Flotsam & Jetsam: Undercurrent 01/2026

Flotsam & Jetsam

from the January, 2026 issue of Undercurrent

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Is Dive Gear Getting Expensive? So it seems, if the recent robbery of Force-E Scuba in Boynton Beach (FL) by two knuckle-heads is anything to go by. Justin Malik Simmons, 29, and Anne Elizabeth Izatt, 25, face charges after a store assistant was injured by their getaway car. Simmons had grabbed four BCs worth up to $10,000 but dropped three when tackled by a staff member. The getaway car turned out to be registered to Izatt's father. After scuba equipment was used in a restaurant robbery in Disney Springs in September, maybe untraceable stolen scuba gear is achieving a unique desirability among Florida's criminal fraternity. Keep an eye on yours.

Sharks Killed for Pretty Faces: Following severe restrictions that had been in place since 1998, the Maldives imposed a total ban on shark fishing in March 2010. But in September, President Mohamed Muizzu reversed that policy, urging locals to prepare their equipment in order to resume gulper shark fishing even though revenue from divers visiting the Maldives archipelago is greater than earnings from the sharks' oil. Particularly prized for their squalene, used mainly in facial cosmetics, gulper sharks live in deep water, but the bycatch of the hooks and lines used to catch them includes tiger sharks, hammerheads, and thresher sharks, as well as many other species....

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