April 2018 on the Great Barrier Reef

A Little Bit Nauti

Captain Trevor Jackson

The family Nautilidae…..Unchanged in half a billion years. Lurking down where the last stretching fingers of light cannot reach. With pin–cameras for eyes and an unbelievably ingenious buoyancy system, they can be brought to the surface and returned to the depths with no ill effects.

That last bit is good to know. Each May the Spoilsport crew are on a mission to catch a few of these living fossils for a university study; and we really don’t want to hurt them in the process.  Problem is, how do you catch a shell fish that lives 500 metres down in the middle of the ocean?

With a little bit of MacGyver-like ingenuity, we have crafted a makeshift crab pot from wire and dozen or so zip ties. We hang a chicken in the centre and tie the loose end of a 300m rope to a bombie at Osprey Reef and let the lot descend into the depths overnight.

During the daylight hours, Nautilus live way deeper than our 300 metre pot, but at night they come up to the ‘shallow’ depths to feed. The next morning; crack-o-dawn, comes the bit everyone on board is waiting for; the chance to dive with and photograph a genuine ‘creature of the deep’.

Nautiluses don’t swim at breakneck speeds, in fact they are considerably slower than humans; so it’s a highlight for everyone to get in the water and cruise around with them. After an hour or so when everyone had had a close look, we guide the Nautilus out beyond the cliff edge where they instinctively dive for the blackness and are gone.

The reaction on board after the dive is spectacular; the enthusiasm for having had the opportunity to get up close to these ancient wonders can hardly be contained. The Nautilus encounter is not offered on every Coral Sea expedition but in May, we offer the opportunity for guests to come out and get a little bit ……….well…………“Nauti”.