DIVE LOG JUNE 2025 issue 412

Albert Einstein tells us that imagination is more powerful than intellect. Imagine a healthy sea filled with abundant fish, balanced ecosystems. This is the way it should be. A blue paradise filled with whale song and healthy marine life. Exactly what we all want! The reality is mankind is still in the Dark Ages in its relationship with Mother Earth. The endless take, take, take chasing the almighty dollar without giving much back has brought us to the current situation. In 2025, every marine ecosystem in the sea is severely out of balance and unwell. Divers get to see exactly the extent of the plunder. The world needs to become aware and to begin to understand that we have a responsibility to look after our planet! - especially our ocean. There are far too many extinctions, fisheries in decline facing total collapse and rampant pollution damaging our salty paradise. World wide deforestation is hampering the carbon cycle. Excessive Combustion is loading it up. Desolation and “The Nothing” is far too prevalent both on land and beneath the sea. It is high time for the human race to see the light. Wake up, Humans! We need to look after the forests and seas better; to rebuild the Garden of Eden. Restock the oceans and the forests. In short, we need to save the planet! After all, Mother Earth gives us life. We live on the Blue Planet. It is alive; a place of adventure and discovery and pure magic spinning around a small star, our sun, in a universe of countless trillions of galaxies. Saving the planet is all so simple. You don’t need a machine to suck CO2 from the air and bury it. You don’t need to build millions of metal windmills. You simply need to plant more trees; Then, set aside large areas of the ocean as No Take zones. The ocean is badly in need of protection from the ravages of mankind. Given half a chance, Mother Nature will restore itself naturally. The birds and the bees and the fish will return; she will return the balance in a few short decades. Stop the overfishing; let Mother Nature go to work and bring back life from the brink of extinction. How do I know? It is simple! The life force that we all enjoy is one of the greatest forces of all. The powers of regeneration of Mother Nature are legendary. She can reinvigorate the planet, regenerate, rebuild and allow life to proliferate if we give her half a chance. Cyclones destroy coral reefs with forces of thousands of atomic bombs; the reefs have been rebounding, regenerating and recovering from widespread disaster for millennia. The reefs rebuild and repopulate after a few short years due their steady ability to rejuvenate. Dive Log shares the good news. The Great Barrier Reef is a shining example. The zoning system has Pink no go zones set aside for research only, green zones which are protected and blue zones where fishing is allowed. James Cook University study found that protected green zones have twice the Coral Trout population. The findings provide compelling evidence that effective protection within green zone networks can play a critical role in conserving marine biodiversity and enhancing the sustainability of targeted fish populations. They also found that the coral reef in Green Zones are in far better condition as the entire ecosystem recovers from over exploitation. Most of the rest of the world has coral reefs that have almost no protection. Visiting these coral reefs allows you to make a sad comparison. Reefs which are used for unabated fishing and spearfishing are silent zones of desolation and sorrow. What marine life remains is so frightened that the very sight of a diver sends them into panic. Diving on the blue zones is boring, devoid of life and just miserable. A ruined patch of paradise ... the Nothing. OUR COVER PHOTO Is a superb Turtle painting by Liz Hardaker. Her Facebook site ‘Whats in the Bay at Minnie Water’ is her go to site for inspiring her ‘wow bubble’ marine artwork. Check out her outstanding Spotlight on page 54.

Damage to the coral reefs is severe. My hypothesis is that the chronic unbalance caused by removing most of the fish life within the ecosystem means that disease and coral bleaching take hold and grow out of control, contributing to climate issues. NSW has the same problem. Every ecosystem in the seas of NSW are also severely out of balance. Hundreds of thousands of human predators are heading out for a weekend of hunting, as is their right, to get a feed. Most return each day empty handed. The simple reason is that there are almost no fish left to catch. Fisheries management is woefully inadequate. NSW and every state need fully protected no fishing zones to allow fish stocks to recover. Given a few short years, the fish stocks will rebound, fishers will be able to get a feed with bigger and more fish. Divers will see more fish and everyone will be happy. Short term pain for great long term gain. Once fishers see how successful this is, they will become advocates of marine conservation. Pro fishers’ livelihoods will improve and divers will see more fish. More importantly, the sharks, dolphins and big fish predators will not have half a million humans stealing some of their food. People need to learn that the fish they catch on the weekend is the life sustaining fish resource for the sharks, big fish and rays. The Top Order carnivores in the sea have their fish stocks stolen. The result is that they starve and they cannot breed. The cycle continues. The good news is that the Great Barrier Reef is managed better than most reefs in the world. It is a shining light in the conservation of the sea. Zones where mass plunder has been stopped are enabling fish stocks to rebuild and the health of the coral to improve significantly. We need the same in all states in the south of Australia. We desperately need great areas of protection for marine life in NSW to allow fish stocks to rebuild. This looks like a bitter pill to swallow for the fishers and spear fishers but there are plenty of examples around the world where a few protected reefs make spectacular recovery in fish stocks in a few short years. e.g. Komodo, Tubbataha, Wakatobi. When fishers see the dramatic benefit of having protected no take zones, they too will become advocates of some no fishing, no take zones where fish can breed. Everyone benefits. Imagine that, Albert. This magnificent issue of Dive Log features excellent reading about wreck diving adventures in Sri Lanka from Fritz Herscheid. Our resident Salvage Pirate captures the magic and adventure of exploring wrecks like few others can. Cathie and Terry Cummins take an adventure of a lifetime dive trip to Milne Bay on board M.V. Oceania. Matthew Kempton dives with Whale sharks and other marine life at Cenderiwasih Bay in Indonesia. Lynne Tuck frolics with the Leafy Sea Dragons and Carl Charter plans another great year diving with the giant Cuttles of Whyalla. Vadim Belakov goes freediving at Byron Bay with amazing photos of all sorts of big critters. Daniel Sly show us his wonderful collection of Sydney’s Pygmy Pipe Horses. Des Williams celebrates clever inventors of backyard divers. This time Merv Taylor built an Oil Drum dive helmet to dive down to nine metres under his lighthouse in Melbourne in the 1930’s. Like all of Des’ excellent stories, this one marvels at the sheer ingenuity and inventiveness of divers in the past. David Mullins gives us more great insights into Nudibranch behaviour. David Strike reveals the challenge of dealing with the diving calamities of ‘Krabbman’. The June issue of Dive Log is another great read. How blessed we are to have such a rich and diverse group of contributors sharing their love and passion for our sport. Read on, enjoy and share Australia’s longest running scuba diving publication with your diving friends. Better still, winter is the best time of the year for diving so dust off your dry suits or your 7 mm wetsuits and dive into the cool refreshing water for more adventures, exciting marine encounters and goosebumps.

Happy diving, Mike

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DivelogAustralasia #412 - June ‘25

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