Undercurrent Online Update

To promote the launch of their latest book, Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock put together a 17-minute slideshow of their favorite Raja Ampat marine life photos for their website. The people who saw it encouraged them to put it on YouTube for the rest of us. They finally did, and here's the link to their video. Now ready to dive there? Buy the book to get their written details of dive sites, places to see above water, the people and what you need to know to dive there. Order the book through our website.

In case you missed it: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with Edge Dive Gear of Macon, FL, announced a recall on May 3 of about 750 BCDs manufactured in China. It affects Edge Freedom and Stealth models, and the HOG 32-pound Wing model. They were sold in the U.S. and Canada from May 2009 through October 2010 for $199 to $250. The problem is the spring in the overpressure valve can corrode and break, preventing the BCD from retaining air, posing a drowning hazard to divers. To get the numbers of recalled jackets, go to www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml11/11212.html. For additional information, call Chris Robinson at 888-370-3483 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday, or visit the company's website at www.edge-gear.com.

Far more alive than when they are in a bowl of soup. In a study released earlier this month, researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science considered the expenditures of divers who travel to Palau to dive with sharks. Diver tourism contributes about 39 percent of Palau's gross domestic product of $218 million, and 21 percent of divers went there specifically for the sharks, meaning that shark dives make up 8 percent of G.D.P. The researchers concluded that the roughly 100 sharks at prime dive sites were each worth $179,000 annually to Palau's tourism industry, and that each shark had a lifetime value of $1.9 million. Finned and killed, those same 100 sharks would be worth only about $10,800 total.

A couple of divers who visited Mexico recently told us about the "camera tax" they had to pay. When reader Mel M. arrived at the Los Cabos airport in Baja California in April with four cameras for a Solmar V trip, the customs agent told him that Mexico law only lets tourists bring two cameras into the country for personal use. That is officially the case, although there's nothing on the government website about fees for bringing extra cameras in. But this customs agent said Mel would have to pay tax on the other two cameras, for a total of $128. However, the agent was amenable, Mel said. "I asked him if he would accept $50 cash and he did (in the bathroom)." Have you ever been confronted by Customs, airport officials, police or other people you met on your trip about having to pay money to keep your stuff? How much was the "fee," and did you pay up, negotiate it down, or try to get out of it? We want to do a story on these situations traveling divers may face at destinations worldwide, so we need your stories. Send them to me at EditorBenD@undercurrent.org.

If you're going to these dive sites to see the fish, you may also decide to eat some of them for dinner. Know which ones are sustainable seafood? To help you out, the Coral Reef Alliance has worked with its local conservation partners in Cozumel and Honduras' Bay Islands to publish sustainable seafood guides tailored to those specific regions so travelers know which ones they can eat happily and which to avoid altogether. Download the guides here.

Please to go to Undercurrent and complete a trip report so your fellow divers will hear all about it. Thanks.

St.Eustatius . . . toxic - and often fatal -- breathing hazards of rebreathers . . . can you sue the government and win if you get bitten by a barracuda? . . breathing from liquid, a la James Cameron's film The Abyss, gets closer to reality . . . what's the term for a group of divers? . . . an interview with Diver Alert Network's president about the future of the organization . . . customs "fees," airport "taxes" and other bribes travelling divers may face . . . the biggest influences on divers' behavior underwater . . . and much, much more.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
Contact Ben

 

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