El dorado of the seas mystery lingers on

[Bill Morrison]

#18 Just had a word with my old shipmate who was from Bluff. there was the Eagle, The Club, The Golden Age and the Bay View.
Bill.

[j.sabourn]

Thanks Bill can’t remember any of them , the first time there i was 17/18 and going out with a girl until I found she was only 12/13 so dropped her like a hot potato . The junior sparks off a Federal ship had the hots for her so didn’t put up any fight , and forgot to tell him how old she was , let him find out for himself was my motto. Lucky I was still innocent in those days and had morals . In later years when went back was on a tanker and never there long enough to cause any damage. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Thanks Bill
I can now remember the Eagle and the bay View, but nothing like a full sack of oysters for a couple of tins of paint.
Des

[Bill Morrison]

#23 Des. I could only take oysters deep fried. As said my shipmate was from Bluff. One trip sailed with four sacks of under size crayfish tails in the brine room. Came on watch put four cans Tennents into the brine room took out half dozen tails. The half 45gallon drum we used to dobbie our boilersuits, suitably cleaned, filled with water tails added steam hose fixed and cooked them gently. At the end of the watch collected the crayfish and beer and lay on deck consuming them under a beautiful Pacific moon lit sky. Thought we were in luxury.
Bill.

[Rodney Mills]

The taking of crayfish or lobster on scuba is illegal in Oz as, is poaching undersized crayfishing, or the possession of. I can't speak for Britain, but i assume based on logic that taken or possessing undersized crayfish is also illegal or they wouldn't be called undersized. Size still ruled in Oz, however you could take mature crayfish free diving (without the scuba gear). The reason is killing undersized or able to comb a vast area on scuba and capturing plenty on a single dive diminishes the breed rapidly and would lead to population extinction. It's no different from poaching elephants for their tusks.

Which leads to another diving story. My late wife and I were diving a reef in Oz and I had a habit of feeling into a hole, to see if there were any crayfish home. I have a bum left eye, so my wife and I used a rope about six feet long with two loops weaved into it, she had one end, I had the other and if we wanted to attract our partners attention, we would just give a gentle tug and signal what the problem or object to be looked at was. I had stuck my arm into a hole in the reef, nothing there so moved on, I'm still looking ahead but at the reef. a gentle tug, I pointed to another hole a few feet ahead...I fierce tug, I looked at her. She signaled to move close to her. I did and she pointed back to the hole I had explored...and sticking out at least a foot was a bloody sea snake. The Australian Sea snakes are even more deadly than their land cousins. Australia has the number one land snake, The Taipan. To say I gulped air and had the pucker factor would be putting it mildly. I never did that again.

Cheers, Rodney

[j.sabourn]

To fish for crayfish on a commercial basis one has to have a licence costing many thousands of dollars more than the crayfish boat itself in many cases , they are also a big export of Australia especially with China .The sea snakes are still the most poisonous and saw them many times especially when watching divers on tv monitors repairing underwater pipe line off the NW Shelf, the only good point with them is their inability in most cases of biting you as their fangs are set too far back in their head. As a matter of fact their was a company in Darwin who caught them to produce leather type goods for the tourist market . JS

[j.sabourn]

#26 Shoes and handbags mainly . JS

[thomas michael]

hi joh sabourn #26
good morning, here in the uk a illegal american immigrant crayfish has practically wiped out the indiginous crayfish along with anything else where they are allowed to breed and are a preditor and have been classified as vermin.
tom

[j.sabourn]

In WA a few years ago when I had half shares in a half cabin run around cruiser you were allowed 5 crayfish as a sports fisherman but could be stopped and searched at any time by fishery officers and any Crays undersized there were heavy fines. JS.

[Bill Morrison]

#25 Rodney. The episode of the crayfish was more than fifty years ago, they could not be sold on the open market, hence we acquired them. Times have changed rightly so, with conservation areas, limits on catch size etc. When I was fifteen years old I wanted to go whaling, brought up with tales of big money doing so. Mother had other ideas so served an apprenticeship. These days I would side with the conservationists. Brought up in a fishing port where in the 1950's and 1960's the average day's landings were around 150 tones of wet fish of many species, at the finish of the auctions, fish not sold went for fishmeal at minimal cost. When the UK joined the EEC later the EU they set the quotas and days at sea fishing time. Fish under size in the catch were dumped back in the sea as stiff fines imposed if found onboard rather a waste but thats bureaucracy.
Bill.