TWARS (This Week at Reef Seekers) - Aug. 29 - Sept. 5

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Ken Kurtis

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Hurricanes, tracking websites, Fish ID, and more
(please scroll down for details)

Fingers crossed for New Orleans and surrounding areas . . .

IDA COMES ASHORE - Hurricane Ida made landfall Sunday afternoon in southern Louisiana as a very strong Cat 4 hurricane (it was only 7mph shy of become Cat 5) and is now making its way inland after which it will turn to the northeast and dump lots of rain before petering out over New England Thursday afternoon. One of the many impressive things about the strength of this storm is that it generated a powerful enough storm surge (7+ feet) that part of the lower Mississippi River actually reversed flow. That's a mighty powerful weather system to be able to do that.

NORA IS A SECOND LESSER-KNOWN PACIFIC STORM - I've also been keeping an eye on Hurricane (not Tropical Storm) Nora this week, which was a Pacific hurricane that formed off of Guatemala, and at one point was taking dead-aim at Cabo San Lucas. It drifted east and weakened during the week so right now is hitting the western side of the Mexican coastline as it inches up the Gulf of Mexico.

STORM TRACKING WEBSITE - Both of these storms underscore that many of the dive sites we like to go to lie in the potential path of a hurricane, especially in August and September, so if you've got a trip planned to the Caribbean or Mexico, you want to stay on top of the weather. A great site for tracking tropical storms both in the Atlantic and the Pacific (including Hawaii) is through the National Hurricane Center. Lots of info and good tracking maps to look at plus projected storm paths: NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER.

TRACKING BEACH CONDITIONS - Closer to home, we can visually track local conditions at Vets Park through the City of Redondo Beach pier cam. But they just did a software upgrade so the URL changed. The new link for live-stream viewing is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXB4h6AuCKw .

AVALON LIVE CAM TOO - If you want to check out conditions in Avalon, there's a live webcam for that too. The old one had the ability to zoom in to specific locations. This one gives you a wide overview of the harbor, including the Casino and the Underwater Park. Sadly, it's not zoomable. But it's a nice resource to have if you want to see what things are like in Avalon at any given moment: AVALON HD LIVE CAM.

FISH ID WEDNESDAY - I saw a post on FaceBook in the last few days that asked, "Was this a Scythe Butterfly I saw at Catalina?" (Yes it was.) You took time to learn to dive so you also ought to take time to learn what it is you're looking at. We're offering our Fish ID (Zoom version) class Wednesday evening starting at 7PM. If you're interested (costs $25) shoot us a note or give a call to 310/652-4990.

THE OCEAN IS SWALLOWING LAND - You know that we've argued for a long time that climate change is neither a hoax nor a joke but something that we not only have to take seriously but also have to deal with. There's no better example of why this is true than the Solomon Islands, which have lost, or are about to lose, 11 of the islands that comprise the country. You can read more about it here (with links at the bottom to related articles): SOME OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS ARE DISAPPEARING.

COVID CASES AFFECTING CHAMBER AVAILABILITY - Dan Orr makes a connection that you may not have thought of lately: Because many hyperbaric chambers in the U.S. are run by hospitals, the demands on staff from COVID cases may mean there are not people available to staff a chamber that gets used rarely. This is NOT the case with our Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, which is not run by a hospital and strictly treats divers on a 24/7/365 basis. But other parts of the country are not so fortunate. Here's Dan laying out the facts: CHAMBER AVAILABILITY AFFECTED BY COVID.

And that'll do it for now. Hope you have a great week, and let's go diving soon!!!

- Ken
 
There's no better example of why this is true than the Solomon Islands, which have lost, or are about to lose, 11 of the islands that comprise the country.

Wow. Sorry to hear that. Amazing to me how fast the world is changing.

Richard.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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