Undercurrent Online Update

If you've got insurance on your scuba gear and have filed a claim for damaged, lost or stolen equipment, is your insurance company coming through for you? Do you feel like you need a policy for your gear, or are you fine with insuring through your homeowners policy? We're writing a story on this topic, and we'd like to hear from readers and the results of your claims - the good, the bad and the downright ugly. E-mail your stories to me at EditorBen@undercurrent.org

Our great of book of unusual, funny and mysterious scuba stories from 35 years of Undercurrent is available on Kindle. Click Here. Or buy the paperback directly from Undercurrent. Click here. You'll love it.

We've written much about lionfish and how the Pacific native is threatening reefs and marine life in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Lad Akins of REEF believes humans are the best hope as the lionfish predator, and his motto is "If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em." He worked with Tricia Ferguson, a "personal chef to the stars," to create The Lionfish Cookbook, a collection of 45 lionfish-based recipes, each with a full-color photo. Order through Undercurrent here and you'll get Amazon's best price -- and our profits will go to save coral reefs.

Egypt's coastal resorts are peaceful but quiet. DIVER magazine reported that the large protests and battles have been limited to Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. The Red Sea resorts have seen few demonstrations, and those that occurred were peaceful. Some dive shops are operating as usual, but others have decided to close temporarily until life goes back to normal, and some tour companies have suspended flights. Undercurrent contributor John Bantin was at Sharm el Sheikh on assignment recently and confirmed that all was quiet, "with good food supplies and fuel [for dive boats] adequate."

Hawaii was the first state in the U.S. to pass a law banning the sale of shark fin soup, and it continues its groundbreaking efforts to protect marine life in its waters. If you read our July 2009 story "Where Have Hawaii's Fish Gone? (read it at Undercurrent by clicking on "Back Issues"), you'll remember that Hawaii's dramatic decline in reef fish is due to commercial collectors gathering them for hobbyists' aquarium tanks. Now state senators have introduced legislation that would impose a statewide ban on collecting reef fish for sale in the aquarium trade, with fines or jail time. To have your voice heard, sign this petition from Change.org.

Oceanographer Don Stark has started the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund to raise money for marine environmental programs in the area. "We have modeled the nonprofit on the successful Bonaire Marine Parks program, and are selling annual dive tags to divers. The donation ($10) is voluntary and the tags are being offered through virtually all the dive operators throughout the TCI. We are also raising money from other visitors through the sale of wristbands similar to Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong wristband effort. We have already raised a couple thousand dollars, all of which will go back into marine projects." For more information and to donate, visit www.tcreef.org. Better yet, if you want to do something, start a similar project at another destination.

Sanctum, an underwater thriller the Titanic and Avatar director produced is currently at a theater near you, and to get people to see it, Cameron is trying crazy promotional stunts, including being interviewed while diving. Okay, we'll bite. You can watch the Q&A interview of Cameron, suited up in scuba gear and in a tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA, on the Facebook page of Virgin Mobile Live (unfortunately, you'll have to "Like" Virgin Mobile, even if you don't really, to watch the interview). He talks mostly about Sanctum but also chats about True Lies II and his love of diving and the oceans.

For iPhone and Android smartphone users, PADI has launched a new app to help them find their nearest dive shop. Enter city or post code, and search results appear, with details like business hours, courses offered, available equipment lines, etc. Doesn't sound that great if you already know where you're headed to dive, but PADI says it will add more features in the future. Download it at www.padi.com/mobile-apps.

Dive reports of the Phillippines, Cuba and Raja Ampat. . . a lawsuit that shows what dive operation you book through affects your chances in court if problems arise . . . what divemasters really think about you . . . the stupid reason why Mexico is killing its sharks . . . how financially liable are lost divers for search-and-rescue efforts to find them? . . .what's swimming around in those gear rinse tanks . . . and much, much more.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
Contact Ben

Website Tips and News

You can now easily put together a collection of the latest Undercurrent reader reports on any dive operations that you want. You choose the country and years of interest, then pick which dive resorts/liveaboards you're interested in, and immediately all the reports are made available to you in one neat package. You can view it online, download it, print it as you want. Give it a whirl -- it'll help make dive trip planning a lot easier.

We can now notify you whenever a new reader report is filed on our website -- a free service for subscribers. With this, you do NOT need to check our website every so often to see if there's a new reader report of interest; instead as soon as a new reader report is filed, links to it can be emailed to you, or appear in your browser. This service uses industry-standard RSS ("Really Simple Syndication) feeds -- read about RSS here. Look for the on vaious pages of our website. You can sign up for this feed here. It's easier to use than to explain it, so give it a whirl. And look for more of these in the future.

Dave S. Eagleray, webmaster
Contact Webmaster

You have received this message at dwhite95815@hotmail.com because you are a current paid subscriber to the print edition of Undercurrent (with subscriber number '437351' ), and/or are a current Online Member (username = 'dwhitesi' , expiring '2024-08-20' ). To manage your account settings, visit our Account Center.