PORT LINCOLN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 5606

Welcome to Kiwi White's home pages. This site created by Chris Abraham a good friend who now resides in Germany. Many thanks to him for the work done to get these pages up and running.

To look at more stories please click on the ANNOUNCEMENT button in the main menu on the left. There are more stories to read by looking at the right hand side bar see PAST ARTICLES.

Please feel free to contact kiwi with your stories and ideas email address are kiwiwhite44@bigpond.com or kiwiwhite44@hotmail.com Please download SKYPE for your system and call me for free my user name is kiwiwhite it is a simple to operate free program.

The web counter on the articles only seems to work if you click on Comments so I am going to ask Chris to help fix it.

To view extensive weather pages re Port Lincoln please click on this address http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/95661.html?bannertypeclick=htmlSticker

Hello friends I have installed a cluster map see bottom left hand colum if you click on it you will see where people log on to this site from with the numbers I find this very interesting as most people are interested in the tuna and to see where some people live amazes me.

Another great surfing trip to Cactus Beach
Posted by kiwi on: Saturday 26 April @ 21:23:39 (Read: 66)
Well friends as the tuna season has finished I have had some spare time to go squid fishing and when the weather looked promising for surf up the far west coast of South Australia I contacted friends who said come on up to the beach. It was school holidays and the camping area was full but really it was fine as we had so much surf not big just 3 to 6 feet almost every day with light off shore winds making for excellent surfing conditions. It got a little crowded at times but every one seemed contented.I had a week up there then drove home to Port Lincoln via all the little coastal towns where I dropped in to friends for coffee and chats it took me two days to get home.

Now at home I have a big task in trying to read about 280 emails so today I am at the computer sitting in my kitchen over looking the bay watching the very welcome rain showers. We have had 22mm or almost an inch of rain here so after the drought conditions it is most welcome. For those avid surfers here are a couple of links to swell net where you can see photos of some South Australian surf. Bye for now regards Kiwi


http://www.swellnet.com.au/sessions.php?session=Aftershocks_in_SA_060907.php


http://www.swellnet.com.au/sessions.php?session=Season_of_the_primary_harvest_180408.php

Engine failure 122 miles off the coast of Australia
Posted by kiwi on: Tuesday 25 March @ 19:42:50 (Read: 109)
Well friends around the world just wanted to let you know that the Southern Bluefin tuna has been caught for the 2007/2008 Australain tuna season. We then went out in the Cessna 337 looking for skipjack tuna and mackerel. About 10 days ago we were called out from Ceduna to one of the purse seine boats to a position 122 nautical miles off the coast. The day was exceptionally hot but the conditions were great it was flat calm on the water even though there was a strong hot north wind blowing aloft. We arrived at the position of the boat and spent some time looking at the foaming patches of strippy tuna after a short time we were circling a good size patch when I saw Barry my pilot reach over and pull the throttle back on the front engine he then pulled the mixture back and stopped the front engine as the front engine oil pressure gauge suddenly dropped to zero. Barry then feathered the front propellor. I was speaking to the skipper of the boat at the time so I explained we had a problem and we were departing the scene and heading back to Ceduna 122 miles away.
I reported our position every 10 miles and in the mean time I had the life vest, emergency location beacon ready. I had the water container down by my feet and made sure we had access to our four man life raft. As the wind was strong our over the ground/sea speed was reduced to around 90 knots and it felt like we were crawling towards the shore. Barry trimmed the plane to get the best results but I was feeling quite aprehensive as the back engine had high temprature readings and I was worried that if this engine failed we would be in the water. Every body rallied around and another aircraft was sent from Ceduna to escort us in and I was told some lobster boats were prepared to come to our aid if we had to ditch. This was my third experience of engine failures in 29 years of tuna spotting and it was the most aprehensive one. I had thoughts in my mind is this the way my tuna spotting career was going to finish would we survive a ditching would i see my family and friends again I was quite worried. Any way all went well we made it back to Ceduna and I wish to thank Barry for his good work in bringing us both back safely and for all the others who were concerned for our safety. The plane has now been fixed the problem was with the oil pump and it is back in Port Lincoln. So far we have not been required to go out spotting since. Well thanks for listening to our story. Regards Kiwi

Clean Seas breeds southern bluefish tuna
Posted by kiwi on: Monday 03 March @ 20:36:17 (Read: 119)
Please click on this link to read the news about Clean Seas Hatchery at Arno Bay South Australia where they have now successfully breed Southern Blue Fin Tuna.

Please copy & paste the whole address to access the story.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23316897-913,00.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/a-star-is-spawn-clean-seas-nets-a-winner/2007/03/28/1174761565767.html

http://www.cleanseastuna.com.au/cs_environ2.htm

Australian tuna season drawing to a close
Posted by kiwi on: Monday 03 March @ 17:01:15 (Read: 128)
Well it is now March and after a terrible run of weather in February where we had strong winds lots of cloud cover rain showers and cold, bingo the weather improved, the sun came out, the clouds went away and the wind dropped and guess what the tuna popped. The last week has been excellent so many patches of tuna came to the surface. All the three catching companies have been filling their cages with excellent size fish. Yesterday 03/03/08 we saw hundreds of patches of tuna out in the Great Australian Bight so it is very encouraging to see all this stock. We now have to take the Cessna 337 back to Port Lincoln for a hundred hour service then we will be back up the west coast as we will be searching for Skipjack tuna and Mackerel for Tony's Tuna International. I am not sure how long we will be required to fly. Then after that I am off to Crescent Heads in N.S.W. on the east coast of Australia in May to compete in an oldies long board surf contest so it will be a nice change to see friends over there.

A rare sight: Blue whales in Great Australian Bight
Posted by kiwi on: Monday 18 February @ 05:57:03 (Read: 155)
To see stories about the Great Blue Whales in the Great Australian Bight please click on the following link.

http://www.abc.net.au/eyre/stories/s1951568.htm

We hope you enjoy the story even though it was done last year since the new 2007 2008 tuna season began mid November we have had two more sightings of these beautiful creatures. Well the tuna season has been running for a few months now and it has been a hard slow slog trying to fill the cages with tuna. There is no lack of good schools of fish but the main problem is selecting the right size fish for the owners of the tuna quota many patches contain a great size range and if there are too many small fish mixed with the bigger ones these patches are rejected. The weather has also played a major role we have had heaps of fresh south easterly winds not good for our job.

AUSTRALIA DAY JANUARY 26 TH 2008
Posted by Kiwi on: Friday 25 January @ 16:41:36 (Read: 169)
Hello there friends from around the world I just wanted to let you know that we are celebrating AUSTRALIA DAY it is a national holiday with a long weekend. Many festivals are attended by thousands and it is typical to have an Aussie breakfast on this day it is usually put on by the local city councils. It is a good chance to meet other people from very diverse cultures there are lots of sporting events and a time to relax and enjoy our wonderful country. Click on this site to see some more information,
http://www.australiaday.gov.au/pages/page3.asp

Been very busy in the Cessna 337 out in the Bight off South Australia
Posted by kiwi on: Monday 21 January @ 17:04:26 (Read: 186)
Well most of January has passed us by and for almost a week we have had strong south easterly winds that have created havoc with the bluefin tuna fishing operations. We had a good start to the season and most companies managed to fill some tuna cages in fact some fish are back in Port Lincoln and are being fattened up ready to be sold to the Japanese in the next few months. There has been a very good showing of tuna this year inshore on all the reefs or lumps heap of patches of mainly small tuna but there has been reports of local fishermen heading out from the small west coast towns catching a few fish up to 32 kilos. We had one day of exceptional weather when it was flat calm clear blue sky and warm when the ocean erupted with an amazing showing of tuna we estimated in one area alone there was between 3000 to 4000 tonnes.

There were some big patches of up to 200 tonnes but the fish are of varying sizes and that makes it difficult for the companies targeting a certain size range. We are hoping for some good weather soon so that we can continue to find catch and transfer some more tuna to fill this years quota. On the very windy days I have been lucky enough to get away from my motel room and drive 110 kilometers up to Cactus beach, grab my surf board and wet suit from my friends house and go surfing with my friends.I usually get back to the East West Motel late in the evening so that I am ready for another days tuna spotting.
Over the coming Australia Day long weekend Port Lincoln celebrates "Tunarama" A long standing festival that originally was the start of the tuna poling season. The tuna toss is one of the highlights and in the past a frozen bluefin tuna was used but this year for the first time a replica tuna made of a very strong plastic will be used so it will be interesting to see how that goes. Cheers for now.

Kiwi Sophie & Robyn
Posted by kiwi on: Friday 28 December @ 23:40:43 (Read: 182)
This is a photo of the White clan. Kiwi Sophie & Robyn at Sophie's graduation at Adelaide University in December 2006. She graduated with two degrees, one in Molecular biology and the second in Linguistics. Sophie returns to Adelaide after Christmas so that she can do her honors and then maybe medicine. Sophie has spent the last 10 months travelling and working over in Europe & Morocco. She is expected to arrive back in Australia in the first week of January 2008.

Have a happy festive season.
Posted by kiwi on: Sunday 23 December @ 17:15:31 (Read: 189)
Dear friends lets hope the festive season find you all well & happy. To hear Santa sing please click on this URL. This is well done. May 2008 be a healthy and successful year to you all. Warmest wishes from Kiwi Robyn & Sophie.

http://badaboo.free.fr/merryxmas.swf

"Tuna Wranglers" National Geographic Documenty
Posted by kiwi on: Thursday 06 December @ 21:18:48 (Read: 185)
Just letting any Australian visitors to this site that the National Geographic documentary, a one hour special shot here in the waters and air above the Great Australian Bight will be shown this Sunday evening at 19.30 (7.30pm) on Discovery Channel. Any one who is interested in seeing how the bluefin tuna fish are spotted caught caged and harvested can see this film. Hope you enjoy it.