Kolt Johnson (MS, 2007) is one of the more adventureous students to come along in a while. He has a strong interest in spearfishing while freediving. While here, he brought back lots of good fish from his expeditions off the North Carolina coast, and got Pete Parham involved as well. Pete was with us during the late 1980's, and is now back working on a PhD involving the NC pleistocene. Pete will be presenting some of his work to the department at a seminar on Friday.
After getting his MS, Kolt managed to land a job in New Zealand, where he is now living.
Here are a couple of pictures Kolt and Pete on some of their spearfishing expeditions off the NC coast. Kolt tells me they were spearing fish at 70 feet without SCUBA. Top pic is of Kolt among a school of Amberjack. Below, we see Pete with an African Pompano he has just landed the same way.
One of the most magical places in the world is located northeast of Auckland, New Zealand, off of the Coromandel Penninsula. Great Barrier Island and outer islands like the Mokohinaus are simply a diver's dream.The Hawke's Bay Freedom Divers organized a GBI trip this past weekend and it was spectacular. We "hooked" up with a local named Alfie, who we just called The Pirate. As rough as a sailor and nice as can be. He let us stay in his "new" guest house - an old caravan with added roof and bunk area. Highlights of the trip were going to The Needles and shooting a monster yellowtail kingfish and taking pictures of all kinds of sea life, then heading to the Mokohinaus and getting some beautiful, elusive, and extra tasty pink maomao, while swimming with penguins, then getting to swim with wild dolphins at Wellington Head, GBI. A trip for the record books.Kolt
