Couple of weeks ago, I spent altogether around A$70 in getting the right gear for abalone harvesting season.
I had a wet suit, snorkel and booties from my scuba diving days, which meant I could go deep. Too bad, no BCD or tanks allowed.
First week, went to Trigg beach. OMG, a whole ocean full of black hair!!! Singaporeans, Malaysians, Vietnamese, Thai, Hongkie, Taiwanese, Chinamen.
Time to jump in and help yourself was 7am, for 1 HOUR ONLY. Grumbled about all the kiasu's and kiasi's "chope'ing" their favourite spots and greedily digging away for abalone.
So I had to walk further out from the reef. Walked about 100m out of the reef and suddenly, PLOP!! I fell into a gaping hole filled with seaweed, swallowing a huge gulp of salt water.
The momentary thought that I might have disturbed a moray eel's slumber made my heart skip a beat.
Cursed under my breath in the most colourful hokkien I could recall as I propped myself up again. Suddenly realized that I was all alone, everyone else must have been at least 10m away. Along came my friend, who was a veteran to the reef, and helped pull me out. He then half-jokingly said, "Eh, maybe you got beginners luck, let me go in a korek abit see how, OK?"
So in he jumped, with a deep breath, and sufaced half a minute later all bubbling with excitement.
"WAH WU SIBEH TUA MAO EH AH!!!!"
I then jumped in again, this time with snorkel and mask ready, and he gave me a quick underwater education on what was abalone and what was rock.
Filled our bags with the maximum allowed pieces of 20 each, within 20 minutes, we were similing from end to end as each of our harvest was at least 2cm longer than the minimum allowed size. As we trudged back to our cars with our loot, a Vietnamese guy came up to us and said:
"G'day sir, WA Fisheries Inspector (or something like that beneath his Viet-aussie accent), may I inspect your bag and see your license please?" as he flashed his card.
Worried, we emptied our loot as he counted it. I passed him my license that I had bought a few days earlier at the Post Office for A$41.
"Are you aware, Sir, of the penalties for numbers exceeding the license and undersized catches?" He said.
"How much then?", I asked. "A$5000 for each." He said sternly.
"But I see you have done pretty well today, nicely done sirs, and enjoy your day." He walked off without saying another word.
So off I went happily with my loot, all 20 pieces of abalone, satisfied in my mind that I would easily recover my A$70 "Investment" + "Overheads" within the next 2 weeks.
And indeed I have. I'm getting sick of eating abalone
. Having abalone again tonight. This time, its porridge....
For those of you expecting the SHOCKSHIT version, please do not be disappointed because here it is:
I had a wet suit, snorkel and booties from my scuba diving days, which meant I could go deep. Too bad, no BCD or tanks allowed.
First week, went to Trigg beach. OMG, a whole ocean full of black hair!!! Singaporeans, Malaysians, Vietnamese, Thai, Hongkie, Taiwanese, Chinamen.
Time to jump in and help yourself was 7am, for 1 HOUR ONLY. Grumbled about all the kiasu's and kiasi's "chope'ing" their favourite spots and greedily digging away for abalone.
So I had to walk further out from the reef. Walked about 100m out of the reef and suddenly, PLOP!! I fell into a gaping hole filled with seaweed, swallowing a huge gulp of salt water.
The momentary thought that I might have disturbed a moray eel's slumber made my heart skip a beat.
Cursed under my breath in the most colourful hokkien I could recall as I propped myself up again. Suddenly realized that I was all alone, everyone else must have been at least 10m away. Along came my friend, who was a veteran to the reef, and helped pull me out. He then half-jokingly said, "Eh, maybe you got beginners luck, let me go in a korek abit see how, OK?"
So in he jumped, with a deep breath, and sufaced half a minute later all bubbling with excitement.
"WAH WU SIBEH TUA MAO EH AH!!!!"
I then jumped in again, this time with snorkel and mask ready, and he gave me a quick underwater education on what was abalone and what was rock.
Filled our bags with the maximum allowed pieces of 20 each, within 20 minutes, we were similing from end to end as each of our harvest was at least 2cm longer than the minimum allowed size. As we trudged back to our cars with our loot, a Vietnamese guy came up to us and said:
"G'day sir, WA Fisheries Inspector (or something like that beneath his Viet-aussie accent), may I inspect your bag and see your license please?" as he flashed his card.
Worried, we emptied our loot as he counted it. I passed him my license that I had bought a few days earlier at the Post Office for A$41.
"Are you aware, Sir, of the penalties for numbers exceeding the license and undersized catches?" He said.
"How much then?", I asked. "A$5000 for each." He said sternly.
"But I see you have done pretty well today, nicely done sirs, and enjoy your day." He walked off without saying another word.
So off I went happily with my loot, all 20 pieces of abalone, satisfied in my mind that I would easily recover my A$70 "Investment" + "Overheads" within the next 2 weeks.
And indeed I have. I'm getting sick of eating abalone
. Having abalone again tonight. This time, its porridge....For those of you expecting the SHOCKSHIT version, please do not be disappointed because here it is:
shockshit said:
