 December 2007 Printer-Friendly | Back Children’s Pool Dredging to be Considered Controversial dive site Children’s Pool may be in for further changes. The small cove in La Jolla, protected by an artificial breakwater, has become in recent years the object of much debate between animal rights activists and water sports enthusiasts, including divers. Harbor seals began to use the site as a regular haul-out location. Citing the Marine Mammal Protection Act animal rights activists claim that humans using the cove disrupt harbor seal behavior. This has lead to occasionally ugly confrontations between divers and the activists. An additional problem is the seal feces infecting the waters of the small cove. Built into the man-made breakwater are a number of sluiceways allowing a free flow of water with the outside ocean. These have become clogged with sand and debris and need of clearing. An Environmental Impact Report has been filed to begin the process of dredging. The dredging proposal, however, is expected to meet stiff resistance from the animal rights activists. Avalon Underwater Cleanup T-Shirt Design Contest Announced The 27th Annual Avalon Underwater Cleanup is being held on February 23, 2008. Once again this year Catalina Conservancy Divers and the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber are holding the annual contest for the logo design to be used for the T-shirts. The contest is open to any and all who have an interest and a talent. The rules of the contest are simple. The design must include no more than two colors. The winner will be acknowledged in the marketing of the event as well as at the event itself. Deadline for entries is January 1, 2008. The winner will be announced on February 1, 2008. Submit your artwork, entries and questions to: Jill A. Boivin - Event Chairperson avalonharborcleanup@gmail.com or mail entries to: 2150 Loma Dr. Hermosa Bch., CA 90254 For information on the Avalon Underwater Cleanup visit www.catalinaconservancy.org. Disease-Resistant Black Abalone Discovered Biologists have discovered that black abalone on San Nicolas Island in the Santa Barbara Channel are resistant to the deadly bacterial disease known as withering syndrome. The discovery may help save these now rare intertidal mollusks from extinction, as scientists hope to soon breed these animals in captivity for release in the wild. San Nicolas Island has been the site of several severe outbreaks of withering syndrome, said Carolyn Friedman, a professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, explaining the island abalones’ hardiness. They are the descendants of that one percent of the population that survived. Friedman and her colleague on the California Sea Grant project, professor Steven Roberts, also at the University of Washington, are now trying to identify which genes are responsible for resistance and the mechanisms by which this resistance is conferred. This work includes studying differences in gene expression between island black abalone and those from Carmel in Monterey, as the animals are subjected to high loads of the withering syndrome pathogen. “The hypothesis is that these resistant populations have been subject to intense selective pressure,” Roberts said. “The animals we have tested from Carmel have had little or no withering syndrome selective pressure.” Withering syndrome, which causes severe atrophy of the animal’s foot muscle and is caused by a water-borne pathogen excreted in abalone feces, occurs in relatively warm water, such as those found in the Santa Barbara Channel. Until recently, waters off the more northerly Carmel have been too cold to trigger outbreaks. As a result, abalone in Carmel have little natural protection against the disease. Although harvesting black abalone is now banned, ecologist Hunter Lenihan, a professor at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara, believes the species will have difficulty recovering on their own. Poaching remains an issue, disease another, he said. The species has become so rare it is now a candidate for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. With California Sea Grant support, Lenihan and graduate students are trying to identify the conditions necessary to spawn black abalone in a laboratory setting. The goal is to be able to breed disease-resistant animals for release in the wild. Captive breeding would seem a relatively simple task given that red abalone are already farmed commercially. This is not the case, however, as black abalone are an intertidal species, red abalone a subtidal one. Black abalone reproduction seems to require a complex set of conditions that may depend on winds, waves and sea level, Lenihan said. “The females are strong,” Lenihan said. “We have gotten them to spawn. The problem is the males. To get the males to spawn, we are going to have to play the right music and find the right wine.” — from California Sea Grant Online Virtual Tour of Yukon Soon to be a Reality The San Diego Oceans Foundation and DiveNav, Inc. have announced a collaboration to enable virtual exploration of the HMCS Yukon Artificial Reef from any home or classroom connected to the Internet. The HMCS Yukon is a decommissioned Canadian warship that was sunk by the San Diego Oceans Foundation (SDOF). SDOF brought the Yukon to San Diego from Canada, stripped her of toxic and hazardous materials and, after passing rigorous EPA inspections, in July 2000 placed her on the bottom in 100 feet of water to serve as an artificial reef just 1.85 miles offshore, west of Mission Beach in San Diego. She is in a location that is accessible by both divers and fisherman making her a favorable recreational area. The HMCS Yukon is also the subject of an ongoing Artificial Reef Monitoring Project, managed by SDOF, that involves volunteers who study the rate of animal and plant colonization. As part of this announced collaboration, DiveNav and the San Diego Oceans Foundation will use DiveNav’s vDive technology to develop an eDive site (virtual dive site) of the HMCS Yukon which will include a detailed 3-D model of the warship and animated models of the marine life typical of the site. Additionally, the type, quantity and location of virtual marine life will be modeled based upon the scientific data collected by the SDOF as part of its ongoing Artificial Reef Monitoring Project. This collaboration is expected to benefit recreational, educational and scientific users. Certified recreational scuba divers could use this eDive site to preview an example of a dive trip to the HMCS Yukon while dive professionals could use it to promote scuba diving to prospective divers. Educators could use the material as a teaching aid in an interactive classroom environment and scientists could use eDive’s 3-D animated models to visualize - data obtained in the field. The site should be available to the general public, via the eDiving™ online service, in the first part of 2008. DiveNav Inc., headquartered in Tustin, CA, is an innovative company developing leading-edge services and products that will enable the user-friendly exploration of our oceans by the recreational and educational communities. DiveNav’s patent pending vDive technology is the engine powering its eDiving™ online service. For more information regarding DiveNav or its eDiving™ service, please e-mail us at info@divenav.com or visit www.divenav.com or www.ediving.us online. Adopt-A-Shark Offers Unique Holiday Gift This Christmas, all ocean lovers can give a more meaningful and unique gift to their loved ones. AdoptAShark (www.adoptashark.com) allows you to adopt an actual shark and contribute to marine conservation at the same time. AdoptAShark is a program of the Southern California based nonprofit group, Iemanya Oceanica, and is dedicated to the conservation of sharks and rays (www.iemanya.org). The program is an active groundbreaking research and education effort to save sharks. Like many animals in our world, sharks are in danger. In the last 15 years, mankind has depleted shark numbers by up to 80 percent. However, unlike most other fish, sharks grow very slowly and have very few offspring, which makes them particularly vulnerable. If something radical is not done soon to help the plight of the shark it may be too late. Sharks are apex predators; therefore, they are a critical component the oceans sensitive food webs. Currently, they are being finned and fished to near extinction and their loss may have profound negative effects upon all other organisms within the environments they help to regulate. This exceptional organization’s team of scientists and divers are making a difference using modern diving techniques and equipment until recently the domain of the worlds most elite Navy and Special Forces. Adoptashark researchers are currently physically placing satellite and acoustic tracking tags on large sharks at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico, and in the Galapagos Islands to help determine how to best protect them. The information from these tags is transmitted to satellites, or monitored from select monitoring stations, and the shark’s migration can be tracked. By contributing to the group’s research with a small donation of $49.99 you can adopt a shark and donate towards the placement of those tags. If you feel generous, you can sponsor the whole tag. For a mere $1500, you get your own tag and get to name your own shark. How many people do you know have adopted a shark? For more information, visit www.adoptashark.com or www.iemanya.org or call (818) 224-4250. H2O Photo Opens New Store H2O Photo Pros Underwater Photo & Video is proud to announce the opening of their new Underwater Imaging Superstore in Newport Beach, CA. The new showroom is just shy of 1,000 square feet and is located at 2429 West Coast Highway, Suite 101, Newport Beach, CA. H2O Photo Pros is a leader in the underwater photo and video industry. They have a large selection of inventory from more than 50 manufacturers including: Gates, Sea & Sea, Light & Motion, Ikelite, Seatool, Sealife, Top Dawg, Ultralight Control Systems, Amphibico, Storm, Pelican, Fisheye, Inon and more. They are a one-stop shop for anything and everything in underwater imaging. H2O Photo Pros offers the following services: High Definition Video Sales, Digital Still Sales, Full Apple Editing Suite, Instruction, Production Support, and Rentals H2O Photo Pros can be reached at (949) 203-2700, or at www.h2ophotopros.com. © Copyright 2007, all rights reserve, by Saint Brendan Corporation, P.O. Box 11231, Torrance CA 90510, mail@cadivingnews.com. No part of this may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system/website, or transmitted in any form by any means without prior written permission of the publisher. IMPORTANT NOTICE: The contents of this publication/website are opinions of the individual writers. The publishers of California Diving News and its contributors assume no responsibility for any mishap claimed to be a result of use of this material. Diving is an adventure sport and with it comes inherent risks. Improper use of diving equipment or improper diving techniques may result in serious injury or, in extreme circumstances, death. Readers are admonished to use their own best judgement in each individual situation. |
