HOW WE SEE IT! Saturday Snapshot

With BRYAN LITTLELY AND SHAUN HOLLIS

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Cartoon by Shaun Hollis

Sharknad-NO THANKS!

Sharks have been in the spotlight this week… in my home state of South Australia with a horrific fatal attack at Streaky Bay and in FNQ waters where rising numbers may not be taking lives, but seem to be hitting the livelihoods of local fishers.

I’ve had the unsavoury task of covering many horror shark attacks over the years, including of a mate who survived an attack, also in Streaky Bay.

I’ve also heard the fishing tales, direct from family member deckhands of 18ft monsters caught in nets, and big sharks swimming under the Granite Island Causeway at Victor Harbor on a night I’ve been in those very waters hanging my head over the front of a dinghy dabbing for garfish.

But those stories are not what keeps me no more than knee deep in the ocean most of the time. It is the scene from the day I touched a great white monster that has me more than fine to respect the deep blue sea as the shark’s domain.

It was July 2001 and a whale had died in Backstairs Passage, the crossing to Kangaroo Island. As many as five great whites were feasting on it, with dozens of bronze whalers deeper picking up the scraps.

While my ever so slight tap of the dorsal fin of a 5m giant as it cruised down the side of the charter boat I was on to get pics of the beasts was insignificant to the grab of the snout a couple local abalone divers gave another, it was plenty enough to have me understand just how terrifyingly wonderful they are.

While magnificent creatures, and yes in their domain, there is a decent argument to preserve both sharks and a fishing industry, I think.

 

A long line of Local Legends

It is truly great to be bringing the stories of a long list of Local Legends to life on Newsport.

Some, like our Meals on Wheels retirees Maree Crees and Carmen Bolton are not just legends, but heroes for the work they have done over 45 years.

It is hard to fathom just how much comfort and security those two ladies - and their counterparts of course - have delivered to people in the community over those years.

I did some work in a Meals on Wheels kitchen in my high school years and I reckon it’s something that all youth should be encouraged to get involved in… if only to learn from ladies like Maree and Carmen what it is to truly care for your community.

Our Local Legends series is continuing for as long as we, and you as readers, keep nominating the characters, stalwarts and legends of our region.

Flick us a message at [email protected] with people you think are deserving of Local Legend status.

 

Eye in the sky a tool of the trade

I’ve been sharing some of my drone footage collected as I set about taking photographs for articles and leisure of the fabulous Douglas Shire and surrounds.

I’m much better with stills than I am at on the fly filming… the result of not enough Play Station gaming and an element of trepidation about ditching and losing my drone.

I’m mostly nervous because the drone has proved a really important part of my trade… not as a photojournalist, but as a farmer.

I use it to check the fences and if gates are shut, to buzz the bulls if they’re going at it through a fence, to watch over calving cows and occasionally to find my non-mobile carrying 82-year-old father on the farm.

It’s even helped me to viral video status… with more than 5 million views of me performing an old farming trick to save a calf.

If it wasn’t for doing a check of the calving cows with the drone, and looking to record the birth of one with my eye in the sky, I’d not have been a short time later on the ground giving one a “whizzy” to clear its airways and get it breathing again after a difficult birth which landed it underwater in its first moments out of mum.

Guaranteed, if I spot any local wildlife in trouble when the drone is up, I’m calling an expert… I don’t like my chances whipping a croc around by the tail.

You can watch the videos here:

DILEMMA DETECTION BY DRONE

YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND

 

 

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