Undercurrent Online Update for Non-Subscribers

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April 29, 2022

Another Liveaboard Burns. Outside Hurghada, Egypt, MY Scuba Scene burned furiously on the morning of April 19, shortly after leaving port. It’s believed the fire started in the engine room. The 43-metre steel-hulled vessel was said to be the latest and most luxurious to join the Red Sea fleet and was managed up by highly respected guides including oceanic white-tip expert Elke Bojanowski and veteran Egyptian guide Ahmed Fadel. (Fadel was the general manager for the Red Sea Aggressor I when it caught fire and one American guest died.) All the guests, many of whom were American, and crew, were evacuated safely in two zodiacs. There were no reports of casualties. Were you on board and had to be evacuated? If so, we’d like to hear about it. Write to: BenDDavison@undercurrent.org not forgetting to mention your town and state.

Dive Travel Insurance Woes? We need your Help: COVID disrupted dive plans for thousands upon thousands of divers, and many lost lots of money. We’re working on a story about the best travel insurance for divers, and if you have any travel insurance problems, we would like to hear about them. Not just with DAN or DiveAssure, but with any insurance carrier. Let us know how your reimbursement went, good or bad. Please tell us your story. Write to BenDDavison@undercurrent.org.

Malaysia Instructors Call for Regulation. After three trainee divers and their instructor went missing in Malaysian waters in early April, with the tragic death of the youngest trainee (Undercurrent April), local diving instructors are calling for the government to regulate the scuba diving industry and institute standard procedures. Professional scuba instructors are deeply concerned about the incident, saying that although it is not typical, diving instruction requires serious attention by authorities as it was not the first time divers had gone missing or died in Malaysia.

What You Missed in the April 20-page Issue of Undercurrent: Small Hope Bay Lodge, the Bahamas … Oasis Divers, the Osprey Beach Hotel, the Turks & Caicos … Ninety-nine Years Old; a tribute to Stan Waterman … Can Sharks Learn to Hunt Lionfish? … Are All Diving Instructors Up to the Job? … Stiffed: They Arrived in Cabo for their liveaboard trip, but their boat wasn’t there. What Undercurrent found out. . . . Russian Scuba Embargoes … the Rising Florida Diving Casualty Rate … Diving with a Grim Purpose … Ghost Fishing for Birds … A Boy Dies when Trainee Divers are Abandoned at Sea … and much, much more. You can read this issue, and hundreds of back issues, by subscribing now for just $19.95. Click Here.

Aqualung Calypso Regulator Recall. In December, Aqualung announced that many of these regulators might have a quality defect, leading to an uncontrolled freeflow. During manufacture, a hole was drilled out of specification in the high-pressure port, weakening a wall. Should it rupture, an uncontrollable second stage free flow could occur. If you own an Aqualung Calypso, don’t use it and check the website below to determine if your model is affected. If so, return it to your Calypso dealer, and it will be replaced at no charge. Go to the website.

A New Wreck Dive in the Black Sea? Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, with 300 scuba dives logged, didn't waste time to mock Russia over the sinking of its Black Sea flagship Moskva, which sank on April 14, apparently after being struck by two Ukrainian-fired Neptune missiles (after the vessel's anti-missile defense was prematurely activated by Turkish-made decoy drones). Reznikov says he will definitely dive the new wreck as soon as Ukraine has won the war. It's thought to be around 150 feet deep.

They’re Out There, Folks. We reported about Great Whites off the coast of the Carolinas (Undercurrent March), and now a Jupiter High School student, Nick Bailey, went diving with them off Florida. He gathered national attention after filming a rare encounter with a great white shark -- actually two encounters and with different sharks a few miles off the Florida coast near the Stuart Inlet. Fortunately, his video camera was already recording. The first shark was bigger than the second, which he saw off Jupiter a day later, and identified by a damaged dorsal fin.

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Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org