Just back from the Scuba Show . . .
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL ONE - Congrats to Mark Young and his staff for another successful Scuba Show in the books. Converting to digital tickets created some bottlenecks on Saturday, but it seems like they eventually got that all straightened out. By the same token, the exhibitors I talked to seem to agree that Saturday was significantly busier than Sunday. I think the overall estimate is that around 10,000 people attend over the course of the two days. A lot of the attendees remarked to me about the number of travel destinations that had booths. It reflects a pent-up demand for travel from the general scuba diving public, since you all basically sat at home in 2020 and 2021. There was also a good schedule of seminars offered and they were very well-attended. I teamed up with Coroner Captain John Kades (and Chamber Director Karl Huggins via pre-recorded video) for the annual "Why Divers Die" seminar on Saturday. This is usually one of the best-attended ones and this year we had close to 150 people - standing room only and a record for us - in the room. I also gave two Sunday talks - Fish ID and Understanding Tables & Computers - that were also fairly well-attended. Overall it was a busy weekend in Long Beach seeing friends, conducting some business, and just generally immersing ourselves in the entire diving industry.
ONE THING WORTH REPEATING - The point of "Why Divers Die" is to provide a review of the actual fatalities that happened in the previous year in L.A. County and hopefully people (you) learn something from them. So I think it bears repeating about one fatality last year when the diver was on a lobster trip and making his third dive of the day shortly before 1AM. Whether the boat forgot to fill his tank or not is a red herring because the reality is that he jumped in the water with 248psi, the same amount that he had ended the previous dive with, and apparently never bothered to look at his gauge (because who in their right mind would start a dive with so little air). His computer indicated that he made it down to 89 feet, and tried to ascend when he realized he was out- of-air. Unfortunately, he never made it very far up and he settled to the bottom, with his weights still on. We've said this before but it bears repeating: No one can be more responsible for your safety in the water than you. In this specific incident, the diver never looked at his gauge on the boat or in the water until it was too late. And whether that's because he was just careless, or was so excited about hunting for lobster that he forgot to look is moot. This was an accident that was easily preventable. And hopefully it's a lesson for everyone not to get so caught up in things that you forgot or neglect basic safety procedures.
GUAM AIRPORT HAS RE-OPENED - We're happy to report that the international airport in Guam has re-opened following the passing through Guam of Typhoon Mawar a week or so ago. Even though the airport sits on a hill, flight operations were halted and limited to only emergency supplies for a few days. Thousands of people in Guam still remain without power, water, or cell phone service a week after the storm. But it sounds like things are slowly getting back to normal, and the resumption of international flights will help the islands of Yap, Truk (Chuuk), and Palau as well as others because Guam is such a major airline hub. It should also mean resumption of U.S.P.S. mail delivery to those places as well since much of the mail has to go through Guam to get there.
URCHIN LOSS THREATENS REEF ECOSYSTEM - There's a crisis brewing in the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea. It seems that literally almost overnight, black sea urchins have mysteriously disappeared. In January, researchers noticed that a regularly-dove area was completely devoid of sea urchins in the space of only a few days. This is important because coral reefs need sunlight to survive and the urchins eat the algae which can grow on reefs. The problem is that, if left unchecked, the algae - which also "feeds" on sunshine - would block sunshine from reaching the reefs and could kill the reef. So the urchins basically keep the corals clean and allow them to continue to absorb sunlight. Researchers think they've identified a water-borne pathogen that's infecting the urchins but they're not sure how to stop it. You can read more about this here:
DISEASE KILLING URCHINS.
I'm afraid I don't have a feel-good story to end with this week so . . .
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
