Sting Ray City: After scores of moray
and stingray bites and hickeys, not to
mention boating accidents, the Cayman
Government says it will regulate activity,
though to what extent is unclear. While
guidelines have been in place for years,
many operations flout them. Nancy
Easterbrook, a partner in Divetech,
wants the new regulations to dictate the
number of visitors and boats at any one
time, and regulate stingray feeding. Now,
they are overfed, often with unnatural
food like processed cheese or someone’s
left over dinner. Not only is the feeding
harmful, but also it has led to serious
accidents.
Born with a BCD. Most long time
divers will tell you Scubapro invented
the BCD. If so, they must credit the
backswimmer, an insect born with a BCD.
Backswimmers (Anisops deanei) carry a
bubble of oxygen on their abdomens that
serves as a BCD. At the start of the dive,
the bubble is so big that the insect floats.
As oxygen is taken up by respiration, the
bubble shrinks and the bug sinks as deep
as a meter. It reaches neutral buoyancy,
by slowly releasing oxygen stored in its
hemoglobin into the bubble. (Nature,
vol 441, p171).
She Blows: While the experts don’t
think this year’s storms will match last
year’s, they expect six major hurricanes.
If you’re hell bent on diving the
Caribbean, you’re at risk of getting blown
out in just about every decent dive destination
except the southern fringes of the
hurricane belt: Tobago (which did get
touched by Ivan in 2004), Bonaire and
Curacao.
Coco View Founder Dies: Nearly
every diver who has visited Coco View on
Roatan, Honduras, has met Bill Evans.
He founded it in 1982 and spent the next
24 years with his wife, Evelyn, managing
that business. It was, and still is, one of
the more revered dedicated dive resorts
anywhere. Evans was 74.
Murder: In February, a civil jury
found that Jamestown, RI dive shop
owner David Swain had murdered his
wife while diving in the British Virgin
Islands. (See Undercurrent, April 2006).
Though Swain had filed for bankruptcy,
last month a judge ruled that he must
pay the $4.8 million in damages the
jury awarded to the parents of Swain’s
wife, Shelly Tyre. Swain has never been
charged criminally. He insists he’s innocent
and has asked for a new trial. BVI
officials had listed Tyre’s death as an
accident, however Tortola police are
now taking a “fresh look.” (Tom Mooney,
Providence Journal).