As a SCUBA/Commercial diver I have been lucky enough to dive in some pretty interesting places doing interesting things. This is one thing that I love about diving. You never know what you are going to see, if you see anything.

Most of my time as a diver has been spent diving with little or no visibility. If I can see a foot I am happy. Most of the divers I know are opposite; they prefer to see 50+ feet on a dive. This last trip to blue hole helped me understand that. You see amazing things underwater when you see.

There is a part of me that will always be a dirty water diver. There is something strangely relaxing about relying on your navigation skills to get somewhere and total sensory black out while you are doing it is even better. This type of diving isn’t for everyone, in fact I is the opposite of what most people think of when they think of diving.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the tropics as much as the next diver. When you are in clear water you can see so much that you start to suffer from a little sensory overload. That kind of sensory overload is what most divers are looking for when they dive. If you are a non-diver watch Finding Nemo to get a cartoon idea of what I am talking about.

One of my favorite parts of any dive is when you start to descend. You go from the ambient noises that surround us on the surface to just the sound of the air leaving your regulator as you exhale. As you go deeper the light starts to change or disappear all together. It is awesome.

I would suggest that those of you that haven’t dove give it a try. There are very few medical problems that will keep you from diving. Most SCUBA shops offer a discover SCUBA program that allows you to give it a try in the relative safety of a swimming pool. It is a sport unlike any other.

My first equipment that I received was when I was twelve years old. Due to a lack of maintenance, it is no longer able to be used safely. I am still holding onto it purely for sentimental reasons. The second set of equipment I bought just before I went to California for dive school. It is really nice and I spent a lot of money on it but it is currently about eight years old. I would love to get new equipment.

Last time I purchased new equipment I got everything: mask, fins, snorkel (which I lost in CA), a BCD, computer and regulator/octo. Since Sarah started diving a have received a new mask and snorkel. The fins a purchased eight years ago are still in really good shape and have a lifetime warranty, so I don’t really need new fins. What I need is a new BCD, regulator/octo and computer.

Here is the list of what I want to get complete with links to the relevant sites where, if you want, you can buy them for me.

•  BCD Besea W50- Just look at that thing. The padded harness, the wing style bladded all the accesories; who doesn’t want one of these.
• GALILEO SOL- This computer has it all: Heartrate moniter, multi gas options and all the regular dive computer stuff.
• Single Kit – Xstream Deep- This is a great breathing set up that is made by a company that makes really reliable productso

or

• MK25/A700- the newest, fanciest Scubapro set-up

The problem with SCUBA gear is that it can be quite pricey. For a BCD and regulator setup you are looking at around $1500 for middle of the road stuff. You can go really crazy if you want and get one of these, which is the object of my current SCUBA lust.

It is difficult for a non-diver to really understand Blue Hole. In fact it is pretty hard to describe in a way that makes it sound as awesome as it truly is. It is a bell shaped lake, which means it has a smaller diameter on the top then on the bottom. The visibility is about 80 feet, which means you can see the bottom from the surface and the water is a balmy 61 degrees year round.

When you first enter, whether from the stairs or with a giant stride from the ledge, the first thing you notice is just how clear the water is. If you are among the first divers in the water, so there is very little silt stirred up, you can see the entire place from wherever you may be in the water. This makes for a surreal experience with bubbles rising from the depths in streams and groups of divers floating in many different places.

In the middle of the Blue Hole there are two platforms suspended from buoys. These are used for training purposes and were the destination of the dives we did this weekend. After completing the necessary skills at the platforms on each dive, the instructor would lead us on a tour of Blue Hole.

These tours were a great introduction to buoyancy control as well as a chance to view all of the interesting objects that have found their home in Blue Hole. There are skulls of many different animals, ceramic figurines, some miniature railroad people and much more that you can find.

One of my favorite things about Blue Hole is that it is for diving only. That means that there are no boats, fisher men or any other competing sports that can spell disaster for divers. In fact they are currently building a dive shop right next to Blue Hole to further support the steady flow of divers that arrive every weekend to do a little diving.

If you are going to go through a SCUBA class in Colorado and are planning on doing your open water dives between August and May, you should plan on a trip to Blue Hole. It is the best place to get certified since the water is crystal clear year round and while the water isn’t warm it is a great confidence builder. If you can handle the cold that is Blue Hole, you can handle diving pretty much anywhere else. 

The first part of the training is all classroom work. This can be done either online or in an actual classroom with an instructor. You learn a great deal of information, a lot of it scary, and all of it is important.

 The online instruction is pretty well done and combines reading, video and quizzes to force the strange information into your brain. The classroom session combines reading a book outside of class with the instructor explaining the principles to you.

The next part of the class is the pool sessions. This is the scariest/most exciting part of the class. You finally get to take all of the theories you have heard about and put them into practice. For Sarah this was a huge leap. She is not one to be a fan of water and yet she went though this part of training like a rock star.

The first pool session is typically the most laid back. You take your first breaths underwater, learn how to properly clear your ears and get used to the idea of moving around underwater with all of the equipment. You also learn how to assemble and disassemble your equipment.

The rest of the pool sessions, of which there are five, cover a bundle of skills as well as practicing what you learned in previous sessions. This is when you learn to clear your mask, what to do if you lose your regulator or you mask, what to do if you run out of air and practice buoyancy control.

The next step is the open water dives. This is when you get out of the pool and go to a lake, ocean or quarry to do dives in a true underwater environment. Most people that I know got their certification in the tropics where the water is usually a balmy 80 degree. The rest of us, the true divers, go to blue hole or another lake where the water isn’t as warm.

Blue hole is, as the instructors put it, one of the more extreme diving environments that recreational divers dive in. The water is sixty-one degrees. Fahrenheit If you can’t imagine what that is like, it is cold. You have to wear a full 7mm wetsuit or a dry suit to avoid getting the hyperthermia. On top of that Santa Rosa NM isn’t known for its warm weather in the springtime.

When we got to the Blue Hole it seemed like it was going to be nice, 60 or 70 degrees, no wind, basically a great diving day. That night we were awoken by gusty winds that continued until the following night. So not only was it about forty degrees out of the water, it was windy. The only plus side to this is that when you entered the water it almost seemed warm, until it seemed cold.

The first day of diving is three dives. The first dive consists of going down to the platform, which is suspended at about 25 feet, hang out, make sure you can clear your ears and then go on a tour of the Blue Hole. The Blue Hole is an amazing place. It is a bell shaped lake; the top has a smaller diameter then the bottom. The max depth is around eighty feet and it connects to the Carlsbad cavern system. Luckily they have grated off the entrance into the caves to save a lot of divers from their own stupidity. The water is surprisingly clear, until the silt gets churned up, and it is always 61 degrees. Always!

The second dive is the beginning of the skill checks. You get to do the Giant Stride entry, which is quite a bit of fun, and then head down to the platform. Once there you go around the group demonstrating mask clearing, regulator recovery and clearing, alternate air source use, then you take a slightly deeper tour of the lake. This tour is great because you start to see all of the random stuff that is in Blue Hole, like the cow skull or the clown figurines.

The third and final dive that day is one of the roughest; this is because you are starting to get tired and because it comes after the lunch break. You get suited up, do the back roll entry and head to the platform. Once there you complete basically the same skills as before but with a few extra parts. The mask clearing in no longer partial but fully flooded, this makes it a little more stressful. You then do a third, deeper, tour of the Blue Hole.

Once you are done it is time to peel off your wetsuit, load up your equipment and go eat. Most people sleep really good that night. Your body is exhausted and as such doesn’t really care about anything but sleeping. The next morning comes too soon and you realize that your wetsuit isn’t completely dry.

Most people put their wetsuit on at the hotel for the second day of diving. Putting on a wetsuit that is dry is a chore of superhuman strength. Putting one on that is damp is a feat that only gods can survive. A damp wetsuit is not just wet, it is clammy. This damp clamminess leads to freezing cold as soon as you get outside.

Your feet get cold; your hands get cold and not just a little cold, the burning clod that makes your hands not work. This makes putting your equipment together a lot more difficult and makes everyone grumpy. The only plus is that once you get in the water you are immediately toasty warm, for about five minutes.

This last dive is the hardest to do, you are cold and you know that after the dive you have to drive home. The main skill on this dive is removing your mask, putting it back on your face and then clearing it. It is one of the hardest skills known to man… well maybe not. It is really difficult though. The reason is that the inside of your mask is the last bastion of warmth. Your face is dry under your mask, dry and warm. When you remove your mask you get the shock of cold water on your face and you immediately want to inhale thought your nose. As soon as you do that you forget that you can breathe out of your regulator and head to the surface.

If you can fight this urge, stay focused, you can complete the skill and are a SCUBA diver. If you panic and surface the instructor or dive master will follow you up, making sure you ascend safely, and if you are ready you can head back down and try again. That is the beauty of SCUBA; you can’t fail, you can only quit.

It is my opinion that everyone should learn to SCUBA dive. It is amazing. The sights you see, even in a lake with few fish, will blow your mind. Here is a skill that is attainable for anyone that allows you to experience weightlessness and an alien environment unlike anything else in the world. SCUBA opens up doors of exploration that you wouldn’t have considered prior to learning to dive. Give it a try it is awesome.

Table of contents for The Trouble With Sharks

1. The Trouble With Sharks
2. The Truth About Sharks and Fishing
3. Sharks Need to be Protected
4. Arguments Against Saving the Sharks
5. Response to the Anti-Sharks
6. The Solution

There is no question that sharks are in danger of being hunted to extinction. The question is what do we can do about it. The first step is to do everything possible to protect the current shark populations. This is similar to the situation that the harp seal was in thirty years ago. Clubbing baby seals was actually a lucrative way of making money. That was until the United States and allies started putting pressure on the countries that exported seal fur. This pressure made it impossible to sell the fur and created a public outcry against the practice of wearing seal fur garments.

            Sharks have a more uphill battle since showing a baby shark to someone does not provide the warm fuzzy feeling that one might get when seeing a baby seal, but the same international pressure would help the shark. If the United States and her allies started to apply pressure to the countries that are the primary users of shark products, the same result could happen.  It could lead to Japan and China signing the shark fishing ban and allow the shark a chance to bounce back.

            Stiffer fishing regulations would also serve to help sharks as well as other ocean predators that are hurt by long line and drift net fishing. This would be the same type of regulation that keeps canned tuna fish dolphin-safe. We need to start making seafood producers realize that as consumers we do not want to hurt the sharks when we buy sea food. I would love to see cans of tuna that say they are dolphin AND shark safe.

            The third part of the solution is to start researching the habits of sharks. Scientists know very little about the mating habits of sharks. This means that if they wanted to raise sharks in a controlled setting to reintroduce them, like the gray wolf, they would be unable to because we have never gotten them to mate in a controlled setting. By all accounts some sharks only mate every two years. This means that it will take a while to get the populations restarted. If we were able to have populations started in aquariums we would be able to provide a much needed boost to the shark population through reintroduction.

            Other actions that would help sharks bounce back would be to have a shark fishing season. Having a time of year that it is legal to fish sharks would allow fishermen to get a viable catch while allowing sharks time to recover their population. Since there is little known about sharks mating habits, picking the right time of year might be difficult but with a little more research scientists should be able to pick a season that would be best for sharks.

            Another important step to saving the shark is to find an alternative means of acquiring the cartilage needed. The cartilage used in a lot of the supplements could just as easily come from cows or sheep. For marketing purposes I can see the beauty of marketing sharks; they are powerful and amazing creatures, but I think that it would be easier to get cartilage from an animal that is raised in ranches around the world.

            The final idea for saving the sharks is to research how to farm sharks. There are certain breeds of sharks that are smaller and more docile then the stereotypical killer shark. These sharks would be easier to farm and they would be less likely to eat each other. This would provide shark fins and cartilage for both the shark fin soup market and the medical uses. This would also kill the incredible black market prices for shark fins that cause fishing boats to risk treaties to get the shark fins.

Fini

The animal I am talking specifically about is the polar bear. To start with it is another mammal; this will limit the number of people that will claim that I am a mammal hater.  The main reason is that they already hunt whales. Sure it may only be beluga whales that have trapped themselves under the ice ocean in the north, but it is still a whale.

What we need to do is find a group of these beluga whales and paint them black and white in the orca pattern. Then when the polar whales come by to hunt the trapped belugas they will start to associate the black and white with good and tasty food. Plus if the polar whales are slick they can get the whales up onto land and then it is on.

If you don’t understand what I mean when I say that they hunt whales you need to check out Blue Planet. In fact even if you know what I am talking about you need to watch Blue Planet. It shows how awesome the undersea world is. Of course part of this is showing how cruel the ocean is and how the strong survive.

Of course it also shows the killer whale doing what it does best; killing babies. That is right, they show a pod of orcas killing a baby gray whale. This isn’t a sick baby but a normal baby whale that is being escorted by its mother. The Orcas surround the mom and then separate babe and mom. After the trauma of being separated from its mother the orcas kill the baby. Then they only eat the jaw and let the rest float down to the ocean floor.

What kind of evil creature kills a baby and then only eats the jaws. I know what you are thinking “That sounds like something humans would do.” And you would be right. That is how evil killer whales are; as evil as humans.

Table of contents for The Trouble With Sharks

1. The Trouble With Sharks
2. The Truth About Sharks and Fishing
3. Sharks Need to be Protected
4. Arguments Against Saving the Sharks
5. Response to the Anti-Sharks
6. The Solution

            The primary reason that sharks are fished, legally and illegally , is for their fins. This destructive industry could be changed with some creative aquaculture. Aquaculture is the practice of farming fish in the ocean. It should be possible to farm sharks in this manner allowing for a controlled population to be fished instead of the accidental catch that is the primary way that sharks are caught currently. This would also allow regulation on the size of sharks captured as well as provide a research are for studying sharks.

            This kind of fishing would probably work best with some of the smaller species of shark. This would allow for more of them to be kept in a similar area and allow for a good ratio of cartilage to fin so that the whole shark is being used.

            One thing to keep in mind about shark cartilage is that sharks do get cancer and there has been no proof that shark cartilage has any affect of cancer at all. Most of the uses of shark cartilage could be replaced with the cartilage from a cow, a much more abundant and easy to find creature. Sure, it does not seem as cool to be taking cow cartilage pills, but it sure is better for the environment.

            All of the supposed medical uses for shark cartilage need much more research support. There have been no conclusive studies that say that shark cartilage has a benefit to the human body. It seems that just like with the dangerousness of sharks the health benefits  have been exaggerated by the media.

            From the data it would appear that sharks are as dangerous as their reputation. It is not surprising that people have been hurt by sharks. They are kings of the ocean. If a person goes into the shark’s domain they must accept the risk of encountering them and that encounter will go how the shark wants it to.  According to Peter Klimley of the University of California at Davis, “We once took a seal and stripped the fat off it and put it all in the water. The shark ate the fat but not the rest of the body. They are actually very discriminating predators” (Benson 2).

            Why then, if they are man-eaters, did they swim away? Because of optimal foraging theory, a mathematical explanation of how sharks and other predators weigh the caloric value of prey against the cost to eat it (Martin 3). A shark would not interested in eating something as lean and stringy as a human being. People that eat meat need to think about which they would rather eat, a groundhog or a cow. Personally, I would eat the cow any day. Cows are slower, have a higher fat content which can be converted into energy and I can buy steak at the store making it the easier of the two to get. Sharks are the same way. A shark is not going to eat a person if a seal or tuna fish is available. To a shark a human is like celery; it takes more work to eat it then the energy gained from the eating. 

            Most people attacked by sharks are attacked because to a shark they looked and acted like a seal in an area where the shark was hunting. A swimming person from below looks like an injured seal. An injured seal is an easy fatty snack for a shark. A surfer looks like a seal resting at the surface of the water. The shark just does what it would do if it saw a tasty morsel floating above it. The shark swam up, grabbed the surfer and pulled him under. The shark would once again be surprised by the lack of sealness once it got the person underwater releasing the surfer and swimming away. As Rob Stewart, director of the documentary on shark finning, Sharkwater, said “The reality is that sharks are not dangerous predators to humans. If people realize that, they’ll care about them the same way as they do about pandas and elephants and bears. When an elephant is killed for ivory in Africa, the world goes crazy. But millions of sharks get killed in a year, and no one notices or cares” (Sharkwater).

            Looking through more and more cases of shark “attacks”  it becomes apparent that most of them were a case of mistaken identity. One rarely reads about a SCUBA diver being attacked. This is because SCUBA equipment is loud and the divers cannot be mistaken for another animal in the sea. Nothing moves like a SCUBA diver in the water or makes as much noise. Since sound travels four times faster underwater then it does in air, sharks hear the racket that people make and typically investigate. They do not attack, they just swim by, maybe bumping into the people but rarely use their mouths to check divers out as they do other creatures.

            Not only is there less danger from sharks than there is from lightning but they share the predatory patterns with one of the most beloved of all sea creatures. The orca, or killer whale, is one of the most well known marine mammals. They are famous at Sea World and other marine parks and very few people are afraid of them. Here is an animal that shares the slot of apex predator with the white shark and yet is not feared the same way. One has to think that if an orca took a bite at someone they would basically be eaten. One does not hear about it because whoever was attacked would be gone, completely eaten.

            To give an idea of how dangerous orcas are let me tell a story from my days at commercial diving school. I had an instructor for one of my classes named Scott Cassell. Scott is one of those crazy underwater people. He spends his time filming dangerous creatures underwater. He has developed numerous tools to allow him to dive with creatures that very few others will dive with. He told us, “If you are in the water to work and you see a white shark not to worry. If you see a tiger shark you’ll be fine, but if you see an orca get the fuck out of the water.”

            Here is a man who has logged more than five thousand hours underwater, with most of that spent diving in dangerous environments and with dangerous creatures and he will not dive with orcas. And yet these orcas are protected while an animal that has simply gotten a bad reputation from movies and books remains in danger of being fished to extinction.  

Table of contents for The Trouble With Sharks

1. The Trouble With Sharks
2. The Truth About Sharks and Fishing
3. Sharks Need to be Protected
4. Arguments Against Saving the Sharks
5. Response to the Anti-Sharks
6. The Solution

There are very few places in the world that are openly against saving the sharks. There are a few places that are openly against regulations that would limit the methods in which sharks could be caught. Two countries that feel that shark finning is a necessity are China and Japan.

            Both China and Japan have been eating shark fin soup for hundreds of years. The trend started in China during the Ming Dynasty (Elmore 1). Not only is this dish considered a delicacy but it is also viewed as a status symbol. Even with the current restrictions, or maybe because of the restrictions, shark fins sell for hundreds of dollars a pound. There are arguments that if the fishing of sharks is more tightly regulated this price will only go up, leading to an increase of illegal fishing and a black market for the fins.

            Shark fin soup is a cultural problem for sharks in a very small part of the world. Worldwide the main problem are the possible medical uses for sharks. The most commonly used part of the shark that is used in medical treatments is their cartilage (Cunningham-Day 3). Shark’s cartilage is supposed to help with a number of things, from helping joint pain to male enhancement. Shark cartilage first started being used when it was discovered that sharks do not get cancer, and it was thought that by taking the shark cartilage it was possible to be protected from cancer.

            Once again it is in Japan where the belief that shark cartilage can help make  a person more potent in bed originates. This is primarily a cultural belief, that by taking something from such a powerful creatures, it is possible to gain some of that power.

            We have all heard someone say “Sharks are scary.” This is a common response that is heard when talking to someone about sharks. Sharks have a reputation, deserved or not, for being man eaters. There have been reports in the news recently of people dying from shark attacks.

Continued next Monday.

To start with, SCUBA diving is one of the few recreational sports that requires extensive training just to participate. This means that every SCUBA diver, at one point or another, really wanted to learn how. You run into very few SCUBA divers who decided to learn on a whim or did it just because someone took them. You cannot even rent equipment without being certified.  I think this is important because it puts everyone on the same page and makes sure everyone is on the same page safety wise.

The beauty of SCUBA training is that it isn’t difficult. Sure there are a few concepts that can be confusing, like buoyancy and pressure, but for the most part if you have taken a science class at any point in your life you will be fine. I took my first SCUBA class when I was twelve years old and had no problem understanding the basics and passing with no problems. If I could pass the class when I was twelve there is no reason why anyone else should have a problem.

Another reason why SCUBA diving is awesome is that it allows you to visit a place where human beings one hundred percent don’t belong. In the water you are a visitor and an explorer. It is basically like going to space, but more exciting because there is life underwater. This can be a humbling experience at first. As humans we tend to feel like we are masters of everything we see. Going underwater and seeing that there is a whole world that we don’t belong to is incredible.

I remember on one of my first ocean dives I saw the most incredible animals. About seventy-five feet away flying across the sand was a spotted eagle ray. Here was an animal that was easily as big as I was and it could care less that we where in the water. I am sure that if we would have tried to approach it, there could have been trouble but since we respected the fact that we where visiting, it left us alone.

The most important aspect of SCUBA is that it raises peoples awareness about the oceans and inland waterway environments. When you start to dive you learn all about how to dive and what you should and shouldn’t do. What is interesting is that most new divers start researching what creatures they might see underwater and in doing so learn about conservation efforts. Typically they will discuss this with there fellow divers as well as non-diving friends, spreading the word around about how the human race is hurting one of the resources we need to survive as a species.

In my on personal world SCUBA is one of the most amazing things. It is a fun sport that allows you to go where few people have gone before and see things that you wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. Every SCUBA dive is like going on a safari, you get to see wildlife in it’s natural habitat where it is unaffected by your actions, unless your an idiot. This glimpse into an ecosystem is unmatched by any other wildlife based experience.

Table of contents for The Trouble With Sharks

1. The Trouble With Sharks
2. The Truth About Sharks and Fishing
3. Sharks Need to be Protected
4. Arguments Against Saving the Sharks
5. Response to the Anti-Sharks
6. The Solution

Apex predators are the pinnacle of the food chain. These animals that have no natural predators. These animals do what they please and are responsible for balancing the ecosystem (Kluger 2). White sharks are a prime example of an apex predator. White sharks roam the earth’s oceans eating pretty much anything it wants. Sharks eat seals, tuna fish and any other sea creature they come across.

            Apex predators are an integral part of the ecosystem. They are responsible for culling the masses of prey species. This culling helps control the population of the plants and animals that the prey eat. Without these predators the prey starts to multiply at an alarming rate. This overabundance of prey eat too much of the plant life and other small creatures leading to the destruction of an entire ecosystem.

            One example of this happening is the gray wolf populations in Yellowstone National Park. For the longest time these wolves were considered to be a nuisance to ranchers and their livestock. This led to the almost extinction of the gray wolf. Once the gray wolves where almost gone, the population of elk increased to an alarming level. These elk primarily eat the aspen trees, and as their population grew,  the number of aspen trees that made it to maturity dropped. These trees, considered to be one of the great parts of the national park, were almost completely eaten up by the elk.

            This association between wolves, elk and aspens was not noticed until after the wolves were reintroduced to the park. Bill Ripple and Bob Beschta, two scientists separately studying the alarming decline in the aspens, noticed that after the reintroduction of the wolves, the population of aspen groves rebounded (Welsch 1).

            If a similar population decline happens with just the white shark, not taking into account any other sharks, then the population of their prey species will increase. Even on a small scale this can be devastating. If the shark populations that primarily hunt along the western coast of the United States were to be wiped out completely, problems would arise almost immediately. The seals, sea lions and larger fish would start to eat a larger quantity of their common prey. This would lead to the extinction of that prey. The predators would then move onto other smaller prey, eventually eating themselves out of house and home. Once all of the prey is dead, the predators would start to die off. This would in turn cause the microscopic krill to have no decomposing bodies to feed on. The krill would die off giving the filter feeding whales nothing to eat, causing them to die off. The destruction of even one species can destroy an entire local ecosystem. Imagine that on a global scale.

            A lot of people will talk about conservation, as if that will solve the problem, but with sharks there needs to be more done than just simple conservation. Sharks are one of the oldest species in the ocean. Imagine a creature that has ancestors that go all they way back to the time of the dinosaurs. Scientists can learn so much about evolution just by further study of the shark.

            The shark is a living fossil. Here is a creature that has survived where very few species have. The extinction of the dinosaurs killed off most of the species on the earth, but not sharks. Sharks have been able to shrug off so many destructive acts but human beings are in danger of destroying this ancient creature.

            Any effort that is made to save the sharks needs to include a strong research arm. How are we going to save something that we know so little about? Most of the efforts out now are primarily based on a conservation angle. This is important in the short term, but over the long haul more needs to be learned about sharks.

Continued next Monday.