Undercurrent Online Update
for Subscribers

For Subscriber David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi' exp: 2024-08-20', at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
July 17, 2012

For a limited time, active Undercurrent subscribers -- and that includes you -- can give their dive buddies a FREE 4 month trial subscription to Undercurrent. It's very simple to do -- just go here to send them an invitation (max of 5 buddies). There's absolutely no obligation for them, or you for that matter -- we don't even ask for their credit card number. We'll send them the invitation and copy you on it.

So make a dive buddy happy and informed -- give 'em Undercurrent

One of my must-reads is Joe Brancatelli's weekly e-newsletter, Joe Sent Me. While it focuses largely on travel to Europe and Asia, (and the US) the tips on sales, business class deals, and upgrades for airlines; hotel deals, seat assignments, even airports, are excellent information if you fly long regularly. Just last month, Joe apprised me of a fare drop, so I rebooked and saved $1,000. The well-worth-it annual membership is $49, but Joe tells me he offers a free version of his newsletter, with about half the subscriber stories listed.

Love it or hate it, Cable's longest-running ritual celebrates its 25th anniversary on the Discovery Channel. Air Jaws Apocalypse (Aug. 12, 9 p.m. ET) has shark expert Chris Fallows returning to Seal Island, South Africa to see what has been happening with a 14-foot great white named Colossus, and discovering a "true scientific breakthrough." Shark Fight (August 14, 10 p.m. ET) focuses on shark-attack survivors who ended up as shark advocates fighting to save the animals from extinction. In Great White Highway (August 15, 9 p.m. ET), Stanford marine-sciences professor Barbara Block shows off new tagging technology that tracks great whites in real time. And we think that Louis Zamperini, the main character in Laura Hillenbrand's great read, Unbroken, is one of the two American WWII heroes profiled in Adrift:47 Days with Sharks (Aug 16, 9 p.m. ET), who survived 47 days on a raft in the always "shark infested waters" of the Pacific after their plane crashed. (Of course, if you've read Unbroken, you know the 47 days on a raft circled by sharks was nothing compared to what happened next.)

While the series began picturing sharks as ubiquitous and deadly, it's become more balanced, thanks, I'm sure to protests by plenty of people, divers included

We received an e-mail from a reader who calls out his former dive shop (The Scuba Shack) for poor customer service. "My wife and I did a refresher course there years ago, and ultimately bought our gear and we were very pleased with both. However, we do not do any business with them now because we found another shop that has a much nicer pool and store (although the Shack does our annual gear service for the warranty). That new shop has a lot of folks that come over from the Shack for a variety of reasons. One of the most common is that the Shack will not allow you to dive with them unless you either rent their equipment or buy your gear there. If you bring in something you purchased elsewhere, they must 'inspect it,' claiming it's due to an insurance issue. Is the Shack just trying to force customers to buy from them?" So for an upcoming story, we want to know if you've experienced something similar to this reader. What's the response from your dive shop if it finds out you bought gear online or from another store? Do they also require an inspection? If you sign up for classes and bring along your bought-elsewhere gear, how are you treated? Are there any other instances where your dive shop tries to make you feel guilty for not buying everything dive-related that you need from there? E-mail me your stories at EditorBenD@undercurrent.org

What dive mask is best for you? . . .coral, shmoral -- new methods the dive industry is using to keep you going underwater . . . what the dive industry is doing - or at least talking about - to make rebreathers safer . . . will dive shops snub you if you don't buy your gear from them? . . . what goes into your wetsuit, and why it costs what it does . . . and much more.

In the preamble to our July story, "CO Poisoning Risk Higher than You Think," we wrote about the March death of Calgary resident Ronda Cross while diving near Cabo San Lucas. She allegedly died by drowning after being overcome by carbon monoxide in her tank. Her husband, Colin, told the Calgary Herald that Sunshine Dive and Charter was the company responsible for filling her tank and we reported that Cross had hired that company for her dive. But Traun Lynch, who represents Sunshine Dive and Charter, tells us that both we and Colin Cross got it wrong. He says the divemaster who took Cross diving was not working for Sunshine Dive and Charter, nor did it sell him air. Police did not shut down Sunshine, as had been reported. Reports from readers who subsequently dived with Sunshine will be in the August issue. We apologize for any errors.

The August and September full moons spark the annual mating ritual of Florida's boulder and branching corals releasing millions of gametes (i.e., eggs and sperm) into the water column that unite, float in the current, and then settle to the bottom to start forming colonies of brain, star, elkhorn and staghorn coral. Many Florida Keys dive operators plan night dives to watch the coral spawning, and while spawning release can't be guaranteed to happen on the exact date, the late-summer full moons this year fall on Wednesday, August 1; Friday, August 31; and Saturday, September 29. To find a dive operator, go to www.fla-keys.com/diving , or see what fellow Undercurrent subscribers have to say about Florida dive shops.

The International Coral Reef Symposium just wrapped up, with 2,600 of the world's marine researchers gathering in Cairns, Australia - on the at-risk Great Barrier Reef - to focus on threats to coral reefs. At the opening, they issued a consensus statement calling for action to stave off the degradation of reefs, but did any specific action take place - and can anything be done? You can decide for yourself by reading the symposium's news releases and following its Twitter feed

They are active in protecting and managing their local coral reefs, with awe-inspiring results. "The paramount chiefs reached agreements that we are not to fish in certain areas at certain times, and everyone listens," local guide Joseph Taska told Baruch College biology professor David Gruber in the New York Times' "Scientist at Work" blog. Gruber is leading a National Geographic Society expedition exploring bioluminescent and biofluorescent marine animals in the Solomon Islands, and he recently wrote about how the tribes efforts' have led to pristine reefs - and thankful researchers who will have an easy time discovering, examining and cataloging a vast library of species in the area. Read Gruber's story, and see his video and photos

Australian diver Karen Lee, 42, disappeared on July 8 during a wreck dive at Melbourne's Point Lonsdale. Lee's dive buddy lost track of her as they were ascending, about 25 feet from the surface. Her gear and camera were found, but not her body. Police called off the search after discovering Lee's BCD was shredded, indicating a shark attack (the vest is currently being analyzed to determine what type of shark was involved). But the man who runs the dive operation Lee used on her last dive believes that while sharks ate Lee's body, they didn't kill her. Jason Salter of Dive Victoria told the Geelong Advertiser it was likely Lee drowned because of her own mistake or a medical problem. "When a person dies in any ecosystem [with] animals, unfortunately things take advantage of a free meal," he said, adding that sharks in Port Philip Bay aren't aggressive. A day before Lee's disappearance, authorities in Western Australia said it would introduce rules to ban most shark tourism after four fatal attacks on bathers there over the past year. While there are currently no shark cage or feeding dives there, Western Australia would ban such operations with the new rules.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher

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