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January 18, 2019  

Help Us Find the Idiot Who Did This

Some idiot defaced coral in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat, and Misool Eco Resort managers Andrew and Marit, took this photo of the defaced hard coral bommie at the Magic Mountain dive site. They wrote “It’s hard to comprehend why someone would visit a pristine marine ecosystem and then destroy it. We’ve dedicated ourselves to conserving this incredible marine environment for over 13 years and seeing this truly hurts.” A similar defacing happened last September at Bauan Divers Sanctuary in the Philippines, with a diver writing “Charlie” on a bommie – it sparked a social media outrage and the hashtag #FindingCharlie was created to capture the culprit (https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/212990-finding-charlie-coral-reef-vandalism-bauan-divers-sanctuary-batangas). If you know anything about either of these defacings, contact BenDDavison@undercurrent.org

“Picture of His Life.”

The long awaited documentary about wildlife and underwater film-maker Amos Nachoum is nearing completion. It features his quest to photograph a polar bear underwater -- probably the most dangerous underwater task he has undertaken. Two documentary filmmakers have been following Nachoum while he has been filming animals, and they started a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo to finish production. Major donors can become executive producers; contact yonatan@heyjudeproductions.com to ensure you get your name in the credits.

The Tiger Shark That Killed a Diver

off Cocos Island, Costa Rica, (Undercurrent January 2018) has been radio-tagged by scientists from the Turtle Island Restoration Network. They identified it from its unique scars and aggressive behavior toward divers. Todd Steiner, TIRN’s founder and executive director, charged the 14-foot female tiger shark and used a six-foot pole spear to place the transmitter. The device will allow scientists to monitor the shark for the next two years. www.seaturtles.org

Coming Soon in Undercurrent

A dive trip to Aqaba in Jordan’s Red Sea backwater . . . A liveaboard trip to Baja California . . . Will these products keep predatory sharks at bay? . . . The blame for a diving death gets laid at the door of nitrogen narcosis. . . A question of bends – it’s often not only the casualty in denial . . . Why Divers Die (part 2) . . . Worries about butterflyfish . . . Fins ain’t what they used to be . . . Living critters in your dive bag and what to do about it . . . Fish collecting at Blue Heron Bridge . . . Your views on novice divers making wreck penetration dives in Truk . . . Can a fish tell if a diver is armed and dangerous? . . . Should you let a shrimp clean your teeth? . . . and much, much more.

Queensland Gets That Sinking Feeling

It cost $3.9 million to prepare and sink the HMAS Tobruk, the Australian Navy's first heavy-lift ship, 15 miles off the Queensland coast. Intended as a world-class diving attraction, the sinking of the Tobruk followed a five-year campaign by the local dive industry and was paid for by the state government. Unfortunately, the 416-foot vessel ended up on its starboard side, rendering useless much of the preparatory work to make penetration safe for divers. The Queensland government is now spending another half-million dollars on a marketing campaign to promote diving on the portside-up Tobruk.

Goodbye, Bob Halstead, the Father of Muck Diving

Born in the U.K. in 1944, Halstead was a physics teacher who took a teaching post in the Bahamas, where he fell in love with diving and gradually swapped careers to scuba full-time. In 1977, he outfitted his first dive boat in Papua New Guinea, followed by the liveaboard MV Telita in 1984, which became home to him and his first wife, Dinah. He wrote numerous books and dive guides, and won many awards for underwater photography, even being credited with first describing a specimen of rhinopias. Halstead was one of the dive industry's most prolific diving journalists, and continued to be after he moved to Cairns, Australia in 1996 with his second wife, violinist Kirtley Leigh, with whom he shared passions for both scuba and music. He passed on December 18 after a long illness.

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Free-to-Read in Undercurrent This Month

Every month we offer a selection of articles from Undercurrent that are free-to-read for those that haven’t yet subscribed:

What new equipment appeared at the annual DEMA Show?
Jacques Cousteau’s divers made do with mask, fins, a regulator, and a tank or two, but today’s divers add stuff to make it a better experience. We went to Las Vegas last November to find out what’s coming and present a commentary on the most interesting stuff likely to be seen in a dive store near you this coming year. You can read it for free here.

Why Are Divers Being Bitten by Sharks in the Red Sea?
In recent months, several unsuspecting divers have been bitten by oceanic white-tip sharks, and some of the injuries have been serious. Not long ago, oceanic white tips were the most common large predator on Planet Earth, but no longer. It's been a thrill for divers to encounter them and the off-shore dive sites Egypt's Red Sea are a popular for that reason. Why are there more bites than usual? Read our thoughts here.

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Ben Davison, editor/publisher
Contact Ben