Undercurrent Online Update
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For Subscriber David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi' exp: 2024-08-20', at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
March 19, 2015
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Been dreaming of a trip to Cocos? Now's your chance. The Undersea Hunter Group is offering $1,200 off two 10-day excursions that will have you diving with hammerheads, tiger sharks, Galapagos sharks, sea turtles, mantas and more. The first trip, regularly priced at $5,445, is $4,245 aboard the MV Sea Hunter April 21 - May 1, 2015. Renowned shark and turtle researchers from the conservation groups Fins Attached and PRETOMA will be aboard. The second trip on the luxurious MV Argo May 1-11, regularly priced at $6,095, is now $4,895. Both trips include all meals, nitrox refills and transportation from your hotel to the dock. An additional park fee of $490 per passenger will be applied to both trips. For details, email info@underseahunter.com, or visit www.underseahunter.com

Nikon is launching the new Coolpix AW130 this month. It’s supposed to be good underwater to a depth of 130 feet, shoots 16MP photos and does high-definition video at 1080P, and is priced at $350. Its Snapbridge feature lets you transfer photos straight from the camera to a smartphone or tablet via built-in Wi-Fi. Best of all, it doesn't need a housing, as the camera itself is waterproof. So if you're looking for a beginning-level camera that is moderately priced, this might be something to consider. More details here.

World Animal Protection wants to know. The nonprofit is asking divers to report "ghost" fishing gear, as there’s 640,000 tons of it lost or abandoned in the ocean every year, and it’s entangling and killing millions of marine animals including seals, turtles and whales. If you see or remove any ghost nets on a dive, you can upload your sighting here, which will then appear on a map, and enable the organization to identify the most common types of ghost nets and where they appear most often. The information will be used as evidence to convince governments and industry to reduce ghost nets and make the ocean safer for its inhabitants.

How you can find reasonably priced dive destinations with less-stressful travel . . . and how you can negotiate good group travel deals on your own . . . a study that shows that not all dive computers are as conservative as they claim . . . why some divers should consider taking a stress test in the cardiologist’s office before the next dive and much more.

to help responsibly collect fishes and invertebrates: The New England Aquarium is offering a special price on their week-long Bahamas trip April 24-May 2 aboard the RV Coral Reef II. $3500, much of which is tax deductible. For more information, go here.

You may still be browsing through our 2015 Travelin' Divers Chapbook (or you can get it here), but we're already starting to gather reader reports for the 2016 edition. 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 fish is a serious threat to Florida's saltwater fishing industry -- the second largest in the nation -- according to an economic commentary from the non-partisan research institute Florida TaxWatch. It reports that the invasive lionfish could be putting more than 109,000 recreational fishing jobs and more than 64,000 commercial fishing jobs at risk. What makes it a huge threat to the fisheries is that the exploding population is competing with native fish, including grouper, for the same food source. Rick O'Connor, agent for the Escambia County Sea Grant, told the Pensacola News Journal that scientists studying the stomach contents of lionfish in the Northern Gulf are finding them full of the same bait fish that snapper and grouper rely on. "A lot of divers are reporting juvenile Mingo snapper being consumed by lionfish, and we're watching them to see if their numbers drop," he said. How this translates to the volume of fish being caught by vacationers or commercial fishermen is unknown; O’Connor says he knows of no local or national studies measuring those impacts. "We need an economist involved.’

In Our May 2014 issue, we reported how authorities went undercover to film Randy Jordan, owner of Emerald Charters in Jupiter, FL illegally feeding sharks by hand and with bait-filled milk crates within state waters. The State Attorney's office charged him and three other men with second-degree misdemeanors, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a fine of up to $500. He pleaded not guilty, but a jury convicted him on March 12 of three misdemeanor charges, including unlawful fish feeding. Palm Beach County Judge Sheree Cunningham sentenced Jordan to a year of probation, a $1,500 fine and 100 hours of community service, but she withheld a finding of guilt. That keeps Jordan, 60, from having a criminal conviction on his record. His attorney Jonathan Wassermann tried unsuccessfully to argue that there was insufficient evidence showing the divers were in state waters (Jordan attributed his shark-feeding location to a faulty GPS system). After the jury verdict, Wassermann told the Palm Beach Post, ’There’s no barbed wire fence out there that keeps fish from going past a certain point. If Mr. Jordan wants to feed sharks, they’re going to go where he is.’

When companies plan to span the entire Pacific Ocean with fiber-optic communication cable, you need to do what it takes to ensure they remain protected and intact. Google, for one, is apparently taking no chances, even protecting their cables against shark attacks by wrapping them in a Kevlar-like material that keeps sharks’ teeth from piercing the cable jacket and severing the fibers. If that sounds like an unnecessary precaution, check out this video of what looks like a cow shark testing out a cable as its next meal. Undersea cables must carry high-voltage electricity to power the signal-amplifying repeaters placed atop them every 60 miles or so, resulting in the electric fields that can attract sharks' attention. So next time your Internet connection with overseas friends cuts out suddenly, consider that it may have been a hungry shark interrupting your conversation.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
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