Undercurrent Online Update
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For Subscriber David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi' exp: 2024-08-20', at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
July 15, 2016
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No doubt, you read about this in the July issue of Undercurrent. Did you follow it up and sign the petition? Carnival Cruises appears to be the main driver behind the push for a dolphinarium on Grand Turk in the TCI, with the outrageous provision to transfer the captive marine mammals to home swimming pools, of course awash with chlorine, in the event of any unforeseen emergency. Make your feelings about this known here.

Have you checked our Facebook page yet? You’ll find lots of interesting items including a turtle that asks a kayaker to free it from some plastic ghost netting. www.facebook.com/Undercurrent.org

One marine mammal few of us divers will ever get the opportunity to see is the magnificent polar bear, but daily hundreds of shoppers in a Chinese mall visit one despairing polar bear, rap on the window, bother him endlessly, and take selfies. This is not the only animal trapped in this hellhole, the Grandview Aquarium at the Grandview shopping center in Guangzhou. The facility has been dubbed “the world’s saddest zoo” and alongside two polar bears, it also keeps six young belugas, five walrus calves, a wolf, and arctic foxes. Please, my fellow divers, sign this petition and raise hell.

That comes from a new book by Larry Olmsted, Real Food/Fake Food (Algonquin). It’s the most popular seafood in the United States, but it’s also one of the nastiest things you can eat, he says. “The vast majority of the shrimp we get is farmed and imported, of nebulous geographic origin, and very likely raised in disgusting conditions with lots of drugs that aren’t approved for human consumption.”

Not beholden to any advertising revenue, Undercurrent is unique among diving media. We’re already gearing up for the 2017 edition of the Travelin’ Diver’s Chapbook, so we need your reports to make it even better than last year’s. Send us reviews of dive operators, liveaboards, and resorts you’ve dived since November by filling out our online form. You can also follow the link “File a Report” on the left side of our homepage at www.undercurrent.org Or after logging in, follow the “Reader Report” link in the top navigation bar.

A scary fact that came to light at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Hawaii in June was how bad oxybenzone, an active ingredient in many sunscreens, is for coral colonies. Minute amounts are enough to cause cellular disruptions in coral polyps and impair their reproductive capacity. Oxybenzone isn’t just introduced into the environment by washing off the skin while swimming, but it is absorbed by users and excreted in urine. Check your sunscreen to ensure it does not include oxybenzone even if it does bear the label ‘reef safe.'

It’s the prize in a raffle. Owners Doug and Sally Beitz say they’ve sold more tickets than the 34,000 minimum needed to make the raffle viable. Ticket sales close on July 25th and the winner of this resort in Micronesia will be drawn one month later. www.wintheislandestates.com

Two different ways to enjoy the Bahamas underwater . . . Dive computers and how to choose the right one for you. . . Are aliens taking over our oceans? . . . Underwater statue parks . . . Sharks have personalities too . . . Life insurance for divers . . . Deadlier than the deadliest shark . . . and much, much more.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
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