Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2017 vacation trips:
• September 1-6 - Great White Sharks of Guadalupe on the Nautilus Belle Amie [ WE JUST GOT BACK!!! ]
• November 2-12 - Fiji (SE Viti Levu area near Suva) on the Fiji Aggressor [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
• STARTING TO THINK ABOUT 2018 - WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO???
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
————————————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Tues., Sept. 12 - Veterans Park, Redondo - Night Dive (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Sept. 16 - Veterans Park - Beach Dive (1-tank) (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Sept. 23 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater Park ($150)
• Thu., Sept. 28 - Westwood - CLASS - Fish ID ($25)
• Sat., Sept. 30 - EVERYWHERE - Lobster season open at 6AM [ NOTE NEW STARTING TIME ]
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
————————————————————————————————————————————
If we combine the sharks from Guadalupe with Hurricane Irma, do we get a real-life Sharknado???
HURRICANE IRMA - Wow. Harvey was bad enough. Irma has left an amazing/depressing trail of death and destruction. Anyone who lives in Florida probably won't read this for a few days since 3 million people are without power. To put that in perspective, the population of South Florida, where Irma hit first, is roughly 6 million. So 50% of the people are without power. "Thoughts & prayers" doesn't seem to cut it but we hope all of our Florida friends are safe &/or in shelters.
IRMA AFFECTS MANATEES - Even before I saw the story whose link I'll give you in a moment, I was wondering about the fate of manatees during this type of a storm. Because they're air-breathers, they can't just simply go deep and ride it out, especially not with something that will last a few days. On top of that, during the summer months, manatees are usually out in the Gulf of Mexico (but still near shore) since they can tolerate the water temps. But it also means they have zero protection from storms. So you've got to figure that some of these animals will die because of the storm's severity. On top of that, there have been manatee strandings around the Tampa area because the strong winds from the hurricane have literally blown a lot of the near-coastal waters out to sea, creating shallow areas and mud flats. There have already been a few manatees observed stuck in these areas. Because the adults can weigh around 1,000 pounds, it's not like you can easily move them to deeper waters or some sort of shelter. But there is a success story that has happened, and here's the link to it: Rescuers brave Hurricane Irma's fury to save manatees.
IRMA AFFECTS A DIVER TOO - So here's the deal. When we tell you the surf's too high, you shouldn't go diving. When we tell you the current's too strong, you shouldn't go diving. And when we tell you a HURRICANE is on the way, you shouldn't go diving. But . . . not everyone listens. A prime example is this yutz in Riviera Beach, Florida. Apparently he decided to "shelter" on his moored boat and then at some point decided that was a bad idea (I can hear Darwin at work) so he donned his scuba gear and tried to make a swim for it but couldn't. Fortunately, some people saw him and, probably risking their own safety as well, pulled him out. Of course, there's video taken from a nearby condo: WATCH: Scuba diver saved during Hurricane Irma conditions.
IRMA HAS AFFECTED DIVING IN OTHER ISLANDS - Many of the leeward islands of the Caribbean got smacked pretty hard by Irma as she churned through. Particularly hard hit was the dual island of St. Martin/Saint Maarten, where something like 95% of the structures were damaged or destroyed. Also in the path were the U.S. & British Virgin Islands, Dominica, St. Barts, Antigua, Saba, Anguilla, Puerto Rico, Turks & Caicos, and some of the islands of the Bahamas. If you have a trip planned to any of these places in the near future (and that could be as much as six months or more down the road), you should really check to make sure your destinantion is diveable and that diving services are functioning. I remember a number of years ago a hurricane hit Dominica and it not only affected the dive operations directly (but mildly) but the biggest issue was that the damage to the airport, which meant large planes couldn't land so you either took small island-hoppers or simply couldn't fly in with gear at all. So double-check your anticipated condntions through a couple of sources because you know the default answer is going to be, "Everything is fine. We weren't hit that hard." If you can popstpone or switch to someplace else, that might be a good option.
Enough hurricane stuff . . .
WE GOT SHARKS!!! - Despite some potential problems from tropical storm Lidia, we had a fabulous time with the sharks of Isla Guadalupe last week. I'm still working on the trip report and pix but will give you a link to some shots momentarily. But suffice it to say that even though the water was a bit cooler than it was last year and the vis was a bit lower, the sharks were plentiful and curious. In fact the first two days, I don't think we ever did a single dive where there wasn't at least one shark within visual range. And on one dive I did, there were five visible at once. The other thing I found interesting was that there weren't as many Yellowtail as we've seen previously but there was an enormous school (and I mean 10,000-ish) of Mackerel Scad and above them in the water column was a large school of Sardines. Really impressive, especially when the sharks came through and the fish parted to give them space and then reformed. But the sharks are the stars of the show and we got them by the bucketful. I was able to post pix to Facebook and SmugMug while I was down there but if you missed them, here's the link. There are three different galleries. Choose one or all and click on any individual picture in the three collages for a larger single-image look: GUADALUPE 2017 (Great White Sharks).
TWO DIVES THIS COMING WEEK - They both feature a diver's favorite word: FREE!!!! We've tentatively got a night dive scheduled for Tuesday evening and a beach dive for Saturday morning. Both will be at Vets Park in Redondo and both are - obviously - weather-dependent. Since I've been away and then have been tied up the four days I've been back, I really haven't had a chance to check out conditions. But if you're interested, either e-mail me or call (310/652-4990) to get signed up. I'm happy to do this even if there's only one person but I don't like to go down there with no people confirmed so if you're interested, let me know.
And that'll do it for now. have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
• September 1-6 - Great White Sharks of Guadalupe on the Nautilus Belle Amie [ WE JUST GOT BACK!!! ]
• November 2-12 - Fiji (SE Viti Levu area near Suva) on the Fiji Aggressor [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
• STARTING TO THINK ABOUT 2018 - WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO???
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
————————————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Tues., Sept. 12 - Veterans Park, Redondo - Night Dive (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Sept. 16 - Veterans Park - Beach Dive (1-tank) (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Sept. 23 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater Park ($150)
• Thu., Sept. 28 - Westwood - CLASS - Fish ID ($25)
• Sat., Sept. 30 - EVERYWHERE - Lobster season open at 6AM [ NOTE NEW STARTING TIME ]
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
————————————————————————————————————————————
If we combine the sharks from Guadalupe with Hurricane Irma, do we get a real-life Sharknado???
HURRICANE IRMA - Wow. Harvey was bad enough. Irma has left an amazing/depressing trail of death and destruction. Anyone who lives in Florida probably won't read this for a few days since 3 million people are without power. To put that in perspective, the population of South Florida, where Irma hit first, is roughly 6 million. So 50% of the people are without power. "Thoughts & prayers" doesn't seem to cut it but we hope all of our Florida friends are safe &/or in shelters.
IRMA AFFECTS MANATEES - Even before I saw the story whose link I'll give you in a moment, I was wondering about the fate of manatees during this type of a storm. Because they're air-breathers, they can't just simply go deep and ride it out, especially not with something that will last a few days. On top of that, during the summer months, manatees are usually out in the Gulf of Mexico (but still near shore) since they can tolerate the water temps. But it also means they have zero protection from storms. So you've got to figure that some of these animals will die because of the storm's severity. On top of that, there have been manatee strandings around the Tampa area because the strong winds from the hurricane have literally blown a lot of the near-coastal waters out to sea, creating shallow areas and mud flats. There have already been a few manatees observed stuck in these areas. Because the adults can weigh around 1,000 pounds, it's not like you can easily move them to deeper waters or some sort of shelter. But there is a success story that has happened, and here's the link to it: Rescuers brave Hurricane Irma's fury to save manatees.
IRMA AFFECTS A DIVER TOO - So here's the deal. When we tell you the surf's too high, you shouldn't go diving. When we tell you the current's too strong, you shouldn't go diving. And when we tell you a HURRICANE is on the way, you shouldn't go diving. But . . . not everyone listens. A prime example is this yutz in Riviera Beach, Florida. Apparently he decided to "shelter" on his moored boat and then at some point decided that was a bad idea (I can hear Darwin at work) so he donned his scuba gear and tried to make a swim for it but couldn't. Fortunately, some people saw him and, probably risking their own safety as well, pulled him out. Of course, there's video taken from a nearby condo: WATCH: Scuba diver saved during Hurricane Irma conditions.
IRMA HAS AFFECTED DIVING IN OTHER ISLANDS - Many of the leeward islands of the Caribbean got smacked pretty hard by Irma as she churned through. Particularly hard hit was the dual island of St. Martin/Saint Maarten, where something like 95% of the structures were damaged or destroyed. Also in the path were the U.S. & British Virgin Islands, Dominica, St. Barts, Antigua, Saba, Anguilla, Puerto Rico, Turks & Caicos, and some of the islands of the Bahamas. If you have a trip planned to any of these places in the near future (and that could be as much as six months or more down the road), you should really check to make sure your destinantion is diveable and that diving services are functioning. I remember a number of years ago a hurricane hit Dominica and it not only affected the dive operations directly (but mildly) but the biggest issue was that the damage to the airport, which meant large planes couldn't land so you either took small island-hoppers or simply couldn't fly in with gear at all. So double-check your anticipated condntions through a couple of sources because you know the default answer is going to be, "Everything is fine. We weren't hit that hard." If you can popstpone or switch to someplace else, that might be a good option.
Enough hurricane stuff . . .
WE GOT SHARKS!!! - Despite some potential problems from tropical storm Lidia, we had a fabulous time with the sharks of Isla Guadalupe last week. I'm still working on the trip report and pix but will give you a link to some shots momentarily. But suffice it to say that even though the water was a bit cooler than it was last year and the vis was a bit lower, the sharks were plentiful and curious. In fact the first two days, I don't think we ever did a single dive where there wasn't at least one shark within visual range. And on one dive I did, there were five visible at once. The other thing I found interesting was that there weren't as many Yellowtail as we've seen previously but there was an enormous school (and I mean 10,000-ish) of Mackerel Scad and above them in the water column was a large school of Sardines. Really impressive, especially when the sharks came through and the fish parted to give them space and then reformed. But the sharks are the stars of the show and we got them by the bucketful. I was able to post pix to Facebook and SmugMug while I was down there but if you missed them, here's the link. There are three different galleries. Choose one or all and click on any individual picture in the three collages for a larger single-image look: GUADALUPE 2017 (Great White Sharks).
TWO DIVES THIS COMING WEEK - They both feature a diver's favorite word: FREE!!!! We've tentatively got a night dive scheduled for Tuesday evening and a beach dive for Saturday morning. Both will be at Vets Park in Redondo and both are - obviously - weather-dependent. Since I've been away and then have been tied up the four days I've been back, I really haven't had a chance to check out conditions. But if you're interested, either e-mail me or call (310/652-4990) to get signed up. I'm happy to do this even if there's only one person but I don't like to go down there with no people confirmed so if you're interested, let me know.
And that'll do it for now. have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
