Abalone Season

The season start on Sunday with one hour 7am – 8am and then the first Sunday of each month through to March. There will be hundreds of people clambering over the reef to get the highly prized shellfish. Bag and size limits are  20 Roe’s abalone, with a minimum size of 60mm. The fisheries department officers look at people’s  catch to make sure undersized shellfish are not taken.
Recently myself and Commander David Haynes met with Yanchep Surf Life Saving Volunteers to discuss how to manage and incidents this coming Sunday.

Last year at our local beach,  the Yanchep Lagoon an abalone fisherman was tragically washed off the reef and his body not found.

Swimmer missing from Yanchep Lagoon Beach

At about 6.30pm on Saturday evening I had a call out from the base at Two Rocks Volunteer Marine Rescue that a man attempting to swim across the lagoon at Yanchep had been swept out to sea. Guardian I our fast response boat was dispatched from Two Rocks Marina.
     
We searched in a grid formation at 50metre spacing for several hours in the dark and using hand held spotlights.
The search resumed the following morning with two of our boats and also the Water Police boat and helicopter.
   
   
The search using boats and police divers failed to find sign of the missing man. Several of the news channels came to film at the beach.
ABC gave this report:  Swimmer missing from Yanchep Lagoon.  The search was called off in the afternoon until first light this morning.
   
We again searched for hours with the Water Police and helicopter, but again there was no sign of the missing man. The Police finally suspended the search.

Bindoon Men’s Shed talk

One might ask what is a Men’s Shed ?
According to the Men’s Shed organisation it’s is a place for men to socialise, network, make friends and share skills. The modern Men’s Shed is an updated version of the shed in the backyard that has long been a part of Australian culture. Men’s Sheds are springing up all around Australia. If you looked inside one you might see a number of men restoring furniture, perhaps restoring bicycles for a local school or fixing lawn mowers or making a kids cubby house. You might also see a few young men working with the older men learning new skills and maybe also learning something about life from the men they work with. You will see tea-bags, coffee cups and a comfortable area where men can sit and talk. You will probably also see an area where men can learn to cook for themselves or they can learn how to contact their families by computer.
The Bindoon branch had asked me to give a talk on my experiences with volunteering with the Two Rocks Volunteer Marine Rescue Group. As I’m not used to public speaking I was a little nervous but was soon put at ease and welcomed to the group by John Williams.

There were about twenty members and they all said they enjoyed my talk and found it interesting.