Flotsam & Jetsam

Liveaboard Rescued In Palau. The MY Black Pearl I issued a May Day call on July 20, 200 nautical miles west of Palau, Micronesia, and U.S. territory, which was answered the next day by USCGC Oliver Henry. The 11-person liveaboard crew reported a locked rudder and flooding in the bilge, and the Coast Guard towed the vessel to port. The Black Pearl, a 154-foot 497-ton luxury yacht diving liveaboard, was reportedly en route to Cebu, Philippines, for maintenance. The U.S. Coast Guard is responsible for a 1.9 million square nautical miles search and rescue zone. (www.islandtimes.org)

Russian Guns in the Bahamas. Allen Exploration recently discovered 24 iron cannons off the northern Bahamas - including "rare" examples traced back to the Crimean War of 1853-1855. But just how the 19th-century cannons manufactured thousands of miles away in Russia ended up in Bahamas waters is among the archipelago's "most unexpected underwater revelations," says a scientific report published in Allen Exploration Ocean Dispatches. The cannons are in 30 feet of water, four miles northwest of Memory Rock on the edge of the western Little Bahama Bank. (Newsweek)

A Message in a Bottle. After Blue Waters Divers scuba instructor Phoebe Eggar surfaced from a dive at Western Blue Cut in Bermuda, she saw a bottle floating by this July with a message in it. The message read, "This bottle is part of a marine water currents project. Please send an e-mail with the date and location of where you found it. Next, please put this bottle back in the water and relaunch it." It had traveled 726 miles from where it was first launched in Norfolk, Virginia, in December 2022. (The Royal Gazette)

Don't Let the Sharks Get It. It was not a message in a bottle, but rather a dangerous commodity in a bundle. An unnamed Florida diver taking part in a two-day mini-season lobster hunt off Tavernier in the Upper Keys on July 24, came across a one-kilo package of cocaine floating in the water. He turned it over to the Monroe County Sheriff 's office.

Tubbataha's Missing Fish. In this issue, our undercover travel writer reports that she didn't see all the fish hoped for, so perhaps it's because poachers still fish there. Park Rangers just reported that they had caught four fishermen by Jessie Beazley Reef and confiscated their boat. "These incidents involve fear and tears on their part, a lot of resentment, sympathy, and paperwork on ours," a ranger said.

Dreamy Diving. If you've dived in the Mediterranean, you'll be familiar with the schools of gold-striped salpe (sarga salpa), often referred to as Salma Porgy, but you'll rarely see it served in local restaurants. Is this because the Romans knew it as the dream fish, and ingesting it can cause dreams and hallucinations that can last several days? It is still eaten in some countries, and apparently tastes great, even if you're not hallucinating!

Spearfisherman Injured by a Shark. Wesley Fayard, an experienced diver from Mississippi, has had plenty of close encounters with sharks in the Gulf of Mexico, but on June 29, while diving 50 miles off the coast, he had his closest call yet. After spearing two mangrove snappers, Fayard was blindsided by a 6-foot bull shark that tried to steal the fish off the stringer attached to his hip. He says he was blessed to swim away with both hands. Luckily, there was a doctor onboard the boat who gave him immediate first aid. Back on land, Fayard underwent surgery to repair the severed tendons in his right hand and wrist. (www.outdoorlife.com)

Cheap Chinese Scuba Cylinders are ethically suspect. Professional Scuba Inspectors, now also known as Professional Cylinder Inspectors (PSI-PCI), say that the aluminum used in cheap scuba cylinders produced in Zinjiang Province is sourced using forced labor. Besides supporting China's economy, buyers should consider the human cost. 'Made in America' means more than just patriotism.

Deep Dark Oxygen. Scientists have discovered "dark oxygen" being produced so deep that light can't penetrate. About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. But, before this discovery, it was believed that it was made by marine plants photosynthesizing which requires sunlight. At depths of 3 miles, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic nodules, which split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. Several mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process - and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make. (BBC News)

Another Hits the Dirt. MV Jean Elaine, the dive vessel owned by Orkney charter diving businessman Andy Cuthbertson and Scapa Flow Charter, has run aground in the waters off the Scottish Islands We once wrote about technical diver Lex Warner diving from the boat and the resultant civil litigation (Undercurrent October 2021).

Buoyancy Control is Not a Specialty. "It's a core skill every bit as necessary as regulator use and mask clearing If someone tells you that you need to take a specialty diver course in order to take what wasn't taught in your open water diver course, your original instructor owes you a refund " Those are the words of Rick Landry, a NAUI instructor for 47 years, posted on Facebook You've nailed it, Rick Are you listening, PADI?