Undercurrent Online Update
for Subscribers

For Subscriber David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi' exp: 2024-08-20', at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
October 14, 2016
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A quick and unexpected trip to the surface could be fatal, but that’s what an Aqua Lung’s Powerline inflator might cost you. The company is recalling all 53,000 supplied with Aqua Lung BCDs and Apeks Black Ice BCDs and sold since January 2015. They’ve had reports so far of 60 being faulty. If failure occurs during a dive it might cause the BCD to continue inflating after the inflation button has been released, increasing the potential for an uncontrolled ascent. If you have one, get it to an Aqua Lung dealer without delay. www.aqualung.com/us/recall-notice-powerline

Other subscribers benefit greatly from your trip reports. And, in December, we’ll provide the 2017 edition of the Travelin’ Diver’s Chapbook, with hundreds of this years trips reports from you and others. You can download or even order a paperback copy. Your fellow subscribers count on you, just as you count on them so please, fill out our online trip report form at www.undercurrent.org/members/UCnow/SubRRTopMA.php.

Last month we asked you if you’d ever been paired up with a buddy who exhibited undesirable behavior underwater. Many of you responded with tales of woe -- so many in fact that we were unable to run the feature in this month’s Undercurrent through lack of space. Don’t be disappointed! It gives those that never got round to telling us their own story a second chance. If you’ve been saddled with a dodgy buddy, tell us about it. BenDEditor@undercurrent.org

More than you think! As we have our complex lives, so do fish, forming relationships, parenting and creating social order. What A Fish Knows by Jonathon Balcombe is a well-researched, well-written and fascinating read that will turn your beliefs about the underwater world upside-down. It retails for $27 hardbound and is available on Kindle. To get Amazon’s best prices, click http://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/bookpicks.shtml.

A member of the Bali (Indonesia) House of Representatives has told of his disappointment at the vandalism by divers of some of the islands coral reefs. He pointed to pictures on social media of coral with graffiti in the form of names and slogans carved with Chinese characters and asked “The dive guides must remind all their clients before diving into the seas of the need to protect the environment.” Well said!

Dan Clements (Everett, WA) observed, in our article about strobes and video lights for photography (Undercurrent September), that we failed to mention the effect of a continuous bright light in close proximity to higher animals. He’s quite right in asking which of the types of light source mentioned does the least damage to photo subjects, strobes or video lights? We’ve dealt extensively with the subject in the past (Undercurrent October 2015), and with the effect of strobes flashes on seahorses (Undercurrent November 2013). We suggest that animals so affected resort to flight or fight -- so the cameraman should make a judgment at the time as to how any particular animal is affected.

Liveaboard dive boats don’t always follow previously advertised itineraries. The weather and other considerations beyond the control of the operator like mechanical breakdowns can mean the captain has to take a view on where to go. However, there have been cases where operators have flagrantly flouted plans to satisfy the quest for profits, leading to frustration and disappointment for those who booked expecting something different. Has it happened to you? Write and tell us about it. BenDEditor@undercurrent.org. Don’t forget to tell us your town/state.

A Florida man is redefining the lionfish hunt after shooting lionfish with a Glock handgun at point-blank range in the Gulf of Mexico. Courtland Hunt, of Bradenton, FL, shows off his modified Glock handgun firing underwater and killing a lionfish, an invasive species in Florida’s waters, with a video on YouTube. He says he was 100 feet deep underwater at the time.

Nowadays we dive in ever more remote locations. Divers talk of places like Cocos and Raja Ampat with a degree of familiarity that amazes others. But what are you going to do if you are away somewhere like that and suddenly display symptoms of DCS and the hyperbaric treatment facility is three days away. Bret Gilliam makes a case for inwater recompression next month in Undercurrent.

Americans tend to tip a lot more generously than other nationalities and sometimes a collective tip can amount to quite a lot of money. We received allegations from one subscriber who suspected that the collective tip gathered by the leader of her group on a dive trip was skimmed before it was passed to those for whom it was intended. Do you suspect this might have happened at the close of a trip that you were on? Tells us your suspicions. Anonymity is guaranteed. BenDEditor@undercurrent.org

They need your help. Because they are by-catch of long-line fishing for tuna and mahi mahi, important silky shark populations have decreased by 90 percent. It is the third most commonly traded fish in Hong Kong. You can sign a petition calling on the Presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua to support listing silky sharks, under Appendix II of CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). If silkies gain this status, countries will be required to take concrete action to protect this shark species. https://seaturtles.org/takeaction/increase-protections-for-silky-sharks

An appealing view of how one fish might be concerned about another, the violent demise of a cone shell, the magic of the hairy frogfish, the giant Pacific octopus is not an animal to make angry, and edible plastic six-pack rings might save a lot of marine life from a painful end. You’ll see all this and more at www.facebook.com/Undercurrent.org

An Indonesia liveaboard . . . the trauma of being assigned an unwelcome buddy . . . the sting in the tail . . . complications with those little blue pills . . . safety at sea . . . and much, much more.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
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