The barbecue covers David Rowland uses to cover his precious sonar and video equipment had some observers worried in recent months.
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As he patiently chugged up and down the Clyde River and across Batemans Bay, Mr Rowland had unknowingly raised suspicions of a sinister nature.
“We call him the body-bag guy,” one observer was reported to say.
Far from dumping bodies, Mr Rowland has been bringing the waterways he loves to life – a very high-tech life – at a cracking three knots.
If there were awards for the guy with the most gear on his boat and the shire’s most patient man, he’d be a contender.
With his homemade robotic video system, “Pipe Dream”, he has discovered the Bay as we have never seen it – including remnants of the old Nelligen punt.
The Bay’s beauty has blown away the former geoscience data collector and he wants to repeat the feat, heading further south to Moruya.
“I was amazed by what is down there,” he said.
“A sponge garden can rival coral, it is so beautiful.
“The bay is a real gem. I have done a lot of cruising and travelling and it is world class.”
Mr Rowland’s capacity for dedication to a coastal cause was demonstrated as an inland kid.
“I was mad keen on fishing,” he said.
“We would ride our bicycles from Canberra to the coast to go fishing. We rode to Braidwood and down to Araluen; We were 14 or 15. (With) my brother and a mate we would just set off with our rods.”
As an adult, a fish finder on his boat was both intriguing and frustrating.
“You would see interesting things on your sonar and would never really know what they were. I always imagined what it would be like if you could actually see what was there, what types of fish were there, how they lived, how they interacted with each other.
His professional background in geoscience data collection and oceanic surveys gave him the skills to take a better look.
“I started building underwater robots as a hobby,” he said.
“It is a little submarine that you control from the surface. It is suspended in the water, you fly it up or down and spend as much time as your batteries will allow looking at things.
“The commercial ones are $70,000 before you blink. My first one was pretty crude, about four years ago, but gave me a hint of what was possible.”
Then came Pipe Dream, his current robot, named for its twists and turns of PVC piping.
“It has two motors on the side to make it go forwards and backwards and to turn, and a thruster on top to make it go up or down,” he said.
“It has lights to illuminate what you are filming and a box for the camera.”
Turning his tinnie into a survey boat took him six months in his shed, but he says his set-up wins hands down over diving with camera gear.
“I wanted to explore the isolated reefs around the place that have probably never had a diver on them, have never been photographed,” he said.
“It is uncharted territory.
“I saw amazing stuff on sonar right up the Clyde and right out the Bay and up and down the coast. You see different colours, and you might see a thing you think is a school of bait fish, or a school of bigger fish, or fish off the bottom. You can toss a line and might catch a fish, but it does not tell you what the environment is like
“It the exploration and discovery – the real enjoyment comes with putting down a video and seeing what it is like.
“It was very exciting. The first good one I got, I thought ‘this a real opportunity to do something special’.”
Now, he hopes a retired marine scientist might step aboard to help interpret what he has found.
He also hopes his work might inspire Eurobodalla high school students in marine science.
“They can study something in their backyard instead of the barrier reef,” he said.
Mr Rowland has fallen in love with the Clyde River, tracking it with sonar all the way to Shallow Crossing.
A clue from a mate led him to find and video what he believes is the remains of the old Nelligen punt.
“The river is amazing,” he said.
“I am keen to get more footage. There are interesting things on the sonar; big schools of fish; big whiting and estuary perch.
“It is an exciting river and seems very healthy.”
His journey has taken into every nook and cranny of the Bay itself, watching what his video is capturing.
“I can pull focus; it is like being down there, and it is high definition,” he said.
On a scientific level, his work is showing him how sediment moves through the bay, a subject he hopes a PhD student will take up.
Mr Rowland believes the bar should be dredged and the Marina redevelopment should go ahead, but hopes his work will allow that happen with a better understanding of the environmental effects on sea grass etc.
He said every line on his survey map (see picture gallery) is a “trip at three knots in my boat, again and again”.
“It has done about 1000 kms, very slowly and scarily at times, because it is small … crossing the bar.
“You get to know the sound of your outboard intimately, but it is fascinating watching the picture come together when you do it systemically.
“There an area I love, between tollgates and yellow rock, north head; there are canyons and ‘mountains’ 10m high.
”My favorite so far is Trennant Rock in the marine national park, just south of the tollgates; it is in about 10 metres of water and drops off to about 25m down the bottom.
It is a big peak and as far as you can see, there are fish.”
He believes sharing his work has helped anglers treasure the area.
“I have found they appreciate more the environment they are fishing in,” he said. “They take more care with how they leave their line, how they treat fish, because they are more connected to what they are doing. As I have discovered things, you say, ‘wow, you have to be careful, you have to treat it well’.”
Showing off a pic of a blue-ringed octopus, Mr Rowland said the marina sight is more complex than he previously understood.
“There is a whole food chain there, which shows a healthy environment,” he said.
The bay’s rock wall also surprised him.
“I was staggered at how many fish live there; the whole rock wall is loaded with fish.”
His video project has barely begun.
“There are kilometres and kilometres of reef; who knows what is there,” he said.
He has tracked with sonar as far south as Pretty Point, just south of Malua Bay, but wants to head further south to Moruya.
“There are some amazing dive sites and lots to be discovered.”
His persistence was rewarded one day recently, when he found himself in a humpback feeding zone.
“I was out in my tiny little boat and there were half a dozen humpback whales all feeding and the biggest school of bait fish I have ever seen, jumping out of the surface,” he said.
“I had whales coming up and breaching and feeding, then dolphins and gannets and everything was working this amazing school of fish inside the Bay. Every day you see something cool.”
You can contact him at batemansrov@gmail.com