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Scuba Diving The Continental USA

including Florida, California, Texas, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Alaska, Washington, Missouri

Diving The Continental USA articles, reviews, and reports from Undercurrent

Diving The Continental USA Overview

California's coastal waters can be divided into two distinct regions. North of Pt. Conception (a hundred-mile drive from L.A.), temperatures drop into the low 50s above the thermocline, visibility ranges from 10 to 60 feet, and animals closely resemble those of Puget Sound and British Columbia. Shore diving in this region requires surf entry, and each year unskilled divers are killed trying to enter or exit. Abalone are allowed only to free divers.... South of Pt. Conception, surface temperatures may reach the 70s in summer, though temperatures below the thermocline remain in the low 50s year-round with visibility ranging from 20 ­100 feet. Animals and plants in this region resemble those in northern Mexico. There's beautiful kelp and good fish life around the Channel Islands, which are accessible by boat from Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.... The best time of year for diving is in late summer or early fall, when plankton blooms cease and winter storms have yet to begin.... A 1/4" wetsuit or a drysuit is needed everywhere in California regardless of the season.... There's roughly one great white shark attack annually north of Monterey; free divers are most at risk, followed by surfers and scuba divers....

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Diving The Continental USA Feature Articles and Reader Reports

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The Continental USA Dive Reviews

from our Instant Reader Reports
 
Dive Operation Resort Name Area Reporter Dive Date
Dive Hatteras Review [same] Hatteras B. Manning 2011/08
Quiescence Diving Services Review Holiday Inn Key Largo, Florida Eric A Frick 2011/11
Key Dives Review Breezy Palms Resort Florida Keys Eric A Frick 2011/11
Two Harbors Dive & Recreation Center Review Banning House Catalina Isthmus Larry Clinton 2011/10
Lake Mohave Scuba Review [same] Lake Mohave, Bullhead City AZ Theodore C Recupero 2011/09
All Reader Reports on Scuba Diving The Continental USA
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Diving The Continental USA Articles - Land Based

Beneath Cold Seas, 2/12
How Divers Can Help the Florida Keys, 8/10
Price-Fixing Dive Shops on Catalina Island, undercover dive operator bests them, 6/10
Two Harbors, Santa Catalina Island, CA, the other Catalina, 2/10
San Diego Dive Shop With a Dark History, a suicide, a dead diver and accusations of lies and theft, 2/10
Jim Abernethy, Scuba Adventures, Florida, not what I bargained for, 10/09
Palm Beach Diving, 10/09
Florida’s Newest Wreck Dive, 7/09
Florida, California, Bahamas, Philippines…, good U.S. diving, Cozumel’s best gear repairman, and more, 5/09
Dive Deals in the U.S. and South Pacific, more dive trip bargains, plus a good Caribbean flight tip, 9/08
Barbados, Oman, Puget Sound, Samoa Barbados, Oman, Puget Sound, Samoa -- Publicly Available, updates on far-flung diving locales, 3/08

Available to the Public
The Flower Gardens of Texas, in search of spawning coral, 2/04
Cancel That Trip to Fiji, 4/02
The Channel Islands, Southern California, great boat diving for $100/day with room and board, 8/01
Where In the World is Carmen San Diego?, . . . when she's shark diving with WWII wrecks, 9/00
Boot Camp for Divers, Learning Cavern Diving in Florida, 5/99
Swirls and Surges in the California Kelp, Catalina, Farnsworth Bank, and the Channel Islands, 3/99
Shark Sanctuary, 5/96
Roughing It in Los Roques, 2/95
Adventuring in Venezuela, 2/95

Diving The Continental USA Articles - Liveaboards

Still Unclear How Key Largo’s Get Wet Got Wet, 2/12
Why You Need Undercurrent, we really give you the truth about “undiscovered” dive sites: Florida, Borneo, Grand Cayman …, 10/10

Available to the Public
MV Horizon, San Diego, California, kelp forests and sea lions, 10/06
California Dive Boats, 10/06
Thumbs Down, DeSoto Divers of Florida, 7/05
The Cypress Sea, Northern California boat diving, 6/05
U.S. Great White Diving, 6/03
Rinn Rules, 10/01

The Continental USA Dive Reviews

from our Travelin' Divers' Chapbooks

Land Based Dive Resorts in The Continental USA

For Members East 2012 2011 2010 2009          
West 2010 2009              
For Public East 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000
  1999 1998 1997 1996
West 2008 2007 2006 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999
  1998 1997

The Continental USA Liveaboards

For Members East 2012 2011 2010            
West 2010 2009              
For Public East 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999
  1998 1997 1996
West 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000
  1999 1998 1997 1996
FreshWater/Miscellaneous
For Members 2010 2009              
For Public 2008 2007 2004 2003 2002 2001      
Contact Information for Dive Resorts and Liveaboards Worldwide
All The Continental USA Diving Reviews -- Instant Reader Reports

Editor's Book Picks for Scuba Diving The Continental USA
including Florida, California, Texas, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Alaska, Washington, Missouri

The books below are my favorites about diving in this part of the world All books are available at a significant discount from Amazon.com; just follow the links. -- BD

World Atlas of Coral Reefs
by Mark D. Spalding, Corinna Ravilious, Edmund P. Green, United Nations World Conservation Monitoring Center.

If there is one book that belongs in every traveling diver's library, this is it. The superb World Atlas of Coral Reefs has everything you want to know about the reefs from Costa Rica and Cuba to the Coral Sea and Cayman. The information is specific and up to date. The photos, maps and layout superb. And the price, for this 424 page, full color, hard bound volume, is a steal at $31.50

The Atlas was released in September by the United Nations World Conservation Monitoring Center to document and conserve the world's coral reefs. Clearly written with divers in mind, it's an invaluable resource for global travelers. Here's what you'll find.

  • 94 maps, including global maps of biodiversity and reef stresses, regional maps showing 3-D bathymetry and high resolution maps showing reefs, mangroves, population centers, dive centers and protected areas.
  • 280 color photographs, showing reefs, wildlife, people and places, Including 84 photographs taken from space by Shuttle astronauts.
  • Text explaining the formation, structure and ecology of coral reefs; their various uses and abuses at the hands of humans; and the techniques used in coral reef mapping.
  • Detailed texts describing the distribution and status of coral reefs in every country.
  • Data tables listing information on biodiversity, human use, and protected areas. These include statistics on coral reef area, biodiversity, fish consumption, and threats.

For example, you can learn about pollution damage to the reefs at Providenciales and the lack of human impact, as well. Or, where extensive bleaching took place in Honduras 1998. You'll read that Milne Bay in Papua New Guineas has the most extensive reef system in that country and where, in Fiji, the bumphead parrotfish and tridachna clams will not be found, thanks to overfishing. Order now.


Reef Fish: Florida Caribbean Bahamas Reef Creatrue book Reef Coral book

Paul Humann ID Books by Paul Humann, Ned Deloach: The three set fish, creature and coral ID books by Paul Humann are the unparalleled sources for information on Caribbean sea life and identification. This month Paul and his partner Ned deLoach released updated and expanded editions of each, with scores of new critters, even better photos, and information unavailable anywhere else. Why, the Reef Fish Identification book, at more than 500 pages, is 20 percent larger than the previous volume, which came out in 1994. Whenever I travel to the Caribbean, I tote all three books and spend my down hours figuring out what I saw and where to look to find rare creatures. Paul's splendid Reef Creature book (420 pages), covers sponges, nudibranchs, octopus, crustaceans, Christmas tree worms and plenty more. His Coral ID book (276 pages) helps you identify all the hard and soft corals, spawning, and even the growth on top of corals, as well as algae and other plant life. Beginners may want to ID only fish, but I'd recommend that all three books be part of every diver's library. And, if you have an old set, by all means replace it. You'll be delighted at the additions and improvements. Each book normally retails for $40, but are discounted when you order here. And the boxed 3-volume set is available now at a bigger discount, $81.60 (June, 2004). You'll get the best prices Amazon.com has to offer, speedy delivery, and the knowledge that a large hunk of our profit will go to preserve coral reefs. All are spiral bound, 6x9


Watching Fishes book Watching Fishes: Understanding Coral Reef Fish Behavior
by Roberta Wilson, James Q. Wilson.

Your buddies can probably name the reef fish, but read this volume and you can explain what those critters are actually doing -- and why. This fascinating book describes why and how fish change color, how they smell and socialize, the difference between day and night behavior, even how damsels cultivate algae patches -- which is why they attach you when you fin by. Watching Fishes, Understanding Coral and Reef Fish Behavior is written for divers, not scientists, by Roberta and James Q. Wilson. They describe in lively nonfiction prose the behavior of basslets to blennies, clownfish to crinoids, damsels to drumfish. Perfect for between-dive reference. Paperback, 6x9, 274 pages.


You might find some other books of interest in our Editor's Book Picks section.



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