Flotsam & Jetsam

Tracking Divers. It's hard to tell who's who when tracking divers by floats, but Mary Wicksten (Bryan, TX) gave us a tip. "Our local club dives in old quarries and lakes with terrible visibility (3-foot max.!) With multiple groups on the sunken boats or platforms, it's easy to get confused about who is where even if someone tows a float or flag. One diver found the ideal way to track his two sons - they have lines attached to duck decoys! So now he knows that 'Joe' 'is under the mallard hen and 'Jim' is under the drake."

Those Crazy Russian Divers. In the August Undercurrent, our contributor wrote, "The hyperbaric facilities in both Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh have had plenty of experience thanks to the crazy Russian divers who flock there." True to stereotype, a Russian diver, Kristini Osipova (46), went missing in late August after her husband, Yuri Osipov (41), left her at 400 feet (indicated by his computer) as she continued deeper at a reef south of Hurghada. The husband returned to their liveaboard, suffering decompression sickness. The search for his wife was unsuccessful. There were 27 Russian divers on a 10-day diving charter on a vessel reportedly called MY Turquoise. So-called experts were quoted in the Egyptian press as saying, "After 15 hours underwater, there's every chance she may not still be alive!" How insightful.

Hammerheads Holding Their Breath? After we wrote this, long-time Undercurrent subscriber Bill Domb contacted us and said, with excellent logic, "I'm perplexed. Whatever those hammerheads are doing on deep dives is decidedly not holding their breath since there's no breath to hold." True when it comes to mammals, but to explain further, sharks can't regulate their body temperatures, and cold water sifting through their gills cools them quickly. To survive the cold on deep hunting divers, scientists believe that hammerheads clamp their gills shut - gills extract dissolved oxygen from the water - to keep out the cold water and are essentially holding their breath - for up to 17 minutes!

New Mexico, a Hotbed for Scuba? That's what marketplace.org would have us believe. Albuquerque has eight scuba schools, three within two miles of each other. So, what's the attraction in this landlocked state, Breaking Bad country? About 120 miles away is a big, rocky sinkhole filled with groundwater. Technically, the Santa Rosa Blue Hole is an 80-foot-deep artesian well with excellent visibility, one of the few training sites in the American Southwest. Divers from Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado drive to fin in its refreshing 62°F water.

Big Prizes in World Shootout Competition. Entries in nine different categories of underwater photography with winners awarded big prizes, including cash up to $2000 and dive trips worth as much as $5000 - that's what awaits winners of the World Shootout. Photographs must have been captured in the 12 months before the November 1, 2023 final entry date. Register to enter at: www.worldshootout.org

Orcas Taking Revenge? More than 250 boats have been damaged by orcas since 2020, with 15 of the Iberian peninsula's orcas believed to be responsible. Scientists say the Mediterranean rammings are just a playful fad, warning that demonizing them could put the already endangered animals at risk. The animals caused damage, varying from teeth marks on vessels' rudders to the sinking of five boats. No doubt some enterprising writer is already conjuring up a story demonizing orcas as Jaws demonized sharks.

Ghost Fishing Kills Turtles. Sea turtles are collateral damage in the fishing industry's pillaging of the oceans. Research published in Plos One drawing on data collected by the Maldives Sea Turtle Conservation Program concluded that of the 379 injured or dead turtles documented over 12 years, more than 75 percent were victims of discarded fishing gear.

An Enormous Octopus Garden. It's too deep for divers to visit, but off the coast of Monterey, California, marine biologist scientists have discovered at least 20,000 female octopuses gathering to tend their eggs in frigid water nearly two miles deep. Seeking out crevices where warm water escapes through cracks in the ancient crust of the sea floor, they curl their tentacles over their heads to brood for almost two years and then die.

Vaquita on the Edge of Extinction. The International Whaling Commission has issued the first extinction alert in its 70-year history. The vaquita porpoise, the world's tiniest and most critically endangered marine mammal, is found only in Mexico's Gulf of California. It's been driven to the edge of extinction - about 10 remain - due to entanglement in fishing gillnets used by poachers to hunt the totoaba, an endangered fish prized for its swim bladder in Chinese medicine and sold at vast profits on the black market in China.

Why Does Scuba Training Now Cost So Much? A reader wrote us that his daughter wanted to get certified, but the shops wanted $600-$800 when it only cost him $60 years ago. "Scuba will be only for the rich," he said. So, we pointed out that back in the day, shops sold all their newly certified divers a boatload of gear, and that's where they made their money. Instruction was a loss leader. Today's divers shop online for deals and may not even buy equipment, preferring to rent it where they vacation. With fewer purchases, shops now look to profit from instruction, not treat it as a loss leader.