Ken Kurtis
Contributor
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Want to travel??? Upcoming 2017 vacation trips:
• March 18-25 - Bonaire [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 5 SPOTS LEFT ]
• June 10-17 - Isla Mujeres (early in the Whale Shark Season)
• July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 2 SPOTS LEFT ]
• July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 6 SPOTS LEFT ]
• September 1-6 - Great White Sharks of Guadalupe on the Nautilus Belle Amie [ WE'VE ONLY GOT 6 SPOTS - ONLY 2 SPOTS LEFT ]
• Late fall (late October or November) - Fiji??????
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
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Upcoming local dives & classes:
• DIVE - Thu., 2/2 - Squid night dive at Redondo (6PM - FREE!!)
• CLASS & DIVE - Sat., 2/11 - Navigation with one daytime dive at Redondo (9AM - $25)
• DIVE - Wed., 2/15 - Squid night dive at Redondo (6PM - FREE!!)
• DIVE - Sat., 2/25 - 36th Annual Avalon Underwater Cleanup (6:15AM - $150 w/event, boat, & taxi)
• DIVE - Wed., 3/1 - Squid night dive at Redondo (6PM - FREE!!)
• CLASS - Wed., 3/15 - Photo Workshop (7PM in Westwood - $25)
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
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Is anyone building an ark?????
RAIN IS CAUSING HAVOC - Like you didn't know that already. Obviously, boats were canceled due to the 10-12 foot swell that was/is out in the channel. Not fun to say the least. And although the huuuuuge surf that was predicted didn't materialize at the beaches (at least not the ones I checked), it still looked like it was running 4-6 foot with a very choppy surface so that also puts a kibosh on diving activities. The latest forecast I've seen (as of 6PM Sunday) calls for the rain to continue through Monday afternoon-ish and then it's clear sailing. But there's certainly been lots of flooding today, including areas of both the 710 and 110 freeways that flooded, causing those roadways to be shut down. (I think the 710 is still closed as of now between Pico & Ocean). We need the rain . . . but what a mess!!!!
CHAMBER AFFECTED TOO - Not that I expect any of you will be out diving in the next day or so but there's been some rain-related problems on Catalina that has caused the Chamber to issue this statement: "DUE TO STORM DAMAGE PHONE AND INTERNET SERVICE TO THE WEST END OF CATALINA ISLAND HAS BEEN INTERRUPTED. Emergency contact to the Chamber can be made via either contacting Baywatch Avalon or Baywatch Isthmus on VHS Channel 16 (if you are on a boat near the island), or through the LA County Medical Alert Center: 866-940-4401. For Non-Emergency calls, messages can be left on the Chamber Office voice mail system: 310-510-4020 (Karl is on the mainland teaching and will check voice mail each day). Because of the severity of damage, and the difficulty (due to rain and sea conditions) in getting equipment to the damaged areas, the estimates are that regular communications will be down until Wednesday (Jan. 25th)." A simpler way to think of this might be to say that this is not the time to get bent.
THE HUMAN GYRE - I meant to tell you about this last week and totally forgot. But you know how impressed I've been and how much I love diving MUSA, aka The Cancun Underwater Museum. The sculptor is Jason deCaires Taylor and he's now created a second underwater sculpture garden (The Human Gyre), this time at Museo Atlantico, off the coast of Lanzarote, Spain. There are 300 works spread over 12 installations and it looks really interesting. You can read more about it here: Museo Atlántico - CACT lanzarote. You can see images of the sculptures here: Recent - Underwater Sculpture by Jason deCaires Taylor.
ANYONE WANT TO GO TO FIJI??? - I had hoped to put together a Raja Ampat trip along with some Indonesia stuff for the fall but I can't get enough people to commit to specific boat dates to make this work so I'm abandoning the idea of "Ultimatge Indonesia" and switching gears. Anyone interested in going to Fiji? We haven't been there in quite some time so it's sort of like it's "new" for us. We've done both Matagi Island and Beqa Lagoon in the past, and I'm happy to consider those or perhaps the Fiji Aggressor. We would set this up as a 7-night trip so with travel, probably 8-10 days total. Land-based might make it a little cheaper but a boat will likely get in more dives and a better variety of diving. But I'm open to whatever. So the big questions right now is: Are you interested in Fiji and if so, what time of the fall? Give me a call at 310/652-4990 or shoot me an e-mail to this address and let me know your thoughts. Lots of flexibility right now since this is in the early planning stages.
ANOTHER CLEANUP REMINDER - I'll be doing this weekly until the Cleanup, which is Saturday, February 25. We'll again be at the Green Pier and we'd be happy to have you join us. Give us a call at 310/652-4990 to get signed up or do it on the Cleanup web page and choose Reef Seekers.
MAYBE THIS WILL SPUR A NEW RELIGION - I want to tell you about a supposedly "virgin birth" but this time it's from a shark. A Zebra Shark in Australia to be specific. She hadn't had a mate around for a few years so the staff there was surprised when she laid eggs that produced three sharks last year. (Female Zebra Sharks routinely lay unfertilized eggs.) They suspected she had somehow simply stored sperm (not unusual) but when they did DNA testing, they could only find a DNA trace from the mother shark. The official name for this type of asexual reproduction is parthenogenesis and if this all holds true, it's the first time scientists have seen this in this particular species of shark. Read more about it here: Virgin Birth: Zebra Shark Has Babies Without Mating . (And thank you to Alan Wald for the tip.)
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go non-rain diving soon.
- Ken
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2017 vacation trips:
• March 18-25 - Bonaire [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 5 SPOTS LEFT ]
• June 10-17 - Isla Mujeres (early in the Whale Shark Season)
• July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 2 SPOTS LEFT ]
• July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 6 SPOTS LEFT ]
• September 1-6 - Great White Sharks of Guadalupe on the Nautilus Belle Amie [ WE'VE ONLY GOT 6 SPOTS - ONLY 2 SPOTS LEFT ]
• Late fall (late October or November) - Fiji??????
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
——————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives & classes:
• DIVE - Thu., 2/2 - Squid night dive at Redondo (6PM - FREE!!)
• CLASS & DIVE - Sat., 2/11 - Navigation with one daytime dive at Redondo (9AM - $25)
• DIVE - Wed., 2/15 - Squid night dive at Redondo (6PM - FREE!!)
• DIVE - Sat., 2/25 - 36th Annual Avalon Underwater Cleanup (6:15AM - $150 w/event, boat, & taxi)
• DIVE - Wed., 3/1 - Squid night dive at Redondo (6PM - FREE!!)
• CLASS - Wed., 3/15 - Photo Workshop (7PM in Westwood - $25)
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
————————————————————————————————————————
Is anyone building an ark?????
RAIN IS CAUSING HAVOC - Like you didn't know that already. Obviously, boats were canceled due to the 10-12 foot swell that was/is out in the channel. Not fun to say the least. And although the huuuuuge surf that was predicted didn't materialize at the beaches (at least not the ones I checked), it still looked like it was running 4-6 foot with a very choppy surface so that also puts a kibosh on diving activities. The latest forecast I've seen (as of 6PM Sunday) calls for the rain to continue through Monday afternoon-ish and then it's clear sailing. But there's certainly been lots of flooding today, including areas of both the 710 and 110 freeways that flooded, causing those roadways to be shut down. (I think the 710 is still closed as of now between Pico & Ocean). We need the rain . . . but what a mess!!!!
CHAMBER AFFECTED TOO - Not that I expect any of you will be out diving in the next day or so but there's been some rain-related problems on Catalina that has caused the Chamber to issue this statement: "DUE TO STORM DAMAGE PHONE AND INTERNET SERVICE TO THE WEST END OF CATALINA ISLAND HAS BEEN INTERRUPTED. Emergency contact to the Chamber can be made via either contacting Baywatch Avalon or Baywatch Isthmus on VHS Channel 16 (if you are on a boat near the island), or through the LA County Medical Alert Center: 866-940-4401. For Non-Emergency calls, messages can be left on the Chamber Office voice mail system: 310-510-4020 (Karl is on the mainland teaching and will check voice mail each day). Because of the severity of damage, and the difficulty (due to rain and sea conditions) in getting equipment to the damaged areas, the estimates are that regular communications will be down until Wednesday (Jan. 25th)." A simpler way to think of this might be to say that this is not the time to get bent.
THE HUMAN GYRE - I meant to tell you about this last week and totally forgot. But you know how impressed I've been and how much I love diving MUSA, aka The Cancun Underwater Museum. The sculptor is Jason deCaires Taylor and he's now created a second underwater sculpture garden (The Human Gyre), this time at Museo Atlantico, off the coast of Lanzarote, Spain. There are 300 works spread over 12 installations and it looks really interesting. You can read more about it here: Museo Atlántico - CACT lanzarote. You can see images of the sculptures here: Recent - Underwater Sculpture by Jason deCaires Taylor.
ANYONE WANT TO GO TO FIJI??? - I had hoped to put together a Raja Ampat trip along with some Indonesia stuff for the fall but I can't get enough people to commit to specific boat dates to make this work so I'm abandoning the idea of "Ultimatge Indonesia" and switching gears. Anyone interested in going to Fiji? We haven't been there in quite some time so it's sort of like it's "new" for us. We've done both Matagi Island and Beqa Lagoon in the past, and I'm happy to consider those or perhaps the Fiji Aggressor. We would set this up as a 7-night trip so with travel, probably 8-10 days total. Land-based might make it a little cheaper but a boat will likely get in more dives and a better variety of diving. But I'm open to whatever. So the big questions right now is: Are you interested in Fiji and if so, what time of the fall? Give me a call at 310/652-4990 or shoot me an e-mail to this address and let me know your thoughts. Lots of flexibility right now since this is in the early planning stages.
ANOTHER CLEANUP REMINDER - I'll be doing this weekly until the Cleanup, which is Saturday, February 25. We'll again be at the Green Pier and we'd be happy to have you join us. Give us a call at 310/652-4990 to get signed up or do it on the Cleanup web page and choose Reef Seekers.
MAYBE THIS WILL SPUR A NEW RELIGION - I want to tell you about a supposedly "virgin birth" but this time it's from a shark. A Zebra Shark in Australia to be specific. She hadn't had a mate around for a few years so the staff there was surprised when she laid eggs that produced three sharks last year. (Female Zebra Sharks routinely lay unfertilized eggs.) They suspected she had somehow simply stored sperm (not unusual) but when they did DNA testing, they could only find a DNA trace from the mother shark. The official name for this type of asexual reproduction is parthenogenesis and if this all holds true, it's the first time scientists have seen this in this particular species of shark. Read more about it here: Virgin Birth: Zebra Shark Has Babies Without Mating . (And thank you to Alan Wald for the tip.)
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go non-rain diving soon.
- Ken
