CONCEPTION FIRE TRIAL VERDICT REACHED - It didn't take long and it wasn't too surprising: Conception captain Jerry Boylan was found guilty as charged of "neglect of a ship's officer." The jury returned their verdict in one day. Sentencing has been set for February. Boylan could get up the 10 years in federal prison.
ZOOM SEEKERS THIS TUESDAY - I hope you can join us for this Tuesday's Zoom Seekers talk, starting at 7:30PM. Our speaker is Stephen Wertz who is the guy in charge of over-seeing all of the SoCal Marine Protected Areas (aka MPAs.) Steve will give you some insight into the general process but will also tell you how the 10-year review process, which was just completed, works, and how we can all come together to try to make these MPAs "work" as best as they possibly can. Here's the link:
MASSIVE CORAL SPAWN IN AUSTRALIA - Things might be looking up for the Great Barrier Reef, which has undergone an onslaught of coral bleaching over the last few years to the point where many scientists fear the entire reef could die out, or at least be heavily compromised. So it's nice to share that there's some good news in that area as there's a been a huge - and somewhat unexpected - coral spawn on the Great Barrier Reef recently. You can see video of the spawn and learn more about it here:
CORAL SPAWN ON GREAT BARRIER REEF.
DEMA SHOW THIS WEEK IN NEW ORLEANS - DEMA stands for "Dive Equipment Marketing Association" and is the national trade organization for the scuba diving industry. On Tuesday, the annual DEMA Show - not open to the public, only industry professionals - starts in New Orleans but it's everything scuba under one roof. This includes equipment, training, travel, t-shirts, bumper stickers, photo gear, and anything else you can think of that has something to do with scuba diving. It's like the Long Beach Scuba Show but ten times bigger. I won't be attending this year as I'll be on my way to the Maldives with our group but if we hear of anything interesting, we'll let you know.
SPEAKING OF TRAVEL - I'm still hoping to nail down a couple of our trips - specifically Roatan in May and Palau in November - before DEMA starts because frequently dive shops go there to book trips so sometimes what's available now isn't available in a week. So for those on the fence about those trips, if we've talked about it, you'll get an e-mail from me later seeing if you're ready to commit or not. And DEMA is the reason for that.
LEAVING FOR THE MALDIVES WEDNESDAY EVENING - We've got a dozen people going to the Maldives and we're getting pretty excited about things. Once again, we'll be on the mighty Manthiri. (This will be our fifth time with them.) I am hoping to have an Internet connection each day to post pix on our FaceBook page - Daily Top 10 - so you can follow us vicariously but I'm not sure if that will happen. Same thing with TWARS next week as well as November 26th. So if I can't get through, I'll wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving now. (We'll actually celebrate Turkey Day on the boat.)
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
