Undercurrent Online Update
for Subscribers

For Subscriber David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi' exp: 2024-08-20', at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
February 16, 2012

See baitballs, exceptional hard coral, muck diving and great fish on Damai's April 28 to May 9 journey that will take an uncommon itinerary from Bitung to Ternate, diving the south of Halmahera. You'll be joining Dr. Mark Erdmann, a source of endless information and insight into the behavior of the incredible species you'll encounter, and he'll describe projects of Conservation International, perhaps the leading organization protecting Indonesia reefs. Undercurrent readers sing high praise for the Damai; rack rate for cabins start at $370 per night, double occupancy (a single is $480) -- get up to 30% off. For more information, discounted prices or to sign up, go to their website or contact them here

Want to swim with the great whites, but you're just too busy? There's an app for that. With an iPhone or an iPad and $3.99, you can follow a dozen of them with Expedition White Shark . It was created by marine biologist Michael Domeier, president of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, to raise awareness of white shark conservation. He has outfitted adult great whites with satellite-tracking tags, which plot the sharks' locations in a map. Follow Bruce, who loves to swim around cage divers, or Junior, an injured shark that recently appeared in Mendocino, CA. Some sharks check in just 10 times a year, others ping the satellite on a weekly basis. The app also offers information on the iconic sharks, including videos, photos and a game that lets users to play as a newborn great white shark trying to survive the dangers of the oceans. App proceeds will buy more high-tech satellite tags and add younger sharks to the batch.

We've written many articles about Gabe Watson, a diver from Alabama who was charged with murder in Australia after a month-long inquest concluded that while diving from one of Mike Ball's boats on the Great Barrier Reef, he turned off the air of his wife, Tina, and left her to drown. After pleading guilty to manslaughter, Watson, now re-married, served 18 months in an Australian prison. But authorities in his home state think he is guilty of murder and now he's fighting those charges in a new trial that started February 13. Prosecutors dropped the charge of murder by kidnapping, but Watson still is charged with carrying out a murder to cash in on Tina's $165,000 life insurance policy. The trial is expected to last two weeks, and we'll give trial updates in upcoming issues.

Join a Cocos Island Expedition this April as a volunteer researcher. Working with renowned marine conservationists, you will help tag sea turtles and hammerhead sharks. Sponsored by SeaTurtles.org, this trip offers first-class divemasters, plenty of dives on the great Cocos dive sites and luxury live-aboard accommodations aboard Undersea Hunters' newest yacht, the Argo - - with the rewarding opportunity to engage in real research on endangered species. Evening lectures on marine species, conservation and advocacy round out a fantastic experience. As a participant with a non-profit organization, the costs of your trip may be tax-deductible. Only a few spots left for the April 17-27 trip. For more information, visit here , or contact Todd Steiner at TSteiner@SeaTurtles.org

In this month's issue of Undercurrent, we ran the story "How Divers Can Give Back," listing possibly tax-deductible liveaboard trips offered by nonprofits that divers can take to help with their research and conservation efforts. In next month's issue, we want to include information about how our fellow divers are helping out with their time and/or money. So tell us, do you do anything to give back to the protection of our reefs, oceans and the people who live there who sustain themselves by your travels? If so, email me your story at EditorBenD@undercurrent.org

If you're planning this year's dive trips, know that you gained new rights when booking your flight, thanks to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Now you have the ability to hold a reservation without payment - or cancel one with a full refund - within 24 hours of making the reservation. Airlines must promptly notify passengers of cancellations, diversions and delays longer than 30 minutes, and they can no longer increase the price of a ticket after it is bought. Airlines and travel agents also must disclose baggage fees to consumers when they book a flight online. The first screen containing a fare quotation for a specific itinerary must show if there are baggage fees. Information on baggage fees also must be included on all e-ticket confirmations. Airlines and ticket agents must now include all mandatory taxes and fees in published airfares. The new rules apply to all airlines, foreign and domestic, operating in the U.S.

Seven dive sites in Thailand's Andaman Sea will be closed for at least six more months because the government wants the bleached coral to recover, and thinks keeping divers away will do so. The National Parks Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department ordered the temporary closure last January of 18 diving sites at seven marine national parks in the Andaman Sea because of coral bleaching, and it will extend the closure of seven sites in Tarutao Marine National Park, Hat Chao Mai National Park and Nopparat Tara-Mu Koh Phi Phi National Park. Now in all marine parks, the government plan to cap tourist numbers at each dive site, install rope lines to prevent diving at sensitive spots, and ask operators of dive shops to strictly follow rules. In some areas, diving will be allowed only during high tide to prevent divers from stepping on coral The department will evaluate how coral is recovering at the diving sites every six months, and if signs of degradation are found, it can order them to be closed again.

On one hand, there's the talented mimic octopus, which impersonates toxic flatfish, lionfish, and sea snakes by adopting their movements and bold color patterns, which lets it swim in the open without fear of predators. On the other, there's the timid black-marble jawfish, which spends most of its life hiding in a sand burrow. But during an Indonesia dive trip last summer, Godehard Kopp of the University of Gottingen,Germany, filmed an unexpected pairing between the two animals. Like a pipsqueak clinging to the big man on campus, the jawfish was seen closely following a mimic octopus, complete with similar brown-and-white markings, as it moved across the sandy bottom. Scientists surmise that the jawfish hitches a ride with the octopus, allowing it to venture out of its burrow to look for food, and recorded it as the first case of a jawfish involved in mimicry. The observations were published in the journal "Coral Reefs," and you can watch Kopp's video here

Smoking and diving don't mix, but here's the etiquette for handling it on the liveaboard and at the dive resort . . . should dive boats carry heart defibrillators? . . . what to do if dive boat crew mishandles your gear . . . what goes into your wetsuit, and why it costs what it does . . . the continuing debate about whether or not to buy trip insurance . . . new guidelines for avoiding lethal blood clots on long-haul flights . . the latest marine species to be hunted to near extinction . . and much more.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher

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