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Friday July 28, 2006
Carl Brashear, the US Navy's first black deep-sea diver, has died. Mr. Brashear was also the navy's first amputee to be be restored to full active duty as a diver. He lost part of a leg when a pipe came loose and flew across the deck under pressure, striking Mr. Breashear and nearly killing him. His story was told in the movie Men of Honor, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Robert DiNero.
Monday July 17, 2006
Three beaches in Marblehead, Massachusetts -- Stamski's, Grace Oliver and Gas House -- have been closed due to high levels of enterococchia bacteria in the water. The bacteria is the result of storm water runoff. And two beaches in Rye, New Hampshire -- Sawyer's and Pirate's Cove -- have also been closed due to high levels of E. coli bacteria. None of these beaches are dive sites but divers should be aware of the closings before diving at nearby sites. All will be closed for at least a few days.
***
The state of Maine has told divers collecting specimens for the New England Aquarium and the Mystic Aquarium to stay away from the old pier in Eastport, ME. The old pier is one of New England's best dives but life on the wall there has decreased steadily over the years as collectors from these aquariums have removed numerous forms of both vertebrate and invertebrate life -- namely, northern red anemones. In past years, each trip seemed to net the aquariums in the vicinitry of three dozen northern reds each, with multiple trips being made during the year. As a result, the wall is now a mere shadow of its former self and divers from these institutions should be ashamed of themselves. Somehow, though, we doubt they are. But with their collecting pressure now removed, the wall can hopefully return to its former glory. The process will probably take several years but we at Blue Sphere Pubs couldn't be happier about it. Special thanks are owed to local underwater photographers Jonathan Bird and Alan Shepard for their roles in closing the site to collectors.
Saturday July 8, 2006
On Saturday July 15th, NOAA scientists, together with archaeologists from the
Click here for a side scan sonar photo of the wrecks. http://www.sanctuaries.nos.noaa.gov/news/press/2006/pr042406.html
Monday December 12, 2005
The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) is currently in the process of revising its management plan, the first such revision since the original plan was put in place back in 1993. Such revisions are required periodically by Congress.
Whereas the original plan made no mention of diving, basically restricting divers only from taking, or attempting to take, artifacts, the proposed plan would declare some wrecks within the sanctuary off-limits. Access to other wrecks would be left open. Newly discovered wrecks would be considered off-limits until they could be studied and placed in one category or the other. And divers would be required to notify the sanctuary before diving in it. Complete story here
Monday November 7, 2005
A 42-year-old man drowned over the weekend while diving near the east end of the Cape Cod Canal. The man was reportedly a relatively new diver and may have become entangled in lobster trap lines.
Sunday September 4, 2005
A New Jersey diving instructor died last week while diving the wreck of the U-853 off Block Island. The 60-year-old diver was in the water with three friends, filming the wreck at a depth of 120 feet. According to one of his buddies, he appeared fine during his ascent but was unconscious on reaching the surface. His friends conducted CPR on him and the Coast Guard arrived a short time later to bring him ashore. According the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office, all of his equipment was functioning properly. The Rhode Island Medical Examiner’s Office later declared his death a drowning due to heart, liver and gastrointestinal problems.
Tuesday August 25, 2005
A 53-year-old Rockport diver died while reportedly diving solo last week near Front Beach. A lifeguard at the beach spotted the diver on the surface but then couldn’t locate him after he swam out. A man swimming with a mask eventually found him floating about six feet beneath the surface. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and a cause of death has not yet been determined. The diver was the last president of the Rockport Chamber of Commerce before it merged with the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce a few months ago, and was the owner of the Sunrise Grill in Rockport.
Monday July 25, 2005
Beaches in Nahant, MA, along with those in Revere and Lynn, were closed over the weekend due to a sewer line break in Lynn that allowed millions of gallons of raw sewage to flow into the water unchecked. But the swim advisory in Nahant has just been lifted after tests showed the water to be safe. Dive away.
Monday June 27, 2005
Among the seafood shipment David's Fish Market in Salisbury, Massachusetts recently imported from Canada are a trio of orange lobsters – orange without having been cooked. The odds of this pigmentation are estimated at 30 million to one. Their orange color is genetic and not a sign of sickness or disease. The owner of the market plans to release the lobsters or donate them to an aquarium.
Wednesday June 22, 2005
After two days, the Coast Guard has called off the search for a diver missing off the coast of Connecticut. The diver, a female in her 40s, was diving from a boat near Ram Island. The area is very shallow, approximately 15 feet, but currents are strong, visibility is often poor and there can be a lot of boat traffic. The diver was diving with a buddy and was last seen on the surface.
Tuesday June 7, 2005
This summer, the underwater preserve in Lake Champlain will expand by at least one wreck (see our Site of the Month for another wreck already in the preserve). The wreck of the Sloop Island Canal Boat will open to the public this month. The boat sank in 1915 with no loss of life, taking only its cargo of coal with it down to the bottom. At a length of 97 feet, with a 10 foot beam, the boat is one of the largest in the preserve. It sits in 90 feet of water, upright and largely intact. If you've never dived in a New England lake before, be advised that 90 feet makes for a dark and cold dive. It's possible that a second, shallower, site along the Burlington waterfront will also be openned up this summer. This site contains a 19th century schooner and three 20th century barges, all in ten feet of water or less. It should make for a nice snorkeling site, accessible to non-divers, as well.
Tuesday May 31, 2005
A 43-year-old New Hampshire man, described as an experienced diver, drowned in a Vermont quarry Sunday morning. The area, known as the West Rutland Quarry, or Big Blue, is a popular dive site.
On the surface, the quarry itself is quite small, approximately 25 feet by 25 feet. Divers descend approximately ten feet down a wooden ladder to the water's surface. According to local sources, once underwater, there are numerous old mine shafts that can be entered .
The diver who drowned Sunday morning, entered the water with a buddy. Water temperature at the surface was approximately 40 degrees. They descended approximately 100 feet to the entrance of one of the shafts in the quarry. They entered the shaft and reportedly swam in at least 400 feet from the entrance. The buddy then experienced an equipment malfunction and the two divers began to buddy breathe while swimming back to the entrance of the cave. Whether the two buddy breathed all the way back to the entrance is unclear.
Details are very skethy but after exiting the shaft, the second diver, who had experienced the malfunction, surfaced. The first diver never did. His body was recovered the next afternoon.
Monday May 30, 2005
NEW ENGLAND WATERS EXPERIENCE A MASSIVE RED TIDE OUTBREAK If you've been diving recently and water seemed to have a rust-colored hue to it, it wasn't your imagination. The waters off New England are experiencing one of the largest outbreaks of red tide in more than 30 years. The bloom stretches from northern Maine to Cape Cod Bay, with density levels of the organisms making it up as much as 60 times typical levels. And things are expected to get worse before they get better.
Don't worry about diving in it, though. The organisms are only dangerous to humans when ingested through filter-feeding shellfish, such as clams, scallops or oysters, that have eaten them. Other types of shellfish, such as lobsters, are not affected. Accordingly, shellfish beds throughout the region have been closed to harvesting. The worst areas seem to be those around Cape Cod.
Wednesday May 25, 2005
OVERFISHING OF SHARKS LEADS TO CORAL REEF DECLINE Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a research institute in Spain have put together a computer model of the food web on coral reefs in the Caribbean that's considered one of the most detailed ever constructed. The model demonstrates that overfishing of sharks in these waters has a major domino effect on the reefs. By removing the sharks, the populations of carnivorous fish that they normally prey on, such as groupers, increase. The increased numbers of these fish then decimate populations of plant-eating fish, such as parrotfish. The result is a decreased number of plant-eating fish, which allows algae to grow out of control and actually supplant the coral. The researchers determined that the results are not so deleterious when species are randomly overfished.
Monday May 23, 2005
US SENATOR ATTEMPTS TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO WEATHER INFORMATION Rick Santorum, Republican senator from Pennsylvania, has introduced legislation that will prohibit federal meteorologists from competing against private meteorological companies. In English, this means that information that federal meteorologists gather with our tax dollars could not be supplied directly to us. It would only be available to private companies -- companies that would then sell it to us. This is information we have already paid for through our taxes.
If this legislation, known as the National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005, passes, we would no longer have direct access to the forecasts of the National Weather Service or NOAA. This information is critical to us as divers and boaters and rightly belongs to us as taxpayers. We strongly urge you to contact your congressmen to voice disapproval of this proposed legislation.
To find your state's senators, follow this link: US Senators
To find your state's representatives, follow this link. US Representatives
RESEARCHERS FOLLOW THE TRAVELS OF A WHITE SHARK Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium have recovered an electronic tag placed on a young white shark that was held in captivity for more than six months and then released earlier this year. The electronic tag recorded information on the shark's position every ten seconds for 30 days, then popped free and transmitted the data back to the researchers. During those 30 days, the young white traveled more than 100 miles offshore. She spent most of her time near the surface in waters approximately 58 degrees off the coast of central California but occasionally made dives in excess of 800 feet. According to the study's principal researcher, the shark clearly did well after her release, hunting and feeding on her own. Six other white sharks have also been tagged. The researchers will now try to use this information to fill in some of the large gaps in our knowledge of white sharks.
Monday May 9, 2005
A 51-year-old Maine man died while diving in Rockland Harbor. The man, and his female buddy, were reportedly inexperienced divers. They had entered the water from the shore and became separated underwater on the way back in toward the beach. The man's gear is being examined by the Maine State Police.