Confessions of a poacher..
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sun 14 Nov 2010 04:47
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Sunday 14th November 1211 Local Time 0211
UTC
14:31.25S 145:02.37E
I now know why the sharks were patrolling round me
yesterday giving me the evil eye after I had taken a nice fish. When I got back
aboard Rhiann Marie I looked across the anchorage and the very next boat to us
was the "Marine Parks" authority. So I took the RIB over to them and
asked if there were any fishing restrictions in the area. I got nine
marine zoning charts and three booklets (one was a 36 page "brief guide") all
explaining the zoning of the Great Barrier Reef for marine activities, the
fishing regulations etc etc. The regulations explained that at certain times of
the year there was a closed season for some species in a list of areas with
the exceptions of another long list of areas. It was nevertheless OK to
fish for some species even during the closed season provided a bag size was
adhered to for which there was a separate set of rules. There was a grid chart
saying what fishing activities could take place in which zone. All this has to
be overlaid with the zonining of the marine park and quite rightly if you are an
aboriginal you can for the most part fish what you need. Except in certain areas
and certain species.... Hang on a minute, I just want to check something
......... yes, I thought so. Some guy in Brussels wrote the regulations. I
should have known.
No matter how hard I looked I could not find
anything even the small print which said it was OK to spear a fish at Lizard
Island. Shame on me. In my defence I have to say it is all extremely
complicated. However the straight forward question to the rangers about whether
there was any fishing around Lizard Island brought a straight forward "No". Oops
- too late! "What are the regulations governing spearfishing?" I enquired.
"That's a very sensitive subject" said one ranger "you see ............ let me
try and explain ......" Oops - very too late!
To be honest though I did not take the whole
fish, just the fillets. The frame, head, tail and guts all went back in, so I am
sure nature with the help of the sharks, will have the biomass quickly
reprocessed to another (slightly smaller) fish. No damage done and the spear gun
is safely stowed away - for now.
We have had some bad news this morning. The weather
forecast for the next five days to Darwin has almost no wind at all. Our passage
to Darwin will be about 1100 miles and should take about five to six days. The
cyclone season has started and Western Australia has already seen a
category five. While we don't want a cyclone some wind is desperately needed. I
am suspicious of these forecast conditions in the Timor and Arafura
Seas however, as there are very light and variable winds, a lot of
small showers forecast to be around and water temperature is already at 29deg
Centigrade - ideal conditions for spawning a cyclone. We will watch
closely.
That however is not my concern. My concern is that
if we have to motor all the way that we will not have enough fuel to do it. My
calculation is that we need 1875 litres and we currently have 2000 litres plus
50 in cans. However we can not use down to the bottom of each tank. So it
is touch and go. Also while filling one of the tanks with water
in Cairns the tank filled up and the water flooded all along the side deck
for a few minutes. This is normal. However while hauling the hose along the
still wet deck to coil it up, it pulled off the deisel tank cap which therefor
must have been completely loose. How on earth could this be? Very
strange. Did water flood in? Time will tell. That is a 900 litre tank I
hope it is all deisel. We have been quite proud of only having had to use our
engine for 650 hours between Gibraltar and Austalia (including the Panama Canal)
and we are in danger of adding another 50% to that in one week! Never mind that
think of the cost...
Right now it is sticky hot. Zero apparent wind and
35 deg Centigrade. I am off to spend a few hours studying the fishing
regulataions to see if I can troll a line
here.
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