Tag Archive
Stormy Weather
The weather has been in the news lately. Between earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, fires, tornadoes and so forth, everyone has been affected by the unpredictable nature of the planet's weather. I can't remember whether it is supposed to be a La Niña or El Niño year, but out here in Indonesia the weather has been very erratic, except in its unwavering atrociousness. The water along the southern coast of the archipelago has been so unseasonably cold that several boats just blew off diving some of the better critter spots near Pantar Island. In Papua, it has rained steadily throughout the "dry" season. Visibility was off everywhere due to surge, waves, and storms. In early April we were supposed to meet our liveaboard in Ambon, and then cross the Banda Sea to Raja Ampat. But things were so bad out there that we had to reroute and only dive in Raja Ampat, which has decent protection in just about any weather. When you hear about waves several meters high and winds blowing a gale, you don't second guess the captain. You just go with his judgment even if it means that you'll disappoint a few clients, miss a few dives. There are things we can do something about, and there are things that we can't fix. Weather, water temperature, and visibility come to mind. We weren't the only people trying to cross the Banda Sea a few weeks ago. There was a small boat with just six guests that was trying to move southeast between Banda and Alor. Even though the captain was instructed not to leave harbor, the guests raised such a fuss about not being able to dive where they had planned, that the crew chanced it. This boat ended up drifting far from its intended arrival port and finally had to... More »
Greetings from Copenhagen
Greetings from Copenhagen, December 11 We traveling divers love the island nations - Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Solomons, the Maldives, and those in the Caribbean - and the island nations are speaking in a very loud voice in Copenhagen. Their argument, as I heard the ambassador from the Cape Verde Islands say today: "It was not us who put our waste in the atmosphere, but we are the ones who will suffer the most." Reef destruction may be upon us, with increased ocean acidification. As the sea gets warmer, more coral dies, taking the fishing industry with it. The warming atmosphere and the seas produce more severe hurricanes and cyclones, floods, mud slides . . . and of the course the biggest threat, an increasing sea level that already has people living in nations like Tuvalu moving their homes inland or migrating elsewhere. As I listened to the island-nation advocates, I could hear their fear and anger. Those of us who live on beach fronts in America may experience some direct effect, and all of us can expect increased storms, but over then next decade or two the temperature increase for most of us may only mean a longer growing season for our roses and lower heating bills. But the poor nations are on the battle lines. And they haven't got the money to fight the war. So they are doing everything they can in this enormous gathering to make sure everyone knows it. In my dive travels to island nations, I see bleached coral but I've never thought much about the effect of global warming on the people I meet. I doubt that many divers do. We tend to get off a plane, go directly to the resort and liveaboard, maybe mingle with the staff, get in as many dives as... More »
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