Tristan Fraser

1. EXPERIENCE IN AOTEAROA/NZ COASTAL ENVIRONMENTS

CRAWFORD: Ok, Tristan. Let's start by getting a general idea of who you are, and your experience on or in New Zealand coastal waters.

FRASER: Sure. My name is Tristan James Fraser, born fourth of the 11th, 1982. Born here in Dunedin and raised and lived here all my life except for my overseas travelling, which was four or so years. I have been spearfishing for the last five or six years, pretty much full time - throughout every summer, and partly through the winter as well. I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the water basically. In and around the Otago area, all the way up to the top of the South Island and all the way back down again. 

CRAWFORD: What other kinds of outdoor activities do you do?

FRASER: I've flyfished for over a decade. I also hunt deer and pigs, when I get an opportunity to. I’m very outdoors-based.

CRAWFORD: Any other on- or in-water activities, specifically with regard to coastal waters? 

FRASER: Yes. We recreationally fish for Blue Cod and that sort of thing. Yeah, other than spearfishing.

CRAWFORD: For the purposes of this discussion, I’m interested in your recreational fishing as part of your experience and knowledge as well. 

FRASER: I’ve recreationally fished longer than I have spearfished, so yeah.

CRAWFORD: When did you first start spending significant time on or in the water?

FRASER: From 2010 basically onwards. Yeah, quite abruptly. 

CRAWFORD: So about five years ago. And how old are you now?

FRASER: 32 this year. Yeah. It was a sudden start. I didn’t get into it from a young age. In fact, I was never really a good swimmer - which sort of took a lot of that out of it. I never really considered doing this sort of thing until a good mate of mine, who had done it for a few years, got me into the water for the first time. And it was just amazing. It opened my eyes to another whole world out there that I didn’t know existed. Ever since then, I’ve had a real strong passion in it. And I’ve become quite a good fisherman. 

CRAWFORD: It started here in Dunedin?

FRASER: Yeah, basically it starts right here in Dunedin. The majority of my diving was all in and around the Heads of the Otago Harbour, and also further up the North Coast in Warrington. So a lot of it was very, very localised around the northern end of the harbour.

CRAWFORD: Five years of spearfishing. For you was it a seasonal thing? 

FRASER: Partly yes. I mean I do dive through the entire summer, but in the winter time it’s not off limits. I do dive mid-winter as well for Paua. Spearfishing dies down here a bit.

CRAWFORD: I didn’t know that you were also a Paua diver.

FRASER: Yeah, I Paua dived probably before I spearfished funnily enough. It happened around about the same time.

CRAWFORD: In the same places.

FRASER: Yeah, absolutely. Paua diving for me was a big part of it. 

CRAWFORD: Alright. What I’m trying to get at is, and I know that seasonality changes from year to year, but throughout that five-year period, how frequently in general would you have gone either spearfishing and/or Paua diving? 

FRASER: Weekly.

CRAWFORD: When you could on the weekends, or your day off, or something?

FRASER: Yeah absolutely. Even to the point where I’d finish work early, and get out in the evening for a few hours - you know what I mean? 

CRAWFORD: On average, once per week?

FRASER: Once per week, yeah. Sometimes I was getting out two or three times a week, and then we had a block period of bad weather. Simply didn’t get out. So I think overall an average of once per week would be quite accurate.

CRAWFORD: Ok, so beginning about five years ago and it was exclusively Otago Peninsula?

FRASER: Absolutely, yeah. We always tried to dive in areas that were safe-ish, in terms of a confidence point of view. Those areas are sort of always relatively shallow, with fish that can be harvested. As soon as you get out on the open coast it's a different story all together. 

CRAWFORD: You still spearfish in those waters?

FRASER: Correct. The last place I went was one of the first places I ever spearfished. 

CRAWFORD: When did you start spearfishing elsewhere? In different regions?

FRASER: More or less from 2012 onwards.

CRAWFORD: Where did you start fishing then?

FRASER: I did my first trip up to the Marlborough Sound. We did a couple of trips over a couple of years. But we were diving right out of the mouth back in and around this island right here.

CRAWFORD: You sailed out of Picton?

FRASER: We sailed out of Waikawa Bay which is right next to Picton. Straight up the sound and out to the heads. We dived around the points at the top. 

CRAWFORD: In the island cluster?

FRASER: Yeah absolutely. These are basically all like sounds. Much like you get down here in Fiordland. We were staying right in the harbour, Waikawa which is way up in here. But we actually motored the whole way, all the way towards the heads out here.

CRAWFORD: How did you know to go out there? Did you have a mate that told you about it?

FRASER: My partner's brother is a very keen spearfisherman. Has been for years. And he also comes from a commercial Paua diving background as well. So he has knowledge of the whole country, and also this factors in with the fact that he’s lived in a lot of places all over New Zealand. His knowledge is quite extensive. Without him I would never have known.

CRAWFORD: Did he spend more time in Cook Strait-Marlborough Sound, Tasman Bay area?

FRASER: Kind of. At the time, he was living across from Wellington. So he did a lot of diving in and around the Wellington Coast. It was more that side of things - we met them in Picton and holidayed there. And yeah, he had been there as well. 

CRAWFORD: Was that a one-off event, or did you end up going back there [Marlborough Sound] and doing more spearfishing?

FRASER: I went back again the following year. We did two years in a row. I didn’t meet up with the same group from the first year though. And I certainly did some diving the second year, but I was on my own. Obviously factors where you have to be a bit careful diving on your own. In fact I don’t recommend you ever dive in your own. But yeah, I still did a bit of sneaky diving up there, and did a few Paua dives and stuff like that.

CRAWFORD: And that was about two or three years ago?

FRASER: It would have been three years ago, yeah.

CRAWFORD: What other regions around South Island have you spearfished?

FRASER: Kaikoura. It’s a very, very well-known area for spearfishing. I did that two years in a row as well. I went there the same year as the second year going to Picton. And I went back the following year after that. We did two years up there, so dived there then coming back down south of here - basically from Shag Point south. That's the majority of the rest of my diving, which is all accessible from Dunedin. 

CRAWFORD: When you're spearfishing, is there anything special you do - other than being aware of what's happening around you?

FRASER: You’ve just got to be a bit careful. I try and make myself not look like a Seal when I’m diving. 

CRAWFORD: How do you do that?

FRASER: Well one way of doing it is don’t wear a black wetsuit, for example. You know a full black wetsuit. Your long fins are another, I mean I’ve got big long black spearfishing fins. I couldn’t look more like a Seal if I wanted to. And over time I’ve phased all of that out. I’ve got camouflage gear now. And I mean this could just be, I don’t care if it's just something that makes me feel better and it makes me feel less paranoid. The less I look like a big black Seal swimming around in the water, the better. 

CRAWFORD: You say you’ve got camouflage gear?

FRASER: Now I do. Yeah, I’m camouflaged to look more like seaweed. Different colour all over me. This is for hiding in reef structure and stuff like that. This is primarily for me to hide from the fish I’m shooting.

CRAWFORD: Camouflage could mean two different things. Camouflage in a different sense could be camouflage to not look like a Fur Seal or a Sea Lion, or it could be to look like kelp.

FRASER: Yeah, yeah, I’m trying to look more like kelp and less like a Seal.

CRAWFORD: Is there some type of spearfisherman’s association or club? 

FRASER: The Uni. The Otago University is the biggest spearfishing group in Dunedin. There’s over a hundred members signed up to that. You didn’t know anything about that?

CRAWFORD: No.

FRASER: Yeah, they’ve got a big club there. The problem with the student one is that there’s probably realistically, there are over a hundred members on it, but how many of them actually regularly go is the question. 

CRAWFORD: Ok, that's a local spearfishing club. I was actually thinking more at the level of New Zealand as a whole.

FRASER: Not really no. A lot of it's all broken up into regions, where certain regions might have groups.

CRAWFORD: Where would those regions be? Where are the hot spots for spearfishing in New Zealand?

FRASER: In the South Island? I’d say your better spear fishing is all up around the northern end of it. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still hundreds of people doing it down here, but most people find it more desirable the further north you go. The water is slightly warmer, and the species of fish change as well. And that’s a big part of it. We spear table fish down here, where obviously the further north you go, you have the opportunity to spear at the likes of Kingfish - which we don’t get normally down this way. It has a sporting side to it as well when you’re trying to spear something the same size as you. Rather than just trying to get a feed on the table. So anyway Kaikoura, big community there. Marlborough Sound is a big community there. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still big spearfishing communities in Dunedin and Christchurch. You don’t read about these places as much when you’re reading on the forums or something.

CRAWFORD: Ok. Kaikoura, Marlborough Sound and then whereabouts up on the North Island?

FRASER: The North Island's massive, like Auckland's huge for spearfishing. They’ve got the Oceanhunter group and Wetty. They’re actually businesses that sell spearfishing gear here in New Zealand. But they have huge bases of people, and they put together competitions and what not. 

2. EXPOSURE TO MĀORI/LOCAL/SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS

CRAWFORD: In terms of education, how would you describe your history? Where were you? What did you do?

FRASER: Well, I haven’t done a lot of education, to be honest. I finished high school, and then travelled in my early twenties over in Europe and the UK. Came back from there, and went into retail with Centrefire McCarthy's, working in a hunting and fishing store. Not the hunting and fishing chain, but a store that sells that gear. And basically I worked myself up and managed that store for the last couple of years, Now I’m actually going into a butchery apprenticeship as of a week or two from now. Big change in direction. 

CRAWFORD: Do you do any other types of training programs? Diploma courses or certificates?

FRASER: Very basic stuff. Basic first-aid, for example. Other than that, not really a lot. I’ve done food handling stuff in the past - some certificates for that.

CRAWFORD: What about your diving?

FRASER: I’ve done a free diving course, 3-day block course. Learning breath hold and that side of things. And just the techniques and everything else behind free diving and harvesting fish. 

CRAWFORD: Have you ever hung out with people who are either science students or professional scientists? Or have you ever helped them out, or been exposed with that kind of person in a way that you might have picked up some science knowledge? 

FRASER: Yeah, I briefly mentioned Clement Larue from the Otago University. I’ve done diving with him on numerous occasions.

CRAWFORD: You’ve known him for what, 4 or 5 years?

FRASER: About 4 years now, yeah. He’s not in my main diving groups, so I don’t get out with him as much as I like, but he’s from the zoology background. I couldn’t say exactly what, but his knowledge is quite extensive, especially with marine animals. Just talking with Clement a lot about the Penguins and the Sea Lions and Fur Seals and what not. 

CRAWFORD: Anybody else like him you know?

FRASER: No, no. Most of the other guys I get out with are just recreational guys.

CRAWFORD: What about Māori people in your history? Friends, co-workers?

FRASER: I dive with a couple of Māori fellas. One guy more than the other. But yeah, other than that, no I haven’t really had a lot of Māori exposure.

CRAWFORD: A little bit though.

FRASER: Yeah, certainly a little bit.

5. WHITE POINTER ENCOUNTERS - EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS

CRAWFORD: What was the first time you ever heard about White Pointers? Do you remember that? For some people there was something, it might have been something they saw, something they heard, where it triggers a memory. Do you have anything like that?

FRASER: The first ever time?

CRAWFORD: Yeah.

FRASER: I’d have to say that the first time I heard about White Pointers was when Jaws was on TV. The movie, like I’m not kidding you. I mean from that side of view, my first exposure to a White Shark probably would have been through the old movies.

CRAWFORD: Have you at any time while you were spearfishing or otherwise, seen a White Pointer?

FRASER: No I haven’t. 

CRAWFORD: In the spearfishing community, the people who you talk to, and the discussions that they have in and amongst themselves, have there been spearfisherman you know who have had interactions with White Pointers?

FRASER: Absolutely.

CRAWFORD: What kinds of things have they said, or what kinds of things have you heard about their interactions with White Pointers?

FRASER: I can think of two occasions where people have been able to positively identify that it was a White Pointer. You've got to remember that there’s a lot of interactions on the water here, and the water visibility up and down the coast is not great. It’s not as clear… an average day down here, you’re probably looking at a maximum of five metres. And five metres is bordering on what I call the start of a good day. And 15 to 20 metres is an exceptional day. But the majority of the time you’re diving, you have less than five metres of visibility. Anything outside of that, you're not 100 percent sure of what you’re seeing. You might know that this is a Shark outline, but you couldn’t positively identify one way or another. For the two positive identifications, the first was from an older spearfisherman. When I say older - probably in his 50’s. But he has spearfished for three decades.

CRAWFORD: The ripe old age of 50. 

FRASER: Yeah, so a lovely feller. He had a time when he was up at Shag Point. One of my favourite spearfishing spots.

CRAWFORD: Where is Shag Point?

FRASER: Just South of Moeraki. And he was heading down to dive off the very front of the point itself, where the boat ramp is. And they actually saw a big White Pointer swimming right around the very edge of the rocks. Just a bit further North of where you normally dive, but on the main Shag Point road heading in. 

CRAWFORD: Prior to them going in?

FRASER: Prior to them going in. They actually saw it swimming right round the edge of the rocks. And they decided they would not get in that day. So that wasn’t a personal encounter.

CRAWFORD: No, no, but remember. Your knowledge is also from the previous generations' experience. And then there are your contemporary peers. So all three of them, that's basically what’s coming out. And that story fits in the third category of contemporary peers, right?

FRASER: Yep, absolutely. 

CRAWFORD: You had a second story? Mates of yours?

FRASER: Yes, second time was actually another observation, which was from a group of guys that I’ve spoken to that were in a boat in Kaikoura. And they were coming in for a dive, and they’ve had a rather Shark come right up next to the boat, turn side on, and then basically with a kick of the tail, gone. And that was all it was for them - a couple of seconds. An observation. It came right up next to the boat, as they said; rolled nearly on its side and basically eyeballed straight in at them. It looked and then the part of the whole story was how quickly they move.  That was this guy's excitement. The fact that it was one kick of the tail and it was just gone. It was mind-blowing how quick it could swim. Whatever made it do that, they don’t know. But yeah, that was just another observation. 

CRAWFORD: But the important thing is, these are mates of yours who are also spearfisherman and are also Paua divers?

FRASER: Absolutely.

CRAWFORD: But they weren’t doing it at the time. They were on the water, in a vessel - and it could have been anybody. It could have been a boatie or anyone else. The activity that they were about to do was not actually relevant to the encounter. [Discussion about project classification levels for human encounters with White Pointers: Level 1-Observation, Level 2-Swim-By, Level 3-Interest, Level 4-Intense] And in this case that kind of interaction - where the animal comes up next to the boat - that puts it into the Level 3 category, because the animal itself came in closer. 

FRASER: Yeah. I should point out that the second story from the people in Kaikoura, were customers of ours in the shop that I got talking to about spearfishing up there. That’s how the story came out. So they’re not in my immediate group, but the other fella at Shag Point, he was.

CRAWFORD: Doesn’t matter. It’s still in your knowledge system. 

FRASER: Just to clarify. 

CRAWFORD: I’m going to go out a little bit further on two different paths. The next path is with regards to spearfishermen. Is it a relatively small community?

FRASER: It is and it isn’t. It’s exploding right now, and has been for the last two years. It’s huge. And it’s growing again. I thought this was a new thing from my limited time doing it in comparison to some others. It wasn’t until I spoke to people like Ian Govan who was the fellow up at Shag Point who saw that White Pointer. It was actually a huge spearfishing base probably 30 years ago through that period. So from 30 years to 20 years ago, there was actually a boom in spearfishing around here. They used to have regional spearfishing competitions here in Dunedin. Which I didn’t know. I didn’t know spearfishing basically existed until I started doing it. Then there was a lull, from what I understand. A long period of time where it was a very select few that did it. But since I’ve started, I’ve seen a rising demand. I used to go to places five years ago, and you wouldn’t see another person. Now it’s not uncommon to go to one of my favourite spots at Harrington Point and there’s four or five other people diving in that spot. So, it has really grown in the last few years, back into popularity. It's a very big thing now. 

CRAWFORD: What type of fish are being targeted?

FRASER: Primarily in our region down here, Greenbone, more commonly known as a Butterfish, but not to be confused with what everybody calls a Butterfish which is any small fish caught off a wharf, but the Greenbone themselves. Moki. Blue Moki. Trumpeter. Blue Cod. They would make up the four most common species. Other than that, there are some fringe species as well that come in, but they’re more you know - species that are moving through and don’t live here in the area. We’re talking Kahawai, Spanish Mackerel. I managed to bag one of them a couple of years ago. Again, they’re not here all year round, they’re a moving fish. I don’t know if you would call that a pelagic, but they’re on the move all the time. Also the Slenderfin Tuna, which we get here at certain times of the year. 

CRAWFORD: That’s good and thank you for that. It’s interesting, all of those species. The Blue Cod is a common denominator with the commercial fishery as well. A lot of the interactions that I’ve heard about, for instance from Codpotters. You’re not a beginner anymore, but I would imagine there are guys that have been doing it for 20 or 30 years that would have quite a bit of expertise. And this is one of those things where you develop skills over time. On a typical day for you, on an average day if you were going out spearfishing, how many fish might you come back with? 

FRASER: That strongly depends on the individual. And I’m all for keeping food for the future. And often I’ll spear what I want to eat. For example, my last dive there a week ago, I shot three Greenbone and that was it. And that was all I intended to shoot. 

CRAWFORD: That was your menu. That was your target.

FRASER: That was all I wanted, because that will feed me and the family for a couple of days and then next week when I go back I can do the same again. I’m not all about harvesting as much as possible.

CRAWFORD: Right. What I was trying to get at was - would you have three fish speared then go back to the boat, or would you have one fish, go back to the boat, then get another fish?

FRASER: Interesting you say that, because a lot of my diving is done from shore. Not all of it. But a lot of it is shore-diving. Getting in off the shore, and I know you don’t really want to know about technique ...

CRAWFORD: No, I do want to know. Do you carry your fish, trail your fish?

FRASER: I never put a fish on my person because I think that’s just silly. In all honesty. You’re putting on something that a Shark would want to eat, on your person. Primarily that’s the reason why I don’t do it. You could get harassed by Leopard Seals. You could get harassed by Sea Lions. And they’re intimidating creatures, and we’ve got a lot of them around here. So I guess in the back of my mind, that’s probably a secondary thing. If I knew the Sharks weren’t there, I’d still do it for that reason. When you got a 600 kilo Leopard Seal, Sea Lion hanging around.

CRAWFORD: Is it a 50-50 split between the time you spend Paua diving versus the time you spend spearfishing?

FRASER: Yeah. Pretty even.

CRAWFORD: They’re two very different activities, right? 

FRASER: Yeah, absolutely.

CRAWFORD: In one case, you’re interacting with fish in distress, and in the other case you’re not.

FRASER: That's right.

CRAWFORD: In the time that you have spent either Paua diving or spearfishing, have you seen underwater any of the Sea Lions or Leopard Seals? 

FRASER: I’ve never seen a Leopard Seal, no. But I have seen Sea Lions underwater. Yeah, absolutely. 

CRAWFORD: Observation, swim-by, encounter

FRASER: Mine have all been observations luckily. Other people that have had bad experiences with Sea Lions. Yeah, for sure. 

CRAWFORD: Sea Lions harassing them? 

FRASER: Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, and they can be quite aggressive too. 

CRAWFORD: Give me an example of aggressive Sea Lion behaviour. 

FRASER: Coming around and not letting you out of where you are. This is talking specifically about Harrington Point, where there’s a couple of Sea Lions around that live down there. They’ll come in, and they’ll circle around and try not to let you get back out of that area. They’ll also come in with big mouths open, and they’ll blow bubbles at you which I’ve been told, funnily enough from Clement - apparently, they can use the blowing of bubbles to show their might. This is in the natural world between Sea Lions. Have you heard of any such things?

CRAWFORD: I haven't heard of it, but I'll keep my ears open.

FRASER: Basically, it can be a challenge to say "Look how big I am. I can blow all this air out of my lungs and this is me, this is me now" sort of thing. And Clement said that can be a thing with scubadivers. They’re continuously blowing bubbles when they’re scubadiving. And he said in the Wellers Rock area [of Otago Harbour], there’s been a few interactions between the dive crew from Dive Otago and the Sea Lions. And he reckons there could be correlation there with the bubbles blowing continuously from these scubadivers, that the Sea Lions are getting the wrong idea.

CRAWFORD: Just back up a little bit on that. Do people who you know, who have shared this knowledge with you, do you think that it’s possible that the Sea Lions were doing this bubbling behaviour with Humans prior to anybody getting scuba tanks? Or was it actually caused by experience with bubbling Humans?

FRASER: I couldn’t say. I honestly couldn’t.

CRAWFORD: Have there been any observations of Sea Lions doing this bubbling to each other - independent of Humans?

FRASER: From my understanding, from the way that he was speaking, it was something that was known. 

CRAWFORD: That’s very interesting. But you have not ...

FRASER: No, no. I’ve observed them. But I’ve never had an interaction.

CRAWFORD: Others, Paua-divers or Spearfisherman - either one? 

FRASER: Yeah, it can be either/or. It can definitely be either/or. 

CRAWFORD: And these are big animals?

FRASER: They’re huge. Very intimidating. I’d be in some ways more frightened of one of those if it became agitated, or it become an elevated interaction. I’d almost prefer dealing with a Shark sometimes. Because they’re a big creature, these Sea Lions. And if they grab on to you, and decide they’re going to go deep or something.

CRAWFORD: Have you had any interactions like that?

FRASER: I’ve certainly heard stories of people having their fins grabbed. That’s a common thing that happens. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a Sea Lion or a Leopard Seal. I’ve heard from both sides of things, both species doing similar things. They’ll grab a hold of the ends of your fins basically. Don’t know if it’s a playful thing or if there’s truly aggression in it, I don’t know. I don’t know anyone that’s been dragged and drowned or anything like that, or ever heard of anything like that. To me it always seems like a territorial thing. 

CRAWFORD: Do you know of, or have you heard of any spearfishermen who have had an interaction with a White Pointer?

FRASER: No. Plenty of other species, but never a White. No. 

CRAWFORD: Plenty of other species meaning who? Sevengills? Others?

FRASER: Yeah, I’ve had personal interactions with Sevengills, and people I know have had interactions with Bronze Whalers as well. Tyson, my brother-in-law who’s the fellow we dived with up in Picton, he was up about a year ago in the Coromandel, and he was diving up there on his own. Silly boy shouldn’t have been doing that, but he went across a channel. He was diving out around an island. And he felt a great yank on his gun. And the reason why he felt the yank was because your gun is tied to a float which is floating 10 metres behind you, with your fish hanging on it, which is the safety device we use rather than carrying them on our person. We drag them behind us by 10 metres, because that gives you a false sense of that safe distance if anything happened. But he felt the yank on his gun, and knew straight away something's pulling on the line from behind.

CRAWFORD: So he’s got the gun on him, and the line is ...

FRASER: The line is tied off the bottom of the handle, and straight back towards the float that you’re towing around with you. He felt the yank and thought he knew what’s happening. What’s grabbing the other end, he doesn’t know - but something’s grabbed it. He’s turned to look, and he sees what he believes is a Bronze Whaler struggling to try and grab the fish. Had a Moki hanging from his float. It grabbed the line a second time, and pulled it, and actually ripped the line out of his gun. So he’s become detached from the float. He’s quite happy about this because he wants to keep his gun and he wants to say goodbye to the fish, and to the Shark. He swims straight to the island which is closest to him. Climbs on a rock. And he watched that Shark trying to eat that fish for about 100 metres. As it was coming up and trying to grab it, the float was pushing away from it. And it couldn’t do it. He said it was unbelievable. This Shark just continuously would not give up trying to grab this fish. Eventually he saw that it was far enough away that he could feel confident to get back in the water and swim across this channel, because it was more or less like swimming across the channel of a harbour. He makes a mad dash for it. Jumps back in, swims back to shore. He got his float back. He had some guys that were coming in on an inflatable, and he explained his story and said "Do you mind taking me back out? I can still see the float a couple of metres offshore now, still bobbing around out there. Can we go back and get it?" They said, "Yeah, get in." And they went out. And he’s got photos of him holding this Moki with the big teeth marks on it. So that’s one interaction. 

CRAWFORD: Thank you for that, because I hadn’t even thought to ask you about other species. What other Shark species have you seen?

FRASER: Well, Sevengills that I've seen personally.

CRAWFORD: Did they interact with you?

FRASER: Both times. 

CRAWFORD: What did they do? 

FRASER: The first time was quite unnerving. And that was down at Harrington Point. Right at the tip of Taiaroa Heads. The visibility was really poor that day, it was like a couple of metres. We’d been diving in and around the kelp shooting Greenbone and Moki that day. I still remember it like it was yesterday because it was the first experience I had with a Shark directly. And I had to be lying in the kelp, looking only one way, because the way the light was coming into the water - you know, it was the only way I could actually see anything. If I looked back this way, the visibility was virtually zero. I’d been lying on the kelp on the surface just looking down, and this one line where the Greenbone were moving back and forth. Just waiting to find the shot, so I could dive and follow it and shoot it. And I noticed movement below me heading in the opposite direction as the swell, which was quite unusual. I couldn’t make out what it was at first. And it actually turned and came straight up towards me, and that’s when I realized it was actually the front end of the face of a Shark coming up. And it was within 2 metres of me and I panicked and I just turned and swam straight for shore.

CRAWFORD: One Shark that you saw? My understanding is that they tend to pack up.

FRASER: I saw one and one only. And it was quite long. Let's just say that I never saw the end of it as it was coming up towards me. It had enough length in it that it was actually going down, it was turning to come up, but I never saw the end of its tail. And they are quite a long Shark. That was the first one. The second one was at Wellers Rock, and that was the day I got the Spanish Mackerel. We had a whole school of Mackerel come past us. And I left the somewhat safety of the reef or Wellers rock itself and swam straight out, and shot one. Got lucky and brought it back in. Tied it to my float. I dive Wellers Rock because it's all pretty close proximity, and I often tie my float up to the kelp. I’m not dragging the float round. It’s anchored to one area, and I put my fish on it and I got back out and target something else. I’ve come back in. I’ve decided my day's spearfishing was over, which was kind of a coincidence. And I’ve come in to my float and my mate was already at the float and he was looking at me. I could tell something had happened. I said "Are you alright mate?" And his eyes were just wide open. What I didn’t realize was the Shark was still there in front of him. And I mean he was just sort of frozen still. Me coming in, I don’t actually know if it knew that he was there or not. I don’t know. But it was in there trying to get the fish from my float. And I didn’t realize that it was still there, and I’ve swum in towards him and this thing has got a fright, didn’t realize I was coming or not and it’s turned and swum straight into me. So we’ve made full contact with both my hands on its face and actually pushed it down between my legs. And it swum straight out the back of me that way. And yeah, obviously I didn’t feel too good about that. It was nowhere near the size of the first one I saw. It was probably 2 and a half metres in full length. And I’ll never forget touching its face. I didn’t have gloves on that day, so it was sandy.

CRAWFORD: It was there for the fish in the float?

FRASER: Definitely there for the fish. It was going in for a feed. It disappeared and I never saw it again. 

CRAWFORD: You mentioned Wellers Rock. You hadn’t talked about spearfishing there. But Wellers Rock is significant in a couple of regards. You characterized the water around Wellers Rock - I didn’t know that there was spearfishing there. This is primarily focused on the kelp beds adjacent to it?

FRASER: Yep. You've got to remember that a lot of the species that we target down here, from a spearfishing point of view, are all reef species. You generally find them where the kelp and the rocks are, you know? Not on the sand. So yeah, we tend to concentrate on these areas.

CRAWFORD: Ok. But there are other activities going on at Wellers Rock as well, right? In particular, I've heard there are commercial fishing boats that come in there?

FRASER: Yeah absolutely. They don’t stop in at Wellers Rock itself, but just  a few hundred metres further into the harbour. They come right on by the end of Wellers Rock and pull up past.

CRAWFORD: One or two boats?

FRASER: Two boats that I know of. 

CRAWFORD: Do you know the people that fish on those boats? 

FRASER: No.

CRAWFORD: Do you know what kind of boats they are? 

FRASER: Yeah, they’re fishing boats. Commercial fishing boats.

CRAWFORD: And do you know what kind of commercial fishing boats they might be?

FRASER: When you say kind…

CRAWFORD: Codpotters? Trawlers? Longliners?

FRASER: They’re Codpotters, I believe. 

CRAWFORD: So that’s a partial overlap in one place of two different Human activities.

FRASER: Correct. 

CRAWFORD: And if there is any interaction between the Codpotters and Sharks of any kind, you also happen to be in a place where they’re coming past.

FRASER: Yeah. It could be drawing them in there, that's right.

CRAWFORD: Have you ever seen any patterns between the boat's activity and what you see in the water?

FRASER: No. Not directly. But I know through my own talking to people that there’s more sightings of the Sevengill Sharks around Wellers Rock and Harrington Point, which is only just a bit further down the harbour. They could almost be deemed as the same spots to some people. More sightings of the Sevengill Sharks there than anywhere else that I know of. Hands down. 

CRAWFORD: Why?

FRASER: I don’t know. I couldn’t say.

CRAWFORD: What would you think? Is there something about the habitat? 

FRASER: Possibly. My thoughts for many years though was maybe that within the harbour in general, that they may come in there to spawn. That was one of my uneducated thoughts. Why do we have so many in our harbour here? Maybe it was a time of year thing.

CRAWFORD: Did other spearfisherman have the same thinking? 

FRASER: I don’t think so. I mean this is something I thought about myself. And I’ve hooked large ones [Sevengill Sharks] on rod-and-reel in the harbour too. And I know of so many other recreational guys that target them. And they’ll catch a heap of them. We’re talking every night they could have 1 or 2 or 3 caught. 

CRAWFORD: There’s a targeted fishery for Sevengills?

FRASER: It’s all sport. They don’t kill them. They turn them around and set them straight back out again. It’s nothing. it’s just sporting basically. But they do get a lot in and around Carey's Bay, which is coincidentally straight across from Wellers Rock. More or less. 

CRAWFORD: And there’s a wharf just inside from Wellers Rock?

FRASER: Yeah, where the boats go in. There are two boats, that I know of.  I know that they frequent that spot at least. And I know that the big Sea Lions I was referring to earlier, they often follow those boats right in there - my father’s got photos of them. Like massive noses right up to the lens, because they just hang out behind the boats and maybe eat the scraps.

CRAWFORD: Seals or Sea Lions?

FRASER: This is specifically Sea Lions. You don’t see a lot of Fur Seals in the harbour. My knowledge is that the Sea Lions live in and around Aramoana, which is directly across from Harrington Point. You see them up on the beach there all the time. And I guess they just jump in the water and follow the boat straight into the loading zone where they dock up. 

CRAWFORD: So Sea Lions following the boat is something that your father or other people that you know have actually seen?

FRASER: Oh absolutely. Yeah. 

CRAWFORD: I hope to talk to those guys, if they will talk with me.

FRASER: Those guys can have a lot of information, the commercial fisherman.

Copyright © 2017 Tristan Fraser and Steve Crawford