TWARS (This Week at Reef Seekers) - June 21-28

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Ken Kurtis

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Location
Beverly Hills, CA
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Local conditions, Giant Squid, Turtles, and more

Welcome to summer AND Happy Father's Day . . .

PEOPLE WERE OUT DIVING THIS WEEKEND - It seems like more and more shops/clubs/boats are trying to get back into the swing of things and that's all very understandable. Again, as I mentioned last week, I'd suggest careful consideration of how you do things. We're certainly seeing a COVID spike in states that have been open for a while and where many of the mitigation protocols are NOT being closely followed. But it's not tough when you get right down to it: (1) Wear a face covering, which is more for everyone else than for you should you inadvertently be infected, (2) Practice social distancing as best you can, which we know can be difficult on a boat, and (3) Wash/sanitize your hands, and remember that more is better.

THE CONDITIONS - We got two very different reports about Saturday diving (the more overcast of the two weekend days). The Cee Ray was out around the Isthmus area and Kim Lancaster reports that it was a nice ride over and that they had 40-50' visibility. (No report on water temp.) That's pretty nice. However, on the same day, John Lumb went over to Avalon to dive the Park and says on his first dive, the viz was only about 12 feet. Yikes!!! He said it got up to 25' on the second dive but the water temp was a tad chilly, clocking in at 59º around 56 feet and below. Brrrrr!!!! But he did say he saw Giant Sea Bass on each of his dives. He thinks he saw eight but said it was a little hard to count as they stayed in the kelp - which was all very healthy - and the lower vis along with overcast skies didn't help. But the point of all of this is that you can have radically different conditions depending on where you choose to dive and sometimes it's the luck of the draw. The other side of that is less-than-ideal conditions become much more tolerable when you start seeing cool things.

WE WILL RESUME . . . SHORTLY - I'm starting to warm back up to the idea of resuming beach and Avalon dives again. I'm not sure exactly when but perhaps in July. It certainly seems easier to follow the mitigation stuff within the framework of a beach dive rather than boat or even Avalon but we'll see what's what. Keep an eye on the website and TWARS.

MAYBE REPAIR TOO . . . SHORTLY - Repair Guru Robert Stark and I have been talking about some possible scenarios to resume repairs as well. One thought we had was that you drop off your stuff, we immediately sanitize it and then let it sit for three days, do the repairs over the course of the following seven days, re-sanitize everything, let it sit for three more days, and then you can pick it up. In short, it would make our usual one-week turnaround time into a two-week process. But the goal is to keep both Robert and you as safe as possible from inadvertently infecting each other. Work-in-progress and we'll keep you informed.

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HERE'S SOMETHING YOU DON'T SEE EVERY DAY - That's a 13-foot long Giant Squid (I assume it's a fairly young one based on size because they get a LOT bigger) that washed up on a beach in South Africa. The carcass is going to a museum in South Africa and will be the 20th in their collection. You can read more about it here, as well as see some other pix and videos: GIANT SQUID ON THE BEACH.

GALAPAGOS BREEDING TORTOISES RELEASED - When we visited the Galapagos in 1996, we also got to see Lonesome George, the last of the tortoises from Pinta Island. (He died in 2012 and his species then became extinct.) The Galapagos has always been keenly aware of the importance of preserving the various tortoise species and they established breeding programs, the most successful of which is for the tortoises of Espanola Island. Years ago, they rounded up the last 15 tortoises and started the breeding program and have released over 1,900 of their offspring back to Espanola, and then THOSE tortoises started breeding, so they estimate their are now 2,300 tortoises in the wild. As such, they've taken the original 15 and have returned them to Espanola Island. It's a nice feel-good story with some pix as well: TORTOISES GO HOME.

AND SPEAKING OF AMPHIBIOUS REPTILES - This ought to get your juices going. The Queensland government just released drone video (shot in December) that shows what they estimate are 64,000 (not a typo) turtles returning to a nesting area along the Great Barrier Reef. The opening shot of all the turtles in the water heading towards land is stunning: TURTLES RETURNING.

And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's SAFELY go diving soon one of these days!!!

- Ken
 

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