Undercurrent Online Update
for Subscribers

For Subscriber David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi' exp: 2024-08-20', at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
December 15, 2014

Our latest edition is available to download or to order in a print copy. Thanks goes to our Undercurrent subscribers who sent in their reader reports, filling up 797 pages with nearly 600 reviews of about dive resorts and liveaboards around the world. It's the most up-to-date information about dive destinations you're going to find anywhere. Download or order a printed copy here

Have you ever sent one of your photographs into a contest, submitted one to a magazine, online publication or any type of professional organization. Did you get paid? Did you not get paid? Did your photo show up elsewhere . . . and did you know about it beforehand? Let me know your experience - I may use it in a story we're considering about the financial pros and cons of underwater photography. Write me at EditorBenD@undercurrent.org

We have just a few copies left of There's a Cockroach in My Regulator, our 242-page paperback with some of the more unique and quirky stories ever published in Undercurrent. It's a fun read for every diver, but even non-divers can enjoy it. One of those is Carla Pollard from Mill Valley, CA, who writes in her Amazon review of our book, "I know nothing about diving, and I never subscribed to Undercurrent, so I found the compilation of articles positively mesmerizing. This book was a real page-turner for me. To have so many enthralling stories in one place is a jewel." Buy it directly from Amazon for $9.95, plus postage and handling, by clicking here. Order by December 18th for Christmas delivery.

Our undercover travelin' divers review liveaboards in the Caribbean and Tonga, resorts in Curacao, Panama and Indonesia . . . why you should research weather conditions before you book a dive trip . . . should a diver's certification certificate last forever?. . .our report of the latest and greatest gear on display at the DEMA dive industry trade show last month . . . why there's such a brou-ha-ha over the "Miss Scuba" beauty pageant . . and much more.

On December 12, SeaWorld CEO Jim Atchison announced he is stepping down on January 15, but will stay on the board and as a consultant. Sea World also plans on cutting jobs for "cost-saving efforts." This all comes after a horrible 2014, with an attendance drop, a plummeting stock price and multiple lawsuits, including one from shareholders who said they were misled about the impact of the documentary Blackfish on SeaWorld's performance. An industry analyst told the Orlando Sentinel, "[The] board will probably . . . seek someone who is less [concerned] about the operations of the park and a lot more about, 'How do we handle the public relations and the media aspect of SeaWorld?' I think that's the biggest challenge they have now."

Our World Underwater is hosting some excellent dive and travel shows just for sport divers. The next one is in Dallas on January 25-26, followed by Chicago February 27-March 1. New gear, new travel destinations, demonstrations, film festivals -- they're not-to-be missed get-togethers for sport divers and their friends. More information at www.ourworldunderwater.com

Want to dive in Raja Ampat, but can't decide which liveaboard to go on? One of our undercover travel reviewers, who recently spent three weeks diving there, explains why the Mermaid Fleet is a good bet. Read the report on the Mermaid I and the Mermaid II -- it's a full travel review we posted as our latest blog. Free to view, along with our other latest posts, at www.undercurrent.org/blog

In the search for great underwater adventure writing, one needs to look no further than this absorbing book, just out in paperback, by one of Undercurrent's top-notch contributors. Bantin has compiled dozens of tales that will intrigue and delight. Consider the British diver who barely survived a crocodile attack while diving from an Indonesian liveaboard, or the divers fired upon by the military when diving in the Red Sea. Bantin, who makes 300 dives a year, gets behind the scenes of terrible tragedies, applies his great wit to his own travels and travails, and explores unusual and bizarre behaviors -- both animal, fish and human -- that take place a few fathoms down. Buy his book through us here.

Last month, the central African nation of Gabon declared almost a quarter of its territorial sea off limits to commercial fishing, creating a first-of-its-kind network of marine-protected areas in the region, which is home to more than 20 species of rays and sharks. The area will cover 18,000 square miles of ocean and will protect 20 species of whales and dolphins, and four species of marine turtles, including the world's largest breeding leatherback turtle population. Gabon's president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, made the announcement at the opening of the IUCN World Parks Congress, held only once every 10 years, which drew thousands of delegates from 165 countries.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
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