Undercurrent

Coming this April in Undercurrent.org:

A trip to Malapascua and Moalboal in the Philippines
Mandarinfish at Lighthouse Reef
Microplastics in the ocean? It’s your car tires.
Passengers board but the Indo Aggressor doesn’t sail
Cozumel, Roatan, and Belize by cruise ship
Hearing aids and diving
Florida fish spinning in circles
How should we tip the dive crew?
Medical Examiner’s evaluation forms
The astounding rate of liveaboard deaths
Changing weather patterns
More details of MY Sea Legend’s loss
Flotsam & Jetsam

This Month in Undercurrent. Diving with MV.Valentina in the Sea of Cortez . . . Remembering Paul Humann . . . An oil slick reaches Bonaire . . . Playing with Sea Lions . . . Readers Report on Bonaire, Belize, Rangiroa, Fiji, and Indonesia . . . A dive ladder servers fingers . . . Diving the Avelo system . . .An unpleasant experience for a novice diver . . . Californian divers encouraged to bring hammers on dives . . . Tipping for divers (part I) . . . Insuring old scuba gear? . . . Recycle your old wetsuit . . . and much, much, more.

This February in www.undercurrent.org:
A trip to Walindi Resort and MY.Oceania in PNG
Are Texas coral reefs among the healthiest in the world?
PNG: Getting there and staying there
Colored lenses for masks? Are they worth it?
Liquid Blue and Living Underwater in Cozumel, Mexico
San Diego, a hotbed of diving casualties
What's happening with liveaboards?
Attitude keeps you alive
Pointer sticks - maybe to do without?
Ocean Art 2023 competition results
Pity the poor PADI professional
Caribbean sea-urchin die-off
The most dangerous thing you'll meet is your boat

Bret Gilliam Has Passed.
There are few true giants in the world of scuba diving but Bret Gilliam was one, both in character, knowledge, experience, and generosity, as well as physical stature. As a friend, he was fiercely loyal, and he was a friend to Undercurrent. It is with great sadness we announce that he left this world on Sunday October 8. We will publish a remembrance of his life and achievements in the November issue, and invite those who knew him especially well to contribute their thoughts. It’s very sad to see such a giant felled.
John Bantin and Ben Davison
[email protected]

What was in the July issue of Undercurrent:
Nautilus UnderSea, Revillagigedos Islands, Mexico
When Good Intentions are Ill-founded
Banning Fishing at Revillagigedo National Park Works
Rangiroa, BVI, Guanaja, Bermuda, Maui and More
Reflections on the Philippines Capsizing
Don't Snorkel with a Saltie
Subscribers Need Your Reports
How Strong is Your Heart?
Fancy Your Own Dive Center in the Sun?
R I P Pirate's Point
Carlton Queen Capsizes in the Red Sea
A Serious Shark Bite After the Dive Ended
Legal Remedies for Overseas Injuries Unlikely
Another Killer on Caribbean Reefs
Lend A Hand On Your Next Dive Vacation: Part II
Volunteering for Maldives Whale Shark Research
and much, much more.

https://www.undercurrent.org/blog/2023/07/26/thedeepestbreath/

The Deepest Breath – Divers' Blogs The Deepest Breath July 26, 2023July 26, 2023 by John Bantin — it all ends in death [This is a preview of an article to appear in our August issue] The real tragedy of free diving record attempts is that the only people who are interested are other free divers. The export manager of Cressi once to...

When your liveaboard capsizes:

www.undercurrent.org

This May in undercurrent.org:
Diving inexpensively in Curaçao
An aquarium not for animal lovers
SCTLD closes Bonaire dive sites
Cage diving with great whites in Nova Scotia
When explorers don't find what they're looking for
Too many divers at Molokini?
Insurance Issues for Caribbean operators
Are you safe on a liveaboard?
Two liveaboards capsize with loss of life
A new dive site is garbage!
A unique but serious injury in Belize
How special is a PADI 5-star resort?
Full-face snorkeling masks implicated again
Dreaming of diving Petit Mustique

This April in Undercurrent: By land and sea in Raja Ampat, Indonesia . . . Taking the blame when animals confront us . . . Divemaster or dive guide; Can you tell the difference? . . . What’s going on in Truk Lagoon . . . Punishment abroad for training deaths . . . Whatever happened to dive knives? . . . Strange tales from the deep . . . The weird world of sea slugs . . . Insurance and the traveling diver (part 2) . . . Free-diver Pipin sues Netflix . . . Should divers fear orcas? . . . Lend a hand on your next dive vacation . . . and much, much more.

Andrew Nottingham, the proprietor of the magnificent Petit Mustique Diver’s Lodge, and I drifted along neutrally buoyant, followed by a couple from Nova Scotia, each with more than 1000 dives. Ahead, sunlight sparkled through clear blue waters, bouncing off strands of floating plankton. One zooplankton, about five inches long, edged past my mask -- transparent, fish-like, a tiny head with incisors, something that belongs a mile down. But I was drifting north at 60 feet, 48 miles southeast of Mustique Island in the Grenadines chain, with the coast of Senegal a few thousand miles due east. Drifting along with us was a leatherback turtle, about as long as I am and probably four times heavier. I reached out to touch it, but it backed off and kept its distance, though keeping its pace, as if we were all on the same mission. Underwater, I had never been so close to a leatherback, and had I been able, I would have kicked myself. I failed to bring my Nikon.

Plankton brings whale sharks, so I hoped to spot one, but no such luck. Below, however, a remarkable school of Southern sennet, at least 500 strong, glided past, sun glancing off their silvery barracuda-like bodies, but in an instant they scattered in a confusing array. Wow! An enormous marlin rose from the deep, swiping its massive spear two and fro, followed by half a dozen sailfish viciously swinging their weapons, but all a moment too late to stun a single sennet. Within seconds, the sea was empty again. Andrew clapped his hands and did a jig. The scene reminded me of stunning videos shot by Amos Nachoum off Cancun.

Sun fishRising slowly with the current and with the leatherback still alongside for reasons I’ll never know, I saw in the distance an enormous black oval shape; as the current carried me closer, I came face-to-face with a gargantuan bluefin tuna. I was stunned. If a Goliath grouper is as big as a Volkswagen, then this looked like a Humvee (well, a bit of an exaggeration). A second bluefin nearly as large rose from behind it. Both turned, giving me a full side view, and then with a powerful tail flip, they motored off into the blue. I’ve seen a lot underwater, but never bluefins. I finally started breathing again.

I didn’t notice the leatherback leave, but I did see Andrew point upward, and the four of us slowly surfaced. He had been towing an orange surface marker (after all, Senegal was a long ways away), which gave assurance that the Mirage, a 42-foot ProDive, would be nearby. Captain Marvin Barney deftly maneuvered the Mirage alongside, feathered the engines, and, with the able assistance of British divemasters Rebecca and Jocelyn, we climbed aboard, shouting, laughing and throwing high fives. Andrew popped the cork on a bottle of Cliquot, we toasted, then climbed into their remarkable companion “dinghy,” the “flying ferry,” as he called it, a 20-seat jet boat once used to shoot the rapids with tourists on Oregon’s Rogue River. Since the northerly flowing Orinoco current can shift as far as 60 miles out from Petit Mustique, Martin takes the Mirage to sea at dawn to decide where to dive. After breakfast, the divers are spirited out on the flying ferry. After our dive, it was a 19-minute straight shot back to Petit Mustique and the waiting bar.

Later, I sidled up to the palm frond beach bar, joining Andrew for the first of a few sundowners. Two hours after I had returned, Marvin finally motored in to the dock and came to the bar. Drinking only coconut water, he said that he and a few other Grenadine fishermen stopped fishing the offshore waters in the late ‘70s; their boats were small, the distance out and back was great, and there was more money to be made serving the rich and famous people who arrived at exclusive Mustique, Little Palm Island, and elsewhere aboard their 120-foot motorsailers, mega yachts, or private jets. He told me he would someday retire on the money he could make selling the signed guitars Keith Richards (who had come to Mustique’s state-of-the-art sound studios in the ‘70s with his buddies -- no need to name names) had left him. Marvin was born on St Vincent, as was Andrew, who moved to London as a teenager, where he graduated in finance from the University of Westminster. He became one of Virgin Records’ first employees, decades later partnering with the founder, Richard Branson, on several Caribbean developments (including the sound studio) and making hospitable Petit Mustique, a once-uninhabited island nine miles from Mustique. Though the island was rarely fished, Branson (by now “Sir” Richard) had it declared a marine reserve in 1987 and 14 years later built a small house -- eight bedrooms, three great rooms, 8700 square feet -- and eight cottages, completing it all just a month before 9/11. He hid out there the week after the tragedy, but never returned, though he kept it maintained. When Andrew Nottingham retired in 2018, Branson gave him the keys and told him to turn it into some sort of environmental retreat for “ordinary blokes -- no need to make any money on it. Just cover the expenses.” Only last November did I learn about it from Undercurrent’s well-connected British technical writer, John Bantin. I was able to reserve a spot before it was officially open: $2145 for six nights, with diving that will knock your sox off. (Yes, for the first time ever, I had to declare that I represented Undercurrent to get on the island; but I paid full fare, and I’m sure, received no extraordinary treatment, since everybody there gets special treatment).

Frankly, this is a destination I am tempted to keep to myself, but you and other subscribers support Undercurrent, so I must let you in on the secret. Welcome to 97-acre, never-inhabited Petit Mustique, half of which is untouched mangroves, protected from fishing since 1987, with a coral forest beginning 20 feet from shore, gradually dropping to 48 feet, then dropping straight down to 104 feet. While Cuba supposedly has the only truly virgin diving left in the Caribbean, Petit Mustique is off the radar. When I first arrived at the dock for my visit, Paul Humann was standing there, his bags packed -- how many cameras can a man own! -- waiting for the boat. Paul, who nurtures two acres of palm trees at his Davie, Florida, home, said “this is about as lush as my backyard. I haven’t seen a Caribbean reef like this since the ‘70s.” He pulled out his i-Pad. He showed me an image of a fuchsia nudibranch, then a green and puce spotted fish that looked like a floating pea, then a starfish the size of a dinner plate, but with 13 spindly arms, and finally a tangerine-and claret-colored seahorse about the size of my fingernail. “I’ve never seen any of these before,” he said, “and this last little fellow looks suspiciously like a pygmy seahorse, which I’ve seen only in Indonesia. Amazing stuff. It’s going to mean updating our whole ID book series.” He then pointed eastward. “And out there, well, that’s big fish nirvana. I’ll be back in three weeks.”

BaracudaOf course, Paul’s comments stoked me. As I walked across the sugar-soft sand beach to the main lodge to check in, I decided an afternoon dive would be just the ticket. Andrew, barefoot and wearing a pair of crisp white shorts and a white polo shirt, shook my hand. “Welcome. Come into the lodge, old chap, and have a cup of tea.” I opted for an ice tea, sat in a large wicker rocker, and out came a plate of scones with clotted cream and fresh strawberries. We talked about the island, the Grenadines, Branson’s vision, and in a few short minutes, Mackey McRae, the head guest services man, stuck his head in the door. “Mr. Davison, your luggage is in your room. May I take you there?” As I stood, Andrew said, “I’m diving off the beach in half an hour. How about joining me?” Half an hour would not be fast enough, though my room, with a beautiful canopy bed, white linens, exquisite furnishings, and an open air shower, would lend itself to serious shuteye.

On the wall in the bamboo and rattan dive shop hung a plaque: “These are the most beautiful waters in the Caribbean. Treat the creatures with the love that you show your family. We are all one.” The shop, smelling like fresh neoprene, was as clean as an operating room, with wetsuits on hangers, stainless steel workbenches, and tanks without a scratch. Andrew and I walked 100 yards to the back of the island to the edge of a pristine lagoon about the size a major league baseball park, lined with tall coconut palms and thick clusters of mangroves. Mackey, who had all our gear waiting for us, helped me slip into my BC. I walked into the water knee-deep, sat down to don my fins, and kicked off, with Andrew alongside.

Lolling around in five to ten feet of water may not sound like much, but in the roots of the mangroves were the offspring of every reef fish that one can imagine, safe from predators until they reached a size to survive on the outer reef. Stacked like logs, six perfectly formed great barracuda the size of my index finger gave me a great image, though I hadn’t unpacked my camera. I found one of those miniature seahorses Paul had mentioned, this one colored in Seattle Seahawks’ greens and blues. In fact, I even shot a baby mola mola that looked like the size of my hand, with my thumb and little finger suspended. (I later emailed the image to Paul, who said it was the first he had seen). There were silver-dollar-sized French angels, even an octopus with a body no bigger than a ping-pong ball. Kicking about a hundred yards out to the opening of the lagoon, I marveled at sunrays pouring through the racks of staghorn coral, watched a small nurse shark and a stingray squabble over a sand patch filled with garden eels, and encountered a bait ball no larger than a medicine ball that seemed to perplex a pair of mangrove snappers. This was a wonderful shore dive, one I was to repeat nearly every afternoon.

Supper, as Andrew calls it, was served on white table-clothed tables at 7 p.m., on the large veranda of the main house. Since I was traveling alone, Andrew invited me to join him and a couple from Hollywood, filmmaker Sydd Finch and his wife, Malia, a costume designer, who were departing in the morning. Lovely and modest folks, with a great range of diving tales to tell, I didn’t learn from Andrew until after they had departed there were two Oscars and a Golden Globe between them. Dinner was exquisite, thanks to an arrangement Sir Richard had made with Mustique powers-that-be to have their chefs come to Petit Mustique for a week or two at a time to use their 1,500-ft.-square world-class kitchen to develop new recipes. The menu the first night was poached marlin (served only when there is a bill fishing contest on a neighboring island), pasta with wild black truffles the size of marbles, and a filet of ostrich (surprisingly, there is a farm on Barbados.) Another night, wild boar, Maine lobster and an unusual pasta made with foraged saltwater marsh vegetables, made famous in what New Yorker Magazine claimed to be the best restaurant in the world, Copenhagen’s Noma. (I fret that the island will be taken over by foodies, not divers.) Fresh fruit dominated breakfasts -- in pancakes, in yoghurt, wrapped with pancetta, you name it, and lunches were pasta salads, smoked salmon and trout, chilled soups, all by the experimenting chefs.

White Tip SharkDaily, I made a couple dives in the Orinoco Current, astonished at what I would encounter. Floating Sargassum w**d provided food and cover for fist-sized green turtles waiting to grow up, flying fish would zip from the depths right past my mask, while others would plunge through the surface like bullets spraying; it took me a while to stop jumping every time one whizzed past. On two days, whale sharks did appear, and on one day a massive humpback whale passed 20 feet below me (villagers on Bequia, just 16 miles away, still harpoon whales, getting at best one a year -- http://www.responsibletravel.com/svg/bequia-whaling-traditions.htm). I saw a dozen more bluefins, twice a pair of oceanic whitetips, cobia, dolphin fish (and occasional pods of dolphins, or maybe porpoises, pirouetting around me), ocean triggers, and best of all, a grown-up mola mola, about the size of double doors with floppy fins on top and bottom, and a mouth even a mother couldn’t kiss. Pilot fish often swam with us, as if guiding us to new and unusual creatures.

At night, one could sit in the media room and watch a film on the 72-inch Samsung, work in the photo room, plug into the Internet, or, as I usually did, chew the fat with Andrew, who has great English wit on the order of John Cleese, and with the other guests -- about six different people came through when I was there. Andrew is slow rolling the opening, expecting he’ll have a full complement of guests -- 20 -- by mid-2020. He will not advertise, he said, because he figures the word of Undercurrent travels far enough to keep him booked well into the future. In the meantime, he will be experimenting with drones off the 42-foot Mirage, so he can spot big animals or fish schools and motor to them to make it easy for the divers. He says the price for six night, all inclusive, will be stable, since food costs are picked up by the chef’s restaurants (the experimental kitchen is scheduled five months out, it is already so popular), Andrew takes no salary (he owns a home on Mustique, another in London’s Kensington District, where his wife spends most of her time, and another off Manley Beach in Sidney, if that gives you any indication), and all Sir Richard cares is that income meets expenses, which means fuel for the jet boat, solid salaries for the staff members, and so on. Occasionally, said Andrew, guests from Mustique come over for the day or join dives. Sir Richard had taken Tom Cruise out for a drift, as well as Rod Stewart, and Kiera Knightley spent two nights on Petit Mustique just before I arrived the first week of February.

Yet, the celebrities, the incredible cuisine, the splendid isolation is not why serious divers will be blown away, though for some it may be rain on their cake. But, where else in the Caribbean can you dive with an ocean sunfish, see seahorses never seen before by Paul Humann, bump heads with bluefin tuna and a leatherback turtle on the same dive, ogle finger-long barracuda, swim among giant racks of staghorn and elkhorn coral, hear the song of a humpback, watch a marlin attack … well, you have the picture. The $2145 for six nights includes round-trip airfare from Barbados, 89 miles to the east. Now, the real question: How does one reserve a spot? Since Undercurrent readers are getting first notice -- Petit Mustique doesn’t even have a website -- you’ll need an Undercurrent code to make a reservation. To get yours, read the first letter of every paragraph of this story and I trust you will not be disappointed. Or will you?

-- Ben Davison, Undercurrent

April 1, 2023

This month in the Undercurrent newsletter:Two superb resorts on Komodo island.
When no PADI Solo Diving Certification is accepted
Bahamas, Turk & Caicos, Raja Ampat, Belize — Readers Report
How to be ready to survive a liveaboard emergency
It’s not always the bends
Insurance - Tales of Triumph and Woe
Why does your regulator let you down so often after servicing?
Golden tides threaten Florida and Mexico beaches
Those damned fuel charges
PADI pays up after a training death
Thieves? Maybe we need more like them?
An insurance claim denied, but I’m a new person
Flotsam & Jetsam

Undercurrent, Consumer Reporting for Serious Divers Since 1975 Undercurrent, published since 1975, called 'the Consumer Reports of diving' by Business Week, provides authoritative, unbiased, well-organized reviews of scuba diving liveaboards, resorts, and dive gear. We're a dive magazine providing timely information as well as access to back issues and thousand...

This February in Undercurrent:
Two weeks on Spoilsport in Australia’s Coral Sea
Another propeller accident in Cozumel
Bonaire visitors should watch out for an Internet scam
A very lucky lad is lost and found at sea
A visit to Turneffe Island Resort in Belize
Ships may be fuelling a coral-killing epidemic
Manta populations are increasing
A painful ear infection from polluted seas
A Cozumel diver is lost to a down current
Don’t forget about riptides
Mexico closes down great white cage diving
Dave Crosby was a serious diver
A Red Sea liveaboard smacks into a reef at night
and much, much more.

Undercurrent, Consumer Reporting for Serious Divers Since 1975 Undercurrent, published since 1975, called 'the Consumer Reports of diving' by Business Week, provides authoritative, unbiased, well-organized reviews of scuba diving liveaboards, resorts, and dive gear. We're a dive magazine providing timely information as well as access to back issues and thousand...

This January in Undercurrent:

Wakatobi — luxury in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Another Georgia dive instructor found guilty.

Decaying WW2 wrecks threaten coral reefs.

Easy diving with Divi Flamingo Beach hotel, Bonaire.

Don’t let Bonaire’s easy diving fool you.

Is the Apple watch and dive app the future of dive management?

You don’t have to hide your keys in the bushes.

Malta dive accident ruled an involuntary homicide.

Any diver can get bent — so get insured.

Avatars’ actors' amazing breath-holding skills.

Conception deaths spark new owner liability law.

Conception iPhone video tells a terrible story.

The Socorro Aggressor fails the test.

Flotsam & Jetsam

This November in Undercurrent: On the Roatan Aggressor in the Bay Islands, Honduras . . . Stay Away From Those Propellers . . . Fish Can Save Dying Reefs . . . Climate Change Eliminating Florida’s Turtles . . . Raja Ampat, St.Lucia, Rangiroa, Vancouver -- Our Readers Tell It Like It Is . . . Undercurrent Has Been Awarded a Grant . . . How to Create Great Videos With That Action Camera . . . Unsafe at Any Depth? Repeat Problems With a BCD Brand . . . Carbon Monoxide is a Killer -- CO Alarms . . . Instructor Killed by Mismatched Tank Threads . . . Have You Seen This Pink Manta? . . . When Your Adrift in the Sea -- Electronic PLBs . . . Aqualung Recalls the Exotec BCD. . . .Hydration, Diving, and SIPE . . . Check Your Kit Before a Dive Trip . . . and much, much more.

In October's big issue of Undercurrent:
Aboard the Tiburón Explorer in the Galapagos
Your trip reports are the lifeblood of Undercurrent
A heated vest is an essential cold water accessory
Five dive pros guilty of fraud
Caribbean, Palau, Fiji and the Philippines – readers report
Apple Ultra watch with a diving computer app
A lack of progress in implementing Conception safety ideas
Rude underwater photographers can ruin trips
Electronic tagging your checked dive bag
Feds target companies involved in the shark fin trade
Underwater texting? It’s coming.
Fishermen versus divers – it comes to a head in Florida
The short-cut mentality in divers
A diving instructor is arrested after a fatality
A mother and her sons get left at the surface
and much, much more.

This Month’s Undercurrent's a Big Issue: Primo macro photos at the Atmosphere Resort, Philippines . . . COVID still preys on traveling divers . . . What happens to your old neoprene products? . . . Update: Mexico’s Guadalupe closed to Great White diving . . . Diving from the Golden Rock – St. Eustatius . . . Ferry to St. Eustatius from St. Martin? . . . How to avoid a shark attack (or not!) . . . Going deeper than ever in Limiting Factor . . . Readers tell how rude divers can ruin trips . . . Rude divers – a dive center’s perspective . . . A Japanese dive shop apologizes . . . Your tire wear kills fish . . . Unexplained snorkel deaths in Hawaii . . . Be aware of SIPE symptoms . . . How safe are you from fire when abroad? . . . Flotsam & Jetsam . . . And much, much, more.

What's in the Undercurrent newsletter for subscribers this month:
Caribbean Explorer II at Saba, BWI
Do You Download Your Dives?
Diving Magazine's Best Diving Locations
Perils of Travel in the Time of COVID
Your Trip Reports Are Important
Bonaire Update
Common Sunscreens Can Damage Coral and You Too
Keeping an Important Discovery Secret
Diving Accident Stats are Inaccurate
Let Your BC Find the Surface
It's a Less Than Silent World
So, Who Writes Undercurrent?
Pre-Internet: Call Bob Goddess to Go Diving
Don't Be Reluctant to Use Air
An Important Advance for Closed-Circuit Divers
PADI Responds to Cancun Diver Fatalities
Flotsam & Jetsam

https://www.undercurrent.org/blog/2022/07/20/on-diving-deep-breathing-air-its-what-we-did-because-thats-all-we-had/

On Diving Deep, Breathing Air  it’s what we did because that’s all we had – Divers' Blogs On Diving Deep, Breathing Air  it’s what we did because that’s all we had July 20, 2022 by John Bantin Twenty years ago I met an old French diver at the DEMA show who was displaying oil paintings of various wrecks he’d dived in Bonaire. I didn’t recognize any of them and he told me where t...

How I Learnt To Love Sharks After I first learnt to dive, my instructor took me down to 30m (100 feet) deep to show me a cave. He was very excited when we discovered there was a large nurse shark resting within it. I was...

For scuba divers, An Opinion about Liveaboard Safety:
“We were crossing from Roca Partida to Socorro
Island overnight. The captain had the boat on autopilot.
One crew member was on watch from 10-12 pm, and he
told us all several times that no one came to relieve him,
so he just went to bed."
Subscribers can read the full story in Undercurrent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvgjj5XloaY

Amazing Diving Stories by John Bantin

The latest edition of the Undercurrent newsletter is delivered to subscribers:

Not something many of us will be diving!

Endurance: Shackleton's lost ship is found in Antarctic What was one of the world's greatest undiscovered shipwrecks is identified on the Antarctic seafloor.

The Russian people need to know what is being done in Ukraine in their name. One idea is to tell them via Google reviews:

Write a message explaining what is happening.
Use Google - Just search 'English to Russian'
Write your message - copy the Russian translation
Google Restaurants/Bars/Book Shops etc in Moscow (and other Russian cities)
You’ll get a list
Click on each one
Scroll down each to “Write a Review”
Give them 5 stars
Paste your message in Russian
Add a news photo if you have one (BBC is a useful resource)
Click 'Post'

Innocent Ukrainian civilians are being murdered. The Russian people are as much victims in this. Their untrained conscripts are being slaughtered by better-trained troops and the Russian army is equipped with mobile crematoriums to save sending their bodies home.

A typically useful message:
Наслаждайтесь едой, но знайте, пока вы едите, армия Путина совершает геноцид в Украине.