Happy Easter everyone. (See? I really DO know what date Easter is this year.)
CHAMBER DAY/EVE COMING UP - We're a little over two weeks away and coming down to the wire. Reef Seekers divers have always been great donors to the event in the past and we hope we can count on you again this year. We've still got two seats left at our Chamber Eve table (due to a cancellation - $150/ticket) and we've got oodles of room at our Virtual Chamber Eve table ($95). There's plenty of room on the Flying Dutchman (also $95) and we can always use whatever you can afford to donate to the Chamber Challenge. But the point is that, as a diver (or if you just know a diver), you should be supporting our Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber each and every year. If you've already done that, many thanks. Maybe check with some of your dive buddies and see if THEY have made a donation as well. if you haven't yet signed up for anything or donated, there's still time. The event is May 4 and our Chamber relies on us for about 55% of the annual operating budget. No easy task for them or for you since there's no question money's tight all around. But think about what value a life saved by our Chamber has, and then see what you can donate to help make that happen. The direct link to the sign-up page is:
https://usc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cTKwbhUykVzL95Q.
ZOOM SEEKERS FROM LAST WEEK - We had a great session with Sean Eckley, one of the Assistant Dive Safety Officers at the California Science Center. He talked about what they do as well as how you can get involved if you'd like to become a volunteer diver at CSC. (Minimum requirement is rescue-certified and proof of 50 logged open-water dives.) If you missed Sean's chat, or would simply like to review it again, here's the link to our YouTube Page:
ZOOM SEEKERS: SEAN ECKLEY - DIVING AT CSC.
NEW REGENERATIVE LUNG CELL DISCOVERED - The university press release went out on April 1 - a date that always raises my suspicions - but the paper was published on March 30 in Nature so I don't think this is an elaborate April Fools joke. The short version is that researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a new type of cell residing deep inside the lungs that may aid in repairing alveoli that have been destroyed or damaged. The study talks about applying this to treating COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) but my first thought was whether this had an application in treating people who have embolised and destroyed alveoli or whether it could aid a diver post-COVID if COVID got deep into the lungs and attacked the alveoli. If you'd like to read more about it, you can do so here:
PENN MEDICINE STUDY.
UPCOMING REEF SEEKERS DIVES - We got two on the books. The first is a night dive this Thursday at Vets Park in Redondo, conditions permitting. (BTW, they've installed new pay stations there so no more need to bring a roll of quarters to feed the meters.) It's likely a little too late in the season for squid - but you never know - so this is much more of a night dive than it is a squid dive. The second one is on the books for next week on Wednesday, April 27, and that's a day trip over to dive the Avalon Underwater park. (It will also give us a chance to explore the new Catalina Divers Supply store that's now located in the ground floor of the Casino, right across from the fuel dock.) We'll leave out of San Pedro at 8:45AM, will get in three dives, and come back on the 6PM out of Avalon. $170 covers you for the round-trip Express, taxi to and from the Park, tank rentals with airfills, and mucho fun. To join us for either of these, call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at this addy.
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU'VE SEEN IT ALL - How about a hi-tech toilet in a Japanese cafe that's surrounded on three sides by a floor-to-ceiling aquarium? And supposedly it cost over a quarter-million dollars US to install. Yikes!!! Yes, the fish can see what you're doing but it certainly takes the phrase, "The ocean is my toilet" to new heights. Seeing is believing and you can see it here:
HI-TECH AQUARIUM TOILET.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
