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a Fathom photo

Also check out the complete 480 pages from Fathom magazine.  http://fathomoz.wordpress.com

Although similar to the content here there are a few differences.  Click pictures to enlarge them.

Both pictures show the same shark – a medium sized giant.  1995.

Not many people had seen a whale underwater in Australia when this picture was taken, 1st September 1967.  At the time few folk appreciated what a whale was.  They were an unknown species almost on the brink of extinction – at least this species was.

Actors John Bonney, Janet Kingsbury (Contrabandits, ABC TV) and I had called into the bar at the then quaint Wooli Bowling Club for a pre dinner ale or two.

At the time Wooli was an fishing outpost on the mid north coast of New South Wales.

Ron and Valerie  Taylor were preparing dinner at the beach cabin we’d rented for a few days.

John got talking with a fisherman at the crowded bar.  It was Keith Knox – a pleasant and hard working fisherman with both front teeth missing.  Keith had ‘a strange creature caught in the ropes of his fish trap’.   He had no idea what it was.  Just a ‘monster of a thing.

John Bonney and I agreed to have a look and see what might be done.  We’d follow Keith in our boat the next morning.

It turned out to be this huge and very rare Green Sawfish, about five meters long in total.

The saw fish had wrapped itself in the tough nylon fish trap rope down near the bottom, 33 meters deep.

Back on the beach at MinnewaterValerie Taylor posed with my spear gun for this picture.

Aircraft was intact apart from a missing tail section.  Dangerous stone fish lived inside the aircraft.

Featured in the John Harding documentary films “Aquarius – People and Wildlife of the Sea” (1970) “Australian Seafari” (1986)

Footnote: Who was the pilot and did he survive the crash landing on water?  His name was Captain Tosiuki Hiachi and we have made contact with his grand daughter in USA (as of June 3, 2010).  To be continued, hopefully.  Below is a view of the island – picture taken above the aircraft wreckage.

 

Dean Cropp salvaged these from a Mitchell bomber in 15 meters of water; visibility two meters.

One of several aircraft wrecks being explored underwater in northern Queensland. The locations are being pin-pointed with GPS when they become snagged by prawn trawler nets. The above site in far northern Cape York is in only seven meters of depth, too shallow for the trawlers. Various personal items from the aircraft include a hand gun, compass, binoculars. Your own dive boat and lots of time and money is required for such expeditions. Ben Cropp is being assisted by his sons Adam and Dean Cropp. The current expedition is expected to last 18 months and includes Western Australia locations.