Miscellaneous
Working to Protect Marine Ecosystems: Oregon Bans Shark Fin Trade
In June 2011, Oregon passed legislation that prohibits the distribution and possession of shark fins within its state. Oregon House Representative Brad Witt, House District 31, sponsored House Bill 2838, which declares that an individual may not "possess, sell or offer for sale, trade or distribute a shark fin" within the state. Bill 2838 effectively closed a loophole that existed in Oregon state law, which prohibited the practice of "shark finning" within state waters but did not address the possession, distribution or trade of shark fins. House Bill 2838 prohibits such activity and effectively clarifies the rules adopted to prevent the establishment of a shark finning industry within Oregon. Shark finning is the process of removing the dorsal, pectoral, pelvic, anal, and tail fins of a shark. After all of a shark's fins and its tail are cut off, the rest of the shark is discarded back into the ocean. The shark is then left to survive without any of its limbs, which often results in starvation, suffocation and eventually death. In 2010, nearly 73 million sharks were killed as a result of shark finning. Sharks' slow reproduction rates raise many concerns over the survival of many shark species. Sustained growth in the demand for shark fins, which are used in traditional Chinese shark fin soup, may deplete worldwide shark populations and leave marine ecosystems without an important natural predator. Representative Witt's bill follows the passage of Hawaiian Senate Bill 2169, which also prohibits the sale, distribution, possession or trade of shark fins within the island state. Guam, Chile, the Bahamas and Washington State have already approved similar legislation. California [passed! -- editor] and the Northwest provinces of Canada are currently considering adopting shark finning laws as well. In 2012, Taiwan will move to ban shark finning at sea, and it will be... More »
New World Record!
I was in the Bahama Islands in the late 1960’s. I had just awakened my mania for Scuba and decided that Going Diving was I wanted to do with my life. I was glowing with the excitement of self-discovery when I was confronted with the shocking news that two local divers had died trying to break the World Depth Record for Scuba Diving on Air. I seem to remember they were diving out of Small Hope Bay on Andros Island. The team of three had successfully completed previous practice dives to record depths and were ready for the officially sanctioned Record Dive to make them the World Record holders. Just hearing of the attempt got me thinking weird thoughts. I had just been studying partial pressures of gasses, and learned that their medical effect changed as the partial pressures increased. Nitrogen became narcotic and produced “Rapture of the Deep” – Nitrogen Narcosis. Oxygen at a high enough partial pressure became toxic and could produce out-of-control muscular spasms. The gases in air become poisonous with increasing depth. It seemed to me that what these divers were actually doing was equivalent to seeing how much Arsenic they could take before they would die. Pretty stupid, I thought, what is the point? And more than that, what organisation could possibly sanction such a record. Would it qualify for the Guinness Book of Records? But these divers claimed they had developed special techniques that prevented them from getting poisoned, something to do with ice packs and... More »
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 »
Pain in the Bass
A few years ago I surveyed several fisher persons with the question "Do fish feel pain?". The response was a unanimous "NO WAY"! I then decided to pose the same question to my ichthyologist friends and the responses varied from "probably not" to "maybe" and "just a little" and even "you're so smart, Halstead, why don't you ask them" - which latter remark I thought was perhaps an attempt to mock me. So it was interesting, recently, to read the headline "Scottish Scientists Prove Fish Feel Pain". It could have just been press hype but, whatever; it provoked immediate suspicion since real scientists do not go around claiming that they have proved things. They might say, for example, "We have discovered evidence that suggests that ...." but rarely would they claim an absolute truth, after all, the whole history of science consists of excellent theories found to be less excellent as scientists proudly discover more stuff. Global Warming for example. The "scientists" that do go around saying that they have proved things are generally those that work for advertising agencies or creationist religions and who wear white lab coats. They claim proof that brand X soap washes brightest, and that Darwin was a Dickhead. Perhaps the only thing they do actually prove is that people who believe them are on the double-digit side of the IQ bell curve. Then the "Scottish" bit peaked my interest. Perhaps they only budgeted for a few experiments? Perhaps they wore kilts instead of white lab coats? This was a bit of a puzzle until a later news item made everything clear. These people, or their mates, were trying to get a ban placed on fishing for Scottish salmon. Fish feel pain, they argued, therefore fishing is cruel, thus fishing for Scottish salmon should be made illegal. This... More »
Wruck Diving in the Philippines
When Ben Davison first approached me about writing a blog for Undercurrent my first thought was "Great, I can write a puff piece about my organization, Seacology, for my favorite dive magazine." But then I channeled the voice of my friend and fellow blogger Bret Giliam saying "Duane, first write about an interesting dive adventure before you discuss Seacology. You've led dive trips all over the world. Write about that." Okay, Brett, I hear you. If readers want to know about Seacology they can read Bret's article of several years ago in Fathoms. Instead I will take this opportunity to write about the wonderful wruck (no, that's not a typo) diving of Coron Bay in the Philippines. During World War II, the Japanese anchored a fleet of ships in Coron Bay, 180 miles southwest of Manila. The ships were well camouflaged and covered with trees so that they would resemble islands. While comparing aerial reconnaissance photos taken at different times, a very perceptive navy analyst realized that several of Coron Bay's "islands" had moved. Orders for an air strike on this Japanese fleet went out and U.S. Hellcat bombers on carriers based 350 miles away soon took off for Coron Bay. Since the bombers had to cover a very long distance before they reached Coron, their time over the Bay before running out of fuel was extremely limited. Some say their actual mission lasted no more than twenty minutes, but in that brief time the entire Japanese fleet was wiped out. Coron Bay now has eleven diveable wrecks, including some, such as the Tae Maru oil tanker, that are over 500 feet long. Most of the dives are somewhere between 30 and 120 feet deep and several of the wrecks still have construction supplies in their holds and anti-aircraft guns on... More »
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