Crayfish Photographed In Colour Under Water

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27993, 13 June 1956, Page 9

Crayfish Photographed In Colour Under Water

“The Press’* Special Service

WELLINGTON, June 12. The first colour photographs shot underwater in New Zealand were taken when a group of skin divers from Wellington visited Castlepoint tG study the habits of crayfish. With a camera and electronic flash mounted in a home-made water-tight case, the group has for some time been photographing undersea life in dark, inaccessible crevices. But black and white photographs taken at more than a few feet below the surface tend to become a murky grey. This prompted an experiment with colour film, and the first results are much more satisfactory. The members of the group are Mr R. A. Tomlin, an Upper Hutt watchmaker. who describes himself as th? group s technician, Mr W. Hurdley, who does most of the photography, and Mr P. Strong, who is the most experienced diver. They have lately broadened their activities from sum-

mer fishing to year-round observation of undersea life.

The work of this group has been followed with interest by the Marine Department, which is collecting the formation on the distribution, propagation and life-cycle of crayfish. The results of the group's probings into the hidden life of crayfish have interested commercial fishermen as well as scientists. It has been commonly believed that in the off-season crayfish moved out to sea. but Mr Tomlin and others suspected that they stayed in,coastal crevices and crannies. and merely stopped eating. It now seems that this theory has been proved correct. When fishermen have had no luck. Mr Tomlin has seen plenty of crayfish “hibernating.” “I’ve seen crayfish settled in a circle around the mouths of caves, the ones at the top hanging upside down,” he says. “When we disturbed them they scuttled back inside the caves.”