Marine Life Tours
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Marine Life Tours
Saving planet ocean through reef building. Learn to work with nature to create abundance.
Marine Life Tours will take to a future where mankind is actively sea ranching, growing enough fish in the sea for all.
This is no fantasy. It is a reality right now. You can get involved too. Your name can live amongst the fish into the next century.
Under the waves there's a lot going on. Dive around and explore our REAF website to learn more but nothing beats the hands on experience of actually doing something to help marine life.
Stay at our on site accommodation "The Wharf Hub' where first principles of helping marine life are introduced.
Our short 2 hour 'Tiaki Moana' and day long 'Working with Nature' workshops are informative and experiential.
Contact us for both accommodation and how to get involved.
Tight lines.
Marine Life Tours, REAF and The Wharf Hub
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REAFCommercial organisation |
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North Island ▷ Tairāwhiti Gisborne ▷ Opotiki |
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Salt Water Fishing
Reviews
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5.0/5
Lloyd, took Ray and I out on his boat on 2 June 2009.
We left at 11 am, as we boarded we got a safety talk, was issued with a life jacket,which we wore the whole time we were on the boat. Lloyd explained that the sea bed of Opotiki was very flat and that a number of connected deployments were being established by him and he would shows us the benefit of having an a set of connected deployments in an area.
We went out to an area called community reef. We knew we were on top of it as the fish finder clearly showed it at a depth of 15 meters.
Ray and I started to fish and within a minute I had hooked my first fish, under Maroi culture your first fish is released, I was a bit sad but no sooner had my hook hit the bottom again than I had another bite. In the next hour we landed a further 13 fish. We were quite sad to leave the community reef but to see the difference we went to a control area of the same depth 5 KMs away. Fishing here was very slow and it took us nearly 20 minute to land our first fish, though we did catch 7 in the hour. A great time was had by me.
Lloyd an observation for next time might be better to fish in the controlled area first, because nobody really once to leave the Reef area when the fish are really biting.
I would really recommend any one to take this tour and if you have money to invest in a section of connected deployment I highly recommend it! Because the reef will be a great benefit to the whole community for many years to come and the fishing was twice as good!
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5.0/5
Between two of us, within a single hour - an astonishing catch of 27 good size fish, 14 snapper, the rest kahawai, gurnard, and koheru.
Such fishing we haven't experienced in decades! Lloyd Hosken of Marine Life Tours is conducting a remarkable experiment with seabed or sea-life enhancement. This project is bearing fruit (or rather, fish) within the space of barely two years. Lloyd has inspired community groups to assist in building various shaped concrete modules. These are dropped onto designated sites (each named for the group which built them) on a stretch of featureless muddy sea bottom about two kilometres off the Opotiki coast. Our Eco-fishing experience on June 17th included an ongoing survey of seabed life and fish numbers at one of the half dozen (so far) reef sites - hence the carefully timed hour, the standard rods and baits, the counting and measuring of fish and the recording of the contents of a dropped crab basket (14 whelks). We then fished a control area, outside the developing reef, for an exact hour - at the same depth. This time we caught 13 fish (5 snapper 2 gurnard and 6 kahawai). The crab basket was empty of whelks. Lloyd's philosophy is about respect for ocean life and sustainable fishing. The community enhances the breeding/feeding fish habitat and in return people can catch themselves 'a feed' close to shore (so keeping fuel usage low). Taking home about half the catch of the day we were able to share a feed of fish with seven other families and single elderly folk in our neighbourhood. A great experience!
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5.0/5
I have known and worked with Lloyd for several years now in the area of seabed enhancement.
Lloyd's passion and commitment to environmental enhancement, particularly of the marine environment, is a certainty. Lloyd is exercising the ethic of stewardship or Kaitiaki on a daily basis. Lloyd holds a coastal permit under the RMA, which provides for seabed enhancement over a 1 square nautical mile area, approx 1.5km of the Opotiki shoreline - the Opotiki Community Reef. Lloyd's operation provides a rear opportunity for people to make a hands on and "real" contribution to the enhancement of habitat values of the seabed, reaping the rewards in bin loads of fresh fish. As a coastal specialist I have no doubt that Lloyd's enhancement of the seabed, in an area devoid of structure, will provide habitat and food for fish species normally found further offshore in deeper water or around natural reef structure. I also suspect the Opotiki Community Reef area will act to "hold" pelagic and/or seasonal fish species that may normally seek alternative feeding grounds at certain times.
In regard to the fishing, well I should say it's crap so I get more time on the water - but it's red hot. The bio-enhancing materials deployed attract fish almost immediately, with excellent results in regard to time for first fish, size and number of fish and desired species - no berley required. Also of note is the presence of whelks in the reef area (caught in a set net)whereas there were none present in the control area (approx 5km away same depth same bottom structure). I consider this is due to creating available habitat for settlement and will only leed to enhancement of the food chain in the Community Reef area and more fish.
Lloyd is a member of the local CoastGuard and runs a safe and tight ship. If you wanted to be a part of a real and "hands on" example of what we can do to improve our marine environment, give Lloyd a call.
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5.0/5
I have spent a wonderful (half-) day fishing with Lloyd.
We started out early in Lloyds bright yellow fishing boat, with a beautiful sunrise further enhancing the color. 2 hours later our container was already overflowing with fish, forcing us to return. Lloyd was a perfect host: very friendly, highly skilled, and with lots of knowledge of just about anything related to fishing, which he was more than willing to share with a newbie like me. He was also very patient with me and my tangled lines and lost hooks...
I had a wonderful time, thank you Lloyd!
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5.0/5
What a catch we got!!!!!
22 Snapper, 12 Kahawai and the odd Gurnard and Baracuda . The weather, the fishing, the company just awesome. Thank you Lloyd for an excellent day
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5.0/5
Un super moment sur le bateau, j'ai pecher plusieurs Kaway et Snappers a differents endroits, Loydd est une personne tres avenante et tres gentil.
C'etait une excellente experience et j'aimerais pouvoir la renouveller dans le future! Merci pour cette sortie de peche Loydd et a bientot j'espere!
It was a very great and wonderful time, I caught snappers and kaways on this boat, Loydd is a very nice personn. A very fun time on the sea and I hope that I could do this an other time! Very enjoy to meet Loydd and to fished with him. Thanks for this experience!
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5.0/5
Absolutely choice day.
Sea perfect. Weather excellent. Caught our limits in three hours. The whole experience was fabulous.
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5.0/5
Awesome boat trip with a really nice Captain...Lloyd.
I caught a really big snapper ... thank a lot for this day
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5.0/5
This tour with Lloyd and his REAF2 is definately worth it on so many levels.
Lloyd is a great guy and wildly enthusiastic of what he is doing. We (3 Belgians) got the whole tour and we learnt alot about the sea and how important and easy it is to make a difference. Together we dropped about 2 tons or concrete into the sea and formed about 2 reefs. Of course, we wanted to see if the artificial reefs ( or Seabed Enhancement units) are worth it and spent 2 hours fishing. One hour was spent over a reef that was built earlier and one hour over an area without reefs. The difference is astnishing! Lloyd told us he catches about twice as much when he goes fishing over his reefs than elsewhere but we easily cought 10 times as much, including a 7kg Snapper!
So all that can be said about this trip is: Definately try it out! You'll have a great time and learn alot !
Thank you Lloyd,
Clemens
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4.5/5
Going fishinh on Loyd`s REAF2 is an awsome adventure and would do it again if still in Opotiki.
Having travelled and worked extensively around Australia I,ve fished on various charter boats. Definately a 'Thumbs Up' in my book. Maybe I,m biassed because not only did I catch more snapper than anyone else but also the 2 biggest of the whole catch.Opotiki is a relaxed little town with lots of beaches close by. Its a great feeling to give fish away to friends and even better the catch and release of smaller fish because you have too much. My photo collection is looking better also, and people ask me where did I catch that monster. I,ll say no more, give it a go you wont regret it.
