Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Lockdown, Zoom Seekers, Salmon, and more
(please scroll down for details)
Welcome to the lockdown . . .
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT DIVING? - Good question without a concrete/specific answer at the moment. In theory, it should affect dive boats since they're businesses and would have to comply with the 20% capacity rule. It definitely will affect dive shops. Totally unclear as to how it would affect dive classes taught outdoors. The bottom line on all of this is that you need to use some common sense (which sometimes seems in short supply). The positivity rate today is just under 10%. That means that if you're on a dive boat with 30 divers, 3 of those people are likely COVID-positive. Maybe they're symptomatic and don't know it, maybe they're asymptomatic, maybe they've got symptoms but just don't care. (Two people were arrested for being COVID-positive and boarding a plane in spite of that.) I know it sucks to curtail activities but I guarantee you that ending up in ICU with suck even more, especially if you die. And many who survive may have long-term lung damage. Just not worth the risk IMHO.
CATALINA EXPRESS RESTRICTIONS - The Express is still running - but check to see if their sked changed now that the lockdown has been announced - but one thing to understand is there's a big change in terms of food and drink. As in: NONE. They can't sell it because they technically qualify as an indoor dining space, which is now prohibited. And they will not allow you to consume ANY food or drink that you bring while on board. This includes water. The thought behind all of this is that, especially with a positivity rate approaching 10%, they don't want you taking off your mask for any reason, even if it's only momentarily. Yes, it seems like overkill. But no, you don't want to get this as an early Christmas present. (And if you do the math, even with the Express running at 60% capacity, that's around 200 people on board, 10% of whom might be COVID-positive, which is around 20 folks on the boat with you. Are they sitting next to you &/or breathing in your direction??? A mask, along with some social distancing, makes all the difference.)
NO AVALON MONDAY (DEC. 7) - Not so much out of an abundance of caution but that no one signed up to go. (Which may be out of an abundance of caution.)
BUT ON TUESDAY, WE'VE GOT A GREAT GUEST ZOOM SPEAKER - This will end up counting as the first of our "Zoom Seekers" meetings. Our guest speaker is Dr. Robert Sanders who is the Medical Director at the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston. This is where the astronauts train for space missions in a simulated zero-g environment, which is a huge training pool. Bob will give us an overview as well as explain what he does and how he interacts with the various space mission crews. Should be really interesting. Here's the Zoom link. It will start you in the "waiting room" and then we'll admit you once we're set up: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8 - ZOOM SEEKERS - BOB SANDERS, NASA.
NEW SPECIES OF COMB JELLY DISCOVERED - One of the cool things about diving IMHO is that there's so much of the ocean that we haven't yet explored. It's estimated we've only looked at about 10% or so of what's underwater. When I did my Alvin dive in 1997, we went to 3700' off the backside of Catalina, and I realized that I was seeing a part of the ocean floor that likely no one had ever seen before nor would likely see again. So we should expect to find new things as we explore and that's what happened on a NOAA expedition as they came across a new species of deep water comb jelly. Amazingly, the expedition occurred in 2015, but it took until now to confirm that this was indeed a new species. You can read a bit more about it here: NEW COMB JELLY.
SOLVING AN ENVIRONMENTAL MYSTERY - For years, scientists have known that Coho Salmon returning to spawn have been regularly suffering massive and sudden die-offs. They didn't know why. Now they do. The short version is that a chemical found on car tires rubs off on to the roadway and when it rains, the chemical washes into the streams the salmon traverse, and kills them. You can read more about this here: SALMON MYSTERY SOLVED.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, wear your mask, wash your hands, plan to join us Tuesday evening for Zoom Seekers (I'll send out a reminder) and let's go diving soon (but within the revised COVID restrictions/guidelines). Whew!!!!
- Ken
(please scroll down for details)
Welcome to the lockdown . . .
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT DIVING? - Good question without a concrete/specific answer at the moment. In theory, it should affect dive boats since they're businesses and would have to comply with the 20% capacity rule. It definitely will affect dive shops. Totally unclear as to how it would affect dive classes taught outdoors. The bottom line on all of this is that you need to use some common sense (which sometimes seems in short supply). The positivity rate today is just under 10%. That means that if you're on a dive boat with 30 divers, 3 of those people are likely COVID-positive. Maybe they're symptomatic and don't know it, maybe they're asymptomatic, maybe they've got symptoms but just don't care. (Two people were arrested for being COVID-positive and boarding a plane in spite of that.) I know it sucks to curtail activities but I guarantee you that ending up in ICU with suck even more, especially if you die. And many who survive may have long-term lung damage. Just not worth the risk IMHO.
CATALINA EXPRESS RESTRICTIONS - The Express is still running - but check to see if their sked changed now that the lockdown has been announced - but one thing to understand is there's a big change in terms of food and drink. As in: NONE. They can't sell it because they technically qualify as an indoor dining space, which is now prohibited. And they will not allow you to consume ANY food or drink that you bring while on board. This includes water. The thought behind all of this is that, especially with a positivity rate approaching 10%, they don't want you taking off your mask for any reason, even if it's only momentarily. Yes, it seems like overkill. But no, you don't want to get this as an early Christmas present. (And if you do the math, even with the Express running at 60% capacity, that's around 200 people on board, 10% of whom might be COVID-positive, which is around 20 folks on the boat with you. Are they sitting next to you &/or breathing in your direction??? A mask, along with some social distancing, makes all the difference.)
NO AVALON MONDAY (DEC. 7) - Not so much out of an abundance of caution but that no one signed up to go. (Which may be out of an abundance of caution.)
BUT ON TUESDAY, WE'VE GOT A GREAT GUEST ZOOM SPEAKER - This will end up counting as the first of our "Zoom Seekers" meetings. Our guest speaker is Dr. Robert Sanders who is the Medical Director at the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston. This is where the astronauts train for space missions in a simulated zero-g environment, which is a huge training pool. Bob will give us an overview as well as explain what he does and how he interacts with the various space mission crews. Should be really interesting. Here's the Zoom link. It will start you in the "waiting room" and then we'll admit you once we're set up: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8 - ZOOM SEEKERS - BOB SANDERS, NASA.
NEW SPECIES OF COMB JELLY DISCOVERED - One of the cool things about diving IMHO is that there's so much of the ocean that we haven't yet explored. It's estimated we've only looked at about 10% or so of what's underwater. When I did my Alvin dive in 1997, we went to 3700' off the backside of Catalina, and I realized that I was seeing a part of the ocean floor that likely no one had ever seen before nor would likely see again. So we should expect to find new things as we explore and that's what happened on a NOAA expedition as they came across a new species of deep water comb jelly. Amazingly, the expedition occurred in 2015, but it took until now to confirm that this was indeed a new species. You can read a bit more about it here: NEW COMB JELLY.
SOLVING AN ENVIRONMENTAL MYSTERY - For years, scientists have known that Coho Salmon returning to spawn have been regularly suffering massive and sudden die-offs. They didn't know why. Now they do. The short version is that a chemical found on car tires rubs off on to the roadway and when it rains, the chemical washes into the streams the salmon traverse, and kills them. You can read more about this here: SALMON MYSTERY SOLVED.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, wear your mask, wash your hands, plan to join us Tuesday evening for Zoom Seekers (I'll send out a reminder) and let's go diving soon (but within the revised COVID restrictions/guidelines). Whew!!!!
- Ken
