TWARS (This Week at Reef Seekers) - April 23-30

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Ken Kurtis

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Messages
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Location
Beverly Hills, CA
# of dives
5000 - ∞
Chamber Day, Bonaire, Manatees, and more
(please scroll down for details)

Chamber Day 2023 looms, so my personal catch-phrase is Busy, Busy, Busy . . .

TOO MUCH TO DO AND NOT ENOUGH TIME - Plus I have a tendency to over-commit myself. So I've definitely got a full plate which means ones of the things I HAVEN'T been able to complete are the trip report and pix from our Bonaire adventure. (Hard to believe we've already been back a full week.) I've actually got the trip report done but haven't tackled all the pix yet but hope to do that . . . shortly. Of course, I've been saying that to myself each day all week. I will most likely send you an e-mail with the links by Wednesday. But in the meantime, let me share . . .

AITZOL BLOWS THE BEST AIR-RINGS - He's one of the DMs at Buddy Dive (and a good critter-spotter too) and is one of the best air-ring blowers I've ever encountered. (I'm not very good at this skill.) So when the two of us are together at the safety stop, I try to hover over him while he blows an air ring, then he and I both try to maneuver so that we get him inside the ring, like it's a picture frame made out of air. You literally have no more than 5 seconds to get all of this done as the air-ring rise to the surface. We didn't get the perfect shot this time, but we got some pretty good ones, as you can see​
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CHAMBER DAY/EVE 2023 IS COMING - Do we have you on one of our lists yet? As you may know, Reef Seekers has served as Chamber Day HQ for over 30 years now. So we're well-invested in this event for a lot of reasons. And we hope you'll understand what a vital role YOU play in helping to keep our Chamber fully-funded as close to 55% of the annual funding must come from sources within the diving community. Our Reef Seekers Chamber Eve in-person table is full, but we've got plenty of room at the virtual table. There's always the Flying Dutchman if you can't take the day off to dive, and if you are available to get wet and tour our Chamber, both the Sundiver and Sundiver Express have spots available. Last but not least, there's the Chamber Challenge which is simply a straight donation to our Chamber. You can sign up for all aspects of the event at www.chamberday.org.

NO AVALON TRIP THIS WEEK - I pushed back last week's trip to this Wednesday but I've got too much on my plate. Hopefully we'll go in May once I've got Chamber Day in the rearview mirror.

SCUBA AUTOPSIES ZOOM TALK - Coroner Captain John Kades was our guest last week talking about how the L.A. County Coroner conducts autopsies in a scuba fatality. He also discussed three specific cases (coincidentally all from 2017) and especially with the second case, we had a very robust discussion with input not only from John, but also Dan Orr, Karl Huggins, Grant Graves, and myself. It hopefully gives you some insight into how we all look at a case and what things we know or don't know that may shape our opinions. If you missed the chat, you can watch it here on our YouTube page: L.A. COUNTY CORONER JOHN KADES.

SARGASSUM EXPLAINED - We get Sargassum here on a seasonal basis, but it's currently wrecking havoc in areas of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. There's a 5,000 mile wide belt (not a typo) in the Atlantic that's slowly drifting westward which is causing all of this. The Associated Press wrote a good "explainer" article about this that AOL published: SARGASSUM EXPLAINED.

I'M MELTING!!! - There was an article I saw today about the snowmelt we're starting to get here in SoCal which featured a satellite picture comparing some of our mountain peaks from a month ago to now. Of larger concern is the melt that's taking place in Antarctica which is not only contributing to rising sea levels, but which is also affecting deep-water ocean currents. You can read more about it here: ANTARCTICA ICE-PACK ISSUES.

SOME GOOD NEWS ABOUT MANATEES - Reports out of Florida indicate that the number of manatee deaths this year has dropped noticeably, and that's good news for the species. Some of this might be attributed to a feeding program that was implemented in areas where the sea grass that manatees graze on was depleted. (A lot of time they were given heads of lettuce, which they devoured.) And some might be due to no really long cold snaps in Florida this past winter. Manatees are especially sensitive to cold, which is why they gather in inland areas like Crystal River in the winter months in the first place. The species certainly isn't out of the woods yet, but it's a good sign and another indication - and this seems like an apropos message to deliver the day after Earth Day - that if we pay attention to the problems we face, man-made or natural, and try to do things not to further worsen the situation, we can make headway against what may initially seem to be an insurmountable problem.

And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, support our Chamber, and let's go diving soon!!!

- Ken​
 
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