Summer 2014 Newsletter
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New England Aquarium Dive Club, Inc. www.neadc.org Summer Newsletter 2014 NEADC Great Annual Fish Count Monthly Meetings July 26, 2014 General Meetings Stage Fort Park Third Wednesday of Did you know that the New England Aquarium Dive Club has each month 6:30 PM sponsored the Great Annual Fish Count for the past 12 years? NEAq Harborside Learning Lab Did you know that for almost every single one of those years, our dive Please come and join us! club has hosted the largest fish count event? Did you know that our count is larger than the one in Florida? Meetings are filled with great diving information. We feature fabulous guest In order for us to once again claim the title of the largest fish count in speakers and we learn where other the country (galaxy?), we need you to come join us on July 26, 2014 members have been diving. and count fish and invertebrates while you are diving. Also, only members present at the Prior to July 26th meeting are eligible to win a dive in the 1) Register with NEADC at www.neadc.org/gafc/ Giant Ocean Tank ! 2) Obtain a REEF Member# (membership is free) Becoming a REEF member -- Go To: June 18, 2014 http://www.reef.org/user/register/member The New England Fish Identification Forgot your REEF Member # - Go To: lecture will be presented by Bob http://www.reef.org/user/numberlookup Michelson. This is just in time for the 3) Complete a liability waiver and BRING IT WITH YOU Great Annual Fish Count http://www.neadc.org/gafc/REEFliabilityrelease.pdf July 16, 2014 On July 26th Dr. John Mandelman: Solving a Cod- Go on a fish count while you are diving. undrum, the survival of an iconic New England fish. If you wish to join a group, you can look at our website to see where divers will be gathering. Or, you can do your dive in your favorite July 26, 2014 secret location. Great Annual Fish Count After diving and counting, return to Stage Fork Park BEFORE 2:00 pm August 20, 2014 to submit your fish count directly to REEF. In addition to the number of Amy Fleischer: Studying the “tricky fish” fish you observe, you will need to know your location, the type of of the Solomon Islands. bottom surface, time you entered the water, length of time you dove, visibility, whether or not there was current, water temp and average Sept 20, 2014 depth (most of this is on your dive computer). Tropical Fish Rescue and BBQ Every diver who completes at least one survey will receive 1 raffle Fort Wetherill, Jamestown, RI ticket. 9:30 AM—4:30 PM (rain date 9/27/14) Once again this year, we have many dive shops and charter operators who have donated wonderful gift items to be raffled off to those who Eat and Greet submit fish count surveys. Before each General Meeting, from 5:30 to 6:30 PM at The Times Irish Pub on Beginning at 1:00 PM a cookout will ensue. A donation of $5 will be Broad Street. appreciated to cover the cost of food to the club. For additional information, please see our website For up to date information on general Meetings, Please check our website at www.neadc.org/gafc/ or contact Joy Marzolf at [email protected]. www.neadc.org. Volunteers Needed on July 26th Please contact Tiffany Fowlie at [email protected] What Sport Divers Can Do to Save the Sea By : Les Kaufman I am a marine scientist, so not surprisingly I’m also a diver. I love diving, do not really mind getting distracted by the peace and beauty of being underwater, and confess that I do sometimes just leave the work be, and blimp around enjoying myself. It’s also fun to do the blimping around with other people just for the sheer joy of sharing the peace and the beauty. Unfortunately, over the 40 years of my diving career, a lot of the beauty has gone out of the sea, and when I see this, it is hard to feel peaceful. I feel especially unsettled when fellow divers fail to notice, or avoid raising their voices about what’s going onL ecause they can and must e a ig part of setting things right. For most of us, diving is a way of relaBing. A very eBciting and adventuresome way, as it happensLat times, almost orgasmic. Worrying a out a dying ocean reaks the mood. Well, suck it up. If we want to keep getting that high, weKre going to have to do something a out whatKs going on around us. .oral reefs all over the world really are in a death spiral. Eou wonKt notice this too much if you are very careful a out choosing from the shrinking pool of destinations where coral reefs are still in eBcellent shape, and where ig animals still do congregate. Fnless youKre fa ulously wealthy, though, you have taken advantage of closer or less eBpensive vacation spots, in which case youKve seen what IKm talking a out. Cverfishing is rife in all ut a very few places, and large fish have ecome a rare sight. .onsequently, in local waters, our attentions may have shifted to lo ster, or sea anemones. Imagine what a dive on .ape .od would e like if the waters were full of huge cod, the way things used to e. New England rivers were once thick with herring, salmon, and sturgeon every spring when all would run upstream to spawn. Dams, pollution, and overfishing have impoverished our ackyard underwater world. The herrings, sand lance, and other small silver fishes that fuel the offshore cornucopia are fishery targets themselves, taking food from the mouths of wildlife that we also value, ut alive and swimming around so we can en-oy seeing them. We have a choice. We can do nothing, -ust getting whatKs left while we can. Cr, we can paint the ocean that can e, that we want to e living in, and convince others to -oin us in making it so. Divers can contri ute to ocean conservation in at least four ways: as witnesses, as activists, as teachers, and as participants. All four are needed adly right here at home in New England. ,earing witness is simple: you must see things and tell others a out them. Mostly good things. .ashes Ledge, one of the most eautiful dives in the Gulf of Maine, should of course :from a diverKs perspective) e sacrosanct and closely guarded, ensuring a future for its forests of multicolored kelp and tornadoes of giant cod and pollack. Right now, though, .ashes Ledge is on the lock: without a strong statement of pu lic outrage, it will soon e opened to fishing. continued page 6 2 Mi Cozumel, Mi Cielo ,y: Eileen ,yrne IKve recently returned from a week2long trip in .oHumel. If you havenKt een there, you really owe it to yourself to go. The water is actually as lue as it appears in photosM it is not photoshopped) If you have een there efore, perhaps itKs time for a return. There are new things happening. We dove with 1ergio 1andoval 1r. and Aquatic 1ports. 1ergio has een diving the reefs of .oHumel for a out 40 years, and knows them as well as he knows his children. He has een recording the changes over time as well as the impact from hurricanes and climate change on the reefs. He knew 0acques .ousteau, his sons, and -ust last year reunited with 0ean2Michel during 1cu aFest, a local event designed to drive awareness of the island and its offerings. Cur trip started off as most others at 1anta Rosa Wall, a typical .oHumel wall with huge columns of coral formations that you can swim etween and sometimes even through, little nooks and crannies to peek into, and offers glimpses into the vast deep lue. Cver the neBt few days we continued to tick off the typical dives of Euca , Las Palmas, .edral Wall, and some of the Palancar sites. Cne day we visited Palancar ,ricks, a first for me, and for almost 45 minutes our guide .risto al had us weaving throughout the pinnacles as I eBperienced sheer wonderment of the eauty that so few of us as fortunate enough to see. At the end of the dive we hit sand patches where some folks have arranged some of the ricks to spell NAFI. 0ust after that we came upon an old anchor and then some garden eels, which had me mesmeriHed for a out 5 minutes or so until it was time to ascend. As long as .ris is my guide, I think this is my new favorite dive site. The neBt day we were treated to their NIP service, and went out on the larger oat ,ig Time. We easily cruised to the southern tip of the island where we dove Maracai o. 1imilar to DevilKs Throat, this is a spectacular advanced dive ut the current at Maracai o is usually stronger than at Punta 1ur, so it is a it more of a challenge. While the underwater aspect didnKt seem different from all the other sites, getting ack on the oat in the swells appeared to e a it of a challenge, ut with ample crew in and out of the water, it was a piece of cake, or as the MeBicans say, 3es pan comido4. Normally we -ust drift during the surface interval, ut today we moored at El .ielo where we did some snorkeling in the most reathtaking crystal lue waters with huge sea stars.