NON DIVING/NON SMOKING
PILLS: If you’re popping pills to
keep from smoking, you may be
taking an unnecessary risk while
diving, says Underwater magazine,
a publication for commercial
divers. Zyban, Wellbutrin, and
Wellbutrin SR cause difficult
breathing, shock, and seizures in
as many as 3 out of 1000 people,
making them risky drugs for
divers.
FLYING FIRST CLASS: I’m getting
too old and cranky to fly in
cramped, stiff, and unpleasant
coach-class when my destination
is 14 hours away. But I found a
way around the high price of
international business and firstclass
travel — getting two business
or first-class tickets for the price of
one. It’s one of many benefits
available to anyone sporting the
American Express Platinum Card,
which carries a pricey annual fee
of $300. So where can you get the
twofers? Anywhere Air New
Zealand goes, any time of year
(Fiji and Tonga, for example).
Same for Malaysia Airlines, Cathay
Pacific to Hong Kong, or
Aeromexico. If you don’t care
about diving, then Aer Lingus, Air
France, Aitalia, Iberia, Lufthansa, Swiss Air, and SAS are also in the
program. To apply, call 800-576-8942.
UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGICAL
PARK: You may soon be able to dive
on a wrecked Roman ship or the quays
of King Herod’s seaport. You see, Israel
is constructing underwater archaeological
parks off their Mediterranean
coast, where divers will be able to view
ancient shipwrecks or submerged
Neolithic villages. One park is being
built on a sandstone reef off the town
of Ashkelon. Another is being prepared
near Haifa. A third is at King
Herod’s sunken columned seaport of
Caesarea. The exhibits will include
anchors, millstones, an 8,000-year-old
Neolithic well, Neolithic olive oil
basins, and marble pillars that were
brought from Italy to the Holy Land
2000 years ago.
DIVING WITH THE MASSES: Though
the Guinness Book of World Records has
yet to create a listing for mass submersions,
when they do, kudos will go to
the country of Colombia. In May divers
there set the world record for the
biggest mass dive ever when 278 divers
submerged in an Olympic-sized
swimming pool and stayed underwater
for 15 minutes.
EATING IT UP: Here’s yet another
fish we’re eating to extinction: the
Patagonian toothfish, a six-foot
creature marketed as the yummysounding
“Chilean sea bass.” Which
it’s not. A menu staple in tony
restaurants, in five years its stock has
decreased fifty percent. The fish,
which is found in cold Antarctic
waters, is so profitable that Australia
has had to impound Asian boats
poaching the fish off Tasmania. The
dwindling supply is forcing prices up
(it’s currently about $12/pound),
which might be one way to save the
fish. Another might be for the
government to insist it be marketed
under its real name. It’s unlikely that
“Patagonian toothfish buerre blanc”
would be a hot menu item.
LOOKING FOR WHALE SHARKS: The
one reliable place to see whale
sharks is the annual appearance of
the gentle giants along western
Australia’s Ningaloo Reef near
Exmouth, but a cyclone crushed the
tourist facilities for this year’s
season (mid-March to mid-May). If
you are thinking about next year,
follow the reconstruction process
closely.