Brilliant video Garry. Brings back a lot of memories, even for an old ab poacher. I used to own the old Muff Diver, but it got a bit hot with the fish pigs , just as the licenses became a sale-able item. so put another LFB# on the boat, but a bit hard to pay the fuel bills, then shifted up to Queensland & switched to Trochus (Top Shell) working off a mothership that went broke because the AU Export authorities condemned a container of frozen top meat. Spent many years Tuna Longline Fishing as well as oilfield, saturation diving worldwide. Then, just prior to the years of the 4 x over the legal blood alcohol limit convicted drunk driver living in the lodge Gillard Labor Government, got wiped out by a drunk women driver who gave me a massive right phnuemothorax, & all divers know what that means, not to mention an extremely severe traumatic brain injury. A Certified Nutcase. All my old mates, including a couple of old Eden legends are dying now. God Bless Aussie Fishermen, not many real ones left.

My brother and I dove for Pacific Octopus around Vancouver Island for almost 4 decades and lived through it. I can totally relate to these guys. My brother eventually got bone narcosis in his shoulder blades, while I eventually got severe bends and spent 5 days in a recompression chamber. In almost 40 years of professional diving, I only dropped my weight belt once. Our biggest worry was the 2000 lb Stellar Sea lions that wanted to eat the octopus we were catching. Sometimes you didn't see them coming.

That guy telling the story of the GW trying to get him off the bottom is like something out of your worst nightmare.

This is one of my favourite channels I always pop in a few times a year to see what's new. Love the history. As with many high dollar fisheries in Australia, It's unfortunate for us younger generation that we'll never be able to own our own quota and dive/fish for ourselves. Too many fat cats sitting on their golden goose eggs, leasing out dribs and drabs when the bank balance gets a bit low or it's time for a new house, car etc.... And If they DO sell It's at a premium and one of the old fellas companies gets it 😁😁

Thank you folks! I love this channel.

Salt off the earth theses blokes, hard working honest family men. Times have really changed

This is absolutely 💯 awesome. These accounts are amazing. Thnx for the upload

Great video Garry... . Thankyou for your continued efforts in recording our maritime history. Wishing I could relive my diving days again .

Another great video

Great document.

Awesome video. I grabbed this on DVD not long after I started grabbing abs recreationally. Interesting seeing what the old commercial guys got up to. Would have been a tough life! I once saw a huge seam of abs, giants, like in the video, on the west coast. Reckon the spot was too tight and brutal most the time for the commercials to bother with. Pretty rare sight though.

Abalone if you know how to prepare it is delicious and tender too. The method worked out by a South African diver that i only learned about later after many years of beating it to death and pressure cooking it, as you catch them and while still living you shuck them and place them on a hard flat surface sucker down, now put a pot of water on to boil, when the muscle of the abalone relaxes it will lean over and almost touch the sucker. Now take a mallet, hammer etc and give the drooping muscle a good couple of hard wacks then into the boiling water for +- 4 minutes test with a fork which should pierce the meat very easily. Once this is achieved you can then prepare it anyway you like and it’s extremely tender. I gently fry in butter with nutmeg, pepper, salt to taste butter and parsley crunchy loaf to mop up the sauce.

Bitten by a parrotfish would be a concern knowing their diet is carbonate & aragonite (hard corals). To accomplish this they've 1,000 teeth across 15 rows that're fused with bone giving the appearance of a beak, and their common name. To top it off their teeth are among the hardest and strongest biominerals known and the owners are 30 - 50cm (12 - 20") long and over double in some parts of the world. Fun fact: Their waste product is coral sand meaning they create the reef substrate that becomes new coral skeletons.

Dont know why this came up in my suggestions.. but great viewing. Thankyou!

Great reminder of my young days in Cape Town diving abalone along the coastline, initially there were no restrictions on them or spiny lobster then demand for them mostly for abalone from the Chinese market and revenue for government pretty high on agenda they decided the local diver must be restricted to 10 of each of them with size limits too. Because of the money involved by illegal Chinese buyers paying up to R1000.00 a kg a lot of money in SA those days, a lot of poaching teams were stripping the coastline and even the smaller ones were taken the stocks shortly diminished over time and the weekend diver was restricted to 5 per person and now i believe it’s gone to two. I wish though government would recognize the fact that a weekend diver sticking to his quota is not going to do any harm, they have all these intelligent fisheries guys and yet seem to focus on the once a month diver or angler who already has limits placed on them.

What year was this filmed? Great watch

Haven't had Abalone in since and I still have the taste for it 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Fantastic

Great piece of history right here !!! Thanks for sharing this !!

Awesome

Loving these old doco's !. The resilience of divers and fishermen back then was admirable.

Commercial fishing took away an environment that was a staple of the region 😂😂😂😂 what good is a fishing license if commercial fishing takes all the seafood I thought the license fees protected the wright to fish for dinner 😂🤕🤔

Bern Paddy and Fred 🍻

I never seen a abalone that size where I am. I only see small ones that are not worth taking.

Over fishing caused abalones extinction in California.

Its like im watching SubNatica

Abalone must be worth more than gold. I still wouldnt be interested in sharing the bottom with the local white sharks. They were there first so....... Lol Dive safe.

It was just greed for money abalone diving

I miss Abalone in the 60s and 70s in California it was everywhere and cheap and tasty WTF 😂😂😂😂😂😂🤕🤕🤕🤔🤔😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂