COVER STORY Midway Atoll - Three Hours from Hawaii: Flush With Fish but Skimpy on Coral Midway feels like what it is: a semi-abandoned military base, little more than a couple of rusty WWII hangers, a number of cinderblock buildings, and a few old concrete buildings left from the transpacific cable days. At first glance, the diving topography looks just as bleak: dead coral with channels, caverns and swimthroughs carved by the tides, some sandy areas, and a couple of wrecks. But all this is fabulous for fish life, like diving a huge, dark Swiss cheese, the holes veritable critter condos. I got so feverish with the swarms of fish here, I swore I was in someone's titanic and overstocked aquarium, except they're bigger here, and they're practically tame.     Cozumel for the Serious Diver: A Perennial Returnee's View Every time I leave Cozumel I say it's my last trip. But I keep coming back for more of what I like about "Coz": healthy, current-fed walls and reefs, great viz, labyrinthine swimthroughs, and lots of reef life. There are a mind-boggling 160 dive operations, ranging from huge organizations to one-man bands, which can make it a challenge for divers to find what they're looking for. As an experienced, well-traveled diver, I demand more than cattle-boats to the usual reefs, where you're surrounded by schools of divers dropped by flotillas of dive boats sometimes numbering in the dozens.   Recommended Cozumel Dive Ops for Advance Diving Our correspondent sorts through long listings like the Cozumel Watersports Association (ANOAAT at www.cozumel-diving.net/anoaat/index.htm) or Cozumel scuba yellow pages (www.scubayellowpages.com/landbased/caribbean/cozumel.htm) and comes back with a handful of top-notch ops, his personal favorites for advanced training and diving.   Tips for Diving Cozumel Our correspondent's tips cover the waterfront health tips for the Yucatan coast to the best spots to change currency or find a local photo processor who's actually familiar with what underwater photos should look like.   Klein Bonaire: Rescued from Developers On December 30 the small island of Klein Bonaire was acquired by the government of Bonaire as a national park, thus assuring divers that its pristine reefs will remain free from the inevitable degradation of development.   Dive Gear and Dive Deaths: Equipment Problems? Or Diver Error? How often do you read or hear about equipment failure as the cause of an accident? Not often, because the industry seems to prefer us to believe it's always an erring diver who causes his own death, never equipment. And there's no data collected in the U.S. to prove or deny the claims. However, an Australian study recently laid that idea to rest. It found that of 1000 "incidents," more than 10 percent were "pure" equipment failure. Of course, some types of equipment were more prone to failure -and more often the cause of dive fatalities - than others. Get the full story.   Can Bends Be Predicted? A Warning for Twenty-Five Percent of Us About one out of every four divers reading this is more susceptible to decompression sickness and brain lesions than the other 75 percent. You see, about 25 percent of the population has a common and usually harmless heart defect called Patent Foramen Ovule. While no problem on land, to divers it is indeed anathema.   Letters to the Editor: Phony Ad Wrecks Vacation We weren't the only ones to notice the computer-enhanced photography in a recent magazine ad for Little Cayman Beach Resort. Reader John Sommerer (Silver Spring MD) noticed it, too - and decided it would be a great place for his mother to enjoy the beach while he and his wife got in some diving. He never expected the water to be shallow and weedy for nearly a half mile from shore.   Central American Tip Readers who have moaned about TACA's poor service and delayed baggage arrivals on trips to Roatán may finally have some recourse. Reader Tom Morrill (Kansas City MO) told us that when he made it to Roatán and his bags didn't, he pursued what he believes is a TACA policy compensating passengers if TACA is at fault for late-arriving bags.   Credit Card Surcharges: Don't Let Foreign Businesses Screw You We've written before about foreign dive operators who tack surcharges on purchases made with credit cards. But neither the publicity - nor the fact that officials at both Visa and MasterCard label the practice a clear violation of their agreements with merchants worldwide - have managed to curb the charges.   Live-Aboard Tip An Undercurrent correspondent points out a problem inherent in live-aboards that split their itineraries between two destinations: crews that lack a local perspective on the sites and seem unfamiliar with them as well.   Thumbs Down For Riding Rock Inn As if the destruction both above and below water caused by Hurricane Floyd wasn't enough, the storm provoked another backlash, the kind that hits divers where it hurts - in the pocketbook. Trips canceled in the wake of the storm were understandable, but guests registered at San Salvador's Riding Rock Inn were less understanding when Riding Rock's U.S. booking agent told them their refund checks were in the mail - but the checks never arrived.   Flotsam & Jetsam An Aussie diver goes on a 24-hour drift dive; Air New Zealand offers deep discounts down under; a Grand Cayman diver sets a world free-immersion dive record; and a battery study reports on the brands most likely to keep your flash operating for 36 shots underwater.

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