Jan/Feb 2007

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Top Quality DVDs Sought for Underwater Film Festival
Assemble now your best underwater video film footage for the SCUBA Show 2007 underwater film festival. The 20th SCUBA Show is the largest dive expo of its type in the Western U.A. and this year takes place June 2-3 at the Long Beach Convention Center.

One of the most popular portions of the annual Southern California SCUBA Show has been the unique continuous film festival. Films will be screened digitally on a massive screen with state-of-the-art equipment and viewed by thousands of attendees. Featured at past film festivals have been footage and films from some of the world's greatest underwater cinematographers. Even so, some of the most well received films have been from non-professional and semi-professional underwater camera operators.

For this year's show, the film festival will be wide open to this talented group. The management of the popular annual dive convention is conducting an aggressive all-out search for the best in underwater video films. They are also opening up the category to include digital still presentations set to music or narration. Submissions for consideration should be new material, never before shown in a film festival setting or on television. Films and digital slide shows of 3 to 30 minutes in length are preferred, but shorter is usually better. Footage can be from anywhere in the world, but the video should contain at least 50 percent underwater footage. Those films accepted for screening will be paid an honorarium. Deadline for DVD submission is February 20, 2007. For a complete guideline sheet on submissions, call (310) 792-2333, e-mail mail@scubashow.com or view the guidelines web page at www.scubashow.com/filmguide.htm.


Sport Chalet Opens Two New Stores
Sport Chalet has opened two more stores in California. Founded in 1959, Sport Chalet is the operator of full service specialty sporting goods stores in California, Nevada and Arizona. Included in their stores are full service scuba diving departments.

New store # 43 is located at 2190 Eastridge Loop, #4008 in San Jose. Store #44 is located at 177 South Las Posas Dr., in San Marcos. The San Marcos store will feature an on-site Scuba training pool. For more information on Sport Chalet, their stores or their scuba facilities visit www.sportchalet.com online.


Sea Shepherd Calls for Worldwide Commercial Fishing Ban
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is calling for a global ban on all corporate and heavy-gear fishing technologies. “Unless we take aggressive and radical action soon, the world will lose most commercial fish species, and we will cause irreparable damage to global marine ecosystems,” said Captain Paul Watson, the founder and president of the international marine conservation society from on board the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat on the South Coast of Australia.

Sea Shepherd is calling for a worldwide ban on longlines, driftnets, drag trawl nets, and purse seine nets. The Society is also calling for the elimination of all commercial fishing vessels with crews exceeding six individuals.
For the last six years, Sea Shepherd has been aggressively opposing illegal fishing activities inside the waters of the Galapagos Marine Reserve of Ecuador which is a UNESCO World Heritage. The steady diminishment of marine life in the Galapagos is an indication of what is happening throughout the world’s oceans. The tens of thousands of commercial fishing vessels from around the world are literally sucking the life out of the depths.

“The bottom line is really one of supply and demand,” said Captain Watson. “The supply is simply no longer there to meet the demand. Species will become rarer, fish will become more expensive and then will simply disappear. This will have a devastating impact on the more than one billion people in underdeveloped nations that depend on fish for survival.”

More than half the fish taken from the ocean is converted into animal feed or wasted as by-catch from targeted species. Over 90 percent of the larger fish of all species have been removed. Shark populations are suffering an annual removal of over one hundred million animals. “We must stop feeding fish and other seafood to cows and chickens, cats and dogs. We have transformed farm animals and pets into the primary marine carnivores on the planet,” said Captain Watson. “It is unnaturally perverse.”

Sea Shepherd promotes abstinence from seafood, but acknowledges that this is not realistic for all peoples – especially peoples in underdeveloped nations. The large corporate fisheries are removing large quantities of fish using extremely wasteful methods at the expense of the poorest peoples in the world.

“The writing is on the wall and the signs can be plainly seen. We continue our present fishing practices at the peril of the human species. For those who see this as a radical demand, I should point out that the consequences of doing nothing will be catastrophic,” said Captain Paul Watson. Sea Shepherd ships routinely remove and destroy illegal longlines and driftnets from the ocean.

Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an International non-profit conservation organization whose mission is to defend, conserve, and protect the world’s marine wildlife and ecosystems. Their website, www.seashepherd.org, documents SSCS research, direct action, public education and outreach programs, and illustrates how SSCS has continuously worked for decades to eradicate pirate whaling, poaching, shark finning, sealing, unlawful habitat destruction, and other violations of established laws intended to protect the world’s oceans.




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