FathomOz

We encountered wild Grey Reef sharks galore.  They even chewed on the diving platform.  It was unique action at the time.  Later we would realize that sharks elsewhere eventually settle down and adopt a different behavior.

At locations where no divers have been before you should expect territorial aggressive behavior.

Probably rare today and certainly not at dive resorts where sharks are virtually ‘trained’ and behave.

Film of those original encounters might be a surprise to many today.

Up top: Dr Don Ahern, JM Harding, Roy Bisson, Dr Colin Friendship, Liz Hen.

On the duckboard: John H Harding (with 16mm camera) , shark wrangler Dr Richard Ibara, Allan Murayama from Hawaii.

Valerie and Ron Taylor took this picture from their dinghy nearby.

Their 16mm film from the expedition featured (Taylor’s Innerspace) a search for the rare sea shell, a volute known to be found only here and worth thousands of dollars at the time.

However it was the shark action which proved more entertaining.

Shark wrangler and marine biologist, Richard Ibara used fish baits to attract sharks into the shallows.

In one scene we see where he grabs a live Grey Reef shark by the tail (when the shark had it’s mouth firmly secured to a fish) and hauled the shark onto a reef.

It remained there for a few moments, just long enough for this unusual film sequence to be recorded.  Kids seeing it in the cinemas.

Picture from “Australian Seafari” – a family film show in cinema’s which included The Chesterfield Reef Expedition.

The late Alby Ziebell, last owner-captain of Coralita

Hitchhiker was a temporary solution for Alby while a new boat, larger than Coralita was being built especially.  The outcome was not good.  The builder filed for bankruptcy and everything was lost.  A tragedy in many ways.

Alby was an excellent international charter boat skipper and diver.  His underwater photography in a short time equaled or surpassed the best.

Years of professional abalone diving in Tasmania gave him an edge in fine tuning and perfecting his business, with the help of wife Irene who ran the office.  A skilled diplomat for divers.

A plan to expand diving charter horizons to New Guinea waters was the beginning of the end…..

Coralita sank in Cairns Harbour just days before the first scheduled departure.  Nobody was injured.

August 11, 2010   Coralita was purchased as a wreck by Cocky Watkins of Cardwell for the price of one thousand dollars at auction, later temporarily renamed Alita then sold and renamed Bell Cay.

News item today indicates the vessel has come to grief in The Swain Reefs (250 km offshore) with over 20 people aboard.  All have been rescued after treading water for some time.

27 February 2011. Bell Cay is said (Ref. Alexander Muller, professional fisherman)  to have broken up and washed ashore in the Mackay area of the Queensland coast.

One of the crew was Henri Moeyaert who sent these pictures of everyone when they arrived home.  The ship’s doctor met and married an Australian girl.

Henri seeks a picture of the wedding which was aboard the ship.

David Barnes PhD, now of Townsville, Queensland was part of the expedition.  Dave commented to Henri:

I am sorry that I cannot help you with photos taken on the day that Dr Pullinckx was married.  I remember that day very well.  Also, I visited Gus and his Australian wife in Ostend – and they visited me in the UK.

I think your model of the De Moor is fabulous.  I note that you even left the gun out of the forward turret – as it was for the expedition to the GBR (the forward turret was used for storage).  I have many times looked to see if there is a commercial model of a Flower class corvette but have never found one.

Note: The Belgian Expedition was primarily to make scientific marine biology films in 35mm underwater.  It was a huge and very expensive operation on behalf of a university.  Ron Taylor was one of two cinematographers.

Charter boat owner and skipper, Wally Muller assisted with navigation, especially around The Swain Reefs – his home territory.

The expedition visited all the dive locations we know so well today between Lady Elliott Island in the south and Lizard Island in the far north.

Few divers in 1967 had been privileged to see so much of the Great Barrier Reef.  It was still largely an unknown frontier underwater.

Editor JHH assisted Wally Muller as a deckhand for part of the expedition, thanks to an invitation from his friends Valerie and Ron Taylor.

Additional ship and dive pictures at:   thejohnharding.com

This was from an earlier edition, Fathom No. 4 – Philippe Cousteau was not impressed with an obvious error relating to a baby whale being harpooned and we guaranteed to have points like this double checked in future!

The information came from a reliable source – but it was wrong!

Our interview with Philippe while he was in Australia in 1971 for a few days was something of a coupe as he’d been refusing offers from SKIN DIVER magazine.  Philippe claimed that magazine had a good cash flow but paid peanuts to writers and favored a select group of friends rather than allow new talent much of a chance.  The magazine had a  strong run for years then ceased production during the early 2000′s.

Philippe was killed when his PBY Catalina seaplane crashed in Portugal in 1976 due to a faulty nose wheel hatch being open.  One of the large engines broke off the wing. (Information supplied by the late Paul Tzimoulis).