Sea The Truth

The state of our oceans and seas is the main focus in the new documentary “Sea the Truth."

Leading scientists such as Daniel Pauly suggest that if we continue to catch and eat fish at the current rate, the oceans and seas will be empty within 40 years. The hunt for fish is an economic monster on the loose, as large bottom trawlers are scraping the bottoms of the seas empty, taking with them all living things with destructive force: the massive amount of by-catch is thrown back into the sea, maimed or dead.

Two young marine biologists, Marianne van Mierlo and Barbara van Genne, go on a search for scientific information about the condition of our biggest ecosystems, which cover more then two thirds of our planet.

For more about the movie you can visit the website. Trailer below:

Asociación de Profesionales de Buceo de Galápagos

Desde Diciembre de 2010 varios profesionales de buceo con actividades en Galápagos hemos venido trabajando en formar una asociación que represente nuestros intereses. Inicialmente la idea fue formar una asociación de instructores, luego se integró a los divemasters. Todo esto ha sucedido en Puerto Ayora.

Esta asociación es una iniciativa abierta a TODOS los profesionales de buceo en GALAPAGOS, sin importar el nivel, la afiliación, isla, etc. La asociación pretende ser el sitio donde dejamos de lado nuestras diferencias personales para unirnos por los intereses y necesidades de todos. De inicio las reuniones y conformación se realizarán en Santa Cruz pero la idea es que los profesionales de buceo de San Cristóbal, Isabela y eventualmente Floreana puedan unirse.

Se ha creado un blog específicamente para mentener informadas a las personas que puedan estar interesadas en participar. Para más información por favor utiliza este vínculo.

Ecuador on Martin Clunes documentary Man to Manta

A documentary with the name Man to Manta aired on January 6th on ITV 1. In this documentary Martin Clunes seeks to fulfil a burning ambition to swim with one of the sea’s most enormous and enigmatic creatures.  Martin was in Ecuador to film Dr. Andrea Marshall and Mark Harding learn about giant mantas and visit Project Elasmo.

Other places visited in the film include Sri Lanka, the US and the Maldives. As well as unique footage of our giant mantas, and other mantas around the world, important attention is bought to the manta's plight as they are becoming increasingly targeted by fishing interests; sadly images from Ecuador in this regard aired as well.

PADI Rebreather Courses Explained

The announcement of PADI Rebreather Courses has created some buzz among the rebreather diving community; most of the stakeholders are the hard core rebreather divers lurking in rebreather world, here is a thread that shows what I’m talking about. On the other hand, there is a quite large contingent of recreational instructors and equipment manufacturers waiting for this new market to develop and bring more money into their pockets. Personally, I have my concerns and opinions about this. I made a post in October 2010 that can show my perceptions and ideas. I tend to agree with Jill Heinerth "rebreather diving is NOT black and white".

As a PADI Instructor and member of the Technical Diving community I have assisted a few presentations on this in EuroTek and DEMA. This interview by Submerge Productions was published today in PADI’s TecRec Blog; it was recorded during EuroTek in Birmingham. We all have our personal and business opinions on this; In any case, this 12 minute video is something worth watching, no matter if you are an “entrepreneur” waiting for the rebreather market to “develop”, someone looking for the next “cool thing to do”, or if you are a hard core CCR diver with a radically different approach.

You can watch Mark Carney, Director of Rebreather Technologies interview here

Top ten articles in the Rubicon Research Repository for 2010

There is a thread in Divematrix about is the top ten articles in the Rubicon Research Repository for 2010. According to the Rubicon Team, the largest collection growth continued to be the Naval Submarine Medical Research Lab (NSMRL) technical reports. This collection was being expanded as a result of funding from the US Navy Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). Completion of this collection yielded an amazing 753 new documents that are now available on line.

Here they are. You can follow the links and access the actual articles.

10. Lang, M.A. and M.D.J. Sayer (eds.) 2007. Proceedings of the International Polar Diving Workshop. Svalbard, 213 pp. RRR ID: 5002

9. Weaver, LK; Ray, D; Haberstock, D. Comparison of three intravenous infusion pumps for monoplace hyperbaric chambers. Undersea Hyperb Med. 2005 Nov-Dec;32(6):451-6. RRR ID: 5013

8. Taylor, G. Toxic fish spine injury: Lessons from 11 years experience. South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal Volume 30 Number 1. RRR ID: 5828

7. Richardson, D; Menduno, M; Shreeves, K. (eds.) 1996. Proceedings of Rebreather Forum 2.0. Diving Science and Technology, Santa Ana, CA. RRR ID: 7555

6. Acott, CJ. 1999. A brief history of diving and decompression illness. South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal Volume 29 Number 2. RRR ID: 6004

5. Workman, RD. 1965. Calculation of decompression schedules for nitrogen-oxygen and helium-oxygen dives. US Navy Experimental Diving Unit Technical Report 6-65 RRR ID: 3367

4. Muza, SR; Fulco, CS; Cymerman, A. 2004. Altitude Acclimatization Guide. US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) Technical Report. RRR ID: 7616

3. Longphre, JM; Denoble, PJ; Moon, RE; Vann, RD; Freiberger, JJ. First aid normobaric oxygen for the treatment of recreational diving injuries. Undersea Hyperb Med. 2007 Jan-Feb;34(1):43-9. RRR ID: 5514

2. Huggins KE. 1992. Dynamics of decompression workshop. University of Michigan. RRR ID: 8078

1. Cymerman, A; Rock, PB. 1994. Medical Problems in High Mountain Environments. A Handbook for Medical Officers. US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) Technical Report. RRR ID: 7976