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From DIVER August 2005

How divers helped to trap a mouse
Beachcomber is not yet able to tell you how many divers worldwide joined the campaign masterminded by Peter Hughes Diving to stop loveable Mickey Mouse becoming a shark-killer.
     Walt Disney, the company that grossed $845 million with Finding Nemo, is opening a new Disneyland park in Hong Kong this December, and had intended to add high-priced shark's fin soup to its wedding banquet menus.
     Liveaboard operator Peter Hughes and other environmental campaigners held Disney to account for "encouraging the wanton slaughter of sharks worldwide". They gave an address from which "personal messages of outrage" would be forwarded to Disney executives.
     How many British divers took up the offer is not recorded but Disney finally - and rather grudgingly - scrapped plans to sell the soup. It said it "had been unable to find suppliers that were ecologically sound".
     Fleets around the world are still cutting off the fins of sharks caught on long lines and chucking the bodies overboard, dead or alive.
     This cruel practice is banned in many countries, but some marine scientists blame it for rapidly declining shark populations.
     Tins of shark's fin soup are sold all over the world in supermarkets. Beachcomber's top Chinese Leak believes that today only one fin, if that, is used as flavouring for each 10,000 tins, but shark meat is often a main ingredient.
     Divers feel very friendly towards sharks, so many having attended shark-feeding sessions in warm waters.
     However, I do wonder whether threatening to boycott Mickey Mouse and attacking soup is really the way ahead for diving. What do divers see as their next step to save the sharks?
     Beachcomber is not sure - but he would be delighted to hear from divers who think otherwise, or who have other suggestions for ways in which to protect endangered marine life.

Unsporting attitude
When is a sport not a sport? When you can't see what's happening from a seat in the stands. That seems to be the basis for a Scottish airline trying to get out of giving divers extra weight allowances for their gear.
     I am sorry to have to agree with the airline on this once-only occasion. Of course diving is not a sport. It's too damned serious for that.

Maeve in camouflage
     Maeve the Shotline Hooligan burst onto the diving scene at Easter, as you will recall. She took over a group's shot attached to a Welsh coast wreck and pushed the ascending divers off it. I fined her two crisp cracklies for the Diver Lifeboat Fund and added a crisp crackly from each of those from the big RIB who followed her down.
     Pushy Maeve, you will be surprised to hear, has still not paid up, despite my reminder in June and the doubling of her fine. The silly girl thinks Beachcomber will forget about her. How wrong she is.
     Two of my best Welsh Leaks tell me that she has changed the colour of her diving apparel to escape notice.
     At the height of her hooliganism she was clad in shocking pink with blue fins. Now she is wearing a more tasteful black and green suit, and her fins are simply black.
     My Leaks have asked me to give her yet more time. They think she is about to crack, as she is finding it difficult to get anyone to dive with her. Against his better judgment, Beachcomber has agreed. But apologise and pay within two months she must, or he will see that no one dives with Maeve again.

Black marks for skipper
North Wales seems to be attracting diving trouble this summer. Or perhaps more divers are reporting incidents to Beachcomber. This brings me to the case of the big charter boat and the divers who were frightened by her.
     My Leak says that a group of six experienced divers had shotted a wreck not far off the coast with a 1m-diameter buoy. They dropped their first two divers in and hoisted their A-flag.
     At that moment, a large boat turned about a mile ahead of them and hurtled towards the diving party. People waved frantically, trying to warn it to stop as it was heading for the two divers down. It had no effect, nor did attempts to raise the boat by radio.
     As a last resort, the diving party prepared to turn their boat into the path of the vessel. Only at the last moment did it turn away. Close up, it was clearly a diving boat. Back on shore, other divers told them it was a charter vessel.
     The divers who had the fright told my Leak that they feel the big boat was after the marks of where they were diving. This was confirmed the following week, as the same boat was seen to drop 20 divers into the water at the spot.
     Beachcomber therefore issues this warning to the charter-boat skipper: You know that there are more sensible ways to find the marks of wrecks without such risk. Unless you behave like a proper skipper, my Leaks will be reporting your behaviour to me for instant action.

Sensitive issue
Professor Beachcomber regrets that his plastic surgery clinic for women divers is on ice. He had intended, as honorary Professor of the Diving Beauticians Association, to give a short lecture on the noble art of rubbing out wrinkles, known in the trade as skin resurfacing, or dermabrasion.
     However, opposition from an unlikely source has forced the Professor to postpone this fascinating discourse until winter.
     His Hippocratic Oath forced this delay when he learnt that the uncovered fresh smooth layer beneath the wrinkles is extremely sensitive to sun, wind and salt water, and no member of the DBA could expose diving clients to such a hazard.
     But Professor B has been swearing un-Hippocratic oaths about the real reason for putting dermabrasion on the back burner.
     Apparently the DBA has been swamped by letters from faint-hearted male divers objecting to Beachcomber's splendid coverage of nip 'n tuck treatments.
     These wimps have apparently threatened diving partners with having to find new buddies if they continue trying to improve their natural beauty with cosmetic surgery.
     Never fear, ladies, I will be back. You have nothing to lose but your wrinkles.


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