Swimming with Southern Bluefin Tuna

Our boat wasn’t scheduled to leave until 1:00 and Google said it should only take an hour to walk to the shop, but we decided to leave the hotel at 10:15 so we could grab lunch beforehand at the harbor. Right before we left, Maria spotted something in the water.

Southern Right Whales. Oh yea.

Oh hey endangered cetacean.

And some Dolphins (likely bottlenose).

             Dolphins right here    ^^

Hard to see, but two dorsal fins below and to the right of the large Southern Right Whale head.

We rushed downstairs and walked by the water, snapping pictures as we followed the trail.

Eventually, both the whales and the trail disappeared, so we wandered off through the town, hoping to find the trail again. We made some doggie friends (they even growled at us!), but we lost them soon after as they preferred sniffing trees to finding trails.

Maria: If that dog bites me I'm going to kick it in the face.

We eventually found the coastal path, but then found out it was under construction, so we had to walk around some more before our hiking could begin.

View from the path.

The path.

The name of the trail. That blue triangle marked the trail, and came in very handy later on.

When the trail ended by the road, I began to get nervous. We had no map, no phone, and no idea where we should be heading. We picked a street and continued moving. We were occasionally rewarded with some blue triangles spray painted on the ground, meaning we were still heading in the right direction.

It took us about 2 hours, but we finally made it to the harbor. We got some food at a Petrol (gas) station, where their chicken sandwiches were graciously filled with both white and dark meat chicken. They forgot our fries, so when they finally brought them out we wolfed them down, burning our mouths with their greasy, spiced goodness.

We don't really understand the meaning behind the name of the middle ice cream bar.

We made it to the dock and boarded the boat, where we were then given a lecture about the history behind the blue fin tuna farms by a man named Shaun. Essentially, fisherman went out and caught juvenile tuna and placed them in sea pens, where they were fed pilchards to increase their fat content and overall mass. By farming them, they hoped to catch less tuna in the long run, as the tuna they caught would be much larger after living in the pens for awhile. When I asked a question about the ability to breed the tuna, I gave away our cover and everyone knew we were Americans. Oops. (They haven't been too successful breeding the tuna, btw).

The pen had a dock on it where you could feed the tuna, and an underwater viewing area. I enjoyed feeding the tuna.

We got a little chilly, and headed downstairs to the underwater viewing area. Shaun joined us.

Maria: How warm is the water?

Shaun: About 15 degrees [Celsius]

Kelley: Oh dear God.

Maria: Harris wouldn’t even wear a wetsuit.

Shaun: Well it really doesn’t pay to think about it…

Harris when diving in 15 degree celsius water.

Note the smile. And shirtless-ness. 

Photo credit to Joshua L.

Sexiness credit to Harris M.

While I sat and contemplated whether I was actually going to go in, I watched the small population of jellyfish move about in the water.

Kelley: Are those jellyfish venomous?

Shaun: No, but they will sting you.

Kelley: …What?

Shaun: We don’t have any venomous jellyfish in Australia… I mean Southern Australia.

The jellyfish.

To change topics, Maria brought up the tuna again:

Maria: What happens with the tuna in these pens?

Shaun: We can’t release them into the wild because they are too domesticated   (lol Ross & Steve)

We finally mustered up the courage to go into the water. An 8 year old child and his sister were hopping in and out of the water, and seemed to not be that affected by the temperature.

Maria: Is the water cold?

8 year old child: No, but I can’t feel my feet and my hands are numb.

Kelley: Oh dear God.

We pulled on the wet suits, and after a deep breath, descended the stairs into the icy water. We clung to the platform, clicking away with our cameras as the people above us tossed pilchard to the ravenous fish. At one point, a pilchard landed on the young boy’s head, and his mom tried to call him over: “C'mere, before a tuna takes your ear off!”

As I clung to the metal, my legs flailing below me, I made contact with something.

Kelley: I think I just kicked a tuna… I think I just kicked another one… I’m like a ninja.

Coming to get kicked.

Tuna!

The water was full of particles, hence the low quality pictures.

A tuna eye!

A tuna butt!

They are fast and difficult to photograph.

This video of us feeing the tuna has been added for your enjoyment. Please watch it (it’s only 17 seconds), preferably with the volume on, before continuing with this post… 

Note: this video may not work with Internet Explorer. It should work with Safari and Firefox, though...

Have you watched it?












You really should watch it.










Tuna are going to be extinct soon so you should watch it.

In case you didn’t understand what just happened, watch again.  That’s right, my camera got attacked…by a tuna.  Here’s what happened:  After we got out of the water, I realized that I didn’t get any video of the tuna, only pictures.  I devised a scheme to sit at the dock and dip my camera into the water to get some underwater footage.  Everything was going swell until the light hit my camera at just the right angle and a tuna mistook it for a pilchard.  Don’t worry though, the damage to my camera housing was superficial, and now I have a cool story to tell people :) .

The bottom of the camera housing

The top of the camera housing

Due to the fact that it took us approximately 17 days, 14 hours, and 57 minutes to walk to the marina, we decided that it would be best to take a cab back.   A lady rolled up in her taxi and took us to the hotel.  I paid her and when she gave me change she pulled it out of her bra.  I kid you not.  I hesitated for a few tenths of a second but I decided that I must retrieve the change as quickly as possible and then run away...and FAST!

Whilst Kelley was in the shower, I made tea in a little tea maker device.  The only problem was, it wailed loudly and, since I don’t drink tea, I wasn’t sure if this was normal or not.  I think it was though, because the water did end up getting hot in the end.  After a warm tea, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant.  We had gained confidence in our ability to navigate a foreign country, but, as we soon realized, we hadn’t learned how to properly understand the accent yet. Kelley paid for her meal with a credit card and it sounded like the waiter said “Pen or sign?”  Confusion ensued.  So she asked him to repeat.  Still confused.  Finally it became clear that he said pin (like a pin number) or sign.  Glad we got that taken care of.

Us after going in the 15 degree water.

View from our hotel room.