TWARS (This Week at Reef Seekers) - September 11-18

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Ken Kurtis

Contributor
Messages
1,907
Reaction score
2,472
Location
Beverly Hills, CA
# of dives
5000 - ∞
Zoom Seekers, Coral Sex, Garbage, and more
(please scroll down for details)
mail
mail
Never forget . . .

QUITE A TUMULTUOUS WEEK - The death of Queen Elizabeth on Thursday, the effects of Hurricane Kay were felt Friday and Saturday with rain (!!!) and swell, plus the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Sunday. And while "Never Forget" is certainly associated with 9/11, for SoCal divers, it has also become associated with the fire on the Conception in 2019, and the third anniversary of that tragedy was last week. Which brings us to . . .

ZOOM SEEKERS THIS TUESDAY: THE CONCEPTION FIRE THREE YEARS LATER - The Zoom Seekers for this Tuesday we've been anticipating all year. And it will be a bit different than our "normal" talks as we're hoping to have a lot of attendee participation. We'll review (PowerPoint presentation) what we've learned in the last three years, paying particular attention to the NTSB investigation and report, and the new US Coast Guard rules and regs as a result of the fire. But we also really want to hear from you. What changes have you seen (or not seen), what concerns do you have, how did this change your diving? The intent is for a fairly free-form discussion but we also expect/require that things remain civil. All viewpoints are welcome but we'll ask for reasonable decorum to be followed as well. I expect (and hope) this will be well-attended so will remind you that Zoom limits us to 100 people in the room. (We'll also be on FaceBook live to handle any overflow.) To ensure yourself a spot, you can also sign in early and you'll be placed in the Waiting Room. At 7:30, we'll let everyone in. (For anyone who either can't get in or can't attend, we'll be recording this and will post it to both our SmugMug page and our Zoom Seekers archives on the Reef Seekers website.) I'm looking forward to an informative and interesting evening. Here's the link:


ELKHORN CORAL BREAKTHROUGH - Scientists at the Florida Aquarium have made a major break-through in helping to save reefs as they've been able, for the first time, to get Elkhorn Coral to spawn in a captive environment. This is significant because it could be paving the way to helping revitalize threatened reefs. You can read more about it here: ELKHORN CORAL CAPTIVE BREEDING. And also . . .

BUDDY DIVE HAS A SIMILAR PROJECT GOING - When I first read the article I thought, "What's the big deal? Buddy Dive has been doing this for years." But then I realized the difference is that the Florida project is getting them to spawn artificially - almost on demand - in an aquarium environment whereas the Buddy Dive project is growing wild corals under protected conditions and then transplanting them to reefs over on Klein Bonaire in hopes they'll continue to flourish. And they do, as we saw when we dove the transplant site in the shallows of Carl's Hill. So two different approaches to helping replenish reefs and two which we hope will continue to be successful and show promise of wider application.

HURRICANE KAY - For those of you who were confused about the wet stuff falling from the sky on Friday, it's called "rain" and it was a welcome addition. This was also from Hurricane Kay, which sort of worked it's way up the western Baja coastline and then looped around Isla Guadalupe before petering out but it sent wind and swell our way over the weekend. In fact, so much so that diving operations at the Avalon Underwater Park as well as Catalina Divers Supply were suspended both days as a safety precaution. (I saw a FB post that said they were also going around the island looking for kayaks that broke loose during the storm.) All seems good now, although it may take a few days for the visibility to recover.

SOURCES OF OCEAN GARBAGE - You've probably heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating mass of plastic - much of it microplastics - that's larger than the state of Texas, circulating and swirling in a gyre in the Pacific Ocean. (Sadly, it's also not the only one.) A team of researchers from the Netherlands has done some sampling and testing and found that 92% of the ocean trash comes from just six countries, and a lot of it was fishing-based. The trashy countries are China and Japan - accounting for 66% of the ID'd trash - with South Korea, the U.S., Taiwan, and Canada accounting for the rest (34% collectively). They also calculate that the trash is 10 times more likely to come from fishing activities than land-based activities. You can read more about this here: THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH.

I HATE TO END ON SUCH A SOUR NOTE - So I'll add this that hopefully perks you up even if you're not a die-hard baseball fan: The Dodgers "Magic Number" is now only 2!!!

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

- Ken​
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom