the JOHN HARDING

Bob Grounds gets personal with a blue groper in the very early era of marine conservation.

During the 1970′s  Cairns was put on the international map by big game fishermen.  Before this the town was a sleepy fishing port and the only tourists were Australians who made the long trek north on a narrow sealed road we called The Crystal Highway (littered with broken car windscreens, one every 2 Km).

The story how black marlin were found as they spawned along the edge of the continental shelf is best told by the experts.

The changes to the town of Cairns between 1972 and 1982 were enormous.  Free  or very cheap vacant land given by the state government allowed international hotel’s and a resort at Port Douglas to be fast-tracked.

Today Cairns is the gateway to The Great Barrier Reef. Previously the major gateways had been further south.

In this collage  are the boat skippers who went searching for big fish, Peter Bristow, Peter B Wright and Dennis ‘Brizakka’ Wallace.

The octopus have not killed anyone lately – which is a wonder. It was almost an annual event years ago.  A common resident of Sydney Harbour these tiny octopus will kill a man with their bite.  The ‘victim’ dies quickly.  It is obviously very unwise to handle a live Blue Ring octopus.

The rings glow bright blue on the legs as a series of tiny disc-shaped circles rather than rings around the entire leg.

A science-themed story is contained in our FATHOM magazine No.3

http://fathomoz.com/archives/1101

Tiger shark about to bite the pole camera (1975).

The Late John LeBrun pictured

John LeBrun (a professional camera equipment salesman and diver) taught us a couple of points about photography he had learned from his service in the air force.

“When you focus on an object, the area that is actually in focus (also called depth of field)  is 1/3 in front and 2/3 behind the point that you’ve focused on”.

You can use this knowledge to some advantage at times.

Generally we were all self-taught photographers.  The most difficult part in the learning days was getting a good exposure, especially underwater.  Most divers tended to over-expose pictures.

Today the camera’s are automatic in this respect but sometimes adjustments make a nice difference.  Sunsets are better if the exposure is make darker, for example.