 We'd like to hear from you! Email your Letters to the Editor to: mail@cadivingnews.com. March 08 | Jan/Feb 08 | October 07 | August 07 | June 07 | May 07 | April 07 March 07 | Jan/Feb 07 | Nov 06 Lobster Punch Card Not Required Until September CDN: Before you all rush out to get your spiny lobster “punch card,” please note, according to the California Department of Fish & Game website, the requirement for a spiny lobster report card for all persons does not become effective until next season—September 27, 2008 to be exact. For more information, see www.dfg.ca.gov/licensing/fishing/fishdescrip.html Mike Thornton via e-mail Mike, Thank you for pointing out that important date. At the time of going to press with our January/February issue that specific information was not yet available on their website, only that a punch card would be required in 2008. Editor Marine Life Handling Questioned CDN - I always enjoy and look forward to reading California Diving News, since it contains useful information and advice of interest on “our” type of diving on the West Coast. I also enjoy your photography and the articles of regional dive sites by yourself, Bruce Watkins and others. I’d like to point out, however, that on the cover of the December issue the diver appears to be inappropriately handling the sea star, and I’m a bit concerned of what this might convey to new divers. We all do this from time-to-time, but we, as experienced divers, educators or underwater photographers, are in general aware of the impacts that we may or may not have by doing so. We understand how to properly place them back where we found the animal, which animals are too delicate to handle, what may stress the animal, and when NOT to handle them, etc. New or less-experienced divers have not typically yet learned these things, however, and— without other “coaching”— often feel free to handle, move, or otherwise harass animals without realizing the impact that they might be having. I try to teach new divers to respect marine life and when or how it may be appropriate interact with marine life. In the future please try to address this issue when such a nice image needs to be taken or used— particularly for the benefit of new divers. This is a good opportunity for training and education. Thanks again for a great magazine. Alan Throop via e-mail Wreck Name Correction Dear Dale I want to correct a recurring error spanning over the last approximately two decades. It is the vessel name SUE JAQ, commonly misspelled as SUE JAC. While authors and researchers Bonnie Cardone and Pat Smith have identified the vessel as SUE JAC in their excellent book Shipwrecks of Southern California, it does not change the fact SUE JAQ appeared on the stern. The SUE JAQ was a nicely constructed home built ferro-cement schooner, which stranded outside the underwater park on Avalon’s breakwater during a Santa Ana blow in mid November 1980. I first attempted to document the SUE JAQ on 11 Jan 1981 but did not dive her amid conflicting reports of salver’s rights. Salvage was completed on 16 Jan and I was given the okay to dive her on 17 Jan by two of the salvage crew members still on station. She was lying over to starboard, not so far as to be on her beam ends (we did note roll movement in her hull from week to week as she settled); the hull’s chime cracked open like an egg, and both masts still stepped. Her common ferro-cement flat stern coupled with nice millwork reflected in heavy wooden decorative scrolls and filigree suggested an appearance of a Spanish Caravel or a Disney-like pirate ship. I made about two-dozen dives on her within the next two months. Each dive I swam down the breakwater boulders until seeing the white of her stern, then leveling off to cross over her transom (the shallowest part of the wreck), each time reading the name SUE JAQ. Between dives it was common subject matter to discuss her unusual name with Paul, my dive buddy. Although not uncommon, the SUE JAQ is considered an “undocumented vessel”, meaning her owner had chosen not to have her go through the U.S. Federal documenting process. She is not registered in any Classification Society including the U.S. Department of Commerce annual publications of documented vessels, Lloyd’s of London, or (on the off-chance) in American Bureau of Shipping. There is a SUE JAC which appears in Dept. of Commerce publications, but this vessel was less then half the size of the SUE JAQ, and was home ported in New York. Perhaps though this is where the name confusion stems from. It is a small and really insignificant error considering the vessel SUE JAQ has no known historic significance at this time. However, in the interest of historical accuracy I have spoken with both authors, but unfortunately, “Shipwrecks” has not been republished. My hope is CDN can make the correction in its future publications of SUE JAQ’s name. In any event, Cardone and Smith produced a fine book but every author has repeated the name error after them who refer to their work for their source material. It should be noted the underwater park’s boundaries have since been enlarged to include the SUE JAQ. Sincerely, Peter Jensen Rancho Palos Verdes Aggressive Otter Spotted on the North Coast I would like to report a disturbing encounter that occurred June 29, near Elk, Mendocino County, CA. While freediving for abalone, my guest, Cheryll Houston, was approached by a medium-sized, very aggressive sea otter wearing two hot pink tags on its hind feet. The animal repeatedly bit her ankles and fins, alarmed her, and eventually chased her out of the water and into my RIB. The otter then approached the boat, biting the tubes, and attempting to climb over the transom into the boat. Shouts and gestures did no good and we were forced to pull the anchor and leave the cove. I dive mainly at San Luis Obispo and am very familiar with sea otters. I have never observed this behavior. The animal had obviously been raised by humans and had lost all natural caution. Locals told us that certain persons had started releasing surplus orphan otters outside their normal range on the North Coast, a practice not only uncomfortable for divers, but which will ultimately wipe out the abalone resource. Van Barbieri San Luis Obispo, CA Hi Van, If sea otters are showing up in California waters north of San Francisco it is news to me, and likely news to the California Fish and Game. Please report this incident to Fish and Game as sea otters have not occupied this range for well over a 100 years. If a sea otter population establishes itself on the North Coast, the abalone population is doomed. This is especially sad if humans have illegally introduced the otters. Dale Sheckler Editor Praises for CDN and Catalina Divemaster Hi California Diving News! I’m a long time subscriber—great publication! I live in Utah (Salt Lake City area), but Catalina Island is my home away from home, and kelp is my middle name! I’m an instructor at Dive Addicts dive shop, in Draper, Utah (www.diveaddicts.com). I lead the shop dive trips to Catalina, and a gentleman by the name of Ron Moore on the island, is my favorite divemaster/underwater videographer/instructor trainer in the world. I first saw Ron on a TV dive show series (Sport Diver—hosted by a Cousteau descendent). Ron was so personable on the TV show, that I vowed to meet him on my next trip to the island. Ron now addresses the dive groups I bring to Catalina, with an island orientation, Catalina diving overview, and screening of his award winning underwater videography. He is also our divemaster during our boat dives on the Catalina Diver’s Supply boat Scuba Cat. I highly recommend Ron to any instructors/trip leaders who would like to provide something really special for their groups on Catalina. I have DVD copies of his TV segments — let me know if you would like a copy, I’ll be happy to send you one. Ron Moore’s contact info is ron@ronmooreproductions.com Is it possible to get some copies of CDN each month for our dive shop, and our classroom, to give to our customers/students? We average three open-water classes of eight students per month at Dive Addicts, and I lead four shop dive trips a year to Catalina. Yours truly, Cliff Campbell Instructor Dive Addicts dive shop Draper, Utah Cliff, Your copies of California Diving News will go out with the next shipment. And we here agree, Ron Moore is a fantastic divemaster and underwater videographer. Editor Safety Concerns on Overseas Live-aboard Boats On February 14, 2007 Sal and Lucille Zammitti, owners of Bamboo Reef in San Francisco, traveled to the Indian Ocean for a 10-day dive trip aboard the M.V. Giulia in the Maldives Islands. The Giulia was a 100-foot boat and was only two years old. We boarded the Giulia and were assigned cabins. We proceeded to unpack and stow our belongings in the cabin. Then we took most of our diving equipment and transferred it to the dive boat and set it up for diving. After making an early afternoon dive, we returned to the Giulia to shower and finish unpacking. Lu decided to take a nap before dinner, and I went topside to familiarize myself with the boat and crew. At approximately 7:30 p.m., I was near the stern of the boat and was talking to the chef about dinner when all the power went off. Then there was a large ball of fire that shot out from the vessel’s stern port side. This was followed with large amounts of smoke pouring throughout the boat. I immediately made my way down below to our cabin to help my wife. Smoke was already in the cabin and below decks was in total darkness. I found our cabin, and helped my wife back up the stairs to the main deck. There the crew helped us on to the dhoni (dive boat), which was tied alongside the Giulia. When everybody was on the dive boat, we pulled away about 100 yards. There were 14 guests and 10 crew members. The only things we got off with were the tee shirts and shorts we had on. The Giulia was now totally engulfed in smoke. You could see an orange glow in the engine room portholes and within about an hour the entire boat was engulfed in fire, with flames reaching 50 feet in the air. The boat burned to the waterline, and about 3:30 a.m., it sank. Thankfully, everyone got off the boat safely, but it could have been very bad. There were no smoke detectors anywhere on the boat, nor was there any emergency lighting. We want to encourage anyone travel diving to be aware of safety concerns on live-aboard boats. Ask safety questions before you travel: Does the boat have emergency lighting? What type of fire suppression system does the boat have? Does the boat have smoke detectors? Smoke detectors are available for travelers; put one outside your cabin door when you arrive on the boat. Keep a small flashlight easily accessible in your cabin. Ask that the safety briefing be given as soon as possible, not after the first dinner. Hopefully, if divers are aware of boat safety and begin asking these questions, we can make operators more aware as well and they will add these safety features Sal Zammitti Bamboo Reef, San Francisco Sal, As you know, US live-aboard standards and restrictions are very high and strictly enforced. The precautions you mentioned above, however, are a good idea when traveling overseas. Editor What To Expect from a Divemaster and Boat Crew CDN, This letter is in response to Lisa Nahn's letter about tipping a divemaster, as well as expectations with regard to boat crew service. As an instructor with significant DM/boat crew experience under my belt, I might be able to shed some light on her questions. Ten percent works as a guideline for good service with regard to tipping. As a sport diver you should expect friendly service, the DM to check your air before the entry, most certainly an "okay" from the DM immediately upon entry, a little help with things such as lowering a camera to a diver in the water, a DM ready to jump in and assist in the event of a potential emergency, reasonable service with regard to available concessions, rinse buckets with fresh water, O2 kits, and a general helping hand in a reasonable manner. Some things you should not expect from a DM as a sport diver: taking your fins off for you at the ladder (unless you have some sort of physical handicap and genuinely need assistance), hauling your gear for you from the parking lot to the boat and vice versa (again, unless you have a handicap of some sort), and setting your gear up for you on the boat. Things like free beer, extra DM's, and free meals (unless offered beforehand) all cost money. DM's don't work for free and most cases not for tips either. Please realize that DM's are dive professionals, not hotel bellhops. They are also not maids, and the customers have to take some responsibility for keeping things clean, keeping doors to the head closed and so on. A DM cannot be ready to assist in an emergency situation or handle his/her boat crew responsibilities if they are running around cleaning up after customers who think they are staying at the Ritz. While customers are most certainly a key factor in the business model, the boats are operating a business and boats can't afford to operate when the customer is heading to the beach for some surf entries. As for hauling and assembling a diver's gear for them: although it's not something we verbalize, I can assure you that DM's generally have a very low opinion of divers that can't deal with their own gear and things like that shouldn't be factored into to tipping unless you're diving with some luxury resort operation in the tropics, or unless you're willing to pony up something extra. Some operations offer free refreshments, and if so, that's great. Some don't, for whatever reason, and the boat crew should not be adversely affected because of it. Anyway, hope that helps and hope it didn't come off sounding too harsh. I'm just verbalizing some pet peeves that I've shared with just about every DM I've ever met. Dave Robinson via e-mail Tipping On Boat Trips Dale, I would like to see something written about boat tipping. What is a normal tip for great service and what constitutes great service? We have a few boats in the Los Angeles area that treat you like you owe them something. Sometimes I wonder if they have forgotten if it wasn’t for us divers they might be out of business. You ask, “Well what is it that you expect of a boat?” I expect a boat crew to cater to me as a diver. When they see me struggling to get my BC on, lend a hand, check to make sure my air is on at the gate, give me an okay back after I jump in the water. I hate it when I jump in and give my big “O.K.” to no one there. I’d like to lower down my camera and not have to search for someone to help; have a DM that is ready to jump in, not be out hunting for lobster, calico or only half suited up; provide meals and not make me beg for a styrofoam cup and make me repeat an oath that I will not lose it; keep the heads closed to the ocean when we are at a dive site; help me on the swim step get my fins off, and up the ladder. When the boat is 75 percent students, take us to a dive site desirable for teaching, not a pinnacle with a drop-off and provide clean linens for the bunks, and most of all——smile. Now the boats that really exceed take my gear from my car to the boat, serve me a great meal, provide free beer for the ride home, have extra divemasters available for the diver who is a little uncomfortable and needs someone to guide them on their dive, provide rinse buckets on the boat with simple green for rinsing my gear before I pack it up, and help carry my gear to the car. Now these guys I really tip good. Lisa Nahn via e-mail Lisa, Unless the service is bad, which frankly is rare, I typically tip 10 percent of the trip price, including extras like food and air. If the service is exceptional I will tip 15 to 20 percent. I admit as editor of California Diving News, I often get excellent service aboard the boats so what I do is watch how the boat crews treat the other passengers and most of the time it is quite good. The bad usually comes from boats that are understaffed and overbooked. Even then I see the crews busting their backsides to make everybody’s California dive experience as enjoyable as possible. Perhaps the best thing you can do for the boat is to provide feedback, both good and bad. Tipping is one form of feedback, but the written word carries so much more weight. Drop the boat a note or e-mail of how you felt your experience was with them. That is how changes are made. Dale Sheckler Editor Shrimp I.D. in Error CDN: I enjoyed the Robert Barry photo in your January/February issue of a moray eel surrounded by legions of shrimp, but the caption misidentified the shrimp as coonstripe shrimp. They’re red rock shrimp (Lysmata californica) that frequently clean moray eels and often live with them. I see a lot of coonstripe shrimp (Pandalus gurneyi) here in northern California, but I’ve never seen one in southern California next to a moray. As it turns out, people use the name coonstripe shrimp for two other species of shrimp as well: Pandalus danae (a.k.a. dock shrimp) and Pandalus hypsinotus, which is found mostly in Alaska. It’s all rather confusing, makes a good case for scientific names, and might explain how photos can easily get miscaptioned. Good diving, Mike Boom Oakland, CA Avid Reader Lands Big Bugs Dear Editor: I have been diving the North and Central Coast of California for 15 years. I have to tell you that I have not renewed many dive magazine subscriptions because they only briefly cover those California dive locations that I enjoy so much. I have come to look forward to your articles and photos which are dedicated to the diving I find most rewarding. I recently took your advice and dived aboard the Conception of the Truth Aquatics fleet. Attached is a photo of three PADI instructors who came up with these bugs on the same dive. On the right is Mike Cravens, holding a 10.3 lbs. lobster. His wife Linda’s bug weighed just under 7 lbs. Steve Ramirez (left) came up with his lobster that weighed just over 5 lbs. The trip was outstanding with the overall take of lobsters at “198.” Capt. Brayton did a tremendous job putting us in places, including near “The Foul”—San Miguel Island, where these were caught opening weekend. I have been a PADI divemaster for several years and only recently have discovered diving the Channel Islands. Please keep those California Diving News articles coming. B. Mercer Stable Lobster Population CDN: The current minimal size limits established by F&G (Fish and Game) is based upon the sexual maturing of the lobster and a reproduction cycle of at least one time to create a sustained stable lobster population. Therefore, the current lobster population would remain stable if each legal female produced, from the excess of 500,000 eggs it carries, a minimum of two lobsters that reached legal maturity within its lifetime. As the lobster matures and increases in weight, the number of eggs it produces and carries also increases. Therefore, a ten-pound lobster, which is estimated at fifteen to twenty or more years old, could carry in excess of one million eggs, producing at each mating season approximately four lobsters that will reach sexual maturity. A ten-pound lobster is a grand mother many times over and has probably mated ten or more seasons and could count perhaps a minimum of thirty or more mature lobsters as offspring. If the lobster remains in the wild, it can be expected to continue to grow and continue to increase its production of eggs many fold as long as it survives. It would be appropriate and is suggested that the harvesting of all large lobsters be curtailed and especially the larger females to ensure a stable, possibly a larger lobster population for the divers of the future. Dr. Samuel Miller, III via e-mail GW Shark Chumming Debate Continues In regard to last month’s shark diving letter by Hans H: As the owner of Shark Diver at www.sharkdiver.com, we have been working with great whites at this site for four seasons. We also spearhead the cooperative shark research effort with Mexico’s CICIMAR and California’s UC Davis here. What Hans H. does not understand are some basics that every California diver should know concerning Pacific great whites, their movement patterns as well as a look into the chumming debate from a research angle. Some of this information is new and some of it is well known data. Hans H. states that yellow tags are being applied to sharks from the California Coast and are migrating over to Isla Guadalupe. This is an incorrect statement. Originating from Isla Guadalupe, these tags are showing a mass migration to and from the island. These migrations do not happen towards the California coast but rather out to the open Pacific. To date not one single satellite tag has ever shown a direct link from the California coast to Isla Guadalupe, or from Ano Nuevo, or even from the Farallon Islands to this shark site. Hans H. goes on to delve into the debate about chumming and habituation of great whites. Again, science comes into play here as a new five year study commissioned by an Australian white shark company has recently dispelled this theory. The study will be published in the next year and is currently going through peer review. It will be the source of much continuing debate in the near future, but at least there’s empirical data now to confirm what we as cage divers had suspected all along. Chumming does not habituate great whites. On a further note, we are also experiencing similar data sets at Isla Guadalupe. Preliminary tagging data from the CICIMAR program suggests that our activities at this site do not habituate great whites at all. Our activities at this site turn out to be a mere distraction for these animals in a day filled with active hunting. It is sometimes easy for those who live with great whites as an occupational hazard, or who fear these magnificent animals to point at the cage diving industry and say we are training these sharks or worse yet changing their behaviors. We have some of the same concerns as you do; hence, the research teams we have in place to hopefully answer some of these questions. This debate is a good one, but more data and facts are needed to draw any real conclusions just yet! Patric Douglas CEO |
