Undercurrent Online Update for Subscribers

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

Forward this email | Home | Login | Forgot Password? | My Account | FAQ

October 25, 2023

Is it Safe to Travel to the Red Sea Nowadays? To a North American looking at a map, the Red Sea seems very close to Israel, but in fact, the Red Sea coast of Egypt is a long way from the conflict. From Gaza, it's 250 miles to Hurghada and 445 miles to Marsa Alam, which are hosting European visitors and carrying on as usual. The Middle East may be a troubled area, but the trouble-free Saudi Arabia is on the opposite coast of Egypt, and those two nations are not at war. If you have a trip to the Red Sea planned, enjoy it and experience some of the most remarkable diving in the world.

The prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award has been won by marine biologist Laurent Ballesta with a picture of a mysterious and other-worldly horseshoe crab in waters off Pangatalan Island in the Philippines. Ballesta is only the second photographer in WPY's 59-year history to win the competition twice. In 2021, he was awarded the grand prize for capturing a trio of spawning groupers. See the winning shots here.

Blue Friday: A Diver's Alternative to Black Friday's Shopping Insanity: Northern California divers are rebelling against the wanton consumerism of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, by going diving. Since 2021, Marin Scuba Club and the Dive Club of Silicon Valley have been celebrating a new holiday, Blue Friday, by going scuba diving at Carmel by the Sea, heralding their slogan, "Don't Shop. Dive." Undercurrent subscriber Ken Carter (Mill Valley), who created the idea as a reason to go diving with his son, encourages divers everywhere to organize their own Blue Friday and get wet, not bankrupt. See here for details.

That Stinking Weed. Foul-smelling sargassum has been swamping the beaches of the Caribbean, but it looks like it can be turned into biofuel. Belize is working with a German company, Variodin, to build a $50 million plant to turn municipal solid waste and sargassum into a replacement for diesel fuel. Caribbean nations spend up to $120 million annually to collect and dispose of it. Necessity is the mother of invention.

An Industrial Solution to the Lionfish Problem? Three scuba divers have founded Inversa Leathers in Tampa, FL, with the idea that the invasive species wreaking havoc on Caribbean coral reefs could be used for their skin. The company has raised $2 million in funding and works with a dozen fishing cooperatives that hunt the pests to buy as many skins as possible. A leather lab in Cincinnati tans the product before it's sold for around $35 for a 55-square-inch skin, which so far has been fashioned into watchbands, purses, and shoes. www.inversaleathers.com

Bret Gilliam Has Passed. One of the true pioneers of scuba diving, Bret began working for the U.S. Navy before continuing as a dive shop owner on St. Croix. He later ran liveaboard dive boats in the Caribbean, including the 550-foot Ocean Quest, the largest such vessel ever dedicated to diving. He started Fathoms magazine with Fred Garth, to which he brought both his writing and underwater photography skills. He ran Uwatec in the USA before it was bought by Scubapro. In 1972 he created a consulting company, Ocean Tech, and over the years appeared as a diving and maritime litigation consultant and expert witness, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in almost equal numbers. He set the record for the deepest dive on air (475 feet in 1993) and founded the technical diving training agency TDI. A frequent contributor to Undercurrent, he will be sorely missed. If you ever met Bret, well, you know he was larger than life.

A Question for American Dive Boat Operators: Since the Conception burned and sank with 34 souls lost, insurance laws have changed. Have your premiums jumped up considerably? How much? How has it affected your business? We'd like to hear from you. Email BenDDavison@undercurrent.org

Canada's DIVER Magazine Hangs Up Its Fins. It was started 48 years ago and published by Vancouver's Phil Nuytten. He passed this past May, and now the magazine goes with him, a victim of the digital revolution that saw advertising revenue drained away to the Internet. No worries in that regard for the readers of Undercurrent because it is funded solely by subscription and does not accept, nor is it influenced by the needs of advertisers.

Taxing Dive Tourism. Divers Lodge, a dive center in Hurghada, Egypt, informs us the Egyptian government has introduced a 10 percent entertainment tax, which will be added to charges for all scuba diving, snorkeling activities, and equipment rentals. Many governments are looking for means to earn more money from tourism, finding that their hotel taxes, arrival and departure fees, and other sources aren't providing enough, so don't be surprised if other nations start targeting tourist activities like diving.

Save the Sawfish. Not many of us have seen a critically endangered sawfish while scuba diving, but their rostra (the saws) are very much in evidence in novelty shops and on eBay, for sale without CITES permits. You can learn more about the fascinating sawfish with the Sawfish Conservation Society and sign a petition to eBay here.

Good News for Cocos Divers. Fishing for hammerhead sharks is now illegal in Costa Rica, thanks to a new executive decree by President Rodrigo Chaves Robles. The decree prohibits capturing, transporting, storing, or selling hammerhead sharks or their byproducts, such as fins and teeth. Maybe those Chinese fishing fleets will back off a little?

Other Subscribers Need Your Reports. Independent reader reports are your opportunity to tell it as it is. Unedited and unmoderated, your reports can inform other subscribers of your experience of dive resorts you've visited recently and liveaboards you have traveled on. Don't hold back. You can tell both the good and the bad and everything in between. For more than 40 years and 10,000 entries, these reports have become essential reading for traveling divers. You can post photos too. So don't forget to post a report of your last dive trip. It's easy to do, and you can have several goes at it until you are satisfied with what you have written. Other subscribers depend on the information you provide. File your report at www.undercurrent.org/SubRR

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org