NE Florida Survey -Recreational Boating
Natural Resources and Environment is asking you to participate in a boating study to characterize recreational boating patterns in the near- and off-shore waters of Northeast Florida. A goal of the study is to ensure that decisions about the siting of boating infrastructure and resource protection, including right whales, are based on information that includes input from the boating community. Please help in this effort by completing our questionnaire. Florida Sea Grant has worked with coastal communities throughout the state to enhance boating infrastructure, improve navigation access to local waterways, and preserve working waterfronts. If you would like to receive a survey or you have any questions about the study you may contact the project’s principal investigator, Dr. Bob Swett, (352) 392-6234, or by email fas-boat@ifas.ufl.edu. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Boats, Divetalking, Earth, Education, Featured, ocean, Promotions, Reference, Report
DAN provides dive leaders with FREE DIDS boards to enhance dive safety!
Simple, yet incredibly effective, the DIDs system — in combination with roll call — ensures no diver is left behind. Available in two colors accommodating up to 12 divers each, DIDs boards are funded by donations and free to DAN Members. DIDs boards will be available at the DAN booth #3245 at DEMA, or you can request one online today. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Boats, Divemaster, Diver, Divetalking, Education, Emergency/FirstAid, Featured, ocean, Open Water, Products, Promotions, Reference, Report, Uncategorized
LionFish Hunt off Jacksonville Fl. July 29, 2012
Join Offshore Dive Charters on a Lion Fish Hunt @ the Artificial Reef: DryDock [singlepic id=744 w=640 h=480 float=center] Two Dives on the Casablanca, One dive on BR Ferry and One dive on the Huggins, 4 tanks, Deep Dives (approx 110 feet), must be Advanced and will need nitrox. Have your lionfish gear ready because they are there…..Need a puncture resistant gloves, pole spear, EMT shears, and either a bag or tube system that doesn’t allow penetration and a stringer (if you are going to cut off the spines under water – but this does take MORE time) [singlepic id=743 w=320 h=240 float=center] [singlepic id=781 w=320 h=240 float=center] The Casablanca is 327 foot long LST landing craft, hull number CVE 55, was built by Kaiser S.B. Company in Vancouver, Washington. She was originally built as the Alazon Bay, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Artificial Reefs, Boats, Divetalking, Events, Lionfish, Master Diver, Open Water, Promotions, Reefs, Reference, Report, Trip Invitations, Wrecks
Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists
Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause. Dahr Jamail Last Modified: 18 Apr 2012 03:16 New Orleans, LA – “The fishermen have never seen anything like this,” Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. “And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I’ve never seen anything like this either.” Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University’s Department of Oceanography … Read entire article »
Filed under: Boats, Conservation, Dolphin, Earth, Featured, Fish, General Question, ocean, Open Water, Reefs, Reference, Report, Shrimp
Adastra super yacht is a one-of-a-kind aquatic marvel
In the world of boating, there are yachts, super yachts, and then there’s the Adastra, a massive, custom built masterpiece of engineering that looks more like a spacecraft from Star Wars than an actual vehicle. Unfortunately, a new class of marine transportation hasn’t yet been coined, so for the time being the 140-foot will have to reside within the “super yacht” category, though to lump it in with any other water-faring ride does a bit of … Read entire article »
Titanic – What do you think
The Titanic, which hit the iceberg and sank April 16, 2012, 100 years ago with over 1200 souls dieing that fateful morning. Since then, she has been visited a number of time and today has Russian submersibles taking tourist to see the site for around $60,000 a person. Is she a grave site to be left alone or should we take this opportunity to see her and retrieve from her what can be salvaged, before she disappears into history books? What are your thoughts to the way Titanic should be treated? … Read entire article »
Filed under: Artificial Reefs, Boats, Featured, General Question, ocean, Reefs, Reference, Report, Wrecks
Diver Lost in Cozumel March 28, 2012
On March 28, 2012 while diving Santa Rosa, Cristina Cassin fails to surface during an aborted dive. Currents have gotten strong and the dive was aborted. Upon surfacing, Cristina was not with the group. A call over the radio was made. Search and recovery is still occuring at this time. Here is the english translation for the link below. COZUMEL, March 28. – He lost a foreign tourist who was diving on the reef of Santa Rosa. The woman was with a group of divers when he made the sign that was to emerge to the surface, which he did, however, when the group ended the tour and got into the boat that carried them, the crew noticed that she was not . Escalante Genaro Medina, chief officer of Federal Maritime Ward (Remafe) of the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Boats, Diver, Featured, ocean, Open Water, Reference, Report, Rescue
DEMA WORKS WITH FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION (FWC) TO PLACE FAIR LICENSURE LANGUAGE IN FLORIDA BILL
Culmination of Effort That Began Last Year Clarifies Responsibility and Ensures Options for Divers and Dive Operators in Fishing and Lobster Licensing Law Following months of close collaboration with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), DEMA has succeeded in placing language regarding the licensure of dive charter vessels in Florida House Bill 7025. This Bill amends a previous law which would have forced dive charter operators to purchase a fishing and lobster license … Read entire article »
Filed under: Artificial Reefs, Boats, Conservation, Diver, Earth, Featured, ocean, Open Water, Reefs, Reference, Report
Underwater ‘Seaview’ lets you explore coral reef
February 2012 by Paul Marks An underwater variant of the Google Street View service will from today begin giving web users an unprecedented photographic tour of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – and another reef in Bermuda will soon be getting similar treatment. Called the Catlin Seaview Survey, the project is a joint venture between Google, the University of Queensland and their sponsor, a multinational insurance firm called the Catlin Group. Part science project and part public outreach, the aim is to learn as much as possible about the reef’s state of health from a panoramic underwater photographic and video survey – and let the rest of us enjoy the reef’s untrammelled beauty online. “For the first time in history, we have the technology available to broadcast the findings of an expedition through Google. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Artificial Reefs, Boats, Earth, ocean, Open Water, Photography, Reference, Report
The ultimate amphibious trucks
Gibbs Humdinga II, Phibian trucks can pivot their wheels to achieve high speeds on water By Bryan Laviolette | The Detroit Bureau After more than a decade of false starts, Gibbs Technologies launched a High Speed Amphibian that it says will change the way rescue crews respond in disaster situations. With the dramatic backdrop of the Pentagon on one side and the Washington Monument just across the Potomac River, Gibbs gave a demonstration of Phibian, a 30-foot amphitruck, which will be road legal and capable of more than 80 mph on the highway and 30 mph in water. Like Gibbs’ other amphibians, the Phibian can transition between land and water in as little as 5 seconds. Like the rest of its products, the Phibian uses proprietary technology that allows it to seamlessly transition between … Read entire article »
A Real-Life Treasure Hunt: Local Divers to Recover $3 Billion From Sunken World War II Ship off the Cape
by Lisa DeCanio In 1942, a British ship called the Port Nicholson, was traveling across the Atlantic from the Soviet Union to the United States. During its journey, the Port Nicholson sank at an unknown location after it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. The clincher? The Port Nicholson was carrying $53 million in platinum when it sank. Today, that platinum is worth an estimated $3 billion, and a Boston-based crew plans on recovering the lost treasure, reports CBS Boston. The treasure-hunting crew of the Sea Hunter has spent the past three years locating the ship and planning the dive. The Port Nicholson lies about 50 miles off the coast of Provincetown, MA, 700 feet below sea level. The waters where the ship lies are incredibly choppy, so the dive will have to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Artificial Reefs, Boats, Reefs, Reference, Report, Wrecks
Divers find large, unexplained object at bottom of Baltic Sea
By Eric Pfeiffer A team of salvage divers has discovered an unexplained object resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Sweden. “This thing turned up. My first reaction was to tell the guys that we have a UFO here on the bottom,” said Peter Lindberg, the leader of the amateur treasure hunters. Sonar readings show that the mysterious object is about 60 meters across, or, about the size of a jumbo jet. And it’s not alone. Nearby on the sea floor is another, smaller object with a similar shape. Even more fascinating, both objects have “drag marks” behind them on the sea floor, stretching back more than 400 feet. “Could this be the Star Wars Millenium Falcon, a plug to an inner world or a marine version of Stonehenge?” asks CNN’s Brooke … Read entire article »
Filed under: Artificial Reefs, Boats, Report, Wrecks
Coast Guard cutter Mohawk set to be sunk off Lee County, Fla
The 165-foot Coast Guard cutter Mohawk, now a floating museum in Key West, should be an artificial reef off Lee County by June 2012. Mohawk was involved in 14 attacks on German U-boats during World War II. / Photo by Brian Lapointe/Special to The News-Press By mid-2012, a significant piece of maritime military history could be resting on the sea floor 15 miles off Lee County. Miami-Dade Historic Maritime Museum Inc., has agreed to donate the 165-foot World War II Coast Guard cutter Mohawk to Lee County to be scuttled as an artificial reef. Lee County has also been awarded a $1.5 million grant from West Coast Inland Navigation District to pay for towing the vessel from Key West, cleaning and sinking it. The preferred destination for Mohawk is the ARC Reef site in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Artificial Reefs, Boats, Events, Featured, Reefs, Reference, Report