Scuba Shack Radio

The Boston Sea Rovers clinic is set for October 1-2, 2021. This is a new date for the show which normally was held in the March timeframe. Tickets are on sale now for the Saturday and Sunday clinic along with the Saturday night film festival. Check out the Boston Sea Rovers Site.

Need help identifying fish - check out namethatfish.com

 

Reef Divers who run the dive operations at the Clearly Cayman Resorts (Cobalt Coast, Little Cayman Beach Resort and Brac Beach Resort) is expanding their operations to Turks and Caicos. They are partnering with East Bay Resort on South Caicos starting in August 2021.

Washed Ashore is a non-profit organization that creates marine related sculptures from plastic debris that has washed up on the beach. With over 14,000 volunteers they are doing some incredible work.

Deep Dive Dubai is now the world's deepest pool. It is an amazing 60 meters or 197 feet deep with 14 million liters (3.7 million gallons) of water. It is themed as an abandoned sunken city.

Farallon Industries is another company that produced some innovative scuba equipment. Started by Ralph Osterhout who build a diver propulsion vehicle that was purchased by the US Navy. Farallon developed the Fara-Fin, the Fara-Lite along with some of the most accurate instrumentation for the time. Farallon was ultimately purchased and folded into Oceanic by Bob Hollis.

REEF Fest 2021 is scheduled October 14 through October 17, 2021. Four great dives of activities - diving, kayaking, seminars, workshops, and social gatherings. Activities are also scheduled at John Pennekamp State Park, the Coral Restoration Foundation, the History of Diving Museum and the Florida Key Wild Bird Center.

Olympus cameras are still available. A new company OM Digital Solution is producing the Olympus cameras, binoculars, and audio gear. You can check them out at getolympus.com.

Some sobering news on Florida manatees. As of June 4, 2021 the mortality rate of the manatees is up 151%. So far this year 782 have already died. The record number for an entire year is 824. The cause is simply starvation. The sea grass is being killed off by over saturation of nutrients. Calls are going out to place the manatee back on the endangered list.

Sea Hunt It's Still Alive takes us back to season 1 episode 26 - The Hero. In this episode, Mike is employed by a millionaire to teach him and his wife to dive so he can hunt big sharks and giant squid. Just who is the hero. It turns out to be the millionaire, Elliot Conway played by none other than Larry Hagman for Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie fame.

Today's installment of Wet Notes introduces you to a new BC tag being offered on Bonaire using recycled plastic. PADI has also recently announced that Project AWARE is now the PADI AWARE Foundation - leveraging the power of the PADI brand and operations. Oluwalu Reef on Maui is now a Mission Blue Hope Spot - great news for a reef that is under sever strength. If you are thinking about becoming a PADI Divemaster - learn about a new program from PADI - Introduction to PADI Divemaster.

On this edition of Your Next Dive I take you to a dive mecca here in the United States - Key Largo. It is easy to get to, especially from the eastern part of the US. Being a dive mecca there are a number of dive operators there. Two options include Horizon Divers or Rainbow Reef. You can dive some great shallow reefs and wrecks (the City of Washington, the Hanna M. Bell or the Benwood) or get in some deeper wrecks (Spiegel Grove, Duane, Bibb). You'll have many options for dining or other topside activities like a visit to REEF HQ, the Coral Restoration Foundation or the History of Diving Museum.

In this installment of Wet Notes I talk a little bit about the new Stuart Cove location in Nassau, DAN tags, the spread of Stony Coral Tissue Disease (SCTD) on Grand Cayman, a new five-part series podcast from Hakai Magazine: The Sound Aquatic - The Ocean and the Anthropause and more.

What is the Jet-O-Sen? This is a vintage piece of scuba equipment developed by Jim Sawtelle in the early 1950s. The Jet-O-Sen was a quick release device for a scuba tank from the harness. Until the Jet-O-Sen, scuba tanks were bolted to the harness and difficult to release for transport or filling. Jim constructed the device our of aluminum bar stock and coated it with plastisol. There is a great article in the first quarter 2021 Journal of Diving History written by Jon Council.

This time on Wet Notes I talk about an interesting new exhibit at The History of Diving Museum in Islamorado, a t-shirt design contest from Ikelite, an important scuba tank safety note from PSI-PCI, diving with a purpose on Lake Tahoe and more.

On this installment of Sea Hunt - It's Still Alive I review The Invader. This episode is from season 3 and premiered July 30, 1960. In this episode Mike Nelson is in a small unnamed Latin American country where he is assigned to create an underwater demolition team. While he is completing his assignment, a revolution takes place, the President is abducted and Mike with his team (that includes a traitor) develop the plan to rescue El Presidente. Mike and Indio capture the traitor on their team and then attack the island where Mike armed with a small revolver captures the revolutionary leader and rescues the President. Mike gets his first medal from a foreign government.

On this installment of Wet Notes I provide some interesting information on some WW II bombs found off of Lanai, some plastic eating mushrooms, a proposal in Florida to open up a harvest of Goliath Grouper, an update on traveling to the Bahamas, and more.

This latest edition of Your Next Dive takes us to Curacao one of the ABC islands. If you visit Curacao you can opt to stay either on the west side of the island or closer to the city of Willemstad. If you stay closer to the city you have a couple of options - either Sunscape Resort or Lions Dive Beach Resort. Both have onsite dive operators - Ocean Encounters. An option for the west side is All West Apartments and dive with Go West Diving (formerly Ocean Encounters West). There is a signature wreck - the MV Superior Producer just outside of Willemstad. On the west side be sure to dive Mushroom Forest. If you go in October you can expect bottom temperatures around 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Curacao is open to US visitors with certain testing requirements.

In this installment of Wet Notes I cover the record proposed NOAA budget in 2022, a message in the bottle found in Grand Cayman, some news from Shearwater and more.

Poseidon is a company founded by Ingvar Elfstrom in 1958. The company is based in Sweden. Poseidon was an early innovator of regulators with their Poseidon Senior (double hose) and Cyklon Junior (single hose). The company also innovated both wetsuit and drysuits. Additionally, they developed the SEVEN+ rebreather - dubbed the world's first recreational rebreather. Poseidon is still going strong with their regulators, rebreathers, BCDs and computers.

On this episode of Wet Notes I give you an update on Seaspiracy, how scientists are using fin whale songs to map the ocean, the sale of the Luxfer US plant to Metal Impact, a potential new artificial reef in Florida and more.

On this edition of Sea Hunt It's Still Alive we review The Alcatraz Story. This episode premiered on January 4, 1959. This time Mike is in San Francisco. He is hired to teach two brothers how to scuba dive. They claim to be abalone fishermen but there is more to that story. They are trying to spring their brother from Alcatraz by using scuba gear. Mike finds them out, hitches an underwater ride on their boat and has two underwater fights with the brothers. Some great underwater action.

On this edition of Wet Note, I talk about REEF Survey Trips in 2022, saving a whale on Maui, new Aqualung branding, a DEMA 2021 update and more.

In Part 2 of the Project Sealab 1 Summary report I will cover the mission, the findings, conclusions and recommendations coming from the report that was developed by the Office of Naval Research in 1965. While we were at the height of the space race, the USA was also exploring inner space.

On this edition of Wet Notes we give an update on Dive Training Magazine, when will the Caymans open, the fight against plastic pollution and a new Netflix documentary - Seasipiracy and more.

Part one of the Project Sealab 1 Summary Report will take you through the build up to the deployment of the Sealab habitat. The report was developed by the Office of Naval Research and published on June 14, 1965. The report is numbered ONR Report ACR-108. This 62 page report is filled with many of the details in getting the project up and running through the mission. Part one will take you up until the time that the aquanauts entered the habitat to start their 11-day mission. Part two will then take us through the mission, the findings and conclusions.