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

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December 20, 2020

Pink Manta is 'Inspector Clouseau.' Free-diver Kristian Laine photographed this rare pink manta off Lady Elliot Island, off Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Known by local divers as Inspector Clouseau (from the Pink Panther movies) and first spotted in 2015, it has been encountered fewer than a dozen times. In these days of digital enhancement of photos, scientists with the Australian research group Project Manta, who study the rosy ray, have confirmed its color to be real. Solomon David, an aquatic ecologist at Louisiana's Nicholls State University, suspects the mutation is a condition called erythrism, which causes an animal's skin pigmentation to be reddish, or in some cases, pink. National Geographic

Conception Captain Indicted for Manslaughter. Jerry Boylan, 67, of Santa Barbara, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 34 counts of seaman's manslaughter for the passengers and one crew member who died in the 2019 fire that engulfed the liveaboard dive boat Conception. The indictment says that as the captain, Jerry Boylan, "was responsible for the safety and security of the vessel, its crew, and its passengers." Earlier this year, the National Transportation Safety Board pointed its finger at Truth Aquatics for failing to adhere to various safety practices. Fritzler and his Santa Barbara-based diving outfit have also faced a barrage of lawsuits from the dead passengers' relatives, but so far, no criminal charges. Los Angeles Times

DAN COVID-19 Diver Research. The Divers Alert Network is conducting a five-year study on the effects of the virus on divers' health and fitness to dive and is looking for divers and free-divers who have recovered from a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection. If you qualify, it's an opportunity to participate in a long-term research study about the infection and a return to diving. The initial survey will take 15-20 minutes to complete, and DAN will periodically follow up on your diving career and possible medical issues. www.research.net/r/DANcovidstudy

Beware of Fast Cozumel Boats: One December 9, Bradlee LaMontagne, a 21-year-old diver from Virginia Beach, jumped into Cozumel's water off his uncle's yacht for a quick dip. A fast-moving passing boat slammed into him, and while those on the boat tried to save him with CPR, La Montagne died. The Virginian Pilot

A Very Old Fish. An 81-year-old tropical fish caught off a West Australian reef has been identified as the oldest known to science. The octogenarian midnight snapper was found at the Rowley Shoals about 180 miles west of Broome and beat the previous record-holder by two decades. Researchers also caught a 79-year-old red bass in the same area. They were among 11 over the age of 60 caught as part of a study attempting to establish how warming oceans will affect the biology and lifespan of reef fish. The Times

Harming Whales and Dolphins: On December 9, nearly five weeks after the election, the Administration issued a rule to allow the oil and gas industry to use seismic and acoustic mapping, including air guns, to gather data on the Gulf of Mexico's ocean floor. Problem is, this can mean great harm to Atlantic spotted dolphins, pygmy whales, dwarf sperm whales, Bryde's whales and other marine mammals that pass through. And "pygmy and dwarf sperm whales are expected to be harassed to the point of potential injury, with a mean of 308 whales potentially harmed per year, according to the final rule." E&E News

Aggressor Disappointment. Reader Galina Moerdler (Fair Lawn, NJ) told us she booked a trip on the Turks & Caicos Aggressor beginning Thanksgiving week, but both she and her partner tested positive for COVID. She asked for the trip to be moved to a later date, but Aggressor Adventures refused and instead suggested that they file an insurance claim despite most insurance companies having now made COVID problems an exclusion to cover. We don't think it's too much to ask for the trip to be moved to a later date -- after all, they surely don't want COVID carriers aboard, and Moerdler was quite forthcoming with her diagnosis, it seems. So we wrote to Aggressor Adventures and Larry Speaker for their reasoning, hoping to give a little push to rebook Moerdler and her partner. They have not responded.

Paradise Lost? Aldabra Atoll, the largest atoll in the Indian Ocean and roughly 600 miles from inhabited islands in Seychelles, is now home to 550 metric tons of plastic waste that has washed up on its beaches. Researchers think it has more than any other island on the planet. It's especially tragic since it is home to more giant tortoises than the Galapagos Islands. Volunteers from Oxford University and the Seychelles Island Foundation have so far managed to collect 25 metric tons. The Independent

Underwater Sculpture Park for Miami's Waters. Called Reefline, it's intended to be a seven-mile public underwater sculpture park, snorkel trail, and artificial reef off Miami's shoreline. The project will be completed in phases, with the first mile slated to open one year from now. Designers, collaborating with marine biologists, researchers, architects, and coastal engineers from Coral Morphologic, the BlueLab Preservation Society, and the University of Miami, will construct the reef using concrete and limestone, materials that are chemically akin to natural reef. Lonely Planet

Mexican Dive Centers Close Ranks over Fatality. There was an apparent information blackout regarding the death of a newly graduated British doctor, Olivia Byrom, 29, while diving in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula in June 2018. British journalists found Tulum dive centers to be tight-lipped when they contacted them for further information about the guide's actions, and they would not name the dive center involved. (We're not surprised. Undercurrent has been warned in the past when making similar inquiries about other fatalities in Mexico.) The deceased's buddy, Dr. Olivia Bird, told the Bristol Inquest (UK) last month that she only knew their dive guide as Peggy, and that they had ascended to within six feet of the surface when Byrom began descending again. (On reflection, she wondered if Byrom was unconscious at that time.) The Coroner concluded that "an inadequate safety process contributed" to the death. Daily Mirror

Volcanoes Erupt Near Popular Diving Areas. Mount Ili Lewotolok on Lembata, an island between Flores and Alor in the Indonesian archipelago, erupted during the last days of November, causing thousands of people living nearby to be evacuated. The volcano spewed a 3-mile column of ash and smoke into the air. Indonesia has been closed to foreign visitors due to COVID restrictions, so no visiting divers were caught up in the emergency, but it is usually a very popular area that includes Komodo. Three days later, 550 people were evacuated when Mount Semeru in East Java blew its top. Jakarta Post

A Nazi WWII Enigma Machine Found by Divers. German divers searching the Baltic for ghost fishing nets stumbled across an Enigma message coding machine. British cryptographers had famously broken the code, shortening the war and saving many thousands of lives, but shortly before their surrender, crews of around 50 submarines were ordered to scuttle their vessels and dispose of the Enigma message scrambling machines. Only a few Enigma machines survived the war, and this one, once restored, will be displayed at the archaeology museum in Schleswig. Express Tribune

Good News for the Fish on the Big Island’s Reefs. A ruling in Hawaii's First Circuit Court effectively ends fishing for the aquarium trade on the west side of the Island of Hawaii. Commercial marine licenses will be subject to environmental review when they come up for renewal, which makes it unlikely that aquarium fishing in West Hawaiian waters by any method will be allowed once the current permits expire -- unless a stronger environmental case can be made by industry supporters that the practice doesn't damage ocean ecosystems. Big Island Now

Fancy a Deep Dive in a Swimming Pool? With a depth of close to 150 feet, a multi-million-dollar facility called Deepspot, built outside Warsaw, Poland, replicates a blue hole. The impressive structure even contains a small shipwreck, as well as artificial underwater caves and Mayan ruins for divers to explore. It takes the record for the deepest artificial diving pool from the 139-feet-deep Y-40 Deep Joy near Venice, Italy, but it won't hold the record for long -- a 165-feet-deep pool called Blue Abyss is under construction in Colchester, England, and is due to open in early 2023. CNN Travel

Keep Your iPhone Dry. Italy's antitrust regulator has fined Apple $12 million for its misleading water-resistance claims for iPhones, in which they advertise it is water-resistant for up to 30 minutes in depths of up to 12 feet. If you take your housed iPhone diving, any water that slips in might kill your phone forever. Borneo Bulletin

Red Sea Aggressor Fire Tragedy Questions. Despite the surviving passengers from the MY Suzana's (marketed as Red Sea Aggressor I) disastrous fire in the Red Sea, last year being suitably compensated financially, and the family of the one fatality being awarded a financial settlement, the investigation into the tragedy appears to have stalled. Parties involved in the investigation state there was a preliminary investigation report tabled in February of 2020 that put the blame on the captain and crew. However, a petition was immediately filed with the Egyptian Attorney General by one of the crew's lawyers raising additional accusations that opened a second investigation into the incident. It seems that one of the Egyptian owners has been involved in three earlier liveaboard fires over the last 20 years (MY NilSat1, MY NilSat2 & MY Majestic). The Suzana was the fourth fire and ship sinking. No other liveaboard company or individual owner in Egypt has such a record.

An Expensive Error of Judgment. Five scuba divers, three Brits, a Russian, and a South African, went diving in Seychelles on December 13 and separated from their small boat in strong currents. After drifting for six hours in the Indian Ocean, they were spotted by crews conducting an extensive search and rescue operation. The authorities have criticized the group for not letting them know in advance about their dive plans and will require them to pay toward the high cost of the rescue operation. Divernet

Shark Bite at Beqa. A well-known spear-fisher, Mark Wakeham, from Pacific Harbor, Fiji, was bitten on his right arm by a bronze whaler shark, then the shark returned to bite him again. It was on the last day of November, while Wakeham was free-diving close to Beqa Island's west end. Shark-feeding dives with up to eight different shark species were popular in Beqa Lagoon before the COVID-19 lockdown. In a novel turn of events, some have claimed that the bite happened because divers are no longer feeding sharks! Aqua-Trek's operations manager, Jona Baro, and Beqa Adventure Divers' Andrew Cummings labeled the claims as complete rubbish. Fiji Sun

The Future of Scuba. Earlier this month, we were offered a high-end research report from Data Bridge Market Research that analyzes the worldwide scuba equipment market and predicts its growth at an annual rate of 6.20 percent to 2027. So far, so good, but then they write, "Scuba diving equipment is used in an underwater diving sport named scuba, in which sportspersons carry a self-contained underwater breathing tool called a scuba. The scuba diving equipment consists of the regulators and buoyancy control device (BCD), propulsion vehicle and cylinder, decompression scuba diving equipment products which are very essential products for scuba divers during underwater diving. . . Rise in interest of people towards soft adventure sports is a vital factor escalating the market growth, also increase in the international tourist arrivals and international tourism expenditure & rising awareness regarding numerous fitness-benefits of opting scuba diving are the major factors among others driving the scuba diving equipment market . . . increasing fatal accidents while diving and high expense involved with the product and training are the major factors among others acting as restraints and will further challenge the growth of scuba diving equipment market." The price for their wisdom? $4200 for a single report. I think we'd rather spend that on a self-contained underwater breathing tool.

Stay Safe

Wear a Mask, Socially Distance, Wash Your Hands

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org