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Night time predators?


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Did you survive the night BP?

Is your dinghy OK, or does it look like a leopard seal tried mating with it?

If you need rescuing just holla and we'll be right along.

 

How long did it all carry on for, and did you see / work out what it was?

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I'm think I survived . It lasted over 40 mins. I eventually started the engine and they moved away instantly. Only ever saw the bait fish near the boat. Other than that the occasioanal heavy splash and two massive thumps against the hull/keel.

It was surreal and I've been playing boats for 60 yrs now.

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Maybe it was just a normal 'meat ball' of fish, where the big fish circle the bait fish into a ball and start chomping away at them, and it just happened to be centred around you. I know the fisho's get very excited by meat balls.

There is certainly a lot of life in the river, especially on a rising / high tide. I've seen a good sized kingi swim past the dinghy pontoon (about 1 m in length). Saw a full size ray there with the kids. There is normally enough bait fish around the pontoon to look like an aquarium. Not to mention "Mr Strippy Fish", who is a Parore that lives by the little ramp upstream of the dinghy pontoon. Every time the kids come down we have a look for him. He has been in residence for 6 months, maybe 9 months now.

 

Often around dusk (and high tide) there are massive random splashes around the river. Very hard to see what makes them, but they are certainly not small what ever it is.

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Hay BP, do you think it was a Leopard Seal?

 

I'm thinking about taking the kids for a putta in the dinghy this afternoon, but since ours is a grey inflatable that looks vaguely like a lady seal, I wouldn't mind ruling out the 'Weiti Predator' from trying to get amorous, while it would be a good 'close up' experience with wildlife, I might find it difficult to get the kids out again afterwards....

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I have seen many a live bait fish try to almost climb out onto rocks when a Kingi has turned up. I also have a friend that when she was in Greece they had a school of fish fly out and strand themselves high and dry on the beach. Although we can only assume some large predator had caused them to do that. The Beach was covered in fish.

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couple weeks ago I was working late on bored when I started hearing similar noises, though to a far lesser extent. best bit was when I could hear one thumping against the hull. almost made me not want to install the stereo system...

 

(I bought speakers the next day)

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