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Unknown: The podcast for the inquisitive diver.

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Matt Waters: Hey, there dive buddies and welcome to the

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season finale. Over the past 10 months we've taken the plunge 18

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times and it's time for a short surface interval. I have a

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couple of peeps joining me in the studio today. The first is

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an old fellow that's been on the show before takes a bloody good

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underwater photo and conveniently forgets every time

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it's his turn to buy the beers. We'll get to him in a mo. The

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newbie, diving right in, is arguably Sea Shepherd's number

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one fan has a raucous laugh to challenge any of us in the

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studio, and is one of my good dive buddies right here in

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Sydney, but don't even know her surname. Hiya Lissa.

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Lissa Rebec: Hi.

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Matt Waters: Hi, Don.

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Don Silcock: Good day.

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Matt Waters: Welcome to the show.

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Lissa Rebec: Thank you. Thank you. Do you want to know my

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surname? Lisa Rebec.

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Matt Waters: Oh, it is Rebec?

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Lissa Rebec: Yeah,

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Matt Waters: I thought it was abbreviated or shortened so that

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you had some kind of, you know, difficulty trying to find you on

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social media and stuff like that.

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Lissa Rebec: Well, I'm Lissa Marie. So yeah, I just use that.

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So no one really knows my surname.

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Matt Waters: Yeah. Oh, I found the Rebec somewhere, it was on

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one of the social things. I thought it was like it was

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shortened from Rebecca or something like that.

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Lissa Rebec: Could be. Yeah, I do sometimes get emails. "Dear,

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Rebecca."

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Matt Waters: Brilliant. Well, seeing as you're the newbie on

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the show today, why don't you give us a little bit of a

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background on who you are and what you're doing here.

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Lissa Rebec: Okay, so I love the ocean. I love scuba diving. And

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that's how we met. Through our connection with scuba diving. I

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happen to be a very big supporter of Sea Shepherd. And

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quite recently, I have been made a coordinator of the Sydney

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South chapter. So there was the Sydney chapter. But that's been

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divided into two because it's such a huge area to cover. So

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I've now been squeezed and being given my own chapter so we can

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concentrate with raising funds down in the south.

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Matt Waters: So being a chapter, does that mean they have to wear

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a leather waistcoat and ride a motorbike?

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Lissa Rebec: Maybe in the future? No, but definitely have

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the wardrobe. I think I own every Sea Shepherd merchandise

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known to man. So yeah. Excellent.

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Matt Waters: Well, congratulations on getting your

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own chapter.

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Lissa Rebec: Thank you. So we're in the works of setting that up.

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So I've been doubly busy this week trying to do that. So

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exciting things happening, we're recovering, we're recovering

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from after COVID. So there's been quite a few events that

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have been cancelled as a result of COVID. So we're hopefully

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getting more of a presence in Sydney.

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Matt Waters: And so, because I'm relatively new to the Sea

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Shepherd kind of thing in Australia, but I would have

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thought that Sydney would have had quite a strong presence,

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because I've always seen on your social media, like the markets

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and stuff like that. So but it needs it needs bolstering, eh?

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Lissa Rebec: it does, because Sydney's such a huge area to

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cover there is and, as you know, Sydney traffic is crazy. So you

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need to, you need different areas of concentration. So

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Sydney is actually cut up of central coast where they have

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lots of events there. And then we've got the Sydney area and

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I'll cover the South. So down to Cronulla, Wollongong, all the

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way down to Jarvis. We've got a couple of volunteers down there.

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So

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Don Silcock: How did that happen? How did you get the gig?

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Did they come to you?

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Lissa Rebec: Well, thats an interesting story. I've been

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involved with Sea Shepherd for a couple of years now. And I have

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pretty much gone to them and said I'd like to do a market

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here. And I've just been slowly but surely creeping my way in

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doing markets here and there. And, and then I eventually got

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to have merchandise at my house so that I can do my own markets.

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Yeah. And then they've just said, Well, hey, you're doing it

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already do kind of want your own sub chapter and concentrate on

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that area. And Sydney will concentrate on their area and

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Central Coastal, concentrate on them. And yeah, build it.

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Don Silcock: Have you met the man, Paul Watson, yet?

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Lissa Rebec: That's the dream. No, No, I haven't.

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Don Silcock: He's quite a... quite a character, isn't he?

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Lissa Rebec: He certainly is certainly is very, very

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passionate. Have you seen "Watson" the film?

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Don Silcock: No, I haven't, no.

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Lissa Rebec: it's a very, it's a great film. So it speaks about

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how he was the co founder of Greenpeace. So then he broke

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away and he started Sea Shepherd. Yeah, and the rest is

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history. So I implore you to watch it .It's er... it's

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amazing.

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Don Silcock: It's on Netflix or where can you see it?

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Lissa Rebec: It's you can stream it, I believe on Amazon.

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Matt Waters: I think so, I think there's a few

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Lissa Rebec: There's a few streaming, yeah, but

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unfortunately it's not on Netflix.

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Don Silcock: Okay, I'll find it.

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Lissa Rebec: Yeah.

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Matt Waters: There was a couple on YouTube I saw the other day.

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Lissa Rebec: Yeah, there's quite a few on YouTube. So there would

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be "Chasing Thunder" on YouTube, which is one of the Sea Shepherd

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campaigns. It's.. yeah. That we're chasing...

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Don Silcock: It's quite amazing what they do. Isn't it? Really?

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You know, so committed?

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Lissa Rebec: Absolutely. Absolutely. So my role is

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fundraising.

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Matt Waters: So she does it quite well, mate. To give you a

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bit of a backstory,

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Don Silcock: she got some money out of you

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Matt Waters: Oh yeah! Straight away mate.

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Lissa Rebec: It's my gift.

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Matt Waters: We've kind of got, we got put in touch with each

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other from a mutual mate from when I was doing some, some runs

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down to Margo and Cobargo last year when the when the bushfires

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were on and a mutual mate said "oh you should meet this chick.

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She's She's a diver as well. So you've got to know each other".

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Of course, I've got to know every diver in the world because

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we're divers. So we ended up all getting together and going for

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the first dive. And the very first, well, within five minutes

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of rocking up, she pulls up in her ute, pulls down the back

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tail end, and says "oh, I've got some t shirts and some hoodies

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and I've got a five XL I've never been able to get rid of Do

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you want it?"

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Lissa Rebec: Yeah, absolutely. This was during COVID. So that'

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how we stayed afloat and ende up raising money. It was jus

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through our online merchandis and Sea Shepherd are ver

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passionate. So they speak fo themselves. And we have suc

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great supporters. So yeah absolutely

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Matt Waters: Lissa's other hal , Rod . He gets Christmas

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nd birthdays, its all Sea She herd stuff. He sponsored

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y Sea Shepherd.

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Don Silcock: All the sizes don't fit him as well. Really a

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coincidence, isn't it?

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Lissa Rebec: And there are so many shirts that he's yet to get.

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Matt Waters: Oh, bet he's over the moon with that.

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Don Silcock: Good on you.

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Matt Waters: Yeah. Well, just moving away from Lissa for a

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second. For those people that haven't listened to..er, I can't

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even remember the episode number now. I think it was 16...15 or

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16. Don was on then. But since then, Don's moved up into the

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realms of being the Gods of scuba diving,

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Don Silcock: Oh, I wish

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Matt Waters: What's that? What's the... What's the news, dude?

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Don Silcock: Well, I've been appointed as senior travel

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editor for Scuba Diver magazine, all three editions, the ANZ one,

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the UK and the US one, which is a great step forward for me. I

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am quite passionate about writing about the things I do

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and the things I've seen and what it all means. And this is a

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great...it's kind of a win win opportunity, they were looking

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for somebody to contribute on a broad scale, shall we say? Which

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kind of aligned with all the stuff I've been doing and all

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the stuff I hope to do going forward. So I've got the first

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have got the front cover of the UK edition with an article on

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the Oceanic White Tips of Cat Island and the next two issues,

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we'll have the hammerheads of Bimini and then Tiger beach will

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be the third one.

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Matt Waters: Yeah.

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Don Silcock: And then I've been doing all the stuff with the

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Australia New Zealand one. I've had numerous articles in there

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and about five, four or five front covers, which have been

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great. You know, it's front covers are uh, you know, are the

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the big prize, you know, any kind of, you know, you can show

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your mum. She'd be so proud. Well, if only she could see me

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now, you know. Yeah, but no, it's it's, you know, for a

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photographer. It's a big thing to get front cover and yeah, so

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I'm really happy about it .They play win win and uh, yeah, we'll

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see where it takes us.

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Matt Waters: Yeah, exactly. We'll see where it takes us. You

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know, as the travel editor, I'm sure you're gonna go places. And

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you know, I'm very good at carrying bags.

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Don Silcock: Actually, can you take your ticket because there's

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a queue?

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Lissa Rebec: Do you need any Sea Shepherd t shirts?

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Don Silcock: Thought you'd never ask.

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Matt Waters: See? Told you she was good.

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Don Silcock: Yeah.

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Lissa Rebec: We're actually... Sea Shepherd have a campaign

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called the Apex Campaign. Have you heard of it?

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Don Silcock: no

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Matt Waters: Whoa, whoa, whoa. That means that you've not

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you've not listened to this podcast other than your own.

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Don Silcock: Listen to my segment day after day. No idea.

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There was something else out there. Oh, my goodness.

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Matt Waters: You're not coming on again.

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Don Silcock: It's only been two weeks. I've listened to it every

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day.

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Lissa Rebec: Guess what you're doing tomorrow?

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Don Silcock: Yeah. Oh, clearly.

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Matt Waters: Sorry. Carry on Lissa.

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Lissa Rebec: So just in a nutshell, because I won't go on

00:10:03
a big spiel, but the Apex Campaign is targeting non lethal

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methods for shark control. So getting rid of shark nets and

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drum lines, which cause a lot of harm and deaths to marine

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animals as well as sharks, so the Apex Campaign campaigns for

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non lethal methods to for you know, people to be safe in the

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ocean, but also to not harm sharks, and, you know,

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predominantly other marine species that seem to be caught

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up in in these drum lines and shark nets,

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Don Silcock: which is, uh, it's horrendous the damage that's

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been done by all this, you know, long liners and the whole thing

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of the way that sharks have been the indirect victims, but on a

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huge scale, massive scale. So that was for me, was the big

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thing of going to the Bahamas was there were sharks.

00:11:00
Everywhere else you go, you're lucky if you see them.

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Matt Waters: Yeah,

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Lissa Rebec: Yeah,

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Don Silcock: Really, you know, it's it's, you're lucky if you

00:11:05
see them,

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Lissa Rebec: yeah.

00:11:06
Don Silcock: But when you get to the Bahamas, because of

00:11:08
everything they've done there, it's not a perfect thing. But

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it's a lot. It's the best that I've personally seen in terms

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of, you know, there's sharks there.

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Matt Waters: Yeah. And the income for the local community

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must be huge.

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Don Silcock: The, the economic benefits of a live shark versus

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a dead shark are significant, very significant. And the thing

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is when you remove them.. I mean the sharks are there, as Jim

00:11:31
Abernathy said to me, once. Jim is one of the pioneers of Tiger

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beach, he said, the you know, the role of the shark is to

00:11:40
clear up the dead, the dumb and the dying.

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Matt Waters: Yeah.

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Don Silcock: Which sounds like a great soundbite. But they've got

00:11:45
a real role to play. Because if they're not there, everything

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gets out of kilter. It's a fine balance. Yes. It's an absolutely

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fine balance, and they have a role to play. And you take them

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out 90% said to have gone then everything gets thrown out of

00:12:02
balance. The marvellous thing is, what you see in the Bahamas

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is how they can come back strongly, when we get out the

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way. When we stop doing all these things that you were

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referring to, they have a tremendous capacity to rebuild.

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So there, there is hope out there. Before we have to stop

00:12:20
doing these things.

00:12:21
Matt Waters: Yeah, have to get the crap out of the water. The,

00:12:24
the podcast that you didn't listen to

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Don Silcock: yet

00:12:28
Matt Waters: was er, was Lisa's compadre up in Queensland,

00:12:32
Jonno, and he's the coordinator for the Apex Campaign. And he

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goes into detail about the long lines, the drum lines, and the

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the nets. And it doesn't take a genius to work out that if you

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put a bloody big fish head on a honking great hook, you're going

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to get something big. And if you leave a net dangling in the

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water, you're going to get something big eventually. And

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unfortunately, it's not just sharks like Lisa said, you know,

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it's been loggerhead turtles.

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Don Silcock: All the bycatch. It's horrendous. And the thing

00:13:02
is, it's unseen. We we don't see it.

00:13:04
Matt Waters: Yeah, well, thats what the Apex Campaign is trying

00:13:07
to do. Because Jonno will go out on the Rhib with a team and if

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they find something in the nets or on the on the hooks, they'll

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go down with the cameras, and they'll record it and get, and

00:13:16
get, you know, you know, pretty crappy evidence or not crappy as

00:13:21
in poor quality. But, you know,

00:13:23
Don Silcock: yeah, in your face,

00:13:24
Matt Waters: not, not what we like to see

00:13:25
Don Silcock: exactly,

00:13:26
Matt Waters: it's actually what we do need to see.

00:13:27
Don Silcock: It's absolutely what we need to see because

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we're the lucky ones. We get to go underwater. Everybody else

00:13:34
doesn't. And they just doesn't know.

00:13:36
mechanical voice: Could you try again?

00:13:37
Matt Waters: Oh, that's that's Don buying the beers on the next

00:13:42
one.

00:13:42
Don Silcock: Yeah. So where was I ? We get to see this stuff?

00:13:48
Matt Waters: Yeah,

00:13:49
Don Silcock: If we're lucky as divers. The vast percentage of

00:13:53
the population have no idea. But it's serious stuff. It really

00:13:58
does matter.

00:13:59
Matt Waters: Yeah.

00:14:00
Lissa Rebec: What does the Bahamas do so well?

00:14:02
Don Silcock: Well, what they were one of the first countries

00:14:06
to set up marine protected areas, MBAs, right so and then

00:14:12
they they have over I think a million square miles of, of

00:14:17
area. Because, you know, the Bahamas is a lot you know,

00:14:19
there's islands, but there's a lot of sea. But they were one of

00:14:23
the first nations to set it up, which given the benefit of

00:14:27
hindsight, was phenomenal, farsighted decision, and then

00:14:31
they I think they were the fourth nations to create a shark

00:14:34
sanctuary. So there's no take of any sharks. And the population

00:14:41
has rebounded. The first time I went there was to Tiger beach

00:14:47
which is in Grand Bahama in the north. And I just couldn't

00:14:51
believe when we pulled up, that there was all the sharks around

00:14:53
the back of the boat. You don't see that anywhere else. I've

00:14:57
never seen anywhere and It's quite intimidating your first

00:15:02
time getting in. You're thinking "Oh my god!", you know, all

00:15:04
these shark fins is, you know, must be dangerous. And then you

00:15:08
get in and there's sharks everywhere. They're there in

00:15:10
that area because it's a known aggregation point and also some

00:15:15
of the boats feed.

00:15:16
Matt Waters: Yeah.

00:15:17
Don Silcock: So they turn up snacking. And then you get...

00:15:20
it's the place to see Tiger sharks. That's why you go there,

00:15:23
hence the name: Tiger beach. But they're there because there's

00:15:29
plenty of food and it's a safe zone for them. And the number,

00:15:34
the magnitude, the number, the size, is is, it's mind boggling

00:15:38
really. If you're used to the diving everywhere else? Where

00:15:41
you typically don't see a lot of sharks, you might see one or two

00:15:44
sharks, but you won't see a lot. Wheras there, they're, you know,

00:15:49
they're everywhere?

00:15:49
Matt Waters: Yeah, the free food

00:15:50
Lissa Rebec: and no nets on the beaches?

00:15:52
Don Silcock: No.

00:15:53
Lissa Rebec: Great.

00:15:54
Matt Waters: They're not needed. Because, well, nets...

00:15:57
Don Silcock: It's not allowed. It's a shark sanctuary.

00:16:00
Matt Waters: And the drum lines. What I.. what did astound me

00:16:02
when Jonno was going on about the drum lines is how close they

00:16:05
are to the surface. And they put, you know, they put bait on

00:16:08
a hook to entice a shark to chomp on the hook. When it's,

00:16:13
you know, a stone's throw from the surface that they're trying

00:16:15
to protect. It's just false.

00:16:17
Lissa Rebec: Yeah,

00:16:17
Matt Waters: They're actually luring in stuff that is going to

00:16:20
cause a problem for us. Someone's gonna get snagged. I

00:16:23
do have two, actually there's two bits of info I want to shout

00:16:27
out about. One is continuing on from Apex Harmony, because that

00:16:32
gets a shout out on a documentary that's coming up. In

00:16:36
July, I think it's been premiered.

00:16:39
Lissa Rebec: Is tha: SharkCull".

00:16:41
Matt Waters: That's the one!

00:16:42
Lissa Rebec: 21st of July there, Matt.

00:16:44
Matt Waters: There you go. Boom, straight on it. But as I've been

00:16:47
chatting to the director, Andrea Borella. And I'm pretty stoked

00:16:52
he's going to come on the show as and when it launches.

00:16:55
Excellent. But it's, it's got Eric Bana on there, thats

00:16:58
narrating it all. And it's focused on Apex Harmony and the

00:17:03
impact of what Australia is doing with the sharks around

00:17:06
this coastline. Isn't it?

00:17:08
Lissa Rebec: yeah, it'll be in cinemas all around Australia

00:17:12
Matt Waters: and the world hopefully,

00:17:13
Lissa Rebec: hopefully, hopefully, it can get as much

00:17:17
momentum as "Seaspiracy", because we have seen a lot of

00:17:20
interest in the ocean since "Seaspiracy" came out, which is

00:17:23
a positive, such change needs to happen.

00:17:26
Matt Waters: It's well, it's probably going to be really good

00:17:28
timing actually, was it 6,7,8 months on from "Seaspiracy" when

00:17:32
it launches?

00:17:33
Lissa Rebec: Yeah, absolutely.

00:17:34
Matt Waters: We'll still have momentum.

00:17:36
Lissa Rebec: And you can get your Sea Shepherd merchandise.

00:17:40
Don Silcock: As it happens,

00:17:43
Lissa Rebec: Had to throw that in there.

00:17:45
Matt Waters: And the second bit of info I want to share with you

00:17:48
is we've got to give a huge shout out to Robin Gallagher. Do

00:17:56
you know who that is?

00:17:57
Lissa Rebec: no,

00:17:58
Matt Waters: clue?

00:17:59
Lissa Rebec: no clue,

00:18:00
Matt Waters: Because there's not a lot known about this person.

00:18:03
But this person is actually an ambassador for a charity called

00:18:08
Shark Guardian. And they petitioned UK Government.

00:18:13
Because it was it was found out that you could legally import 20

00:18:20
kilos of sharkfin in your luggage as a traveller into the

00:18:25
Yeah, 20 kilos. And it was legal. So the petition UK.

00:18:25
Don Silcock: Really? said," This is dogshit, it

00:18:32
should stop" in a nutshell. And Shark Guardian jumped on on

00:18:37
board and ran with it. And Brandon and Liz have been

00:18:40
relentless in hounding down, you know, sponsorship signatures,

00:18:46
and we had to get 100 plus signatures and there was

00:18:50
success, which then saw it get mentioned in Parliament in the

00:18:55
UK. And subsequently, we've now got the information. And Brendan

00:19:00
was chatting with me this morning, that they're now going

00:19:03
to ban all import and export because they were exporting

00:19:08
sharkfin from the UK.

00:19:11
Lissa Rebec: Yay.

00:19:12
Matt Waters: So it's a huge success. And it's all down to

00:19:14
this one person. Robin Gallagher.

00:19:16
Lissa Rebec: Thank you, Robin Gallagher.

00:19:19
Don Silcock: These things are so important. Raising the raising

00:19:23
the awareness of the general public about what's happening.

00:19:26
The best example I can think of is Yao Ming. Do you know who he

00:19:30
is?

00:19:31
Matt Waters: Nope. Oh, yes, I do actually.

00:19:32
Don Silcock: They used to play for the I think was the Houston

00:19:34
Astros. He's seven foot five.

00:19:36
Lissa Rebec: Yeah.

00:19:37
Don Silcock: Well, I could I could, I could walk underneath

00:19:37
Matt Waters: Can't miss him. him. So he's returned to China

00:19:40
and he's a megastar there because of his success he had in

00:19:47
the US basketball, and WildAid managed to convince him to be

00:19:54
the spokesperson locally to stop eating sharkfin soup. And he's

00:20:03
been phenomenally successful. So to the point where the it seems

00:20:07
to be having, you know, an overall impact on the decline of

00:20:11
the in demand for shark fin, because it's to the point where

00:20:16
sort of the younger generation, shall we say? He's iconic to

00:20:22
them. So when he says don't do and some of the imagery of the

00:20:28
use and the explainer, you know, it's really well done. And it's

00:20:30
having, it's to the point where it's frowned upon now with the

00:20:37
younger generation and China, whereas before it would have

00:20:40
been seen as something you needed to do to, you know, to

00:20:43
just show that you've got some money, yeah, you can afford this

00:20:46
stuff. That's the way it works. And he's done a phenomenal job.

00:20:49
He's just amazing what can be done, if you change that public

00:20:52
perception? I'd Like to see more on that, actually, I've not

00:20:58
seen many reports on it. But I did see the..., I think it was a

00:21:02
while ago now,probably a year ago

00:21:03
Don Silcock: I just looked it up today. I was writing something,

00:21:05
as you do you know, when you're a senior travel editor.

00:21:12
Matt Waters: just mention that to your bag carrier again,

00:21:17
Don Silcock: couldn't ..you know. Did I mention that about

00:21:19
senior editor? So I was just in fact checking, actually, to see

00:21:23
if it was still there. And I went to WildAid. And Yao Ming,

00:21:27
and is still there. It shows. It really explains really well on

00:21:31
on their, on their site. I just think it's a great example of

00:21:35
taking a high profile individual who commits to doing something

00:21:40
for you, and changes that public perception and dri... at the end

00:21:45
of the day, unless you drive down that demand, they'll

00:21:48
always, you know, the bad people will always find a way to make

00:21:51
money out of it.

00:21:51
Matt Waters: Yeah,

00:21:52
Don Silcock: Right?. But the demand declines, then they'll

00:21:56
move on to something else.

00:21:57
Matt Waters: Yeah..

00:21:59
Lissa Rebec: Hmm. Didn't he also advocate for not eating whale

00:22:04
meat as well. So I think that's that's declined as well.

00:22:07
Don Silcock: I don't think eating whale is a big thing in

00:22:10
China. It is in Japan. Yeah.

00:22:12
Lissa Rebec: In Japan.. and I think you know, people don't

00:22:15
know, but Norway also do whaling as well. But everyone always

00:22:18
points the finger at Japan. I think though, yeah, there has

00:22:22
been like the younger generation turning against eating whale as

00:22:25
well. Which is, yeah, it's just not popular. Which is good. Good

00:22:31
for win for the whale.

00:22:33
Matt Waters: How's that coffee?

00:22:35
Lissa Rebec: It's tea.

00:22:36
Matt Waters: Is it tea?

00:22:36
Lissa Rebec: It's tea. Yeah.

00:22:37
Matt Waters: Is it like a hippie tea or something? Or is it a

00:22:39
normal one?

00:22:39
Lissa Rebec: Oh, no, it's just black tea. It's... It's doing

00:22:42
its job.

00:22:43
Matt Waters: How'd you with that beer there Rod?.

00:22:44
Don Silcock: Going good. Rod?.

00:22:48
Matt Waters: Rod? Don,

00:22:49
Don Silcock: We need a refill.

00:22:50
Lissa Rebec: Well, we've got a Rob.

00:22:51
Matt Waters: Ye..oh, we've got a Rob, yeah. Yeah, we've got

00:22:54
Lissa's other half quietly sitting in the background. So

00:22:57
yeah, he can be he can be refilled, man.

00:22:59
Lissa Rebec: Did we tell you what happened on Saturday night?

00:23:02
Matt Waters: You're gonna get a little bit, you know, naughty

00:23:05
naughty. Okay. Is this okay, for hearing?

00:23:08
Lissa Rebec: It is. I will actually be the judge of that.

00:23:12
So I think we did. We were planning on going diving on

00:23:16
Sunday, but that had to be benched because we went ice

00:23:21
skating on Saturday night. And I thought I was doing really

00:23:24
amazing until I had a bit of a slide and I fell on my coccyx,

00:23:29
my tailbone.

00:23:30
Matt Waters: Did you laugh, Rob?

00:23:36
Lissa Rebec: I think on the inside. That really freaking

00:23:41
hurts.

00:23:42
Matt Waters: To be honest. You probably didn't miss much about

00:23:43
because you were gonna goto Shelly Beach weren't you?

00:23:46
Lissa Rebec: yeah.

00:23:47
Matt Waters: I don't think you'd have missed much.

00:23:49
Lissa Rebec: No, apparently the conditions have been rubbish.

00:23:51
Like in Sydney. Yeah, even just yeah, it looked really rough at

00:23:56
Cronulla.

00:23:57
Matt Waters: Someone's been posting, you know, satellite

00:24:00
imagery. You know, when we had all the rain, you could see all

00:24:03
the rubbish coming out of the estuaries. And I was up in

00:24:07
Hawkesbury yesterday. And I stopped by there's a beautiful

00:24:12
little spot, bridge going over it. Stop, stop and have a

00:24:16
stretch of the legs. And I was there six weeks ago. And in

00:24:21
between then and now. I think the water levels probably raised

00:24:25
up by about four to five metres

00:24:27
Don Silcock: Really?

00:24:28
Matt Waters: So many trees have been washed , fallen over. And

00:24:32
it's honking through. The water there is thick chocolate brown.

00:24:36
It's just honking through.

00:24:37
Lissa Rebec: Meanwhile, I was talking to a friend in from

00:24:39
Byron today, uhhh, 15 to 20 metres viz

00:24:44
Matt Waters: which friend was this?

00:24:45
Lissa Rebec: This was Andrew.

00:24:47
Matt Waters: Do I know Andrew?

00:24:48
Lissa Rebec: He's one of the locals that dives weekly at

00:24:52
Sundive dive centre which is our favourite dive partner.

00:24:58
Matt Waters: Andrew Delt he's an old boy.

00:25:00
Lissa Rebec: Yeah,

00:25:01
Matt Waters: I think I dived with him a few months ago.

00:25:03
Lissa Rebec: He's part of Apex.

00:25:04
Matt Waters: Oh Ok.

00:25:05
Lissa Rebec: Sorry. Yeah, I was talking to him today. And he

00:25:07
said, dive conditions were amazing. Yeah, no one likes a

00:25:11
bragger.

00:25:14
Don Silcock: The impact of that, all that floodwater. I saw it

00:25:16
firsthand the week before last, I spent a couple days at er,

00:25:20
Nelson Bay.

00:25:22
Matt Waters: Yeah, Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:25:22
Don Silcock: So there's some great, there's my one of my

00:25:25
favourite sites there, is Fly Point. Which is, you know, it's

00:25:29
a protected area. It's just phenomenal what's there when you

00:25:34
er, I was really, I'd heard about it years ago. And since

00:25:36
I've been back in Australia, I've been up there a few times

00:25:39
and I was just blown away the first time I got in the you

00:25:43
know, the diversity the colour that all the sponges, is

00:25:46
just fantastic. But the becau e of all the freshwater, down

00:25:51
to about seven metres ther 's nothing. It's just all g ne.

00:25:54
completely gone. All the kelp and just just

00:25:58
nothing.

00:25:59
Matt Waters: What like, literally wiped out?

00:26:00
Don Silcock: Wiped out. Because of all the, all the freshwater

00:26:03
has gone through and killed everything. I mean, it's a

00:26:07
natural thing. It's not it's not, you know, it's not the

00:26:09
first flood is it? So it will come back. But the impact of

00:26:13
this you know what you're saying about the water coming down to

00:26:16
hawkesbury that anything that's, you know, seawater environment

00:26:22
won't last long in freshwater.

00:26:24
Matt Waters: Yeah, bloody hell. See I've been meaning to do Fly

00:26:28
Point so many times.

00:26:29
Lissa Rebec: Where it's that?

00:26:30
Matt Waters: Just north of Nelson, the north side of Nelson

00:26:33
Bay.

00:26:34
Lissa Rebec: Because what did we... have you done the Looking

00:26:35
Glass?

00:26:36
Don Silcock: Oh, out at Broughton Island? No,in fact

00:26:39
I've done Broughton Island. But when I've been out there, we

00:26:41
hard to get on it. You know, it's you need the right

00:26:44
conditions and it's never been right. So I tend to, when I go

00:26:48
up there I just concentrate on Fly Point because it's so good.

00:26:52
It's so good below seven metres. The, you know, that obviously

00:26:57
that top layer is where all the freshwater came, came out. And

00:27:02
it's killed everything. But it'll come back. It'll grow

00:27:04
back. But down below seven metres. It's still very vibrant.

00:27:09
But a lot of critters have gone. There was all sorts of stuff

00:27:11
there before. But clearly that's had an impact but it will come

00:27:15
back there, you know, it's a natural cycle.

00:27:19
Matt Waters: In fact, I saw some of your social media this week.

00:27:23
How much did your ass twitch when you saw that eel, the

00:27:26
estuary eel

00:27:26
Don Silcock: Ha ha , that was at Fly Point

00:27:29
Matt Waters: I literally saw saw me first one like four weeks

00:27:30
ago

00:27:30
Don Silcock: Well so did I , that was it...

00:27:32
Matt Waters: Had to take a a double take of it. I was like

00:27:34
"what the hell is that thing?"

00:27:36
Don Silcock: Well, it was, it was, funny thing was, I was

00:27:39
looking at something else. And you know, you get that feeling

00:27:42
that somebody is looking at you.and I turned round and it

00:27:44
was like "what the...?" So it's this is er, I can't remember the

00:27:49
scientific name, but it's an estuary eel which is like a

00:27:52
cross between a Moray and a catfish. It's got the face of a

00:27:56
catfish and the body of a Moray Eel and it's yellow in colour.

00:28:01
Matt Waters: It looks like he's been eating too much kelp over

00:28:03
his life doesn't it?

00:28:04
Don Silcock: I don't know but it is It is behind apparently,

00:28:08
you've got to be careful because they've got poisonous spines on

00:28:10
the back. But I just didn't know what the hell it was I've never

00:28:13
seen anything like it before. And I spent the whole dive with

00:28:17
it, you know, go off and it'd dissappear and come back out

00:28:20
again. And the image you're talking about was that it took a

00:28:24
shine to itself in the dome port of my camera. So I put the dorm

00:28:27
port of the camera down. I could see it was interested so I kind

00:28:31
of thought I'll put the dome port, just put it down and it

00:28:33
just came forward and came forward in the end it was just

00:28:36
right on the dome looking at itself. Couldn't quite work out

00:28:39
you know "who's that good looking fellow there" you know?

00:28:43
Yeah, interesting.

00:28:44
Matt Waters: My missus was closer to the one that we saw,

00:28:48
but in a long line on her left along her left side and I

00:28:51
pointed out I was like okay, you know indicate "get some film of

00:28:56
it" and her eyes just said the one thing " sod off!" She wasn't

00:29:02
going anywhere near it.

00:29:03
Don Silcock: You go, you go

00:29:05
Lissa Rebec: Are they known to be aggressive?

00:29:08
Don Silcock: Apparently not. Apparently they they have

00:29:11
these... some poisonous mechanism, I believe its spines

00:29:14
on the on the... on the er, like a bit of a dorsal fin that

00:29:17
runs down the their back, which are , as I say, poisonous, but

00:29:22
they spend, from the various comments that were on my post,

00:29:27
indicate that they spend most of the time hidden under ledges and

00:29:30
what have you. So you would... No, the short answer is no,

00:29:34
they're not. They're not aggressive unless you annoy

00:29:37
them. But this one was out roaming round. And

00:29:43
Matt Waters: There you Lissa, that's the photo.

00:29:46
Lissa Rebec: Wooow.

00:29:46
Matt Waters: Exactly.

00:29:47
Lissa Rebec: Yeah, look at that.

00:29:49
Matt Waters: If you're going to dress up for Halloween, it would

00:29:51
be that,Wouldn't it?

00:29:51
Lissa Rebec: Yeah! Wow. Have yo been to the Maldives? Have any

00:29:57
f you been to the Maldives

00:29:57
Don Silcock: Oh years ago, yeah.

00:29:58
Lissa Rebec: Did you ever do that dive off the back of the

00:30:01
tuna factory?

00:30:02
Don Silcock: no,

00:30:03
Lissa Rebec: There's this dive that they do off the back of the

00:30:05
tuna factory, and it's, it's just within, I want to say,

00:30:10
about eight metres of water. So, from five to eight metres of

00:30:14
water, and then there are just these massive fat, moray eels

00:30:20
because they just hide in their little caves and they just wait

00:30:22
for the bits of tuna heads to come in and they just feed and

00:30:27
they're massive. And then you got rays coming through and it's

00:30:30
just ...you just have to just sit there and film

00:30:33
Matt Waters: Its a free feed isn't it?

00:30:35
Lissa Rebec: yeah, it's amazing, but I couldn't get over the size

00:30:37
of these massive big eels.

00:30:39
Don Silcock: Have you heard of the... I'll try and match that

00:30:42
and raise you. Theres a place in Ambon called The Twilight Zone?

00:30:48
Have you heard of that one?

00:30:49
Matt Waters: I've heard of it , yeah.

00:30:49
Don Silcock: so it's the, er.. in Ambon. The uhm, there's a

00:30:55
huge natural harbour there. And on the, I think it's on the west

00:31:01
side, is the Pertamina jetty for the aircraft fuel that comes

00:31:06
into the nearby airport

00:31:07
Matt Waters: that's right, yeah.

00:31:09
Don Silcock: And there's a large kind of fishing fleet, who moors

00:31:13
up there, that that moors up there. And they go out at night

00:31:17
and catch everything, bring it back in and then they fillet it

00:31:21
all and throw all the stuff over the side, while they're moored

00:31:24
up. And then so you've got all this stuff coming down. And

00:31:28
then,er, it's terrible as such in Ambon because they throw

00:31:33
everything into the sea. You know, if you coming up from the

00:31:36
Banda sea, you know you're getting close, you see all the

00:31:38
plastic bags, what they do is they, or they used to I don't

00:31:42
know if its changed, but they'd, you know, the rubbish would be

00:31:45
in a plastic bag and they'd throw on the beach, and it'd be

00:31:47
gone in the morning. It's all drifting out. So you knew we're

00:31:50
getting close to Ambon, because the number of plastic bags will

00:31:54
increase in the water, in the places you went diving. So they

00:31:57
have this terrible habit of throwing everything in the

00:31:59
water. But the Twilight Zone is this mixture of all this stuff,

00:32:04
this tires and all sorts of stuff thrown off the jetty. And

00:32:08
then every day there's this organic stuff that rains down.

00:32:11
All the fish guts and you know, so you get these huge morays and

00:32:16
everything else that lives in this and, once you're there you

00:32:22
know how it got its name, The Twilight Zone, because it is,

00:32:24
it's really weird. All these fishing boats, you got the

00:32:27
sunlight coming down. And then every so often, you know there'd

00:32:30
be all this stuff coming over the side. All the morays would

00:32:33
come out. Like you said they're really fat and quite glossy.

00:32:37
Matt Waters: I was there um, in fact when were you last in Ambon?

00:32:42
Don Silcock: six years ago.

00:32:43
Matt Waters: Yeah. Okay. All right. So it's a lot cleaner

00:32:45
than what it was back then. I was there. September, October

00:32:51
2019.

00:32:52
Don Silcock: Oh really?, it's cleaner? Well, thats good.

00:32:54
Matt Waters: Well, I was based out of Spice Island Divers.

00:32:59
Don Silcock: Oh, yeah.

00:32:59
Matt Waters: Big shout out for Ronny there. But the dive sites

00:33:04
that we did, was it four? Four days, we were there. And we

00:33:09
dived four or five dives a day. And there was very little

00:33:12
rubbish. So they've I think everyone's clubbing together to

00:33:16
actually make much more of an effort. And it's certainly a lot

00:33:20
better than what it was.

00:33:21
Don Silcock: Yeah, it was horrendous, The er.. but when I

00:33:24
first went there in about 2008 coming up from the Banda Sea.

00:33:30
And as I say , you just knew you were getting closer. At first I

00:33:35
didn't know all this stuff was, then I realised it was old

00:33:37
plastic bags and rubbish and, but where's it coming from? And

00:33:42
when we got into Ambon, I asked about it, you know, these people

00:33:46
said, well, that's how people get rid of rubbish here. Yeah,

00:33:49
you put the plastic bag on the beach at night in the morning is

00:33:51
gone. Where's, whats the problem?

00:33:55
Matt Waters: Come on in, me mate. Beer delivery! Cheers Rob.

00:34:01
Don Silcock: So I have a question. Where do we think

00:34:05
diving is going to go next year? Once the I mean, all the

00:34:09
indications are that things should get better. And we should

00:34:14
be able to start travelling again. But what's your opinions?

00:34:21
Matt Waters: You want to go first?

00:34:22
Lissa Rebec: Yeah, well, I think they're really gonna push the

00:34:24
fact we're gonna have to have a vaccine. I think that's.. yeah.

00:34:28
And it could either go both ways. It could be really

00:34:31
expensive, or it could be really cheap.

00:34:34
Matt Waters: I think there's so many avenues it could go down.

00:34:39
I'm hoping it doesn't go down the detrimental ones for the

00:34:42
operators. Theres so many dive operators out there now that are

00:34:46
really struggling and frustrated.Putting, you know,

00:34:49
food on the table for their families and their employees

00:34:51
families and trying to maintain everything. So difficult. And

00:34:56
I'm just hoping that, when people do get the availability

00:35:01
to go to different locations that they don't expect super

00:35:05
cheap diving and accommodation and all that kind of stuff. If

00:35:08
anything, we've all been sat in lockdown, that people should be,

00:35:13
or the customers that want to go diving, should have saved their

00:35:15
monies up so that they can pay more.

00:35:17
Don Silcock: I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more.

00:35:19
It's it's kind of incumbent upon us, if you if you are into dive

00:35:23
travel, to get out there and support these people, you know,

00:35:28
those that make it through, those operators. I mean, there's

00:35:32
no plan B is there, if you're running a dive operation,

00:35:36
everything revolves around people turning up. That's it

00:35:40
that you can't pivot to much else, can you? Really, you know.

00:35:44
You might be, you might be lucky to be able to do something to

00:35:48
keep some food on the table, but it's not sustainable in the

00:35:51
longer term, even the medium term, and we're getting into the

00:35:54
medium term now. Yeah. So those that make it through, it's

00:36:01
incumbent upon us to, to get out there and support them. And

00:36:05
don't don't be nickeling and diming them , you know we need

00:36:07
to help them. Just like we do with the Australian operators.

00:36:10
Lissa Rebec: Absolutely.

00:36:11
Don Silcock: The Australian operators seem to be doing okay.

00:36:13
Matt Waters: Yeah.

00:36:14
Don Silcock: Popular spots are booked out months in advance.

00:36:17
Now here in Australia, which is a good thing. But it's the

00:36:23
operators around Asia, Southeast Asia, that are really doing it

00:36:28
tough. And once we can travel, we should travel.

00:36:31
Matt Waters: Yeah, I hundred percent agree.

00:36:33
Lissa Rebec: Oh, I miss those drive trips, where you just have

00:36:36
to pretty much just put on your gear.

00:36:38
Matt Waters: Yeah. Just drop into the water.

00:36:40
Lissa Rebec: Those amazing boat staff that just put your gear

00:36:43
together and change your tanks and help you out of the... Oh, I

00:36:48
missed those times.

00:36:50
Matt Waters: They'll come back.

00:36:50
Lissa Rebec: I know

00:36:51
Don Silcock: They'll come back strong. The huge pent up demand,

00:36:54
people are just like, so over. We've adjusted to it and we're

00:37:00
making the most of it. But there's like this huge pent up

00:37:04
demand to go and do something.

00:37:05
Lissa Rebec: Yeah.

00:37:06
Don Silcock: So as soon as we can we should.

00:37:08
Matt Waters: I'm over getting in a five mil wetsuit. And, you

00:37:12
know, it's a bloody big five mil wetsuit at my size, freezing my

00:37:15
nuts off for an hour in two or three metres viz. I want to be

00:37:19
in 30 metre water with my boardshorts on.

00:37:21
Lissa Rebec: Yeeah,

00:37:22
Don Silcock: I've got got kind of used to it, now I'm adjusted.

00:37:24
I'm going down to South Australia next week, next, next

00:37:27
Tuesday.

00:37:27
Matt Waters: Oh, you're going watching your sex show aren't

00:37:29
you?

00:37:32
Don Silcock: Next month, I going back again. Let me qualify this,

00:37:36
in case my wife is listening. The sex show is the great

00:37:41
Australian cuttlefish aggregation in Whyalla. So it

00:37:43
starts, it's apparently it's just getting going now. And

00:37:48
we're spending a couple of days there. Actually, I'm going on

00:37:50
Rodney Fox, Great White Sharks. And then a friend of mine and I

00:37:56
were gonna do a couple of days at Tumby Bay. And then, er for

00:37:59
the Leafys, and then drive up to Whyalla have a couple of days

00:38:02
right at the start of the season. Because it's different

00:38:05
dynamics at the beginning. And then I'm going back next month

00:38:09
for a week in Whyalla. To.. is the, for me, it's the best.

00:38:15
It's not it's you know, it is all about the sex. But it's an

00:38:19
interesting dynamic. Very interesting dynamics. And as I

00:38:23
said last week, last on the last podcast, this reminds me of this

00:38:26
this disco used to go a long time ago.

00:38:28
Matt Waters: Yeah.

00:38:30
Don Silcock: Back in Runcorn.

00:38:31
Matt Waters: Yeah.

00:38:32
Don Silcock: Yeah. So that's, that's cold water, because it

00:38:36
doesn't get going till the water's down to, I think, it's

00:38:39
about 17 degrees. So yeah, you're freezing your... You, you

00:38:44
really are freezing your nuts off down there, but it's good.

00:38:46
It's fantastic. There's some great diving here in Australia.

00:38:50
You don't have to go up north. There's some great stuff down

00:38:52
south.

00:38:53
Matt Waters: Well, I think you know, since we were talking

00:38:55
about travelling getting away, I think, you know, domestic

00:38:59
diving, If you look at particular locations around the

00:39:01
world, has done very well, because people are forced into

00:39:05
diving more locally. And it's opened a lot of eyes on on

00:39:08
what's available on your doorstep. I think we're very

00:39:12
very lucky here. You know, joking aside at getting cold. We

00:39:16
are very lucky with the diversity that we've got.

00:39:18
Don Silcock: There's some grea, I, my personal favourite is, is

00:39:22
South Australia. It just has a unique combination of stuff down

00:39:26
there. It's not the easiest of locations logistically you've

00:39:31
got to get yourself organised and to do it, but once you're in

00:39:35
the water, there's some quite unique things to see down there.

00:39:40
Lissa Rebec: Leafy seadragons

00:39:41
Don Silcock: Yes, leafys...

00:39:42
Lissa Rebec: Have you seen one? I've yet to see one

00:39:45
Don Silcock: If you Google it, you'll find my page.

00:39:51
Lissa Rebec: Well, I know I feel like so I'm so sorry, Don.

00:39:54
Don Silcock: They're wonderful creatures, but they're not the

00:39:56
easiest. You can be looking at them and not see them.

00:39:59
Lissa Rebec: Wow.

00:40:00
Don Silcock: If they're, depending where they are, if

00:40:02
they're in the corkweed, as they call it, you can be actually

00:40:05
looking at them and not see th m. People going "look look"

00:40:08
ointing "wha

00:40:11
Matt Waters: I had that in Lembe a few years ago. Lembe Strait,

00:40:14
it's all macro. And it's super macro, this tiny, tiny stuff. So

00:40:19
my eyes are focused on looking for, you know, grains of sand

00:40:22
for a week. And we come on this particular dive site, and the

00:40:27
dive guide was, you know, indicating there's a frogfish,

00:40:30
pointing, and I'm looking, I'm thinking, "I can't see that

00:40:33
bloody frog fish, whats pointing at?". So I questioned him, and

00:40:37
he indicates again, and points " nope, can't see it , mate". And

00:40:42
this is all obviously hand signals underwater, but, and

00:40:45
then he points out and indicates the area of a dinner plate. And

00:40:49
it was a giant frog fish. So I'm looking at his toenail. It was a

00:40:54
monster. An absolute monster. Blended in really well.

00:40:57
Don Silcock: Have you been to Lembe?

00:40:58
Lissa Rebec: No, but I've seen huge frog fish in Philippines.

00:41:02
Don Silcock: Lembe is.. it's the critter capital of the world, if

00:41:05
you, if you if you're into critters, for me, it's certainly

00:41:10
the best place in Indonesia.

00:41:11
Matt Waters: I think Ambon has a little battle with it.

00:41:13
Don Silcock: Erm, on a scale of one to 10 I'd rate Lembe a nine

00:41:18
I would rate Ambon an eight. Bali about, North Coast of

00:41:22
Bali, right places, about seven.

00:41:25
Matt Waters: So I reckon Ambon and Lembe flik flak for first

00:41:29
and second position.

00:41:30
Don Silcock: I've got to tell you a story about Lembe. So I

00:41:33
spent, I think it was 12 days there. On the back end of a trip

00:41:38
from Surong to through Halmahera to Lembe, we went all the way

00:41:42
through the top end of Indonesia, and then got to Lembe

00:41:46
and we stayed there for the 12 days. So, the first couple of

00:41:50
days we're going out just me and this mate of mine, we had our

00:41:55
own little boat and a guide. And you know, you're going down

00:41:59
there, you're finding all sort of stuff and they point stuff

00:42:01
out to you. On about the day four, day five. The dive guide

00:42:04
said to me, "what would you like to see today?" I thought he was

00:42:07
joking. I really thought he was joking. "What would you like to

00:42:10
see?" And I said, "Well, I'd like a flamboyant cuttlefish,

00:42:15
please". So he says "wait just a minute". So he gets on his phone

00:42:19
and starts phoning around and says" okay". I honestly thought

00:42:22
he was winding me up you know, I thought he was winding me up.

00:42:25
So, I didn't say anything. Off we went to one particular site

00:42:29
in we go and found it. So there's like this network of

00:42:33
guides there. And because they're in the water every day,

00:42:37
on the you know, there's numerous different sides. They

00:42:40
know what's there. So the other guides, said to him, well go

00:42:44
down here, turn..., and you'll find it and sure enough, down we

00:42:48
went and we found it.

00:42:49
Lissa Rebec: Wow.

00:42:49
Don Silcock: So the next day, you know, I'd be like, well,

00:42:52
I'll have one of these. You know, "what would you like to

00:42:56
see today?"

00:42:56
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah,

00:42:57
Don Silcock: amazing.

00:42:59
Matt Waters: Yeah, I have a similar experience in Ambon.

00:43:01
That's why I say I battle between the two. The boys were

00:43:04
just as good in Ambon as they were in Lembe. And I think its

00:43:07
that, it's that, it's that passion isn't it?. And if

00:43:09
there's a group of them that are willing to communicate with each

00:43:11
other, everybody wins. Yeah.

00:43:12
Don Silcock: That's the thing in in Lembe. There's like this bush

00:43:16
network. Bush telegraph thing that goes on and they s

00:43:19
And yeah, great. are information.

00:43:24
Lissa Rebec: Yeah, I found that in the Philippines. So I did

00:43:27
Malapasca... 'pascua, where they've got the thresher sharks.

00:43:32
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah.

00:43:33
Lissa Rebec: So I did get to see a thresher shark. Have you ever

00:43:35
seen those?

00:43:36
Matt Waters: Nope, nope

00:43:36
Lissa Rebec: Wow. They're amazing. But they don't like to

00:43:40
come very close, So you do end up seeing them from a distance,

00:43:43
but still amazing.

00:43:44
Don Silcock: It's like you're in the water at five o'clock in the

00:43:46
morning or something?

00:43:46
Lissa Rebec: You are in the water, and you're almost you're

00:43:49
at 30 metres. And yeah, you're you're in a two mil though

00:43:53
because it's like thirty degrees water. It's amazing. So you

00:43:56
don't mind it's like a bath.

00:43:58
Matt Waters: Did you get the early morning wake up with the

00:44:00
chooks?

00:44:01
Lissa Rebec: Yes, yeah.

00:44:03
Matt Waters: There's a shit ton of 'em on that island

00:44:04
Lissa Rebec: There's so ma.. yeah

00:44:07
Matt Waters: I got there 2013, I think, and um, then everyone

00:44:14
went to bed at like, eight o'clock at night. The island

00:44:17
was..

00:44:17
Don Silcock: Cos you're diving at five in the morning.

00:44:18
Matt Waters: It was desolate. I'm like Jesus Christ who am I

00:44:20
meant to have a beer with here. I wanted to have a whiskey later

00:44:22
as well. But everyone had gone to bed. So just went to bed

00:44:24
early.

00:44:25
Lissa Rebec: Yeah, we 're doing five dives a day

00:44:27
Matt Waters: : 30 in the morning you got these bloody chooks on

00:44:30
the go. Roosters. A gazillion of them. I think, I think the world

00:44:34
has been, you know, they've dumped their chooks on, on

00:44:37
Malapascua

00:44:38
Lissa Rebec: Oh, it's such an experience. Did you even see the

00:44:40
threshers though?

00:44:41
Matt Waters: Yeah,

00:44:41
Lissa Rebec: You did?

00:44:42
Matt Waters: Yeah.

00:44:42
Lissa Rebec: Yeah. Although you get a whole bunch of divers that

00:44:45
get very overexcited and pile on top of each other and then they

00:44:48
just swim away the.. Yeah. So that was annoying.

00:44:52
Matt Waters: Did they? Have they put a... I heard they put a like

00:44:55
a metal line in so you can't cross over into the...

00:44:58
Lissa Rebec: Yeah they do, but it doesn't stop some people

00:45:01
Matt Waters: really?

00:45:01
Lissa Rebec: Yeah, it really doesn't. And that's the same

00:45:03
when you see a Manta. You see people, you're just meant to

00:45:06
just, you know, just go right down to the bottom and just

00:45:08
observe and let them come to you, but everyone just seems to

00:45:11
chase after them and then they just swim away. That's that.

00:45:15
Yeah, but yeah, in Malapascua that's where I saw my first

00:45:21
uhm... What do you call those creatures that can have the

00:45:24
little pincers where they can penetrate? I've lost for words.

00:45:31
Thank you. Mantis shrimp.

00:45:32
Matt Waters: Ah, mantis shrimp.

00:45:33
Lissa Rebec: Yeah, you know those mantis shrimp.

00:45:34
Matt Waters: They can punch really quick.

00:45:36
Lissa Rebec: I can punch really quick. Yeah, I saw that on a

00:45:40
night dive in Malapascua. And I yeah, and then in Caballo that

00:45:44
was critter central. Did you go to Caballo, critter central

00:45:47
where I saw all the little pygmy seahorses, which you can only

00:45:51
see through a camera lens. It's so tiny, like millimetre

00:45:55
Matt Waters: try taking a photograph of them

00:45:56
Don Silcock: The most dangerous creature in the sea. The pygmy

00:45:59
seahorse is the most dangerous creature in the sea. In my

00:46:02
experience.

00:46:03
Lissa Rebec: It is?

00:46:03
Don Silcock: yes,

00:46:04
Lissa Rebec: whys that?

00:46:06
Don Silcock: I've got into more deco trouble... I'm serious. They

00:46:11
have this incredible ability to know when you're about to press

00:46:16
the shutter, and they turn away. So you know, with a long lens

00:46:20
with a macro lens, it's like looking through the long wrong

00:46:25
end of a telescope. Yeah, trying to find these things, you know,

00:46:27
and then you finally find it and you get it in focus. And you're

00:46:31
just about to capture the front cover of National Geographic.

00:46:37
And it turns...

00:46:43
Matt Waters: You know, with a little flick of the hair, as well

00:46:44
Don Silcock: it's gone. And then and then here, you go again. And

00:46:48
the next thing " Beep Beep Beep!" y'know. Oh my goodness.

00:46:53
it's happened to me multiple times in multiple locations.

00:46:55
They're incredibly photogenic. Yeah, lovely picture pieces, but

00:47:00
you can really burn through time, you're gonna get so

00:47:03
fixated on trying to capture the image that you forget where you

00:47:06
are, and you forget about your deco and all the rest of it.

00:47:09
Lissa Rebec: Yeah, they're like hammerheads, for me. I'm, there

00:47:12
usually, go down to the deep and I'm usually chasing them. And

00:47:16
then your, your computer's beeping at you. We've all been

00:47:20
there. I was really disappointed. Don, I really

00:47:22
wanted to hear that they were poisonous or something or

00:47:28
Don Silcock: just deadly. Only to underwater photographers.

00:47:33
Lissa Rebec: They must be your kryptonite.

00:47:37
Matt Waters: Stick with the big stuff mate. You know the the

00:47:39
eyes are getting older as well. So it's it's easier to go on the

00:47:41
big stuff.

00:47:42
Lissa Rebec: Have you ever seen a mandarinfish . Aren't they

00:47:45
Beautiful. They do their little dance

00:47:48
Don Silcock: Yeah, yeah.

00:47:49
Matt Waters: The erm did you did you dive in Banda?

00:47:53
Don Silcock: Yeah. I have a story.

00:47:56
Matt Waters: I bet you do.

00:47:57
Don Silcock: So there was myself and this French friend of mine.

00:48:02
She's female but really good, just a good personal friend. And

00:48:08
we did the night dive in Bandonera to er, to do the..

00:48:15
late afternoon to the mandarinfish and then turns into

00:48:18
a night dive. So we, we finished the dive. We drifted all the way

00:48:23
along. We got out. We walked into the hotel and had a beer.

00:48:30
They didn't blink an eyelid? Did you know we're just sat outside

00:48:33
in all our dive gear. Can we have two Bintang, Bintang besar,

00:48:36
please?

00:48:37
Matt Waters: Did they ask you to remove all the sea urchins from

00:48:39
your shins first?

00:48:41
Don Silcock: Didn't even blink, just seemed like kind of normal.

00:48:45
Of course, then we had to pay and who had some money? Not me.

00:48:49
So, luckily somebody was passing your knew us and lent me 100 uhm

00:48:53
100

00:48:55
Lissa Rebec: Oh, wow.

00:48:56
Matt Waters: Yeah, that's exactly where I saw him as well.

00:49:00
Lissa Rebec: Do you know, I've... this week has been

00:49:01
devastating for me because, when COVID hit I was over in Dallas

00:49:06
waiting to go to Galapagos.

00:49:09
Matt Waters: really?

00:49:09
Lissa Rebec: I was on route. And they close the borders when I

00:49:12
was in Dallas and I had to turn around and come back to Sydney.

00:49:16
So they postponed it to this week. So I've had to witness on

00:49:23
social media, my dive buddies who I was meeting there to

00:49:27
travel with doing Galapagos, so they have seen everything.

00:49:34
They've seen the hammerheads, they have seen humpback whales,

00:49:41
mantas, underwater Gauranas. Not Gauranas, that's a drink!

00:49:46
Matt Waters: Iguana's

00:49:54
Lissa Rebec: Oh my, so that I've never hated and loved people at

00:49:59
the same time as much as I've done this week. I'm very

00:50:03
envious. It looks amazing that trip.

00:50:05
Matt Waters: It's, It's It's actually fantastic. And I don't

00:50:10
know if I told you, Don. I did have a Galapagos expedition

00:50:14
ready for October 2019. And obviously Rona stepped in and

00:50:19
screwed it all up. So I cancelled it across to this

00:50:23
year. In fact what year are we in now? Jesus... 21. So two,

00:50:28
yeah, so 20 was the original date, and 21 I moved it. I moved

00:50:31
it back to October 21. And then me old muckers over at Blue O2

00:50:36
said, "Yeah, well, not sure how this is going for later in the

00:50:40
year". And they were good enough to let me put it back again. So

00:50:45
as frustrating as it is, I've put it back to July 23. Just to

00:50:51
make sure, rather than doing it year by year, and everyone's

00:50:54
happy, that's that's going on it. However, it did give me the

00:50:59
opportunity to have the entire boat again. So I've now got

00:51:03
another four spots on that one 2023..July 2023.

00:51:06
And in the crossover of the

00:51:06
Don Silcock: 2023? seasons, so hopefully we get

00:51:09
everything including the whalesharks

00:51:12
Lissa Rebec: in October?,

00:51:13
Matt Waters: no, July,

00:51:14
Lissa Rebec: July, see I want to go in March to actually see the

00:51:17
schooling hammerheads, when they're there.

00:51:19
Matt Waters: Yeah, but you can see in July as well,

00:51:21
Lissa Rebec: you can see it in July?,

00:51:22
Matt Waters: We did. Jaz and I did April. And there's loads of

00:51:26
hammerheads. But you know, you see it a couple of times, and

00:51:29
then you start to look around for other stuff. So if you're

00:51:33
doing it in the crossover between the seasons, then you've

00:51:36
got the chances of everything. And that's why we're coming for

00:51:39
the July time.

00:51:41
Don Silcock: What about next year?Have you got anything?

00:51:43
Matt Waters: Next year? To be honest. I don't think it's a

00:51:47
wise decision to plan an expedition next year. Yes,

00:51:52
certain locations are going to be opening up again, but they'll

00:51:55
be few and far between and there will be difficulties. Yeah. So

00:51:58
even my travel company, I've got our curtain over it. And I don't

00:52:02
book anything, unless it's previous customers and friends.

00:52:06
And I'll reopen that once it's once it's suitable to do so. But

00:52:11
next year, I think it's going to be a struggle.

00:52:13
Don Silcock: Yeah, I'm... everything I had planned.I had

00:52:17
several big trips for this year all booked and reserved and

00:52:21
everything and all of them have gone back into next year now.

00:52:24
And it starts in late February in Cabo, Mexico, that seems to

00:52:31
be operating there. So if I can get there, I think that will

00:52:34
work. But then I've got two back to back trips in can't even say

00:52:40
properly , Tubbatattaha...Tubbataha... to

00:52:48
the Philippines. You can only get there at a couple of months

00:52:52
a year,

00:52:53
Matt Waters: Its the Philippine sardine run effectively.

00:52:55
Don Silcock: Yeah, and then, erm...stuff in, in the Americas

00:53:00
and South America. I'm doing the southern right whales in

00:53:03
Argentina, hopefully.

00:53:06
Matt Waters: And that's the problem. It's not the fact that

00:53:08
the operators aren't there. It's the getting there. You know that

00:53:13
that Galapagos Galapagos trip I mentioned, the difficulty there

00:53:15
is that I've got people coming from seven different countries.

00:53:19
You're not gonna guarantee that they're all gonna get there. And

00:53:22
from Australia to that side of the world?

00:53:25
Lissa Rebec: Well, Americans can travel.

00:53:27
Matt Waters: Yeah, but that's America and South America.

00:53:32
Don Silcock: We're very fortunate here that there's

00:53:35
almost zero community transmission. Right now. What is

00:53:41
happening seems to be directly related to the quarantine

00:53:44
facilities. Seems to be. The vaccine rollout is happening.

00:53:51
And I think everything is pointing to the fact that we

00:53:55
should be able to start travelling next year. I think

00:54:00
Matt Waters: I was gonna, I was gonna ask, I'm surprised you've

00:54:02
not had it yet. I thought the obese got hit first.

00:54:11
Right. I think we'll wrap it up gang. We've

00:54:13
been going for well over an hour. Lissa, thank you very much

00:54:18
for coming on the show.

00:54:19
Lissa Rebec: Can I just say Don? I didn't ask you, and I've asked

00:54:21
you this Matt. But um, have you seen the documentary about

00:54:25
consta...( laughing)I can't do this joke...I wanted to end our

00:54:32
session with a joke, but I just I keep laughing at my own jokes.

00:54:36
I'm really bad at telling jokes

00:54:36
Don Silcock: Its something about cons, cons...

00:54:40
Matt Waters: Try again, go on

00:54:41
Lissa Rebec: Have you seen the documentary about constipation?

00:54:45
Don Silcock: No, I haven't.

00:54:46
Lissa Rebec: That's right. It hasn't come out yet.

00:54:52
My favourite joke.

00:54:54
Matt Waters: Sea Shepherd. This is your representative...

00:54:59
Don Silcock: On that note, could I buy a T shirt?

00:55:02
Lissa Rebec: Absolutely.

00:55:04
Matt Waters: Erm, gang? It's a it's a trial kind of episode. I

00:55:06
hope you've enjoyed it. And maybe we'll, we'll, we'll see

00:55:10
how many, you know if we get 10 or 12 people listening to it,

00:55:12
then maybe we do it again next month, eh?

00:55:15
Lissa Rebec: We never hear it. It was shit.

00:55:18
Matt Waters: Guys, thanks for being on the show.

00:55:20
Lissa Rebec: Thanks for having us.

00:55:22
Don Silcock: Thanks so much.

00:55:22
Matt Waters: Cheers, guys. Thanks everybody, the podcast

00:55:30
for the inquisitive diver.

Lissa Rebec

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