REEF recently announced their field survey schedule for 2007. If you haven't ever taken one of these trips, maybe now's the time to consider it. Not only are they fun, educational, and conservation-minded, they're tax deductible! Who ever heard of taking a tax-deductible dive trip?! Thanks, REEF! Upcoming trips include:
Grand Turk, February 17-24 -- 7 nights/8 days - $990
Tortola, British Virgin Islands, April 14-21 -- 7 nights/8 days - $974
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, May 22-27 -- 5 nights/6 days - $TBA
St. Vincent, June 9-16 -- 8 days/7 nights - $1,050
San Juan Islands, Washington, July 23-26 -- 4 days/3 nights - $818
Kona, Hawaii, August 4-11 -- 7 nights/8 days - $1,485
Woods Hole, Cape Cod, September 11-16 -- 6 nights/5 days - $509
Bonaire*, September 22-29 -- 7 nights/8 days - $1,063
Utila*, October 20-27 -- 8 days/7 nights - $1,110
Anguilla, November 10-17 -- 8 days/7 nights - $975
Cozumel, December 1-8 -- 8 Days/7 Nights - $544
All prices quoted are per person, based on double occupancy. An additional $300 REEF fee will be added to each trip to cover the cost of the group leader, seminars, survey materials, and data management. For more details, you know where to go. *Trip led by Paul Humann, recent inductee into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame.
Want to go diving in June but don't know where to go? If you're an underwater shooter, you might want to head to Bonaire. The crew at Reef Photo has organized a trip to the island, and they're bringing their brains along with them (which is quite the opposite of what I do when I go diving). Reef's staff will be available for one-on-one hands-on help with camera gear and techniques during the week. Moreover, award-winning shooter Rand McMeins will also be on the trip, providing inspiration and advice.
Reef will be carting A/V equipment to the island to facilitate the sharing of the day's images every evening. Warning to the competitive: this is not a competition, but allows divers to share what they experienced throughout the day. Heads-up for the competitive: they are sponsoring a "best shot" contest at the end of the week. If you're interested, the package runs $1025 and includes:
ScubaVision Productions recently launched a weekly podcast and made it to iTunes (and hopefully a larger audience). They shoot video for commercial and non-profit clients and, in our case, produce a 5-10 minute weekly scuba show. The visuals are clean, soundtrack soothing, and make for a nice diversion at work.
Current episodes:
Interview with John Hanzi, Dive Safety Officer at the New England Aquarium and author of adventure novel Out of Hell's Kitchen
Whiteface (The Anchor) at West Caicos
The Driveway at West Caicos
Boat Cove at West Caicos
Although not a podcast, check out ScubaVisions "Now Playing" link for a wreck diving video shot in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos of the Southwind and W.E.
Next week, seven divers will be inducted into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame. Five of those divers -- Neville Coleman, Rodney Fox, Carl Roessler, Paul Humann and Ralph Erickson -- will be honored for their outstanding, international contributions to the sport of scuba diving. The other two divers -- Cornell Lloyd Anthony Burke and Darvin Ebanks -- will be honored for their huge contributions to the Cayman dive scene. The induction ceremony will take place on Thursday, January 25th at the Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort. Cocktails start at 6 pm with dinner and Induction Ceremony set to begin at 7 pm -- unless some crazy conga line breaks out or something.
The following night, the Hall of Fame is holding a film festival, which will present films ranging in theme from whales to the Titanic, from the discovery of a new species in the Asia/Pacific region to surviving a horrific attack from a Great White shark. If you haven't already secured your tickets, it's probably not too late to go.
I don't know about you, but my memory could use some help when it comes to fish identification. Black tip reef sharks and the bright orange Garibaldi are easy to remember but the variations of damselfish and triggerfish can be overwhelming.
Fish ID guides, like those by Paul Humann, are a critical part of any divers bookshelf but they're not always the easiest to use if all you can remember is the general size or markings on a fish. What I've always wanted to see is a fish guide which cross-references their characteristics in greater detail and It looks like the folks at WikiDivers are doing just that.
Their fish identification guide begins with describing the characteristics of fish: body shape, fins, markings, gills, size, and body/fin configurations. Each of these includes a link to fish which have those characteristics. If your unknown fish had vertical bands, click the Bands link and a list shows you those with vertical bands.
There is a growing number of fish species already in the guide but it's a work in progress. While the main page is a great starting point with photos and links, the search results don't generate thumbnails. Bummer, because clicking through links for individual photos is no better than paging through Humann's book. The founders of WikiDivers have voiced their commitment to the site so hopefully their hard work will continue and produce an intuitive and thorough resource.
In May, 2006, sculptor Jason Taylor launched his Underwater Sculpture Gallery in Grenada. The unique artistic display celebrates Caribbean culture while it simultaneously explores the constantly changing relationship between art and the environment. More importantly, the Gallery is a fascinating dive destination.
Sculpting the pieces in the Gallery looks time-consuming and labor-intensive. For divers exploring the work, however, it appears to be worth it: the pieces aren't just statues or swim-throughs. They're gorgeous, multi-dimensional displays of genius. La Diablesse, for example, is fashioned from concrete and steel and secured to the ocean substrate. The effect is a sublime underwater goddess -- at once beautiful and wretched -- watching over the reef. Meanwhile, The Lost Correspondent is a forlorn, amazing work -- and totally incongruous underwater.
There's no way words can convey the beauty -- and the unusual-ness -- of Talyor's work. To begin to understand his art, check out his image gallery. However, to get the full impact, you should watch this video. It's amazing.
If you want to visit the Sculpture Garden, head to Grenada's Moliniere Bay and get hooked up with the folks at Dive Grenada. Located 2 miles north of the capital on the West coast of the Island, the Gallery sits within a designated National Marine Park.
Of course, I love that the image features nicely-photographed sharks. In addition to successfully capturing the counter-shading on the shark's belly, though, I also like that SpeedM's photo features divers climbing the dive boat's ladder. I think this provides the photo with a story: as though the sharks escorted their new friends to the dive boat, and now they're going home. Isn't that sweet?
If you have some underwater images with stories, please add them to Divester's Flickr group. We love stories.
From January 5-20, the guys from Dive Zero Video Magazine will be filming Issue #2 in Roatan Island, Honduras. I can't wait to see what they come up with, as I was a big fan of Issue #1.
During their Honduran excursion, the team will be posting video snippets to their blog every two days, for a total of 6 posts. In addition to their daily adventures, the clips will feature behind-the-scene video -- and clues to a contest that sounds pretty simple. The first 20 people to solve the contest will receive a free copy of Issue #2 and a chance for the grand prize: a trip for 2 to Roatan.
If what you're doing is better than a trip for two to Roatan, then keep surfing the Web. If it's not, then check out the video in which they explain the rules to the contest.
Lately, I'm determined to prove to the disbelievers that artificial reefs do, in fact, provide fish with important habitats and promote healthy ecosystems. If you're one of those disbelievers that I'm trying to convince, then check out this short clip of wreck diving on Florida's Duane and Bibb. There are fish everywhere!
If you're not one of those disbeleivers...then good for you -- and I hope you enjoy the video. Personally, I was especially intrigued with the footage of the Duane's conning tower.
Stingray City offers visitors to interact with dozens of tame(-ish) stingrays. Allowing kids and adults to jump in the water with frozen morsels hoping to attract the creatures, Stingray City is a great opportunity for people to experience the marine world up close. Of course, some people worry that the practice is destructive. To that end, Cayman's Marine Conservation Law was amended recently to provide increased regulation of activities at Stingray City and in other Wildlife Interaction Zones. Among other things, the amended law will help regulate:
the amount and type of food fed to rays.
the number of tourist boats that can access the zone at specified times.
the number of passengers that can be carried to any specific area.
Clearly, the law aims to lessen the human impact on the rays. Ironically, though, Stingray City is not the rays' natural habitat; rays were attracted to the area by fishermen cleaning their boats.
Of course, some people oppose the new restrictions. According to Captain Eugene Ebanks, "Whoever concocted [the Bill] did not have the best interests of the Watersports Industry at heart." Ebanks fears the proposed regulations will create economic hardships for tour operators and dive companies. While overcrowding at Stingray City might've been a problem in the past, lately it seems that bookings at Stingray City have plummeted, so I wonder if this is an attempt by officials to improve the site's over-the-top eco-friendly image.
It's 2007 and hopefully you've survived another Festivus holiday. I'm looking forward to next year when I don't have to follow my 14-month-old around my in-laws' and pulling him away from tables and electrical outlets.
My scuba stocking had these great books inside...
The first, Master Guide for Underwater Digital Photography, is authored by Jack and Sue Drafahl. I've only paged through but it looks like an excellent introductory guide to underwater shooting with your digital camera. There are many photos and references to new(ish) gear from point-and-shoot digitals to SLR. Topics covered include camera settings (what <i>is</i> the histogram used for?), setting proper exposure, strobes, wide-angle, macro, composition, and traveling with your gear. This is my first book on the topic and it looks like an excellent place to start.
The other is a giant coffee-table-sized thing called Ocean: The World's Last Wilderness Revealed. With a foreword by Fabien Cousteau, it's the end-all, be-all visual reference and fact guide to our seas. There are beautiful two-page photos and hundreds of diagrams describing every facet of our great seas from ocean currents to temperature to the creatures living in dark depths. It's the type of book where you can read two or three pages and move onto the next topic. If nothing else this should inspire you to get back into the water, try a new dive site, or simply impress your friends.
It's not just Massachusetts that's suffering from growing pains between its diving community and other members of society. Evidently Little Cayman is, too.
This fall, Cayman's Marine Conservation Board voted to remove half of the 22 dive moorings from the (beautiful) Bloody Bay Marine Park, in an effort to control potential overcrowding on dive sites. According to the MCB, however, this mooring reduction would not mean those sections of reef would become completely unavailable. Rather, given that the moorings already provided significant overlap, the various sections of reef would still be accessible from the remaining moorings. Local dive operators, though, began providing alternatives to the mooring reduction, such as extending the western boundary of the Park, or adding six new moorings to a separate portion of the reef system.
Meanwhile, local fisherman/pastor Dan Shroy fumed. According to Shroy, "It is apparent that we are not, as fishermen, going to be able to depend upon the Marine Conservation Board to defend our right to fish on this Island. We're going to have to do that ourselves." To that end, Shroy officially requested the Leader of Government Business to create dedicated "fishing zones" around the island. One of the areas he proposed as a fishing zone is the same area proposed by the dive operators for Marine Park extension. Given that you can't have a dedicated fishing zone and a dedicated no-take zone occupying the exact same location, it'll be interesting to see what conclusion the groups arrive at. My guess: a small extension to the Marine Park will be developed. In addition to the good publicity it'll bring, there's the obvious fact that tourists bring provide local coffers with more cash than fishermen. Sorry, Mr. Shroy.
Recently, Sioux Falls diver Don Roesler was diving in Cancun. On this particular day, he and his group were planning on diving a sunken Navy ship in the area. With his gear in working order, his training up-to-date, and over 600 dives under his weight belt, he felt confident that he could make the dive safely. However, when he hit the water, something went drastically wrong. A powerful current separated him from his group and whisked him a half mile out to sea. Although he blasted his air horn, Roesler was down wind from the rest of the party and could not be heard.
Toss into the mix some sharks, a thunderstorm, dehydration, big waves, and the fact that he could see his rescue helicopter flying overhead (but which couldn't see his safety sausage through the storm), and you know it was a stressful day. However, Roesler kept his head and continued swimming for shore -- for 10 hours. Crediting his self-rescue with the fact that he remained calm, Roesler's story is an excellent example of how all the preparation in the world can be squashed by bad luck. That, and the fact that the dive master should have noticed the current and recommended everyone descend along the anchor line.
In October 2005, a seemingly innocuous dive excursion turned deadly. At that time, divers on an outing with Belize's Advanced Diving experienced a power outage on their boat. Fearing floating for days, four divers decided they'd fare better by swimming for shore. In the end, three of the divers spent three days and two nights adrift in the ocean before being rescued; a fourth diver, Abigail Brinkman died prior to rescue.
Last week, Belize suspended the license of Advanced Diving's Vance Cabral for a minimum of five years. In addition to citing his gross negligence, the Belize Tourism Board also noted in their announcement that Cabral's behavior had placed Belize's entire tour operating profession in disrepute. Cabral will not face criminal charges, however, because the police took 13 months to charge him with a crime. The statute of limitations expired after 6 months.
Though diving has long been a staple of the Cayman tourist industry, some industry insiders are concerned about the island's ability to recruit and retain both dive professionals and tourists alike. As proof, one simply needs to look only as far as diver bookings, which appear to be down over the past few years.
One possible cause for the down-turn include 2004's Hurricane Ivan, which caused a number of dive operators on Grand Cayman to suffer serious damage or shutter their doors completely. Other factors possibly affecting the decline in business include the lack of available short-term accommodation for visitors; steadily rising room rates; the forcible expulsion of some experienced dive professionals; and even in some measure, Steve Irwin's unfortunate passing.
I've visited Cayman several times and enjoyed my dive experiences very much. Each time I go, however, I'm amazed at how saturated Cayman's dive industry appears to be: there are dive shops everywhere. I wonder if the word has gotten out that Cayman is "over-dived" and that people should go elsewhere. Moreover, I wonder if, much like the stock market or the housing market, this decline is "corrective" in nature, and Darwin-like, only the best, most competent dive shops will remain. What do you think? Is Cayman played out?
REEF recently announced their field survey schedule for 2007. If you haven't ever taken one of these trips, maybe now's the time to consider it. Not only are they fun, educational, and conservation-minded, they're tax deductible! Who ever heard of taking a tax-deductible dive trip?! Thanks, REEF! Upcoming trips include: 
Want to go diving in June but don't know where to go? If you're an underwater shooter, you might want to head to Bonaire. The crew at 
ScubaVision Productions
Next week, seven divers will be inducted into the 
I don't know about you, but my memory could use some help when it comes to fish identification. Black tip reef sharks and the bright orange Garibaldi are easy to remember but the variations of damselfish and triggerfish can be overwhelming.
From January 5-20, the guys from 
It's 2007 and hopefully you've survived another 
In October 2005, a seemingly innocuous dive excursion turned 
