Marine Protected Areas Website

By billrini

Feb

24

The Marine Protected Areas (MPA) website has been redesigned and contains a lot of goodies for those of you who are interested in our underwater protected areas.

Check it out at:

http://www.mpa.gov/

DAN Responds to Articles

By billrini

Jan

31

Divers Alert Network (DAN) responds to the recent series of articles about Peter Bennett and DAN in this series of open letters.

Peter Bennett ousted from DAN

By billrini

Jan

18

It looks like DAN founder, Peter Bennett, has been ousted by the board. It looks ugly. Here are two different articles:

Reef Seekers tells Big Brother to take a dive

By billrini

Dec

27

Nice article over at CDNN about local dive shop, Reef Seekers, who refused to honor the FBI request for information about students. Earlier this year the FBI began going to the scuba certification agencies and asking for records on students in the hopes of matching those records with their database of possible terrorists. They also began visiting local shops since students who don’t complete the training would not have records at the certification agency. Ken Kurtis and Bill Wright, owners of Reef Seekers, refused and went to court to fight it.

It’s an interesting story but I think the writer does more to discuss his politics than was necessary to tell the story so skip over that if it’s of no interest.

Ca. Dept of Fish and Game Create 12 New Marine Reserves

By billrini

Nov

28

The California Department of Fish and Game have approved a plan to create 12 new marine reserves. The reserves would cover 175 square miles covering various areas surrounding the Channel Islands. These new marine reserves (i.e. no-take zones) will hopefully increase the abundance of marine life within these new sanctuaries.

Anyone who has had the opportunity to dive in the existing marine reserves in the Channel Islands recognizes that this will eventually lead to more spectacular dive spots.

For more information, please see the Ca. Dept of Fish and Game website.