Scubaology.com has published over 300 articles about diving, travel, marine ecology, marine biology, equipment and many more topics relating to both fresh and salt waters of our world.  Now the time has come to sign off this site.  This will be the last article published. To quote a song, “the leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old.”

I want to thank all who contributed and commented.  I want to give a special thanks to  DKWorldwide.com for helping me start this site, and developing the web page use for Scubaology.com.  Thanks Dave.

“We Have Trouble, Right Here in River City”

As the last articles, I think it is important to let everyone know our oceans and lakes are in a lot of trouble.  More and more species of both fish and amphibians are being added to the IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red list.  To date there are over 1500 species of fish on this list.  Soon the oceans and lakes will not be able to provide seafood for the world’s population.  This will have a dramatic effect on our ecology system.

For the first time, all species of scombrids (tunas, bonitos, mackerels and Spanish mackerels) and billfishes (swordfish and marlins) have been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Of the 61 known species, seven are classified in a threatened category, being at serious risk of extinction. Four species are listed as Near Threatened and nearly two-thirds have been placed in the Least Concern category.

Those of us who are divers, snorkelers, swimmers or enjoy fishing should be concerned about our waters of the world.  If the trends continues we will not be able to do anything mentioned above.  Divers and snorkelers will not have much to see underwater.  Already, fishing around the world, is a challenge.  Waters will become more polluted.  We as a society need to wake up and change our way of life to protect the creatures who live in and around our waters or soon there will be nothing to protect.

I know this short message will only reach a very small part of the population, but if you care, you need to forward information about our waters to all parts of the world.  Only we can save our waters and our planet.  We did the damage now we must work to save it.

Thank you for allowing me to be part our your underworld adventure.  Remember when you are in the water only take pictures and leave bubbles.

Be Safe,

Scubaology.com

In addition to sponsoring four of these sessions, NOAA will celebrate Ocean Month at the annual Capitol Hill Oceans Week next week, where Jane Lubchenco, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, and NOAA Administrator will deliver this year’s keynote address about the critical role of oceans for our national security and prosperity.

As the nation’s ocean agency, NOAA is taking a lead role in the implementation of the policy. NOAA’s expertise in mapping and charting, ocean observing, weather forecasting and environmental monitoring ensures the best science is available to inform decisions. Throughout the month, Lubchenco will participate in a number of important ocean-focused events:

• June 7 – Administrator Lubchenco delivers keynote at Capitol Hill Oceans Week, Washington, D.C.
• June 9 – Administrator Lubchenco attends Sustainable Seafood Festival at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
• June 10 – Administrator Lubchenco attends East Coast Tsunami Conference, Washington, D.C.
• June 29-30 – Administrator Lubchenco attends Western Governors Association meeting, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Starting next week, the National Ocean Council will host a series of 12 public listening sessions across the country.  NOAA will be hosting four listening sessions in Hawaii and along the West Coast.  Building from the Executive Order issued by President Obama last July that established the National Ocean Policy and the Council charged with implementing the policy, these public engagement sessions mark the latest milestone in implementing an ocean policy that addresses the most critical issues facing our oceans.
In addition, the National Ocean Council has launched a month-long online public review period for strategic action plan outlines.  These strategic actions plans, which will be developed over the summer, will propose attainable goals and specific, measureable actions the federal government can implement to address key challenges facing our ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes.

These outlines and their corresponding action plans were drafted with input from a wide range of stakeholders.  To participate in providing feedback for the strategic action plans outlines or to get more information on listening sessions please visit National Ocean Council.

• To provide comment on the nine strategic action plans, please visit .
• To find a National Ocean Council regional listening session near you.
• To learn more about Capitol Hill Oceans Week.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Find us on Facebook.

We are divers. We believe that the best way to observe great white sharks is to descend into their world and interact with them on their own terms in a natural way from our double-decker submersible cages. Conditions permitting, you can get out from behind the bars on the upper deck of 2 of these cages with only a single hand-rail between you and these incredible apex predators. Our highly experienced divemasters in the submersible cages are always there to both “critter point” and ensure your safety. Guests on the Nautilus Explorer have 4 cages at varying depths to choose from providing the best way to see lots of “whiteys” up close and very personal. Guadalupe Island (Mexico) is the top destination for great white shark encounters. This small volcanic island located in the Pacific 240 kilometers (150 miles) off the west coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula outperforms both South Africa and Australia with shark-seeing consistency and watching conditions. Only Guadalupe Island can boast shark viewing in beautiful clear blue water with 125 – 150 foot visibility. We recently counted 108 great white sharks in the bay where we stage our submersible cage diving operations which guarantees unforgettable encounters.

Bizarrely, the reef doesn’t appear to be suffering from the effects of ocean acidification just yet. But that may be because it is balanced on a knife-edge between health and decay.

Oceans become acidic when they absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere. Once dissolved, the gas reacts with carbonate to form bicarbonate, stripping seawater of the compound that many marine organisms including coral, shrimp and crabs need to build their shells or skeletons.

Bronte Tilbrook at CSIRO in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, measured the concentration of aragonite – a form of calcium carbonate used by some creatures to build shells – at over 200 locations on the reef.

Corals grow well when the amount of aragonite in the water has a saturation level of 4.5. Below that, coral growth declines. Models suggest that if seawater becomes too low in aragonite, organisms with aragonite shells will dissolve. Studies in the Red Sea have found that some species of coral start to dissolve at a saturation of 2.8.

“Almost every bit of water we sampled was below 3.5,” says Tilbrook, who presented his findings at Greenhouse 2011 in Cairns this week. Close to the shore, to the south of the reef, the saturation was 3.

Despite suboptimal conditions Tilbrook found little evidence that coral in the reef had reached their critical point. “They are still growing,” he says. This could either mean that corals are more resilient than we thought, or they are on a knife-edge.

Will Howard of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart has shown that some species of coral have a similar sensitivity to acidification as foraminifera in parts of the Southern Ocean, which are struggling to build their shells.

Howard and Tilbrook say this suggests the critical point for the corals of the Great Barrier Reef may be imminent. It is difficult to draw definite conclusions, however, because some 350 coral species are thought to inhabit the reef – with only a handful being tested under lab conditions.

Exploring and Caring for the Ocean

Twenty-sixth Annual National Week of the Ocean
Sponsored by:
National Week of the Ocean, Inc.
chaired by Cynthia Hancock, president
and
honorary national co-chairs
Scott Carpenter, astronaut/aquanaut
and
Norman Baker, Eugenie Clark,
Sylvia Earle, Tap Pryor,
Andreas Rechnitzer and Stan Waterman

National Week of the Ocean invites you to study the lives of
ocean explorers such as our honorary national co-chairs:

Scott Carpenter, astronaut/aquanaut, and explorer of the ocean depths;
and Norman Baker, Thor Heyerdahl’s navigator, for the Ra I & II voyages; Eugenie Clark, zoologist and shark expert; Sylvia Earle, marine biologist;
Tap Pryor, aquaculture pioneer; Andreas Rechnitzer, record diver, Trieste
and Stan Waterman, Emmy award-winning underwater photographer.

National Week of the Ocean members encourage year-round ocean
exploration which encompasses from the arts to commerce, from
history to foods, from endangered sea creatures to issues such as
offshore drilling or ocean dumping.

Celebration kits can be ordered for $5.00 each for events such as a campus-wide Week of the Ocean involving studies in many subjects,
a School Marine Fair to showcase student projects in the community
or a Community Festival such as that held annually
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Far fewer great white sharks live off California’s coast than scientists had expected, according to what researchers call the first census of its kind of the fearsome predator.

Biologists believe only 219 full-grown or near-grown adults inhabit the coastal waters between Bodega Bay and Monterey each fall. Based on populations of similar top-level predators such as killer whales and polar bears, which number in the thousands, scientists thought they would find more great whites.

Still, the shark-counters say it’s too soon to tell what the low number means.

“This estimate only represents a single point in time,” said Taylor Chapple, who led the study as a doctoral student at the University of California, Davis. “Further research will tell us if this number represents a healthy, viable population, or one critically in danger of collapse, or something in between.”

Great whites typically linger along California’s north-central coast from late summer through the end of fall to feed on a rich stock of seals, sea lions and other marine life. Come January, the sharks begin a massive migration that takes them as far as Hawaii, as demonstrated by satellite tracking of the animals in recent years.

To conduct the shark census, researchers ventured by small boats into waters known to be frequented by sharks starting in 2006. Using a seal-shaped decoy, they lured great whites close enough to take photos of the jagged edge of the sharks’ dorsal fins, which serve as a kind of fingerprint unique to each individual shark.

From these photos taken over the course of three years, they counted 131 individual sharks and used a statistical model to extrapolate to 219 sharks total.

Chapple said that he had researched other shark species before tackling great whites but had the same fears as anyone else when going out in a small boat to see them for the first time.

His first encounter changed his perceptions completely, he said. Rather than the boat-biting feeding machines portrayed in the “Jaws” movies, these sharks were mostly cautious around researchers’ decoys.

“They were more beautiful to see in the water than they were scary,” Chapple said.

John McCosker, a marine biologist with the California Academy of Sciences who has researched great whites for more than 30 years, praised the rigor of the study, in which he was not a participant.

McCosker said he thought the number of sharks could be slightly higher than the study determined because of how infrequently great whites come to the surface, but not by much.

As top-level predators, McCosker said the sharks play a crucial role in keeping the rest of the marine ecosystem in balance.

“We need them very badly,” he said. “If there are as few as they suggest, that means we should be very careful in maintaining the population level

The Expo will be held at the Broward County Convention Center on May 28th and 29th. “We chose Memorial Day weekend as we have so many exciting activities surrounding this year’s event,” said event producer Sheri Daye. “A three day weekend lets out-of-towners enjoy an extra day on Ft. Lauderdale Beach, or guests may also want to participate in a Spearfishing Tournament that is being put on by a local club.

The South Florida Freedivers “Invitational Spearfishing Tournament” will be held on Monday, May 30th. The tournament is open to all — freedivers and scuba divers, amateurs and professionals. Proceeds will go to the Blue Wild’s favorite charity – Twin Palms Center for the Disabled.

“We wanted to take advantage of having top spearos from around the world here for The Blue Wild and put on the baddest, funnest tournament of all time!” exclaimed the Club President, Santiago Alvarez. “We’ve got a lot of fun planned around the weigh-in, including our picnic and social, perfect for the whole family. We’ll finish off the weekend with a bang!”

This year’s Expo will have an international flavor as divers, speakers, and guests from around the world attend. “Diving has no borders, as we all share that common bond with the ocean,” stated Sheri Daye. “The Expo has been so successful because of the atmosphere — created by each and every diver at the event, sharing what we love to do.”

As always, the Expo has the who’s who in diving attending and speaking at the event. Some of this year’s top speakers include:

Stan Waterman – Award-winning Cinematographer, Producer, Author
William Trubridge – Unassisted Freedive World Record Holder, Instructor
Manny Puig – Shark Wrangler, Swamp Explorer, Sculptor
Dr. Terry Maas – Spearfishing Champion, Videographer, Inventor
Martin Stepanek – Multiple World Record Holder, Freediving Instructor
Carey Chen – World Renowned Marine Artist, Conservationist

A giant raffle will be held each day promising the chance to win prizes worth hundreds of dollars. Admission to this year’s Expo is only $15. “We wanted to do something special for the 5th anniversary, get everyone in attendance, and thank everyone that has made us successful,” said Dave Earp, the Expo’s Floor Manager. “We never want to be the same old Expo, and this Expo will be the best yet!”

For information about the Expo, see www.thebluewild.com

The destination was awarded first place in the categories covering overall experience and wall diving.

A number of factors contributed to the Cayman Islands’ success in the awards, including the quality and diversity of its dive sites and its thriving marine ecosystem.

The range of diving experiences on offer to visitors has been boosted by the recent sinking of the USS Kittiwake, a former United States Navy submarine that is now an underwater attraction.

Shomari Scott, acting director of tourism for the British overseas territory, said it is ‘an honour’ for the destination to have been recognised by readers of Scuba Diving magazine

He added: ‘The dive sector remains committed to enhancing its product and the recent sinking of the Kittiwake is one example of how joint efforts between the government and private sector can work to the benefit of our country.’

Travellers can catch flights to Grand Cayman with American Airlines and other carriers.

Now they have made a comeback.  Watch this beautiful video of the Caves at Cayman and enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V76rKjgTKmc

Living in the Great Lakes region, I am often asked if I dive in Lake Michigan and what is there to see?  Lake Michigan has wrecks, fish and other things to see.  The clarity is now about 40-50 feet during the summer, and the water temp in the summer is around 60F to 70F depending on the depth.  Some of the more well know wrecks are: Prins Willem V, Dredge #6, Lumberman, Milwaukee, Niagara and Northerner.  All of these, except the Northener are in less than 100 feet of water.

In addition there are WW II planes.  Beside the Corsair there was recently discovered and salvaged a  Douglas SBD Dauntless.  It is believed that there are over 130 planes still undiscovered in the lake.

During the war, the navy converter ships to flattops so pilots could train on aircraft carrier landings and takeoffs.  Lake Michigan was a prime training center for these pilots.

So here we are in the center of the midwest with easy access by car, train and plane.  One of the top cities in the US to visit and you can dive too.  Never too early to start thinking about a few summer days in Chicago/Milwaukee area. Non-divers will love it too.