IMHO, there is a multitude of misinformation bombarding all of us, from nearly every direction. When I run into something I know to be misinformation, I feel it is my responsibility to at least put a rebuttal out there so somebody can learn that it is misinformation.
The more publishing one does the more one risks publishing misinformation; I have been corrected more than once for publishing misinformation, and I respect and even appreciate being corrected when I am wrong. I strive to not be a hypocrite and live by the nice version of "The Golden Rule" - do unto others as you would have them do unto you!
As an "active" PADI Instructor, I receive Sport Diver Magazine; I would not if PADI would offer me a $10-15 reduction in annual Instructor membership fees option. My feeling is that as long as I get it I might as well read it, but every year there are numerous instances of misinformation that I see in Sport Diver's pages.
Since most of the things I know to be misinformation are concerning Hawaii, I usually post my corrections in the Hawai'i 'Ohana but today I come to the main forums, partially to show that whenever I run into something I know to be BS I point out that it is BS; no favorites, no nepotism.
A few days ago I received the Feb issue of Sport Diver and here is my list of BS after a quick flip through the pages. I thought that Ty Sawyer's departure as Editor of Sport Diver might improve the mag, at least with regards to Hawaii, but unfortunately he is the author of the "2011 Ultimate Dive Travel Planner" that runs from page 35 through page 71.
Page 36 is the first page of the "Underwater Photographer" section of the "Ultimate Dive Travel Planner. The picture that covers more than half the page is captioned "A Photographer captures an unusual species of jellyfish in deep Hawaiian waters." A photographer is pointing ~$15,000 dollars of camera system at the jelly with nothing but deep blue open ocean in the background.
Over two years ago I posted the above thread and pic in the Hawaii 'Ohana, and at that time Keoki Stender had the Pelagic Jellyfish identified on his marinelifephotography website.
Not only do I feel it is lazy magazine publishing to not find out the name of the jelly, but most guide/instructors who have been working full time in Hawaii for a decade or more have never seen this jelly, so "selling" dive travel to Hawaii with this jelly seems like BS to me!
Page 70 is the first page of the "Hawaii" section of the "Ultimate Dive Travel Planner." The nearly half page picture for that page is also a pelagic image, with nothing but deep blue open ocean behind the subject. The caption for this picture is "Close encounters with sharks like this oceanic white tip up the adrenaline."
Even when you are one of the very few divers who do a charter trip to "Deep Water Drift" the odds of having an oceanic white tip encounter are astronomical!
In the text on the next page one paragraph reads; "Things get sharky off Maui. Scalloped hammerheads school off Molokai; whitetips loll about in the volcanic caverns off Lanai, and gray reef sharks patrol the famed Molokini Crater."
What with the picture and caption on the previous page and NOT using the word reef when speaking about whitetip reef sharks, the message seems to be that you might see the pictured shark in the caverns off Lanai.
Finally, in my quick flip through the pages, we come to the last page (90). The caption for the more than half page picture of Eye of the Needle, Saba includes these words "breathtaking coral-cloaked rocks that attract oceangoing pelagics like reef sharks and schooling jacks." - penned by the Managing Editor.
A "reef" shark is a "reef" fish, NOT a "pelagic" fish! Calling a jack a "pelagic" is like calling a bear a "carnivore." Jacks "may form schools or aggregations in a wide range of habitats including estuaries, bays, reefs, and the open sea."
Jacks & Trevallies, Family Carangidae
I can easily find that much and more complete BS in every Sport Diver issue. Do experienced divers from other dive destination find similar BS about their locations on such a regular basis?
The more publishing one does the more one risks publishing misinformation; I have been corrected more than once for publishing misinformation, and I respect and even appreciate being corrected when I am wrong. I strive to not be a hypocrite and live by the nice version of "The Golden Rule" - do unto others as you would have them do unto you!
As an "active" PADI Instructor, I receive Sport Diver Magazine; I would not if PADI would offer me a $10-15 reduction in annual Instructor membership fees option. My feeling is that as long as I get it I might as well read it, but every year there are numerous instances of misinformation that I see in Sport Diver's pages.
Since most of the things I know to be misinformation are concerning Hawaii, I usually post my corrections in the Hawai'i 'Ohana but today I come to the main forums, partially to show that whenever I run into something I know to be BS I point out that it is BS; no favorites, no nepotism.
A few days ago I received the Feb issue of Sport Diver and here is my list of BS after a quick flip through the pages. I thought that Ty Sawyer's departure as Editor of Sport Diver might improve the mag, at least with regards to Hawaii, but unfortunately he is the author of the "2011 Ultimate Dive Travel Planner" that runs from page 35 through page 71.
Page 36 is the first page of the "Underwater Photographer" section of the "Ultimate Dive Travel Planner. The picture that covers more than half the page is captioned "A Photographer captures an unusual species of jellyfish in deep Hawaiian waters." A photographer is pointing ~$15,000 dollars of camera system at the jelly with nothing but deep blue open ocean in the background.
Over two years ago I posted the above thread and pic in the Hawaii 'Ohana, and at that time Keoki Stender had the Pelagic Jellyfish identified on his marinelifephotography website.
Not only do I feel it is lazy magazine publishing to not find out the name of the jelly, but most guide/instructors who have been working full time in Hawaii for a decade or more have never seen this jelly, so "selling" dive travel to Hawaii with this jelly seems like BS to me!
Page 70 is the first page of the "Hawaii" section of the "Ultimate Dive Travel Planner." The nearly half page picture for that page is also a pelagic image, with nothing but deep blue open ocean behind the subject. The caption for this picture is "Close encounters with sharks like this oceanic white tip up the adrenaline."
Even when you are one of the very few divers who do a charter trip to "Deep Water Drift" the odds of having an oceanic white tip encounter are astronomical!
In the text on the next page one paragraph reads; "Things get sharky off Maui. Scalloped hammerheads school off Molokai; whitetips loll about in the volcanic caverns off Lanai, and gray reef sharks patrol the famed Molokini Crater."
What with the picture and caption on the previous page and NOT using the word reef when speaking about whitetip reef sharks, the message seems to be that you might see the pictured shark in the caverns off Lanai.
Finally, in my quick flip through the pages, we come to the last page (90). The caption for the more than half page picture of Eye of the Needle, Saba includes these words "breathtaking coral-cloaked rocks that attract oceangoing pelagics like reef sharks and schooling jacks." - penned by the Managing Editor.
A "reef" shark is a "reef" fish, NOT a "pelagic" fish! Calling a jack a "pelagic" is like calling a bear a "carnivore." Jacks "may form schools or aggregations in a wide range of habitats including estuaries, bays, reefs, and the open sea."
Jacks & Trevallies, Family Carangidae
I can easily find that much and more complete BS in every Sport Diver issue. Do experienced divers from other dive destination find similar BS about their locations on such a regular basis?
