Undercurrent Online Update

This dive resort, originally connected to Captain Don's Habitat in Bonaire but split off about five years ago, closed March 1 and according to its U.S. booking rep, Maduro Dive Fanta-Seas, it's just temporary, due to major renovations. "All the rooms will be totally redone, as well as the pool and restaurant." That's good news, as some divers have publicly rued the poor service and a rapidly-declining dive facility over the past few years. The resort is hoping that it will be able to reopen in November.

Been traveling and diving in the past few months? Complete our online report so that your fellow divers may get the benefit of your experience. And we compile all our trip reports in our annual Chapbook at the end of the year. Whether it's hitting the highlights, airing a complaint or giving a hat tip to a deserving dive business, write it up and you may spot your tale in the next month's issue. File your Reader Reports to us online here

That's how we write up many of the stories you read in Undercurrent - from informed sources like yourselves. Know of some shady business going down or emerging trends rising in the dive industry? Or you believe a specific matter needs more of a spotlight pointed at it? Go to Undercurrent , click on the "Hot Tips Line" link at the right-hand side of the page, and select "Hot Tips" on the contact form. We protect your privacy by request but the paranoid can contact me directly by e-mail at EditorBenD@undercurrent.org

After days of waiting for help, a Japanese man donned scuba gear to search for his wife and mother. Hideaki Akaiwa was at work when the tsunami hit, and he returned to his town of Ishinomaki to find his neighborhood submerged in 10 feet of water. Akaiwa, 43, got hold of scuba gear, wended his way through debris and underwater hazards and managed to reach his house, from which he dragged his wife to safety. "The water felt very cold, dark and scary," he told the Los Angeles Times. "I had to swim about 200 yards to her, which was quite difficult with all the floating wreckage." When his mother was still missing several days later, he did the same thing, and found her on the second floor of a flooded house, where she'd been trapped for four days. Now Akaiwa is looking for other trapped survivors.

A man with the user name "D.H. Morgan" offered his used wetsuit on eBay's British site, and wrote the funniest online classified ad we've read . An excerpt from his sales pitch: "Why am I selling it? Well I've just bought a new one. I just like the feel of fresh neoprene on my soft skin, and well, to be honest, I could do with some cash to pay for prostitutes. No, that was a joke. Now you're going to think the suit is riddled with disease but it's not as I was joking. I do NOT engage with ladies of the night." With all the attention his ad got, Morgan decided to give 95 percent of the money he gets to the Red Cross to aid its efforts in Japan. It didn't stop there -- XCEL wetsuits in Hawaii offered to donate a new wetsuit to the auction, followed by other dive gear makers offering their wares. The final bid was for $14,700.

On March 3, the Costa Rican president signed into creation the Seamounts Marine Management Area, a huge new marine park that increases five-fold the area of protected waters surrounding Cocos Island, home to some of the highest abundances of sharks and other large pelagics recorded anywhere. The new six million square-mile area encompasses a group of deep seamounts located 35 miles south of Cocos. While new protections were put in place for the scalloped hammerhead shark and leatherback turtle, a loophole permits long-line fishing for tuna in some of the newly-protected waters, which still threaten the park's sharks and other species. It's progress but because Costa Rica still has no shark-finning ban, more needs to be done.

around the islands of Semporna in the Sabah region of Malaysia, not too far from diver favorites Mabul and Sipadan. That's the result of a marine expedition done in December by 18 scientists from Malaysia, the Netherlands and the U.S., who said Semporna may have the world's highest marine biodiversity. The expedition yielded a rich fish-species count and a record number of 43 species of mushroom corals, and "where we find high richness of mushroom corals, we usually find extremely high richness of other corals," said the team leader. Some new species were discovered, including at least two shrimps and a number of gall crabs. A few dive operators, like Scuba Junkie in Semporna and Scuba Dive Sipadan, dive the islands. But all is not paradise - like other dive sites, Semporna is suffering from human and environmental impacts. Nearly all sites were affected by fish bombs, discarded fishing gear and solid waste.

Kudos to Rey, a divemaster on this Baja California liveaboard. A group of divers reported on Wetpixel.com that when diving earlier this month at San Benedicto, they came across a dolphin tangled up in fishing line and having trouble swimming. They say it actually came over to Rey as if to ask for assistance. While he was helping her, she turned belly up and patiently allowed Rey to unwrap the line from around her fins and tail. At one point, the dolphin even swam to the surface for more air and then returned to Rey so he could finish the job. Wetpixel.com has photos of the rescue

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Diving in Cuba's Bay of Pigs. . . the reason for recent shark attacks in the Red Sea . . . what's the best policy to buy to insure your dive equipment? . . . what divemasters really think about you . . .does Nitrox reduce post-dive fatigue? . . . PADI's cold response to the death of a diver at Fiji's Beqa Lagoon . . . and much, much more.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
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