from “Currents”

Volume 2 Number 1 Fall 2010

From the Executive Office:

This year the best of the Jersey Shore in summer was Calendar in full action when the Zigahn’s family proudly wel- comed Beneath the Sea’s renowned resident artist, November and Diver of the Year: Wyland. 30 - Staff Meeting Saturday, July 24th Wyland visited Ocean Galler- Beneath the Sea office 7:30 p.m. ies and Sunday, July 25th Stone Harbor. With usual style, charm, and flirting wit Wyland painted live dur- December ing an elegant gallery cocktail party showing, until he looked-up and saw the familiar face of “Zig.” Well, elegance quickly turned to down-home friendship as Wy brought 10 -Ocean Pals Hospital Party the Zigahn’s front-and-center stage telling the assembled crowd all about Beneath the 12 - Staff Thank You ChristmasParty - Sea, the show, Ocean Pals, what he did during a date at the Maria Fareri Children’s 1:00 p.m. Pete’s Saloon Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, the scholarships, all of it, going on-and-on about the virtues of Beneath the Sea. Suddenly we were inundated with questions about the show, our charities, but they wanted to know all about Wyland and when January Wyland would be at the upcoming show. The folks were excited about our March event 6 - Ocean Pals Judging and, their excitement got us excited and here we go again …! 9 - Trustee Meeting 10:00 a.m. Membership Meeting 1:00 p.m. Wyland, of course, had to zing Zig as to where he was hiding his beautiful, and 18 - Staff Meeting delightful daughter Kimberly all these years … but Mike Zigahn made it clear that Beneath the Sea office 7:30 p.m. he was the main man when it came to Wyland … after all he was Wyland’s personal chauffer. It was a wonderful evening, ending with Wyland joining us for a relaxed casual dinner … that is until the excitement and planning for Beneath the Sea 2011 February became desert … look forward to some wonderful and exciting things that will come 15 - Staff Meeting out of this summer evening with Wyland. Beneath the SEa office 7:30 p.m. The next highlight to the Jersey Shore was … well, can you guess who came to go fish- ing? It is none other than our dear friend, artist, Marine Conservationist, and another March Beneath the Sea Diver of the Year, Guy Harvey. Guy appeared publicly at the Cape 1 - Staff Meeting May Nature Center Tuesday, August 17th. Beneath the Sea office 7:30 p.m. 15 - Staff Meeting But for the past nineteen-years Guy has also been an important part of the Cape Beneath the Sea Office 7:30 p.m. May annual mid-Atlantic fishing tournament. This year, Zig and I were invited to the 21 - Show Packing TBA private reception on Sunday that kicked-off the tournament. Among the guests were the fishing boat captains, their guests, sponsors, local government dignitaries, and, 25-26-27 BENEATH THE SEA of course, our friend: Guy Harvey. Guy was front-and-center with his renowned fish SHOW art. It was a wonderful event and we ended with Guy looking forward to the upcoming Beneath the Sea, giving his generous good wishes and sending heartfelt regards to all.

Then too, as part of the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, he has published a responsi- ble sea food guide which Zig and I take great pleasure sharing with you … now if only we could get more folks to step-up and pay attention to these words of wisdom. 35th Annual Beneath the Sea But now it is October, Staff Meetings have started, the Board of Trustees met, and DEMA is just around the corner. It is Beneath the Sea’s 35th anniversary and we all March 25th, 26th, 27th, 2011 want this show to be our best ever. Meadowlands Exposition Center Secaucus, New Jersey Armand Zigahn, Executive Director JoAnn Zigahn, President Beneath the Sea OCEAN PALS: Third Annual Marine Careers :

It’s hard to believe that another summer season is over and Attendees from 12 different school and youth organizations children have already returned to school to begin a new attended the Third Annual Marine Careers Program. They school year. had a great time learning about the varied marine career paths from speakers such as Dr. Phil Nuytten (2010 Leg- The theme for the Ocean Pals 2011 International and end of the Sea), (2009 Legend of the Sea), Dr. National Poster Contest will be “The Majestic Whale – Pro- Eugenie Clark (2010 Diving Pioneer), Dr. George Buckley tect Our Gentle Giants of the Sea”. Every year whales are (Harvard University Professor of Environmental Manage- threatened by whale hunting, global warming, pollution, ment Program), Women Divers Hall of Fame members overfishing, noise from weaponry and ship strikes. - Nancy McGee and Captain Barbara Scholley, Jim Clark Scientists are encouraging the use of marine sanctuaries (civil engineering designer of underwater technology) and to increase public awareness regarding the plight of these Captain Donovan Withers (Assistant Director of Maritime mammals as well as to protect feeding and breeding grounds. Technology at Kingsborough Community College.)

Ocean Pals Digital Imaging Contest is now entering its third In addition to these great speakers, we also offered two year. Children from all grade levels are encouraged to take workshops. Lenny Speregen, a well-known commercial and pictures of various water environments and enter them in safety diver andTV/movie stunt diver, conducted a hands-on our contest. mechanical construction project simulation taken straight from the movie “Men of Honor”. Students had to perform All contest applications are on our website. We announce some of the hands-on activities blindfolded! Ilene Silver de- the winners of all these contests in March 2011, and their veloped and moderated a Scholarship Tips workshop, which prizes awarded at the 35thg anniversary Beneath the Sea included scholarship judges from the Women Divers Hall show the weekend of March 25, 26, 27, 2011. of Fame and Our World Underwater Scholarship Society as well as former scholarship winners. The attendees took I am looking forward to seeing all away a wealth of information to help them in their scholar- your wonderful entries in our con- ship endeavors. tests for the year 2011. Attendees also had the opportunity to meet with several or- Lucille Smith ganizations who offer marine careers, internships, commu- Sr. Director nity activities, and academic opportunities. These included Beneath the Sea – Ocean Pals the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Southampton College at Stony Brook, Kingsbor- ough Community College, Seacamp Association, Maritime College SUNY, Barry University and University of Rhode Island Ocean Engineering and Departments.

Ron “Rogest” Steven, our emcee, kept the program moving with his wit, artistry and marine careers identification competition.

Spread the word, next year’s program will be even more educa- tional and more fun!!! If you know of schools or specific students who might be interested, please send an email to MarineCareers@ BeneathTheSea.org.

Rosemary Kurtti, Director Beneath the Sea, Ocean Pals, Marine Careers

Jeff Heim and Mike DeCamp: Beneath the Sea’s NorthEast Diving Pioneer 2010 BTS Membership: In May 2010 continues to be a good year for BTS Membership, with the number of regular members increasing by about 20% Beneath the Sea despite the economy. We thank you for this show of sup- port and your dedication to the causes we all hold dear. As celebrated its 34th a small token of our appreciation, and a symbol of an indi- vidual’s participation, we created a BTS Member’s patch. successful show This patch was given to all the members we recognized who attended the show, but some were undoubtedly missed. If any member in good standing did not receive a patch, please let us know by emailing [email protected]. We’ll send it via mail along with apologies for the oversight.

Now a word about our new irregular members: Halfway through the summer last year, we started a push to get more people interested in BTS and its mission. In order to do that easily, we created a Facebook group, and later, a Facebook fan page. To date we attracted over 300 “members” before the 2010 show opened, and as of this writing, the number is approaching 400. Facebook affords us an exciting opportu- nity to reach out to a whole group of people on a global basis. We ask all our readers and friends to please join in on Face- book and spread the word far and wide.

Now, a word about out newest Patron Member; we are pleased to welcome Josh Bernstein into the world of BTS. Josh is a Fellow of The Explorer’s Club and The Royal Geographic Society, and he has hosted television series on both The History Channel and The Discovery Channel. He holds advanced diving certifications from PADI, TDI and IANTD. We thank Josh for his generosity and participation, and hope our relationship is long and mutually rewarding.

Finally, we welcome suggestions, constructive criticism, and just plain greetings. Our web site http://beneaththesea.org has pages where you can get information about our activities, join the email list, renew your membership, or just look at the photos from our annual Imaging and Poster contests, as well as the entire Beneath the Sea show. There should be something there to en- tertain (and hopefully motivate) everyone. Stay tuned. 2011 is our 35th Anniversary Beneath the Sea’s and it promises to be best year ever!

Andy Maher, Director Beneath the Sea Membership Hospitality:

Our BTS celebrations started on Friday evening at 5 PM with our “Champaign Recep- tion” for our prestigious Legend, Dr. Phil Nuytten, which was a very elegant small reception with people of the industry and friends of the Honoree. What an incredible résumé our Legend has, starting at having his own dive shop at the age of 15 and running it successfully, at an early time when dive shops were a novelty. His later inventions of the Nuyt suit and deep see submersibles are just some of his inventions. We also celebrated our Pioneer of 2010, Dr. Eugenie Clark, the famous Lady and Marine Researcher, now an 88 years young lady who still dives and has a resume of accomplishments a mile long. She has written many books on various and more. She has lectured extensively.

Fish n Famous is a benefits reception that followed. It had some very special celebrations, be- sides the grand entrance led by our Legend and Pioneer, we had a special 10th Anniversary cele- bration of the “Women Dives Hall of Fame”. With almost 70 of the Ladies at our show, there was quite a splash entrance with introduction of each woman by name and categorized by the year of inductions. We also celebrated the 50 years of AUAS and 10 years of “International Divers Hall of Fame”, which made for quite a special and festive evening. Our guests enjoyed appetizers and a wonderful hot dinner buffet including wine and drinks. Then the dancing started. Our special band of underwater photographers, The Wet Suits, con- sisted of five of our International speakers from as far as Spain, the VI and Canada, including the US. Our own Legend Phil proved that he has an incredible voice, so did some WDHOF ladies and wives of the band members. It seemed that almost everyone at one time or other was on the dance floor jamming away and having fun, enjoying the great music. Of course, in the midst of things Marilyn and her staff had an incredible silent auction with items large and small, on which our guests eagerly bid. The hospitality staff did a great job getting all our guests checked in. Big thanks to all for a job well done!

Saturday - Awards Reception and Banquet This evening event was a big success and went well under Pat Petryszyn’s helm with over 200 guests. We celebrated our new Divers of the Year and a very special person got a big surprise, the 100th diver of the Year Award by Beneath The Sea given to our very own Founder and Executive Director, Zig. This is a most deserving accolade awarded for his 34 years of deeply dedicated and hard work with a formula of success. Then it was time to announce the new inductees of the 2010 WDHOF, a group of 10 very deserving women. Gene Hobbs received the coveted DAN Rolex Award for his many years of work. Chris Sundahl was the recipient of the Beneath the Sea President’s Award receiving a Medal of Excellence. The Chinese Auction caused excitement, but soon the guests left for the Saturday Night Interna- tional Film Festival.

Women Divers Hall of Fame Sunday Brunch On Sunday morning, Women Divers Hall of Fame had an unprecedented big attendance at their 10th annual brunch with over 80 attendees. The 10th Anniversary caused a special excitement to at- tend the show. This busy morning included a silent auction. Ten teenage girls won scholar ships and training grant certificates to assist in future dive education, to follow their example.

Vreni Rudner Hospitality Director Beneath the Sea

To make yourself a part of the next Beneath the Sea March 25, 26, 27, 2011 Voulnteer today