Day 95: Surviving off the Ocean (Catch & Cook)

G'day guys, we're on a four-month adventure camping and exploring some of the most remote and wildest parts of Australia while living from the land and sea. I've just seen a big tiger shark coming this way. That spot was unbelievable, I'd say after it's one of the best knocker we had so far. It's home for the night. Good morning guys from the beautiful outer Great Barrier Reef and it looks like we've got a couple of magic days of weather ahead of us hey Fran? Yeah I can't wait but first thing first we need to catch some food and find a good camp spot for tonight. That doesn't get washed away like last night. We were hoping to set up on that sand cane it got washed away with the tide but fingers crossed today we could find somewhere that stays above water level. Yeah who knows what we're gonna find. Let's get into it guys. I just dropped Jack off in the search of a doggie and it looks like there's so much fish on the so fingers crossed we can find one today. How was it? Oh it's awesome down there hey this school's a big mackerel maybe like eight to ten fish all this big there's green job fish there's bluefin trevallies everything but dog tooth tuna so we're gonna move over a little bit do another drift hopefully this time. So it's the turn of the tide now which means as the current changes from one direction to the other we get maybe about 30 minutes of slack current and this is where we can both jump in and have a bit of an explore so Fran's gearing up we don't have long but hopefully this spot is full of fish life it's in a pretty good area so i've got high hopes. You ready to go Fran? Ready. Let's get in there. It is still pretty early in the day so we're not sure if we'll take a fish here we're just keen to have a bit of a snorkel but if the right fish presents itself um yeah we'll take it. Fran's just jumped in so that's a good sign. What did you see? A big murray wrasse. Oh yeah? Napoleon fish i guess. Yeah yeah. Some type of parrotfish. Nice. Good report so far plenty of big fish Fran says let's get in there we're exploring a remote section of the great barrier reef and after three months out here we've reached an area that not many people get the chance to see there's something so exciting about diving a new reef for the very first time and the clear blue water and deep drop-offs here are a free diver's paradise the coral is pristine and the fish are so curious acting like they've never seen a diver before on days like this there's really no better place on earth and we're feeling pretty damn lucky to be here enjoying it all to ourselves that spot was unbelievable i'd say after one of the best snorkel we had so far it was amazing we spent two hours in the water at that one spot so hopefully like the two minutes of footage uh does it justice because it was incredible the thing i love friend was like the big caves and the swim throughs so you sort of swim through these dark caves and then open up to fish life everywhere and it just was like an absolute playground down there so that was pretty cool huh and it's just early in the morning so we didn't want to shoot a fish and then see another one that we liked better yeah yeah there's a few lucky fish to uh just have their photo taken rather than be taken with a spear gun like the buffalo emperor yeah he was asking for it oh what there's dolphins over there oh epic it looks like there's three of them and one is amazing hey yeah this place is amazing it's just full of life hey so we're gonna check these guys out and dry off for a little bit and then get back into it this afternoon yeah i'll get the drain oh the baby's so playful just playing on the surface awesome all righty get ready get set something's chasing all that bait fish or bluefin tracer they always just come and just nip behind at the blue fins hey come up look at the reef i think it might be a big cod friend like it's just a big heavy weight i just don't want him to get into the reef what an awesome spot to fight a fish from up on the roof oh sorry to disturb your peace i've i've hooked something i just don't want him to get in that oh what is it i think it might be a big trout oh it's a red bass not the fish we were hoping for but a bit of fun from up the top of the roof anyway oh i need to catch my breath then i'll release him now this is a red bass while they look like a pretty impressive fish unfortunately uh they're susceptible to getting ciguatera here in queensland so they're actually a no-take species we'll let him go in other parts of the it's all right oh what oh no i was hoping that was like a sailfish remarlin when it started jumping but fortunately i think we're just getting very good at catching barracuda we just came over a school of barracuda unfortunately good go mate we just figured out what happened didn't we bloody barracuda bit through the line we just lost our expensive marlin lure we've got something on if it's not another barracuda seems to be all we're catching at the moment bloody barracuda i don't think it's the big marlin we're after anyway what is it beautiful big rainbow runner look at that monster rainbow runner hey that's like almost the size of a yellowtail kingfish it's a beauty yeah very nice one let him go hey all right see you mate that would have been a nice dinner actually they're pretty good eating very underrated so we're hoping that we'd be able to set up camp there on that sand cave but unfortunately not these caves are always changing and with the different tides and currents and there's not enough sand there at the moment anyway the water here looks pretty magic so fran's just about to slip in and then there's a reef edge there she's going to drift down i'll show you what this looks like from the drone guys because this is a pretty special spot here there's like this big channel in the middle of two different reefs and the current is ripping out so fran will be able to just drift along the edge there generally areas like this are full of fish life the currents that rip through here bring in a lot of nutrients and that equals a lot of fish life so we'll see how fran goes there's maybe a dozen birds that are sort of in denial of the the incoming tide they're sitting on that sand cave but they're going to be washed away shortly beautiful day though absolutely beautiful so you can see fran down there just swimming along this reef edge it's like a vertical drop straight down into a deep dark blue pretty amazing i'm hearing some good grunts out of her mask and snorkel so i think she's seeing some cool stuff and this is that deep channel that runs through in between the two reefs i've just spotted a big tiger shark on the drone a shadow like that size up on the sand flat there's only one thing it could be that there's no other sharks that big up there he must be hunting for turtles up on the reef i'm just going to follow him around for a bit so that tiger shark so he's gone towards the reef edge and that tiger shark has just slipped off the reef edge into the deep dark blue drop off and that is the exact direction that fran is swimming in so i better actually race over and see if she wants to pick up or if she wants to keep going hey fran i've just seen a big tiger shark coming this way do you want to stay in the water or come out okay she's keen to stay in the water i'm just going to stay nice and close and keep my eyes out for any shadows how was your snorkel fran it was so nice this vertical drop off it's full of pristine corals oh nice which really blew my mind and then heaps of turtles cruising on top big big macros really yeah big ones nice yeah lots of fish epic so good well i didn't find anywhere to camp so we'll continue on hey keep going wow this looks like a really good spot to call home for tonight but we haven't caught anything yet so we're gonna jump in here the water looks clean and hopefully we can find a species that we haven't gotten yet wish us luck very good it's amazing hey this looks so nice there's a huge plate coral here jack i reckon we're gonna find something underneath it jack reagan's hopefully some cray let's get in there we've got an hour to catch dinner literally right under the boat it's just amazing now we're hoping to camp ashore here but it's going to be a little bit of a tricky anchorage the game plan from the drone looks like there's a bit of a sand patch there and we're going to try and put a front and back anchor really tight so when the tide drops out tonight the boat will just sit on that sand patch nice and safe we don't want it sitting on the coral and hopefully hopefully we can get in there and do that sounds like a plan fran front and back sit on the sand let's do it we're looking for a good spot it's a bit of a hard one reverse a little we're still on the bummy yeah that should be enough ready perfect home sweet home for the night what a little beauty that's us fran perfect what do you reckon? oh this is awesome paradise just a little spot high enough where we can set up camp hopefully yeah let's go have a look so many turtle tracks there you go that's home for the night orange side up tonight look at that all right oh just spotted something pretty sad come look at this oh no look at this they're everywhere eh? oh no so this is the trouble uh when these sandbanks are eroding away the turtles come up and nest but as you can see the tide came in last night and just washed all of these eggs away and actually they're kind of littering all along the high tide line these are turtle eggs that obviously aren't going to make it so pretty sad hey so many Jeff so many they're everywhere on the high tide yeah oh wow they're everywhere they would have been another turtle nest that didn't make it last night but there is a few up it's one of the sad things about a constantly changing environment you know with these banks eroding these turtle turtle nests are getting flooded you notice that yeah so many turtle eggs hey there's hundreds look look at this this one is so fresh that is so sad hey they're like ping pong balls this is one with still yeah still the yolk in it yeah still that the yolk in it from what was going to be a little baby turtle thankfully there's plenty of other tracks up the beach so there's other turtles with a chance today it's probably worth clarifying at the moment where we've picked you can see quite clearly where the nests are and we've put our swag where we're camping away from any of the nests hopefully we get visitors tonight yeah it would be pretty cool just gonna borrow this rock from the birds for a minute and fill up the fish this is a beautiful coronation trout for those that haven't seen it and man they've got to be one of the prettiest fish hey they've got that beautiful lunar tail amazing colors and i think i've said this about a few different fish but i reckon these ones are actually my favorite eating fish fran you had a chance to to shoot this one but you hesitated i think when fran sees nice fish she does like these amazing dive to get them but then when they present a shot you feel like a bit guilty or something i feel bad because they want to be my friend and then we then spend the next two hours chasing that fish that no longer wants to give you a shot but uh yeah you were too too nice well done getting it and i think not only my favorite eating fish i think they might have been that shark's favorite eating fish hey he um he came in out of nowhere came in hot yeah oh look at this thing what is it i don't know it's like a parasite or a it's a disease maybe yeah put him out of his misery anyway in the castaway sanke kitchen tonight we're gonna have beer butter coronation trout and chips one cup of middle strength beer and one cup of flour we like it quite runny because it's a bit less heavy i think i need a little bit more go on dad come back he's off already yeah thank you just can i have it how's that full moon rising fran beautiful eh pretty special show tonight the sun has just set and then the full moon is rising out this side just amazing from the drone we've spotted turtles kind of circling the sanke that might be looking to come in and lay tonight there's a few sharks getting around what a beautiful spot what does the cloud remind you of jackie saying a witch hat witch's hat you even got a witch's nose off the hat i'm saying the harry potter hat i'm saying it's time to eat dinner dinner is served but you need to do this first yeah how would you rate the coronation trout it's so soft yeah it's like eating a cloud 4.5 out of 5 really yeah okay difficulty are you forgetting today yesterday wasn't that hard but they're usually pretty hard yeah yeah they are they usually are four out of five yeah i agree yeah so there was a three out of five it's uh it's not even bedtime yet and the sanke has come to life so all the birds that have come back that have been fishing all day they're there all carrying on squawking around and there's three turtles that are coming up to lay one of them here is laying and it's just got the perfect silhouette with the full moon behind it it's actually quite magical so we are keeping very quiet at the moment we don't want to spook these turtles um we're just keeping an eye on them hopefully um hopefully they can find some high ground to dig and nest pretty amazing hey so it is absolutely chaos over there at the moment there was one turtle that we'd been watching for about an hour she dug a hole and she was just about getting ready to lay her eggs and then a new one came up from the water's edge up over a little hill and then just went straight down on top of the first turtle landed on top of her and um i just ruined the moment completely for her the intruder then climbed out of the hole and sat on the sand above her and just buried her alive with sand it's crazy there there's so many turtles they're literally stacking on top of each other the first turtle then gave up on that spot and then moved on and then she then moved on to another nesting turtle absolutely mayhem yeah everywhere you look there's just turtles moving this is crazy that was amazing pretty cool hey yeah at the moment there's at least five turtle nesting on this tiny little patch of sand crazy yeah amazing hey to be surrounded by them i know hopefully i'm bumping yeah so far they've dodged the swag which is good we'll see how we go for the rest of the night see you bright and early in the morning so you can see this is where the tide got to last night unfortunately washed away any nests below this even this one here has been washed away but the good news is last night was the highest tide um for a couple of months so these ones up here would have survived and although it comes with challenges out here for them to lay with the tides they don't have any predators so on the mainland they've got to deal with things like goannas and stuff getting into their eggs uh dingoes and pigs but out here they've just got to worry about the high tide so one of the most amazing things about the turtles is they will return to the exact same beach where they were born when it's time for them to lay their eggs but the only trouble with that is that you know for a 50 year old turtle this beach looks a hell of a lot different to what it did 50 years ago and the tide has got up to to where she's laid her nest that's one of the real problems with erosion of these kind of isolated sandbanks and also where there's development and stuff like that happening on mainland the turtles can't can't overcome that call of nature to return to the same beach uh be it for good or for bad these ones aren't going to make it i just want to say a massive thank you for everyone that's watched the entire series and i hope uh you're enjoying these outer reef ones as much as we are it's man it's so nice to be out here