Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Zoom Seekers, Cousteau plaque, and more
(please scroll down for details)
Lots of stuff to share with you this week . . .
MARTY SNYDERMAN & ZOOM SEEKERS THIS WEEK - Noted photographer (and editor of the California Diving News) Marty Snyderman is our guest speaker on Zoom Seekers this Tuesday evening starting at 7:30PM. The topic is all about photographing fish and their behaviors, not only how to find them, but also some of the things these photos and observations can teach us about the ocean. We'll also be live-streaming this through our FaceBook page if the Zoom room is full. (We're limited to 100 people.) Q&A will follow Marty's talk and we'll wrap no later than 9PM. Here's the link to get you in:
ZOOM SEEKERS - MARTY SNYDERMAN -TUESDAY @ 7:30PM
TRAGEDY ON THE CATALINA EXPRESS - There's still a lot we don't know about this but on Thursday evening, a man fell overboard from the Jet Cat Express bound for Avalon from Long Beach. It's unclear whether he jumped or accidentally fell. Crew members said "jumped" but other passengers on the boat said they saw him waving his arms for help after he was in the water. Although a life ring was thrown to him fairly quickly, and the boat circled back, he was not found. One thing to bear in mind is that those boats travel at a cruising speed of close to 30mph. Doing the math, that means the boat travels around 2600 feet (close to half a mile) each minute, which is roughly 40 per second. So if only five seconds elapsed from the time the man hit the water to the time the life ring was thrown, that still means the guy was 200 feet from the life ring. And you can't just stop the boat on a dime and turn it around. Maybe it takes a minute to slow the boat down to where you can make a 180º turn. That means the boat is now half a mile away from the splash point. It's also why the orange life ring is not only a life-saving device but also serves as a marker for where to search. As of this writing (Sunday evening @ 7PM), the body has not been found. When he went in, water temp was around 60º and there was a 3-4 foot swell with whitecaps. Not ideal conditions in which to tread water. The key question, which will be hard to answer, is why/how he went over the side. The Express says they have surveillance video that will hopefully provide some answers. A sad story no matter the reason it happened.
WE WERE IN AVALON WEDNESDAY - Susy Horowitz accompanied me to the Avalon Underwater Park Wednesday where our primary task was to clean the Cousteau plaque that we re-installed last November, and hopefully get in some quality time with Giant Sea Bass. Fortunately, we achieved both goals. Conditions weren't too good though,l with 62-64º temps and 10-foot of greenish viz. On our first dive, we had a nice time with two GSBs out in the "usual" area who seemed curious about us and tolerated our presence for a while. You can see a short video of that here: GIANT SEA BASS IN THE PARK. And on dive two, we were able to give the plaque a good cleaning but also discovered that the mfg put a clear coat on the finished product and that's starting to peel off. We'll probably remove it eventually but will leave it in place for now (though there are some places where it's already come off). Here's a look at before and after:
MASK REMINDER - I'm sure everyone's looking forward to Tuesday when most of the COVID restrictions for California pretty much go away. Probably one of the more annoying of those has been the mask mandate. Don't celebrate just yet. There is still a federal requirement, through September 13 at the moment, for any commercial maritime conveyance to still require passengers (and crew) to wear masks to prevent COVID spread. This category includes dive boats and ferries (like the Catalina Express). Now whether individual operators actually enforce this is another story all together. But if you get on a dive boat or the Catalina Express and are told you still need to wear a mask, that's why. Here's a link to a reminder from DEMA, which also includes links to both the updated CDC guidance and the Presidential Executive Order that mandates all of this: MASK WEARING RULES GOING FORWARD.
"NEW" OCEAN - I'm sure you can name the four oceans of the world: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. Now there's a fifth ocean: Southern. It basically encircles Antarctica. (I assume they don't call it the "Antarctic Ocean" so as not to confuse with the Arctic Ocean.) The National Geographic Society announced this new designation last week. A lot of mappers and cartographers follow their lead, although there are other regulatory bodies that have still resisted the designation. According to Nat Geo, the Southern Ocean waters extend from the entire Antarctic continent out to latitude 60º south. You can read more about it in this link and when you look at the map below, it's easy to see how this makes sense: THE SOUTHERN OCEAN.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, hope to see you Tuesday for Zoom Seekers, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
(please scroll down for details)
Lots of stuff to share with you this week . . .
MARTY SNYDERMAN & ZOOM SEEKERS THIS WEEK - Noted photographer (and editor of the California Diving News) Marty Snyderman is our guest speaker on Zoom Seekers this Tuesday evening starting at 7:30PM. The topic is all about photographing fish and their behaviors, not only how to find them, but also some of the things these photos and observations can teach us about the ocean. We'll also be live-streaming this through our FaceBook page if the Zoom room is full. (We're limited to 100 people.) Q&A will follow Marty's talk and we'll wrap no later than 9PM. Here's the link to get you in:
ZOOM SEEKERS - MARTY SNYDERMAN -TUESDAY @ 7:30PM
TRAGEDY ON THE CATALINA EXPRESS - There's still a lot we don't know about this but on Thursday evening, a man fell overboard from the Jet Cat Express bound for Avalon from Long Beach. It's unclear whether he jumped or accidentally fell. Crew members said "jumped" but other passengers on the boat said they saw him waving his arms for help after he was in the water. Although a life ring was thrown to him fairly quickly, and the boat circled back, he was not found. One thing to bear in mind is that those boats travel at a cruising speed of close to 30mph. Doing the math, that means the boat travels around 2600 feet (close to half a mile) each minute, which is roughly 40 per second. So if only five seconds elapsed from the time the man hit the water to the time the life ring was thrown, that still means the guy was 200 feet from the life ring. And you can't just stop the boat on a dime and turn it around. Maybe it takes a minute to slow the boat down to where you can make a 180º turn. That means the boat is now half a mile away from the splash point. It's also why the orange life ring is not only a life-saving device but also serves as a marker for where to search. As of this writing (Sunday evening @ 7PM), the body has not been found. When he went in, water temp was around 60º and there was a 3-4 foot swell with whitecaps. Not ideal conditions in which to tread water. The key question, which will be hard to answer, is why/how he went over the side. The Express says they have surveillance video that will hopefully provide some answers. A sad story no matter the reason it happened.
WE WERE IN AVALON WEDNESDAY - Susy Horowitz accompanied me to the Avalon Underwater Park Wednesday where our primary task was to clean the Cousteau plaque that we re-installed last November, and hopefully get in some quality time with Giant Sea Bass. Fortunately, we achieved both goals. Conditions weren't too good though,l with 62-64º temps and 10-foot of greenish viz. On our first dive, we had a nice time with two GSBs out in the "usual" area who seemed curious about us and tolerated our presence for a while. You can see a short video of that here: GIANT SEA BASS IN THE PARK. And on dive two, we were able to give the plaque a good cleaning but also discovered that the mfg put a clear coat on the finished product and that's starting to peel off. We'll probably remove it eventually but will leave it in place for now (though there are some places where it's already come off). Here's a look at before and after:
MASK REMINDER - I'm sure everyone's looking forward to Tuesday when most of the COVID restrictions for California pretty much go away. Probably one of the more annoying of those has been the mask mandate. Don't celebrate just yet. There is still a federal requirement, through September 13 at the moment, for any commercial maritime conveyance to still require passengers (and crew) to wear masks to prevent COVID spread. This category includes dive boats and ferries (like the Catalina Express). Now whether individual operators actually enforce this is another story all together. But if you get on a dive boat or the Catalina Express and are told you still need to wear a mask, that's why. Here's a link to a reminder from DEMA, which also includes links to both the updated CDC guidance and the Presidential Executive Order that mandates all of this: MASK WEARING RULES GOING FORWARD.
"NEW" OCEAN - I'm sure you can name the four oceans of the world: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. Now there's a fifth ocean: Southern. It basically encircles Antarctica. (I assume they don't call it the "Antarctic Ocean" so as not to confuse with the Arctic Ocean.) The National Geographic Society announced this new designation last week. A lot of mappers and cartographers follow their lead, although there are other regulatory bodies that have still resisted the designation. According to Nat Geo, the Southern Ocean waters extend from the entire Antarctic continent out to latitude 60º south. You can read more about it in this link and when you look at the map below, it's easy to see how this makes sense: THE SOUTHERN OCEAN.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, hope to see you Tuesday for Zoom Seekers, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
