Undercurrent Online Update for Subscribers

For David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi', exp: 2024-08-20, at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )  

March 16, 2019  

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R2D2 on the Fujikawa Maru in Truk

Coming Soon in Undercurrent

Visiting Truk Lagoon by land, and by liveaboard . . . is technical diving for you? . . . has the dive industry made any changes to its policy of single-use plastic? . . . Glover’s Reef, Belize . . . what to do if your regulator has a catastrophic failure . . . what one diver learned from his wife’s snorkelling death -- and was her full-face mask really to blame? . . . the newest threat facing Florida’s reefs . . . what happened when a snorkeler was swallowed by a whale . . . and much, much more.

A Dive Boat Sinks in the Similan Islands

Seven Thais, two Australians, one Italian diver and a French one were rescued in Thailand’s Similan Islands, a popular diving destination near Phuket, when their liveaboard, Panthip 2, sank on February 24. Fortunately, the incident happened near a small beach, so the divers quickly made it back to land.

Jaws Turns Up in Florida

Sharks are the reason why many people won’t go in the water, but Amber and Tommy Allore, a couple of free-divers from Stuart, FL, were thrilled to get some photographs of a great white, a rare visitor to that stretch, while spearfishing with friends off Jupiter last month. They estimated the shark to be around 12 feet long. Meanwhile, Florida’s legislature is preparing a statewide ban on the practice of fishermen dumping fish guts in the ocean to lure sharks closer to beaches and, too often, to swimmers and ocean dippers.

Did You Hear a Fish Bomb?

Reef Check Malaysia has decided to put a spotlight on marine debris in this International Year of the Reef, because they are seeing alarming amounts of plastic and other trash on Malaysian beaches, and they’ll kick off their campaign with beach cleanups on Tioman, Pethentian, Mabul and other islands. However, fish bombing is still a problem in the area, the organization state. If you are diving in Malaysian waters and hear dynamite fishing in action, you can report it by emailing reportfishbomb@reefcheck.org.my with date, time and location.

Divers Keep Getting Older and Older

Undercurrent recently wrote about the continuing diving career of 95-year-old Ray Woolley, a British-born resident of Cyprus, where he has plenty of opportunity to get into the water. But now his record as the world’s oldest diver is being challenged by 98-year-old Bill Lambert from Rockford, IL, who got his scuba certification last October. Lambert is waiting to see if the Guinness Book of Records will verify his claim.

New Shark on the Block

Nobody really knows how many different species of shark there are, but a new one has been added to the list. Scientists at the Florida Institute of Technology have confirmed the Atlantic six-gill shark is indeed a new species. It resides primarily in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, but is also found in parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans.

The World’s Deepest Swimming Pools

The 148-foot-deep DeepSpot, is set to open this fall in the Polish town of Msxczonow, 25 miles from Warsaw, Visitors can freedive and scuba in water temperatures of 90-93°F, and cave diving beginners can train in underwater caves. But DeepSpot won’t hold the world record for too long. Blue Abyss, currently under construction in Colchester, England, will be 164 feet deep. Those two are following on the success of diver-friendly pools Y-40 Deep Joy in the northern Italian town of Montegrotto Terme (138 feet) and Nemo 33 with divers in Brussels, Belgium (113 feet).

Hooking On

More and more, Undercurrent subscribers are heading over to Indonesia and the Maldives to experience the high-voltage diving found in the currents that squeeze between the islands. For this, a reef-hook is indispensable – snag a suitable part of the substrate with the forged steel hook, then drift back on the current via a line attached to your BC. A little bit of air in the BC allows you to fly securely anchored above the reef, thereby doing no damage to it. Reef hooks cost around $25.

Your Independent Reader Reports Are the Lifeblood of Undercurrent

because they reflect your own experiences, which you may share with other subscribers. And because they tell both the good and bad your reports make us a unique read in the dive travel industry. We’re also asking subscribers to report too on the use of single-use plastic at their dive resort and on the liveaboard. You’re free to tell it like it is, and it’s easy to do so when filing it online at www.undercurrent.org. Your reports join more than 10,000 other reports in the Undercurrent database, which is easily searchable by any other subscriber.

Thanks for being a loyal subscriber.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
Contact Ben