Shark Stroking: Free Diving with Great Whites

A call I got recently from Dr. Chip Scarlett of Austin, Texas got my attention. “You have to drop what you’re doing and check out these white shark photos on this guy’s website,” he gushed enthusiastically into my speaker phone. “C’mon, Chip,” I yawned. “I’ve seen more white shark images than a sea lion at … Read more

Fresh Fish? Think Twice Before Ordering

People are now eating manta rays. That right, those lovely creatures you spend thousands of dollars to dive with in the Revilligado Islands, Yap and the Maldives. It’s all because shark populations are crashing.

As we watch the sunset at the end of a day’s diving, how many of us delight in ordering the fresh local grouper? Or snapper? Or lobster? And then decry the declining population of critters on the reef before we’ve even digested our meal.

Dive Operators Who Need Some Training

I was recently privileged to be invited on a press trip to the British Virgin Islands. They wanted us to get the best material we could for the articles we were to produce and did nothing to obstruct that. All the operators, that is, except one. …
Dive operators have to keep many of their clients, some of whom have very little or infrequent diving experience, on a short leash. However, the art of dealing with people in what is predominantly a people business is to accurately assess first who you are dealing with.

Sex, Drugs, Rock n’ Roll and Diving

There are few opportunities in life that allow almost complete and unmitigated indulgence in whatever interests you, but over the years my career in professional diving has occasionally hit a home run in serendipitous situations. For example, I was actually asked by the U.S. Navy in 1971 to volunteer to smoke copious quantities of marijuana, … Read more