TWARS (This Week at Reef Seekers) - Feb. 25 - Mar. 3

[Ken Kurtis]

Cleanup, Chamber Day, Basking Shark, & more (please scroll down for details)​

Enjoy the "extra" day this month on Thursday the 29th . . . AVALON CLEANUP A SUCCESS - The 42nd Annual Avalon Underwater Cleanup was held Saturday under relatively (and surprisingly) sunny skies. Although there were over 400 divers registered for the event, there were a lot of no-shows. That works on two levels: (1) The event keeps the registration money, and (2) Less-crowded boats going over, less crowded underwater, and better chances to win raffle prizes. I think the count I heard at Green Pier was 153 divers so the total showing up was likely 250-300. That being said, the final tally was 1,300 pounds of trash pulled out of the harbor area, and roughly $20,000 overall raised. That money will be equally split between the Chamber and the Avalon Rotary Club with each getting around $10K (subject to a final audit). Rotary is leading an effort that's being called "Beautify the Underwater Park" where they want to deal with the areas of showers, bathrooms, and storage. Paul Demeyer from Rotary outlined the general plans and promised to keep the diving community informed. Trash awards were given out for the "best" stuff brought up and the highlight winner was Reef Seekers diver Jeff Reimer, who found and came back with a sewing machine that somehow found it's way to the bottom, as you can see in the image below:​ You can see more shots of divers from the Cleanup on our SmugMug page: AVALON CLEANUP 2024. DISAPPOINTING MINI-GOLF - Following the end of the awards ceremony, we went over to Golf Gardens for our annual Miniature Golf Championship. When we got there, we were delighted to see that they've put down new artificial turf on all of the holes. That joy evaporated with the first putt because the new stuff was REALLY slow and made it seem almost like you were putting through rough carpeting. You really had to WHACK the ball at times which removes a lot of the skill and finesse that made it fun previously. In short, the balls simply didn't roll very well, certainly not like in the past. (And there's no denying it was time to replace the turf. It's just that they seem to have chosen poorly.) I've actually sent a letter to the Island Company about it (they run the mini-golf course) because the new turf really took a lot of the fun out of it. On top of that . . . I lost my title. (I'm not blaming the turf for that because we all played on the same stuff.) But I shot a 60 - I'm usually in the low-50s - and the winning score was 57. Someone who can remain nameless shot a 76, which included a 12 on one hole. Not a day for stellar miniature golf (but a relatively good time was had by all). PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS - There seem to be more and more photo contests all the time but it's always nice to share the winning images as an inspiration for those of us who shoot underwater. The latest is from Britain and the Underwater Photographer of the Year competition. The winning shot is pretty nice, especially when you realize it's a breath-hold dive . . . under ice!!! But the one that resonated with me the most was the drone shot of dozens of people trying to save a beached Sperm Whale. Each of the winning images comes with a short story about how the shot was taken. You can view them here: UNDERWATER PHOTOG OF THE YEAR 2024. CHAMBER DAY 2024 GOES LIVE ON FRIDAY - Signups officially start Friday for Chamber Day & Eve 2024, the annual fund-raising event for our Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber that provides over 50% of the needed annual funding. The website is www.chamberday.org . Also on Friday, we'll do the first of our "Live @ 5" weekly updates on signup progress. You can view those on the Chamber's FaceBook page and if you miss the live show, they're archived for future viewing at your leisure. Reef Seekers will again sponsor a Chamber Eve table (10 seats available) as well as a virtual table and, of course, spots on the Flying Dutchman (we're usually the #1 store for Dutchman spots) so we hope you'll be contributing and joining us. GEARING UP FOR TRAVEL - We're less than three weeks away from our San Ignacio Lagoon Whale Hugging trip, three months away from our Roatan trip, and we've got others in the pipeline. It's never too soon to start thinking of travelling with Reef Seekers, especially because many of our trips (like Indonesia in July) sell out. So don't forget we've got Yap in September, Palau in November, and are already signing people up for a return to the Maldives in 2025, where we have TWO back-to-back trips booked on the Manthiri. Give us a call at 310/652-4990 to find out more or secure your spot (or send us an e-mail). BASKING IN THE UNIQUENESS - Folks in Ventura were treated to a rare sight in SoCal waters: a Basking Shark doing his thing at the surface. These are the second-largest fish (behind Whale Sharks) and are also plankton eaters. But they're very rarely spotted around here. They typically cruise at the surface with their mouths open, scooping up krill and whatever else floats in. KNBC-TV did a story on this, complete with some great drone shots of the shark at the surface: BASKING SHARK WOWS 'EM IN VENTURA. And that'll do it for now. Have a great week let's go diving soon!!! - Ken​