Undercurrent Online Update for Subscribers

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

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March 21, 2023

Tell Us About Your Liveaboard Safety: Have you been on a liveaboard trip in the last year? Did you get a thorough safety briefing before you left port? Was there a fire drill? Were you shown a functioning emergency exit from your cabin? Did a crew member stand watch throughout the night? Did you have a functioning alarm in your cabin? Were you instructed what to do if an alarm went off? Were lifejackets stowed in your cabin or somewhere accessible on an upper deck? Were there life rafts clearly marked with the date of their last inspection? How were the battery charging facilities? Let us know about the boat, the crew, and how safe you felt. Write to BenDDavison@undercurrent.org, not forgetting to mention your town and state.

Hungry Orcas Kill 17 Sharks in One Day. Two orcas nicknamed Port and Starboard killed 17 seven-gill sharks on one February day, according to researchers at Marine Dynamics, a Gansabaai, South Africa, cage diving company. Orcas delight in the shark livers of several species and leave the corpses after ripping open their bellies. They even attack great whites, which the pair were seen attacking in 2017.

Probation for Florida's Reluctant Diving Eco-warriors. As we reported in our March issue, a jury convicted the two divers running a shark diving charter -- John R. Moore (56) and his mate, Tanner J. Mansell (29) -- of theft after they recovered a baited long-line and released 19 hooked sharks and a grouper. The judge placed them on one-year probation and ordered them to compensate the fisherman $3,345 to cover his equipment and the value of the fish.

Does Your Mask Continually Fog? Did you forget to pack some antifog solution? Do you avoid spitting in your mask and rubbing it in? RKD Outdoor & Water Products Co. is developing a dive mask with windshield wipers on the inside to defog the lenses. Press the button on the top and, Hey! Presto! Of course, you might have to withstand the ridicule of those diving with you, so we doubt this idea will ever reach the marketplace. And besides, anyone you dive will be happy to lend you their antifog bottle.

Bacteria Helps Create Artificial Coral. It's being used to create a bone-like 3D-printed composite material that may be used for building artificial coral reefs that will attract coral polyps and become live reefs. Scientists at Switzerland's EPFL research institute combined a bacterium called Sporosarcina pasteurii with an eco-friendly polymer gel that ultimately converts into a hard calcium carbonate, free of bacteria after further treatment.

Are Caribbean Dive Operators Priced Out of the Insurance Market? The upscale Antigua Hotel Curtain Bluff, which operates a PADI Dive Center, has written: "After many decades of offering scuba diving, Curtain Bluff will, effective immediately, suspend all scuba diving operations. This is due to the fact that we no longer can secure insurance for this activity." They add that the problem affects many more operators throughout the Caribbean. If you're engaged in any Caribbean dive business and experiencing similar difficulties, write to BenDDavison@undercurrent.org, with your name and location.

The Old Man and the Sea. The doyen of underwater filmmakers, Stan Waterman, the winner of five Emmy Awards, turns 100 on April 5. Known for his camera work on Blue Water White Death, his life has been filled with underwater adventures detailed in his two autobiographies, Salt: Memories and Essays, and More Salt. If you know Stan and want to wish him a happy birthday, send him a card at Shark Research Institute, 70 Heather Lane, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA https://www.sharks.org.

Your Travel Experiences are Important to Other Subscribers. The ever-growing resource that is the Undercurrent readers' independent reports is one of the main reasons others subscribe. There's nothing like the unvarnished truth delivered by fellow divers to give an accurate impression of what a dive resort and its accommodation or a liveaboard is really like. These reports are unedited and tell it like it is -- which is where you come in. Write a report about a recent trip and post it alongside others. Don't hold back -- tell both the good and the bad. You can even add photos if you wish, and it's easy to compose because you can add to or edit as you go or even come back to it later. Go to www.undercurrent.org/SubRR to get started.

A Historic Treaty Among Nearly 200 Countries. After two decades in the making, culminating in two weeks of negotiations at the United Nations New York, delegates agreed to a legally binding high-seas treaty to protect marine life in international waters. The agreement provides legal tools to establish and manage marine protected areas in 200 nautical miles beyond countries' territorial waters, more than 60 percent of the world's oceans by surface area.

Belize, Eat Your Heart Out! The world's second-deepest known blue hole has been discovered in Chetumal Bay, Mexico, near the border of Belize. It's 899 feet deep with a surface area of more than 147,00 square feet. It's been named Taam Ja', which means "deep water" in Mayan. The world's deepest blue hole, 985 feet, is in Sansha Yongle, China. The Belize hole is 400 feet deep. Blue holes are prehistoric caves, the tops of which collapsed when sea levels rose and covered them. The Chetumal blue hole’s mouth begins roughly 15 feet from the surface, so perhaps it will become a diver attraction similar to Belize's blue hole. Two other blue holes, one 142 deep, the other 140 feet, were discovered nearby.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org