OZDIVER October – December 2019 AUSTRALIA’S PREMIER DIVE MAGAZINE IT IS THE JOURNEY AND NOT THE DESTINATION - WWW.OZDIVER.COM.AU THE DESTINATION NOT AND JOURNEY IT IS THE MV OCEANIA CEBU PAPUA NEW ISLAND GUINEA MAGIC ISLAND PHILIPPINES MILFORD SEA SOUND TURTLES PAPUA NEW GUINEA & THE PHILIPPINES O ctober – D ecember 2019 ecember FREE Digital Diving Magazine - www.ozdiver.com.au Johan Boshoff Editor-in-chief Johan Boshoff [email protected] Marketing [email protected] + 61 (00) 44 887 9903 Photographer Editor’s Christopher Bartlett & David Caravias Contributing Editor Irene Groenewald Johan Boshoff Proof Readers Deco Stop Irene Groenewald Charlene Nieuwoudt Underwater photography is the new Nowadays, you can prove it was real by Izak Nieuwoudt “in thing” to do in the diving industry. showing these disbelievers a photo of Administration Amilda Boshoff Digital cameras and waterproof housings the creature! [email protected] have become relatively cheap and just about every diver can now afford to The problem is just how far a diver Creative Director take one on their dives to capture a few will go to get the perfect shot. Some TheDiveSpot-OZDiver special moments or scenes. underwater photographers stand on Web Master Irene Groenewald Innovative Businnes Solutions corals and damage them terribly while www.innovativebusiness.com.au With the amount of digital cameras harassing the fish just for a photo. The Publisher and video camcorders in the water fish become stressed and panic and can Johan Boshoff today, it’s not surprising that divers are often get injured against sharp rocks TheDiveSpot-OZDiver discovering more and more new species while trying to escape. Distribution of marine life. In the old days you would In GOD I trust. see a fish and try to describe it to your Remember, the ocean is your Contributers dive master after the dive. responsibility. Dive smart. Christopher Bartlett, Nuno Gomes, David If they couldn’t help you identify the Caravias, R Bester, Beulah & Roland Mauz, Pieter Smith, Dr. Jean Vorster, Pieter Venter, Jill Amilda Boshoff animal, you’d be forced to bury your Holloway, David Holloway, Quintin de Boer, nose in marine books to find it. After a I hope that you enjoy this edition of Neil Wiltshire, Pieter Herbs, Barry Coleman, couple of photos, everything starts to OZDiver. Don Shirley, Andre Crone. look the same – you could easily spot one that looks almost like the fish you The Editor & Publisher saw. it’s FREE and it’s online Johan Boshoff Today, you simply click a few buttons on the camera when you get back to the -it is all about the journey and not the WWW.OZDIVER.COM.AU boat and the dive master will be able to destination Important note: see the exact fish you saw. This means OZDIVER Magazine / The Editor / The Publisher / TheDiveSpot-Ozdiver. 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Primary Contributors Christopher Bartlett Andre Crone Nuno Gomes Fiona McIntoch David Caravias Barry Coleman Peter Pinnock Gerrit Maritz 3 OZDiver Magazine www.ozdiver.com.au October / December 2019 4 COVER PHOTO CONTENTS Peter de Maagt Regulars Through the Lens 3 – Editor’s Deco 89 – Photo Competition 4– The Team 93 – Photo School 95 – Editing School Letters 7 – Log Book Giant Stride Dive the Continent 99 – Sea Turtles 9 – OZ News 111 –Macro Life 15 –Milford Sound Technically Speaking Weird and Wonders 119 – Dangers of Oxygen 31 – Spanish Dancers 123 – Dive Computers 33 – 50 Ocean Facts 37 – Namibian Sealing Instructor Diaries 127 – Clients Dive Med 39 –Decompression Gear Talk Illness 129 – Replacing Dive Dive the Globe Computers & BCDs 43 – Global News 135 – Reviews 47 – Cebu - Philippines 63 – MV Oceania Safety Stop 140 – Funnies Exploration 79 – Lake Guinas Dive Operators Johan Boshoff Johan 141 – Listings Milford Sound - Pg 15 Cebu - Philippines - Pg 47 MV Oceania - PNG - Pg 63 Macro LIfe - Pg 111 FEATURE FEATURE FEATURE FEATURE 5 OZDiver Magazine www.ozdiver.com.au October / December 2019 6 Letters Letters Log Book Log Book reef – plastic bags, bottles and all kinds people. As for the good people out of junk. I had no intention of picking up there actually trying to do something any of the rubbish for the reason that if to improve matters, these efforts are nobody else is going to do it, why then shadowed by the wrongdoings of others. should I? We are also supposed to be the most intelligent of all animals. My buddy did actually start picking up the rubbish so I felt I was obligated to Then why is it that governments do the same. At the end of the dive we spend billions on the building of new both had so much trash in our hands soccer stadiums and roads and other and under our arms that it was actually countries spend billions on technology quite difficult performing a proper ‘safe’ development and sending people to the ascent. moon when they are unable to provide basic living conditions to the vast Of all the other divers on the boat majorities of their own people? not one other person had thought to collect a single piece of trash! On other Why is it that certain species of animals By Rodney Hope Photo Christopher Bartlett By Rodney Hope Photo Christopher dives the skippers of our boats would get culled when their numbers grow too sometime pull up next to a fishing boat big for the surroundings that sustain and they would tell the fisherman about them, yet we are busy overpopulating spots where big fish could be found... every corner of this earth we live on, what the hell people? and this for the most part is able to continue unchecked? I recently watched Animal Planet and they were showing this National We are the only species on earth that Geographic photographer in action. He can be held accountable for every kind was busy filming sharks on this amazing of destruction and wrongdoing known to reef. What got to me was how he was mankind. making himself comfortable on top of this reef to get into the best position There are many other ‘worse’ issues for that perfect shot. I’m talking about that one could mention, but this is a I have been diving for several years now these ecosystems. How often doesn’t it anchoring himself onto the coral to dive magazine. and am truly enjoying every moment. happen that a diver has his cap/bandana steady himself. For those that have never dived, I blown off his head on the way to the The only point I am trying to make is guess one can only describe it as a dive site, never to be found again? If anything, these are the people we that if we are unwilling to change what truly mind blowing experience. There should be looking at to set the right is wrong in the dive industry today, then is this perception though that we scuba And what about those sucker wrappers example. If they can’t get it right at what hope is there for doing something divers are ambassadors for the world’s that so often make their way into the the top then why should we care about about the bigger picture? oceans… waters? I know of instructors who have these little things? marked exact locations of where a So it is obvious that I am rather I unfortunately do not quite see it that certain fish was seen on a dive to later We complain about everything that is unhappy with everything going on in the way. While we do not exactly ‘damage’ return to catch that same fish to be wrong with the world, but what do we world. If someone must ask me though the oceans by doing what we love to do, placed in an aquarium. do about these things? Nothing! We wait if I intend doing something about these we are not exactly doing the oceans any for someone else to do something about things, my truthful answer would most favours either.