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For David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi', exp: 2024-08-20, at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
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March 16, 2018

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Travel Warning for the Yucatan

After the February 21 bomb injuring 19 Mexicans and five Americans on the Barcos Caribe ferry linking Playa del Carmen with Cozumel, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico has prohibited government employees from traveling to the resort town. On March 2 an undetonated pipe bomb was found on another Barcos Caribe ferry. The government has said that “the incidents are exclusively related to situations that are internal and inherent to the ferry line in question,” and for now, those ferries have stopped running. While ferries run by other companies continue to travel between Playa del Carmen and Cozumel, the U. S. government has warned travelers to stay away.

Perhaps the Best Dive Thriller Ever?

Set in Belize at the rundown dive resorts, Capt. Jack’s Rum Point Inn, Tropical Ice is a fast-moving scuba thriller written by the founder of Undercurrent. The opening chapter will knock your socks off, followed by a dangerous night dive, shark fins secretly stowed on a remote caye, rich men poaching jaguars, and a beautiful owner of a rain forest lodge with her own deep secrets. Click here to order an autographed copy (we will email you to see how you want it inscribed). Or get the paperback, E-book or Kindle version from Amazon by clicking here. It’s a helluva a story, believe me.

Woman Divers – Have You Had a “Me Too” Moment?

In February’s issue of Undercurrent, we mentioned the complaint from a female subscriber about her treatment by a dive guide on an Indonesian live- aboard. Could this be the result of a patriarchal or sexist attitude to women and, subsequently to female divers? Are you a female diver who’s experienced unfortunate attitudes while abroad or even when diving at home? Do some dive guides patronize you and assume you are an inexperienced diver? Worse than that, have you experienced outright sexual harassment when diving? If so, we’re working on a story, and we’d like to hear your story.

Write BenDEditor@undercurrent.org. Please include your name and hometown so we may get back to you, but we will keep you anonymous if you wish.

Crowns-of-Thorns under Attack

Bruce Stobo and a group of volunteers, working from the catamaran Kanimbla at Swain reef in Queensland, managed to destroy a record 47,000 crowns-of-thorn starfish, over an eight-day period, by injecting them with bile salts from 12 dipping guns normally used for cattle. The divers went no deeper than 16 feet (5m), which indicates the immense scale of the problem. The Australian federal government has allocated $AUS 10 million to tackling the crown-of-thorns problems.

No Plastic Packaging for Paralenz

While it may be difficult -- but surely not impossible -- for the diving equipment manufacturers to accept Undercurrent’s challenge to eliminate or at least reduce plastic packaging, one Danish company has stepped up. Jacob Dalhoff Steensen of Paralenz, the revolutionary Danish-made diving POV camera that automatically light balances for changing depth, tells us that they have changed its single-use packaging to cardboard only and are reducing the size of the boxes. Good work, folks. Now, where are the American firms in this challenge?

Aqualung & Suunto Still Under Threat

These two companies were sued in December 2015 by Ralph A. Huntzinger and Eric Bush, who alleged that the defendants were aware that the Cobra computers they sold were defective and prone to malfunction due to defective software or hardware. The companies wanted the case thrown out. The judge said no. More about this in the April issue of Undercurrent.

Queensland Tightens Regulations

After 10 tourists died while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016, new state government regulations require all vessels to carry an automatic external defibrillator and ensure instructors are well positioned to render assistance in case of an emergency. Operators must also enhance supervision and implement better safety systems to identify at-risk snorkelers before they enter the water. Australia has recorded 175 snorkeling deaths in 13 years. In 2011, Undercurrent urged all liveaboards to carry defibrillators in 2012.

Coming Soon in Undercurrent

A budget trip to dive the Lembeh Strait . . . A liveaboard fleet owner speaks of avoiding lost divers, emergency evacuation, and insurance rescues . . . When things don’t work out and diving disappoints . . . The ups and downs of Safety Sausages. . . Who owns PADI? . . . Does white light hurt night critters? . . . More on those AOW certs . . . Are full-face snorkeling masks off the hook? . . . and much, much more.

Click here to renew now.

Your Travel Reports

These are the lifeblood of Undercurrent, and your help makes Undercurrent unique. We want to spread the word about your trips, whether good or bad or both. Don’t hold back -- tell all! It’s a vast and ever-growing resource of information that you can see online at the Undercurrent website, and in our annual Chapbook. It’s easy to file a report using the online form here.

Thanks for being a loyal subscriber.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
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