Undercurrent Online Update
for Subscribers

For Subscriber David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi' exp: 2024-08-20', at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
October 16, 2013

In the September issue, we wrote about recompression chambers, and how divers are losing access to them in the U.S. But because many divers have the need for a chamber when they're overseas, we're wondering how easy or hard the experience is when that happens. If you or a diver in your group needed to go into a chamber on an overseas trip, how did the experience go? Did you have payment or insurance hassles? Did treatment go as planned? Anything happen, good or bad, that you didn't expect? Let me know your chamber tales - e-mail them to me at EditorBenD@undercurrent.org

Yeah, There's An App for That. Marine conservationists have launched iSeahorse Explore, a smartphone app (iPhones only) divers can use to report sightings of seahorses, a hard-to-study species. Of the 48 seahorse species listed as threatened, 26 are considered "data deficient," meaning scientists don't really know whether they're thriving or disappearing, or something in between (approximately 13 million seahorses are traded globally, live and dead, worldwide every year, for use in traditional Chinese medicine, and on display in public and private aquariums.) Download iSeahorse , and visit www.iseahorse.org to learn more about the tiny critters.

Our incognito writers report on dive trips in St Croix, Tobago and a nonprofit volunteer liveaboard trip in the Bahamas to collect reef life for a public aquarium. . . savvy tips for saving money and preserving your sanity on long-haul flights to dive destinations overseas . . . which dive equipment makers will repair your out-of-warranty gear, and which ones won't . . . the divers who don't have a problem with drinking before - and during - a day of dives . . . places where lionfish culling is actually having some success . . . and much much more.

Our good friend Ken Kurtis, owner of the Reef Seekers dive shop in Beverly Hills, CA, alerted us to a Change.org petition to get more protection for the Revillagigedos, four islands (Socorro, San Benedicto, Roca Partida and Clarion) south of Baja California. They're really remote -- San Benedicto is 240 miles south of Cabo San Lucas -- and therefore difficult to patrol, and manta poaching is increasing. Diver Alfonso Trujillo of Felicity, CA started a petition on Change.org (in Spanish) asking the Mexican government to step up protection and patrols in the region. He needs 2,000 more signatures - sign here

We're starting work on the 2014 Travelin' Divers Chapbook edition, and we'd like your reader reports for dive trips done this year. To send us your reviews of dive operators, liveaboards and resorts, complete the online form here . You can also follow the link "File a Report" on the left side of our homepage; or after logging in, follow the "Reader Report" link in the top navigation bar.

The nonprofit Fauna & Flora International thinks so. Plastic microbeads, added to face and body scrubs as an abrasive to remove dead skin cells, are washed down the drain after they've done their job. Because these microbeads are so tiny, water treatment plants cannot filter them out, so they end up in the sea and cause big problems for wildlife. Mussels and oysters, for example, filter out their food from seawater, and accidentally catch and eat microbeads. Seabirds are affected too. They also have health implications for people who eat seafood, because plastics attract toxins that can potentially be passed up the food chain. Fauna & Flora International has created a list of plastic-free cosmetic products and scrubs here

The grandson of Jacques is taking a scientific team on a month-long research project at the Aquarius Reef Base, an underwater lab off Florida's coast, next month, and he is raising money on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo for "Mission 31." Starting November 12, the researchers will test new diving technologies, study the effects of climate change on coral reefs, map the seafloor, and monitor the physical and psychological impacts of living underwater The project will cost more than a million dollars, but Cousteau is hoping for at least $100,000 by November 8 (he has currently raised $17,000, and Indiegogo will let him keep whatever he takes in). Donate $12,500, or be one of the top three "ambassadors" who gets the most money raised by others via social media, and you get to dive with Cousteau anywhere in the world. Details here

If you're craving more remote, boat-based diving in the Philippines, the Atlantis Azores is serving it up with a new 7-night trip from Cebu starting January 2015. Heading out of Malapascua, famous for thresher sharks, the liveaboard will do a dawn dive at Monad Shoal, then visit the marine sanctuary of Gato Island, the big pelagics at Kemod Shoal, and the remote wall dives of Calangaman Island (www.atlantishotel.com). Closer to home, if you want to book your dive club or a group of up to 12 dive buddies on a Bahamas trip, the M/V Spree is now offering charters from Miami to the Bahamas, as well as charters with a Bahamas-only departure and return. Five- to seven-day trips in the Northern Bahamas stop at sites like Tiger Beach and Little Bahama Bank. Seven- to 10-day trips in the Southern Bahamas include Bimini, Cay Sal Bank and the Old Bahamas Channel (www.spreeexpeditions.com).

Ben Davison, editor/publisher

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