Undercurrent Online Update for Subscribers

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

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August 15, 2022

Fire at Cozumel Hotel. A diver’s favorite, the Allegro Cozumel, has closed after a fire in its palapas spread to the main complex. A few of the 575 guests were injured. Read more about this in the upcoming September Undercurrent issue, including their problems with fire alarms, water pressure, and more.

It’s Crazy During Florida’s Two-Day Lobster Mini Season. Four people died, at least two while snorkeling, one perhaps struck by a boat during the two-day event. Officials found scores of people with undersized lobster -- one group of four had 27 undersized lobster -- and people hauling more lobster than permitted.

Been Around Rude Divers? Let Us Hear From You. Have you ever been on a trip where rude divers affected your diving? Where, perhaps, they refused to follow direction so the captain could not go to certain dive sites? Or where they refused to make certain dives, so the captain changed the itinerary? Or they insisted on certain dives? Or they were always late, or maybe overstayed their bottom time affecting the next dive? Let us know how other divers have affected any trip you've taken. Email BenDDavison@undercurrent.org with your story, not forgetting to tell your town and state.

Understand What Your Computer Tells You. Most divers try to stick to no-deco-stop times and ascend to the shallows as their displayed NDL time displayed diminishes. However, occasionally you may overstay your welcome at depth, and your computer switches displays to show a stop depth and time or minimum ascent time. Be aware of this so that you don’t, at best, send your computer into SOS mode or, at worst, send yourself for emergency recompression. If you don’t fully grasp this, read the instructions that came with your computer.

Escapes the Fire with Scuba, but Not the Law. A guy who was resourceful enough -- or perhaps clever enough -- to don his scuba gear to escape smoke inhalation while running from the early July fire that destroyed his opulent home in Phoenix, AZ, has been arrested for arson. Michael J. Marin denies the allegation, though not long ago, he failed in an attempt to raffle off his 10,766 square foot custom-built home.

First Unprovoked English Shark Bite in 175 years. A snorkeler bitten by a Blue Shark off the Atlantic coast of England in June now holds that distinctive record. Blue sharks from the Caribbean visit the UK during the summer, but this is the first unprovoked shark bite since 1847 when records began. The woman was with Blue Shark Snorkel on an organized snorkeling tour miles offshore and is expected to recover fully.

Baby Turtle Dines on Plastic. A baby green sea turtle found lying on its back in a rock pool near Sydney, Australia, had eaten so much plastic that it took six days for it to be excreted, according to Taronga Zoo’s wildlife hospital. A veterinary nurse told The Guardian that once it started to defecate, no feces came out, just pure plastic. This little guy is just one of millions, if not billions, of examples of how the eight million tons of plastic that pour into our oceans destroy our wildlife.

At Least Someone is Doing Something About Plastic. Volunteer divers removed 43 tons -- the weight of a commercial airliner -- of plastic and rope ghost nets from a Hawaiian Reef during the first week of August. Maro Reef is part of the Papahånaumokuåkea Marine National Monument more than 800 miles from Honolulu and lies in a shallow lagoon less than 10 feet deep. PM Debris Project volunteers recovered the ghost nets in early August.

Curaçao Dive Center Not Looking After Its Reefs. In a strange case of defecating on your own doorstep, Scuba Lodge’s owner Bas Filippini has not adhered to the permit conditions, according to Curacao government officials. The pier and boardwalk he recently built behind Scuba Lodge in Willemstad are larger and more extensive than its permit allows. The owner must dismantle it to insure permit requirements are met. The construction may have already caused damage to the seabed and its marine life … and you thought dive centers were invested in their reefs.

Some Better News At Last. The Jakarta Post reports that two-thirds of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef shows the most significant coral cover in 36 years, although the reef system remains vulnerable to frequent mass bleaching and predation by crown-of-thorns starfish. The recovery of the northern and central regions is in stark contrast to the southern region, but it does indicate that the reef may be more resilient than thought. Hopefully, this applies to other coral reefs too.

Humpback Whale Gulps Two Women. Julie McSorley and Liz Cottriel were kayaking in California’s San Luis Obispo Bay when they found themselves inside the mouth of a humpback whale. The act was caught on video by people nearby. It happened in 2020. The whale spat them out, and the women suffered no serious injuries. You can see the video, which has recently gone viral, here.

Dr. Peter B. Bennett Passes. Founder and first President of DAN, and later Executive Director of the Undersea Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS), Dr. Peter B. Bennett has passed aged 91 years. His 17 research works while affiliated with Duke University Medical Center and other places included 441 citations. As a researcher, Bennett performed studies of nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, submarine escape, decompression illness, ascent rates, and the effects of flying after diving. Bennett is also credited with the invention of trimix breathing gas. In 1981, at Duke University Medical Center, he conducted a 43-day experiment called Atlantis III, which involved compressing divers to an equivalent depth of 2,250 feet (690 m), and slowly decompressing them to surface pressure, setting a world record in the process.

Komodo Only for the Well-Heeled? Latest news is that the Indonesian authorities have bowed to pressure from local businesses and have put off raising the tourist entrance fee for the Komodo National Park until next January.

Your Trip Reports Are Important to Others. Don't forget to submit a report of your dive trips this year. You can be as hard-hitting or as complimentary as you like, as long as you tell it like it is. That's because other Undercurrent subscribers refer to what you write when deciding where to go next for a dive trip. So tell all, and we'll publish it. Your report joins more than 10,000 others in our online database (and our annual Travelin’ Diver's Chapbook), which is easily searchable by any other subscriber. You can even add photos if you wish. Divers need information not only about the diving and safety. They need to know about accommodations, the good and bad about the resort or liveaboard, and the food. Tell all and file your report at www.undercurrent.org/SubRR.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org