Topics related to the dive industry itself
I was on a palm-fringed island in the Maldives when I saw two girls, both instructors with the dive centre at Vilamendhoo, coming in from the beach and looking happy in their bikinis. One, Leila, was Swiss married to a Maldivian while the other, Sylvita, was Spanish and partnered an Austrian. I asked them to … Read more
We just returned from two dive trips where the focus was on soft science. In Lembeh we hosted a nudibranch workshop with David Behrens. Our group identified over 200 species in 10 days. Dr. Mark Erdmann and Dr. Gerry Allen accompanied our trip to Cenderawasih Bay. In just nine days they discovered three new fish … Read more
If you’ve ever dived off a liveaboard in Papua New Guinea, chances are Dickie Doyle came aboard to greet you and your fellow passengers, and invited you ashore to visit his plantation. I met Dickie that way, had a couple of beers with him, laughed at his pet pig, which slept under his bed, and … Read more
One of the first things that I learned as part of my military officer training was “Do not, under any circumstances, volunteer for anything”. This was especially true in January 1971 at the height of the Vietnam war. But, through a rather circuitous route of give and take between the army and navy, a short … Read more
My dear mother will be 91 years old this year, the same age as my father when he died two years ago. She lives alone in the family home in England and still looks after herself, and complains that she cannot remember things quite as well as she used to. But she does remember the … Read more
