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Left to right: Historic sink plundered from the wreck of the Waikare, recovered by our team in Luncheon Cove. Rob Edward - James Croker and Eddie Howard descend to the black coral. Some of the 40 batteries recovered Opposite page: Stuart Day and Rob Wilson clear their safety stop and prepare to ascend after the tyres they have sent to the surface. Now fast forward to 2021 now our third visit to Dusky, the dive team suit up into their drysuits and Halcyon kit, ready to dive in this incredibly exclusive and isolated location. In all honesty I was not expecting what we usually encounter with our typical Ghost Diving dives or when we dive for Project Baseline Clyde Quay. Surprisingly enough, the sight I saw was not so dissimilar! Bubbles roared from the exhaust tee of my Halo as I descended through the tannin rich water, scanning left and right I saw two Seven-Gill Sharks come up out of the depths to welcome our team to the area, it was wonderful. Sadly though, within minutes I scootered over a huge pile of car batteries, initially I estimated at least 20. The actual amount once we dug them out of the seabed was horrifying at 40! (1000kgs of car batteries alone.) We knew we had our work cut out for us.... Freedivers and technical divers working in harmony Since the launch of Ghost Diving here in NZ, I have constantly seen the value of working with highly skilled freedivers and this project again proved their invaluable support. Throughout this annual project, we have been working side by side with some incredible free-divers and they are truly amazing. The one item we find by the mountain is long neck beer bottles – there were literally 1000s. Both Scuba and Free teams haul beer bottle after beer bottle filling giant canvas bags to be removed in one hit with our lift bags. We have even found multiple anchors over the last three years and they had snared everything from fishing lines to ropes of various flavours. One of the items as irony has it, to be discovered was as I surged home to the vessel on my DPV (Dive Xtras scooter), I noticed an odd circular shape on the sea bed. The circle was no more than an inch across, but after years of doing this, I have an uncanny eye for the uncanny! Descending back to the sea floor I began clawing at the edges of this bizarre looking object. To my surprise, it was another sink! (We found another one on our first trip in 2019.) We had literally found everything including the kitchen sink and as soon as I saw the Union Steamship logo, I knew again it was something interesting. In actual fact, this sink had a surprising significance. We had literally found everything including the kitchen sink This particular sink as had the previous one from 2019 had been plundered and then dumped from a nearby wreck of a vessel called the 'Waikare' a steamship that had struck an uncharted rock between Indian island and Passage Inlet in 1910 before beaching on Stop Island for the passengers to safely disembark. The skipper Sean and Maria recognised the sink and its significance straight away - again showing their intimate knowledge of this area. Maria and Sean without hesitation got this historic sink off to a local maritime museum where the sink is now proudly on display. The teams worked in amazing cohesion for the time we had in the darkened water. A grand total of over 5000kgs was removed from this amazing area, most of which was thrown from visiting vessels. And at the end of the project the Pure Salt team spoiled us with a dive to see the majestic black coral Tamatea/Dusky Sound of course is world famous for its black coral some of which we found in 11m of water and any diver will tell you that is incredible as it is as a deep water species. At the end of the project, the Pure Salt team spoiled us with a dive to see this majestic black coral in 25-29m of water. Something rare and fascinating grows in the depths of Milford Sound – black coral. Known as antipathes fiordensis, this black coral is native to the Fiordland area. Black coral usually lives in deep ocean but thanks to the geology of Milford Sound, you can see black coral as shallow as 10 metres below the surface. As heavy rainfall drains through the lush forests, it gets stained with tannins until that is the colour of strong tea. Because fresh water is less dense than salt water, the rainwater forms a protective top layer over the salt water from the incoming Tasman Sea. The darkened fresh water blocks sunlight, with light levels at 10m deep in Milford Sound being equivalent to those at about 70m in the open sea. Due to this unique environment, the fiord supports the world’s biggest population of black coral trees. There are 60 varieties of black coral in Dusky Sound and it is also home to rare red corals and the enormous bubblegum coral, which can grow up to seven metres high and live for centuries. There are about seven million colonies of coral in Dusky Sound. A truly magnificent location and an incredibly valuable project. The initial success of our first project in 2019 was the first stepping stone for the now annual Tamatea Blue Project with the crew of Pure Salt. Some of my teams are joining me again and some gutsy volunteers and battle tested freedivers to again make a difference to this once pristine environment. We will endeavour to return this magical place to its true majesty before the onset of those before us. 60//WHERE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS/#230
Would you like to donate? www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/ghost-diving-nz For more information and memberships gfnzmembership@gmail.com
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