How about that wind this morning . . .
MADE IT HARD TO DIVE THE PARK - I was amazed at how windy it was in Westwood this morning when I got up. And because it was coming sort of out of the north, I immediately thought about the Avalon Underwater Park, because north-ish winds can blow right into the Park and make it undiveable. Sure enough, Mark Guccione (Mark at the Park) posted a report this morning mentioning the bad surface conditions and chop. (Ironically, the swell in the channel wasn't all that bad so the Express sounds like it was able to run.) And this is a good example of why we always say it's the wind that you need to keep an eye on because that's what can really make conditions difficult or even dangerous. Today was a god example of that.
ZOOM SEEKERS THIS TUESDAY - Because of the election last week and the assumption that all of you good civic-minded citizens would be watching election returns, we moved Zoom Seekers back one week. It will be this Tuesday evening, starting at 7:30PM. Our speaker is Craig Gelpi, not only a longtime Reef Seekers diver, but also one of the founding members of the Catalina Marine Society, a group of divers who run various "citizen science" projects and who are always looking for some more interested people. Craig will give you an idea of what they do in general, talk about some of their specific projects, and will also let you know how you can get involved. Here's the link. Hope to see you Tuesday evening:
ALASKA CRAB FISHERY CANCELED - The very lucrative Alaska Snow Crab fishery has been closed for this season, due to an alarming drop in the estimated number of animals there, from 8 billion in 2018 to only 1 billion in 2021. While that still sounds like a lot, that's an 88% decrease in the population in three years. And while over-fishing may play into this somewhat, most scientists attribute the decline to climate change, which is causing waters in Alaska to warm and the crab to move elsewhere as their normal areas become inhospitable to crab life. You can read more about it here:
ALASKAN CRABS.
TOOK MY OWN ADVICE - I have frequently counseled you that when you're going on a trip, think about things that can break on your trip (straps mainly) and bring some extras just in case. I'll also be the first to admit that I don't always follow my own advice in that area. But I did on our recent Indonesian trip and, sure enough, on the very first dive, one of our divers started putting on his fins and suddenly went, "Oh crap!!!" as his fin strap broke. Luckily, I had an extra with me that fit his fin so in two minutes, we had it swapped out and he was in the water. And then, as I was putting my own fins on . . . "Oh crap!!!" . . . as MY fin strap broke as well. But luckily, I had brought TWO extra strap sets with me. Whew!!!
HOW ONE DISCOVERY LEADS TO ANOTHER - Look for A and you find B. There's a group called Beneath the Waves that, among other things, monitors Tiger Sharks in the Bahamas. Some of this is done by attaching cameras to the sharks. Researchers noticed that some of the sharks were swimming through some immense and dense seagrass areas. This in turn led to some more exploration specifically aimed at determining how big the seagrass area was, and it's resulted in an estimation that it encompasses over 35,000 square miles, making it the largest seagrass ecosystem in the world. (Thanks to Angi Burkard for the tip.) You read more about it here:
BAHAMAS SEAGRASS DISCOVERY.
PIECE OF CHALLENGER DISCOVERED - Speaking of discoveries, this one's not quite as uplifting but is also unique. It seems that some divers looking for previously unknown shipwrecks in the Bermuda Triangle area stumbled across a large piece of debris that seems to be from the heat shield on the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986. The debris was found near Cape Canaveral in what appears, from the photos, to be fairly shallow water. The debris was left on the bottom, NASA was notified, and they will decide what to do next. You can read more about it here:
CHALLENGER DEBRIS DISCOVERED.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
