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30th April 2000
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Last of the free-diving spear fishermen, Peter Hettiarachchi still hunts the ocean depths

Old man of the sea

Oddly Occupied
By Udena R. Attygalle
Mention that other world below the waterline and his weary eyes gleam, remembering adventures in those days of glory. Peter Hettiarachchi is a special spear fisherman, who at 59 still refuses to use modern scuba gear claiming "it's unsporting and doesn't give the fish a chance".

A free diver to his last breath, the sea is his greatest love and seer the biggest catch. 

Peter's story begins in 1958 with a glimpse of the Jacques Costello documentary "Silent World". 

Excited and fascinated, he started diving, a passion for which his family had little liking. His sister found him a job on board a ship in Trincomalee. 

His shifts were in the nights. But the allure of the Trinco waters was irresistible. 

Diving in the mornings, tired and weary he would usually fall asleep during his night shifts. Finally Peter was asked to give a letter of explanation. "Instead I gave a letter of resignation," he says. "While my salary was Rs. 500 a month I was making Rs. 200 a day spearing fish and collecting lobsters!"

The very next season he began diving full-time. His counterparts were all Burghers, and at only 19, Peter was the youngest. Money was there in plenty and the "Coconut Grove" the favourite haunt. 

Times were good. Then suddenly the "Burgher boys" moved to greener pastures but Peter stayed behind.

Once, noticing a row of catamarans at sea, Peter bought an admiralty chart from Chatham Street and dived to discover "Payagala" a reef half-a-mile out at sea stretching from Modera to Wellawatte. "I had never seen so many fish in my life before," he says in wonder.

Among the habits he picked up through the years was chatting to old fishermen wherever he went to dive. 

"We used to talk for hours and they told me so many things about the sea. The spear-fishing season lasts only six months of the year from November to April. The monsoon is rest time, spent mending equipment. The money collected during the spearing season is the only source of sustenance," he said.

What makes a spear fisherman? "Physical fitness is very important. I used to bring home a fresh fish every day and have nothing but fish for dinner," Peter says. 

It may be his amazing fitness that gave him the spear fishing titles of 73/74. "The others came ashore for lunch but I came out only when I had got my catch," he recalled.

The professional spear men use air compressed guns with at least a three-and-a-half foot barrel, with a harpoon in the range of four-and-a-half feet. These guns are for open water spearing. Amateurs use smaller guns for spearing fish dwelling at the bottom. 

"A helper and I usually swim half a mile out to sea with just an inner tube," Peter explains. The helper remains above water with a stringer (a line to hang the fish on) and Peter dives in. It is a slow unobtrusive dive to the bottom. No scuba gear to disturb the calm, just the diver and his gun. And then it is a slow swim with the drift, with the fish swimming head-on against the drift.

When the right fish is spotted, the diver blends in with the surroundings: silent and still, eyes turned away. A sudden pull of the trigger, a fish taking off at 60 miles an hour, a reel turning madly and a desperate lunge to the surface before the reel runs out. 

"I've lost around four guns to the fish," says Peter. A gun is lost when the spearman fails to reach the surface and reel in the fish. A mortally wounded big fish is no match for a tired and breathless diver in the water. 

The fish gets entangled in the detachable head of the harpoon. If hit, escape for the fish is rare.

After the fish is gathered it is put on the stringer and the helper takes over the kill. The diver dips in again for another chance at another fish.

Sharks are a spear fisherman's worst enemy. One snap with their razor-sharp teeth and a part of the fisherman's body could be gone. Peter too has had close shaves with these deadly predators. 

Once Peter had been hunting in the "mud banks", a stretch of muddy ocean beyond the "Payagala" reef when he suddenly sighted a shark. "It was well over six feet. It came towards me, brushed against me and disappeared." He seemed upset even now at the recollection of the incident.

Life has been exciting yet unkind to this adventurer. At 59, he should be retired, but circumstances force him to keep on diving. "Rodney Jonklass (probably the best diver of contemporary times) said I was the best spear fisherman. That is enough for me," he says wheezily.

An asthmatic and heart patient, Peter Mahaththaya as he is known among the older generation of fishermen is a sick man. The currents of life seem to be against him. For the war is affecting spearmen too and they are barred from boating on the stretch of sea from Modera to Wellawatte.
Yet, Peter the last of the great free- diving spear fishermen still keeps hunting in that great ocean, searching for a catch to provide the next meal.

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