REEF SEEKERS DIVE CO. - APRIL 1 NEWSLETTER

[Ken Kurtis]

Here's the April 1, 2021, issue of the Reef Seekers newsletter, which should download as a 335KB PDF file of four pages. Just click on it to open it or download it.

You can also access the newsletter through our website simply by using this link:
http://www.reefseekers.com/newsletter.html. Read it on-line or print out a copy for yourself. In either case, you'll need a copy of Acrobat Reader, which comes pre-loaded on most computers. However if you don't have it, or don't have the latest version, you can obtain a free copy by going to this site: (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) and following the on-screen prompts.

If you have any comments, thoughts, concerns, etc., about anything you read, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. Thanks for diving with Reef Seekers.

- Ken (for all the gang here at Reef Seekers Dive Co.)

 

[Silt Life]

AQUARIUM TO OPEN BLUE-RINGED OCTOPUS TOUCH TANK

 

[Dan]

Any takers for this?

“VOLUNTEER DIVERS NEEDED IN EGYPT
Even though the EverGiven has now been unjammed from being stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, the crisis is not over and the Egyp- tian government is asking for your help.

One of the big tasks at hand right now is ensuring that the area along both sides of the Suez Canal where the bow and the stern buried them- selves, are safe and stable. This inspection has to be completed before the Canal can fully open again to cargo traffic. And the only way this inspection can be done is visually underwater. It also needs to be done as soon as possible.

The area where each end of the ship got stuck is relatively shal- low, as little as 3-10 feet deep. But in a quirk in Egyptian law, any qualified divers who are Egyptian are not allowed to dive in waters shallower than 15 feet. It has to do with a requirement in Egyptian diving law, punishable by up to five years in prison, which requires every Egyptian diver to complete a 15-foot safety stop for three min- utes after every dive. The way the law is written (it’s obviously cur- rently under review and appeal), this applies to EVERY dive and obviously for a dive that’s only 10 feet deep, it’s impossible to do a 15-foot safety stop. (Gotta love those bureaucrats and the Egyp- tian ones are among the most strin- gent in the world.)
But due to another legal loophole, this safety stop provision does NOT apply to American divers. Hence the urgent request from the Egyptian government for volun- teer divers to do the critical in- spection. Best of all, they’ll pay for it and you’ll get a vacation out of it too.

You’ll be flown business class to Cairo and then down to Al Kibrit via military transport. To get from that base to the area of the block- age (which isn’t all that far), you’ll have to transfer to camels so any experience in riding camels, in the circus or even as a kid, is a plus. Once you’re down in the area where the blockage occurred, you’ll gear up (they’ll have tanks on site – be sure to specify air or nitrox in your application), you’ll be handed a GoPro (yours to keep post-inspection), do your inspec- tion dive, let them know what you saw and if you think it’s safe, and you’re done. No special training, certification, or even intelligence is needed to be chosen for this.

As a reward, on top of everything else, the Egyptian government will then treat you to a weeklong vaca- tion diving the Red Sea. Ironi- cally, Evergreen shipping, owners of the EverGiven, has taken one of their older tankers and converted it into a dive boat based out of Hurghada. The new boat has been named (they may need to rethink this) the EverBent and has all the creatures comforts you’d expect from a rusty Egyptian freighter.

As long as you’re certified, your passport is current, and your COVID results are negative (be- ing fully-vaccinated is a plus), you’re qualified. They’re only tak- ing 20 divers for this adventure and if you’d like to find out more, you can call the Egyptian Consu- late here in L.A. at (323)933-9700 and tell them you want to be a member of the Suez Canal Under- water Bilateral Army. Then they’ll tell you where to go.”

 

[ontdiver]

Any takers for this?

“VOLUNTEER DIVERS NEEDED IN EGYPT

Anyone considering this job should be prepared for orientation diving in one of the many wadis of Jordan which have been flooded in support of the Suez situation.

 

[ontdiver]

I guess everyone is waiting for the Consulate to open.