Chatham Islands 08

CHATHAM ISLANDS WHISPERS Matt Lind

Located 800kms from the New Zealand mainland, smack in the middle of the roaring forties, the Chatham Islands, hold some of New Zealand’s healthiest fish stock and offer the ultimate boys playground.

Over the past couple of years I have been hearing whispers about the vast numbers of hapuku in spearable depths around the Chathams, the size of the fish and possibilities of new records, and of the, shall we say, “healthy” shark population. I and three others decided that we simply must see for ourselves.

A four hour flight and a quick stop-over in Napier and the boys were there. Our guide and mentor for the week Floyd Prenderville met us at the airport and took us back to our digs in Waitangi, the Chathams main settlement. Floyd has been commercially diving for paua, kina and crays around the Chathams for years and it was his invaluable local knowledge that made our trip such a roaring success.

Day one saw the boys diving a few of the pins in Petre Bay a mere 20 minutes or so from the Waitiangi Wharf. When I say pins I really mean blips, patches of rock that rise two or three meters or so from the surrounding sand in 10-20 meters. The first few dives revealed that diving here was going to be different. Instead of kelp the rock was covered in sea tulips which look like…um, tulips. The number of species of fish around was somewhat less than I’m used to but what it lacked in diversity it made up for in sheer biomass. There were blue cod, blue moki and tarakihi just everywhere but after the first couple of hours there was still no sign of what we’d really come for – hapuku.

The New Zealand grouper, the mighty hapuku, has been fished out to all but the deepest reefs and off-shore islands around the mainland. In the last 30 years or so there has been maybe a half dozen landed by breath-hold spear fishermen and those that have been are aberrations; I don’t think there’s a diver in the country who can honestly say they got up one morning and said “today I shoot a ‘puka” and went on to do so. It is probably their rarity and almost mythical status that seems to keep ‘puka in the front of spearos’ minds and near the top of their target lists. These fish were our main goal for the trip.

Towards the end of the afternoon the boatman putts over to me and leans out with a fish bin and there it was, Brandon’s and the trip’s first ‘puk in all it’s 4kg of glory. It was joined later on by its 6kg brother courtesy of Blairo. I must admit at the end of day one I began to wonder if there weren’t quite as many fish as I’d been led to believe – especially as I’d yet to see one. A detailed debrief and autopsy over a bottle of CC that night helped day two to an inauspicious start.

As I slipped back in I looked below me and could see a weedy bottom and flashes of white. What are they? Not white enough for moki, definitely not cod, too small to be biteys. It suddenly became clear – The white flashes were bottom jaws. They were hapuku; a school of 50+ swirling around below my fin-tips in about 10 meters of water. I glanced up at the boat and let the boys know what was going on. This created pandemonium onboard with sandwiches, masks and gloves flying everywhere. Once John, our cameraman, was ready we simply drifted to the bottom and it was just a matter of picking the largest from the school as they rushed over us. After landing a fish each we were eventually able hand feed the ‘puka strips of butterfish shot nearby. These magnificent fish schooling in their cave and coming out to snatch pieces of fish will always remain with me as one of the greatest sights that I’ve ever been privileged with.

Now that we were all on the board it was time to high-grade and for Floyd to take us to his premiere spot – French Reef (sorry Floyd). Located near the North-Eastern tip of the Island (sorry Floyd) the French Reef is home to some of the most prolific life around the Island and holds a large, resident school of ‘puka. It is a very rare thing for a charter operator to categorically, absolutely, 100% guarantee you a fish but this is exactly what Floyd did, which despite his impeccable track record had all the boys rolling their eyes at each other. Half an hour later however the prophecy came true and literally seconds after entering the water both Brandon and I were onto the biggest fish of the trip and the school was gone (it was a very long-faced Blair who got back onboard empty handed muttering something about “bloody cameramen pulling you off fish” but that’s another story).

The difference in behaviour between our two schools of hapuku was marked. We think that they must have a ‘house’ somewhere and when the shit hits the fan this is where they bolt to. The fish on Boundary Rock were at home when we found them and they appeared to have no plan B whereas the school at French Reef came in to check us out and once they realized our intentions bolted to their so far unfound safe house. Floyd confirmed that every time he’s seen them they always disappear over the sand in the same direction lending credence to our theory. The largest of our fish went 14kg and there were much larger ones in the school so I think a concerted effort to find their hole and liberate them of their patriarch is in order. It is probably this behavior that made them so easy to wipe out on the mainland so some restraint will be necessary.

Given their position in the world the Chathams are definitely prone to some adverse weather conditions and some days you simply can’t dive. This is where the depth of the Chathams experience is so important. On our couple of down days we were able to hunt the numerous wild pigs, bulls and sheep on the island as well as get around with the locals a bit and hear their fantastic stories of life near and on the sea. Local knowledge is absolutely critical for us as loopies because we would have had no show of finding the best spots without Floyd and his GPS. It is rare when you go out on a given day, or even week, to be able to fulfill all your goals but I can honestly say all our boxes were ticked plus a few we didn’t even know about so thanks a lot Floyd and I’ll see you next February.

A picture says a thousand words and video says even more so keep an eye out for Wild Blue’s next DVD release featuring footage from this trip.