Ocean Explorers
Society
January 2005
Sponsored by Ocean Enterprises
Contents
January Meeting January 6th, 7PM in the upstairs classroom at Ocean Enterprises. We'll use this meeting to talk about 2005 travel plans. Meet for dinner at 5:30 in Appleby's across the street from OE.
Many thanks to Paul Lee for hosting our Christmas party. I certainly had a good time. I also extend my apologies to those with conflicting company parties. It's difficult to pick a date that doesn't leave someone out. Perhaps we'll have a twelfth night party next year.
Happy holidays to everyone. I hope you all have a happy, prosperous, and wet 2005.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water at Children's Pool, things get downright weird. While I hesitate to paint all the "seal activists" with the same brush, it seems that a militant element from Los Angeles has entered the fray. We had several unfortunate incidents over the past six weeks.
Two seal pups were found either dead or in gravely wounded condition. Some people alleged that the one pup was burned with cigarettes, and beaten, but Hubbs Sea World found no evidence to support either assertion in their postmortem. They concluded that the seal pup had a bad encounter with a gill net.
This is one of the few controversies that has me wishing for something more urbane, polite, and learned; like a gun control debate. So far, we have a lot of accusations that have either been proved false, or not proved at all. It looks to me like at least some of the people who want exclusive use for the seals are willing to lie to get what they want. Consequently, at least some of the information in the local media is inaccurate. One barely knows what to think.
In these circumstances, I'm willing to go by first-hand experience and listen to the people who are down there the most. At least one former lifeguard thinks there should be no major problem with shared use. Our 3 R's class of 30 went out at the east side of the Children's Pool without disturbing a single seal. I've gone out there several times this year without incident. Tourists still seem to be a problem; divers aren't. We probably need better signage, particularly at the top of the stairs. I think there should be enough room in the city budget for that minor expenditure.
As for Children's Pool's status, that's pretty much set in stone. It will never become a reserve unless someone figures out a way to break the covenants written into the deed.
I haven't been down there to make a first hand check of the conditions, but the wires have been pretty quiet for the last few weeks. Clearly, this controversy is going to be around for a while. These new seal people come from LA and do this sort of in your face confrontation for a living. They have a history of militancy and even violence against their "foes". However, it's still legal to dive out of Children's Pool so long as you don't disturb the seals. Realistically, if we let these people drive us away from the water, we're going to permanently lose access. That would be a bad thing to do for no good reason.
I had a training class in Park City, Utah, and decided to partake of
a local natural feature. In my case, it wasn't the mountains as I've
never tried skiing. It was diving a natural hot springs and crater. The
Homestead Crater is 25 miles from Park City and is open all year round.
The water is a very comfortable 90 degrees F. A tunnel leads into the
springs and ends at a floating platform. The crater itself is some 60
feet around, and roughly 65 feet deep. there is a rock dome over the
crater that offers good protection from the elements. It was snowing
when we dove, but the temperature inside was relatively comfortable, at
least until it came time to get out.
To allow for the high altitude, Homestead Resort requests that you
stay above 45 feet and down no longer than 35 minutes. Vis for us was
an honest 30 feet, with little mineral snowflakes in the water. Someone
finned the wall above us and created a veritable underwater snowstorm.
You really want to stay off the bottom as it will silt out almost
instantly.
Unless you have something else to do underwater, 20 minutes of dive
time will do very nicely. The water was so nice that we floated about
for another 25 minutes. No fish, but you can find faces in the mineral
deposits on the walls. This might be a good place to join the 6 fathom
club except that it's in Utah, and they take a very dim view of
dogging. Fun to do once if you're a tourist. Rent all your gear for $15
and save the hassle of bringing your own.
We're getting to that time of year when we want to take stock of where we are, and look at where we want to be. This has been a tumultuous year for the OES. Mark's carried the torch for a very long time and I'm still coming up to speed. I want to thank everyone who's stepped in to help with keeping the club going. I couldn't ask for a nicer group of people to work with.
We have some good stuff coming in 2005. Another spring trip to Curacao, Tobago, or perhaps elsewhere is in the planning stages. For those of you who haven't been to Curacao, it's a week of great diving, and relaxing. Cost should be $1000-$1200 plus airfare. See my trip report on the web site if you're wondering what it's like.
Weather is unpredictable at this time of year. If conditions look good and you want to go diving, post an email to the our mailing list. In any case, I'd bring my surfboard along as a backup plan.
The San Diego Oceans Foundation is raffling off a DUI Drysuit to raise funds for their ongoing programs. This year they are only selling 250 tickets. If you want to donate to a great cause while entering to win a DUI Drysuit (valued at $2,000 retail) go here and buy yourself a ticket. All donations are tax-deductible.
Earthquakes are a fact of life in California. Most people have been through them at some time or another. The Stephen Birch Aquarium is opening an earthquake exhibit. We attended the opening, and it's a good exhibit. They have a very interesting interactive globe that shows how the continents have drifted.
The Birch Aquarium has an ongoing series of lectures called Perspectives in Ocean Science. These lectures used to be Wednesday mornings. They're now the second Monday evening of the month, when more people can attend. I've seen a few of these on UCSD TV and they're really interesting. They aren't the usual "dumbed down" fare for the public, and you don't need a PhD to understand them either. SIO maintains and information page with upcoming lectures and RSVP information. They're free for aquarium members, and $8 for non-members.
In case you haven't been there recently, parking at the aquarium is free again.
Wired magazine has an article on James Cameron's view on terrestrial exploration. James Cameron is best known as the director of the movies Titanic, and The Abyss. Not surprisingly, the ocean figures prominently in his list of places. You can find parts of the article at the Wired Magazine web site.
Safety is an ongoing concern of all good divers. you can do simple things to keep your diving career long, happy, and uneventful.
Know your limits. It's good to challenge ourselves, but it's foolish to get ourselves into a situation where we really can't respond appropriately. You have to find those limits and respect them.
Looks like we're not quite done with Children's Pool - Another lawsuit has been filed, this one challenging the City of San Diego's decision to allow people and seals to coexist at Children's Pool. Nobody seems to have a copy of the lawsuit yet. Oddly enough, the other law challenging the city's earlier decision to keep people out is still active and scheduled to go to trial in January.
In a more positive development, Governor Schwartzenegger has signed a bill prohibiting bottom trawling withing State waters. Bottom trawling drags a net across the sea floor; destroying habitat and gathering lots of bycatch in the process. This is a long overdue reform and I'm glad to see it finally happen.
After being offered up as a sacrifice to appease the budget gods, Marine Life Protected Areas (MPLAs) are under construction again. This time they're being funded by private donations. The sport fishing industry is still opposed to them, so the fight isn't over yet. There's getting to be a lot of good, defensible science behind them now. If you need proof that MLPAs work, look at all the lobster traps sitting just outside of the La Jolla reserve.
The MLPA committee members have been announced. As expected, fishing interests are heavily represented, but there are 3 divers, and a good assortment of marine biologists on the committee too. I don't know what the plan will be going forward, but I wouldn't be surprised if more public hearings are in the works. Divers are going to have to show up at these hearings to make themselves heard. Sport and commercial fishing interests will certainly be there, and the only way to get a balanced view on the public record it so show up ourselves.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is creating a fisheries plan for the 200 mile fishing zone off US waters. They just finished the public comment period. No telling how the Bush administration will go with this issue, but it bears watching.The Council is wrapping up 2004, and looking forward to a good 2005. Recent events are keeping access to Children's Pool very much on the agenda. There will also be fishery issues, Marine Life Protected Areas (MLPAs), and changes to Kellogg Park at La Jolla Shores. The Council's next meeting will be on January 11th at the Casa Machado restaurant in Kearny Mesa.
The following item came in from the Divebums mailing list. It's interesting that this person's dive rescue training was very helpful in a non-diving situation.
Per your request I am providing a written summary of a recent near drowning incident in the hope it will help someone else in the future. I was skin-diving about 300 yards offshore at a local popular beach in Orange County when I heard yells for "HELP". About 30 yards to my east was a group of swimmers waving their arms and yelling for lifeguard assistance. At first I thought it was a SCUBA Rescue class behaving improperly, but the urgency in their voices promptly eliminated that consideration.
I swam to the scene and found an unconscious non-breathing swimmer surrounded by several other swimmers yelling for help, but they were apparently paralyzed into inaction. I told them there were no lifeguards on duty at that time of the morning, and sent someone to the beach to make a 911 call. Being the only one with fins on, I began towing the victim to shore, and instructed one of the swimmers to assist by providing rescue breathing. During the tow the victim was frothing at the mouth, but eventually coughed up and began breathing on his own. Half-way to shore a lady swam over on a "Boogie Board", which we then used to float the victim the remaining distance. She also assisted in calming many of the panicky swimmers following us to shore.
Rescue personnel arrived by the time we made it to the beach, and they took over from there. The victim was transported to a local hospital, apparently a swimmer that experienced a epileptic seizure, and was in the process of drowning. The last I heard he was in stable condition, but was placed in ICU because of water in the lungs. I have no doubt that the rapid and combined actions of all those involved saved this young man's life. It could have had a completely different outcome, and here is where I would like to share my thoughts.
As SCUBA divers we are subjected to some sort of rescue/self rescue training at all levels of instruction, and therefore we are probably more prepared for emergencies than the average bear. The general public, however, is not. The attending swimmers at this incident were "triathletes ", certainly capable of conducting a rescue, but were frozen in place, waiting for someone else to take action. Had the waiting continued, I am sure you would have read about it in the obituaries. Delaying "time-to-treatment" can be fatal. So what is the lesson to be learned? In my opinion, the single most important factor contributing to the success of this rescue was not having a "macho hero" at the scene, but having someone prepared to organize the people at the scene to effect the rescue. You don't have to be a "super-person", you just need to be trained in basic emergency procedures.
Many of the incidents I encounter and/or read about occur around the home or at social/recreational activities where risks seem minimal. Many of the saved lives, however, result from people trained elsewhere (like work) that just happened to be in the area. They were able to assist by assessing, instructing and taking action. So, my message is to please get basic emergency first aid and CPR training for yourself and your loved ones. It might just save a life.
Anonymous Beach Bum
Cayman got hit hard this hurricane season. Thankfully, they're getting back on their feet and making repairs.
From:
Fraser Purdon
[mailto:frase@candw.ky]
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 8:58 AM
Subject: Grand Cayman Update
All,
For those interested here is an update on GC so far , for those not, please excuse me.
I would be grateful if anyone could cross post this to any list other than Quest or DIR-UK. I want to let everyone know that we're still in business.
I don't want to dwell on the negative side of the storm ....so I won't. Suffice to say it was BAD!! Nothing in the media, reports from friends or Internet pictures adequately prepared me for when I landed.
If
your interested check out [these
photos are just surreal - dla]
http://www.davidwolfephotography.com/Stk/Ivan/index.htm
But that was three weeks ago..and oh how things have changed in such little time.
All the roads are now clear and temporary "patches" have been laid where the roads have collapsed. Debris piles are being cleared promptly and the re-building is going on at a feverish pace. A lot of trees by the ocean were torn up....my drive to work along the ocean is now going to be awesome.
Most of the island is still without mains power due to damaged poles and underwater cable but more manpower and material is arriving all the time.
Water
pipelines are being restored and
for those of you who know GC,
water supply is already past Bodden Town. A lot of older houses still
have cisterns or deep wells so as long as they have a generator then at
least they have running water. There has been no outbreak of any
"filth" diseases which is a credit to the Dept of Environmental Health
who had refuse
collections back up and running very quickly after the storm.
Food supplies are plentiful but due to the destruction of 4 of the islands 6 supermarkets...you can imagine it's pretty busy at times.
OK.. so what about the diving...this is after all a still diving list isn't it ;)
I can only speak of the dive sites on the East End as that's all we have done. Funnily enough, since the storm, the sea has been flat calm and vis fantastic.
Some
of our guys dived River of Sand and
High Rock on the South East
side (this is the direction the storm came in from).These are wall
sites and as they are closest to shore would have probably felt a lot
more effect of wave action than other wall sites. The sites do show
some evidence of the storm, mainly the excavation of sand form the
tunnels and canyons. Around 10' of
sand was removed from the bottoms of the canyons, which has opened up
some tunnels that were formerly blocked. Top of the wall saw some
damage to sea fans and sponge but still in great condition.
On the shallow sites we did, there is some debris from the storm...the odd palm tree and dead sponges/soft coral, and again a lot of sand had been removed revealing banks of coral pieces that had been laying there for years. Kinda reminded me of the clay banks you see in corners of cave systems. Where the sand had been removed, algae had started to colonise, which is normal, resulting in loads of fish.....and I mean loads.
On the North East side, hardly any damage at all and again reports of lots of fish. Some of the local fisherman are saying that they have not seen this much life in the water...ever. One even reported a whale feeding just off the wall and he watched it for over an hour.
As for Ocean Frontiers.....
All our boats are fine and went back in the water three days ago. All are running and just need a few minor repairs.
The dock has gone but re-building on that starts tomorrow as does the repairs to the two top floors of our condos. Our goal is to be up and running by 20th November which is very achievable at this point.
All our dive equipment is ok....though I can't find three sets of my doubles....ah well.
All our staff are well and in good spirits and most are off island taking a well earned vacation.
I publicly want to thank Dave and Tina Rhea, Ted and Carol Cole, Robert and Robin Carmichael and all the guys at Brownie's. Upon receipt of a rather frantic phone call from me, these guys stepped up without hesitation. To have friends like these is truly a blessing.
Many of you have e-mailed me asking if there is anything you can do/send. Once again, I thank you for your e-mails and concern. I have never met most of the people who mailed me but it just goes to show the "tightness" of our community.
There is one thing that you can do.....come diving!!
The GUE Event on Feb 5th-12th is still definitely ON! JJ and Panos will be here as will other GUE Instructors. All levels of diver are welcome so whether you've just completed your DIR-F course or your RB80 ...come on down.
If you want to take a course, then drop me a line as this will be the perfect opportunity to pick some of the best brains in the business.
To make a reservation, please e-mail lesley@oceanfrontiers.com We can arrange everything from flights with Cayman Airways to hire car. Check out the website www.oceanfrontiers.com
Cheers
Fraser
GUE
Instructor
Operations Manager : Ocean Frontiers
We're looking at two trip possibilities - Tobago, or Curacao. We'll have more information about Tobago next month.
Curacao lies 30 miles north of Venezuela so it's been spared from the ravages of this season's hurricanes. It's is also home to some of the best diving we've done. If we go there, we'll probably stay at Habitat Curacao again. If you can get cheap airfare, this is not an expensive trip.We'll distribute more details as they become available.
Ocean Enterprises has announced two trips for 2005; one to Papua New
Guinea in September of 2005, the other to Wakitobi July 5-15, 2005.
Membership Renewal rates are $20 single; $30 for a family. If you can't make it to a meeting, send your renewal to Mark Clausen; 1862 Willow Way; Vista, CA 92083.