I’m never using a BC again!

[Chavodel8en]

No one contempts me better than me!

I thought you had cats?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Thanks for that. It makes a bit more sense now. What was the original even that killed off the Starfish?

I don’t know. They got a starfish wasting disease but I don’t know the origin.
I would have to do more study.

 

[Chavodel8en]

I don’t know. They got a starfish wasting disease but I don’t know the origin.
I would have to do more study.

As far as I know, I dont think anyone really knows the origin or why the starfish wasting disease hit California at this time.

 

[SlugLife]

I get yelled at when I dive without a bladder. It's happened twice now, and once after an instructor teaching a class, praised me for my trim and hovering. If you're weighted correctly, you can easily deal with having no bladder. If you need to float on the surface for any length of time, a bladder is your friend. Shore diving usually does not require you to float.

If I had a dive-charter, and saw that, I might try to verify someone knew what they were doing (and didn't just grab a random "backpack" setup on craigslist. Yelling seems a little extreme.

Then the convenience of renting def a win. I like to have my fleet of 12 ready to go so I can drop tanks off and still dive while only going to the lds when I have time. Different strokes for different folks.

As a side-note. Where I am, a rental is $10 and a fill is $10. I'd like to rent, however logistics make rentals impractical. I'm currently 50-minutes (each way) from the nearest dive-shop, and may be moving even further soon. Based on my my dive-buddy does things (he owns the boat), we're never back in time before nearby dive-shops close.

I suppose if I do move, I might actually have a spot to put a compressor and may end up going that route.

Points made! You really stuck it to them.

What would a SB thread be, without spawning a bunch of invasive comments?

 

[Green Frog]

Hello @Eric Sedletzky, I apologize for those who seem to take joy from sniping at your well thought out and informative posts, but in my mind they are a naturally occurring species on this type of site (much like the purple urchin! ), which brings me to my question. Are the PUs a natural, opportunistic species population that has gotten wildly out of balance due to the factors you already mentioned, or are they a truly invasive, alien species?

I ask this as a student of Biology (specializing in Aquatic Ecology) and wondering whether the need is just to tip the balance back closer to normal or to totally eradicate an invasive species that has no natural enemies to control them. This will make a difference in long term treatments.

It seems like the way the guv’mint works, the fastest way to control them would be to declare them “endangered”. They would then be extinct in no time! (Yes, I’m joking for those of you who want to jump on me with angry replies! )

Best regards,
Your Phriend the Phrog

 

[Green Frog]

PS to last: in the Caribean, Bahamas, and parts of FL. The Lionfish is the problem invasive. I’m hoping that as exotic recipes for their serving at high end restaurants, they will be overfished as the grouper, conch, mahi, and other gastronomic delights have been.
Eat more Uni!!!

 

[The Chairman]

Yelling seems a little extreme.

Yelling is a term we use to say when someone tells me that I'm wrong and they're upset about it.

What would a SB thread be, without spawning a bunch of invasive comments?

That's an internet phenomenon.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Hello @Eric Sedletzky, I apologize for those who seem to take joy from sniping at your well thought out and informative posts, but in my mind they are a naturally occurring species on this type of site (much like the purple urchin! ), which brings me to my question. Are the PUs a natural, opportunistic species population that has gotten wildly out of balance due to the factors you already mentioned, or are they a truly invasive, alien species?

I ask this as a student of Biology (specializing in Aquatic Ecology) and wondering whether the need is just to tip the balance back closer to normal or to totally eradicate an invasive species that has no natural enemies to control them. This will make a difference in long term treatments.

It seems like the way the guv’mint works, the fastest way to control them would be to declare them “endangered”. They would then be extinct in no time! (Yes, I’m joking for those of you who want to jump on me with angry replies! )

Best regards,
Your Phriend the Phrog

The purple urchins are a native species, they’re just overpopulated at the moment because of a gross imbalance in nature. Actually, when I started freediving here many years ago there were giant red abalone piled on top of each other. So many abalone in fact that you wondered how the hell could there be so many?! Well, the answer is that in history there actually were not that many abalone back when there were the larger more robust northern otters. The Russians took care of that when they landed on our shores in the early 1800’s and established an outpost known as Fort Ross. They hunted the otters to extinction for their pelts, and the otter was the only predator the giant red abalone had, so the abs were able to proliferate and take over. They became overpopulated much like the purples are now. But nobody complained because they don’t destroy kelp forests and they’re delicious!
So now instead of an abalone boom we have a purple urchin boom but the purple urchins are way more destructive. Otters also kept urchins at bay too so now WE have to be the otters .
If people found out just how delicious uni can be maybe we could get them overfished in such a way as to get the numbers down. there is no way that purple urchins could be fished to extinction because you’d have to get every single one of them even the teeny tiny ones the size if a dime or a quarter down in the cracks and it would be physically impossible. The purple urchins will not get back under control until the giant sun stars come back, and that may not happen naturally.
The larger otter is gone, extinct. The smaller Monterey otters can’t survive the winters up here, they tried for years to relocate them here and it’s failed every time.
So for now it’s up to us humans to fight this war. We caused it and now we must deal with it.
I believe they call for one purple urchin for every square meter as a density marker. I’ve always seen purples around, and at one time thought they were quite unique, I used to photograph them.