Low Tide Haul..

[Erik Oostra]

I've been making the most of some very low tides to hunt at the back of my local bays.. Amongst a load of crap, this is yesterday's haul from Alma Bay.. $32 and some cheap jewellery.. This haul really opened my eyes to the differences in success between scuba and beach detecting.. These coins and jewellery were found along a swimming/snorkelling zone where I usually dive (3 to 5 metres deep).. To my great and eternal shame, I missed them.. Although some are newly dropped, others have been there a long while.. 

Covering this zone on scuba takes a long time.. Visibility is not always what you'd expect for a tropical island.. Constant channel dredging for a nearby port and mangrove swamps along the coast keep our waters pretty murky.. Also, the smaller coils on the Deus II and PulseDive make it harder to cover large areas.. This compares to covering the same zone whilst beach detecting with larger coils: strolling along the beach, cherry-picking juicy targets and digging as deep as you like without the hole washing away.. You can see what you're doing and the target stays where it's supposed to be, all this makes the job much faster.. Although not necessarily more enjoyable as the challenge is gone..   

On scuba the biggest haul along this zone in one morning was $6.50 and an silver earing.. In bays which have shark nets the scuba vs beach hunting ratio is usually the other way around, as people are herded together in one small space.. I'm lucky that on the island coins are still in everyday use, even in a mostly cashless society the island's busses still only accept cash.. As do all small businesses like the tourist stalls at markets along the beach, the 'tropical fruit juice lady' and the seafood van which sells straight from the island's trawlers.. This means there's a regular supply of coins dropped at our three main bays, all within 5 minutes from my house.. Yes, I know.. I'm a lucky son of a.. very nice lady!              

[midalake]

Outstanding job!!! 

[Erik Oostra]

I forgot to mention that within this zone there once stood a massive shark barrier.. In the picture above, you can just see a stretch of dark patches where it was.. Today this line is a shallow underwater gully with iron beams scattered along it..

This is what Alma Bay looked like in the 1930s.. 

[phrunt]

"Like"

Ran out of them 🙂

Interesting the history of the bay and the big shark barrier.  The bay is like warm bath water and you can just plonk in it all day but the problem is the warm water doesn't shrink fingers for rings to fall off like cold water does.   I'd be detecting up close to the rocks in the water, people are drawn to that area, well they were when I was there, I was one of them though so maybe they were drawn to me 😜

 

 

[Valens Legacy]

Very nice hunt with some good silver. Sorry there were no gold for you this time, but it will come soon.

Good luck on your next hunt.

[rvpopeye]

Looks like a sweet spot to me ! 

Negative low tides are the best tides....😎

[Kodiak]

Thanks for the detailed post Erik.  I like sharks about as much as I like bears, and that isnt much.  Stay Safe.

[Rick N. MI]

Nice hunt and big silver ring. That is a really beautiful spot.