Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2016-2017 vacation trips:
• August 1-6 - Isla Guadalupe & Great White Sharks [ SOLD OUT . . . sort of . . . see below!!! ]
• August 13-20 (WEEK 1) - Isla Mujeres & Whale Sharks, cenotes, and statues [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
• August 20-27 (WEEK 2) - Isla Mujeres & Whale Sharks, cenotes, and statues [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
• November 3-16 - Maldives on the Manthiri [ ONLY 3 SPOTS LEFT ]
• 2017 - July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 9 SPOTS LEFT ]
• 2017 - July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 8 SPOTS LEFT ]
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
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Seems like it was a nice weekend to dive . . .
BSB CONVENTION - Got a note from Hal Wells at Hollywood Divers. He was escorting a group through the Avalon Underwater Park on Saturday and sounds like they hit the Mother Lode of Black Sea Bass. Hal says they saw three on their first dive and five on their second dive. Hal says these were big ones to boot. As you may know, BSBs have a life span similar to that of humans, above 70-years or so, and can grow to be 6 feet long and weight 600 pounds. So you'd assume that if you're seeing sizeable ones, that they're likely at least 20 years old or so. The big question would be, where have they been hiding all these years? Have they been in deep waters where we just don't dive? Or have they simply gotten very good at avoiding human contact? BSBs have been sighted regularly in the Park over last few months which is nice to know. It was maybe 15-20 years ago that we first started seeing them regularly around Italian Gardens. And it was in 1982, 36 years ago, that the state of California granted the BSBs protected status. I always like to point to their rebound as an example of how conservation measures really do work, and how things that seem very simple at the outset (stop removing them from the ocean) can have a huge and positive impact. So if you're hankering to see some BSBs, and especially for those toting a camera or a GoPro, the Park might be a good place to head. I know when we last dove it a few months ago, we saw a solitary BSB on each dive. Sounds like our guy now has company.
HYDRATION CLARIFICATION - I mentioned last week the importance of staying well-hydrated and said that one way to check is by watching the color of your urine and that it should be clear. I didn't phrase that well. As Dr. Doug Galen pointed out to me, clear could indicate other problems including over-hydration and even light yellow might not be something everyone can attain due to other factors. But the salient point is that you should hydrate throughout the day, not just "binge" hydrate all at once. And keep on eye on the color of your urine. If it's getting darker and darker, then you're likely not hydrating enough.
MALDIVES IN NOVEMBER IS FILLING - We're now down to three available spots, one female share and one twin room with two available beds. It was nice to see that the airfare also went down, by close to $240, and that includes doing a stopover on the way back in Istanbul (which can sometimes raise airfares). I got my Turkish Airlines ticket over the weekend for $923. Bear in mind that a ticket on United to Indonesia - about the same distance and time - runs around $2,000. Go figure. Our plan is to fly through Istanbul to Male, Maldives, relax for a day before we get on the Manthiri, dive the fabulous reefs and walls of the Maldives for nine days, have another part of our final day to explore in Male (the daily fish market is an amazing experience, unlike anything you've seen before), and then we'll fly to Istanbul where we'll have three days to explore that city, and then we'll wing our way home. It's going to be an amazing trip and we can still have three more of you join us. Just give a call to 310/652-4990 and we'll get you all squared away.
GREAT WHITE SHARKS AUGUST 1-6 - Although our part of the Nautilus Belle Amie is sold out, our friends at Ocean Adventures (we're sharing spots with them) suddenly have at least two openings. So we can add more people if you're got an interest in doing this and we're able to extend the $1,000 discount from the Scuba Show. That brings the price down to $2,695, leaving from San Diego. We'll take a charter bus from SD down to Ensenada, sail for a day out to Isla Guadalupe, have three full days of action-packed caged diving with nature's Top Predator, and then have a day sail coming back. Now admittedly, some people say, "That's a lot of money for three days of diving." It is. But this is also a trip that involves an awful lot of logistics on the part of the boat to make it all happen and that raises their costs. Because of all of the cage diving and the need to have DMs manning the cages and crew people manning the hoist winches, the Belle Amie carries a larger crew than they normally would. That's an added expense. And even though there's no "traditional" chumming with buckets of blood in the water, they do use a lot of frozen tuna that they slice that into fillets to put in burlap sacks to create a scent trail. That's an added expense. There are special Mexican permits to be had. That's an added expense. So yes, it's not a cheap trip by any means but the pricing is quite justified and, having done this trip with them twice now, I can personally attest to the fact that they work their butts off to make everything run smoothly so it's definitely money well-spent. This is absolutely a trip you need to do at least once. And look at it this way: With costs generally going up each year in everything we do (not just diving), it's not going to get cheaper if you wait. Plus you'll lose the $1,000 discount. So the time to book this for the best price possible is NOW. Call us at 310/652-4990 and grab one of the spots.
GOING AFTER FISHING PIRATES - It's estimated that illegal commercial fishing steals 26 million tons of fish annually which results in some $20+ billion of lost revenue. On top of that, poaching can destabilize fisheries, upset economies, and jeopardize international relations. Early this month, a new treaty known as the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) took effect which requires signatory countries to stop and inspect suspicious vessel entering their ports. There are now some 30 signatories to the agreement, including the United States. The interesting thing about this is that while pirates can be very hard to catch out on the open seas when they're plundering fish, since they've got to sell their ill-gotten gain somewhere, ports now become an easier-to-monitor first line of defense. It can't put back what was taken from the sea, but through arrest of the crew and boat seizures, it can prevent a vessel and crew from taking more. It's a good step IMHO. You can read more about it here: Tens of countries sign up to shut pirate fishers out of their ports.
CORAL REEF NEWS - There's some good news and there's some bad news. The bad news is that the bleaching continues on the Great Barrier Reef where it's estimated that at least 1/3 of the reef has bleached. This is pretty much unprecedented. Australia's committed $750 million to try to fight the effects of the bleaching but it will be a long and costly fight. The somewhat good news for coral reefs comes from a global census of 2,500 reefs around the world published in Nature which found - surprisingly - that some in close proximity to large human populations were actually very healthy (they're referred to as "bright spots"). The other side of that coin was that there were reefs that should have been healthy but were considered "dark spots" since they contained fewer fish than would have been suspected. The real trick is to figure out why the bright spots thrive and why the dark spots don't and see what we can do about all of that. You can read a bit more about it here: Coral reef census has some surprises. And you can read the Nature article here: Mass coral death drives efforts to identify resilient reefs.
LOST & FOUND - This one has a happy ending. A Nautilus Lifeline that was lost in the Caymans turned up two years later on a Texas shoreline and was returned to it's rightful owner: Nautilus Lifeline Radio Drifts 1,100 Miles, Returned To Owner.
That'll do it for now. Have a great week and a happy and safe upcoming Fourth of July weekend. And let's go diving soon!!!!
- Ken
• August 1-6 - Isla Guadalupe & Great White Sharks [ SOLD OUT . . . sort of . . . see below!!! ]
• August 13-20 (WEEK 1) - Isla Mujeres & Whale Sharks, cenotes, and statues [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
• August 20-27 (WEEK 2) - Isla Mujeres & Whale Sharks, cenotes, and statues [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
• November 3-16 - Maldives on the Manthiri [ ONLY 3 SPOTS LEFT ]
• 2017 - July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 9 SPOTS LEFT ]
• 2017 - July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 8 SPOTS LEFT ]
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Seems like it was a nice weekend to dive . . .
BSB CONVENTION - Got a note from Hal Wells at Hollywood Divers. He was escorting a group through the Avalon Underwater Park on Saturday and sounds like they hit the Mother Lode of Black Sea Bass. Hal says they saw three on their first dive and five on their second dive. Hal says these were big ones to boot. As you may know, BSBs have a life span similar to that of humans, above 70-years or so, and can grow to be 6 feet long and weight 600 pounds. So you'd assume that if you're seeing sizeable ones, that they're likely at least 20 years old or so. The big question would be, where have they been hiding all these years? Have they been in deep waters where we just don't dive? Or have they simply gotten very good at avoiding human contact? BSBs have been sighted regularly in the Park over last few months which is nice to know. It was maybe 15-20 years ago that we first started seeing them regularly around Italian Gardens. And it was in 1982, 36 years ago, that the state of California granted the BSBs protected status. I always like to point to their rebound as an example of how conservation measures really do work, and how things that seem very simple at the outset (stop removing them from the ocean) can have a huge and positive impact. So if you're hankering to see some BSBs, and especially for those toting a camera or a GoPro, the Park might be a good place to head. I know when we last dove it a few months ago, we saw a solitary BSB on each dive. Sounds like our guy now has company.
HYDRATION CLARIFICATION - I mentioned last week the importance of staying well-hydrated and said that one way to check is by watching the color of your urine and that it should be clear. I didn't phrase that well. As Dr. Doug Galen pointed out to me, clear could indicate other problems including over-hydration and even light yellow might not be something everyone can attain due to other factors. But the salient point is that you should hydrate throughout the day, not just "binge" hydrate all at once. And keep on eye on the color of your urine. If it's getting darker and darker, then you're likely not hydrating enough.
MALDIVES IN NOVEMBER IS FILLING - We're now down to three available spots, one female share and one twin room with two available beds. It was nice to see that the airfare also went down, by close to $240, and that includes doing a stopover on the way back in Istanbul (which can sometimes raise airfares). I got my Turkish Airlines ticket over the weekend for $923. Bear in mind that a ticket on United to Indonesia - about the same distance and time - runs around $2,000. Go figure. Our plan is to fly through Istanbul to Male, Maldives, relax for a day before we get on the Manthiri, dive the fabulous reefs and walls of the Maldives for nine days, have another part of our final day to explore in Male (the daily fish market is an amazing experience, unlike anything you've seen before), and then we'll fly to Istanbul where we'll have three days to explore that city, and then we'll wing our way home. It's going to be an amazing trip and we can still have three more of you join us. Just give a call to 310/652-4990 and we'll get you all squared away.
GREAT WHITE SHARKS AUGUST 1-6 - Although our part of the Nautilus Belle Amie is sold out, our friends at Ocean Adventures (we're sharing spots with them) suddenly have at least two openings. So we can add more people if you're got an interest in doing this and we're able to extend the $1,000 discount from the Scuba Show. That brings the price down to $2,695, leaving from San Diego. We'll take a charter bus from SD down to Ensenada, sail for a day out to Isla Guadalupe, have three full days of action-packed caged diving with nature's Top Predator, and then have a day sail coming back. Now admittedly, some people say, "That's a lot of money for three days of diving." It is. But this is also a trip that involves an awful lot of logistics on the part of the boat to make it all happen and that raises their costs. Because of all of the cage diving and the need to have DMs manning the cages and crew people manning the hoist winches, the Belle Amie carries a larger crew than they normally would. That's an added expense. And even though there's no "traditional" chumming with buckets of blood in the water, they do use a lot of frozen tuna that they slice that into fillets to put in burlap sacks to create a scent trail. That's an added expense. There are special Mexican permits to be had. That's an added expense. So yes, it's not a cheap trip by any means but the pricing is quite justified and, having done this trip with them twice now, I can personally attest to the fact that they work their butts off to make everything run smoothly so it's definitely money well-spent. This is absolutely a trip you need to do at least once. And look at it this way: With costs generally going up each year in everything we do (not just diving), it's not going to get cheaper if you wait. Plus you'll lose the $1,000 discount. So the time to book this for the best price possible is NOW. Call us at 310/652-4990 and grab one of the spots.
GOING AFTER FISHING PIRATES - It's estimated that illegal commercial fishing steals 26 million tons of fish annually which results in some $20+ billion of lost revenue. On top of that, poaching can destabilize fisheries, upset economies, and jeopardize international relations. Early this month, a new treaty known as the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) took effect which requires signatory countries to stop and inspect suspicious vessel entering their ports. There are now some 30 signatories to the agreement, including the United States. The interesting thing about this is that while pirates can be very hard to catch out on the open seas when they're plundering fish, since they've got to sell their ill-gotten gain somewhere, ports now become an easier-to-monitor first line of defense. It can't put back what was taken from the sea, but through arrest of the crew and boat seizures, it can prevent a vessel and crew from taking more. It's a good step IMHO. You can read more about it here: Tens of countries sign up to shut pirate fishers out of their ports.
CORAL REEF NEWS - There's some good news and there's some bad news. The bad news is that the bleaching continues on the Great Barrier Reef where it's estimated that at least 1/3 of the reef has bleached. This is pretty much unprecedented. Australia's committed $750 million to try to fight the effects of the bleaching but it will be a long and costly fight. The somewhat good news for coral reefs comes from a global census of 2,500 reefs around the world published in Nature which found - surprisingly - that some in close proximity to large human populations were actually very healthy (they're referred to as "bright spots"). The other side of that coin was that there were reefs that should have been healthy but were considered "dark spots" since they contained fewer fish than would have been suspected. The real trick is to figure out why the bright spots thrive and why the dark spots don't and see what we can do about all of that. You can read a bit more about it here: Coral reef census has some surprises. And you can read the Nature article here: Mass coral death drives efforts to identify resilient reefs.
LOST & FOUND - This one has a happy ending. A Nautilus Lifeline that was lost in the Caymans turned up two years later on a Texas shoreline and was returned to it's rightful owner: Nautilus Lifeline Radio Drifts 1,100 Miles, Returned To Owner.
That'll do it for now. Have a great week and a happy and safe upcoming Fourth of July weekend. And let's go diving soon!!!!
- Ken
