Coastal America Pacific Northwest & Alaska Canada GLOBAL EDITION Vancouver Island April : May 2005 Honduras Number 4 Roatan Sharks Technology Rebreathers Ecology Fish Sense Equipment Apeks Profile Amos Nachoum Win the new Portfolio Thermocline garment Jon Gross DETAILS ON PAGE 69-70 1 X-RAY MAG : 4 : 2005 Cover photo: Jack Connick DIRECTORY X-RAY MAG is published by Blue Horizons Expedition & Dive Club Copenhagen, Denmark www.bluehorizons.dk www.xray-mag.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Peter Symes contents [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR & ART DIRECTOR Gunild Pak Symes [email protected] TECHNICAL MANAGER Søren Reinke [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Michael Arvedlund Nonoy Tan Bill Becher Amos Nachoum Andrey Bizyukin Michel Tagliati Edwin Marcow John Collins John Collins Edwin Marcow Garold Sneegas Michael Arvedlund Leigh Cunningham Svetlana Murashkina Kai Garseg Yann Saint-Yves Karen Gowlette Holmes Tony White Leigh Cunningham Jeff Dudas Michael Symes Jordi Chias Barb Roy Jack Connick Jon Gross Kevin Gurr SCIENCE EDITOR Michael Symes [email protected] Further info on our contacts page on our website GREEN ANEMONE, CAPE FLATTERY, WASHINGTON, USA. PHOTO BY JACK CONNICK X-RAY MAG is distributed six times per year on the Internet.All rights reserved. Material in this publication may not be reproduced or transferred electronically in 17 29 32 36 43 Plus... any form without written permission. PACIFIC NORTHWEST NEAH BAY OH CANADA! DIVING VANCOUVER ISLAND WRECKS OF EDITORIAL 3 EDITED BY PETER SYMES BY JACK CONNICK BRITISH COLUMBIA BY JOHN COLLINS VANCOUVER ISLAND; DIVE NEWS 5 Views and information expressed in articles are that EQUIPMENT 55 of the individual author and are not necessarily repre- & GUNILD PAK SYMES BY PETER SYMES MAKE REEFS NOT WAR BOOKS•CDs•DVDs 62 sentative of views held by X-RAY MAG or its affiliates. BY PETER SYMES COLUMN: 66 Redundancy Ethic Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and illustrations by Leigh Cunningham should be emailed to [email protected]. X-RAY TRIED & TESTED: 69 MAG and Blue Horizons accepts no responsibility for Thermocline Underwear unsolicited materials sent to its office, nor is it liable for SHARK TALES: 75 loss or damage to such materials. 47 58 64 71 82 by Edwin Marcow EUREKA ALASKA! SHARKS OF HONDURAS MARATHON FISH LARVAE A FISHY SIXTH SENSE REBREATHERS: SUBSCRIPTION MANUFACTERER: 76 DIVING THE LAND OF BY BILL BECHER BY MICHAEL ARVELUND BY MICHAEL SYMES SCRUBBERS & SENSORS Apeks X-RAY International Edition in English is FREE. THE MIDNIGHT SUN BY MICHEL TAGLIATI To subscribe, go to: www.xray-mag.com by Andrey Bizyukin BY BARB ROY & PETER SYMES WET & WEIRD 80 CLASSIFIED 88 COVER PHOTO PROFILE: 89 Octopus, Quadra Island, BC Canada Amos Nachoum by Jack Connick by Edwin Marcow PORTFOLIO: 93 Jon Gross 2 X-RAY MAG : 4 : 2005 editorial We explore Lego-blocks, Starfish and Sci-Fi... Text by Peter Symes We just can’t help being But what, aside from the size of We admire the great explorers fascinated, can we? The ice-cream cones, has changed, and ponder what mysteries lie really? Decades later, I am now beyond. And here’s the deal: other day while I was tidy- an adult, a responsible citizen and When it comes to water and the ing up the attic, I stum- all that. But, first of all, I have to deep blue realm, we can all be bled across one of the old confess that I couldn’t help fid- be explorers. A popular saying dusty boxes containing dling around with the good ol’ goes that more is known about Legos for a while before snapping the cosmos than is known about my old Lego-blocks and out it of again. And what about our oceans. While this may be other childhood memora- this thing with the crabs, the star- just another urban myth, it is cer- bilia, which also included fish and the sea? With the break- tainly true that even today, aston- a now mummified starfish. ing waves and the rumbling surf? ishing creatures—weirder and I still love the beach. I am as more exotic than even the most It instantaneously took fascinated and drawn towards advanced sci-fi movies could me back to sweeter times the sea—that mystic realm—as I describe—are now being discov- when ice-cream cones was as a child. Only now, I also ered on a regular basis. Every day have the option of donning a dive we live on this planet is a chance were truly gigantic, and suit, which enables me to venture to get out and discover its awe- there were no mortages further and to experience even inspiring beauty and diversity. ■ or Osama bin Ladens to stranger creatures than the small worry about. sand shrimp that my childhood’s cheap mask-and-snorkel toy set Back in those less complicated allowed me to do. It still fills me times, life was pure joy, and days with a sense of joy and fullfillment. were happy on the sunny beach I guess that the bottom line is where we built sandcastles. We that fascination and the urge were full of cheerful curiosity, and to explore seems to be we ran around bare-butted in the a fundamental char- Win shallows with our small red buck- acteristic of being ets catching starfish, shrimps and human. We watch the new tiny crabs. I could almost smell the the Discovery seaweed and taste the salty air Channel and Thermocline again. sci-fi movies. garment from Fourth Element See details on p. 69-70 Psst! X-RAY MAG is free – pass it on... 3 X-RAY MAG : 4 : 2005 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED editorial lakeville.se New Job Opportunity Note about Acrobat 6 Ad sales consultants wanted X-RAY MAG is growing! The magazine is now read by For MacIntoshes thousands of readers in over 50 countries all over the Dive hoppen globe including the U.S., U.K., Europe, Scandinavia, S Canada, Mexico, Australia and Japan. We are Udstyr og Kurser i City expanding our staff and looking for new team mem- bers. We seek highly motivated sales associates to sell ads for our issues and develop magazine sub- Gothersgade 159 · 1123 København K scriptions. Attractive sales commission package. Telefon 3332 3537 Knowledge of and experience in the dive and travel Åbningstider Tirsdag til Fredag 11-18 · Lørdag 10-14 industry preferred, but not absolutely necessary. Mandag Lukket Contact us today: [email protected] www.diveshoppen.dk Malaysia, ena floweringblomstrande economy ekonomi and och culture kultur Malaysia äris ena nation nation marchingpå frammarsch. forward Endast toward i färgstarkathe future. Onlygrupper in colorful– erbjuder Malaysia, besökaren do youen unik get upplevelsethe opportunity med fl toer experience the full diversity of Asia all on one plate. Malayans, Chinese, Indians and other ethnic groups offer the Malaysia får du möjligheten att uppleva hela Asiens mångfald, sevärda platser än någon annan stans på jorden. Ljud, djurliv, visitor an unique experience with more places worth seeing than any other region on earth. Sounds, animal life, scentsallt på enand plats. tastes Malaysier, — experience kineser, theindier whole och ofövriga Asiaetniska in Malaysia.dofter och smaker – upplev hela Asien i Malaysia. Huvudkontor: Kuala Lumpur Tel: +60-3 2615 8188 Fax: +60-3 2693 5884 RegionaltMain office: kontor: Kuala Stockholm: Lumpur Klarabergsgatan Tel. +60.3 35, 2tr2615 Box 1318188 101 Fax: 22 Stockholm +60.3 2693Tel: 08 245884 99 00 Fax: 08 24 23 24 E-Post:www.malaysiatourism.net; [email protected] www.tourism.gov.my Hemsida: www.malaysiaturist.net ; www.tourism.gov.my 4 X-RAY MAG : 4 : 2005 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED deep & current News edited by Peter Symes & Michael Symes NEWS Tighter regulations for Red Sea boats and guests • Possess medical certification of fitness to dive, issued less than one year before start of the trip • Possess diving accident insurance from a “reputable company” All day-diving boats need to provide: • One guide for every ten NOAA PHOTO BY PETER SYMES divers, where the divers New rules brought in by the Red Sea have at least 25 logged New species of coral discovered off Association for Diving and Watersports have dives set stricter requirements for liveaboard and • One guide for every six day diving charter boats in Southern Egypt, divers, where divers have southern California and the divers who holiday aboard them. fewer than 25 logged dives Scientists from NOAA has found a giant new species of black coral The new rules are as follows: • All guides possessing a valid around the Channel Islands just off the megapolis of Los Angeles Red Sea Association profes- All Red Sea liveaboard dive charter boats sional ID card The discovery came during dives by the new coral is Antipathes dendrochristos. The need to provide: researchers from NOAA Fisheries in “Delta,” word for black coral is “Anti” for against, and • One guide for every eight guests Day-diving guests will need to: the submersible conducting a survey of rock- “pathos,” for disease, a reference to the fact • One guide for surface support and • Present diving logbook and fishes on deep rocky banks about 40 miles off that black coral amulets were once thought supervision agency certification the coast, west of Los Angeles. to provide protection against disease and • All guides possessing a valid Red Sea • Possess medical certification The find of the new species, at depths from evil spirits. Association professional ID card and accident insurance, as 100m (300ft) to 220m (725 ft), is being pub- Many of the deepwater reefs in southern • All guides carrying an SMB, reflective above lished this week in the online scientific jour- California harbor remarkably healthy com- mirror, strobe and torch nal Zootaxa by taxonomist Dennis Opresko munities of corals, sponges, and other large The Red Sea Association for of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.