Scuba With Bill

Neighbors Richard Doornbos and Al Embry have stumbled upon numerous mysteries of the Mojave Desert, but never anything like this.

Last week, while walking in a large vacant field across from Sultana High School near G Avenue, the two found a 4-foot-long and ominously unmistakeable shark. The fish, which appeared to have been dumped just hours before, bore large spotted markings.

Neighbors discover 4-foot shark while on daily desert walk - Hesperia Star

And there’s scuba diving. With more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of coast along the Red Sea and just under 500 miles (800 kilometers) of beach along the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia is home to some of the world’s most spectacular dive sites.

“It is the last untouched tropical coral reef in the world, simply because of Saudi Arabian paranoia. And thank God for it,” said Eric Mason, executive manager of Dream Divers in Saudi Arabia. “This place is a divers dream come true.”

Mason’s company has been offering scuba diving trips for more than three years, drawing coral reef enthusiasts from Europe and Asia.

Khaleej Times Online - Saudis to promote kingdom as cultural and scuba diving tourist destination

Basking sharks have been spotted swimming along the Cornish coast, attracted by the warmer seas.

Also known as the bone shark, they are the second largest fish after the whale shark and can reach a massive 36 feet in length.

But swimmers can stay in the water, as the sharks only feast on tiny marine animals and it is rare that they come so close to the shore.

Heatwave attracts Basking sharks

Lake Tahoe is growing as a destination hotspot for high-altitude diving.

Each year more than one million Americans become certified divers, according to www.scuba.com. And there is no better place to explore clear waters, immense granite cliffs, various shipwrecks and aquatic life than in Lake Tahoe, area dive instructors say.

Tahoe Daily Tribune - News

Matthew Young and Cameron James Avenell, who were convicted of theft of Palau’s underwater artifacts, were sentenced to a jail term of three months and six months, respectively.

Chief Justice Arthiur Ngiraklsong also ordered Young to pay a US$5,000 fine and Avenell US$12,000.

Young was found guilty of violating the Lagoon Monument Act, grand larceny, malicious mischief and conversion of public property.

He was sentenced six months for each violation.

CDNN :: Palau Scuba Looters Go To Jail

The Oregon Coast Aquarium is offering a class for intermediate scuba divers. “Marine Ecology for the Wet and Wild” offers a chance for divers to experience the aquarium’s Passages of the Deep exhibit, home to hundreds of marine animals. The class will be Saturday, July 22 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and includes a review of the 13 major groups of invertebrates inhabiting Northwest waters.

“We won’t be diving with the sharks,” said Vallorie Hodges, dive safety officer at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. “But we’ll be right up close to many common and some uncommon Pacific Northwest fishes and invertebrates.” Hodges said this is the ideal place for divers to learn about marine life because “You would have to log many hours diving in the open water of the Oregon Coast to find and identify the marine life you will see in one dive at the aquarium.”

Aquarium offers marine ecology for intermediate scuba divers

Does the thought of being in the deep, mysterious depths of water, surrounded by exotic fish stimulate you? Do you dream of going to unexplored, untouched territories and becoming one with nature, literally? Lacadives is the only Indian overseas scuba diving centre affiliated to the World Underwater Federation (CMAS in its French translation). Now in its eleventh year, Lacadives is the brainchild of well-known ad man Prahlad Kakar and has two diving centers - one at Kadmat Island, set up in 1995 and the other at Bangaram Island, set up in 2000.

Sitting in his Tardeo office Kakar speaks about his passion - scuba diving. “I was in Mauritius more than a decade ago when I learnt the beginner course in scuba diving. It was such an indescribable experience that I knew I had to do it again and again. When people talk about Lakshadweep, they always end up thinking about the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. What they don’t realise is that there are more virgin islands on the eastern coast as well. Kadmat and Bangaram are virtually unknown islands,” said Kakkar.

Cybernoon.com

The giant sand pit where the remains of a mammoth and saber-toothed tiger were once discovered may soon be filled with more modern artifacts.

[Click image for a larger version] PAT SULLIVAN/AP
AP
This huge mask is at a Clute, Texas, sand pit, which will be turned into a diving lake. The mask will be in the seascape.

There are plans to throw in a bus, a couple of antique firetrucks and even a space shuttle look-alike that once thrilled visitors at the now defunct Astroworld amusement park in Houston.

Developers are hoping the items and many others – including an old F-5 Navy jet already in the 50-acre pit – will help create one of the nation’s largest lakes reserved for scuba divers seeking to explore large objects.

“This is a dream come true,” Mike Cryer, who runs Hydrosports Scuba Shop in nearby Lake Jackson, said as he gazed over a hole as deep as 70 feet. By next year it should be at least partially filled with water and become Mammoth Lake. “We’re in such a unique position. No one has ever started a dive lake from the ground up. They’ve always inherited a hole of water.”

Dive right in: Artifacts will fill lake

Sara Rich long had an affinity for the underwater world.

But she never really had been, well, under water.

And living in landlocked Kansas, Rich figured her pursuit of watery bliss would have to wait until she moved to one coast or another.

That thinking changed, however, earlier this year.

Rich had a vacation planned in Florida, and she started thinking about diving there. Her daily walk to work carried her past the Scuba Shack in East Lawrence, and one day she decided to stop in.

“It was very convenient,” Rich recalled. “They were so willing to accommodate me. I was on a short schedule. I said, ‘I’m leaving for Florida next week.’ I explained what my situation was, and they basically took care of it.”

Taking the plunge | LJWorld.com

MEN and women have practised breath-hold diving for thousands of years. We know this because scientists found undersea artifacts on land and there are depictions of divers in ancient drawings. This type of diving is still practised today in different variations – free diving and skin diving.

A history of scuba diving