How can we be approaching Labor Day Weekend already . . .
NOT DIVE-RELATED BUT . . . - I was rather ecstatic to see my Northwestern Wildcats prevail (31-28) in an exciting college football opener (in Dublin, Ireland, no less) against the 13-point favored Nebraska Cornhuskers. I don't get to brag about NU football too often so wanted to take this opportunity while it presents itself.
CONCEPTION ANNIVERSARY APPROACHING - Hard to believe it was three years ago that the relative quiet of a Labor Day weekend was shattered by the news of the Conception tragedy. It was simply unimaginable. Along those lines . . .
ZOOM SEEKERS IN SEPTEMBER WILL DISCUSS CONCEPTION - We will still discuss the aftermath of that but have modified our program bit since our original speaker (an NTSB investigator) has had to back out due to the on-going criminal and civil litigation. But we will be able to present and discuss the lessons learned, the NTSB recommendations, new USCG-proposed regulations (slightly different), and we want to hear your experiences post-fire in terms of what you see has changed or has not. I'll have a PowerPoint presentation to go over stuff but part of my hope here is that we can have an open forum-type discussion so you can also share your experiences and ideas. Because I rarely dive SoCal local boats anymore, I'm very interested to hear what you have all personally experienced. Certainly one big change is that many/most boats have simply stopped doing overnight trips and are limiting themselves to Catalina, Oil Rigs, or other local trips that can be done in a single day and don't require an overnight journey. I'm hoping we can all share some good info - because this also has an impact on any foreign/vacation trips you do on a boat as well - and perhaps even learn something in the process. Mark your calendar for Tuesday, September 13, starting at 7:30PM.
AVALON CONDITIONS - Sounds like "20-30 foot visibility" has been the magic word lately. Now the good news in all of this is that within that visual range, plenty of Giant Sea Bass have been spotted. But it also sounds like there's been a persistent thermocline - whose temp varies a bit week-to-week - around the 40-foot mark. But even a low-vis dive is better than no dive and we'll see what's what on our next foray to the UW Park which will be on Wednesday, September 21.
HOW TO MEASURE VISIBILITY - I guess the joke answer would be "Not very well." It seems to me that people are constantly over-estimating what the actual viz is. And there's no denying that's it's as much an art as it is a science. On top of that, vertical visibility is different than horizontal visibility because of the brightness of the sky when you look up. One way to measure horizontal visibility is to pick a spot in front of you that you can not only see, but where you can see some detail. Then, as you swim towards it, you can get a rough idea of the distance by using your arm, which is probably around two feet (24") long. Stick it in front of you and touch bottom. Keep your hand on the bottom and sort of pivot on your hand and shoulder by swimming until your arm is extended behind you. Then bring your arm forward, touch bottom, and swim forward again. Count the number of times you do that until you reach your visibility target. Each cycle of front-to-back should be about 4-5 feet. Count the cycles and now you have your viz.
WHALE SHARKS ARE OMNIVORES - Who'd have thunk it? It's always been thought that What Sharks eat plankton and krill (and LOTS of it). But researchers at western Australia's Ningaloo Reef who are looking at Whale Shark biopsy samples have discovered that they were eating a lot of plant material too, which makes them omnivores. You can read more about this and what it may tell us here:
WHALE SHARKS LIKE SALAD.
NIGHT DIVE THIS WEEK - Admittedly, we haven't been getting many/any takers on our beach dives this summer but we've got another on the sked for this coming Thursday at Redondo's Vets Park so I thought we'd tout it a bit. Part of the idea of choosing Thursdays is that I'm on my way back from the LB Aquarium so it's convenient for me. And that means we can start earlier - sort of a dusk dive - if people like or we can wait until it's dark/dark. No squid this time of the year and this one, unlike the squid dives, isn't a freebie: $30/diver. But if you're interested, and the Redondo night dives almost always have some sort of a surprise waiting for us, give us a call at 310/652-4990 and we'll try to make this happen.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
