Interpacific Spearfishing Report 2014 Raiatea, Tahiti History of the competition Formally known as the tripartite and comprising of three spear fishing nations this competition has developed into the biggest international spear fishing tournaments in the southern hemisphere Starting in 1977 with Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand other nations like Tahiti, Hawaii and Guam have taken up the challenge to strengthen this prestigious international event. Australia has won the Interpacific at least 10 times (5 in Australia, 4 in NZ, 1 in Hawaii) but has never won in New Caledonia or Tahiti. The team The Australian team was put together at short notice due to the late withdrawal or unavailability of most of the top ranked divers from the national competition at Kangaroo Island. This was probably due to conflicts with the World championships in Peru, work commitments and expense of travel. However there was good communication and several of the top tropical reef divers in Australia were asked if they were interested to join the team. Left to right: Jack Lavender, Sam Morgan, Michael Pannach, Dr Adam Smith, Taylah Martindale, The Australian mens and womens team was managed by Joe Martindale. The women's team was one spearfisher Taylah Martindale as no other Australian females were available. The. Men's team was Adam Smith, Michael Pannach, Jack Lavender and Sam Morgan. There was no reserve as there has been in previous years. Taylah had represented Australia last year as was part of the winning women's team. Adam has represented Australia ten times in five countries and had experience in Tahiti in 2002. It was the first time representing Australia for Michael, Jack and Sam. Both Taylor and Sam are 16 years old and quite young compared to other competitors, Adam was one of the oldest at 50 years. Taylah was allowed a safty diver to follow her around for the 2 days of compertition and did it tough as a partner would have shared the diving, float towing and fish finding The rules The Interpacific spearfishing competition is a team based pair’s event for 4 men (two pairs) and 2 women (1 pair) over two days with 6 hours each day. Diving in pairs in much safer than individual. The rules allow a reserve diver to be substituted on the second day. Typically each pair tows a float or small bogie board from a 4m cord. Divers may use a rigcord but most prefer to be unattached and use a reel so they can swim more silently and freely. The fish that are speared are placed on the float. One diver must remain on the surface while the other is below. The fish list provided by the host country was complicated with 82 species and 5 weight categories (300, 500, 1000, 2500 and 5000g). For some species such as parrot fish the rules permitted capture of 4 of each species and other species such as gamefish were grouped so 4 in total. The scoring is based on 100 points per eligible fish and 10 points per kilogram with a maximum weight bonus of 50 (5kg) points. The team captain must stay in the start zone for the first hour of competition but can then travel and communicate with the pairs and take fish and provide spare gear and water. The beautiful island Raiatea is one of the most beautiful islands in the Pacific. It is approximately 190km northwest of Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. Raiatea, the second largest Island in all of French Polynesia, is just slightly smaller than Tahiti itself. It's also Tahiti's largest Leeward Island. The group of Islands known as the Leewards, are part of the larger archipelago of Islands known as the Society Islands. These Islands contain the largest and most well known Islands in all of the South Pacific; The island is covered in very steep green hills and is surrounded by a deep lagoon and many small islands and sand cays. The tropical water temperature in April was 27 degrees and no thermocline. The reef edge drops quickly to deep water. Underwater visibility varies from a low 3m in the lagoon and passes to over 50m on the ocean side of the reef. There are about 4,000 people living on Raiatea and most of the houses have waterfront access and boats. There is a deep water marina that is large enough for cruise ships. Our accommodation was at the Hawaiki Nui Hotel which is a small friendly place with 25 rooms and bungalows. The bungalows had thatched roofs and were situated over the water. We could walk from the restaurant to the jetty and swim with tropical fish and free dive a wreck in 27m. The hotel provided breakfast and was also happy to cook the fish we caught. Two other countries NZ and Guam stayed at the same hotel. Scouting The New Zealand team arrived a week earlier than the other countries and had scouted for 6 days. They were acclimated and apparently able to lie on the bottom at 35m. They had seen and caught some nice fish including a 20kg wahoo. We also heard that one of their team had been smashed by a wave in shallow water and lost some dive gear and badly damaged his foot and was on crutches and out of the competition. The Australian team had two days scouting with a local commercial fisher in his 23 foot boat to familiarise ourselves with the geography, oceanography and possible fish species and hotspots of the four possible competition areas. The areas were very large at about 4 nautical miles of reef so we concentrated on two zones that we thought were most likely based on weather and discussion with other teams. We also concentrated our scouting on the passes in the reef and looked in the deep water and wave break zone. We were not allowed inside the reef crest during the competition. There were very few fish in the easily accessible depths of 5 to 22m. We speared a few different fish particularly the parrotfish to familiarize our team with the 18 different species and the minimum weight. After the first day all the men were diving 25m plus and our lady competitor was focussing on fish in the wave zone to 15m. We wore minimum wetsuit and weights to allow us to maximise our diving efficiency. For most of us this was a 1-5 to 2mm wetsuit and lycra pants and 1 to 2.5kg of weight. We had two small 90 minute competitions to practice the feel of an event in these waters. We speared 11-12 species each day of scouting and saw another 15 species that were too wary to catch. After the second day the men all reached 30m, and our lady diver was hitting 20m After each days diving we had a team meeting and discussed what we had seen and how we had dived and how we could improve. Opening ceremony The opening ceremony was a big event with speeches from the Mayor and local dignitaries in three languages: Tahitian, French and English. There was hula dancing and live music and some of the competitors were encouraged to join in and shake their hips. Then we had cocktails and some local foods and mingled. Local television stations and newspaper cameramen and reporters were recording the event. Competition day 1 The boats stopped in the middle of the zone. We had planned that the young guys would swim north to the pass where some good fish were seen in shallow water and the older guys would swim south and a longer distance of about 2Nm towards a pass. There was a slight current traveling south and an outgoing tide. For the first hour of the competition there is no assistance from the boat captains. The start went well and the Australian team were in the top 3 teams heading south. We swam in shallow water hoping to pick up some fish. In contrast the Hawaii team swam hard with no fishing for 1 hour to reach the end pass first. Adam shot a very large giant trevally in shallow water and it swam around a Bommie and he lost the fish and his spear. A bad start. Adam and Mick shared a gun and moved in 20-25m and picked up some large parrotfish. After an hour Joe picked up fish and provided a new gun. After the first hour we had 9 fish. The young guys were seeing some good species but struggling a bit to spear them. They did not swim as far as planned and did not make the pass. The older guys reached the southern end after 2.5 hours and found good species of surgeon fish in 30-33m and landed some good fish to 3kg, Our manager Joe was coming up to each men's and women's pair about every hour and taking our fish and weighing them and giving us an update of how our team was going as well as other teams and giving us plenty to drink. The six hours went quickly. We had set a men's team target of 20 fish and the women’s target of 5 fish. The men caught 23 on day one Jack and Sam 9 and Mick and Adam 14 and were happy as exceeded our target. Our women competitor had 2 sabor squirillfish and 3 souilder fish which were all just undersized and weighed in one coronation trout. At the weigh in the top catch as expected was by the Tahitians men and women’s teams and New Caledonian men.