

they are likely to have 

always been there. 

The tubeworm colonies in the Gulf appeared as large, 

mysterious bumps during analysis of a multibeam 

mapping project being carried out by NIWA. The 

mapping uses multibeam echo sounders to emit a fan 

of sound beams to scan the seafloor. 

Dr Morrison sent a team of researchers to video areas 

where the bumps had been seen leading to discovery 

of field after field of tubeworms. 

“They’re quite solid because they’re made out of many 

colonies of worms growing on each other, generation 

after generation, When you get to the middle it’s like a 

whole lot of worm tubes fused together. They secrete 

calcium carbonate and the tubes fuse together so 

you’ve got these huge masses and, as they die new 

ones grow on top.” 

Dr Morrison said the tubeworm fields occur in depths 

between 12 to 22 metres and have so far been found 

around Pakatoa Island on the east side of Waiheke 

Island, and around Motumorirau Island, north of 

Coromandel Harbour. 

The colonies shelter fish such as bastard red cod, cusk 

fish and rockfish. 

“There is also heaps of stuff growing on them like red 

algae, sponges, sea squirts, hydroids, bryozoans, and 

feathery brittlestars. It’s what we call a biogenic reef, a 

living reef, with fish using it for cover and foraging,” Dr 

Morrison said. 

He said part of the value of the tubeworm fields is the 

structures they provide for other animals and plants 

to use. 

“I’m sure such biogenic reefs were once a lot more 

common before sedimentation, trawling, and dredging 

damaged them as we tend to find them next to islands 

or on slopes that are probably quite hard to fish, and 

away from some of the worst sedimentation in the 

Gulf and more out towards open water.” 

Dr Morrison said it was exciting to have found 

such unexpected diverse habitats in the Hauraki 

Gulf, which has undergone large scale environmental 

degradation. 

The multibeam sonar mapping was funded by 

Foundation North’s GIFT Fund, and the Auckland 

Council, Waikato Regional Council and NIWA 

Strategic Science Investment Fund. 

Dr Morrison said there was potential for the 

fields to be classified as significant ecological 

areas to help protect them. The colonies add a lot 

of value to the Gulf ecosystem and it’s important 

that the habitat isn’t destroyed, he said. 

Colonies of tubeworms 

More research is to be carried out to determine 

the tubeworm fields’ relative importance as fish 

nurseries, in particular for snapper. 


SOUNDINGS 

LOCAL NEWS 

Motiti reef case has wide implications 

Will your council get the power to close a fishery near you? 

Recent court decisions concerning waters around Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty 

have surprised the recreational fishing public in general and Legasea in particular 

by approving the ability for regional councils’ to control fishing under the Resource 

Management Act. The decisions mean there is potential for councils to close fishing 

areas in the territorial seas all around New Zealand. 

The detail of these court 

decisions and the actions that 

the NZ Sports Fishing Council 

is taking to protect recreational 

interests is on their website www. 

nzsportfishing.co.nz. In brief this 

is: 

1. NZSFC has received legal advice 

that it would be futile to seek 

to challenge the existing court 

decisions concerning Motiti. The 

best approach is to work with the 

Bay of Plenty Regional Council to 

monitor the situation and marine 

environment, while seeking the 

re-opening of these areas to low 

impact recreational fishing in due 

course. 

2. NZSFC has intervened in 

Environment Court cases in 

Northland and Taranaki which 

seek RMA fishing controls 

over large areas. NZSFC will be 

staunchly protecting recreational 

interests in these areas and liaising 

with local members as these cases 

move through the Court system. 

3. Regional Council decisions 

in Marlborough have endorsed 

benthic protection areas under 

the RMA, which show how RMA 

fishing controls could be used to 

limit the impact of destructive 

commercial fishing practices. 

NZSFC consider this is a model 

which could be adopted in the 

Northland and Taranaki regions. 

In NZSFC/Legasea’s view, resort 

to the RMA to try to protect 

marine ecosystems is yet another 

symptom of a failed quota 

management system and further 

evidence of the urgent need for 

comprehensive reform. 

Background - The Motiti 

Island marine protected area 

The shallow reef systems 

surrounding Motiti Island have 

long provided kaimoana to locals 

and the wider public. But over 

the last 30-40 years there has 

been a noticeable decline in the 

marine environment that the reefs 

support. 

In 2018 the Environment Court 

released an interim decision that 

found the outstanding attributes 

and values of these reef systems 

needed better protection. 

The 2018 decision was based 

on scientific evidence showing 

that the overfishing of snapper 

and crayfish has allowed kina 

to flourish which in turn are 

destroying the kelp forests that 

nurture other species. The Court 

indicated that the wider Motiti 

Natural Environment Management 

Area would require further scientific 

evidence before any additional 

controls could be considered. 

The decision also indicated that 

the Resource Management Act 

(RMA) was the appropriate legislation 

for this to happen under, with 

the Bay of Plenty Regional Council 

responsible for implementing this 

legislation in the Bay through its 

Regional Coastal Environment 

Plan. 

The 2018 interim decision 

proposed three protection areas 

be introduced around Motiti Island 

where the taking of all plants and 

animals (including fish and shellfish) 

would be prohibited due to 

their significant marine biodiversity, 

landscape and cultural values. 

Those three areas comprise some 

63.5 square kilometres and include 

Ōtaiti (Astrolabe Reef); including 

Te Papa (Brewis Shoal), Te Porotiti, 

and O karapu Reef, Motuhaku 

Island (Schooner Rocks) and 

Motunau Island (Plate Island). 

The use of the RMA to protect a 

marine environment, rather than 

the Fisheries Act was eventually 

debated in the High Court and later 

the Court of Appeal. The Court 

of Appeal released its landmark 

decisions on this on 4 November 

2019, decisions that clarify the 

ability of regional councils to 

manage indigenous biodiversity. 

In summary the Court found: 

• Regional Council can include 

rules in its Regional Coastal 

Environment Plan to manage the 

effects of fishing if it is for the 

purpose of maintaining indigenous 

biodiversity or other resource 

management purposes where 

there is evidence of adverse effects 

on values from fishing; 

• The ability of Council to apply 

controls is based solely on the 

maintaining of indigenous biodiversity; 

and 

• In maintaining indigenous biodiversity, 

an objective assessment 

is required that includes consideration 

of necessity, type, scope, 

scale and location. 

To meet these conditions research, 

along with consultation with mana 

whenua, and a public plan process 

would likely be required. 

Once the Bay of Plenty Regional 

Council receives the final 

Environment Court decision early 

this year it will need to amend 

the Regional Coastal Environment 

Plan as per the court’s instructions, 

which would then be sent to 

the Minister of Conservation for 

approval, and to make the rules 

operative and enforceable. 

If the Motiti protection areas are 

put in place by the courts, then 

the first opportunity for the public 

to influence the new rules would 

be when the Regional Coastal 

Environment Plan is next reviewed 

in 2029. 

The shallow reefs and rocky 

outcrops off Motiti are really 

highly-valued by fishers. If the 

changes go ahead many will be 

affected by them. 


The sinking of 

Dive Cat 

On Waitangi Day, February 6th, half way across the Hauraki Gulf, heading back 

from a successful day’s diving at Rosalie Bay in Great Barrier Island, 

at about 3.30 pm, Dive Cat began to sink. 

By Gilbert Peterson 


Owner for less than a year, 

Norman Holtzhausen was on 

board his pride and joy with the 

skipper and 11 divers made up of 

family, friends and clients. It had 

been a pleasing day out. Everyone 

had had two dives, with lots of 

crayfish to show for it. The return 

trip was to be about two and half 

hours. The wind was getting up 

more than forecast, to perhaps 

25 knots with a one metre swell’ 

not uncomfortable. Dive Cat was 

sweeping along at 9 to 10 knots. 

Passing across the top of the 

Coromandel and Norman notices 

the steering has become sloppy. 

They pull in at Port 

Jackson to take a closer 

look in calmer water. It 

turns out there has been 

a loss of hydraulic fluid 

somewhere inside the 

hull, but the leak cannot 

be identified. This is a two engine 

boat and of itself, the issue is not 

a major problem. They open the 

portside rear compartment hatch 

to get some aluminium with which 

to lock down the steering gear for 

the rest of the trip. The compartment 

is dry. From then on the 

boat will be steered by alternating 

motor speeds. After testing she 

responds well, and they head down 

past Colville towards the tip of 

Waiheke Island. 

The going is slower now. Using the 

throttles to steer the boat demands 

this, as does the swell right on the 

nose. After making about a third 

of the distance across to Waiheke 

Norman sees the boat is pulling 

to one side so they stop to adjust 

the position of one of the motors. 

It was then that Norman notices 

the stern is lower in the water than 

it should be. When they open the 

port side stern compartment hatch 

they now find it half full of water. 

Coastguard called 

Norman said. “I knew then we 

were in trouble. We called the 

Coastguard. It was about 5 pm. 

“We quickly moved as much 

weight as we could as far forward 

as possible, and we got everyone 

into lifejackets. We turned on the 

manual switch for the electric bilge 

pump but as the outlet was now 

below water we could not see if it 

was pumping effectively.” 

The question right away was: Why 

did the auto bilge pump alarm not 

come on as soon as water entered 

the compartment? The float switch 

controlling it must have become 

stuck. 

Norman said when we opened 

the hatch cover in the deck to 

inspect what was going on waves 

started breaking over the stern 

walk-through into the cockpit so 

we had to close it straight away. 

…By now people were working the manual pumps, and with the 

motors still running we kept our nose into the swell, heading towards 

Waiheke doing about five knots. But the stern was still going down… 

“By now people were working 

the manual pumps, and with 

the motors still running we kept 

our nose into the swell, heading 

towards Waiheke doing about five 

knots. But the stern was still going 

down.” 

Eventually the motors washed 

Norman Holtzhausen’s Dive Cat photographed shortly after survey 


out and died. They were just over 

half way to Waiheke, in about 45 

metres depth. 

Mayday? 

“I was just about to upgrade our 

call to Mayday,” Norman said, 

“when the Coastguard appeared on 

the horizon.” 

The Coastguard had been 

attending a fire on board an old 

tugboat at Kauri Point north east 

of the bridge in the Waitemata 

Harbour and when they got the call 

they immediately left the site - no 

one was on board the tug – to head 

for Dive Cat. 

The Coastguard quickly took 

everyone off the boat, initially not 

allowing anyone to take any gear 

with them at all. A discussion 

ensued then as to whether they 

might tow it since it appeared not 

in imminent danger of sinking. But 

the decision was made that the 

risk was too high. 

As the owner, Norman and his 

dive master were then permitted 

to return to the boat to offload any 

personal gear that could be easily 

removed, to put down the anchor, 

and turn on the anchor lights. 

None of the heavy dive gear – 

tanks, weights or regulators - were 

allowed to be taken off. 

The heavy dive gear was left onboard 

The abandoned Dive Cat begins to lest heavily to port 

Dive Cat remained afloat for 

at least another hour. Then its 

onboard GPS tracker went dead, 

indicating it had switched off. The 

boat had sunk. 

…Perhaps, once her port-side compartment filled with water 

she would have stood on her stern with her starboard bow 

high, before the pressure became too much… 

Everyone on board was taken to 

Tamaki to go ashore. No one had 

been injured in any way, though 

several people were certainly 

shaken by the experience. 

Why did the boat sink? 

Dive Cat had been in survey for 

more than 30 years. Her last 

inspection was just six weeks 

prior. 

After much reflection, and a lot of 

sleepless nights wondering what 

they might have done differently, 

Norman thinks multiple factors 

contributed to the accident. 

First, the standing wave rolling 

up against the stern became an 

issue when the steering problem 

resulted in the boat being unable 

to make its usual headway 

speed. The resulting water 

pressure initially forced water 

back into the bilge outlet, and 

later through the engine cable 

ducts as well. 

Crucially the bilge pump 

outlets in the stern were too 

low. Once the stern sank by 20 

cm they were below the waterline. 

This design flaw was not 

so important at higher speeds 

when the planning effect lifted 

the stern of the boat clear of the 

water. Also the outboard legs 

created a pressure wave which 

pressed up against the transom 

at low speeds. In addition the 


earlier conversion to outboards 

moved significant weight off 

the stern so she sat lower at the 

transom than originally designed. 

Then there was the failure of the 

bilge alarm which prevented the 

pumps from clearing the stern 

compartments. This meant that 

the skipper was unaware of the 

problem until there was sufficient 

water, and weight, on board to 

affect the boat’s handling. And 

there was no way to close off the 

transom at the stern; it should 

have had a drop-in gate for this. 

Question remains 

But the question still remains: Dive 

Cat had three watertight compartments, 

three sections lengthwise. 

Shouldn’t she have stayed afloat 

regardless of how much water was 

on her? 

The clinching explanation why 

this catalogue of circumstances 

compounded to cause the accident 

is, perhaps, that Dive Cat was 

originally designed for inboard 

engines. When she was converted 

to outboards in 1999 the centre 

of gravity of the boat was moved 

significantly towards the stern. 

Almost 400kg of each engine was 

located out where there was no 

direct buoyancy support. The 

result was that the rear compartment 

of just over a third of her 

length was supporting about half 

her weight. 

Norman thinks perhaps that 

once her port-side compartment 

filled with water she would 

have stood on her stern with her 

starboard bow high before the 

pressure became too much, and 

the remaining compartments also 

filled. Then she would have gone 

down stern first. 

What now? 

Yes the boat was insured, and 

Norman thinks the insurance 

should cover most of what is still 

owed to the bank. It won’t cover all 

the costs invested in finding the 

boat, fitting her out including the 

latest electronics and safety gear, 

the compliance and inspection 

costs, survey certificate, or any of 

the valuable dive gear that went 

down with her. Some individuals 

on board lost up to $15,000 worth 

of gear each. Dive Cat probably 

lies in the deepest part of the Firth 

of Thames which, at around 45 

metres, is well beyond the depth 

any recreational diver could safely 

attempt. Otherwise it’s too early to 

speculate on what attempt may be 

made, if any, of salvage. 

A future? 

In one sentence Norman says he is 

unsure if he has enough energy to 

get his nascent dive trip operation 

up and running again with a new 

boat. Then, almost in the same 

breath he starts talking about an 

electric powered catamaran being 

built in Tauranga that he has been 

invited to inspect. … All may not 

yet be lost. 


BACK IN THE DAY 

‘Conservation Crisis ’ 

A Special Report by Jacques-Yves Cousteau 

From Skin Diver magazine October 1978 

“It has been almost four years 

since SKIN DIVER magazine 

published an interview with me 

at the inception of the Cousteau 

Society. I expressed in that 

article my alarm at the cancerous 

growth of destruction in the 

sea and my worries that an 

uninformed public would not act 

in time to protect fragile marine 

systems. I wanted to communicate 

immediately with the dive 

community about our formation 

of a non-profit organisation 

devoted to protection of the water 

planet, because over the years, 

we divers have been a close 

family. Together we have discovered 

a new world, experiencing 

scenes and observing wildlife 

unknown to our fellow humans. 

We are a fraternity of explorers…. 

A great deal has transpired in 

four years and it is time for an 

update… and the environmental 

situation as we perceive it to be. 

hundreds of dives. 

During this study 

we were providing 

data for a United 

Nations study of 

permanent pollution 

in this closed 

sea, which is 

an approximate 

microcosm of the 

world ocean. But of 

equal importance – 

and greater excitement 

to our crewwe 

were asked to 

investigate 16 sites 

being considered 

as possible marine 

parks. 

…All of us who have actually been in the 

sea and witnessed its value, must unite to 

save it for our children… 

This was an enviable assignment, 

as you may imagine. Our 

divers looked forward to a 

kind of working vacation 

exploring rich habitats 

along sunny Mediterranean 

coasts. These are the waters 

which attracted all of us to 

diving, where Calypso and 

her crews first explored, 

where I taught my two sons 

to dive, where the groupers 

and octopuses and schools 

of mullet thrilled us., and 

fostered in us a deep love 

for the undersea world. 

Healthy systems have collapsed 

under an enormous assault from 

commercial overfishing, careless 

shoreline development, 

industrial 

waste, municipal 

sewage and agricultural 

chemicals. … 

as far as pollution is concerned, 

It is our feeling that divers are 

the first witnesses to the deterioration 

of the marine habitat. We 

are like sensors on the fingertips 

of humanity. Our crew recently 

completed a five month study of 

the Mediterranean Sea, making 

Consider then as fellow 

divers, our sorrow and our 

outrage at what we encountered 

in dive after dive. 

Of the 16 underwater 

areas proposed for marine 

parks because of their rare 

diversity and beauty (and 

of course importance!) all 

but five were so badly ravaged 

by human abuse that they were 

beyond protection. …. 

65% of the toxic products in the 

Mediterranean comes from land 

based sources…” 


The Poor Knights Islands 

Unique, and incredible 

By Nigel Marsh and Helen Rose 

A common sight are short-tailed stingrays gliding over the kelp 

Many dive destinations claim to be world class but to warrant the claim they need 

something that makes them unique. So do the Poor Knights really fit their billing? 

Kiwis take a natural and justified pride in this pristine marine park. Are they biased? 

And in any case how do the islands compare to other fabled dive hot spots elsewhere? 

We asked Nigel Marsh and Helen Rose - world travellers, highly experienced divers and 

award winning photographers based in Australia. What do they think? Do the Poor 

Knights measure up internationally? - This is their report. 


We have been lucky enough 

to dive around the world, 

visiting many of the top dive 

destinations and we can easily say 

the Poor Knights Islands ranks up 

there with the best of them. 

Located in a temperate zone, the 

islands are washed by a warm 

tropical current that makes the 

area seem more subtropical with 

a wonderful blend of endemic 

subtropical and temperate species. 

Add to this spectacular underwater 

terrains, good visibility and 

a pleasant water temperature and 

you have the right ingredients 

for a unique and world class dive 

destination. 

But you simply can’t compare the 

Poor Knights Islands to a tropical 

dive destination - they are so 

different. And it is the differences 

that makes them such a very 

special dive destination, one that 

all New Zealanders should be 

proud is fully protected for future 

generations to enjoy. 

We recently spent a week diving 

there with Dive! Tutukaka, 

reacquainting ourselves with this 

Photo Gilbert Peterson 

…We have dived other destinations with caves and arches, but the Poor Knights Islands stand 

out for their sheer number…. caves and arches much more colourful than those at many 

tropical destinations, decorated by sponges, anemones, algae, hydroids and bryozoans… 

wonderful dive destination after 

a 16 year absence. The diving 

has certainly got better in the 

interim. 

The sharpnosed puffer is a species that you would normally expect to see in 

subtropical waters 

For those that don’t know 

(which seems mainly our fellow 

Aussie divers judging by the 

complete lack of them) the Poor 

Knights Islands located north of 

Auckland are a marine reserve 

24km offshore. Several dive 

operators based in Tutukaka 

take divers out to explore this, 

New Zealand’s most popular 

dive destination. 

So let’s assess the factors that 

make the Poor Knights Islands 

world class. 


Location, location, 

location 

The first reason the Islands 

are so good is their location. 

The waters around them 

are nearly always clear with 

visibility typically around 

15m. They are also washed 

by the warm blue waters of 

the East Australian Current, 

made famous in the film 

Water temperatures 

around the islands are 

also more pleasant than 

most temperate dive 

destinations, from 22°C in 

summer to 16°C in winter. 

Not tropical but you simply 

wear a thicker wetsuit, 

and with so much to see 

the cooler water is quickly 

forgotten. 

…You simply don’t see so many morays hiding 

in holes, or swimming across the bottom, or 

draped around the kelp, anywhere elses… 

A Spanish lobster found hiding at Jan’s Tunnel 

Clown nudibranchs are just one of the invertebrate species 

Finding Nemo. This brings 

not only clear warm water, 

often raising the visibility 

to 30m, but deposits unique 

subtropical species on 

their rocky reefs. Many of 

these visitors have become 

permanent residents, but 

the current brings summer 

visitors too like manta rays 

and turtles. 

Colourful arches and 

caves 

Since the islands are the 

remnant of a super volcano 

formed 10 million years 

ago, the Poor Knights rise 

dramatically from the 

seafloor featuring spectacular 

walls, pinnacles, 

arches and caves. These 


Poor Knights 

A long-finned boarfish we encountered at Middle Arch 

features continue underwater, 

forming some of the most interesting 

underwater dive terrain 

in the world. We have dived 

other destinations with caves 

and arches, but the Poor Knights 

Islands stand out for their sheer 

number. On our recent trip we 

dived Northern Arch, Middle Arch, 

Blue Maomao Arch, Jan’s Tunnel 

and Sharkfin Cave, and there are 

many more. 

Wall-to-wall pink maomao in Northern Arch 

A new species recorded for the Poor Knights Islands 

is this y-patterned moray we found at Brady’s Corner 

These caves and arches are also 

much more colourful than those 

at many tropical destinations, 

decorated by sponges, anemones, 

algae, hydroids and bryozoans. 

Unique marine life 

For us the thing that most makes 

the Poor Knights Islands so special 

(and world class) is the unique 

marine life found there, a great 

mix of species you just don’t see 

in the tropics. The islands swarm 


Photo Gilbert Peterson 

Stingrays are a feature; short-tailed stingrays 

are at most dive sites on the islands, and the 

only place where they’re seen en masse. Large 

numbers of them gather in the current washed 

arches over the summer months. 

Even more unique are the moray eels, considering 

that moray eels are mainly found in 

tropical waters. Their number and variety is 

amazing. Six subtropical species are commonly 

found but during our visit we were lucky enough 

to encounter a seventh, the rare y-patterned 

moray. 

You simply don’t see so many morays hiding in 

holes, or swimming across the bottom, or draped 

around the kelp, anywhere else. 

Schools of blue maomao in Northern Arch 

with fishes, both pelagic and reef varieties. 

Seeing schools of maomao, snapper, demoiselle, 

koheru and kingfish at almost every dive site is a great 

treat, but the resident reef fishes 

are also wonderful and highly 

photogenic, a fascinating blend 

of subtropical species such as the 

Lord Howe coralfish, and temperate 

species like the leatherjackets, 

moki and wrasses. 

Here we have covered five factors: Water 

visibility; arches, caves and tunnels; colourful 

sponges, hydroids, anemones…; teeming 

variety of pelagic and reef fish species, and 

nudibranchs; rays and morays. Nowhere else in 

the world can you experience all this, all in the 

one location. 

Visit www.diving.co.nz 

www.nigelmarshphotography.com 

A wall of lovely jewel anemones 

Added to them are the more 

unusual species like boarfish, 

conger eels, John dory, carpet 

sharks, eagle rays and bronze 

whaler sharks; you are guaranteed 

many wonderful fish encounters. 

And the islands are a great location 

to see unusual invertebrates such 

as nudibranchs too. 

Rays and morays 

Another factor elevating the Poor 

Knights Islands into a class of 

its own are the rays and morays. 


Underwater TV footage 

reveals new species 

collaboration between a television show and marine 

A scientists has led to the discovery of three species 

of fish at the Kermadec Islands not thought to live there, 

Newsroom reports. 

SOUNDINGS 

LOCAL NEWS 

The species were spotted after scientists spent hours 

reviewing raw footage a television crew filmed at the 

islands, 750 km northeast of New Zealand. The unusual 

collaboration between a film company and the now 

under threat Auckland science department at Massey 

University is the subject of a recently published scientific 

paper. 

The species captured on film were thought to live 700 

to 1300km away and include the atoll butterfly fish, the 

bluestreak cleaner wrasse and the halfmoon grouper. 

The footage came from Our Big Blue Backyard made by 

the Natural History New Zealand whose executive 

producer, Judith Curran, said the film crew had pooled 

funds with scientists to hire the large boat needed 

for the expedition. While at the islands, the scientists 

conducted scientific surveys while the film crew were 

getting footage of key species for the show. 

Curran said they put the unused footage on a hard drive 

for the scientists – “hundreds and hundreds of hours”. 

Massey University senior lecturer Dr Libby Liggins, the 

lead author on the new report, was part of the expedition 

said, “The video footage our masters student 

Jenny Ann Sweatman found shows the cleaner wrasse 

approaching a Galapagos shark and cleaning the 

parasites off it. It’s pretty cool.” She spent eight weeks 

reviewing the footage. 

Liggins thinks there could be a goldmine of discoveries 

in nature television out-takes and with old footage 

being used by scientists to establish if an ecosystem has 

changed over time. 

“Tropical species have been recorded more frequently in 

recent times. We can’t say whether that’s to do with the 

sampling efforts, or that is because they have recently 

arrived.” 

You can choose to have HECS technology in any 

of our top quality NZ made drysuits 

She hopes the discovery and report inspires other 

similar projects, and other film-makers are as enthusiastic 

to share their raw footage with scientists as 

Curran has been. 


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P A C I F I C 



S pearos notebook 

North Island Spearfishing 

Champs: fantastic event 

with Jackson Shields 

It just so happened I had some 

commitments in Wellington the 

same weekend at the North Island 

Spearfishing champs, and my 

good friend Leo, a local, was kind 

enough to buddy up with me. And 

we managed to get an invite out on 

a friend’s boat. 

The North Island champs held 

every year out at Kapiti Island is a 

fantastic event run by the Kapiti 

Underwater Club. Years ago I had 

competed here once before. It’s 

a boat competition, meaning you 

are allowed to transport 

with a boat throughout the 

day, with a time limit of six 

hours before returning to 

the beach for weigh in. 

We got to the morning 

briefing to be met with 

weather I didn’t realise 

existed there… virtually 

no wind, sunny and hot! 

The rules were laid down, 

along with some advice on 

the format from the more 

experienced competitors. 

Launch fail! 

Then we thought we were 

smart enough to not use 

tractor to launch the boat. 

That was a great fail. We 

got stuck on a sand bar as 

all the other boats took off. 

We didn’t get pulled out 

and launched by the tractor 

until after the start time of 

8.30 am. Our fault. 

Most of our plan went out 

the window as we just 

rushed to the island to 

make up time in the water. 

I had checked out the area 

on Navionics, which is such 

a great way to get an idea of 

the underwater landscape. 

If you haven’t got Navionics 

on your phone it’s well worth 

it. There was an obvious, likely 

looking spot I wanted to start at. 

Working the list 

Before every competition I try to 

break down the fish list to figure 

out a logical plan to accumulate 

the count for it. Every fish 

is worth the same amount of 

points so it’s not always best to 

prioritize the exciting glory fish 

…After three hours or so we had most of our species, which 

is pretty normal as the second part of the competition is just 

scrounging around for a bonus fish… 

At the weigh-in 

when butterfish are worth just 

as many points. This, combined 

with tidal movements, are the 

most important things to take into 

account in competition. 

We started on a spot where 

I thought we would have 

the best chance to pick up 

species without any prior 

local knowledge of the area. 

The visibility was good at 

around 10 metres and the 

current gentle and easy to 

swim against. My buddy 

Leo secured us a kingfish 

early on, which was good 

for extra weight. 

Then we picked up a few 

pelagic fish, which was 

awesome as these can 

sometimes be hard to 

come by in this area. We 

managed some good bonus 

species early on too, which 

is always a confidence 

boost. We were in a good 

fishy area so stayed for a 

couple hours. 

Diving deeper 

I turned my attention to 

take advantage of the good 

visibility and light current 

to dive some deeper reef 

for the bottom dwelling 

reef species. A good reef 

edge out past 30 metres 

held plenty. A great thing 

about Wellington is there 

are many different species 


Jackson & Leo with trophy 

in a fishy spot so there’s no need to 

move too much. 

Soon enough we picked up a 

decent Blue cod, Goat fish, Sweep, 

Tarakihi and Butterfly perch. All 

species that can hang out in the 

same spot. Spotting a likely looking 

cave on the bottom I went back 

down with my torch to discover 

a Bastard red cod with some 

common Roughy and Scorpion 

fish. By shooting that we had a lot 

of the basics covered. 

One fish missing was a Blue 

Moki; most of those that we were 

finding out deep were of marginal 

size so we didn’t want to risk 

spearing one. Then we raced into 

the shallows to get the rest of our 

Butterfish and Wrasse. 

they were more likely. By 

working in shallower water 

and lying on the bottom, 

along came the familiar 

sight of a big Blue Moki 

gliding through the gloom 

to check me out. I had 

never been so nervous to 

not stuff up a Blue Moki. I 

made sure my movements 

were very slow, and let 

off a mid-body shot that 

happened to stone it. A 

great result that relieved 

some of the pressure. 

Then we spent the remaining hour 

in constant frustration, missing 

opportunities on fast moving 

Kahawai in dirty water. 

Times up 

Time was up. The only let down 

was missing out on a second 

Kahawai which, in the scheme of 

a competition, is fine. And none 

of our fish were of marginal size 

weight wise. 

…along came the familiar sight of a big Blue Moki gliding 

through the gloom to check me out. I had never been so 

nervous to not stuff up a Blue Moki… 

We made it back quickly to weigh 

in to avoid the people traffic. 

Plenty of teams came in with good 

catches including some great sized 

Warehou - nice to see. We found 

we were very lucky just to pip 

Dwayne Herbert and Pat Swanson 

for first place, beating them only 

on total weight as we both had 17 

species. 

THANKS! 

Leo with his Kingfish 

A big thanks to the Kapiti Club for 

running a fantastic event, to Willie 

Bullock for boating for us, and 

to all the competitors who came 

along for a great day. The event is 

a very well worthwhile way to test 

yourself against the top Wellington 

spearos! 

After three hours or so we had 

most of our species, which is 

pretty normal as the second part of 

the competition is just scrounging 

around for a bonus fish. We hadn’t 

got both of our Kahawai though; 

after many misses and frustration 

we only had the one. 

Nerves 

With just over two hours to try 

get a big Blue Moki, a Kahawai and 

maybe a lucky Snapper we went for 

the Blue Moki and Kahawai first as 

The results 

Plenty of fish came in, including some Warehou for the first time. 

1st: Jackson Shields & Leo Stothart 1958 points 

2nd: Pat Swanson & Dwayne Herbert 1909 points 

3rd: Mal Bird & Dave Mullins 1737 points 

4th: John Pengelly & Jamie Wilson 1498 

5th: Chris Grant & Ben Roe 1365 

6th” Brad Turner & Kieran Visvalingam 1315 

Eric DeVries Memorial Kingfish Cup: 

Winning team - Mal Bird & Dave Mullins, 14.9 kg 


SOUNDINGS 

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

Greenland’s ice melting seven times faster than in 1990s 

Photograph: Ian Joughin/IMBIE 

An analysis of satellite data has 

shown the astounding loss of 

600bn tons of ice last summer as 

the Arctic experienced the hottest 

year on record, raises sea levels by 

2.2mm in two months, reports the 

UK’s Guardian newspaper. 

During last year’s northern 

summer the loss of 600bn tons 

of ice from Greenland was enough 

to raise global sea levels by 2.2mm 

in just two months. 

Analysis of satellite data showed 

the loss of ice occurred in just a 

few months around the North Pole 

as the Arctic recorded the hottest 

on record and with the annual 

minimum extent of sea ice in the 

region at the second-lowest on 

record. 

Unlike the retreat of sea ice, the 

loss of land-based glaciers directly 

causes the seas to rise. Scientists 

Tokelau gets new school boat 

A new school boat for the children 

of remote Fakaofo atoll in Tokelau 

has been built in Christchurch by 

ICON Custom Boats, blessed and 

formally launched. The 12.5m 

vessel was jointly funded by 

Tokelau and New Zealand Aid. Its 

name, Te Kaniva, describes the 

traditional method of navigating 

using the stars and weather 

patterns. 

Director of Maritime NZ Keith 

Manch said the boat will provide 

have calculated that between 2002 

and 2019 Greenland’s ice sheet 

lost an average of 268bn tons of 

ice, less than half of that shed last 

summer. (Los Angeles county with 

10 million residents consumes 1bn 

tons of water a year). 

Ice reflects sunlight so as it 

retreats darker surfaces beneath 

absorb yet more heat causing the 

melting to accelerate. 

“We knew this past summer 

had been particularly warm in 

Greenland, melting every corner of 

the ice sheet, but the numbers are 

enormous,” said Isabella Velicogna, 

a professor of Earth system science 

at University of California Irvine 

and lead author of the new study 

which drew on measurements 

taken by NASA’s Gravity Recovery 

and Climate Experiment (Grace) 

satellite mission and successor, 

safe, reliable transport for around 

50 children who must cross a 

lagoon to get to school each day. 

The $430,000 covered aluminium 

boat can carry up to 60 school 

children or 30 adults and has a 

cruising speed of 6-8 knots, and 

is fully equipped with modern 

safety equipment. All training 

and maintenance needs for the 

vessel are to be met. Te Kaniva is 

expected to be operating in Fakaofo 

by May. 

Grace Follow-On. 

Last year scientists showed ice is 

being lost from Greenland seven 

times faster than it was in the 

1990s pushing up estimates of 

global sea level rise. 

More recent research has found 

that Antarctica is also losing mass 

at a galloping rate though the latest 

University of California and NASA 

work reveals a nuanced picture. 

“In Antarctica, the mass loss 

in the west proceeds unabated, 

which is very bad news for sea 

level rise,” Velicogna said. “But we 

also observe a mass gain in the 

Atlantic sector of east Antarctica 

caused by an increase in snowfall, 

which helps mitigate the enormous 

increase in mass loss that we’ve 

seen in the last two decades in 

other parts of the continent.” 

“The technical brilliance involved 

in weighing the ice sheets using 

satellites in space is just amazing,” 

said Richard Alley, a glaciologist at 

Penn State University not involved 

in the study. 

Meanwhile The Guardian states: 

“In service of the escalating climate 

emergency, we have made an 

important decision – to renounce fossil 

fuel advertising, becoming the first 

major global news organisation to 

institute an outright ban on taking 

money from companies that extract 

fossil fuels. 

“In October we outlined our pledge: 

that the Guardian will give global 

heating, wildlife extinction and pollution 

the urgent attention and prominence 

they demand.” 

Te Kaniva will provide safe transport for 

around 50 children who must cross a 

lagoon to get to school each day 


SOUNDINGS 

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

Methane emitted by humans ‘vastly underestimated’ 

NIWA researchers have helped unlock information trapped 

in ancient air samples from Greenland and Antarctica 

showing the amount of methane humans are emitting into 

the atmosphere from fossil fuels has been vastly underestimated. 

Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas and responsible for 

25% of global warming to date, has increased its atmospheric 

levels by 150% over the past 300 years. 

In a paper just published in leading journal Nature, 

researchers from the University of Rochester in the US 

Scientists drill ice cores in Greenland. Credit: 

Photo: Ben Hmiel 

Photo: Xavier Fain 

Ice cores in Greenland piled up and awaiting 

shipment back to laboratories around the world. 

show the amount of methane in the atmosphere that can be 

attributed to anthropogenic fossil sources is 25-40 per cent 

higher than previously estimated. 

The authors say the findings mean reducing emissions from 

fossil fuel extraction and use will have a greater impact on 

curbing future global warming than previously thought. 

They describe how ice cores act as time capsules, trapping 

small quantities of ancient air an analysis of which can show 

the amounts of methane present. 

NIWA principal atmospheric technician Tony 

Bromley extracts methane from air samples 

derived from the ice cores. 

Photo: NIWA 

Tahiti to host 2024 Olympic surfing event 

The Islands of Tahiti will host 

the 2024 Olympic Games Surf 

Competition on the famous 

Teahupoo site on Tahiti. The 2024 

Olympic Games are scheduled 

from 26th July to 11th August in 

Paris, and for the first time, the 

International Olympic Committee 

has decided an event is to take 

place on an island located 16 000 

km from the central site of the 

Games. The decision has been 

praised as it commemorates the 

Polynesian origins of surfing, and 

Polynesian ancestors, the “horue”. 

The sport was once practiced 

standing or lying on a tree trunk 

board and encouraged by Mā’ohi 

kings. 

Teahupoo is often called the 

‘district at the end of the world’, 

with a small peaceful village 

and short walk to where you 

can admire the internationally 

famous, unique beautiful wave, 

a perfect tube, which is likely to 

reach extreme heights during 

the time of the Olympic Games. 

Photo: Steve Dickinson 


The perfect dive holiday 

destination 

The Cut 


ig thing to keep in mind when 

A planning a dive holiday is that 

you are unlikely to spend more 

than about four hours underwater 

each day. So picking a destination 

that has a lot to offer above water 

as well makes sense if you want to 

get the most out of your trip. 

For me the whole experience of 

being immersed in a different 

country’s culture is as much a part 

of what makes a dive trip special 

as the diving, So the Solomon 

Islands, with its rich and fascinating 

culture, is ideal! 

This 900 island archipelago within 

the Coral Triangle has amongst the 

highest marine biodiversity in the 

world, home to over 1100 species 

of reef fish, 10 species of shark, 5 

Story and photos by Dave Abbott 

I am very lucky that my job as an underwater documentary cameraman means 

I get to spend a lot of time in some very cool locations. Planning documentary 

shoots are a little different from planning a dive holiday though, and I have 

learnt that when choosing a recreational dive destination you have to think quite 

differently. 

species of marine turtle and over 

500 different corals, ...as well as 

dugongs, crocodiles, whales and 

dolphins. 

Obviously this makes the diving 

outstanding. When you add in 

warm clear water, beautiful walls 

covered in colourful fans and soft 

corals, and some fantastic WWII 

ship and plane wrecks, there is 

enough diving to keep you busy for 

weeks! 

Between dives? 

What makes the Solomon’s 

perfect though, are all the things 

to do between dives. For a start 

the scenery is beautiful, with 

postcard-perfect tropical islands in 

…For me the whole experience of being immersed in a 

different country’s culture is as much a part of what makes a 

dive trip special as the diving… 

every direction you look, volcanoes 

shrouded in lush rainforest, picturesque 

villages nestled along the 

lagoon shores, over 230 varieties 

of orchid and with other tropical 

flowers adding a kaleidoscope of 

colour. 

More importantly, the food is 

awesome! Lots of fresh fish and 

delicious tropical fruit. 


What’s more there are waterfalls 

and caves to explore, jungle walks, 

village markets, skull caves, WWII 

relics and endless snorkeling in the 

lagoons. 

I’m not usually one for ‘touristy’ 

activities, but here I wouldn’t miss 

the chance to fit in a village visit 

between dives. They give a real 

insight into traditional life in the 

Solomon’s, and it’s fascinating to 

see how the people use the natural 

resources around them to make 

almost everything they need for 

daily life. 

Mud warrior 

80% of Solomon islanders still 

live a traditional life style, with 

gardening and fishing providing 

food and cash to buy fuel for the 

small boats that are the main 

mode of transport. Traditional 

and the Taka (Solomon Island Dive 

Expeditions) follow itineraries 

taking in the Florida and Russell 

Islands. Both are roomy, well 

laid-out boats with friendly experienced 

crew. 

…Waterfalls and caves to explore, jungle walks, village 

markets, skull caves, WWII relics and endless snorkeling 

in the lagoons… 

dugout canoes are still widely 

used as well; you often see 

islanders paddling between 

villages or fishing from them 

miles from shore. 

Liveaboard options 

An awesome way to experience 

some of the best diving in the 

Solomon’s is via one of the liveaboard 

options. Both the Bilikiki 

The Russell Islands have some 

of the most spectacular tropical 

diving I have seen in the South 

Pacific, with prolific fish life, 

pelagics, beautiful hard and soft 

corals and stunning topography. 

Island Reserve 

Another very special place 

with awesome diving as well as 

land-based activities is Tetapare 

Cocoanut crab 

Paddling in dugouts 


Reeftop 

Island, accessible from Munda via 

a 3-hour boat trip. 

Tetepare has been uninhabited for 

over 200 years, a Marine Protected 

Area, one of the last undisturbed, 

lowland rainforests in the Western 

Province, and home to several 

endemic species of bird, bats and 

fish. 

The diving here is mostly along 

impressive deep walls where it is 

common to see sharks and turtles 

in addition to the usual array of 

fish and soft corals. 

Accommodation on the island is 

in a small eco lodge with fairly 

basic facilities with spectacular 

views and fantastic local food! The 

island (and guests) are looked after 

by local rangers who live in the 

nearby Ranger station. They can 

host you for a variety of exciting 

activities, such as a favourite; 

turtle capture and tagging! 

The ‘rodeo-style’ capture technique 

involves diving off the bow of a 

small boats, grabbing the turtle 

and wrestling it up onto the boat. 

The Green Turtles so captured are 

taken back to the beach, measured, 

weighed, tagged and released. 

Since the program began the 

rangers have tagged over1500 

turtles around Tetepare and in the 

process doing a fantastic job of 

preserving this special place. 

The chances are you will also see 

Dugongs in the Tetapare lagoon, 

or take a walk down to Crocodile 


lake where, if you bark like a dog (a 

croc’s favourite food), a good-sized 

crocodile will surfacing in the 

mirror-calm green waters. 

At night sometimes the massive 

Coconut crabs emerge to forage on 

the forest floor, their large claws 

powerful enough to husk coconuts. 

For Kiwi divers the Solomon 

Islands are very accessible, just 5 

½ hours away flying via Brisbane 

either to Munda or the capital, 

Honiara. Local flights service all 

the main islands and dive resort 

areas while the two liveaboard 

dive boats operate out of Honiara. 

The Solomon Island people are 

cheerful and friendly, the scenery 

beautiful, the food good, and the 

diving excellent: What more could 

you want? 

Belinda Botha 


Solomon Is. Diving 

TAKE THE PLUNGE 

visitsolomons.com.sb 


Women who SCUBA 

The Dive Pacific challenge 

• How should we recognise our female dive pioneers and champions? Who are they? 

• This is your invitation to nominate the women you believe have been pioneers 

underwater in the Pacific region. 

• They might have been extraordinary for their feats in diving in exotic locations, 

trying out new gear, in ocean conservation, exploration, in a related sport such as 

underwater hockey, or? 

Who are the women of the Pacific – New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands 

- who have made contributions greater than the everyday to the development of 

underwater activities? 

In recent years the scuba diving 

industry has grown significantly 

– with dive centres like PADI and 

SSI offering scuba training and 

certification courses around the 

world. With this growth, we have 

seen an increase in the number of 

women joining the scuba diving 

community. 

However, rewind to the 1940s, 

50s, 60s and the following decades 

when gender equality was a far 

cry from what it is today. The 

majority of professional scuba 

divers were male – it was rare for 

women divers to be featured in the 

mainstream media – who are they, 

and where are they today? 

Please, do email us and give us 

your suggestions. Nominate the 

women who inspired you, with a 

brief outline on why they deserve 

recognition. Send your suggestions 

to: divenz@divenewzealand.co.nz 

Below we profile some of the 

women in the United States who 

were underwater pioneers. 

There have been some exceptionally 

powerful female role models 

who have shown the world that 

women can scuba too, and their 

success has undoubtedly played 

a major role in encouraging other 

women to enter the sport. 

Dottie Frazier 

A true pioneer in the world of 

scuba diving, Dottie Frazier, 

was born in 1922 in Long Beach, 

California. She was swimming by 

age 3, rowing her own skiff at 5, 

and by 10 she was using one of the 

masks her dad made for them out 

of pieces of fire hose, glass, tape, 

glue and straps from an old inner 

tube. She became especially proficient 

at spearing fish. By the time 

she was a teenager, getting lobsters 

was her specialty. She challenged 

the social expectations of women 

at the time and became the first 

female hard-hat diver, the first 

female scuba instructor and the 

first woman to own a dive shop. 

Source: SkinDivingHistory 

Charlotte Hildegard Baierl 

Often referred to as “the first lady 

of diving”, Charlotte Hildegard 

Baierl is a remarkable woman 

who came to fame following a 

filmmaking expedition with her 

husband in the Red Sea in the early 

1950’s. The film, Under the Red Sea 


won first prize at the Venice Film 

Festival. Despite receiving offers 

from Hollywood, Lotte chose to 

dedicate her career to becoming 

an underwater photographer 

and explorer. In 2015, Lotte sadly 

passed away, however, she’ll 

always be remembered as one of 

the first women divers. 

Zale Parry 

Another diving hero, Zale Parry 

started her diving career in the 

1950’s, and went on to set a new 

deep-diving record for women 

Administration, and named by 

Time Magazine as its first Hero 

for the Planet in 1998, Sylvia is a 

fantastic role model for women, 

and a true inspiration. 

Eugenie Clark 

Often referred to as The Shark 

Lady, Eugenie Clark sadly passed 

away in 2015. She was one of the 

first females to enter the field of 

scuba diving for research purposes. 

and most successful to date is 

their flagship citizen-science 

programme – Dive Against Debris, 

which encourages divers to participate 

in the removal of marine 

debris from the ocean, and report 

data on the types, quantities and 

locations of items found. The 

impact of the program has been 

fantastic with more than 50,000 

community members in over 

114 countries removing over 1.3 

million debris items from the 

ocean since its launch in 2011. 

Project AWARE has also created 

the Project AWARE Specialty Course, 

which empowers individuals to 

make their own personal commitments 

and take further action to 

help protect our oceans. 

while testing the Hope-Page 

non-return valve mouthpiece in 

open water. She helped to build 

California’s first civilian hyperbaric 

chamber, and was the first 

woman to complete a 300 metre 

test dive. 

Dr Sylvia Earle 

Dr. Sylvia Earle is a marine biologist 

and diving legend. The first 

female chief scientist of the U.S. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Eugenie was recognised as a figure 

of authority in marine biology, 

specialising in fish behaviour, as 

well as being a big advocate for 

marine conservation. 

Diving For Ocean Conservation: 

Project Aware 

A SLO-active core mission is to 

preserve and protect our oceans, 

and to do this they have chosen 

to partner with organisations 

like Project AWARE who share 

our vision and are committed to 

achieving the same goal. 

Over the past 27 years, Project 

AWARE has been fighting the 

marine debris crisis through a 

range of successful programmes 

and initiatives. One of the largest 

…Chemicals found in sunscreen are creating disastrous 

consequences for our coral reefs, causing coral bleaching and 

death among thousands of organisms. It’s estimated that 

around 14,000 tons of sunscreen is deposited into our oceans 

annually… 

Staying safe, from the sun 

When diving, protecting yourself 

from the sun is important – particularly 

if you’re diving in parts of 

the world where the rays are at the 

strongest. 

But studies have shown that 

chemicals found in sunscreen 

are creating disastrous consequences 

for our coral reefs, causing 

coral bleaching and death among 

thousands of organisms. It’s 

estimated that around 14,000 tons 

of sunscreen is deposited into our 

oceans annually, with popular 

reef areas such as Hawaii and 

the Caribbean suffering the most 

damage. 

The same goes for many other 

products including lip balms, body 

lotions, shampoo and conditioners. 

What you can do 

Thankfully an increasing number 

of brands including EIR NYC, All 

Good Products, Stream2Sea and 

Badger Balm, have recognised 

the issue and created a range of 

mineral based products that are 

free from chemicals and labelled 

as ‘reef-safe’. So you can protect 

yourself – while caring for the reefs 

too. 

PADI International Women’s Dive 

Day www.SLOActive.com 


Creature Feature 

A close encounter… with squid 

By Sarah Ford 

I 

’ll never eat squid rings 

again! This is a promise I 

made to myself after a David 

Attenborough experience I had 

diving Arefi Beau, a site in Raja 

Ampat. 

Excitedly it was 

the first dive of 

our trip. We went 

down to about 

22 metres and 

the guide was signalling us to 

come and look. There on the 

white sandy bottom in amongst 

some red coral branches were 

hundreds of beautiful long 

milky white eggs. I thought this 

amazing, as I quickly anchored 

myself on the sand and tried to 

remember all I had learnt about 

my new Sealife DC2000 camera. 

Then the dive guide was poking 

me and pointing up. Coming 

towards us were about 20 squid. 

They were flying down gracefully 

from somewhere up above. 

Coming in pairs, the larger of 

the two then deposited an egg 

…the thing I loved the most was their gorgeous big round 

eyes. I could have stayed the whole dive there trying for that 

one elusive National Geographic winning photo… 

in amongst the existing pile. 

Strangely to me it appeared to 

come from it’s mouth! Then they 

all disappeared up towards the 

surface, only to return and do it 

all over again. 

I forgot about aperture and 

shutter speed settings but 

remembered just to get low and 

aim up! The squid came very 

close seeming to be uninterested 

in me, though giving us a side 

wards glance as they carried out 

their business. 

What beautiful creatures they 

were! Translucent, see through. 

But the 

thing I loved 

the most 

was their 

gorgeous big 

round eyes. I 

could have stayed the whole dive 

there trying for that one elusive 

National Geographic Winning 

photo. But the guide wanted us 

to move along. The rest of the 

camera-less group seemed not as 

enthralled as I was to spend their 

whole dive there. And you know, 

you do need to take at least 100 

shots to get that one good one! 

I spent the rest of the week trying 

to get the guide to take me back 


to the site again 

but his English 

and hearing 

appeared to have 

failed. Then, on 

my last dive, when 

he asked what I 

wanted to see of 

course I said the 

squid! So back we 

went only to find 

the area strangely 

still. Fortunately 

the precious eggs 

were safe amongst 

the coral but sadly 

no sign of the squid 

themselves. I got 

the feeling the guide already 

knew this! 

On returning home I found out 

these were Big Fin Reef squid, 

or oval squid, and they carry 

out this elaborate mating event 

in Raja Ampat around May. 

Females release 20-1180 eggs per 

individual and die soon afterwards. 

That accounts for the 

fact there were none about on 

our second visit. The females 

spawn by passing eggs from 

their oviducts. These are in 

capsules containing two to nine 

eggs which are laid out in single 

strands on coral branches or 

other submerged surfaces. And 

maybe it was good that I wasn’t 

there to see the eggs hatch out as 

the hatchlings are often cannibals. 

Big Fin squid have one of 

the fasted recorded growth rates 

of any large marine invertebrate 

but live less than one year. 

For me this was an amazing once 

in a life time experience. And 

next time you go for takeaways 

please don’t order fried squid 

rings. 

Here on this page are my nearly 

National Geographic photos! 


Maritime archaeology 

Underwater 3D mapping using 

photogrammetry opens fascinating 

prospects for marine archaeology 

By Christian Jones 

Underwater archaeology is a mysterious and exciting field that captivates the imagination of 

divers and landlubbers alike. And with new technology day by day becoming readily available, 

the exclusivity of underwater archaeology is fading away and readily becoming accessible for 

the recreational diver. 

Atechnique of site recording 

that has been on the rise 

internationally for a wide variety 

of underwater projects is photogrammetry. 

By using this process 

we can ascertain measurements 

and construct 3D maps from a 

collection of photos. 

Here’s a brief description of how 

it works: Points in a photo are 

cross referenced with the same 

points in a photo taken at a 

different angle to create a referenced 

3D series of points that we 

can mesh together and texturize 

into a scaled 3D map. 

I recently completed my thesis 

at the University of Malta on this 

process, in particular on how 

practical use can be made of 

it, and the methodology to use 

when conducting underwater 

photogrammetry in low visibility 

environments. 

As a Wellingtonian, harbour 

diving is usually done in water in 

three metre, or less, visibility so I 

decided to put the training from 

Malta to the test in my home 

waters. 

I began mapping small objects 

that were known around 

Wellington waters. For example 

there is a chain holder found in 

The Defender during happier times. Enjoying a day at the beach. 

Brodie Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria. 

Evans Bay in Wellington. You 

can see below the process of how 

the points from the photos are 

plotted and meshed together 

to create a underwater 3D map. 

These maps are completely to 

scale and very accurate. 

Small objects in low visibility 

waters are relatively easy to map 

with training and experience, 

but the real challenge is mapping 

large sites. So I wanted to put 

my methodology to the test, and 

for my thesis decided to map the 

Defender shipwreck in Wellington 

harbour. 

The Defender exploded in 

Wellington harbour near Somes 

Island in 1918. Then she caught 

fire on Kings Wharf and while 

she was being towed away on fire 

she exploded due to the cargo of 

benzine she was carrying. 

The site has never been successfully 

mapped due to difficult 

conditions such as low visibility, 

silt and this being a large site 

covering around 38m. 

I did the necessary dives in the 

winter and can say I am very 

thankful to have a drysuit and 

a good skipper, Stuart Mclaren, 

who ensured we had a good 

supply of hot drinks onboard. 

The project was completed 

in four dives with the longest 


The cargo on the SS Defender 

exploded in Wellington 

harbour near Somes Island 

in 1918 

having a bottom time of 96 

minutes. 

The premise of this project for 

my thesis was to show that, with 

training and experience, high 

quality 3D maps can be achieved 

with very basic and minimal 

equipment in low visibility 

environments. The equipment 

I used was some basic 

archaeological supplies such 

as measures, along with 

photography equipment. 

To create my maps I used 

a mixture of thousands of 

photos from a Canon G16 and 

a Gopro. As you can see the map 

itself covers a very large area of 

about 38m and by this means a 

good site plan was created. It can 

also be improved upon by taking 

more detailed maps of objects 

and features such as the chain 

holder as above, which can be 

imported into the map. However, 

the main map itself can still be 

used to obtain measurements as 

shown by measuring one of the 

hull planks height. 

Stern portion of the SS Defender map 

Benefits 

The benefits of recording sites 

like these are numerous. They 

include creating a baseline to 

measure a site’s composition, 

deterioration and 

the changes taking 

place, and even benthic marine 

species diversity. 

The maps create a record and 

reference that crosses over 

into many disciplines for use 

by underwater archaeologists, 

marine biologists, geologists 

and the general public. 

With underwater cameras such 

as Gopros readily available 

for the average diver, underwater 

photogrammetry is now 

within reach to most recreational 

divers and will soon be 

widespread in the international 

dive community to help record 

our underwater cultural heritage. 

If you are interested in underwater 

3D mapping please have 

a look at my Youtube channel 

Christian Jones Diver NZ. 

SHOWING HOW THE PROCESS WORKS 


Adventures in the 

Arabian Gulf 

Marine conservation 

in the hottest sea in the world 

Case study: Green turtle tagging in Abu Dhabi 

By Winston Cowie 

A Humpback dolphin jumps in front of the Presidential Palace 

Fancy a dive into a climate 

change laboratory? Come to Abu 

Dhabi, capital of the United Arab 

Emirates nestled on the shores 

Arabian Gulf. Plenty to do and 

see above and below water. And a 

fascinating marine ecosystem! 

Home to turtles, dugong, dolphins, 

seabirds, and critical habitats 

including coral reefs, seagrass 

and mangroves. The Arabian Gulf 

is the hottest sea in the world, 

a place where we can study and 

see these unique sea creatures in 

their habitats living on the edge of 

what’s possible. 

The sea’s temperature changes 

by 20C with the seasons - 16C in 

winter to 36C in summer. The 

coral has a special thermo-tolerant 

symbiotic algae, Symbiodinium 

thermophilus, which allows it to 

live in this extreme environment 

degrees above its normal range. 

The bright lights of Dubai are an 

hour down the road, and two hours 

further on, after a drive through 

the stunning Hajar Mountains, we 

come to the shores of the Arabian 

Sea, another unique and very 

different marine ecosystem facing 

the Indian Ocean. 

Impact assessment in place 

for two decades 

Contrary to a common perception 

that ‘there is development 

everywhere in the UAE’ with 

coastal development popping 

up wherever, in Abu Dhabi and 

the wider UAE the Environment 

Impact Assessment procedures 

have been in place for 20 years. 

For any coastal development, 

marine baseline surveys need to 

be completed, impacts assessed 

and mitigation measures put in 

place. Critical habitats such as 

coral, seagrass and mangroves are 

protected from development, with 

exceptions for projects of national 

infrastructure importance. If this 

is the case, we have a mitigation 

hierarchy of assessing relocation 

options: redesign; rehabilitation 

and finally environmental 

compensation. For example, when 

Khalifa Port was first designed, 

(Abu Dhabi’s deep-water port) it 

would have detrimentally affected 

one of Abu Dhabi’s finest coral 

reefs, Ras Ghanada. When the 

EAD Team say hullo 


New hatchlings open their eyes for the first time. 

marine baseline survey established 

this was indeed going to be the 

case, the port’s location was moved 

two kilometres down the coast so 

as not to impact the reef. 

Habitat protected 

Representative marine habitat is 

protected in 13.9% of Abu Dhabi’s 

waters across six marine protected 

areas, well ahead of the 10 year old 

10% of marine area global target. 

That target is due to expire this 

year, and will likely be increased. 

(After diving in New Zealand’s Goat 

Island a couple of months back 

while on holiday in New Zealand, 

I was struck by how successful 

…Environmental impact 

assessment procedures have 

been in place for 20 years… 

and how well run it was. But I also 

reflected that only 0.37% of New 

Zealand’s marine environment is 

protected. But I digress.) 

Case study: our turtles 

In Abu Dhabi you can find two of 

the world’s sea turtle species: the 

critically endangered Hawksbill 

turtles, population around 1,500, 

nest on 11 offshore islands; and 

the giant Green Turtles with a 

population of around 3,500. Green 

turtles are known to forage on the 

seagrass rich waters of Abu Dhabi’s 

Al Dhafra region but never known 

to nest there. 

In partnership with our local 

An increase in Hawksbill turtle nests 

was recorded on Saadiyat Island 


Winston Cowie captures a Green turtle 

using the rodeo method 

NGO, Emirates Nature-WWF, we 

have established a project called 

the Gulf Green Turtle Project. We 

headed to Butinah atoll, a stunning 

biodiversity hotspot with coral 

formations, extensive seagrass 

beds and mangroves, where Green 

turtles, lots of them, forage on the 

nutritious seagrass in the shallow 

(less than 3m) waters of the archipelago. 

Turtle rodeo 

To catch the turtles, because 

they have never been recorded as 

nesting on the beaches, we use 

the ‘turtle rodeo’ method. This 

involves slowly maneuvering the 

boat up behind a turtle, taking 

…Rugby practice came in handy. Green Turtles are strong! 

When they go, they go. And if they have the opportunity to 

pump those front flippers forward, they are gone. So your 

window to catch them is literally a couple of seconds… 

a deep breath and jumping on 

top of them. These turtles are 

between 90 and 100 kg - about the 

same size as me*. Rugby practice 

certainly came in handy. Typically 

the turtles are about half a metre 

below the surface when you jump, 

so once you are in, you grab for 

the carapace. The turtle stops, and 

you have about half a second to 

maneuver your hands on the shell 

and put the turtle in an upright 

position. 

Green Turtles are strong! When 

they go, they go. And if they have 

the opportunity to pump those 

front flippers forward, they are 

gone. So your window to catch 

them is literally a couple of 

seconds. 

Heaving a turtle on board 


Turtle realease 

Once you have them in the vertical position 

(easier said than done and a fair bit of exertion) 

we put the turtles onto the boat, assess if they 

are going to breed and nest that season, and if 

so, put a satellite tag onto them. 

Trips turtles have made in the Arabian Gulf 

Turtle travel mind blow 

The results on where these turtles are travelling 

is mind blowing. The distances! Two of them, 

named Wisdom and Respect after the values 

of His Highness Sheikh Zayed, the founder of 

the UAE, and another called Yas after the local 

Mall, (Yas Mall is a valued sponsor), travelled 

over 1000 km all the way from Abu Dhabi, 

past Dubai, around the Straits of Hormuz, past 

Pakistan, then across the 3000km deep Sea 

of Oman, to Ras Al Hadd where they nested. 

Unbelievable! Over the six to eight months that 

the turtles were ‘at large’ they travelled on 

average 7000km, including the return voyage to 

Butinah! 

These findings were a first for science in 

the region, with the policy implication that 

regional partners must work together to ensure 

the protection of Green Turtles’ key habitats, 

foraging grounds and nesting beaches. 

Respect Turtle Track 

Wisdom Turtle Track 

Turtle satellite tagged 

Yas Turtle Track 


Releasing a tagged turtle 

Ibrahin Bugla and Dr Himansu Das, Unit Heads of Species and Habitats 

return a tagged turtle to the waters off Butinah 


Green turtle 

Big picture? 

The big picture takeaway? All 

biodiversity is connected. What 

happens in one part of the 

world will have an implication 

somewhere else. From our turtles 

in the sea, to the sky. Take the 

Arctic Tern for example. Every 

year it flies from its breeding 

grounds in the Arctic, to the 

Antarctic and back again, a 90,000 

km return ticket ensuring these 

creatures see more sunshine 

than any other on the planet. 

Anthropogenic impacts, climate 

change, plastics – it doesn’t 

matter which part of the planet 

it is happening to, it will affect 

people and biodiversity, particularly 

our migratory species. 

To address these issues we need 

to get the local marine policy 

challenges right in our own neck 

of the woods, which in turn will 

support similar efforts elsewhere, 

adding to the global effort. More 

marine reserves would certainly 

help. 

Coming up in Dive Pacific our 

‘Adventures in the Arabian Gulf’ 

series with Winston will feature 

dolphins, dugongs, sea-snakes, 

fisheries, climate change defying 

coral, single use plastic amongst 

other things. 

* Think of a rugby tackle; being 

winded from hitting the ocean surface; 

a long breath hold; underwater; 

grabbing the turtle with instinct; not 

being able to see anything; adrenaline 

pumping, two front flippers slapping 

you in the face, seagrass breath. Quite 

the combo. 

Winston Cowie bio 

The Arabian Gulf is a long way 

from the Hauraki Gulf and 

beaches of Tawharanui where 

I grew up. But this is where I 

have been living for over 10 

years now, working for one of 

the pioneering marine science 

and policy organizations in the 

region, the Environment Agency 

of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab 

Emirates. 

My job is Marine Policy Manager 

for a sea area of 48,000 square 

km, equivalent to an area just 

under half the size of New 

Zealand’s North Island. It 

includes 2000km of coastline, 

215 islands, globally significant 

biodiversity, industries like oil 

and gas and shipping, a traditionally 

important fisheries 

sector, a burgeoning aquaculture 

sector, and a population 

interacting with it of around 9.5 

million from the wider UAE. 

Our 25 year old organization acts 

as the referee between nature 

and the development needs of 

society with a mission to protect 

and conserve the environment 

for people’s wellbeing and a 

better life for all. 

____________________________ 

Winston is a New Zealand author 

and film maker now based in 

Abu Dhabi where he works as 

the Marine Policy Manager for 

the Environment Agency, Abu 

Dhabi. He is a Fellow of the 

Royal Geographical Society, has 

travelled to over 40 countries 

has written a New Zealand Land 

Wars historical fiction series, 

and ‘Conquistador Puzzle Trail’ 

proposing that the Portuguese 

and Spanish voyaged to Australia 

and New Zealand pre-Tasman. 

www.winstoncowie.com 


TO WIN THIS$8000 

VIKING PACKAGE 

GEARBAG 

Z-330 

D-200 

S-2000 

14–17 MAY 2020 

Boat Show postponed for first time in 65 years 

ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane, Auckland 

The Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show to have been held May 14-17 in 

Auckland, the 10am country’s – 6pm longest-running Daily, Late Night and largest Friday boat (9pm) show, is being 

postponed Admission for the $25 first online^ time in or its at 65 the year gate history – Kids due 16 to & Covid-19 Under FREE virus 

^Last day for online ticket sales, 13 May 2020. †Bonus Ticket will be given to you upon completion of your STAMPED Entry Ticket at the Entry Box 

concerns. 

The show was first run in 1956 and has always been at the same venue. 

Last year it attracted 37,000 boaties and fishers from across www.boatshow.co.nz 

the country 

and overseas. 

The Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show is one of the main generators 

of sales for businesses from around New Zealand, said Dave Gibbs, the 

show’s ceo. “Every year, they rely on the show to provide the orders that 

keep their staff busy during the otherwise slow winter months. 

“If there is any way we can safely run the show later this year, we will.” He 

says people who have already bought tickets should retain them as they 

will remain valid for the rescheduled show. 

Spinlock’s latest inflatable lifejacket harness 

technology, originally designed teams competing 

in the Volvo Ocean Race, is now available in the 

new Deckvest VITO range. 

Design features include the Spinlock harness 

release system which, with a short pull, opens the 

soft loop harness connection. Its rated very simple 

to use, and with adjustment systems to ensure the 

correct fit for every body size. 

www.lusty-blundell.co.nz. 

First Kiwi diesel electric hybrid 

POSTPONED 

in Stand EX 189 or Stand 579 in Hall 5. *Full details, terms & conditions at www.boatshow.co.nz. 

15110_2020 HNZBS_MagAd_Generic A4_FA.indd 1 31/12/19 4:30 PM 

Volvo inflatable lifejackets now available 

seatech.co.nz 

Distributed by 

Sea Tech Ltd 

09 521 0684 

info@seatech.co.nz 

www.seatech.co.nz 

Available from your professional 

dive store. Trade enquiries welcome 

The first diesel electric hybrid boat to be entirely designed and built in 

New Zealand. the Herley 3400 Powercat, was to have made a first public 

appearance at the Hutchwilco Boat Show. 

The new boat is a 10.4m LOA displacement catamaran featuring twin 

60kw/100kw peak electric motors and 300Nm of torque run in parallel 

from a 120kw diesel generator, and coupled to a permanent magnet 

generator with Lithium-ion battery storage 

allowing the system to re-charge within 

an hour while at sea. 

The Herley 3400 Powercat 

will have the ability to run 

on either lithium or diesel 

or, for top performance, 

on both systems 

simultaneously. It will have 

a cruising range of 1300 

nautical miles on a single 

640 litre tank. 


Plastics wastes make fuel for cooking, electricity 

GEARBAG 

Nufuels Ltd, a New Zealand company, has developed 

a small scale energy system that converts waste 

plastic bags and bottles and similar rubbish into fuels 

suitable for cooking, baking, drying and generating 

electricity. 

The system is ideal for Pacific Island communities in 

particular; its intended especially for island resorts 

and dive operators wanting to adopt solutions to 

waste plastics in their area. Its advantages include 

that it can be constructed on site, and is easy use. 

The pilot project is a small, batch pyrolysis system for 

the processing of waste plastics (and possibly waste 

tyres) into solid, liquid and gas fuels. 

A team from Nufuels and partner Caritas took a 

demonstration unit to Dive Munda in the Solomon 

Islands in 2018 for trialling and where it is delivering 

first stage products of crude oil and gas. 

The system consists of a retort typically fired up with 

wood, or fuel from the process. The retort takes 

around 7kgs of mixed Polyethylene and PET per 

batch. The pyrolysis gases pass through a condenser 

with crude fuel accumulating in the containers 

provided. The incondensable gas (mainly a methane/ 

ethane mix) is stored in a water 

sealed system. 

Around 5kgs of a viscous 

plastics crude fuel and 2kgs of 

gas is produced per cook. The 

crude has about the energy 

density of diesel but has a 

low flash point so needs to be 

handled like petrol. The gas is 

suitable for cooking and running 

in a petrol generator set: 

The crude fuel can be used in 

a rocket stove allowing baking 

and drying while keeping the 

fuel and exhausts away from the 

produce: 

Experimentation with further 

distillation and gasification of 

the crude is ongoing. 

The system offers a local 

integrated source of energy to 

meet most needs while helping 

dispose of a difficult waste. The 

only emissions to air from any part of the system arise 

from the burning of the various fuels. More complex 

plastics (e. brominated, chlorinated) do need to be 

avoided in the feedstock. 

For more go to: https://www.bfsnz.biz/pyrolysis-PI 


GEARBAG 

Introducing the WWL-C: the Wide Wet Lens Compact 

Nauticam’s newest wide wet lens - especially for compact housings! 

We’re very pleased with Nauticam’s latest offering in the wet lens category. Finally, 

a compact wide lens with an amazing field of view! And the best part? There’s a 

bayonet converter available for all you Olympus PT-058 / PT-059 users! 

We’re very happy to see Nauticam recognise the huge popularity of the Olympus 

housings. This lens gives users some great options they didn’t previously have 

available. 

This is fantastic news for Olympus users. One of the issues Tough users have had 

when it came to wet lenses though is the M52 fitting on the camera’s port. Sure, 

you can use a step-up adapter to fit an M67 lens, but it’s always best practise to 

get that lens in as close as possible to the camera to avoid risk of vignette. 

With the specially designed bayonet converter for the PT-058/9, this is not an issue. The WWL-C is designed to 

fit nice and snug in there for the best possible results. We’re 

stoked. There’s an array of bayonet converters and short ports 

available to fit the WWL-C to a variety of Nauticam housings 

as well. Check the compatibility chart on the website. 

NZ$1625 

https://www.seatech.co.nz/products/nauticam-wet-wide-lens-compact-wwl-c-83203 

Trade enquiries welcome. 

Ph:09 521 0684 Email: info@seatech.co.nz 


Pulse 8X metal detector, uncovering history for 34 years 

In November of 2018, two important archaeological 

maritime discoveries were made near the Upper 

Florida Keys. Jennifer Kerr, owner of Sailfish Scuba, 

was exploring the Hannah M. Bell shipwreck near Key 

Largo when she noticed a cannon on Elbow Reef now 

believed to be nearly 200 years old. 

Sail Fish Scuba purchased a Pulse X to try and verify 

the cannon and search the surrounding area. Using 

the Pulse 8X they found the carriage the cannon 

came off of, and many more parts of the old Spanish 

Galleon Ship. A second cannon was also found 

covered in silt, and since then they have also used the 

Pulse X to find two lost engagement rings. 

In the same month Homestead commercial trap 

fisherman Jose Antonio Lopez Ruiz was looking 

overboard from his vessel when he spotted what 

turned out to be the wooden wreckage from an 

unidentified ship from the 19th century near Alligator 

Reef off Islamorada. The wreck lies in about 25-30 

feet of water. 

The Pulse 8X is a hand held underwater metal 

detector sold by JW Fishers Mfg. rated as the “go-to” 

product by many, with ongoing sales to military, 

police, search and rescue dive teams, public safety 

dive teams, commercial businesses, and recreational 

divers. 


SPECIESFOCUS 

Marblefish 

~Aplodactylus arctidens 

Marblefish is a large demersal 

herbivore found on New 

Zealand reefs throughout the 

country and also in temperate 

Australian waters. 

The name stems from the brown, 

white and sometimes olive-green 

marbled skin. This fish is stocky in 

build with a distinctive triangular 

shape when looking at it front 

on. It’s a solitary, home-ranging 

species usually found in shallow 

boulder habitats near small caves 

and under hang retreats, or near 

sloping kelp-covered reef walls. 

Marblefish have a small, subterminal 

mouth with several rows 

of slicing teeth perfectly adapted 

for grazing and clipping the fine 

delicate red and green 

seaweed it predominantly 

eats. This type of algae is 

far easier to digest than 

the tough, rubbery kelps 

and it does not have to 

rely on macerating the 

algae like butterfish do, 

nor fermenting it in a 

hindgut chamber like 

silver drummer do. 

Marblefish predominantly 

feed at dawn and dusk 

(called crepuscular) and 

thus can often be found 

resting 

by day, either 

in their holes 

and caves, or 

camouflaged 

in amongst the 

kelp. However, 

the commotion 

of a diver nearby 

can often pique 

interest with 

marblefish exhibiting 

curiosity 

and cautiousness 

in equal parts 

when a diver 

approaches. They 

will often come out of hiding and 

swim straight for divers, darting 

away at the last minute. Usually 

By Paul Caiger 

two or three of close passes like 

this is usually followed by their 

disappearance into a deep hole. 

The notch-head marblefish 

(Aplodactylus etheridgii) is a 

second species found in New 

Zealand though far less common 

and restricted to northern waters. 

However, this second species is 

distinct enough to avoid confusion, 

being more slender in build, 

covered in white spots and having 

red margins to its gills. 

Marblefish can also potentially 

be mistaken for the superficially 

similar hiwihiwi, which are generally 

smaller, carnivorous and not 

closely related. 

1 Found throughout New Zealand including the 6 

Chatham Islands. 

2 Called kehe in Māori. 

3 Up to 65 cm long. 

7 

4 Also known as sea carp. 

8 

5 Eats mostly delicate red and green seaweed. 

~Aplodactylus arctidens 

A much rarer, subtropical species Aplodactylus 

etheridgii can be found in Northern New 

Zealand. 

arctidens is a reference to the rows of small 

trilobed teeth. 

Mostly crepuscular (dawn and dusk) feeding 

habits. 


INCIDENTINSIGHTS WITH THE DIVERS ALERT NETWORK (DANAP] 

Disinfect your dive gear! 

The recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has raised 

questions in the dive community about disease transmission, 

especially when using rental equipment such as regulators. 

With the threat of coronavirus 

on everyone’s 

minds, divers want to know 

what precautions are being 

taken against the spread of 

disease. 

Properly sanitising equipment 

is paramount. Keep the 

following in mind: 

According to the Centre for 

Disease Control (CDC) household 

cleaners are as effective 

against COVID-19 as they are 

against the common cold and 

flu viruses. Therefore, cleaning 

and disinfecting equipment 

meant for personal use (such 

as second-stage regulators, 

masks, snorkels and BCD oral 

inflators) is very important. 

Equipment can be effectively 

sanitised by submerging it in 

a 10% bleach solution or using 

Evaluating an unfamiliar dive operator 

By Divers Alert Network (DAN) 

a cleaning product such as 

Steramine tablets or any 

other quaternary ammonium 

compound. 

Be sure to use these products 

according to the manufacturer’s 

directions and then rinse 

the gear with fresh water. 

Products that are commonly 

used to clean dive gear but 

are ineffective against coronavirus 

include antibacterial and 

chlorhexidine mouthwashes or 

sprays. 

…If you’re using rental gear and would like to take extra 

steps to protect yourself from transmissible diseases, 

thoroughly wipe equipment with a household disinfecting 

wipe and then rinse with fresh water before use… 

Hot soapy water must be 

paired with mechanical action 

such as scrubbing with a soft 

toothbrush to be effective. 

If you’re a diver using rental 

gear and would like to take 

extra steps to protect yourself 

from transmissible diseases, 

thoroughly wipe the following 

equipment with a household 

disinfecting wipe and then 

rinse with fresh water before 

use: 

• Regulator mouthpiece 

• Snorkel 

• BCD oral inflator 

• The inside of your mask 

If you do not have access to 

wipes, you may wish to ask 

the shop you’re diving with to 

properly sanitise the equipment 

before you take it with 

you. 

As always, frequent 

hand-washing (with soap for 

at least 20 seconds), regularly 

cleaning high-traffic objects 

and areas (bathrooms, door 

handles, countertops, etc.), 

avoiding contact with people 

who are sick, and staying 

home when you are ill, are 

some of the best ways to stop 

the spread of disease. 

If you have any questions, 

please contact 

RiskMitigation@DAN.org 

Your first trip to a dive 

destination can engulf 

you in new experiences - 

unexplored sites, unfamiliar 

creatures and sometimes 

unanticipated situations. 

So while you have likely 

researched the dive operator 

you are trusting yourself with, 

and read online reviews about 

them, it’s a good idea also to 

evaluate them in person, after 

you arrive. 

Here are some guidelines to 

help you determine if you can 

trust them with your safety. 

Before the dive 

Look around at the state of the 

shop. Is it cluttered and disorganised? 

Is the rental gear old, 

unclean, in obvious disrepair 

or showing signs of serious 

wear? 

If the staff don’t maintain the 

building or their equipment, 

then the chances are they may 

overlook, or take little care 

with other aspects of their 

operation. 

Ask questions of the staff 


members and pay attention 

to both the substance of their 

answers and their demeanour 

while talking with you. They 

may answer your questions 

fully, provide additional information, 

and do so with friendliness 

and enthusiasm. Or you 

may encounter a staff member 

who seems to be going through 

the motions but is unwilling to 

engage with you. 

Their attitude can help you 

determine if you can trust 

them during your dives. 

Boarding the boat 

The boat should have appropriate 

safety equipment: a fire 

extinguisher, personal flotation 

devices for every person, a 

first aid kit, an oxygen unit, a 

radio and non-skid decks. 

The usual modifications for 

divers should be present as 

well, including an adequate 

platform and ladder, descent 

lines and well-organised gear 

stations with proper, secure 

storage. 

…Their attitude can help you determine if you can 

trust them during your dives… 

dive. The divemaster, who 

should be certified, should 

give a thorough dive briefing. 

A good divemaster will get to 

know everyone on board and 

understand each diver’s skill 

level and experience. 

You should understand the 

system used to account for 

each diver. There must a 

physical count in place, and 

what will happen in case of an 

emergency in the water. 

Remember to trust your 

intuition and be willing to find 

another operator, or cancel 

your dive if you feel unsure or 

unsafe. 

Ask if they can handle repairs. 

Ask about their policies, and 

ask about any special accommodations 

you may need. 

Ask other divers in the shop 

if they have dived with them 

before and what their experience 

was like. 

The responses you get from 

other divers and the thoroughness 

of the staff’s answers will 

give you some idea about how 

dedicated the business is to 

taking care of you as a diver. 

The captain should tell you 

where all the safety equipment 

is located during the boat 

safety briefing, which should 

happen before you leave the 

dock. This is also a time to ask 

questions and make sure you 

feel comfortable with the boat 

and its equipment. 

Onboard 

Now that the dive shop and 

the boat have passed muster, 

the last step is preparing to 

Experienced divers may be 

savvy about spotting potential 

issues, but even novice divers 

can rely on common sense to 

tell them if something isn’t 

right; if something feels off to 

you, it probably is. 

Any one warning sign alone 

may not necessarily indicate 

an actual problem. But any 

indication of a problem or 

combination of problems could 

potentially increase your risk, 

so it is up to you to recognise 

the signs and keep yourself 

safe. 

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DIVEMEDICINE 

Should divers monitor their own bubbles? 

By Professor Simon Mitchell, University of Auckland 

The recent release of a bubble monitoring device designed for use by divers has precipitated a 

number of questions to me about whether self-monitoring for bubbles after diving is something 

that divers should be doing. 

The device I am referring to is the 

so-called “O-dive” subclavian 

bubble monitor which integrates 

information about the dive profile, 

the diver, gases used and bubbles 

detected in the subclavian vein 

after diving, to produce a “dive 

quality index” that the diver can 

attempt to iteratively improve over 

a series of dives by adjusting dive 

parameters. 

The device is described here: 

https://o-dive.com/en/home/ , and 

on this website the manufacturer 

claims that the device “for the first 

time in the world – allows scuba 

divers to personalise their diving 

practice by taking into consideration 

the gas microbubbles detected 

in their venous system after diving”. 

Background 

A bit of background is necessary 

to interpret this claim objectively. 

It has been known for many years 

that bubble formation after diving 

is primarily responsible for decompression 

sickness (DCS). These 

bubbles form from nitrogen (or 

other inert gases) that have been 

dissolved in tissues when breathed 

at depth. If ascent from a dive 

does not allow sufficient time for 

dissolved gas to be carried away 

from a tissue in the circulation, and 

if the pressure of gas dissolved in 

tissues significantly exceeds the 

surrounding pressure, then that gas 

may come out of solution; that is, 

form bubbles. This can occur in the 

tissue itself, or in the tiny capillary 

blood vessels passing through 

the tissue. In the latter case, those 

bubbles can pass into the veins 

where they can be detected using 

Doppler ultrasound technology. The 

latter is the basis for operation of 

the O-dive device. 

These bubbles in the veins, often 

referred to as venous gas emboli 

(VGE), have been of great interest 

to decompression researchers ever 

since they were first discovered. In 

studying them, two things became 

clear very quickly. First, VGE formed 

(sometimes in large numbers) after 

many dives in divers who exhibited 

no symptoms of DCS. For awhile 

they were called ‘silent bubbles’ for 

this reason. Second, the number 

of VGE detected after diving does 

correlate with the risk of DCS, but 

not very precisely. For example, 

the largest database of dives where 

both outcome (DCS or no DCS), 

and post-dive VGE grades were 

measured, showed that if there 

were no VGE then DCS virtually 

never occurred. But at the other 

end of the spectrum, even when 

the highest grades of VGE were 

detected, only about 10% of divers 

developed symptoms. 

Disconnect 

This disconnect between VGE 

numbers and the appearance of DCS 

symptoms has several potential 

explanations, and all of them may 

be relevant. 

First, although VGE are definitely 

indicative of the propensity for 

bubble formation in the tissue in 

whose capillaries they originate, 

this does not necessarily predict 

important harm in that tissue or 

consequent symptoms. For example, 

many VGE probably arise in tissues 

like fat, where bubble formation 

would be unlikely to produce significant 

harm or symptoms. 

Second, the first capillary bed that 

VGE come to in the circulation is 

that of the lungs (where venous 

blood is taken to be oxygenated). 

The vast majority of them (and 

frequently all) get trapped in the 

lung capillaries and are eliminated 

through breathing. The lungs are 

an efficient ‘filter’ for these small 

bubbles, and so most VGE don’t 

cause any harm. 

Potential harm 

However, and this is the third 

point, in divers with a pathway 

that allows VGE to get into the 

arterial circulation (such as a patent 

foramen ovale [PFO] – a communication 

between the right and left 

atria in the heart) VGE are potentially 

much more harmful. If these 

small bubbles cross a PFO into the 

arterial circulation and distribute 

to the capillary bed of important 

or functionally sensitive tissues 

that still contain high pressures of 

dissolved nitrogen after a dive, then 

the bubbles can grow and cause 

harm. For example, we believe 

that tissues like the inner ear and 

spinal cord are vulnerable to this 

process. About 25% of people have a 

PFO, but less than 5% have one that 

readily allows venous blood (and 

potentially bubbles) to cross to the 

arterial circulation. 

If the above discussion all seems 

a bit complicated then a simple 

summary might be that VGE are 

only harmful in some people some 

of the time. It follows that detecting 

VGE can’t be used to diagnose DCS. 

Nevertheless, there is general 

agreement that fewer VGE is good, 

more VGE is bad, and therefore 

that VGE numbers can be used as 

a marker of the ‘decompression 

stress’ associated with a dive. On 

this basis VGE have frequently been 

used in decompression research 

to validate decompression tables, 

evaluate the effect of changes in 

decompression strategy, and to 

monitor the effect of other factors 

like hydration and exercise on 

‘decompression stress’. 


Challenge 

One of the challenges of attempting to use VGE to evaluate 

decompression strategies or the effect of a particular intervention 

designed to reduce decompression stress, is that VGE 

numbers can be profoundly influenced by how you measure 

them, when you measure them, and by many variables in 

diving and divers, such as the decompression approach, 

exercise, temperature, hydration, and individual variation 

(even variability within the same individual). Thus, for 

example, if you are interested in how a particular change in 

the approach to decompression (eg changes in stop depths 

and/or times) affects decompression stress, it is vital to 

conduct multiple trials of dives where only that change is 

different; everything else (like exercise, hydration, temperature, 

and Doppler measurement times) must be completely 

standardized. These difficulties and recommendations for 

overcoming them have received a recent comprehensive 

description in the literature [1]. 

KEEPING DIVERS SAFE 

AROUND THE WORLD 

The O-dive concept is exciting, and the technology may catch 

on. But it is in respect of the above methodologic issues that 

the challenges are likely to arise. 

The O-dive system measures VGE coming from the arm in 

the subclavian vein. Measurements at this site have been 

validated as representative of the other sites more commonly 

used in decompression research [2], so this choice seems fine. 

‘Dive quality index’ 

The O-dive does not report VGE numbers per se, but rather a 

‘dive quality index’ that is influenced by both VGE numbers 

(more VGE = lower quality) and appraisal of the dive profile 

and gases used based on criteria that are not immediately 

obvious from web-based information. On this basis it 

provides advice on potential profile adjustment. It does not, 

however, have an obvious means of accounting for the effects 

of other factors mentioned above that can also profoundly 

influence VGE numbers. 

It was only a matter of time before a device like the O-dive 

appeared on the market. I suspect that divers interested in 

the physiology and medicine of the sport may find it very 

interesting to use the O-dive and its application may indeed 

facilitate profile optimization. However, it is important that 

the potential limitations of the technology are borne in mind, 

and in particular, that attributing improvements in dive 

quality index to one particular change in dive practice may 

be invalid unless multiple iterations of carefully standardized 

dives and measurements are conducted. 

1. Mollerlokken A, Blogg SL, Doolette DJ, Nishi RY, Pollock NW. 

Consensus guidelines for the use of ultrasound for diving research. 

Diving Hyperb Med 2016;46(1):26-32. Available from: 

www.dhmjournal.com/images/Journals/46/DHM_Vol46_No1.pdf 

2. Hugon J, Metelkina A, Barbaud A, Nishi R, Bouak F, Blatteau JE, 

Gempp E. Reliability of venous gas embolism detection in the 

subclavian area for decompression stress assessment following 

scuba diving. Diving Hyperb Med. 2018;48(3):132-140. Available from: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6205931/ 

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Dive_NZ_8.5cmx25.7cm.indd 1 

2/6/19 12:51 PM

SHADES OF COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION 

Recording nature’s amazing 

diversity 

By Dave Moran 

I’m always amazed at the stunning accuracy of 

drawings by those who recorded the animals and 

plant species they encountered during expeditions 

in the 17th and 18th centuries. Drawing was the only 

means of recording the detailed features of specimens 

discovered as well as landscapes and native people. 

Primitive photography only started to develop in the 

mid 1820’s. Sir Joseph Banks name springs to mind. 

He was the naturalist / botanist, aboard Captain 

James Cook’s Endeavour as it explored the South 

Pacific. Banks employed Sydney Parkinson, a young 

Scottish artist to record their findings. Parkinson 

completed 269 plant watercolours and had 673 unfinished 

sketches before he died at just 25 on the ship’s 

voyage back to England. Check out the drawings and 

specimens collected at the Natural History Museum in 

South Kensington London. 

Now with just a touch of a button we can record in 

immense detail the life we encounter under the sea. 

Can you imagine the wonder that would flood young 

Parkinson and Bank’s faces if they were to gaze upon 

the macro/close-up images by Stephen Hopkins and 

Dave Weeks below! 

I encourage all of you who have thought, “Oh I could 

never win a place in the Novice Category” to have a 

GO. It’s a fun competition and the judges just love 

seeing new underwater photographers develop their 

photographic skills. 

See: www.divenewzealand.com click on Photo 

Competition. It’s free to enter. You can view galleries 

of all the entries over www.seatech.co.nz/blogs/ 

shades-of-colour-photo-competition 

‘Donut Nudibranch’; Talumben, Bali: Canon EOS 5D Mk III, 2 x Ikelite DS161 – 1/160, ISO100 

Advanced Category Winner: 

Congratulations Stephen Hopkins, New South Wales, 

Australia 

Stephen must have been dreaming of Donuts when he 

spotted these two beautiful Donut nudibranchs (Doto 

greenamyeri). Stephen was diving off the coastal town 

of Talumben, which is 83ks from Bali’s main town of 

Denpassar. 

Interestingly it was first added as a species in 2015! 

Originally discovered by the researchers at the 

California Academy of Sciences while they were on an 

expedition in southern Africa. 

Judges’ comments: 

This image captures the magic of nature’s amazing 

diversity. A well balanced image. 

Suggestion to improve the image: When framing the 

image allow more “space” between the subjects and 

the edges of the image. 

Stephen receives a Gift Voucher for NZ$100. 

52 52 Dive Dive New New Zealand Zealand | | Dive Dive Pacific Pacific

Advanced Category 

Highly Commended: 

Congratulations Dave 

Weeks, Calgary, Canada. 

Dave was diving off 

Komodo, Indonesia when 

he came across this 

Harlequin shrimp 

(Hymenocera picta) which is 

one of the more colourful 

and ornate marine invertebrates 

out there! 

Judges’ comments: 

Great animal but hard to separate from the background 

and surrounds unless one has a trained eye. Suggest 

you crop the image judiciously to highlight the animal. 

‘Harlequin Shrimp’; Komodo, Indonesia: Nikon D60, Aquatica housing, Ikeilte AI Strobe, and 

Nikonos SB 105 Slave strobe – f/13, 1/125, ISO100 

Also by toning down the background colours a little in 

post editing would help to focus the viewer’s eye on 

the shrimp. 

Dave receives a Gift Voucher for NZ$75. 

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(*Use FRX100 VI LE for VI & VII) 

Visit www.seatech.co.nz for information and specifications. 

Available from your professional dive store. Trade enquiries welcome. 

www.divenewzealand.com 53

SHADES OF COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION 

‘Sea Turtle’; Maldives: GoPro Hero5 

Novice Category Winner & Highly Commended: 

Congratulations Ashleigh Nelson, New Zealand. Judges comments: 

When Ashleigh was on a diving adventure in the 

Maldives she spotted this Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) 

heading out into open water away from the reef edge, 

maybe looking for an adventure too! 

A very nice image taken with a GoPro’s built-in 

wide-angle lens. Suggestion: With post editing the 

image’s wide angle could have been cropped in from 

the top right-hand corner. This would have reduced 

the blue negative space surrounding the turtle thus 

resulting in a greatly improved composition. 

Ashleigh receives a Gift Voucher for NZ$75. 

Thanks 

to all those 

who entered this fun 

competition. The judges, 

Iain Anderson and Andy Belcher 

and the team at Dive New Zealand/ 

Dive Pacific magazines look forward to 

receiving your photographic masterpieces 

in June for the August/Sept 

2020 issue of the magazine. 

See: www.seatech.co.nz 

click on Photo Competition. 

It’s free to enter. 

The judges, Iain Anderson and Andy Belcher and the 

team at Dive Pacific magazine look forward to receiving 

your photographic masterpieces in June for the August - 

September 2020 issue. 

See: www.divenewzealand.com click on Photo 

Competition. It’s free to enter. 

You can view galleries of all the entries at: 

www.seatech.co.nz/blogs/shades-of-colour-photo-competition 

Thanks for taking the time to enter! 

Sea Tech is the official New Zealand distributor of Ikelite, Fantasea, 

Recsea, Inon, Bigblue, Nauticam and other leading brands of underwater 

photographic equipment. 

Visit: www.seatech.co.nz or for personal service email: info@seatech.co.nz 


A selection of notable photos entered for this edition's competition 

(A) Dave Weeks 

(A) Sarah Ford 

(A) Sarah Ford 

(N) Ashleigh Nelson 

(A) Dave Weeks 

(A) Jen Chua 

(N) Ashleigh Nelson 

www.divenewzealand.com 55

DIGITALIMAGING 

Hans Weichselbaum www.digital-image.co.nz 

Digital editing for lightness and contrast 

Today’s image editing programs all offer a stunning 

array of features. In fact, there are so many ways to 

improve your images or manipulate them with filters 

that it is good to step back and look at the basics again. 

That’s the purpose of this current series. 

In the last issue we looked at: 

- Choosing the size, file format and quality setting (done 

in the camera) 

- Adjusting lightness and contrast 

- Colour correction 

- Optimum sharpening 

Here we’ll look at correcting the tonality of an image. 

Ideally, this should have been done when the image 

was taken. 

Modern cameras generally do an excellent job in 

giving you the optimal exposure. However, there are 

high contrast situations when the camera’s meter is 

overwhelmed, or the subject of interest receives either 

too little, or too much light. That’s where the exposure 

compensation on your camera comes in - but who can 

claim they have nailed the perfect exposure with every 

shot? 

Tools for adjusting lightness and contrast 

There are many ways to make an 

image lighter or darker. Even your 

humble word processor can do 

it. However, that sort of program 

would simply make every single 

image pixel lighter or darker. The 

common outcome of lightening an 

image is the loss of some highlight 

details because they have been 

pushed to pure white. So you need 

to do your adjustments in a proper 

image editor which guarantees 

that only the dark and mid-tones 

will be affected when you lighten 

up your images. 

Image 1 shows a simple two-slider 

adjustment you can find in Affinity 

Photo. One slider controls the 

lightness level and the second one 

allows you to increase or reduce 

the image contrast. This interface 

gives you more control, such as 

Opacity and Blend Mode, but we’ll 

leave that for a more advanced 

tutorial. It is important you don’t 

tick the “linear” option, because 

that will shift all pixels to the 

lighter or the darker end, giving 

you the clipping of shadows or 

highlights which we want to avoid. 

Another great tool to adjust the 

tonality of your image is the Levels 

command (Image 2). Here we get 

a histogram which shows you the 

lightness distribution across the 

entire image. 

Image 2 - Adjusting brightness and 

contrast through the Levels Command 

For adjusting lightness you grab 

the middle slider and pull it either 

to the left to lighten the image, or 

to the right for making it darker. 

If you don’t touch the end sliders, 

neither the darkest, nor the 

lightest pixels will have changed, 

and there won’t be any clipping on 

either end. 

Think of a rubber band attached 

between both ends of the histogram. 

Grab it by the middle (the 

middle slider) and pull it to the 

left: the levels to the left get 

compressed and the levels on 

the right (the lighter tones of the 

image) get stretched out - they 

become more prominent and the 

image gets lighter. 

Image 1 - Brightness/Contrast Control in Affinity Photo 

Moving both end sliders towards 

the middle will push the contrast 

up, however, you need to be careful 

that you don’t clip shadows and 

highlights (too much). 


Image 3 - The Shadows/Highlights Interface 

Another great tool you’ll find in 

every image editor is the Curves 

command. It gives you even more 

control than Levels because it 

allows you to affect the tonality 

of the shadows or the mid-tones. 

Every image editor will offer you 

the two-slider command, the 

Levels and the Curves tool. More 

often than not, that’s all you’ll 

need. If you just want to affect 

specific areas of your image you 

need to dig a bit deeper. 

Image 3 shows you the more 

sophisticated Shadows/Highlight 

interface in Photoshop (Image 

> Adjustments > Shadows/ 

Highlights). But again many editors 

have this under different names. 

In my example I wanted to better 

highlight the three divers which 

were quite underexposed in the 

original shot, without making the 

whole image brighter. You simply 

pull up the shadows and you can 

also tone down the brighter areas. 

The interface also gives you 

more options through Tone 

and Radius sliders to refine 

the selection of tones you 

want to adjust. You can also 

control the tonality of the 

midtones. 

Of course, you can always make 

a precise selection if you want 

to affect only very specific areas 

in your image, or you mask out 

the areas you don’t want change. 

This process is usually cumbersome 

and time consuming. The 

Shadows/Highlight tool (and, to 

a lesser degree the Curves tool) 

will help you doing your tonality 

adjustments without going through 

the trouble of making a selection. 

Word of warning 

If you value quality, then 

correct exposure is of vital 

importance and too many 

photographers rely on pulling 

up their shadows in post 

processing. Let’s have a closer 

look at how your camera sensor 

captures the scene. Photographers 

commonly divide the tonal range 

of a scene into five parts: very 

dark, dark, medium, light and very 

light. Image 4 shows you what 

such a division should look like 

for a JPEG file with its 256 levels of 

brightness - in theory. 

Image 4 - Grey Chart divided into five areas 

Our eyes respond logarithmically 

with each F stop correlating to a 

doubling or halving of the amount 

of light hitting the sensor. When 

we distribute our 256 data levels 

over the 5-part window it would 

seem logical to allocate 51 levels 

to each box. However, the camera 

sensor responds to light in a linear 

way, not logarithmically like our 

eyes. 

Image 5 - The way digital sensors see a scene 

Image 5 shows you how the 256 

bit of data are distributed over a 

6-stop window: there is much less 

information captured and stored 

in the darker areas compared to 

the lighter areas. If you are in the 

habit of pulling up your shadow 

areas you will have little room for 

shadow detail and run into danger 

of posterisation. This explains why 

we are told to “always expose 

to the right”. Shooting in Raw 

instead of JPEG will give you a 

lot more headroom! 

In the next issue we will be 

looking at all the essentials of 

colour correction. 


Chapter 4: 

Back to the Basics 

A Practical Guide for Beginners by Alexey Zaytsev 

Exclusively for Dive Pacific magazine. 

(All photo's by Alexey Zaytsev) 

Lets get started underwater! 

Alexey Zaytsev is well known 

amongst Russia’s dive and 

underwater photography 

community, and has undertaken 

professional photographic 

assignments in many 

places around the world, 

including many visits to Egypt, 

Sudan, Bali and elsewhere. 

To illustrate the book, and also 

his own credentials, Alexey is 

making available a selection of 

his fine photographic work for 

this series. 

Now we are armed with the theory: we have learned how colour and 

light act underwater; we know how to choose ISO, what an aperture and 

the DOF are; we know how to set correct exposure pairs and the white 

balance… We are ready to go underwater! 

Shoot without strobes! 

Let’s try to shoot in bright 

sunlight in clear tropical 

waters. Is it realistic to take a good 

image without strobes? Is it at all 

possible? Of course! I recommend 

shooting without strobes when 

you are just starting to photograph 

underwater. Once you’ve learned 

how to use the full potential of 

the strongest source of light, the 

sun, you will be able to use strobes 

properly. 

Don’t forget the main source of 

light during the day is the sun. 

When there’s the sun, a strobe is 

merely an auxiliary tool becoming 

the main source of light, for 

example, at night, inside a wreck 

or in a cave. But we’ll talk about 

that later… 

Keep everything simple! 

When underwater, you should 

spend most of your time taking 

photos – choosing a subject, and 

framing an image, and spending 

little time thinking about your 

camera settings. To be able to do 

that, you have to prepare your 

camera when still on the shore. 

Get your camera ready 

1) Charge the batteries ahead 

of time; don’t go diving with 

partially discharged batteries. 

They can run out of power much 

faster that you’d think. ‘The 

chance of a slice of bread falling 

butter side down is directly 

proportional to the cost of the 

carpet- manta rays and whale 

sharks know Murphy’s Law! 

They will show up at the exact 

moment when your batteries die. 

So take a spare battery with you 

on the boat. 

2) Make sure there is an empty 

memory card in your camera 

slot. Even if there is still enough 

space on it, don’t accumulate 

several days’ of materials on 

the card. It can break down and 

may result in a loss of precious 

images. 

3) Select and put on the lens right 

for the shooting conditions and 

the one that will help you take 

the images you want. 

4) Select a suitable port for the 

lens. 

5) Before you mount the port to the 

housing, inspect the O-rings on 

the port and the housing. Make 

sure its clean of any grease, sand 

or other particles. Grease O-rings 

with a small amount of silicon. 

6) Make sure you put in the plug 

to close the electric strobe cable 

connector on the housing. 

7) Close the housing and turn on 

the camera. Make sure all the 

levers, buttons and rotating 


mechanisms are connected/fitted 

properly, and the camera functions are 

available. 

8) Set the camera to the M mode (manual). 

9) Set ISO at 100, a minimum possible 

sensitivity based on the lighting conditions. 

The lower the ISO, the less colour 

noise and the better the quality of an 

image. 

10) Set the shutter speed to 1/60 s. Use the 

safe shutter speed rule to select for 

shooting landscapes and stationary 

objects. The longer shutter speed 

you can set, the more you close the 

aperture thus obtaining a maximum 

depth of field. To photograph fast 

moving animals, choose a shutter 

speed based on the speed with which 

they are moving. You may have to set 

it to 1/125 or 1/500 s, sometimes even 

shorter… 

11) Choose and set the aperture to f 8. 

Why? This is a middle value on the 

scale and you will quickly be able to 

open the aperture if there is not enough 

light or close it if it’s too bright. 

12) Set the auto focus control to S. 

Wreck “Kingston” (1881). Straits of Gubal, Red Sea, Egypt. 

Nikon D700 15 mm F2.8 (f11; 1/60 ñ; ISO100) 

Ikelite housing 

13) Select the central focusing point. If it 

is not difficult to manually change the 

position of the focusing point and set 

autofocus to the area mode. 

14) Set multi-zone exposure metering. 


15) Select RAW+JPEG for photo 

quality (the largest possible size 

to ensure good quality). 

16) Preset white balance to ‘Cloudy’ 

(clouds consist of water and 

similarly affect sunlight 

absorbing red light of the 

spectrum first). 

You are all set and ready to go! 

We are going diving 

1) I recommend entering the water 

without the camera. Ask your 

buddy or somebody from the 

boat you are diving off, to hand it 

to you. Do not take off a protective 

neoprene cover from the 

housing port until you hold the 

camera and clip it to yourself 

with the special clip. Most often 

glass ports get scratched on a 

dive deck of a boat or a dinghy. 

When rushing into the water 

together with the crowd of other 

divers, you may not notice when 

somebody’s octopus or gauge 

scratches your acrylic port. 

2) Start your descent, and during it, 

take the protective cover off the 

port and put it in a zip up pocket 

of your BCD. 

3) Carefully wipe air bubbles off 

the port, viewfinder and back 

screen. 

4) When you are at the working 

depth, don’t wait for a manta ray 

or a whale shark to approach. 

Take a test shot to choose the 

correct exposure, preferably 

with the water column as the 

background of your image. If you 

are shooting with a fisheye, then 

the water surface will surely 

be in your image as well. You 

should use these brightest areas 

to decide on what exposure to 

set. 

5) Take the test shot with the 

shutter speed and aperture that 

you set before going in the water. 

For example, 1/60 and f/ 8. Look 

at the test shot and evaluate 

the result looking at the histogram 

and the highlight preview 

window. I recommend setting 

the highlight preview mode by 

default. The highlight preview 

screen shows overexposed areas 

as black spots that blink once a 

second. When you see blinking 

spots on your image, decide 

whether or not the image is too 

overexposed and take necessary 

steps: 

a) Close the aperture by one point 

(to f 11) and take another test 

shot. If necessary, repeat this 

procedure until the highlights 

disappear. 

* You don’t have to fight highlights 

all the time! There will be no 

winner in this war. For example, 

if the sun is in your shot, the disk 

of the sun will always come out 

as a white ‘hole’. You cannot win 

hot spots from the sun reflecting 

off polished metal surfaces such 

as chrome-plated surfaces of your 

buddy’s regulator. Sometimes you 

cannot take a picture of a subject 

with details in shadows, which 

are important for a viewer to see, 

without overexposing the surface 

of the water. In any case, try to 

avoid overexposure, but don’t’ get 

carried away fighting it and don’t 

fall into another extreme - taking 

Shark shot at Fiji 


images that are too dark. 

A light but not overexposed photo 

can always be made look a bit 

darker and contrastier in post-processing. 

Without losing the quality. 

But when you lighten up a dark 

photo in post processing, you start 

seeing colour noise and the quality 

of the image will degrade … 

b) If stopping down the aperture 

did not result in the disappearance 

of the overall overexposure, 

start shortening the 

shutter speed. Make it shorter 

by one stop; for example, change 

it from 1/60 to 1/125 s. It didn’t 

help? Then change it again… 

(Maybe you should check the ISO 

settings on your camera? What 

if yesterday you were taking 

images in the woods at dawn 

and set the ISO to 3200? Reduce 

the sensitivity and the overexposure 

will go away). 

6) We have taken a test shot and 

it was not overexposed. What 

now? It’s too early to stop 

worrying! It can be challenging 

to check the exposure by looking 

at the LCD screen underwater. 

You are better off retaking an 

underexposed image, while you 

can still do so. Use the histogram 

to evaluate the exposure 

and to see if the image is ‘under 

lit’. To do it, switch to the 

histogram preview mode and 

look at the histogram. If the 

graph is skewed toward the left 

edge of the frame, increase the 

exposure. To do that… 

a) … open up the aperture by one 

point. For example, from f 8 to 

f 5.6. Retake the shot: check to 

see whether there are highlights 

(areas blinking black) and if you 

don’t see them, open up the 

aperture by one more point and 

retake the image again. Keep on 

opening the aperture until you 

see overexposed areas, then stop 

it down by one point. 

* When we open up the aperture, 

we reduce the DOF (depth of 

field). What should we do if we 

don’t what to reduce it? Should 

we make the shutter speed 

longer? But then our image will 

be blurred because the camera 

is shaking in our hands? Fast 

moving underwater creatures 

will also come out blurred. There 

is only one way out of this situation: 

we increase the ISO. But 

do not forget, if you set your ISO 

too high, you may end up having 

colour noise in your image and 

its quality will deteriorate. 

That is why I strongly recommend 

shooting with full-frame 

cameras. Using them, you can 

boost up your ISO without 

getting any noticeable sensor 

noise. 

b) … Increase the ISO. Move 

from 100 to 200 and take a test 

shot. Evaluate the exposure by 

looking at the highlight and 

histogram screens. Repeat this 

step, if necessary. 

c) … use an additional source of 

light, a strobe. 

In the next edition we will discuss 

Automatic modes: why and how we 

should use them. 


DIVE STORES / TRAVEL 

By region. To list your dive/sports stores contact Dive New Zealand for information. 

More information on Dive Stores, Clubs & Travel at www.DiveNewZealand.com 

NORTHLAND 

NEW ZEALAND 

A to Z Diving & Cylinder Services IANZ accredited 

SCUBA, LPG & Industrial cylinder testing. Certified 

in servicing all brands of dive gear. Supplier of 

compressor consumables: carbon, molecular sieve, 

felt pads, oil, O-rings etc. Certifiers of Air & LPG 

Fillers. All major gases available onsite. 

235 Wiroa Rd, Kerikeri. P: 021 508 707 

www.atozdiving.co.nz 

E: andre@atozdiving.co.nz 

Dive Zone Bay of Islands Far North’s only 

PADI 5 Star IDC facility. Open Water to Instructor 

courses. Freedive and spearfishing training & trips. 

Dive trips,On-site equipment servicing & cylinder 

testing. Aqualung, Mares, Scubapro, Beuchat. 

Open 7 days! 5 Klinac Lane, State Highway 10 

Waipapa. 09 407 9986. 

www.divezoneboi.co.nz, 

info@divezoneboi.co.nz 

Paihia Dive Dive training, charter and retail in Paihia. 

Dive the Rainbow Warrior, frigate Canterbury and 

the Bay of Islands. PADI courses: Open water to 

Instructor. Quality scuba brands: Aqualung, Tusa, 

Faber, Luxfer and Wettie spearfishing. Open 7 days. 

Williams Rd, Paihia, P: Craig or Lisa 09-402 7551 

E: info@divenz.com www.divenz.com 

Northland Dive World Class Diving package – Great 

diving mixed with even better accommodation, meals 

and hospitality. Dive with the team that instigated the 

sinking of the Canterbury Frigate. Full Gear available 

incl NITROX – PADI /TDI/ SDI training “Unbelievable 

value for money”. 3851 Russell Road, Whangaruru, 

Bay of Islands, P: 09 433 6633, 

E: info@northlanddive.com 

www.info@northlanddive.com 

DIVE COMPRESSOR 

sales and servicing 

High Pressure 

Equipment NZ Ltd 

ph 09-444 0804 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Master Agents 

for Bauer 

Kompressoren in 

New Zealand and 

have been for the 

past 20 years. 

Servicing & repairs of all compressor brands: 

Bauer, Poseidon, Coltri, Bristol, Brownie. 

and most other brands. 

High pressure regulators. 

High pressure pumps. 

Compressor consumables and spare parts. 

Customised filling panels. 

Breathing air equipment. 

New Zealand Master 

Agents for: 

BAUER KOMPRESSOREN 

compressors/spare parts 

BAUER-POSEIDON 

compressors and spare parts 

DNZ163 

Contact us at: ph 09 444 0804, fax 09 443 1121 

32 Parkway Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland. 

Email info@highpressure.co.nz 

www.highpressure.co.nz 

DIVE NOW For all your SCUBA Freediving 

and Spearfishing needs. Onsite servicing, 

cylinder testing, Air and Nitrox fills, wetsuit 

repairs, gear hire and full retail store stocking 

most major brands. 5 Star PADI Tec Rec dive 

training facility and breath holding courses with 

onsite training pool. Located at the gateway to 

the beautiful Poor Knights Islands and Bay of 

Islands. 

41 Clyde Street Whangarei 

Freephone: 0800 102 102 or 

P: 09 438 1075 E: info@divenow.co.nz 

www.divenow.co.nz 

Dive! Tutukaka The Poor Knights Islands experts – 

professional, fun and safe – “It’s what we do” – With 

5 boats, catering for all abilities; Adventure Audited, 

Qualmark endorsed, PADI 5 star IDC; air fills, nitrox, 

gear hire. Shed 7 with salt-water pool and training 

facilities – Behind Schnappa Rock. Marina Rd. 

Tutukaka, Whangarei. Open 7 days, 7am-7pm. 

Always someone at the end of the phone 0800 288 

882. Phone: 09 4343 867 

E: info@diving.co.nz www.diving.co.nz 

AUCKLAND / DISTRICTS 

New Zealand Diving Charters to the Hauraki Gulf 

incl marine reserves, Little & Great Barrier Islands. 

Also overseas trips. NZ’s leading SDI & TDI 5 star IDC 

& PADI with a wide selection of courses. Qualmark 

endorsed. Nitrox, 300bar fills, servicing & rental hire. 

Full selection of gear for sports & tec divers. 

22 Whitaker Rd, Warkworth. 

P: 0800 NZDIVING. E: Neil@NZDiving.co.nz 

www.NZDiving.co.nz (DNZ164) 

Auckland Scuba on Auckland’s north shore. 

PADI 5 STAR IDC diver training specialists. PADI 

dive courses beginner to instructor and tec 

rec. Part time/full time tertiary (student loan 

approved), NZQA credits. Dive trips, air/nitrox fills, 

cylinder testing, equipment servicing. Top quality 

equipment! 

Unit I, 121 Rosedale Rd, Albany. 

P: 09 478 2814 E: info@aucklandscuba.co.nz 

www.aucklandscuba.co.nz 

KIWI DIVERS SSI, TDI/SDI, RAID dive centre. 

Recreational and Technical dive courses 

(rebreather friendly). Regular trips from our 

own boat. Equipment sales, servicing and hire. 

Cylinder testing, air/nitrox trimix/oxygen fills. 

Open 7 days. 8 Keith Hay Court, Silverdale 

(just 20 mins north of Akld) P: 09 426 9834 

E: info@kiwiscubadivers.co.nz 

www.kiwiscubadivers.co.nz 

Performance Diver NZ’s diving superstore! Massive 

stocks of all lines at unbelievable prices. PADI 5 star 

Instructor Development Centre offering training from 

beginner to Instructor. Local & national dive charters, 

overseas trips, servicing, air fills and rental. Open 7 

days! 

74 Barrys Point Road, Takapuna 

(behind Avanti bikes). 09 489 7782 

www.performancediver.co.nz 

Global Dive NZ’s favourite technical and recreational 

dive store. All top brands stocked and serviced. Our 

active dive club meets monthly with guest speakers and 

BBQ. Experts in photography and tech diving. Quality 

rental gear, including technical and drysuits. Nitrox fills. 

132 Beaumont St, Westhaven, P: 09 9205200 

www.globaldive.net E: info@globaldive.net 

Dive Doctor Mt Wellington New Zealand’s specialist 

dive servicing company, regulator servicing, drysuit & 

wetsuit repairs, compressor servicing, cylinder testing, 

NITROX, O2, Helium, 300 BAR air fills. A full selection 

Dive HQ Westhaven in Auckland's CBD. PADI 

5 Star Instructor Development Centre. Become 

a PADI Dive Instructor with us. NZQA approved 

Part Time and Full Course available. Still Your 

Local Dive Shop for all your SCUBA dive, 

freediving, spear-fishing and gear-servicing 

needs. Mares, Atomic, Oceanic, Pinnacle, 

Beuchat, and Zeagle. Fully equipped dive 

equipmentservice centre and dive cylinder 

testing facility onsite. 

Corner (101) Beaumont & Gaunt Sts, 

Westhaven, Auckland. P: (09) 307 3590, 

E: info@divehqwesthaven.co.nz 

www.divehqwesthaven.co.nz 

of quality products as well as hard to find items for the 

technical, recreational and commercial diver. 

20R Sylvia Park Rd, Mt Wellington 

www.divedoctor.co.nz P: 09 5308117 

E: info@divedoctor.co.nz 

DNZ164 

Manufacturing Quality 

Wetsuits in New 

Zealand 

for New Zealand 

conditions. 

www.seaquel.co.nz 

15G Porana Rd, Glenfield, Auckland 

wetsuits@seaquel.co.nz Tel: 09 443 2771 

DNZ163 


dnz164 


COROMANDEL / BAY OF PLENTY 

TUTUKĀKĀ 

NEW ZEALAND 

Dive Zone Whitianga Far North’s only PADI 5 

Star IDC facility. Open Only PADI 5 Star IDC facility 

on the Coromandel Peninsula. PADI courses from 

Open Water to Instructor. Dive trips from boat, 

shore and kayak, to many amazing dive sites. Full 

gear service and extensive retail store. Open 7 

days. 

10 Campbell Street, Whitianga, P: 07-867 1580, 

E: info@divethecoromandel.co.nz 

www.divezonewhitianga.co.nz 

SIMPLY 

AWESOME! 

Cathedral Cove Dive & Snorkel Half day 

trips – everyday through the summer at 9.30am 

& 1.30pm. Marine reserve or outer reef diving 

for new and experienced divers. Full gear hire. 

Individuals & groups welcome. Check out our 

website for a full list of dive sites and prices, or 

link onto our facebook page for an up-to-date 

weather/sea/dive report in the Hahei & Mercury 

Bay areas. 48 Hahei Beach Rd, Hahei 

Phone 0800 CCDIVE (0800 223 483) 

www.hahei.co.nz/diving 

FREE 

PHONE 

0800 288 882 

www.diving.co.nz 

3-5 Rona Place, Tutukaka, Whangarei, SOUTH PACIFIC 

• New BAUER compressors 

• Late model, low hours, 

preowned BAUER 

compressors 

• Service, spare parts, oil 

and consumables 

AVAILABLE NOW FROM 

General Marine Services 

65 & 90 Gaunt St, Westhaven, 

Auckland. Phone 09 309 6317 

www.generalmarine.co.nz 

sales@generalmarine.co.nz 

service@generalmarine.co.nz 

APPROVED 

BAUER 

AGENTS 

CENTRAL NORTH ISLAND 

Dive & Gas Gisborne's Mares and Atlantis dive gear 

stockist. A great product range, as well as other Scuba 

and Snorkel gear in-store. Plus we test and fill all 

Scuba Tanks. Kevin & Tracey Halverson, 

cnr Carnarvon St, and Childers Rd, Gisborne. 

P: 06 867 9662 E: diveandgas@gmail.com 

Dive Zone Tauranga is Tauranga’s only 

PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Centre 

offering everything from Open Water courses 

to Specialty Instructor training. Gear sales for 

all scuba, spearfishing & snorkelling needs. 

Hire equipment, gear servicing, air fills, dive 

charters, cylinder testing and more! See us at 

213 Cameron Road, Tauranga, 

P: (07) 578 4050 

E: info@divezonetauranga.co.nz 

www.divezonetauranga.co.nz 

WELLINGTON / DISTRICTS 

Dive Wellington Become a Padi Dive 

Instructor with our fulltime Diploma course. NZQA 

approved and eligible for student loans and 

allowances. Contact us for a course prospectus. 

Dive Wellington is an audited and approved sub 

contractor of Academy of Diving Trust 

E: dive@divewellington.co.nz 

P: 04 939 3483 www.divewellington.co.nz 

NZ Sea Adventures PADI 5 Star Instructor 

Development Centre – also TDI Technical diver training 

including CCR. Open 7 days. Dive courses – beginner 

to Instructor. Club dives and trips in NZ and overseas. 

Dive retail, fills, gear hire & servicing. 

9 Marina View, Mana, Porirua. 

P: 04 233-8238 E: nzsa@scubadiving.co.nz 

www.scubadiving.co.nz 

Dive & Ski HQ Wellington PADI dive courses 

– beginner to professional qualifications. Dive 

club with regular local, national & overseas trips. 

Wide range of diving/ spearfishing equipment 

and accessories. Equipment servicing/tank 

testing. Open 7 days. 

14 Waione St, Petone. New Zealand 

P: (04)568 5028 mob 0210369996 

www.diveski.co.nz E: diveskihq@xtra.co.nz 

snow ski and board rental available 

www.facebook.com/DiveSkiHQ 

dnz164 

Island Bay Divers New Zealand’s oldest dive retail & 

training business. Off street parking. Full retail range, 

equipment hire, large gear range for snorkel trail divers, 

scuba, Freedivers. Scuba and Snorkel guided tours, 

24 hour turn around on tank testing, repairs on most 

equipment brands, full range of diver training since 

1985. Corner Reef St & the Parade, Island Bay. 

Open 9am to 6pm. 7 days in summer, but 5 days 

(closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays) in winter. 

P: 04-383-6778 E: tim@ibdivers.co.nz 

www.ibdivers.co.nz 

Oceandry suits 

35 Station Road.Wellsford 

www.oceandry.co.nz 

Call Paul on 021 425706 

Email: info@oceandry.co.nz 

MINI ADS - GREAT RATES 

Colin Gestro - Affinity Ads 

M: 027 256 8014 


DIVE STORES / TRAVEL / PRODUCTS / SERVICES 

Dive HQ Christchurch 30 years industry 

experience, Christchurch’s only PADI 5 Star 

Instructor Development Centre and Adventure 

Activities Certified for SCUBA diving and 

snorkelling. Busy retail store selling the world’s 

leading brands and offering PADI recreational 

and tertiary SCUBA qualifications. Full range 

of spearfishing equipment including breath 

hold courses. Quality gear hire, service centre, 

Enriched Air training and filling station, local and 

international dive and spearfishing trips.103 

Durham St Sth. Sydenham, Christchurch. 

Freephone 0800-DIVEHQ. 

P: (03)379- 5804 www.diveskiworld.co.nz 

E: sales@diveskiworld.co.nz 

Waikawa Dive Centre located at Waikawa Marina, 

Picton. Offering dive training and trips through the 

Marlborough Sounds. Fully-certified dive cylinder 

filling/testing, dive gear servicing/repairs, hire gear. 

Carrying a multi-brand range of diving equipment. 

Open 7 days during summer. Ready to take care of all 

your diving needs. 

P: 03-573-5939, F: 03-573-8241 

waikawadive@xtra.co.nz 

www.waikawadivecentre.co.nz 

www.facebook.com/WaikawaDiveCentre 

Deep Blue Diving Making diving affordable for all 

divers. The Deep Blue brand is well known for its 

value for money and has a strong company reputation 

for delivering quality and excellent service. Visit our 

website or come in and see us for a huge range of dive 

gear, equipment servicing, tank filling, gear hire and 

Padi training. 

15B Byron St, Sydenham, Christchurch 8025. 

P: 03 332 0898 E: sales@deepbluediving.co.nz 

www.deepbluediving.co.nz 

Book an ad space today! 

For Editorial or Classified ads call 

Colin Gestro 

Affinity Ads 

M: 027 256 8014 


MINI ADS - GREAT RATES 

INTERNATIONAL DIVE 

OPERATORS AND RESORTS 

AUSTRALIA 

Pro Dive Cairns Offers the highest quality, best value 

PADI dive courses and 3-day liveaboard Outer Great 

Barrier Reef dive trips in Cairns. We have 16 exclusive 

dive sites across 4 different reefs to choose from and 

departures 6 days/week. 

Check out www.prodivecairns.com 

or call us on +617 4031 5255 

or E: info@prodivecairns.com 

Spirit of Freedom visits the remote dive destinations 

of Cod Hole, Ribbon Reefs, and Coral Sea. The 37m 

vessel offers spacious en-suite cabins, every comfort 

on board, and exceptional service. Marine encounters 

include the potato cod feed, Minke whales in season, 

and the shark dive at Osprey Reef. 

E: info@spiritoffreedom.com.au 

www.spiritoffreedom.com.au 

Tusa Dive Cairns local day dive operators with over 

30 years experience diving the Great Barrier Reef. 

Tusa’s fast modern catamaran the Tusa 6 will visit two 

unique sites where you can enjoy up to three dives 

in the day. Tusa Dive also offer a great day out for 

snorkellers. P: 00617 4047 9100 

E: info@tusadive.com www.tusadive.com 

HDS Australia-Pacific 

PO Box: 347 Dingley Village Victoria 3172, 

Australia. www.classicdiver.org 

COOK ISLANDS 

Dive Aitutaki with Bubbles Below Explore Aitutaki’s 

underwater world with Bubbles Below. Only 40 

minutes from mainland Rarotonga to the picturesque 

island of Aitutaki.PADI dive courses Beginner to 

Dive Master. Manned boats during dives! Safety and 

enjoyment paramount! ‘Take only Memories & Leave 

only Bubbles Dive Safe, Dive Rite, Dive Bubbles 

Below!’ www.diveaitutaki.com 

E: bubblesbelow@aitutaki.net.ck 

The Dive Centre – The Big Fish PADI 5-star dive 

operator. Services: intro/lagoon dives, dive trips 

twice a day, courses, retail and rental gear. 2 

boats, boats are manned with an instructor, 7 days, 

night dives. Aroa Beach by the Rarotongan Resort. 

P: 682 20238 or 682 55238 

E: info@thedivecentre-rarotonga.com 

www.thedivecentre-rarotonga.com 

DNZ161 

For the latest in maritime news and v 

from tinny to tanker we have it cover 

SUBSCRIBE NOW 

www.skipper.co.nz • phone 09 533 4336 

For the latest in maritime 

news and views, from tinny to 

tanker we have it covered 

SUBSCRIBE NOW 

www.skipper.co.nz 

phone 09 533 4336 


ecompression facilities. 

recompression facilities. 


FIJI 

Subsurface Fiji Visit Fiji for fun, relaxing 

tropical diving. Subsurface Fiji PADI 5-Star Dive 

shops are located in the beautiful Mamanuca 

Islands, offering daily trips and courses to some 

of the best dive spots in Fiji. Subsurface provides 

full diving services from Musket Cove, Plantation, 

Malolo, Likuliku, Tropica, Lomani, Funky Fish, 

Namotu, Tavarua, Wadigi & Navini Island Resorts. 

E: info@subsurfacefiji.com 

www.subsurfacefiji.com (DNZ159) 

Captain Cook Cruises Reef Endeavour and Tivua 

Island are 5 star PADI operations – Discover Scuba – 

Scuba Dive – Open water dive – Advance Wreck Dive, 

MV Raiyawa at Tivua Island. Fiji P: +679 6701 823 E: 

fiji@captaincookcruisesfiji.com 

www.captaincookcruisesfiji.com 

Mantaray Island Resort Yasawa Islands – Fiji – Over 

40 dive sites ; vibrant reefs, stunning coral gardens, 

caves, swim throughs, wall dives, drop offs, shark 

dives, turtles, and a stunning house reef. Fiji’s only 

accredited free-diving school, Mantaray swimming 

May–Oct. Small group diving in a safe and enjoyable 

environment visit us at 

www.mantarayisland.com 

Volivoli Beach Resort offers you relaxed, unspoilt 

white sandy beaches in a spectacular part of Fiji. Ra 

Divers operates from the resort giving you a water 

wonderland on the worlds best soft coral dive sites. 

The Fiji Siren is a livaboard boat offering you 7 and 10 

night dive packages. www.volivoli.com 

E: info@volivoli.com P: +679 9920942 

SOLOMONS 

Raiders Hotel and Dive Wreck and Reef diving, 

Accommodation, Bar and dining, Snorkelling 

Hiking and more. Located 1 hour from Honiara on 

the waterfront of the historic Tulagi harbour. Dive - 

Discover – Relax. www.raidershotel.com 

email raidershotel@solomon.com.sb 

ph +677 7594185 / 7938017 

SIDE Dive Munda – Dive the unexplored 

Experience Magical Munda at Agnes Gateway Hotel. 

Award winning service and pristine diving. SSI 

Instructor Training Centre. WWII wrecks, caves and 

reefs – untouched and unspoilt. 

www.divemunda.com 

divemunda@dive-solomon.com 

Find us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram 

SIDE TAKA Dive See more of the Solomon Islands by 

liveaboard! Save $700 on a 7 night booking on board 

MV Taka: 7 Nights Accommodation; 3 gourmet meals 

daily; 24 Dives – sharks, WWII wrecks, manta rays, 

night dives; Round trip airport transfers. Conditions 

apply. For more information or to make a reservations: 

book@dive-solomon.com 

Tulagi Dive Solomon Islands An underwater paradise 

for marine life and explore the many ships and aircraft 

wrecks at the famous Iron Bottom Sound. We offer 

the PADI and TDI courses. Phone (+677) 25700 

www.tulagidive.com dive@tulagidive.com 

Travelandco 

At travel&co (previously Dive Fish Snow 

Holidays) we’ve been crafting tailor-made active 

travel trips and experiences for over 30 years. 

Our team of active travel experts share your 

passion On the for seafront adventure downtown and can help Port book Vila. an 

• exceptional Certified dives active • Snorkel travel experience Tours • Training that goes to 

Instructor beyond the Level ordinary. • Full gear From hire wreck available or reef diving, • 

learning to dive, to liveaboard adventures - for 

Very friendly, professional & experienced 

insider tips on the best dive locations and 

local Instructors & Dive Masters. 

tailormade diving experiences let your active 

20 travel dive journey sites (10 to start 20 minutes) with us. including 5 wrecks 

(including 4 engine QANTAS Sandringham flying 

t: 09 479 2210 Toll free NZ: 0800 555 035 

boat e: enquire@travelandco.nz 

and 150 year old sailing ship Star of Russia) 

www.travelandco.nz/dive Temp 24-28°c. Viz 10m to 

40m. Free pickup from 

Resorts in town. 

TRIPS/CHARTERS 

P: +678 27518 or email: 

CRUISE dive@bigbluevanuatu.com 

FIORDLAND 

fish • hunt www.bigbluevanuatu.com 

• dive • cruise 

Fish, Hunt, Dive For Cruise your safety aboard Vanuatu the fully has 

refurbished MV recompression Cindy Hardy. Fiordland facilities. or 

Stewart Island, our scenic cruises will provide 

you with a once in a lifetime experience. 

Everything is provided regardless of how 

short or long your time on board with us is. 

Cruise options available on our website. 

www.cruisefiordland.com 

info@cruisefiordland.com 

+6421 088 14530 

(DNZ156) 

VANUATU 

Nautilus Watersports Vanuatu’s longest running 

dive operation in Port Vila with 30+ years’ experience. 

Nautilus offers 4 dives a day (double dive both 

morning and afternoon). We also offer PADI course 

from Discover Scuba right through to Dive Master. For 

dive groups we can also offer diving/accommodation 

packages. P: Peter or Leanne +678 22 398 

www.nautilus.com.vu 

E: nautilus@vanuatu.com.vu 

DIVE HOLIDAY 

Outer Gulf Charters 

One hour north of Auckland CBD 

Providing divers with the ultimate diving day 

out with diver lift, fast/comfortable travel, hot 

water shower, and all the tea and coffee you 

want. 

Recommended Dive Sites: Goat Island Marine 

Reserve, Mokohinau Islands, Great/Little 

Barrier, Sail Rock/Hen & Chickens in style. Trip 

schedule and info 

www.outergulfcharters.co.nz 

or phone Julie 021 827 855 

On the seafront downtown Port Vila. 

• Certified dives • Snorkel Tours • Training to 

Instructor Level • Full gear hire available • 

Very friendly, professional & experienced 

local Instructors & Dive Masters. 

20 dive sites (10 to 20 minutes) including 5 wrecks 

(including 4 engine QANTAS Sandringham flying 

boat and 150 year old sailing ship Star of Russia) 

Temp 24-28°c. Viz 10m to 

40m. Free pickup from 

Resorts in town. 

P: +678 27518 or email: 

dive@bigbluevanuatu.com 

www.bigbluevanuatu.com 

For your safety Vanuatu has 

recompression facilities. 

SPEAKERS/LECTURERS 

Available for talks to dive clubs etc. You can find full 

details on these speakers/lectures at 

www.DiveNewZealand.co.nz/dive-in-nz/dive-shops/ 

Terry Brailsford Wreck diving for gold & treasure. Incl 

the Rothschild jewellery, search for General Grant. 

0274 958816, theadmiral@xtra.co.nz 

Tony Howell History and entertainment with lots of 

rare historical photos and illustrations – 12 powerpoints 

in total. 45 mins –1 hr each. 

Contact me for topics. 04 233-8238, 

www.scubadiving.co.nz 

tony@scubadiving.co.nz 

Darren Shields Spearfishing titles,uw cameraman, 

author. Motivating/compelling/innovative/inspiring/ 

entertaining P: 09-4794231, 021839118, 

darren@wettie.co.nz 

Jamie Obern Technical instructor/cave diver, 20+ 

years exp. globally. Photos/video: uw caves in 

Mexico, USA, UK, NZ, Australia. Techdive NZ/GUE NZ 

instructor. P: 021 614 023, 

www.techdivenz.com jamie@techdivenz.com 

Dave Moran Ching Dynasty porcelain from the Tek 

Sing. P: Dive New Zealand 09-521 0684, 

E: divenz@DiveNewZealand.co.nz 

Samara Nicholas M.O.N.Z -Programme Director: 

Experiencing Marine Reserves – Te Kura Moana: 

samara@emr.org.nz 

www.emr.org.nz www.facebook.com/emr.mtsct 

P: 09 4338205 or 0210362019 (field only) 

THIS 

SPACE 

COULD BE 

YOURS 

PLACE AN AD WITH US 

Enquiries to: Colin Gestro 

Affinity Ads M: 027 256 8014 


ADVERTISERS’ 

INDEX 

Airtec 5 

DAN 49&51 

Oceandry NZ 21 

SeaTech 44&53 

Solomon Islands 31 

Wakatobi 

OBC 

ALPHABETICAL ORDER 


An experience 

without equal 

“The reef systems here are some of the most pristine I have seen anywhere in my dive 

travels around the globe, and Wakatobi resort and liveaboard are second to none. 

The diversity of species here is brilliant if you love photography.” ~ Simon Bowen 

66 Dive New Zealand | Dive Pacific 

www.wakatobi.com

Dive Pacific Iss174 April, May, June 2020

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