Leonardo DiCaprio's New Eco-Resort in Belize. The actor and avid environmentalist first visited
Belize in 2005 for a dive trip and fell in love. Now he
plans to build an eco-conscious resort on Blackadore
Caye, a 104-acre island that's a 15-minute boat ride
from San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. DiCaprio is partnering
with a New York real estate firm to build 68
guest villas and 48 private houses according to the
Living Building Challenge, a very tough green-building
standard. Besides setting aside 45 percent of the
island for conservation, DiCaprio wants to support a
manatee conservation area, replant mangroves and
build an artificial reef to slow erosion. Guests will
have to follow a strict set of eco-guidelines (no plastic
water bottles) and go through an ecology orientation
program on arrival. Hotel room prices haven't been
announced, but the private homes' price tags range
from $5 million to $15 million.
Yes, You Still Can Dive Naval Shipwrecks. There
was a big hoopla last spring when a Federal Register
notice was published about giving permission for
divers to access "sunken military vessels." The dive
industry was concerned that changes to the Sunken
Military Craft Act of 2004 had the potential to prohibit
sport diving on former military ships, such as the
Spiegel Grove off Key Largo and the Vandenberg off Key
West. Fear not, divers, the U.S. Navy won't stand
in your way. In response to a concerned query by
the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association,
J.B. Thomas, Jr., of the Naval History and Heritage
Command, said it does not intend to restrict access
to military craft purposefully sunk to create artificial
reefs. Because ownership of those retired ships was
signed over to local governments, they're exempt
from any prohibition. "The diving and snorkeling communities have served as effective ambassadors for
the protection and preservation of underwater resources,
including sunken military craft," Thomas wrote. However,
no touching or taking: By law, divers can't remove any
artifacts from the naval wrecks.
Even Empty Tanks Are Lethal Weapons. Subscriber
Sheila Meadows (Hollywood Beach, FL) wrote in to tell
us she just read our 2011 article "Scuba Tanks as Lethal
Weapons" (about a filled scuba tank that fell over and
blew up in the garage, severely injuring two people), and
how the timing was uncanny. "On March 27th, I went to
storage with my diver husband and he had seven tanks
standing unsecured right in front. We pulled a chair out
and BAM! One of his largest tanks fell onto my left foot,
crushing and splitting open my third toe. The force was
so bad, it tore the nail off and split the toe down through
my shoe. My bones on the tip were crushed into confetti.
I had emergency surgery and bone removed. Still recovering.
I sent that article to my husband just now and will
be sure that he secures those tanks forever more. Empty
tanks are no joke!"
Scuba Divers as Drug Mules. Oh, those drug cartels
will try anything to get their wares across the U.S.-Mexico
border, even having their mules wear scuba gear and
swim through sewage canals to get to the other side.
The Mexican army discovered a new route on April 26
in Mexicali, a tunnel that began in the garage of a house
and led to the All-American canal. Traffickers would
don scuba gear, fin through the muck, then climb down
into another tunnel (230 feet in length, four feet high and
four feet wide, with lighting and ventilation) that led
to a house in Calexico, CA. Border Patrol agents intercepted
four men trying to cross the canal with 69 pounds
of methamphetamine worth $694,000. On the Mexican
side, police caught the fourth man, a 27-year-old from
Honduras, in the canal with a wetsuit and scuba gear. He
was carrying 25 packages of an unnamed synthetic drug.