Sun, sand, sea, scuba and videos

SEVERAL weeks ago, I was invited to an event that had everything right. There was sun, sand, sea and scuba diving. And best of all (no, not the pretty blonde in the teeny weeny bikini), there was underwater photography!

I have written about underwater photography before in one of my previous articles where I managed to get a nice shot of a clown anemone fish in a very classic pose during one of my leisure dive trips.

On this trip, it was all work, but it’s the kind of assignment I really enjoy. I do aspire to become an underwater photographer or videographer and on this trip, I got to do both.

A Malaysian environmental NGO, Coral Malaysia in collaboration with Singapore’s Association of Artists of Various Resources (Apad) organised a trip to Pulau Tioman, where dive-qualified artists were to attempt setting a record by painting a long underwater picture....[The Star Online]

Missing diver found alive

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A diver has been found safe after going missing for approximately 21 hours while diving off Florida's east coast.

Coast Guard officials found Patrick Scartozzi around 10 a.m. on Saturday, and he was reported to be alive and responsive. Scartozzi had been missing since Friday afternoon when he went diving about 6 miles off St. Lucie Inlet. The 46-year-old firefighter went for what was supposed to be a 25-minute dive but did not reappear at the set time. He was then reported missing.

Scartozzi was being transported to the hospital for evaluation.

Lake Erie wrecks become big business

Eric Guerrein and Neil Lundell have seen the submerged pieces of Lake Erie history up close.

There's the Charles Foster, a three-masted schooner-turned-barge that sank in December 1900 just north of Walnut Creek. Then there's the Dean Richmond, a steamer that went down in a violent storm in 1893 and is now buried upside down in 110 feet of water off of North East. Not far from that wreck is the S.K. Martin, a coal ship that sank during a storm in 1912. Today the vessel lies in about 58 feet of water.

And, finally, there's the Indiana, which also went down near North East, in 1870. It was carrying a load of paving stone from Buffalo to Cleveland when it sank. Today, the wrecks represent a part of Lake Erie's maritime past -- and a business opportunity for many residents....[Go Erie.com]

Tampa Shipwreck Explorer Snags TV Series

A Tampa company that salvages shipwrecks will be the focus of an 11-part Discovery Channel series. Odyssey Marine Exploration, known worldwide for its deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, announced Tuesday that it has signed a deal with an Emmy-winning documentary company for a series that would debut in 2009.

Film crews from JWM Productions are aboard two of Odyssey's exploration vessels in the Atlantic Ocean, company spokeswoman Laura Barton said. Greg Stemm, Odyssey's chief executive officer, said the company's efforts to find and salvage shipwrecks should make for exciting television.

"We have the most experienced team of shipwreck explorers in the world manning our ships, and on a regular basis they make amazing discoveries in the deep ocean - things that have never before been seen by human eyes," he said...[Tampa Bay Online]

Mystery of basking shark habits uncovered

Isle of Man Britain's biggest shark species has been tracked for the first time for thousands of miles from waters southwest of the Isle of Man to Canada.

Until now little was known about endangered basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) when they moved outside British waters, but scientists have confirmed that the animals travel huge distances and plunder deep waters for food. The discoveries were made with the help of two sharks, known as A and B, who were tagged last year. ..[TimesOnline]

Sport Chalet Enters Into Partnership With Ocean Enterprises

LOS ANGELES, May 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sport Chalet, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPCHA, SPCHB) today announced that it has entered into a joint training and operations agreement with Ocean Enterprises, a specialty dive center headquartered in San Diego, California.

Under the partnership, Sport Chalet and Ocean Enterprises will work together on employee and dive instructor training and certification as well as joint merchandising and marketing initiatives. Ocean Enterprises will assist in evaluating Sport Chalet's procedures for employee and instructor hiring, training and class scheduling. Ocean Enterprises will also provide its expertise to enhance the Company's SCUBA repair services as well as its SCUBA rental and travel business in order to explore additional opportunities to further leverage these unique services...[earthtimes.org]

DAN and CMAS Announce Alliance

Divers Alert Network® and the American chapter of the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS AMERICAS) recently announced a new training alliance. As part of the alliance, CMAS AMERICAS now incorporates DAN training programs into its own training.

Frank Toal, president and CEO of CMAS AMERICAS, said DAN is obviously the industry leader when it comes to oxygen and other emergency training programs. “DAN literally wrote the book on it,” Toal said. “So when we wanted to incorporate this important information into our training schedule, we naturally turned to the ones who started it all.”

The alliance begins with the training of CMAS AMERICAS Instructors and the requirement that all CMAS Instructors also carry DAN Instructor credentials. From there, provider-level DAN programs will be taught from the CMAS Two-Star Diver courses through all subsequent levels of training...[Divers Alert Network]

Google street view...is this you?

Fish out of water ... a person in scuba gear runs along the side of the road in a residential area on the coast of California, near Shaw's Cove in Laguna Beach...[news.com.au]

Rescued...after 24 hours off Queensland...

Two scuba divers were plucked from the open ocean almost 24 hours after they went missing on a pleasure dive on Austrailia’s Great Barrier Reef.

The divers, a 38-year-old British man and a 40-year-old American woman, were found shortly before 9 a.m. 7.8 nautical miles from where they had lost contact with their diving boat on Friday afternoon.

They were winched to safety after an 18 hour air rescue effort involving up to 12 aircraft and flown to a Queensland hospital where they are said to be in good spirits despite suffering from mild hypothermia.

Last night, police and emergency services used helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft equipped with search lights and infrared sensing equipment to search for the divers but were forced to call off the search...[Foxnews.com]

81–year–old makes her first dive

For years, Marge Frisch would hear the wonderful stories and see the beautiful photos about Grand Cayman from her daughter Linda Martin. Marge had always wanted to visit such a magical place, but her husband’s health challenges kept her from venturing very far from her Sun City Center, Florida home.

This week for the first time, Marge had the opportunity to visit Grand Cayman and took full advantage of the chance. Like many people, her ultimate goal has been to go scuba diving and experience the underwater world that blesses these islands. The only difference with Marge is that she is 81 years old. Marge keeps an active lifestyle in Sun City Center including swimming in the pool, walking and aerobics but they don’t quite offer scuba diving as an activity. So, Marge began learning about diving and got comfortable with dive equipment in her daughter’s pool in Tampa...[CayCompass.com]

Down under divers don't just think about sharks...

There's no need to be scared of sharks when you're in the Northern Territory - the crocs usually get to them first.

Paul van Bruggen snapped these amazing pictures of a 2.5m saltie dining out on a shark on the banks of the Daly River, The Northern Territory News reports. "We went past one section of the river and we heard some splashing,'' he said. "We looked across and saw a shark's tail coming up out of the water and then a crocodile's head came up and grabbed it.''

Mr van Bruggen said the crocodile knew exactly what it was doing, dragging the shark on to unfamiliar dry land before finishing off its prey. "How smart is the crocodile? It if was you or me it would be dragging you in to drown you, but it takes the shark up on dry land,'' he said. The fisherman, who was on the Daly River last Friday for the Barra Classic, said the crocodile definitely wanted shark for dinner. "We were about 15 metres away and it didn't bat an eyelid,'' he said. [news.com.au]

Whale Watch-ing

Today, Casio America, Inc. released the new Dolphin & Whale Eco-research Network G-SHOCK watch (GW9101K-7). It supports the environmental protection initiatives of the Dolphin & Whale Eco-Research Network, an educational and research project undertaken by I.C.E.R.C. (International Cetacean Education and Research Center).

Since the 4th International Dolphin & Whale Conference was held in Japan in 1994, Casio has released both official Dolphin & Whale Eco-research Network G-SHOCK and Baby-G watches. For over a decade, Casio has donated a portion of the watch sales to help promote dolphin and whale research and educational activities worldwide.
　　
“Casio G-Shock is committed to preserving the beauty of one of our greatest natural resources,” said Shigenori Itoh, Vice President of Casio’s Timepiece Division. “Casio will continue to proudly support the Dolphin & Whale Eco-Research Network and educational outreach.”...[Crunch Gear]

Shark Power

The tidal power conversion system, bioSTREAM™, is based on the highly efficient propulsion of Thunniform mode swimming species, such as shark, tuna, and mackerel.

The bioSTREAM™ mimics the shape and motion characteristics of these species but is a fixed device in a moving stream. In this configuration the propulsion mechanism is reversed and the energy in the passing flow is used to drive the device motion against the resisting torque of an electrical generator.

Due to the single point of rotation, this device can align with the flow in any direction, and can assume a streamlined configuration to avoid excess loading in extreme conditions. Systems are being developed for 250kW, 500kW, and 1000kW capacities to match conditions in various locations...

[bioSTREAM animation]

Electric Signals Could Ward Off Sharks

While the menacing fin of a shark has figured in many human nightmares, people may be the stuff of shark nightmares. In addition to intentionally hunting sharks for food, fishermen often catch them inadvertently. A new plan hopes to reduce this bycatch by repelling sharks with electric fields.

Sharks have an innate ability to detect electric fields, useful for sensing the bioelectric activity of their prey. Researchers discovered that strong electric fields could repel these predators, most likely by overwhelming their electricity sensors.

"It's a sense we don’t have," said Richard Brill, a biologist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA)'s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and head of the Cooperative Marine Education and Research Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. "The closest [analogy] I can come up with is if you get exposed to a bright light, you squint and look away."

A recent test showed that small disks of a rare metal alloy called palladium neodymium interact with the salt in seawater to produce electric fields strong enough to ward off sharks. These disks could be attached to fishing lines to deter sharks from fishers aiming for other animals, thereby reducing bycatch of endangered shark species...[Live Science]

NOAA-funded expeditions featured in new film, 'Beneath the Blue'

Largely unexplored deep-sea coral reefs, some perhaps hundreds of thousands of years old, off the coast of the southeastern U.S. are not only larger than expected but also home to commercially valuable fish populations and many newly discovered and unusual species. Results from a series of NOAA-funded expeditions to document these previously unstudied and diverse habitats and their associated marine life have revealed some surprising results.

Some of those findings and images of the reef habitats 60 to 100 miles off the North Carolina coast will be featured in a high-definition film, "Beneath the Blue", to be shown for the first time in public May 17 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, N.C. Research scientists, joined by museum staff, conducted a series of expeditions to the deep coral habitats on the continental slope off the east coast from North Carolina to central Florida, in an area known as the Blake Plateau...[Eureka Alert]

Divers find shipwreck in Lake Michigan off Sheboygan coast

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - A maritime historian from Sheboygan and his group of divers have located an 85-year-old shipwreck in Lake Michigan.

The 101-foot wooden tugboat steamer named Robert C. Pringle sank about six miles off the Sheboygan shore on July 19, 1922. The crew got into lifeboats and was saved.

The wreck has been undisturbed for more than 85 years. This month, maritime historian Steve Radovan and his group of divers found the wreck and videotaped it.

Radovan, 61, has been searching for the Pringle since the 1970s. He found the wrecks of two other schooners, the Floretta and the Home, both of which sank in the 1800s, while searching for the Pringle...[Chicago Tribune]

Jean-Michel Cousteau's "Secrets of the Kelp Forest"

Zebra mussels a double-edged sword to scuba divers

Veteran scuba diver Paul Ehorn sees Great Lakes zebra mussels as a double-edged sword.

The invasive species primarily consumes plankton, but also filters other suspended material, which improves water clarity. However, they also have attached to the shipwrecks that Ehorn and other divers love to explore.

“It has benefitted the visibility,” said Ehorn, a speaker recently at Loves Park Scuba, “but I would prefer to give up part of that visibility to see the objects and the beautiful wood on the shipwrecks, which is hidden in so many cases. “You are seeing the shapes of items (on the wrecks), but you can’t tell what it is because they are entirely encapsulated by zebra mussels.”...[rrstar.com]

Underwater Lava Video

Check out this video scuba divers captured off the Big Island. They went about 90-feet down to catch these images.

They tell us when the lava hits the water it makes a crackling sound which you can feel against your body.

As for the water... It's a mix, some areas are cold, others very hot.

[Video is on the KGMB Channel 9 site]

Un-trashing a treasure: Divers clean Deschutes River

The Deschutes River is the heart of Central Oregon, loved for i's beauty and the great recreational adventures it has to offer. But have you ever thought about what lurks beneath its surface?

Earlier this month, 12 divers went on a mission to find out (though they already had a pretty good idea.)

"What do you hope to find today?" I asked. "A bag of money. I mean, who wouldn't?"said scuba dirver Byron Leisek. It's a once-a-year, once-in-a-lifetime dive, and it's all part of the big event of the annual Deschutes Riverfest - the river cleanup. "It's nice to go through every year and pick this stuff up, because there's a lot of junk down there," said Walt Bolton, the co-owner of Central Oregon Diving...[KTVZ.COM]

Shark Shield gets Coroner's nod

Recent coroner’s findings have supported the use of the Shark Shield device as a shark deterrent.

The inquest came after the shark attack death of an Adelaide University student, Jarrod Stehbens, while diving for cuttlefish eggs off Adelaide in August, 2005. The inquest also found claims that the device caused health problems or attracted sharks were unwarranted. Paul Lunn, a former KI resident, first introduced the device to Australia through an agency, which was run out of a shed at Island Concrete in Kingscote. The Shark Shield was originally from South Africa and called the Shark Pod. The Shark Pod was “cumbersome, had a low battery life and components often failed,” Mr Lunn said. The potential market was recognised by Paul and wife Charmaine Zealand. They developed the Shark Shield by making the original smaller, lighter, more reliable and made the battery last longer.

Shark Shield released a statement after the Coroners findings were published, “We are pleased the Coroner has quickly cleared the air and acknowledged the effectiveness of Shark Shields. We still remain concerned that many unfounded allegations aired during the Coronial Inquest could put lives at risk. It would be a terrible tragedy if one more life was lost because divers, surfers or other water user - or their places of employment - had lost faith in such life-saving technology,” Mr Lunn said. After years of testing and development the Shark Shield is now used by many government departments, police diving squads, professional and amateur divers and surfers as well as being tested for Military use. [The Islander]

Stuart Cove Video Challenge

September 7-14, 2008

Shoot and learn with the pros at this first of its kind undersea film-making event and competition!

Spend seven ultimate days writing, diving, shooting, editing and producing your own 3-5 minute video. Work alongside the BBC's Emmy award-winning underwater photographer, Mike Pitts, Producer/ Director Neil Lucas and team as you produce from conception a professional video. This event will be covered in the pages of Sport Diver magazine with the winning film posted on www.sportdiver.com and www.stuartcove.com. The winner's production will be entered at no charge into the Bahamas Independant Film Festival, Sundance, Cannes and others. Event includes lodging at the Wyndham Cable Beach, breakfast and lunch daily, daily diving, tanks and weights, video workshops.

Stuart Cove's Undersea Video Challenge rate: $2321 PP DBL and $2995 SGL – 7 nights accommodations, breakfast and lunch while diving and attending workshops (6 days) – transfers R/T from hotel to Stuart Cove's daily. Detailed Itinerary to be posted soon!

Sign up now! Space is limited.
For more information or to reserve your spot,
call 1-800-82-SHARK (74275) or 954-524-5755,
email: info@stuartcove.com or visit www.stuartcove.com

Drifting diver rescued from Gulf of Mexico

NEW ORLEANS, May 15 (UPI) -- A diving instructor from New Orleans was recovering Wednesday after being rescued from the Gulf of Mexico where he had been drifting for three hours.

U.S. Coast Guard officials told The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune that John Anders, 33, had been spearfishing from a catamaran-type boat Tuesday when he was thrown into an undertow, perhaps by a malfunctioning oxygen tank, and was adrift in the water for hours.

Anders couldn't be heard yelling by his fellow divers, and instead of fighting against 4-foot seas, decided to drift to what seemed like a nearby oil rig. But the rig was actually eight miles away, and he became exhausted, the newspaper said. A rescue effort was launched when Anders failed to show up for a diver check-in.

He was eventually spotted by another ship, whose crew radioed the Coast Guard. A helicopter already searching for Anders then was dispatched to rescue him. He was not seriously injured. [UPI]

Dominica celebrates Dive Fest

Dominica’s Dive Fest, the Caribbean’s longest running scuba diving festival, encourages visitors to dive down and discover the beautiful landscapes and colourful marine life beneath the island’s waters. Would-be divers and snorkelers as young as eight can participate in pool- or ocean-based introductory sessions to teach them the basics, with some trial sessions even offered completely free of charge. To stay on dry land is to experience only half the magic of Dominica – that is the message behind the island’s Dive Fest, which celebrates its 15th anniversary in July 2008. Dive Fest was established to showcase the incredible marine environment of Dominica to both visitors and residents, and is organised by the Dominica Watersports Association (DWA).

The annual event takes place in Dominica from 11th – 20th July 2008. To mark this special 15th anniversary year, many local dive centres are offering group travel packages whereby one diver goes free with every seven that book.

Dominica continues to be recognized for its attributes and responsible tourism efforts, including being the first country in the world to receive Benchmarking designation from the prestigious eco-tourism organization Green Globe 21 and ranking as the only Caribbean destination in the top five happiest countries on earth in the Happy Planet Index (compiled by Britain’s New Economics Foundation).

For more information on Dominica, contact the Discover Dominica Authority at 866-522-4057. Or, visit Dominica’s official website: www.discoverdominica.com.

A bit more than your average Rescue Course...

PUERTO CASTILLO NAVAL BASE, Honduras - Honduran navy divers stationed at Puerto Castillo Naval Base fought their way through Course 17 today, literally. The course is designed to build confidence between pairs of divers who find themselves stuck within a riptide or other strong underwater current and have only one air tank to share.

The divers are given their instructions on the pier before they jump into the water. There will be no time for instructions or guidance once the exercise begins.

The scenario is explained to them: they will jump into the water and one of them will be caught in a strong current. This current will rip that diver's equipment from him and the other diver will have to share his air regulator with him. They must stay submerged for ten minutes and all this time there will be four instructors constantly pulling them lower into the water, rolling them, pulling them apart and other forms of harassment to separate, disorient and anger them...[Military News]

Monitor Sanctuary in Good Health Overall, but Historic Shipwreck Still Faces Threats

The natural resources of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary off the North Carolina coast are in good condition overall, but the wreck of the Civil War ironclad encompassed by the site is at risk from human activity and natural deterioration, according to a new NOAA report.

The first-of-its-kind assessment of the sanctuary’s archaeological and living marine resources indicates that corrosion, strong currents, hurricanes, high water temperatures and highly salty water threaten the long-term stability of the Monitor wreck. Discarded fishing gear, which can become entangled on the wreck, and other forms of marine debris also pose a danger to the historic site.

Although not a major problem currently, looting of the wreck, vessel anchoring, bottom trawling and other activities prohibited in sanctuary waters are of concern due to significant diving, boating and fishing activity in the area...[NOAA]

Divers find Caesar bust that may date to 46 B.C.

PARIS - Divers trained in archaeology discovered a marble bust of an aging Caesar in the Rhone River that France's Culture Ministry said Tuesday could be the oldest known. The life-sized bust showing the Roman ruler with wrinkles and hollows in his face is tentatively dated to 46 B.C. Divers uncovered the Caesar bust and a collection of other finds in the Rhone near the town of Arles — founded by Caesar.

Among other items in the treasure trove of ancient objects is a 5.9 foot marble statue of Neptune, dated to the first decade of the third century after Christ. Two smaller statues, both in bronze and measuring 27.5 inches each also were found, one of them, a satyr with his hands tied behind his back, "doubtless" originated in Hellenic Greece, the ministry said. "Some (of the discoveries) are unique in Europe," Culture Minister Christine Albanel said. The bust of Caesar is in a class by itself...[Yahoo News]

What's in your water?

Diesel oil and raw sewage slowly trickled into Taber MacCallum’s eyes as he swam toward the sunken research ship he’d been called to help salvage. It was 1989, and Hurricane Hugo had devastated Puerto Rico three days before, dumping fuel and municipal waste into San Juan Harbor. As the young diver and analytical chemist worked to raise the ship, the seals on his diving equipment disintegrated in the muck that crept into his helmet. Every time MacCallum exhaled into the putrid water, his helmet let a few drops back in.

Most contaminated-water diving is done by military and professional divers either as part of routine inspections or just after tanker explosions, natural disasters and pipeline breaks. “It can be hard to determine if a body of water is contaminated just by looking at it,” explains Phil Newsum, a former commercial diver who now heads the Association of Diving Contractors International. “But those pollutants will come right into your helmet.”...[Popular Science]

Calling all stunt and safety divers...

MGM Home Entertainment and Bluewater Productions are making a sequel to "Into the Blue". The film revolves around Sebastion (Chris Carmack, "The O.C.") and Dani (Laura Vandervoort, "Smallville"), a married couple hired as professional divers to search for Columbus' hidden treasure. To their horror, they learn that their wealthy employers have a much more terrifying agenda.

Steel tanks too...

Making an aluminum scuba tank...

Humans are terrible swimmers

Humans are terrible swimmers, converting roughly 3 percent of their kicks, strokes and general underwater exertions into forward motion. We can boost our efficiency to 10 percent by adding fins, but dolphins, by comparison, can turn 80 percent of their energy into thrust. Not to be outdone, the Pentagon’s research wing, DARPA, is developing a contraption that lets Navy SEALs and other combat divers swim faster, and with less effort.

Instead of kicking, PowerSwim calls for a kind of undulation as its hinged foils pivot up and down. Similar to the way a dolphin or tortoise pumps its fins, this motion generates both lift and thrust. And while artificial fins operate within the swimmer’s own wake (they form a kind of expanding cone, starting at a swimmer’s shoulders), the PowerSwim’s lead foil—or propulsor foil—sweeps through the water just outside that wake.

When used properly, the device allows swimmers to cover a given distance up to 150 percent faster than with fins, while using the same amount of energy...[Popular Mechanics]

Wetsuit inventor, Hugh Bradner, dies at age 92

Undersea divers would still be shivering and facing a high risk for hypothermia if it weren't for Hugh Bradner, inventor of the first wetsuit. Bradner, a renowned physicist and professor emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography died May 5, 2008, in San Diego after a prolonged illness. He was 92.

Bradner had a lifelong passion for the ocean. He enjoyed diving and sailing and was one of the first Americans to make a deep-water SCUBA dive. In 1951, while working at University of California, Berkeley, he decided to spend some weekend time improving diving equipment for Navy frogmen, which began his pioneering research on the wetsuit. Bradner focused on the design of a wetsuit for military underwater swimmers and developed a foam wetsuit using a unicellular material known as neoprene...[Live Science] and [Scuba America Historical Center]

Polar Circle Diving

Every winter, hordes of divers head to the congested, overdeveloped scuba-diving destinations of the Caribbean and the Red Sea. But there's a less-traversed option: Fly to Moscow, take the railroad 27 hours north, and drive two hours along snow-covered dirt roads to a village almost on the Arctic Circle, along an inlet of the White Sea. Then, take a snowmobile to a small black triangle cut into the ice.

Ice diving is one of the last grand scuba adventures. Popular destinations include Antarctica, Newfoundland and certain lakes in the Austrian Alps. One of the best -- and least known -- is Russia's White Sea...[WSJ]

Final dive site?

About 45 feet beneath the ocean's surface lies a cemetery with gates, pathways, plaques and even benches.
Advertisement

The Neptune Memorial Reef, which opened last fall, is seen by its creators as a perfect final resting spot for those who loved the sea. They hope that one day the reef will cover 16 acres and have room for 125,000 remains.

"This is simply as good as it gets," said Gary Levine, a diver who conceived the reef and is now a shareholder in the company that owns it.

The Neptune Memorial Reef is located in open waters 3.25 miles off the coast of Key Biscayne, which means any certified diver can visit. The artificial reef's first phase allows for about 850 remains.

The ashes are mixed with cement designed for underwater use and fitted into a mold, which a diver then places and secures into the reef. A copper and bronze plaque is installed with the person's name, date of birth and death. There is also a line for a message...[News Press]

Project promotes knowledge of Lake Erie shipwrecks

Ohio is trying to educate people about tales behind the many shipwreck remains at the bottom of Lake Erie, in part to attract more divers. Ohio officials are using photographs, newspaper articles and underwater video taken from records at the Peachman Lake Erie Shipwreck Research Centre in Vermilion. The material, along with firsthand accounts of the wrecks, is being displayed on a state-run Web site: www.ohioshipwrecks.org.

The state also hopes to build interactive kiosks at the Great Lakes Historical Society in Vermilion, the Steamship William G. Mather Maritime Museum in Cleveland and other places along the lake. Roadside signs highlighting and explaining nearby shipwrecks will be raised along the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail, a national scenic byway...[Read the rest on The Canadian Press]

Winter the dolphin gets a prosthetic tail!

Two years ago Winter was the dolphin that could not swim.

Instead of powering through the water with a flick of her tail, the bottlenose could barely waggle from side to side. She had lost her tail in a crab trap at just two months old and was found floating in distress off the coast of Florida.

Rescuers got her to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida where staff fought to save her life. Winter survived but there was a problem - where her tail should have been there was only a stump. Aquarium director David Yates said: "She had to learn how to swim without a tail, which no dolphin has ever done in captivity. "We didn't know if she could do that. But vets feared her waggling might damage her spine. Their solution was an artificial tail... [Read More on Daily Mail]

Breath-hold record still safe...holding your breath not so much...

Mandy-Rae Cruikshank once described free diving as a mental battle with evil monkeys who rode on her shoulders, chattering destructive thoughts as she swam deep into the ocean with nothing but a face mask and the air in her lungs.

"They can get to you," she said. "They say stuff like 'Whoa, you're really deep! You'll never make it! You're out of air, girl!' They want to freak you out."

Yesterday, as she swam deeper than any woman in history, grabbing a plastic tag at the end of a line set 91 metres below the waves off Grand Cayman Island, Ms. Cruikshank managed to keep the monkeys at bay, but that wasn't enough - as she approached the surface after almost nearly four minutes without air, she passed out underwater, killing her bid for a new world record.

"It wasn't my day," Ms. Cruikshank, who went for observation at a Grand Cayman hospital after being pulled from the water and resuscitated by her husband, free diving coach Kirk Krack. [globeandmail.com]

Wii Diving

"Endless Ocean" (Nintendo, for the Wii, $29.99): A hardcore gamer diving into "Endless Ocean" might expect it to turn into "Jaws," "Open Water" or, heaven help us, "Into the Blue." But anyone looking for fast-paced action here is bound to be disappointed; it's one of the most laid-back console games ever released.

Your character is a scuba diver who's bumming around the fictional waters of Manoa Lai. Occasionally, a mysterious benefactor asks you to go underwater, perhaps to look for sunken artifacts or to escort another diver to a coral reef. You can take pictures of exotic fish for nature magazines, or you can frolic with dolphins and penguins. If you like, you can just swim around and take in all the lush scenery. [Endless Ocean}

Don't let housework keep you from diving...

A group of 72 Australian scuba divers has flattened the world record for ironing under water, taking the plunge off a pier near the southern city of Melbourne with ironing boards and irons, and their linen.

So-called "extreme ironing" has spawned a cult following in recent years. The Web site extremeironing.com espouses it as being the "latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt."

The Australian group, who pipped the previous mark of 70, are seeking entry to the Guinness book of world records after taking their linen into murky, 3-metre-deep (9.8 foot) ocean on Saturday.

"It was cold and I think they were bloody crazy," local councilor Tom O'Connor, who with police helped authenticate the new record, told Reuters on Tuesday. [ABCnews.com]

RGM Model 300/Series 1 Professional Diver Watch

American luxury watchmaking firm RGM has announced that its Professional Diver Model 300/Series 1 timepiece is now ready for delivery. Limited to a series of just 100 pieces for 2008, this RGM sports watch will fulfill the demanding criteria for a true diving instrument, namely legibility, unrelenting reliability, and uncompromising resistance to water penetration. [Read More]

Open water swimming vs. scuba diving

Sam Murphy
[The Guardian]

Open water swimming

Shapely legs: Breaststroke - often favoured by open-water swimmers - means the lower-body muscles do the lion's share of the work, giving the leg muscles a challenging workout. 4 stars

Weight loss: Not as good as you may think, possibly because it increases appetite: research found that swimmers gained an average of 2.2kg (5lb) when put on a three-month exercise programme for weight loss. 2 stars

Cardiorespiratory fitness: Professional swimmers use 50% less oxygen - so they're better at conserving their breath - to achieve the same speed in front crawl as untrained swimmers. 5 stars

Scuba diving

Shapely legs: Swimming with fins (flippers) is like water-based weight-training - firming the front of the thighs as you kick down and the back of the thighs as you kick up. 4 stars

Weight loss: Surprisingly good for burning energy. Someone weighing approximately 70kg (11st) burns 13 calories a minute while scuba diving, so a 45-minute dive would use 585 calories. 3 stars

Cardiorespiratory fitness: According to the British Thoracic Society, scuba divers tend to have larger-than-average lungs and an increased vital capacity (the maximum volume of air exhaled after inhalation). 4 stars

Upper-body strength: The back, shoulders and arms get a certain amount of work lugging around equipment, but once in the water, the upper body gets off lightly. Arms are usually folded across the chest or kept by the sides. 2 stars

Convenience: Even if you decide to dive in the UK, it's still an equipment-heavy, location-specific, expensive sport that requires a licence, and therefore tuition. 1 star

New Legislation Paves Way for Increase in Scuba Diving Tourism

The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association congratulates the Florida Senate and House of Representatives for unanimously passing legislation which establishes a matching grant program titled Ships to Reefs. This bill, sponsored in the Senate by Mike Bennett, and in the House by Doug Holder, would authorize the sinking of decommissioned U.S. Military vessels as artificial reefs to increase marine habitat and tourism opportunities associated with recreational scuba diving and fishing.

With 380 decommissioned Navy ships already acting as marine habitat, Florida leads the nation in the number of vessels functioning as artificial reefs. Each year, thousands of visitors choose Florida to scuba dive on the artificial reef trail, providing an economic boost to the communities of the 272 Florida-based retail dive centers and local diving operators, as well as surrounding hotels and restaurants. A recent study estimates that the economic impact of the USS Vandenberg, scheduled to be sunk off the coast of Key West later this year, will generate between $56-$168 million over the next ten years...

[Press Release} and [ABC.com on the Oriskany]

Dance of the snappers

By Simon Round

Wolfgang Leander swims with sharks — to photograph them. He’s not crazy, he tells Simon Round

In recent years, thousands of people have taken the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Far fewer have been overtaken by the urge to swim with sharks. Wolfgang Leander is one of those who has.

Sixty-seven-year-old Leander, the son of a German-Jewish refugee who was born and raised in South America, developed a passion for diving despite spending much of his childhood in the landlocked country of Bolivia. On Mediterranean holidays he snorkelled and indulged in spear-fishing. Then, 40 years ago on a Caribbean holiday, he encountered sharks for the first time. He was hooked and has followed his passion ever since. [TheJC.com]

SCUBA instruction for the disabled

By Jim Blue

A group of local SCUBA instructors are opening up the underwater world to disabled people in Northwest Ohio.

Recently, an exceptional young woman who works here at NBC24 became their first student. Tenesha Ulrich uses a wheelchair to get around on land. But in the water, she is just as mobile as anyone else. I talked with Tenesha and her instructor, Jeff Davis, about the experience.

Tenesha: "And I put my feet actually on the floor of the pool and I straightened my legs out and then it was like I was standing up."

[The complete story on NBC24.com] and [Diveheart.org]

Swimming with monster sharks - and surviving

DAVID WHITING
Register columnist

International cold water swimmer Lynne Cox talks about the fatal shark attack last week and her own encounters with great whites.

"The gray oblong mass below appears suddenly.

I'm swimming about 200 yards off the beach at Salt Creek, just north of Dana Point. Stupidly, I'm alone. But I need an ocean fix, and, besides, a long open water swim is what my triathlon training calls for, I've rationalized.

My body goes electric. "Flight" neurons fire. No "fight" here. Visions of "Jaws" push to my frontal cortex, reminding me my black wetsuit makes me look like a sea lion.

Shark food."

[Read the rest of David's article on OCRegister.com]