Undercurrent Online Update for Subscribers

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

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October 19, 2022

Scuba Tank Blast. An Australian in his 30s was seriously injured and the shop damaged when a scuba tank he was filling exploded at a diving school in Drumcondra, Victoria. In places where it is often common to fill tanks beyond their working pressure, it is customary to fit them with burst disks. But many places have regulations specifying that compressors automatically cut off when a set working pressure is achieved instead. Authorities are looking into the Australian mishap.

Dive Travel Insurance Woes? Let Us Hear from You: COVID disrupted dive plans for thousands upon thousands of divers, and many lost lots of money. We’re still working on a story about travel insurance for divers, and if you have had any 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, not forgetting to add your town and state.

Shark Attacks Spearfisher. A man in his 30s spearfishing off Pilbara in Western Australia suffered such a violent attack by a shark that his arm was nearly severed at the shoulder. The species was not identified, but tiger sharks are common there. The W.A. Fisheries Department urged people to take additional precautions in the Port Hedland area, although we are unsure what those precautions would be other than not to spearfish.

Still Time to Enter Your Prize Photo. World Shootout has extended the submission dates for its free-to-enter underwater photography contest to November 1, 2022. With 12 categories of photography and a top prize of a multi-location trip to PNG, they recognize that many photographers didn’t travel much due to COVID restrictions and are encouraging more entries. www.worldshootout.org

A Spate of Hong Kong Diving Deaths. An experienced Chinese diving instructor has attributed several recent fatalities to a lack of fitness among divers. Jowie To Tsz-ying of Galaxy Diving says, “People should be aware of their health and never dive when unwell. They should go with a buddy or instructor. Do a refresher course with a professional.” Sage advice.

Snakes Alive at Depth. Scientists have found that air-breathing sea snakes and sea kraits are living up to 500 feet deep in the ocean’s twilight zone. The reptiles, including coral-reef snakes and the yellow-lipped sea krait, mostly live in the reefs of the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, but their populations have been declining. Scientists said the population on the reefs had declined 90 percent since 2000. How the sea snakes travel back up to the surface to breathe remains a mystery.

Important First World War Wreck Found Off Virginia. A group of technical divers has found the wreck of a German submarine, U-111, 400 feet deep off the coast of Virginia. It sank three allied vessels in the Atlantic before surrendering to the Royal Navy. In June 1921, while being towed to a location to be used as an aerial bombardment target, the boat took on water and sank about three miles off Cape Henry (VA).

Faulty Scuba Gear Leads to Death. Police allege that scuba diver and tour guide Captain James Blee of Queensland Superyacht Marine & Tours, was the mastermind behind a plan to smuggle cocaine into Australia. He supplied Bruno Borges, a Brazilian, with a faulty closed-circuit rebreather, which led to his death. Borges died in his failed attempt to retrieve a $20 million cocaine shipment from the MV Areti, which had recently arrived from Argentina. (see Undercurrent June 2022)

Underwater Photography Banned in Sharm el Sheikh. Temporarily? Unconnected with Undercurrent’s article on rude underwater photographers, we have been reliably informed that Egyptian authorities in Sharm el Sheikh are stopping underwater camera equipment from being taken on dive boats and banning all underwater photography. This appears to be part of the preparations for COP27, the international climate change conference that begins on November 6. The reasoning for the ban is unclear, but it’s the sort of thing that happens in police states.

Massive Bleaching Hits Florida Corals. Florida reefs are experiencing the first widespread, mass bleaching event in seven years, according to Derek Manzello, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch. Coral bleaching hasn’t just been a persistent problem on the Florida reef tract. It’s also occurred in the Caribbean and Pacific, and scientists have linked it most directly to rising ocean temperatures driven by climate change.

Independent Readers’ Reports. More than 10,000 independent readers’ reports have been submitted by subscribers to Undercurrent and form the basis of a unique database searchable by other subscribers. They prove invaluable to those planning trips because they are unedited impressions of dive resorts and liveaboards not found anywhere else. If you’ve made a trip recently, whether good or bad, please submit a report. Don’t hold back. Tell it how it is. Undercurrent has no advertisers it needs to please, making it unique among diving publications. Praise what’s good and criticize what’s not. Tell all and file your report at www.undercurrent.org/SubRR.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org