mail: po box 21022, castro valley, ca 94546 program for … · 2020-01-30 · you how easy it is to...

1 | The Aqua Tooter January, 2020

www.aquatutus.org Since 1955; now in our 65th year of diving safety & fun January 2020

Since 1958... a publica�on from the Aqua

Tutus Diving Club, a non-profit organiza�on

established to promote Water Safety and to

further the sport of SCUBA Diving.

MEETING SCHEDULE General Club Meeting: First Thursday of Every Month at 7:30 p.m. Social at 7:00. (except December, no meeting). Board of Directors Meeting: Third Thurs-day of Every Month at 7:00 pm. 6:30 din-ner’ (except December, no meeting)

Location: Ricky’s Sports Theatre & Grill * 15028 Hesperian Blvd. San Leandro, CA 94578 * near Bayfair BART station

Mail: PO Box 21022, Castro Valley, CA 94546

UPCOMING CLUB HIGHLIGHTS February 1: Club Equipment Sway February 15: Valentine’s Day dive. March 21: Golf Ball Cleanup dive. April 18: Coral Street dive AND CleanUp dive with Monterey Sea Otters.

June 3 : Entries & Exits practice with Den-nis.

For a complete listing of club activities visit Meetup or ATDC Event Calendar. See more event details on page 6.

IN THIS ISSUE Entertainment Report ...................... 2-3 General & BOD Meeting Minutes …. 4-6 Arnie’s Tech Tidbits, Episode 8 ….… 7-8 Holiday Party flyer …………………….. 9 Reports, Training, Events, Travel .10 –16 Club contacts & useful links ..…......…17

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you presenters and newsletter con-tributors for making this Aqua Tooter possi-ble this month: Alan Throop, Gayle Hudson, Linda Phillips, Debbie Driggers, Arnie War-shawsky, Kari Klaboe,, Linda Muth, Tyler Phelps, Melanie Moreno, Bill Briscoe

Thanks to Steele’s Discount Scuba for sending member candidates to Aqua Tutus Diving Club. Steele’s is located at:

5987 Telegraph Avenue Oakland, CA 94609 (510) 655-4344 See ad on training page

2020 membership dues are due NOW !!

… if you want to stay current with club dives and activities! Annual membership dues can be paid at any club meeting to the Treasurer or Membership chair: $40/member, $10/associate, and $25/ student. Those joining after Oct 1 are considered paid through the fol-lowing year.

Dues can also be paid online at https://aquatutus.org/membership-application/ .

PROGRAM for February 6 General Meeting

Would you like to learn more about fish, invertebrates, and algae you see on your dives? Want a fun and easy way to become a citi-zen scientist and help monitor marine habitats? If so, REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) may be just what you’re look-ing for.

You don’t need to be an expert to get started. Melanie will show you how easy it is to begin doing REEF surveys on your usual dives using a relaxed, roving diver technique.

Melanie has been a volunteer with both REEF and Reef Check since 2015. She will share a bit about her experiences as a REEF volunteer in Monterey and on tropical REEF trips to Grand Cayman, Roatan, and Bonaire.

Melanie Moreno: REEF Foundation


At the January General Mt, Tyler Phelps from the California Academy of Sciences gave an intriguing program on his explo-ration of Deep Reefs, also called “The Twilight Zone”. While working on his MS in Ichthyology from San Francisco State, he is part of the unique team at Cal Academy that supports their Hopes for Reefs Initiative, aimed at understanding and devel-oping ways to protect the coral reefs of the world. From their website: “Nearly 75% of the world’s coral reefs are currently threatened by the combined impacts of overfishing, habitat destruction, water pollution, and climate change. Though coral reefs provide human societies with vital goods and services worth an estimated several hundred billion dol-lars per year, very little is known about shallow reefs’ deeper counterparts [i.e., Deep Reefs] —the species they shelter, the threats they face, or the refuge they’ve been thought to pro-vide.” Scientist have/had hoped that these deep reefs are suf-fering less damage than the shallow reefs and that they might therefore – if there is sufficient species overlaps between the shallow and deep reefs - provide a place of refuge for species that are being decimated at the shallower depths. These two questions – relative damage and species overlap - are the fo-cus of their research. At the same time, their exploration has turned up many new species. As the photo 1 shows, shallow reefs above about 200’ depths are well-studied; while suffering damage, the ecosystems are

at least fairly well understood. The “Very-Deep Reefs”, below say 500’ depths, have been studied in recent years, but are the deep-water (“cold-water”) corals are thought to function differently as an ecosystem (e.g., perhaps not photosynthesis-based) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-water_coral ] and would therefore likely not share overlapping species or serve as a refuge for shallow species. The unique contribution of the Cal Academy team is to study Deep Reefs at depths in the range of 250’ to 500’. Tyler point-ed that shallow reefs above about 200’ can be explored easily using conventional SCUBA and are fairly well studied. The Very-Deep Reefs are studied by submersibles only and – as Tyler pointed out – are very expensive to operate. Coral reefs in the range of 200’ – 500’ depths are still accessible to divers on SCUBA (with special training), still operate as a photosyn-thesis-based ecosystem, and thus still hold/held the potential for good species overlap and refuge for shallow reef species. Prior to the Cal Academy initiative, these depths had not been extensive evaluated by scientists for species overlap or dam-age.

PROGRAM REPORT By Alan Throop & Tyler Phelps

(graphics & photos: from program or as noted)

Diving to these “Twilight Zone” depths PHOTO 6 requires special skills, equipment, and great planning. Tyler discussed

the basic issues and risks of both Nitrogen Narcosis and Oxygen Toxicity that drives the need from a standard air or enriched air (EAN) for certain ap-plications. These issues typically drive a diver to the use of Tri-

Mix for deep-diving, where a 10/70 mix of 10% Oxygen, 70% Helium, and 20% Nitrogen can minimize these risks. But the cost for the mixed-gas is about $300 per dive … and there are 4 divers on each dive. This drives them to the use of rebreathers for their twi-light dives, where the cost of the gas is only $30 per dive. Of course, they still have bailout tanks, scoot-ers, lights, sample contain-ers, etc …. Deep diving is an equipment-intensive business (like SCUBA in general, as we all know)! Tyler’s takeaway: “Teach your kids technical diving … and they’ll never have enough money to buy drugs”. There is an exhibit at Cal Acade-my on their research in the Twilight Zone with an example of a suited diver (photo 2) … but Tyler said that they actually carry more equipment than the exhibit shows! These deep dives obviously require long decompression times. For only 5-20 minutes of bottom-time at their maximum depth, they required 3-6 hours of decompression. As they pro-gress to the surface during the deco ascent, however, they

can continue to do sur-veys and sampling on the progressively-shallower depths. In many cases, they are on walls, so that they need to be careful to maintain their depth while continu-ing to do science. During

these long dive times, the divers need to both eat and drink fresh water. Photo 3 shows examples of them doing that. The Deep Reef team has studied a number of sites so far, including the Philippines, Palau, Guam, Brazil, and several

others (photo 4). Tyler showed two videos of their dives, show-ing the con-tent of the deep reefs, their equip-ment, and sur-vey methods as well as how

they gather specimens. PHOTO 5a & 5b shows a shallow 30’ and deep 400’ reef in Guam. In this location the shallow reefs

Photo 1

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 2

(Continued on next page)


are almost lifeless due to human impact, while the deep reefs look more vibrant (in this particular location). But as the insert

shows, even here there is human-generated debris. Also, there is a surprising good level of light in these clear-water sites at these depths. In their surveys, they use a technique much like Reef Check: they run a 20-meter tape and then fol-low the line, counting and recording species within a

given distance of the line (photo 6). They also collect speci-mens to compare with those in the shallow reefs, to study the species overlap question. Tyler discussed the variety of new species that they have dis-covered in this new range of depths. They have discovered 12 new species so far, that have been described and published,

and have 9 other pending publications (photos 7a & 7b) To bring these fish safely to the surface, their team has devel-oped what Tyler calls a “fish decompression chamber” (Photo 8) The fish are captured by net and then placed in the cham-ber. As the divers do their ascent, at some point they seal the chamber at that depth. On the boat, they transfer them to an-other larger pressurized chamber that can be oxygenated; it then takes about 2 days to fully decom-press to atmospher-ic pressure. In fact, his team has devel-oped deco tables for fish! As a result of their work, many of these deep-coral reef species can be exhibited in the Cal Academy aquarium. In fact, they currently have 5 undescribed species on display in the aquarium!

Their work so far has produced perhaps-unexpected results regarding the questions that they were trying to answer: First, the deep reefs in this range are, in general, quite vibrant and preserve a lot of their own bio-diversity. However, they are be-ing affected by both human debris and silting from human-produced runoff as well as from hurricanes. But – second is-sue - they observe very little overlap in species of the shallow

and the deep reefs. This seems to indicate that the deep reefs can’t really serve as a refuge for the shallow-reef species. However, their research shows that the unique biodiversity of these deep reefs and species need protection just as the shal-low reefs do.

During Q&A, Tyler said that they plan to return to these sites about every 3 years to monitor their condition and rates of de-terioration. He said that the temperature at depth can vary widely. In Guam, the surface and 300’ temperatures are about 86o F and 82o, respectively, while in Brazil they might be 79o and 51o, respectively. So the thermal protection needs to change accordingly. He was asked if they are doing work off our west coast, and he said no, that MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) is studying the deep canyons, but no one has tried to look for or study reefs in the 200’-500’ range. Tyler said that their have been technical divers that have explored these zones but they remain poorly studied in the scientific literature. We thank Tyler for presenting such an interesting pro-gram. He is now writing his master’s thesis on the ichthyology of this work and we wish him the very best in his future career.

[Editor’s note, for your interest on deep dives: The deepest dive on SCUBA was made to 1090 FSW in 2014: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2014/9/ahmed-gabr-breaks-record-for-deepest-scuba-dive-at-more-than-1000-feet-60537/. The deepest “saturation” dive on SCUBA is 2300 FSW in 1992, done with a hydro-heliox mix of (49% hydrogen, 50% helium, 1% oxygen), but required a four-week pre-dive treatment in a chamber, three days of diving from a chamber at 2215 FSW, followed by 24 days of decompression and 2.5 months of post-dive monitoring: https://divingalmanac.com/deepest-saturation-dive-experimental/ ]

Photo 5a Photo 5b

Photo 6

Photo 7a

Photo 8

Photo 7b

Bone & Good Buddy Awards — January meeting

The highly-coveted Bone Award is meant in fun, but also to be a useful dive-learning experience, to remind us of what NOT

to do. It is awarded by vote, based on the dive report discussions at the General Meeting (see minutes in this newsletter). The Good Buddy Award is given to the person who went above and be-yond to help another diver. After all, the club is all about growth in diving and help-ing other divers.

The win-ner of the Bone this month was Dennis Hocker for never taking the trim weights from his BC pocket after his dive, so taking at least 5 lbs from Dive Paradise in Cozumel.

The Good Buddy award was also given to Dennis, being nominated by Lillianna, for helping her get through her anxiety on her first di-ve in Cozumel.

Al Throop

Alan Throop


DATE: January 9, 2019

Meeting called to order by President Patti Shannon-Hocker at Rickys Sports Bar and Grill in San Leandro, CA at 7:35 pm.

Present: 60 members present.

Speaker: Exploration and Ecology of Twilight Zone Fishes by Tyler Phelps from the California Academy of Sciences .

Guests: • Maureen: Diving for two years and found us through Jim

Steele. Wants to do more coldwater diving and is looking for a buddy.

• Shelley: Just got started through Jim Steele, is not yet certi-fied, and is excited about diving.

• Jessie: Brought here by Lilian; looking to get into diving. • Doug: Diving for 40ish years, lots of abalone diving until re-

cently; his father was an original member of the club. • Melanie: Brought to club by DL and lives a mile from the

Breakwater, just retired, and will be our Presenter for Febru-ary.

• Devin: Was just certified in Roatan over the holidays, “a little terrified” of the cold water, and was sent by Jim Steele.

• Rachel: Here through Jim Steele and is going through certifi-cation.

• Austin: Met Devin Martinez-Shinn at Jack London Square and is checking out the club; abalone and lobster diver.

• Dillon: Here with Austin, from South, grew up lobster diving, and has been diving since he was eight years old; looking forward to facing coldwater fears.

• Roberto: diving a long time and inactive for two years; look-ing for a dive buddy.

Treasurer’s Report (Helga Mahlmann) Club Assets, total: $6,170.51 • Classes = $2,778.21 • General account = $3,382.30

Entertainment (Laurie) - See column in this newsletter • February 6: Melanie Moreno: Reef Foundation

• March 5: Brent Durand: Behind the Camera – Underwater Photos in California

• April 2: Oran Arms: Underwater Remotely Operated Vehi-cles

Help with entertainment is badly needed, including taking notes of the presentation; recommending speakers; back-up for Alan to do set-up. Any help is appreciated. Contact [email protected].

If you have any requests or suggestions for future entertain-ment, let us know at [email protected]

Membership and Meetup (Kat Smith) • Membership: about 86 Regular, 9 Associate, 8 Lifetime -

103 total • MeetUp: about 88 members (from Oct, 2019) • Kat will have better numbers by the next meeting.

• Facebook: open to the public. If you post a dive there, any-one can see it and potentially show up.

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES January 2020

Reported by Secretary Gayle Hudson

• Meetup: Participation is limited to club members. If you want to organize a dive, let Kat or an organizer know and she will make you a temporary organizer so you can set up a dive.

Training (Dennis Hocker) - See ads in this newsletter • AOW: Currently has an Advanced Open Water class that is

finishing up.

• If there is interest in any other training, let Dennis know. For more information on training, contact Dennis Hocker at 510-792-5606 [email protected] or Neil Benjamin at 510- 673-0073 [email protected] .

• Jim Steele has classes ongoing and sends ATDC many ew members!

Newsletter (Alan Throop) • Input is needed by the 20th of every month. Content on any

material of diver interest is always welcome; dive reports and photos are encouraged.

• Contact Alan Throop at [email protected] if you are not receiving the newsletter.

Webmaster (Kari Klaboe) • The website up to date. • Content can be sent to [email protected]. Cencal: No report. The CenCal Board is looking for volunteers and ATDC is insured through CenCal. The organization has a long representation in California for advocating for divers and dive

sites. Special Committees: None Old Business • We have lost the vendor who could make dog tags for our

members. Devin found a couple of websites for ID tags and YourBagTag.com is another one.

New Business • none

General Announcements

• Melanie Moreno said her other dive club, the Monterey Bay Sea Otters Dive Club are collecting fishing line on the 18th of this month at Breakwater. Meet after 8am, coffee and donuts are provided. The website has more information and they hold cleanup dives quarterly.

• Bill Briscoe produced a 17-minute video about the urchin

barren issue for Reef Check. {Ed. NOTE: see report and link in this newsletter on page 12].

• Kat Smith would like to see an overnight experience at the

Monterey Bay Aquarium, which offers this event for 100 people. She suggested we reach out to VDM and other friends who would like to go. Cost would be about $150-175 per person, including dinner. If you are interested please talk to Kat.

(Continued on page 6)


Date: January 16, 2020

Meeting called to order by Vice-President Devin Martinez-Shinn at Ricky’s Sports Theater and Grill in San Leandro, CA at 7:01 pm

Members Present: 10 Treasurer’s Report (Helga Mahlmann) Club Assets: $5,674.51

• Classes: $2,778.21 • General: $2,896.30

Membership & Social Media (Kat Smith) Membership: Report not ready. From November 14 General Meeting: 9 Associate; 8 Lifetime; and 86 Regular for a total of 103 members. Meetup: about 96 members Entertainment (Alan Throop) 2020 • February: Melanie Moreno, Reef Foundation • March: Brent Durant, Underwater photos, videos, and tutori-

als • April: Oran Arms, Underwater Robots

• May: Jim Steele, History of Dive Equipment • June: Members Night • July: Bill and Mari Conaway; Indonesia

Training (Dennis Hocker) • Two members in AOW and the class is finishing up. • There is some interest in Rescue Diver certification. • If you have interest in these or any other training classes, please contact Dennis at: [email protected] . For more information on training contact Dennis Hocker at (510) 792-5606 [email protected] or Neil Benjamin at (510) 673-0073 [email protected].

Newsletter (Alan Throop) • Contact Kari at [email protected] if you are not

receiving the newsletter. • Contact Alan at [email protected] to provide re-

ports, photos, etc. Input is due by the 20th of the month.

Webmaster (Kari Klaboe) • Membership Application: Helga distributed an example of

how we can word the members personal information to opt in/opt out on our membership application. If everyone is in agreement, Kari can try to implement it on our website. How-ever, before we provide so many opt in/opt out choices (email, address, phone numbers, etc.), Kari wants to make sure that we actually want to track all of the options listed and that we will actually implement them on our membership roster. If we're not interested in tracking that many options and want to simplify things, then we can possibly go with the current opt in/opt out that is shown online.

• It was decided to keep the current option on our website, which is opting in of all information or opting out of no infor-mation. Only members of the Board who need this infor-mation currently have access, as we do not have the Board staffing to compile a list of individual privacy preferences. Lori made a motion to leave the website opt in/out as is. Discussion ensued and Angela said it’s reasonable to wait

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES January 2020

Reported by Gayle Hudson, Secretary

until a later time when we have someone who can work a more detailed report. Kat seconded the motion and it passed unanimously to leave the opt in/opt out feature as is, for now.

• Kari has posted the General meeting minutes are posted to the website.

• Newsletter Dropbox: Kari has asked Alan to send her full size images for use on the website, but it's difficult for him to do this because he has a basic Dropbox account. Kari would like to recommend that we upgrade Alan's Dropbox account to a paid account with more storage, so he has an easier time sharing photos with her.

Alan said he needs to transmit large files to the Webmaster, send a large file size to a group, and we also need to allow members to copy and send photos. Alan doesn’t believe Dropbox has this capability. Angela has experience with Google products and said she can sit down with Alan at a later date to discuss options.

Special Committees None

Old Business • Group photo for Ricky’s: Devin would like to POC a dive in

April where this group photo will be taken. Dennis has a lot of photos from the club and said a collage could be an option and suggested Devin reach out to Patti Baugh for ideas.

New Business • Truth Aquatics Charter: Devin says Truth Aquatics is taking

charters on the Vision. VDM has lost their insurance affilia-tion with Lawrence Livermore Lab. Bill Delameter is willing to work with anyone who wants to take over this annual event. Discussion ensued regarding the challenges of taking over this charter and the Board decided to decline this offer.

• Non-discrimination Statement for Website: Neil suggested we place a non-discriminatory statement on our website following an inquiry from someone who is interested in our club. Dis-cussion ensued as to the language that should be used. The Board recommends the statement, “We do not discriminate. Come and join us. We welcome all,” should be added to our website.

• Old Club Laptop: Larry the Elder brought the old club laptop home to look it over and said it’s good for playing DVDs and not much else; no word processing or features the club needs. Debbie Driggers suggested their family buy it from the club to do their own video editing. Angela made a motion that we donate the laptop to the Driggers and Kat seconded the motion. Devin called for a discussion and there was none. The motion passed unanimously.

• ATDC Listing in California Diving News: Despite numerous attempts by club members, California Diving News still has us listed as meeting at Round Table in Castro Valley. Alan called a sales number and, after persistently calling three times, “Mark” said our information will be updated.

• Overnight at Monterey Bay Aquarium: Kat needs everyone to send her an email with the best date to have an overnight at the MBA. A minimum of 120 people are needed and this event is open to family and friends. Price is in the ballpark of $150+ and depends on additional options such as food, DJs, breakfast, cash bar, etc. Alan will reach out to VDM.

Upcoming Activities

2020

(Continued on page 6)


Dive reports

• Gayle and Elaine went to Cozumel in advance of the dive club’s trip. Perfect diving weather and also some fun dives at Dreamgate cenote in Akumal.

• Larry went with the dive club on the annual pilgrimage to Co-zumel. Bill Brisco had a great beach BBQ.

• Jono’s lady, Janelle, went on a discover scuba dive with Den-nis and Jono had an amazing night dive with Devin. At the high point, 14 members were at the Barracuda. They were in Cozumel when the two Carnival ships had a meaningful dis-cussion.

• Corwin went to the Caribbean, sailing from Fort Lauderdale. Had six great dives and saw the Kittywake, huge grouper, turtles, and a lot of bleached coral. Temperature got to 86 degrees.

• Devin went freediving in San Felipe, Mexico where they did some amazing free diving off a small panga boat with GPS coordinates. Divemaster has been in the chamber over ten times as they don’t use tables because computers are too expensive. The biggest fish he brought up was a six-foot bar-racuda and then it got away.

• Melanie says it was 55 degrees yesterday at the Breakwater with 8-12 feet visibility. The area next to #4 on Breakwater wall has been loaded with bat rays; yesterday she counted four.

• Bill Brisco saw a guitar fish next to the pipe at San Carlos. He has two witnesses.

Bone & Good Buddy Nominations

• Dennis nominated Oliver Edwards for a Bone Award for not keeping his gear together – Oliver left his fins behind on the boat in Cozumel

• Jono nominated Dennis for never taking his trim weights out of his pocket after his dive, taking at least 5 lbs. from Para-dise Divers.

• Bill self-nominated for going into the water without his weight belt.

• Dennis was awarded the Bone Award.

• Liliana nominated Dennis for the Good Buddy Award as she was nervous on her first dive in Cozumel. Dennis helped her and held her hand throughout the dive.

• Larry the Elder said, as not the youngest in the group, the entire group of ATDC who went to Cozumel deserves a Good Buddy award.

• Jono said everyone lent Janelle equipment in Cozumel to try out diving and Dennis had another new diver holding his hand.

• Dennis was awarded the Good Buddy Award.

Upcoming Activity and Dives.

2020 • February 1: Club Equipment Swap. 9 am at Gayle Hudson’s

home.

• February 15: Club Dive: Valentine’s Dive at Lovers Point. POC is Angela Boltinghouse.

• March 21: Club Dive: Golf Ball Cleanup at Pebble Beach. POC is Gayle.

• May 8-18: Maumere, Komodo, & Bima, Indonesia - Aboard the Explorer Adventure Blue Manta. POC: Dennis Hocker. One space is left. Additional spaces might be available; please check with Dennis.

2021 • July 26—July 10: Bonaire with Dennis. See ad in this Tooter.

General Meeting Report (cont.)

Next Meetings January 16: Board of Directors meeting at Ricky’s Sports The-atre and Grill at 7:00 PM. Dinner if desired at 6:30. February 6 : Next General Membership meeting 7:00 / 7:30 Meeting Adjourned: 9:04 pm

• February 1: Swap/Sell at the home of Gayle Hudson • February 15: Club Dive for Valentine’s at Lovers; POC is An-

gela • March 21: Club Dive: Golf Ball Cleanup; POC is Gayle • April 18: Club Dive and Group Photo at Coral Street; POC is

Kat • May: Local club dive TBD • May 8-18: Maumere, Komodo, & Bima, Indonesia -

Come aboard the Explorer Adventure Blue Manta. POC: Den-nis Hocker. One space left. See ad in newsletter.

• June 13: Club Dive at Monastery: Entries and Exits practice; POC is Dennis

• July 18: Club Dive at Jade Cove; POC is Devin • August: Club dive in Lake Tahoe; POC is DL Popplewell • September 19: Club Dive with Monterey Bay Sea Otters for

Ocean Cleanup; POC is Gayle. • October: TBD • November 13-15: Multi Club Dives; POC is Kat • Club dives to be confirmed: “Navigation”; “Marine ID”

2021 • June 26-July 10: Diving in Boniare. POC: Dennis. See ad in

newsletter

Next Meetings • Next General Membership meeting: February 6, 2020 • Next Board of Directors meeting: February 20, 2020.

BOD Meeting Report (cont.)

Upcoming Club Events !!

.. See MEETUP or call POC for CURRENT information .. See MeetUp for other “pickup dives” during the month

• February 1: Club Equipment Swap. 9 am at Gayle Hud-son’s home.

• February 15: Valentine’s Day club dive at Lovers. POC is Angela.

• March 21: Golf Ball Cleanup, POC is Gayle.

• April 18: Club dive at Coral Street and GROUP PHOTO for Ricky’s wall. POC is Kat. ALSO, Cleanup Dive with Monterey Sea Otters, San Carlos Beach.

• May: Club dive TBD

• June 13: Club Dive at Monastery: Entries and Exits prac-tice; POC is Dennis.

• July 18: Club Dive at Jade Cove; POC is Devin. ALSO, Cleanup Dive with Monterey Sea Otters, San Carlos Beach.

• August: Club dive at Lake Tahoe. POC is DL Poppelwell

• September 19: Club Dive with Monterey Bay Sea Otters for Ocean Cleanup; POC is Gayle. ALSO, Cleanup Dive with Monterey Sea Otters, San Carlos Beach.

• October: Club dive TBD • November 13-15: Multi Club Dives; POC is Kat


Tech Tidbits… Episode 8

Dive Planning

by Arnie Warshawsky (photos provided by Arnie)

[ Editor’s note: Arnie has offered to write a series of articles on his experience with technical diving. Dennis has trained a num-ber of club members and others for this, and has opened up some wonderful experiences that combine both technical and recreational diving during his trips abroad.

Arnie is part of the Aqua Tutus contingent that now lives in Hawaii. Enjoy his perspective on this! ]

Dive planning is a disciplined approach or philosophy that informs your diving—most importantly, it is an attitude. This column discusses the framework for dive planning and ad-dresses why it is important. It will NOT teach you how to plan a technical dive. That must happen during your technical dive training class with direct involvement of your instructor.

In the days of diving with single steel 72 cylinders, it was real-ly difficult to incur a decompression obligation before running out of breathing gas. Let me illustrate that point with two ex-amples from recreational diving. Consider a dive to 100 fsw. Suppose you have average air consumption. For the sake of illustration, let’s assume a breathing rate of 0.7 cubic feet of air per minute (cf/min) at the surface. At 100 fsw that rate ef-fectively quadruples, becoming 2.8 cf/min. Since a steel 72 cylinder holds 65 cf, at 100 fsw the cylinder will be exhausted in roughly 23 minutes. This simple example ignores the gas you breathed getting down to 100 fsw and the gas you will need to return to the surface and complete a safety stop. Ac-cording to PADI’s Recreational Dive Planner™ (RDP), the no-decompression limit1 (NDL) for a dive to 100 feet is 20 minutes. The clock starts ticking when you begin your descent and stops once you start your ascent back to the surface. So of the 23 minutes of gas that your cylinder holds, once you reach the NDL you would only have three minutes of gas left (roughly 8 cubic feet, which is just barely enough to make the ascent and complete a 3-minute safety stop). The available gas volume pretty much rules out incurring a decompression obligation. Let’s look at a shallower example. Suppose the dive is to 60 fsw. For this dive, your effective breathing rate is nearly 2 cf/min. Because the dive is shallower, your gas would last longer than it did in the previous example: 33 minutes2. The NDL for a dive to 60 fsw is 55 minutes, so, again, you run out of breathing gas before you exceed the NDL.

Nowadays, divers more commonly dive with larger capacity cylinders or with doubles if pursuing a technical dive. In addi-tion, many divers breathe enriched air (typically, EAN32 or EAN36) which can extend the NDL3. The old saw that you will run out of gas before you incur a significant decompression obligation no longer applies. Increasingly, more and more di-vers use dive computers to control their dive. Unlike dive ta-bles, which must assume a so-called square profile, dive com-puters seamlessly account for depth changes and compared to dive tables are less affected by round-off errors. Those fea-

tures combine to present the diver with more time on the dive before reaching the NDL. Dive computers also sport a host of indicators and alarms to warn the diver of the approaching NDL. [I cannot emphasize enough the importance of reading the instruction manual that comes with your dive computer. The computer does you no good at all if you do not know what it is telling you.] All a trained recreational diver needs to do is monitor her dive computer and submersible pressure gauge to decide when she must end the dive (either because of nearing the NDL or running low on breathing gas) and begin the ascent to the surface. Very little pre-dive planning is need-ed to dive safely.

The situation described above does not apply to a technical diver where the NDL is no longer a factor. The technical diver can dive to any depth and for any amount of time AS LONG AS the diver will have enough gas to breathe and know what decompression stops must be taken. The only safe way to satisfy those requirements is to go through careful pre-dive planning. Dive planning for a technical dive requires signifi-cant discipline. Remember, the life you take chances with is your own!

There are two ways to plan a dive: manual dive planning and computer-based dive planning using dive planning software. I believe a competent technical diver knows how to do manual dive planning and only then migrates to the easier method of using dive planning software. Both have the same elements;

however, manual planning involves a lot of, frankly, tedious arithmetic.

Manual Dive Planning. The very first step in this planning process is to determine your breathing rate. Technical dive training will cover how to determine your Respiratory Minute Volume4 (RMV), which is your breathing rate. RMV is usually expressed in cubic feet per minute—not psi/min. This breath-ing rate does not stay the same forever, so it is a good idea to recheck it every now and then. With the RMV in hand we are ready to plan the proposed dive.

Generally speaking, the technical diving planning process first finds the required decompression stops for a desired maxi-mum depth and dive time. Using the depth, time, and stops, the next part of the process determines how much gas you will need to safely conduct the intended dive. The third step is to assess the associated oxygen exposure. Finally, you add a safety buffer to the computed gas requirements. Deep diving for the sake of going deep and decompression diving for the sake of the adventure are foolish. You should follow a rational process to decide how deep you will dive and for how long. Often the depth is decided by where you want to go. You may want to dive onto a particular wreck. In that case, the location of the wreck pretty much decides how deep your dive will be.

( Continued on page 8)

1 The term “no-decompression limit” is misleading. Every dive is a decom-pression dive. By definition, recreational limits are determined so that at any point in the dive you can ascend directly to the surface; that is, there are no required decompression stops. 2 The calculation is: ABT = 65 cf / [ 0.7 cf/min x ( (60 ft + 33 ft) / 33 ft) ] = 33 min.

3 There are two ways to dive with enriched air. The most common way is to

breathe enriched air so that the NDL will be extended. If you dive until you each the NDL, compared to breathing air, you get a longer dive theoretical-ly with the same risk of decompression sickness as if you used air. Another way to approach your dive is to breathe enriched air but keep your comput-er set on air so that your body will absorb less nitrogen than the computer expects. Logically, this provides a safety benefit at the cost of the extra dive time you would otherwise realize from breathing enriched air.

4 Respiratory Minute Volume is defined as the volume of gas moved into or out of your lungs over the course of one minute at the surface. RMV is usually measured by swimming at a constant depth for a specified time interval and measuring the cylinder pressure drop. The pressure drop is converted to gas volume by adjusting for the cylinder used.


Or you might want to take photographs of fish that are known to frequent a particular overhang on a deep reef. In this case, the depth of the reef overhang decides the maximum dive depth. The duration of the dive is dominated by how long you estimate it will take to accomplish your dive objective. A sec-ondary consideration is to manage your surface-to-surface runtime. However you decide on depth and time, you use the maximum depth and the dive bottom time with a decompres-sion dive table to determine where you must make decom-pression stops and for how long. Reading decompression tables is simple; getting them is more challenging. There are

public domain dive tables available on-line or directly from the Government Printing Office5 and proprietary dive tables, such as the collection available for purchase from the International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD). The in-put to the tables are maximum depth and dive bottom time;

the output from the tables are required decompression stop depth and duration. Some tables account for using a richer than air dive breathing gas and/or decompression gas.

The information you have to this point gives you a dive profile: how long you will be at various depths (the wreck or reef) and the accompanying set of decompression stops. Af-ter accounting for the time to transition between those depths you can calculate—this is the tedious part—how much gas you expect to breathe during each of those stages. If you will be using accelerated decompression using a specific decom-pression gas, you treat the back gas and the decompression gas separately. Summing the gas needed for each stage of the dive and adding an appropriate fraction to provide a safe-ty margin gives you a total gas requirement. At this point, you must decide if you have the cylinder capacity for this gas. You might need to use a larger cylinder or dual cylinders. Or you might have to reduce the dive bottom time. If you think about it a bit, you will realize that during a dive the only leeway you have to change the dive plan is to cut it shorter. Staying long-er uses more gas than you might have simply because you are staying longer and will incur a greater decompression obligation, which leads to more and/or different decompres-sion stops. Plan your dive and dive your plan. It is really im-portant.

The typical way to do all of this is to generate a table. Spreadsheets are well-suited to this. The depths for the vari-ous stages of your dive become the rows. The columns in-clude time at each stage, pressure factor at each depth, and gas required for each stage (computed from the data in the preceding columns and your RMV). It is important to also ac-count for your oxygen exposure. In general, oxygen exposure is limited to a set amount per 24 hours—the Central Nervous System (CNS) clock. Breathing a gas mixture richer than 0.5-ata oxygen partial pressure (especially during accelerated decompression stops while breathing enriched air) eat up some of the available daily clock time and must be consid-ered in your planning. Your training will cover why this is im-portant to do and how to calculate it.

Computer-Generated Dive Profiles. The big advantage of computer-assisted dive planning is that the software han-

Tech Tidbits (cont.) dles the arithmetic for you. This relieves you of the tedium and avoids arithmetic mistakes. The disadvantage is that you have to acquire and learn how to use an appropriate software package. The real power of these programs is that they give you the ability to quickly explore “what if” scenarios. There are a number of commercial software products available, as well as some shareware programs found on the internet. Before you commit to buying one, find out what decompression algorithm the program uses—a Haldanean model or a Bubble model. Choose one that is in tune with you philosophically. I use V-Planner™, which is very economical, easy to use, and uses the varying permeability model (VPM-B) bubble model.

Once you have the software, read the Users Manual carefully and experiment with how to use the program. Each program has its own way of inputting critical dive parameters such as your RMV rate, your acceptable maximum oxygen partial pressure, maximum depth, desired bottom time, desired gas mixes. For planned repetitive dives, you must enter the surface interval you will observe. Often there are other inputs reflecting how you want to approach your dives. For example, V-Planner™ lets me force gas switch stops to be at least two minutes in duration. I like this feature, because it takes about two minutes for your blood to cir-culate through your body and thus realize the physiological effect of the gas switch.

The output from these programs usually is a runtime table. A runtime table tells you at what clock time you have to do some-thing (the table starts at zero so is automatically synchronized with your dive computer’s dive time), such as start the ascent, ascend to the next deco stop, switch breathing gas, etc. The pro-gram will usually compute how much back gas and deco gas you will need (including the safety margin you input). As was the case for manual planning, this information defines what size cylinders you will need. If you can’t carry the necessary gas, then you need to change input parameters (e.g., shorter bottom time, richer deco gas). Some programs will also compute runtime and gas con-sumption for a defined set of alternatives. I tell my software to compute runtimes for four alternative situations, which works out nicely for a quad arrangement on my slate. (I put the planned runtime on one side of a slate and the four alternatives on the back.) Three of the alternatives reflect overstaying the planned bottom time by five minutes, descending ten feet deeper than the planned maximum depth, and both five minutes longer and ten feet deeper. (The former is less forgiving than the latter.) The fourth entry is a runtime table in the event that my deco gas is not available for any reason at all. Each of these four situations has gas consumption implications. I make sure that I carry enough gas to handle the most extreme case.

One thing that dive planning software lets you do easily is to explore alternatives quickly and painlessly. You can run through the implications of different gas mixes—both back gas and deco gas. You can examine the implications of desired bottom times. Manual planning allows this, too, but is much more arduous to do.

Next month I plan to address decompression theory.

5 For example, both the U. S. Navy Diving Manual, Revision 7, Dec 2016 and the NOAA Diving Manual, 4th edition, contain decompression dive tables. Third party publishers, like Best Publishing, often print these public domain documents and sell them.

6 Generally speaking, during a 24-hour period, the body’s central nervous sys-tem can only tolerate a certain exposure to oxygen at partial pressures greater than 0.5 ata. This is a limiting factor and is commonly referred to as the CNS clock and each dive consumes a portion of that allowable amount. There is another oxygen exposure limiter that accounts for pulmonary effects (essentially oxygen burns to lung tissue), but the daily limit is nearly impossible to reach unless you are involved in saturation diving.


Aqua Tutus Holiday Party by Alan Throop (photos by Linda Muth, except as noted)

On Saturday, December 7th, Tooters of past and present gathered with their families and friends to celebrate the Holiday Season together at our tradi-tional Holiday Party, held again this year at the La Cabana Mexican restau-rant in Newark. We had over 55 guests attend and enjoy the great food, drinks, socializing, a large and really-nice raffle, some dancing, and … oh yah … even Santa showed up! There were some members we hadn’t seen for a while and some new friends as well. We missed a few of you, but hopefully you can make it next year.

We need to especially thank Baudel, owner of La Cabana, for allowing us to take over the restaurant and for working with us to create a wonderful dinner and evening. The new layout of the remodel of the restaurant worked out nicely for the party and for Baudel’s ability to seat more people during the year. Thanks also to the staff for the great food and

service that they provided. There was a wonderful variety of excellent Mexican cuisine. The holiday decorations and the at-mosphere were festive. Dennis, Patti, and usually some other Tooters are at La Cabana most Friday evenings, so come over

and enjoy a wonderful din-ner there all through the year. We usually have a few dinners there during the year as well, so let us know when you get antsy for that and we’ll schedule one.

Thanks also to the Holiday Party Committee who orga-

nized and volunteered the party. Kari Klaboe led the committee this year, and they all are to be thanked for the fun and festive evening that they organized on our behalf … be sure to thank them by text, email, or next time you see them!

The restaurant and dinner ar-rangements were made by Patti and Dennis Hocker, and the des-sert was brought by Helga Mahl-mann and Jeanne Fetterly. The publicity, nametags, ticket sales, and greeting at the party were done by Jenn Penchacek, Alan Throop, Kay Smith, Ruth Chofre, and Helga Mahlmann. Party setup was done by Lindsey Martin and Alan Stanek.

The raffle was done by Kat Smith and Devin Martinez-Shin.

We thank the many people who donated gifts for the raffle and particularly Jim and Sue Steele, who donated a number of items from Steele’s Dive Shop.

The program was organized and lead by Kari Klaboe, Jono Dove, and Alan Throop. Larry Muth even talked Santa into stopping by for a little while! The gift handout was organized by Kari Klaboe and Angela Boultinghouse.

Linda Muth was the party photographer. The photos show some scenes from the

party. We had a nice social period before dinner to catch up with friends, and share some great margaritas and other drinks. After a wonderful buffet dinner and des-sert; there was plenty of food for all and even some to take home.

After din-ner, Jono

Dove served as the Masters of Ceremo-ny. He welcomed guests and thanked all who helped organize the party. He used this time to thank the current Board of Directors and the new Board members for their work for the club dur-

ing 2019 and the year to come.

Santa then magically appeared with his elf and, together with Angela and Kari, they distributed gifts from under the Christ-mas Tree to all the good “boys & girls”. After Santa, we pulled back tables and had some fun together dancing and more socializing.

Linda took a lot of nice photos of the party and particularly with folks with Santa. There is a ProShow Gold slide show at the following link to see all the photos: https://youtu.be/M3CJ82G68k8 . If you want to get any of the photo-graphs at full resolution, you can contact Linda at

[email protected], give her the number of the photo that you would like (the numbers are in the slideshow), and she will email it to you. Many thanks to Linda for doing this.

Thanks to all who attended the party and helped organize it

… I hope that we haven’t forgotten to thank someone above because your efforts are so appreciated! We hope that you had a wonderful holiday season and wish you flat seas and good visibility for diving with all your great buddies in 2020 !!


Future Club meeting dates ** All meetings at Ricky’s Sport Bar & Theater **

General Meetings Board of Directors Meeting

(typically 1st Thursday) (Typically 3rd Thursday) (all 1st Thursdays, 2020) ( ALL MEMBERS INVITED ! )

February 6, 2020 February 20, 2020

March 5 March 19

April 2 April 16

May 7 May 21

June 4 June 18

July 2 July 16

August 6 August 20

September 3 September 17

October 1 October 15

November 5 November 19

Dive Report—San Carlos beach cleanup

with Monterey Sea Otters dive club by Alan Throop

On Saturday, January 18, Five Tooters joined the Monterey Sea Otters dive club on one of their quar-terly clean-up dives at San Carlos Beach. Bill Chinnook was POC for the dive and he was joined by Bo P., Clair R., Alan S., and Alan T.

We were invited to join them by Melanie Moreno, who will be our speaker in Febru-ary about REEF and came to our January 9th meeting to hear Tyler Phelps speak. The Sea Otters has adopted San Carlos Beach to cleanup both topside and underwater on about a quarterly basis. Melanine and others in the club dive (who live in the Monterey area) also dive there frequently and cleanup on each dive.

They have the process very well organized. They met about 8:00 at the tables above the beach, with coffee and donuts for

all (that’s a great introduction!). We signed in and joined about a dozen or so Sea Otters for the pre-dive briefing at 8:30 by the dive coordinator. Buddy teams were selected and logged. They handed out corks and bags to hold fishhooks, line and other gear that was collected.

The dive coordinator logged out each buddy team as they left the table area for the dive. The focus of this cleanup was the

Breakwater wall but some scoured the Center Reef. The non-divers were given gloves, a pickup stick, and a bag, and went out in pairs to pickup trash on the fish-ing wall and the beaches in the area. The day was overcast and

cool for Monterey, but the seas were flat and divers reported 30’ viz at the wall. The tide was out and this is king-tide sea-son, so the water level was pretty low.

Most divers and top-side cleaners returned by about 10:30-11:00 to centralize trash, have a snack, more donuts & coffee, and talk about the dive. Buddy teams were logged back in. Even with the frequent cleanup dives, there was a lot of gear pulled from the water and the beaches. I joined a Sea Otter member to clean up topside and we met a lady who picks up around the beach area who has pulled up almost 200 pounds

of lead over the years, which a couple of the Sea Otters then melt down and mold into dive weights. Due to the continued active fishing from the sidewalk area of the breakwater, fishing line, weights, hooks, and other debris continue to be lost … and needs to be picked up.

Many divers stayed on for a second dive, and Mike Barret arrived to join the other Tooters for a second dive. On that di-ve, Bill, Mike, and Bo hauled out a 6’-long PVC pipe, so there’s always more to clean!

Since I couldn’t dive, I walked down to the Aquarium to spend a couple of enjoyable hours there and then over to the Pacific House museum at the Plaza near the commercial wharf. It had been a couple of years since I had been able to take a good look at the exhibits there that offer a very-well-done history of Spanish & Mexican California. Take the time to visit it some-time; it’s very worthwhile!

It was very nice of the Sea Otters to invite us on this and their future dives. They are a great bunch of divers and enjoyable to get to know. They have a nice website at http://montereybayseaotters.org/ . They have a dive calendar for 2020 at http://montereybayseaotters.org/2019-dive-calendar/ . Their cleanup dives are scheduled for Saturdays April 18, July 18, and September 19 – but subject to change due to dive con-ditions, of course. We’re invited to join them for those dives and I’ll try to put them on our own schedule to keep us up to date.

The cleanup only takes the morning, so you have the rest of the day to dive at San Carlos or elsewhere or visit some of the other great things that Monterey has to offer. You can include family and non-divers who want to help clean up topside, meet some great people, contribute to the quality of the environment, and have a great day in Monterey!

Thanks to Melanie and the Monterey Sea Otters for inviting us to join them and to Bill Chinook for acting as our POC.


>>> SUPPORT AQUA TUTUS DIVING CLUB <<<

Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible Amazon Smile purchases to our dive club. Just sign up for the club at www.smile.amazon.com

You just shop and our merchants give up to 5% back to our club !! Shop online, buy groceries, or dine out to support Aqua Tutus Diving Club … at no cost to you !! Just sign up at www.escrip.com

NOTE: SaveMart is no longer on the eScrip list

Report on Club Holiday Dive Vacation at Cozumel

By Arnie Warshawsky, Oahu Aqua Tutus contingent

Alan Throop asked for a sort of summary of the 2019 Aqua Tutus trip to Cozumel, which was organized by Dennis and Patti Hocker. Another successful dive trip with Dive Para-dise and Hotel Barracuda. While prices for both have gone up this year, the trip still remains a remarkable bargain. And the Dive Paradise staff goes out of its way to make every-thing safe and enjoyable.

On this, my fourth, trip I brought my SLR camera and Nauti-cam underwater housing. {I finally got the nerve to take the plunge, so to speak.} I took a lot of photos, but haven’t yet had enough time to edit them properly—which includes wholesale deleting of the many substandard shots. But I have a few. I promised to provide more photos and words in a future article, but this is what I have now:

This year we only lost two and a half days of diving due to weather closures of the port. But by paying attention to Dennis’ suggestions before the trip, I don’t think that any-one lost any money or had to take a rain check to be applied

next year. One high-light of note, and others have the photos, was an amazing dinner (lasting two nights) that Bill Briscoe pre-pared in his hotel room. Beef, pork, fish, rice, salads. Truly a repast wor-thy of a regal res-taurant. We hope to

convince Bill to do this every year—it was really, really, good. Just like the rest of the trip.

Grey Angelfish

A typically shy Splendid Toadfish, endemic to Cozumel

Namesake of our hotel, the Barracuda

Liliana Wang, a new member of Aqua Tutus


Bill Briscoe video for Reef Check

Our own Bill Briscoe, one of the Aqua Tutus volunteers for Reef Check, produced a well-done video about the urchin bar-ren issue.

Below is a link and an except from Reef Check’s email news-letter, followed by some background information from Bill.

Congratulations, Bill, for producing this video and having it recognized!

Reef Check - Transect Line, Nov-Dec, 2019 Newsletter sign-up: https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/KFlTqni0VKO83ELPvh4X5A?t=1494875646

Video Spotlight: Urchin Barren to Kelp Oasis: Hope for California's

Kelp Forest

Reef Check volunteer Bill Briscoe filmed this movie to raise awareness of the plight of California's kelp for-ests and what can be done to pre-serve and protect these iconic eco-systems. Featuring interviews with leading biologists in the field, this movie provides an in-depth look at the causes and consequences of the recent dramatic shift of these lush ocean forests to barrens full of urchins and little else.

Bill writes:

In 2017, during our first Reef Check outreach meeting, with an agenda primarily focused on the end of season party, Dan proposed making a video about the urchin barren issue. Mainly because the information available about the urchin issue in Northern California was too simplistic and didn’t fairly represent all the factors in-volved.

As California divers, we should take notice of the major changes happening on our rocky reefs. The main ques-tion lies in how did it become this way? There are many different theories about what specifically caused it, but the reality is, it has no single causation. Most often with ecosystems, the root issue is complex. A priority of Reef Check, this video is an attempt to try and capture the da-ta to answer these questions and convey the whys’. In addition, the efforts being made to help mitigate the is-sue from being a larger problem in future. However, as it took many events to create urchin barren ecosystems, there are no clear solutions to getting our kelp forests back. In hindsight, we are making progress. The purpose of this video is to educate and inform those who are pas-sionate about our ocean’s ecosystems and want to help.

It took two years to complete a 16 minute video. I want to thank my son, Cayden, who was instrumental in men-toring me on video production, from interviewing subject matter experts to processing the footage. Without his help, this video would have been 2 hours.

Ocean Cleanup Device Successful in Removing Plastic From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

By Kristin Toussaint, photos by Ocean Cleanup h�ps://www.fastcompany.com/90441278/the-ocean-cleanup-device-has-returned-

from-the-pacific-garbage-patch-with-its-first-load-of-plas$c?

part-

ner=rss&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm

_source=rss

[ A follow-up from an article in the October 2010 newsletter ]

After months of research, failures, and reconfigurations, and weeks spent at sea traveling to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and back, The Ocean Cleanup’s device—a 2,000-foot long floating tube that skims the surface of the water to catch plastic trash—has returned to shore. And with it, it brought back 60 bags, sized one cubic meter, full of plastic trash, everything from fishing nets to plastic bags to microplastics one millimeter in size.

The end of the first voyage for The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch nonprofit that hopes to rid the world of ocean plastic, is the end of a long journey for founder and CEO Boyan Slat, who first pre-sented the concept of his device at a TEDx talk in 2012, and has spent the last seven years design-ing, funding, and deploying it. Now that it’s actually working—pulling debris from the giant vortex of trash that has collected in the Pacific ocean—the next step for the organization is turn-ing that plastic into sustainable products, so you can own a piece of the Garbage Patch and help fund future missions.

“To make the clean up happen, it’s not just a technical challenge but also financial, because [with] international waters, there’s not an owner of the Garbage Patch that sees the value in cleaning it,” says Slat. “Basically it’s no one’s problem, but at the same time, we believe it’s everyone’s problem What we hope is that by making beautiful, sustainable products out of this catch, we can give an opportunity for eve-ryone to be part of the solution and participate in the cleanup.” The idea is to turn this refuse into consumer products that won’t end up back in the ocean and then invest 100% of those proceeds into more cleanup missions. They expect to be able to launch the first products in September 2020. If you’re eager to own an item made from ocean plastic, you can guarantee your place in line now with a $50 do-nation.

The system that returned with the first Garbage Patch-captured plastic has been dubbed System 001/b, and The Ocean Cleanup has already be-gun preparing for System 002, a new full-scale, fully operational design. For this first voyage, crew members had to follow the device in a boat and empty the system of its caught plastic every few weeks. Slat hopes to extend that retention ability to months, because fewer trips back and forth with a boat means a more cost-effective cleanup process. “Our goal is to clean up 50% of the Garbage Patch in five years,” Slat says. “For that, we’re going to need a whole fleet of them, and the systems need to be bigger than the ones that we have trialed so far.”


( Excerpts from December 3, 2019 email newsletter )

Newsletter archive: https://montereybay.noaa.gov/sac/advisory-nwsltr.html

MBNMS website: https://montereybay.noaa.gov/sac/advisory.html

Signup for e-mail newsletter: https://lp.constantcontact.com/su/hxLWIK6

Hello divers,

Between the few windy days, we have been seeing some great visibility days in Monterey Bay. DEMA 2019 was well attended and the buzz was an exciting breakout product from Hy-droid. It is basically a helmet with a scrubbing/oxygen creation can, Hydroid AquaBreather. It would be odd, to say the least, to put on a helmet and go dive, but I would bet very liberating as well.

The Central Coast Urchin Removal Experiment in Pacific Grove Gardens Marine Conservation Area is nearly complete for the season. The recent bout of bad weather on the week-ends is slowing things down a bit. Keith Rootsaert presented the experiment first year results at the November 19 dive club meeting at Pro Scuba Dive Center in Scotts Valley. The first year results are encouraging; we were able to maintain design densities of urchins on our targets, we had some kelp recruit-ment but it was eaten, and it seems the red urchins are very detrimental and will have to be removed when the experiment continues in the spring. Divers who want to find out more about the project and receive updated information and invitations to future removal activities should register at G2KR.com

There is now national attention on the urchin situation due to the appearance on the November 30 NBC Nightly News which ran a two-minute segment on the devastation of the kelp forest on the north coast. At the Western Society of Natural-ist meeting in Ensenada, Mexico October 31 to November 3 the general sentiment was of increased concern and a need for urgent action. There are several educational institutions and NGOs doing urchin research in Monterey and it is time to meet and discuss research in progress and projects going for-ward. We are thankful that the meeting is being set up by Dr. Steve Lonhart, NOAA, in Santa Cruz 9-12 on December 6.

Please email us on either of these subjects if you have com-ments or information that we should put forward in the discus-sion.

We have several topics coming to us at this next advisory council meeting that are important: (1) Whale entanglement and Crab Pot fishing gear. (2) Balloon Marine De-bris ( DRAFT ) (3) Micro-plastics (4) Hypodermic Needles in MBNMS (DRAFT). If you have thoughts to share please email either one of us so we have your comments in-hand at the meeting.

Please email us on either of these subjects if you have com-ments or information that we should put forward in the discus-sion.

Drop us an email at: Brian Nelson - [email protected] Keith Rooseart - [email protected]

Safe Diving, Brian and Keith

December,

2019

Cleanup Operations Wrapping Up for Dive Vesel Conception

Salvage work has been completed and cleanup operations are nearly done for the dive vessel Conception, which caught fire and sank on Sep-tember 2, tragically taking 34 lives in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.

Since the vessel was lifted out of the water on September 12 and taken to a secure port location on the mainland coast, sanctuary staff have been assisting response agencies such as the FBI with their dive operations to collect debris

On September 23, divers from the sanctuary and Channel Is-lands National Park conducted joint surveys of the site to as-sess the amount of debris that had been cleaned up by the hired salvage company. Involved agencies will next sign-off on the salvage and cleanup phase.

Entangled seabird and marine mammal data from citizen science surveys published

Entangled seabird and marine mammal data from citizen science surveys published Data collected from citizen scientists of the BeachCOMBERS (Coastal Ocean Mammal and Bird Education and Research Surveys) program within Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary have been analyzed and published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

From 1997-2017, surveyors reported 357 cases of entangle-ments among 65,604 carcasses. Twenty-six seabird species (97%), three marine mammal species (3%), and three non-marine birds were affected. Seabirds were primarily entangled in mono-filament fishing line. The article is available at: Data Portal Since 1997, trained volunteers have surveyed beached marine birds and mammals monthly at selected sections of beaches throughout the Monterey Bay area, with the specific goal of using deposition of beach cast carcasses as an index of the health of the sanctuary. On average, BeachCOMBERS de-tect 2.5 events per year, where baseline numbers of dead or-ganisms are significantly surpassed. These could be natural events (e.g., a low productivity year for food) or human caused (e.g., an oil spill). More information HERE.

Daniel Warren Gotshall December 20, 1929 - July 29, 2019

Dan Gotshall was a marine biologist with 34 years research experience with the California Department of Fish and Wild-life. He retired from the department in 1988. During his career he conducted research on sportfishing, rock fish life history, shrimp, crabs and baseline eco-logical underwater and intertidal commu-nities. His publications include over 50 scientific reports on Pacific coast fishes and inver-tebrates. Dan has also authored and co-authored eight marine life books. Dan's descriptive reference books are still standard field manuals in divers book collections. Dan and his wife Ann for thirty years were co-owners of the publishing company Sea Challengers, Inc., based in Monterey. California.


Images from Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monterey Bay Aquarium: Meet Luna From Monterey Bay Aquarium 12/3 newsletter

The Rescue: Luna was lost in a storm at three days old. We found her helpless, hungry and crying for her mother. We brought her into our Sea Otter Program, which is solely funded by the kind support of our donors.

The Rehabilitation: Over eight weeks, we nursed the orphaned southern sea otter back to health. Once she was able to eat solid foods, we introduced her to exhibit otter Toola, who taught her about life as a wild sea otter. Diving for food, breaking open shells and grooming her dense coat, Toola raised Luna as one of her own.

The Release: Eight months passed. It was time for Luna to be released into the wild. A coastal wetland about 20 miles north of Monterey called Elkhorn Slough became Luna's new home. She entered the waters like she had never left, eager to dive, forage and hunt, just like Toola had taught her. Since Luna's release in 2011, she has birthed and raised five healthy pups. She is now nine years old and being her otter-ly paw-some wild self.

The Research: Our research has shown that nearly 60 percent of the sea otters in Elkhorn Slough are either graduates of our Sea Otter Program or their descendants. We've also seen tre-mendous recovery of this entire ecosystem thanks to the pres-ence of otters like Luna. We now know how integral sea otters are to the health of our coastline.

To join the MBA: h�ps://www.montereybayaquarium.org/visit/

admission-$ckets/memberships

Image via Christophe cagé/ WikiMedia Commons.

Will sea otters return to San Francisco Bay? Posted by Shireen Gonzaga in EARTH | December 16, 2019

h�ps://earthsky.org/earth/southern-sea-o�ers-reintroduc

$on-san-francisco-bay

A new study shows that, if they can be returned to San Francisco Bay, California’s southern sea otter popu-lation can be tripled. There are now only about 3,000 of the otters left. But, first, they’ll need some help getting past the great white sharks.

A new study by a team of university and government scientists – announced by California’s Sonoma State University on De-cember 9, 2019 – has concluded that the southern sea ot-ter population could be tripled if the otters were reintroduced by humans to the largest estuary in North America’s west coast, San Francisco Bay. The population of southern sea otters cur-rently numbers only around 3,000, but their numbers were once much higher. The new study is promising, but there’s a stumbling block: the great white sharks that patrol the waters in San Francisco Bay, near iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Brent Hughes of Sonoma State University is the lead author of the new study.

To repopulate the San Francisco Bay estuary, sea otters would have to be transported to that location, past the sharks, by con-servationists. The findings were published in the December 2019 issue of the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ: the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences.

Southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) are a subspecies of a larger population of sea otters (Enhydra lutris). The subspe-cies lives in California’s coastal waters, but – speaking in terms of the entire group of sea otters now – these otters once ranged along the Pacific Rim from Baja California in Mexico to Russia and Japan. The larger group of sea otters are estimat-ed to have once numbered between 150,000 to 300,000. In the 1700s and 1800s, they were heavily hunted for their thick fur. This hunting brought sea otters generally to the brink of extinc-tion; by the time conservation measures were enacted, there were only about 2,000 individuals left.

The subspecies – California’s southern sea otters – was also deeply impacted by over-hunting. By 1914, there were only about 50 individuals left in the southern sea otter population, living off the Big Sur shoreline.

Since then, conservation efforts have increased the southern sea otter population to approximately 3,000 individuals. Still, they only occupy 13% of their original range.

Image: Ingrid Taylar

Reintroduction to key habitats has worked well for other sub-species of sea otters. Northern sea otters (Enhydra lutris ken-yoni) were successfully reintroduced to their former range off Washington, British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. Asian sea otters (Enhydra lutris lutris) have stable populations along parts of the Russian coast.

Archaeological evidence and historical records show that south-ern sea otters used to thrive also in estuaries. Today, only one estuary, Elkhorn Slough at Moss Landing in Monterey Bay, is know to have a self-sustaining sea otter population.

Kelp forests support a high diversity of marine life and protect shorelines from strong storm surges. Sea urchins graze on kelp, and if sea otters aren’t around to control the urchin popu-lation, kelp forests could be decimated. In eelgrass meadows, also richly diverse ecosystems, slugs feed on algae growing on eelgrass leaves. Crabs prey on these slugs, and if there were too many crabs picking off slugs, algae could overgrow to smother the eelgrass. Sea otters keep the crab populations in check, resulting in healthier eelgrass habitats.

Hughes and his team analyzed existing California sea otter studies and modeled sea otter growth. They concluded that the San Francisco Bay alone could support as many as 6,600 sea otters; that’s more than twice the current southern sea otter population.


Training & Growth Opportunities !!

If interested in training classes (First Aid, DPR, DAN O2 Provider, Enriched Air, Deep Air, other specialty), please

Contact Director of Training, Dennis Hocker at [email protected]

• For more information on training, contact Dennis Hocker at (510)792-5606 [email protected] or Neil Benjamin at (510)673-0073 [email protected] .

Upcoming Diver Training

Club members are always welcome & encouraged to attend any classes or dives.

• The Advanced Open Water (AOW) class is finishing up.

• There is potential interest in a skin diving class on the North Coast. Contact Dennis if interested.

• Rescue Diver class will be held after AOW class if there is interest (currently a couple are). CPR and O2 provider required. Cost to club members will be $150. See Den-nis.

The club needs your help!

Join our Entertainment Committee and help by occasion-ally writing reports for the Tooter, controlling the laptop during programs, contacting interesting people, or in oth-er ways that suit your interests.

It’s a great way to discover and meet interesting people from the local diving community and the many marine-oriented organizations in the greater Bay Area.

No long-term commit-ment is required and it’s a great way to get in-volved and help the club.

Interested? Contact Jenn Pechacek at [email protected]. or Alan Throop at 925-577-7876.

Upcoming Open Water Classes

Available from “Original Steele’s” Dive Shop

A 5-week class, Tu & Wed nights, 14 hours in a pool, 5 dives in Monterey… a class that trains you for diving in more-challenging California coastline. Divers say if you can dive here, you can dive anywhere in the world !

Upcoming OW classes for February & March are:

• Classroom: Feb 11 & 12 • Pool: Feb 18&19, 25 & 26, Mar 3 & 4 • Pool test: Mar 10; Written test: Mar 15 • Checkout Dives: Mar 14 & 15

• Classroom: Mar 17 & 18 • Pool: Mar 24 & 25, Mar 31 & April 1, April 7 & 8 • Pool test: April 14; Written test: April 15 • Checkout Dives: April 18 & 19

5987 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609 510-655-4344

“Jim wants to train competent divers who will become a part of the local dive community” … YELP

The upcoming 17th Annual IOFF will take place on March 12 - 15, 2020 at Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, as well as other theaters with-in the Bay Area (and beyond!).

Save The Date & Submit your entry !

We're excited to begin a new season, with amazing

films and more opportunities to entertain, educate and

empower audiences of all ages to fulfill our mission: Saving our oceans … one film at a time!

See http://intloceanfilmfest.org/

See https://vimeopro.com/user21783508/every-nine-minutes Blue whales, the largest beings ever to grace our planet, can weigh up to 300,000 pounds ... the same amount of

plastic entering our oceans every nine minutes. The Mon-terey Bay Aquarium and Golden Gate National Recreation Area created a life-size traveling art installation, a blue whale sculpted from recycled plastic. Their objective: to reduce plastic use, while celebrating this magnificent crea-ture’s existence. Directors: DJ O’Neil & Oliver Hamilton (USA) - 5 min


Interested in dive travel ?

… let us know !! Folks in the club are planning some interesting dive trips in the near future and need to hear from you if you might be interested.

See Dennis at [email protected]

DIVE INDONESIA in 2020 !

May 8-18, 2020

Maumere-Komodo-Bima … and visit the Drag-ons of Komodo …

On board the Explorer Ventures Blue Manta : https://www.explorerventures.com/indonesia-liveaboard-

diving/blue-manta-explorer-komodo-itinerary/

Package price $4,700 (based on payment by check)

• 10 nights twin share accommodations

• 9 ½ days of diving

• meals & snacks, park fees,

• Port & Hotel taxes and transfers.

Airfare to Maumere (MOP) or from Bima (BMU) is extra. Space is limited to 12. Booking deposit $1,000. As always will be filled on an as-deposit-received basis.

There will be an option to add some pre trip / post trip ex-tra days of Land Based Diving.

For more information contact Dennis via email [email protected] or 510-RxSCUBA (797-2822 ).

DIVE BONAIRE in 2021 ! June 26– July 10, 2021

Dive with Dennis in Bonaire … a premiere Caribbean dive des-tination … easy diving; a marine sanctuary since 1972, so great marine life, both boat and shore diving & snorkeling; and many topside activities.

Includes: 14 nights at the Sand Dollar Hotel, with breakfast, room tax, 5 two-tank boat dives, 12 days of unlimited air for shore diving - at the resort or around the island- and a pick-up truck - to bring your gear to the 60 easy shore dives or visit the sites around Bonaire.

Packages from $1,825 - $2,500, depending on rooms, without airfare.

Contact Dennis for $500 booking deposit if you are interested at [email protected] .

See www.infobonaire.com/scuba-diving

(photos: Bonaire website)

Upcoming Programs at Club Meetings

• February 6: Melanie Moreno, Reef Foundation. About Reef Foundation.

• March 5: Brent Durand, UW photographer. Behind the Camera—Creating Underwater Photos in California.

• April 2: Oran Arms, Remotely-operated Underwater Vehicles.

• May 7: Our own Dan Schwartz, UW photographer. Macro-photography in California and the Indo-Pacific.

• June 4: Member’s Night. Your short programs to share.

• July 2: Bill & Mari Conaway. Diving the Banda Sea in the Maluku Spice Islands in Eastern Indonesia

• August 6: TBD

• September 3: Jim Steele & Ed Sheldon, Jr. History of Diving Equipment and How it’s Changed.

• October 1: TBD

• November 5: Member’s Night. Your short programs to share.

Bay Area Travel and Adventure Show

Santa Clara Convention Center

March 21-22, 2020

• See travel & vacations options, 250+ destinations represent-ed. Plan trip with travel experts.

• Educational seminars: 30+ sessions in 3 theaters • Rick Steeves, Patricia Schultz, Jarad Kamrowski, & others

• Tickets $11-$18 h�ps://travelshows.com/shows/san-francisco-bay-area/


BIG ISLAND, HAWAII

KONA CONDO FOR RENT

Book now at this low price!

June 29 - July 13, 2019

$500 per week + $14 tax One-time $50 registry fee covers one or all weeks. Weeks run Satur-day to Saturday.

Contact Don Kel-sey 925-820-8362

[email protected]

» Resort info can be found on The Kona Billfisher website.

Internet Resources for the Bay Area Diver http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/swell/

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary https://montereybay.noaa.gov/ https://www.facebook.com/MBNMS

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute http://www.mbari.org/ https://www.facebook.com/MBARInews?fref=ts

California Marine Sanctuary Foundation http://californiamsf.org/index.html

Pacific Grove Hyperbaric Chamber https://www.facebook.com/PGHyperbaricChamber http://californiamsf.org/pages/donate-pgh.html

2020 CLUB OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS [email protected]

President

Jono Dove ….……………….. ……[email protected]

Vice-President

Devin Martinez-Shin ………. [email protected]

Secretary

Gayle Hudson …………….……… [email protected]

Treasurer

Helga Mahlmann…………...………[email protected]

Membership Coordinator

Kat Smith ………...……….…… [email protected]

Director of Training

Dennis Hocker ………………......…. [email protected]

Entertainment Coordinator

Alan Throop …...…….…..… [email protected]

Newsletter Editor

Alan Throop ……………….…. .…[email protected]

Social Media Coordinator

Gayle Hudson……………… .…[email protected]

Board Members at Large (BML) , July’19-July’20

Angela Boultinghouse ………..……..…[email protected]

Chuck Harlins …………………… ……[email protected]

“DL” Debra Popplewell … …………...…[email protected]

Webmaster

Kari Klaboe ………….……...…. [email protected]

Past President

Patti Shannon-Hocker …..…. [email protected]

SUBMISSIONS TO NEWSLETTER &

WEBSITE NEEDED

Dive pictures, videos, reports, article, stories, envi-

ronmental, and (almost) anything diving- and marine

-related are needed for the website, the Tooter news-

letter, YouTube, and social media sites. Visit our

photo submissions page, send to

[email protected] OR webmas-

[email protected] .

NEWSLETTER PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

Submissions for the “Tooter”, both web- and

emailed/pdf-newsletters, are due by the 20th of each

month. The Tooter is published by the end of the

month. No publications in December.

mail: po box 21022, castro valley, ca 94546 program for … · 2020-01-30 · you how easy it is to...

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