Scuba With Bill

Fifty years ago, fishermen shot at Northwest killer whales they felt were eating too many salmon. Now, thousands of visitors pay an average of $75 a trip to see the orcas in their summer habitat around the San Juan Islands.

The love sightseers feel for the orcas, however, may be getting overwhelming for the bus-sized mammals. As many as 100 tour boats can be on the water at once, all jockeying for a good look at the animals, and researchers are concerned that the in-your-face attention is harassing orcas and keeping them from their prey.

After decades of fear and hostility, are we loving orcas to death?

Here’s some good news.

In 1966, humpback whales were placed under international protection due to severely low numbers. By the 1990s, their population was growing at an annual rate of 7%. Today, some 10,000 humpbacks navigate the North Pacific, and research shows that about 1000 humpback calves are born in Hawaii’s warm waters each year. While environmentalists are happy to see the population rebound, some are concerned about the increasing number of boats running into the animals.

Whale Populations Rebounding Worldwide

This intro to scuba is about finding out what suits you.

First, it’s the flippers.

Then, the vest, an inflatable contraption that straps on like a life jacket and doesn’t let go.

You’ve also got an air tank, a mask and, if you’re still floating, weights to drag you down.

But the fit that instructors Grant and Judy Dawson are really looking for comes down to a basic equation:

You + scuba = love.

The Sweat Box: Introduction to scuba diving

Currently, when divers with the Knox County Water Rescue Team take the plunge, they can communicate with crews on the ground by voice. But now, they’ll also be able to see them very clearly, thanks to the robotic scuba diver.

Divers are counting on the robot to keep a close eye when they’re underwater on dangerous missions.

“It’s got a lot of mobility. There are a lot of high risk things for our divers to go down and look at,” says Capt. David Henderson.

New robot helping Knox Co. rescuers with underwater searches

Scientists at The University of Manchester have uncovered the first evidence of seawater deep inside the Earth shedding new light on the fate of the planet’s oceans, according to research published in Nature (May 11, 2006).

For years geologists have debated whether seawater is subducted (absorbed) into the deep Earth or whether there is a ’subduction barrier’ blocking its absorption.

For the first time scientists at The University of Manchester have positively identified seawater in volcanic gas samples originating from the Earth’s mantle - the region just below the crust and extending all the way down to the core – supporting the theory that seawater is subducted deep into the Earth and enabling them to test this theory further.

Scientists Reveal Fate of Earth’s Oceans; Seawater Absorbed Into the Deep Earth

This particular trip also had a tremendous amount of activity outside the water because we had a VIP guest on board for a day. President GMA scuba dived with us! Flying in by helicopter, GMA landed on a navy boat near ours and then took a smaller chase boat over.

Of course the first order of business as soon as she arrived was picture taking! As various setups were being organized—GMA with crew, GMA with etc., etc.—I had a non-Kodak moment when I handed my camera to a simply dressed man in the entourage and asked him to take our picture. Horrors! He turned out to be Rep. Tony Alvarez of Palawan. Luckily, the good congressman is a friend of my uncle, Mauro Prieto, and was only too happy to oblige.

GMA actually did two dives with us and showed her good underwater skills when our second dive hit a moderate current. After the diving, she took time to visit the Ranger Station on the reef. One wonders what the election results were among the eight men who take three-month stints patrolling the marine park.

Scuba diving with President Arroyo

Excellent piece over at Divester on sharing air.

If a diver is hurting for air, they might start to panic. They’ll want the first regulator that they see and know has air: the one in your mouth. It’s a good idea to stay in control of your regulator. If a diver looks like they may need air, place your hand on your regulator. It’s better for you to hand it to them than have it yanked out of your mouth. You can make sure you grab a nice breath of air and demonstrate that you’re calm while handing it over. Someone who’s been swimming without an air supply will usually feel the need to catch their breath. If you just exhaled and a panicked diver grabs your regulator, you may not be very happy while they’re gobbling up air.

I’ve only had to share air once and it was in Cozumel on a vacation. We had done a deep dive in the morning but we had a fairly aggressive profile for our second dive. The DM suggested we do a good 5 min or more safety stop before surfacing which I felt was a pretty good idea. I’m not sure why but I became a little bored on the dive and decided to cut it short. I parterned my buddy up with another pair of divers and swam back to the anchor line where I did my extended safety stop. Near the end of my stop a pair of inexerpeinced divers (they were on their 4th post-certification dive) approached me on the safety line. My instructor instincts kicked in naturally and I glanced down at their pressure gagues and noted that both divers were in the red zone. I called them both close to me and held their guages up to their eye level so they could see that they were running low. Neither of them was going to make the 5 minute recommended safety stop at their current rate of consumption so I signaled to one of them that I was going to give her my octopus. She took it as the needle on her SPG started to approach 0 and I grabbed the waiststrap on the other diver’s BCD figuring I could share air with him if needed. I wanted to prevent panic and a shoot for the surface so I attempted to keep both divers calm by not appearing to be overly concerned about the situation.

As the second diver’s SPG approached zero I noted that the DM was leading a group up the line. I gave the line a few good yanks to grab his attention and he swam up. I showed him the two SPG’s and he gave the second diver his octo. I had noted the time when the other two divers had approached me so I knew when they had had a good 5 minutes of off-gassing. When we hit the 5 minute mark I signaled to everyone that we were going to make a nice, easy ascent and we got everyone on the surface.

My first (and hopefully last) air sharing experience went rather calmly. I don’t think either diver realized in how much danger they were in. I’m quite sure the situation would have turned out very differently had they taken a hit and they couldn’t draw any air.

As an instructor, I always knew that I shouldered a special risk. You are in charge of a group of people who do not know how to dive yet. As long as you can lead them they should be fine but what if something should happen to you? I’ve always felt like being on a teaching dive was like being a solo diver. I don’t really have a buddy who I can count on to react calmly to the situation.

I’ve experimented around with carrying a pony bottle and having three air source (reg, octo, and BC octo) but in analyzing the situation I’ve come to the realization that in an emergency, as an instructor diving with inexperienced divers, the first thing they are likely to go for is the reg that’s in my mouth. That leaves me without an air source and attempting to help a diver at some level of panic. I don’t have time to waste in finding my octo so the normal placement affixed to the BC shoulder strap doesn’t seem optimal. The octo could easily become dislodged during a dive without my knowledge and then I’m wasting time sweeping behind me trying to find an air source.

The solution I like best is the DIR-inspired necklace. It keeps the octo near your mouth and it’s much more noticable when it becomes dislodged. I’ve practiced with it and can actually get the octo in my mouth without using my hands. It’s much cleaner to use my hands but it can be done simply by dipping one’s neck.

Fortunately, I haven’t had to test this configuration out in a real incident but I do make sure to communicate the location of my octo to my buddy and students when I dive. If anything, I think the unusual placement sticks out in people’s heads and I’ve gotten quite a few “That’s not a half bad idea,” from other divers.

One more . . . .

“I think the time has started to really take its toll on my body. It has started to become horrific in many, many ways,” Blaine said. “Every muscle doesn’t just ache, it feels like a sharp, shooting pain, like a knife being stabbed.”

Blaine said his skin, which has shriveled and pruned due to the water, hurts everywhere, too. His muscles have begun to atrophy, which he says worries him not just for the event’s finale, but for “everything after that as well.”

“I don’t think it’s permanent, but I’ve never felt this kind of pain in a stunt before.”

Underwater Stunt Brings Grueling Pain for David Blaine

Looks like David Blaine is starting to prune up a bit:

His hands are shriveled and sore, yet Blaine keeps up his fish-in-water act. “The hands have been pretty bad, but everything else is good,” Blaine told the Daily News in an interview from the bubble as he peeled off a glove to reveal his prune-like fingers … I wasn’t prepared for the hands - that’s a little bit of a scary sign because all the skin is starting to come off,” he said. “My body’s responding, but it’s also coping. It could be a lot worse.”

Expert speculate on how David Blaine will accomplish the end of his stunt, a record breath hold while escaping from chains.

He plans to round off the stunt in New York by attempting to break the world record for holding breath under water - which currently stands at eight minutes, 58 seconds - while trying to escape from 150lb (68kg) of metal chains.

It is a task few professional freedivers think is achievable with the best of conditions, let alone after a week submerged in water, while trying to escape shackles. So how will he do it?

Proving that scuba divers will go anywhere that the diving is great, East Timor’s first tourists are scuba divers.

Simon Jeffery, 36, who has worked for Dive Timor Lorosae for three years leading guided dives and captaining their boat, waxes lyrical about the potential for diving in the young nation.

“Big tour organisers come out here and love the place — it’s world-class diving,” he says, comparing it to Bali and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

“The exciting thing about it is that it’s all virgin territory — there are virtually 1,000 — or 10,000 — dive sites out there that have never been dived before,” he enthuses.

“At traditional dive destinations like Thailand and Fiji now there’ll be 200 people at a site and you can’t see the fish.”