Undercurrent Online Update for Subscribers

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

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October 29, 2020

The World's Deepest Diving Homemade Submarine. What did you do during the COVID lockdown? Canadian Hank Pronk, of Fairmont, B.C., has built his own little submarine, and it’s not his first. His latest, the Elementary 3000, has been pressure-tested to 2,900 feet in a pressure chamber in Vancouver, and he took it for a dive 400 feet deep in Kootenay Lake in September. This winter, he plans to build an indoor swimming pool so he can dive in his submarines when the local lakes are frozen over. Columbia Valley Pioneer

Liveaboard Dive Boat Oceanic Explorer Sinks. On October 25, the Oceanic Explorer III sank during a typhoon off Bauan, in the Batangas area of the Philippines, south of Manila. One crew member died, while seven other people were rescued. The 128-foot steel vessel built in 1979, had ten guest cabins and accommodated up to 28 passengers. GMA News Online

Corrections to Conception Inquiry News. Some errors crept into the editing of our report to you last week. While the National Transportation Safety Board could not pin down the cause of the fire, the Conception’s wiring is also a suspect, as well as the host of diver equipment being charged, or the receptacle for cigarette butts, as we reported. However, the Board is not ruling out an unknown cause. The NTSB inquiry was not the final inquiry; the U.S. Coast Guard is conducting its own investigation. An ongoing criminal investigation may result in serious charges. There were 34 fatalities, including one crew member. The unrecorded fire caused by a charging battery aboard M.Y. Vision occurred 11 months before the Conception tragedy, not years back, as we stated. This link is to a synopsis of the NTSB meeting rather than its report.

Grand Cayman Reef Sites Closed Due to Coral Disease. Forty-three North Wall dive sites have been closed to divers. Dive sites from Bear's Paw off the coast of West Bay to Delia's Delight, off North Side, will be closed, hopefully stopping or reducing the spread by divers of stony coral tissue loss disease. The sites are predominantly along the North Sound entrance, the only area so far known to be impacted by the disease, which is having disastrous effects in other parts of the Caribbean. Cayman Compass

Damn and Blast! The RAF dropped a dozen monster 5.4-ton dam-buster bombs during an attack on the German cruiser Luetzow in Poland in 1945, but one failed to explode. Well, it has now, with a huge blast. After the bomb was discovered 40-feet deep in a Baltic shipping canal, with its nose just sticking out of the silt, Polish Navy divers attempted to deflagrate the explosive by gradually burning it away with a remotely controlled device, but it exploded prematurely. Nobody was hurt because 750 nearby residents had been evacuated. You can see a video here.

Update on Getting to Bonaire. There is still a ban on flights to Bonaire from the U.S., but Curaçao is open, and Americans (from NY, NJ and CT) and Canadians with a recent (within 72 hours) negative COVID test can connect to Bonaire via a connecting flight from Curaçao. Bonaire welcomes you if you can get there. traveloffpath.com & infoboanaire.com

An Ecological Threat to the Southern Caribbean. A huge oil tanker, the Nabarima, containing approximately 1.3 million barrels of crude oil, has taken on water and is leaning to one side off Venezuela's coast in the Gulf of Paria. The ship is threatening to pollute the waters and ecosystem of nearby Trinidad and Tobago -- and the livelihoods of those who depend upon it. The U.S. embassy has urged immediate action to prevent an environmental catastrophe. The vessel is operated by Petrosucre. An oil spill threatens to be five-time worse than that of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska in 1989. Newsweek

Sharks Galore! There are more sharks off the coast of Southern California than ever before, according to the Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab. The team has tagged 38 sharks -- more than triple the number that scientists tagged last year. In a side note about sharks, we reported that the squalene required to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine will come from sharks, but readers were quick to report that it can also be derived from plants. Thankfully, sharks may not be as threatened as we first thought. CBS News and New York Times

David Attenborough -- A Life on Our Planet. David Attenborough’s latest film is his witness statement for the environment, tracing his career of more than 60 years, revealing how the planet’s biodiversity has diminished during that time. Astonishing nature photography accompanies his retrospective. To illustrate the emptying of oceans, the director has intercut thriving coral habitats with images of large gutted fish, frozen and stacked for market. As such, it represents probably the most important documentary you might watch during COVID isolation. It’s now running on Netflix.

Diving in Hong Kong? Read About it Here. While Hong Kong is not the first place that comes to mind when choosing a distant diving destination, we are publishing a solid review of diving there by Christopher Dillon, a former chairman of the Hong Kong-based South China Diving Club, extolling the underwater virtues of these islands. First published in The Correspondent, Dillon's article is available here for your review.

Eel Grass Saves Ecosystem. Researchers and volunteers led by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and The Nature Conservancy have restored what will be a remarkably hardy ecosystem that is trapping carbon and nitrogen that would otherwise contribute to global warming. They planted 70 million eel grass seeds over 200 hectares of seabed, just beyond the salt marsh off the southern end of Virginia's eastern shore. Seagrasses are among the world's most valuable and most threatened ecosystems and are important as reservoirs of blue carbon, the carbon stored in ocean and coastal ecosystems. Science News

Canada will Ban Plastic Bags and other single-use products by the end of next year. Canadians annually throw away more than three million metric tons of plastic waste, and only nine percent is recycled. To help achieve zero plastic waste by the end of the decade, its banning single-use plastic products such as grocery bags, straws, stir sticks, six-pack rings, food utensils, and food containers by the end of 2021. The E.U. also plans to introduce a ban on single-use plastics next year; however, it has been slowed by heavy lobbying by the plastics industry. The Independent

Got an Annoying Runny Nose? Divers need to keep their nasal passages clear, but many of us suffer rhinitis and similar problems, especially as we get older. One of our subscribers said this book was of great help. Sinus Relief Now by Jordan S. Josephson, M.D. offers a five-step program for sinus, allergy, and asthma sufferers and all you ever needed to know about your nose for $15.95. Amazon

Big Ideas in Bali. Indonesia has set aside US$75-million to build coral reef gardens in five locations around Bali. Officials introduced the Indonesian Coral Reef Garden program as an active effort to restore the island nation's underwater ecosystems. These gardens will also serve as sites from which to transplant coral. Coconuts Bali

The San Diego Undersea Film Festival was held online this year. You can watch some of the favorites of the 2020 festival by going here.

Stay Safe,

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org