Cable Bay is a short drive northeast of Nelson. It's where I met the owners/operators of Abyss Dive, Paul and Janelle, to hop on their boat for an afternoon of diving. They were top notch and very professional (I've never seen a dive boat that clean) and I highly recommend them.

Abyss Dive Boat

Cable Bay from the Boat

On our previous dive we had spotted a lot of crayfish in the Horoirangi Marine Reserve. But now we were outside of the reserve and it was time to catch some shellfish.

The first thing I came across was a crab. I managed to snag it despite getting some good pinches from it's claws. But as soon as I had it in hand, I could tell it was too small to keep so I just let it go there and then.

Crab

Not long after that we started finding crayfish. Time to put the GoPro away and get down to business. I tried a number of catches but only came away with bits of antennae.

The dive master Paul was much more experienced and had already caught a few. One of which I flushed out his way by attempting to grab it from one end of a rock formation while he was on the other end and able to grab it easily.

I finally made a catch but only by employing the same strategy by myself. I stuck one arm into one end of a small rock formation and had my other arm in the other end waiting where I easily grabbed the crayfish by its body. It's a kind of catch that's very common considering crayfish are usually deep under reefs or rocks and there's only one way in or out.

All in all, we pulled out 6 crays. 2 were too small and had to be thrown back. We split the remaining 4 so I came away with 2 crayfish. Not enough for a feast but enough to nicely complement dinner that evening after grilling them up.

The Catch

Location: Cable Bay, New Zealand

Dive Number:   145 Bottom Time: 28m Time In: 2:01 p.m. Tank In: Max Depth: 18.00 ft Table Used:

Mix:   Air Safety Stop: 3m Time Out: 2:29 p.m. Tank Out: Average Depth: 13.00 ft Start Pressure Group:

Surface Interval:   43m End Pressure Group:

blog comments powered by Disqus