Undercurrent Online Update for Non-Subscribers

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January 24, 2022

Be Careful Buying a Computer. The Blue Planet Dive Shop in Washington D.C. was bilked out of $4000 worth of Garmin dive computers by customers using stolen credit cards. Two other shops were similarly scammed, one losing more than $10,000; Shearwater computers were among those stolen. They learned of the theft after a cardholder detected the purchase. Typically, this kind of theft is done over the phone, with the purchase shipped to a vacant house, a mail drop, or someplace the thief can't be identified. In this case, the computers will probably end up on eBay or some other online marketplaces. Buy your dive equipment only from a legitimate dealer. You don't want to end up with stolen goods that no longer have warranties. The stolen computer serial numbers are on file with authorities.

World Shootout Underwater Photography Winners will be announced live online on January 29 at 10.30 a.m. Pacific time. It’s a 16-year-old global competition, in which amateur and professional underwater photographers submit photos in 12 categories. We understand that some Americans are among the overall winners this year. www.worldshootout.org

Thinking About Bonaire for your Next Dive Trip: "Just during our month here, December-January, we have seen the entry rules change twice, thanks to the Omicron variant," our long-time correspondent tells us. "Bonaire hoped to keep it out, and thus enforced strict entry rules, but last fall rules were relaxed in favor of frequent testing and restrictions on gathering. In mid-January, restaurants are limited to 50% capacity and no more than four per table. That means no big dive club tables! Sadly, the government continues to let floating COVID wards, aka cruise ships, dock and overrun the island with cruise passengers driving golf carts spreading COVID. The good news is I noted fish I had not seen on the west side -- hogfish, a nurse shark, abundant yellowtail snapper, more tiger and black grouper -- and delighted in seeing a pair of seahorses in the same place I saw them last summer. Be careful with your rental car: long stretches of busy roads are more potholes than roadway."

If you're even thinking about making a dive trip, you need how COVID affects dive travel. You Need Undercurrent. Each month, in our 18-page newsletter, we'll keep you up to date on the safe spots to travel, who is operating safely, and where you should avoid traveling. You can also access scores upon scores of reports pouring in from our fellow subscribers on the Keys, Belize, Bonaire, Hawaii, Cabo and Socorro, the Red Sea, and many other places. And there are plenty of features on safety -- like that bent diver who ignored her computer and listened to her guide, equipment, and much, much more. For just two more days I am offering you a seven-month trial subscription for just $19.95. You'll have complete access to 20+ years of issues and reader reports on our website. And I’ll send you FREE downloads of Eight Great Liveaboards and Eight Great Dive Resorts. If at any time during this period you want your money back, you'll get it, a promise I've kept since 1975. Click here.

X-Deep Recalls its NX700 Regulator: Stop Using It. During routine servicing of some NX700 first stages, technicians have discovered excessive membrane wear in some regulators. Consequently, all existing NX700 first stages have been recalled, and the dry chamber body will need to be replaced. If you own an NX700 first stage, stop using it immediately and contact the dealer from whom you purchased it. More info: click here.

Close and Far? If you wear glasses, you most likely need corrective lenses underwater. Consider getting a mask fitted with either positive (close reading) or negative lenses at your dive store. The TUSA Ceos is a popular example. For close-up viewing, you can have your standard mask fitted with a positive lens in the lower part to partly function as a bifocal. To solve his vision problem, Blue Planet cameraman Peter Scoones had a plus-lens in one side of his two-lens mask and a negative in the other. He said his brain soon sorted it out, and he had perfect vision restored for both close and far subjects. Have your dive store help you out.

Immaculate Coral Reef Discovered. Stretching across the ocean floor for nearly two miles, a huge coral reef has been discovered off the coast of Tahiti in French Polynesia. It’s in the Pacific twilight zone and offers hope that more pristine ecosystems are discovered at unexplored depths. It’s more than 100-foot deep, where sunlight levels are low, but it does not appear to have suffered any bleaching events. Most of the world’s known coral reefs are at depths of less than 80-feet. Click here to view the article.

Have You Experienced COVID on a dive trip? Have you been unlucky enough to be on a liveaboard that had its trip curtailed because there was an outbreak of COVID on board? Or at a dive resort when others, or even you, became COVID-positive? Did you have to curtail diving, cut your trip short, or endure an unscheduled quarantine that extended your trip and its cost? We'd like to hear about it. Write to BenDDavison@undercurrent.org

If you’re even thinking about making a dive trip, you need to know how COVID affects dive travel. You Need Undercurrent. Click here and become our newest subscriber.

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Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org