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The liveliest letters from the DIVER mailbag...
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A recent conversation with a diving-school director about the Health & Safety Executive's current interest in diving reminded me of my experiences when I was in the Fire Service.
Some years ago, soon after the HSE's powers were expanded, I had to initiate a "notifiable incident" following the failure of a compressed air breathing apparatus (CABA) during a training exercise.
An HSE inspector arrived to supervise the examination of the CABA. He was highly qualified but clearly had little knowledge of breathing apparatus or of Fire Service procedures. I was left wondering why he was there.
Subsequent contributions of the HSE to the Fire Service appeared to be the generation of huge quantities of paperwork, a demoralised workforce dealing with countless risk assessments and mission statements, and a large number of car parks (which had been buildings before the fires).
Now these same helpful chaps have followed me to my sport. I fear that their main contribution to diver safety will be to generate so much additional admin for dive schools, instructors and anyone hoping to plan a dive that no one will have time to get in the water.
I take safety very seriously and am grateful for measures that improve standards in diving. But inspectors dealing with our sport, while more than willing to shake a big stick, may be less likely to work with organisations to produce workable solutions.
Unnecessary interference is likely to result in higher costs for the sports-diving industry which will be passed on to the customer (me); fewer people entering the sport; and others encouraged to go it alone (hardly an improvement in safety). I have met several individuals who admit to having completed no form of recognised training, and yet undertake dives which I would never consider with my level of experience.
BSAC's 2003 Diving Incidents Report shows a drop in reported incidents, and suggests several possible reasons. Is fear of paperwork (or prosecution) another factor?
I can confirm that I conducted a full risk assessment of my home and surrounding area, and made the results known to my family, neighbours and friends, before writing this letter!
Terry Hodgens, Milton Keynes
I was very amused and sympathetic towards Kay Brown in her Deep Breath article about life getting more complicated for divers as they reach a certain age and size, having encountered similar problems myself (Fitting Behaviour, February).
I began diving as a person of more mature years. Obtaining a suitable wetsuit for my slightly stumpy size 14 frame was clearly going to be challenging and my experience was similar to Kay's. "Famous names" designs were far too tight (my husband also has experience of trying to do zips up in fitting rooms) and also far too long. They were obviously designed for the sickeningly shapely young things I encounter on so many dive boats.
I was beginning to think that I was simply the wrong shape to be a diver when I was directed towards the Beaver Sports catalogue. Its size XM fitted a treat, and I had a choice of colours!
I now possess a shortie as well as a full-length suit, and have to be restrained from taking both on diving holidays.
A further point which may interest older divers is to try Bonaire. We went there last autumn, staying at Captain Don's Habitat. I confess to slightly dreading a week of being surrounded by tanned, svelte girls (the blokes are fine - I enjoy looking at them!) and am usually pleased to get past the first couple of dives, so that the youngsters can see that this slightly ageing frame still works well under water.
However, to my surprise and delight, people of our age group and slightly more eccentric shape were very well represented in Bonaire, if not in the majority.
So here's the message for divers of a certain age and size - don your Beaver and get yourself to Captain Don's!
Linda Sokoloff, Orpington, Kent
Reading about the delights of going to Gozo by Marjolein Thrower (Gozo-A-Go-Go, January), I wish I could feel as excited as her, but a recent early-season Gozo experience was very different.
Year-round diving? In my case, only if you're prepared to dive a very limited number of sites repeatedly. My two friends and I had pre-arranged 10 guided dives, and told the dive-centre owner we wanted to photograph marine life and dive the Xlendi ferry-boat.
For the first half of the week the weather was OK, yet we still dived sheltered sites. When the wind blew up in the second half, our only option was to dive the same sites, so we missed out on the Xlendi. The dive centre had just taken the easy options.
One of our main criticisms was the lack of knowledge of the two main dive guides. They had not been in Gozo long and the owner had clearly not passed on his own knowledge. It's not enough for a guide to jump in and follow somebody around until it's time to get out.
On one occasion it took them ages to find an entry point; on another day we turned up at 9am as requested but had to wait hours for them to find a suitable site.
We were taken to the Blue Hole twice, yet never advised that at the bottom was a cave where we could photograph marine life.
The owner guided a few dives when he had to. These were at sites we had already done, but the dives were much better with the benefit of his knowledge.
Dive centres should realise that the money divers pay in early season is just as good as money paid in peak season, and should make the effort to give the same quality of service.
Steve Davies, Chorley, Lancs
For a third time I have visited Kuredu in the Maldives, knowing that I would not be disappointed and hoping to see something special, perhaps this time the elusive whale shark.
Kuredu Express was what we had expected - beautiful eagle rays, Napoleon wrasse, turtles, sweetlips, butterflyfish and about 25 grey reef sharks, all close enough to photograph.
Well content with a wonderful dive we began our ascent, and then it appeared - a tiger shark, moving fast towards a large fish ball about 10m away. It was too fast to photograph but unmistakable, with its distinctive body stripes.
Four of us saw it, including the local dive leader Lisa, and I guess it was about 2.5m long. Tiger sharks are known to be in these waters but are rarely seen.
I had with me the November issue of Diver to catch up on my reading, but never thought I would share Gavin Parsons' experience! I am still tingling from the memory.
Terry Monro, Lisburn
I started training with Scottish Sub-Aqua Club last September, despite my slight fear of fish. My first dive in the Clyde wasn't the most pleasurable experience and I realised how hard it is to shore dive if you're only 5ft 4in and not particularly strong. However, I persevered and did my first boat dive on the Lady Isabella wreck at Trail Island, which I found much easier.
The water was choppy and I felt a little seasick, but once down I was fine. As we surfaced during some training exercises, I saw my mum and my boyfriend on the boat looking excited, but when we asked what was going on we were told: "Nothing."
We carried on until we heard more excited noises coming from the boat. They were jumping up and down and pointing behind us. We turned to see eight or nine dorsal fins moving towards us. It was a pod of dolphins! I asked my dive buddy (my Dad) jokingly if he was sure they weren't sharks before shoving him in front of me for protection.
Two of the dolphins swam over to investigate us and got within 3m before diving beneath us and the boat. Back at the marina we found that there had been other confirmed sightings of dolphins, and also of some minke whales.
I may still be afraid of the fish, but I'm no longer afraid of the mammals!
Donna Smith, Bridge Of Weir
The letter from Jason McNamara (You Can Do it if You Really Try, January) prompted me to put finger to keyboard. As a fellow-dyslexic, I know what a struggle life can be, but we are also more determined than most to get there in the end. I take my hat off to Jason for achieving his goal.
The different topics in Off-Gassing are always interesting and there is always something to learn from other divers' experiences.
As a new diver, would it be possible to put in features from which people very new to diving would benefit? I have not even completed an Open Water yet but have caught the bug big-time and would like to buy my own equipment. But I would like to be able to obtain info/reviews on gear for beginners so that I can make more informed choices.
Rose Hall, Dover
Comment: You'll find loads of information for beginners on our website www.divernet.com, along with all our equipment reviews. For absolute beginners, we also have a start-up book and DVD called Get Started in Scuba Diving, now available from newsagents.
Observation Point is one of my favourite dive sites in the Milne Bay area of Papua New Guinea. It is prime muck-diving and it was here that Bob Halstead and I had an epic encounter with a salt-water croc.
The last time I was here we encountered the rare red-banded octopus right under the boat. On the same dive we came across a flamboyant cuttlefish.
For an underwater photographer, such encounters are like an artist coming upon an original Van Gogh in a junk shop.
This time Observation Point did not fail us. There were ghost pipefish; a bright yellow cuttlefish; a splendid juvenile batfish, hidden in the shallow grass jungle; bizarre shrimp and the deepwater fire urchin, for which you must dive down the slope to 30m or more.
This last brilliant red and blue engine of destructive venom carries on his back a pair of red and white Coleman shrimp, a male and a female. I knew they were down there; and this time I had a flat port on my Light & Motion housing for optimum macro. I filled the frame with the glorious hitch-hikers.
The encounter of the day, however, belonged to Paul LeBourgeois. An unusually large yellow pipefish had been much filmed by most of the photographers. A pipefish is like an elongated seahorse and no more animated than a drifting stick. It is most often detected hiding in the arms of a crinoid, and so perfectly camouflaged as to be virtually invisible.
Three inches long would be a large one. This one, I am told, was more than a foot long.
Paul is a serious videographer. Not satisfied to record the static animal, he reached out to touch and so animate it.
To his amazement and confusion, the docile animal took umbrage and launched an all-out assault on his giant antagonist.
Paul's wife Mary later described Paul's flailing arms and complete rout as being akin to a defence against a swarm of bees. The pissed-off pipefish went for his head, attacked his ear, battered his mask. All thoughts of shooting were abandoned in his fight for survival from the attack by this pencil-thin warrior.
Mary said she almost drowned laughing as the yellow peril tried to enter Paul's ear, tangled in his hair and sorely abused him. When the attacker had retreated to his quiet, inert vigil in the crinoid, Mary described the expression on her husband's face as one of mingled amazement, outrage and chagrin.
A tragic loss to the diving world and to all animal defenders was that the encounter was not recorded on camera.
I like to think that the patience of the gentle animal had been sorely tried by the waves of photographers who had flashed their strobes and directed their video lights into its face all day long. He spoke for the pipefish nation.
Stanton Waterman, Papua New Guinea
Airlines claim that they have to weigh luggage and charge an excess where necessary in order to trim the plane correctly, and to have the right amount of fuel on board. Why then, on return journeys from Egypt and other destinations, is luggage not weighed? Does the pilot just guess and hope for the best?
Also, in his letter about using olive oil in your ears before a dive (Ear Say), Paul Bradfield said he used it and had problems. Perhaps Dr Ian Sibley-Calder should point out that olive oil comes in different purities, and that the stuff you use for cooking your stir-fry is not of the same quality as the stuff bought over the counter at a pharmacy.
Claire Hodge, Coventry
So Neale Bailey falls out of his Citroen CV into his local healthfood shop and spots shark supplements (Unhealthy For Sharks, Off-Gassing, December). Shock horror! I bowled into my local supermarket to witness a fish-counter display that looked like a collaboration between Jackson Pollock and Damien Hirst.
I didn't need to consult shark guru Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch to identify the victim. Its freshly severed head was the centrepiece and its butchered body parts, arranged in a chevron, were clearly marked "shark steak".
Apart from the odd reference to Peter Benchley's famous novel, nobody seemed to bat an eyelid.
I realised then that perhaps only divers know of the impending doom for a species that has existed in our planet's oceans for eons. Are we being irresponsible in not informing the general public of their ignorance? Can you imagine the response had this been a dolphin? Or is it that sharks just get bad press?
Asda has scrapped the display but is still selling shark steak.
Paul Chapman, Flixton, Manchester
Dominic Burch of Asda replies: We do sell shark meat, at the moment thresher sharks from Sri Lanka. We check any species of fish we sell on the IUCN Red List to ensure that it isn't endangered. But there is a demand - we wouldn't stock shark if it didn't sell.
On our way out to Malta, I looked forward to a relaxing week with my partner. But I hardly saw Tony at all, because on the first day he spotted a PADI diving school opposite our hotel. He had wanted to do his Open Water course for a long time but hadn't realised how much time all the dives and study would take.
We had an argument about it on the fifth morning, and as he left the hotel room I said to him: "I hope you drown!"
While diving at the Crystal Lagoon, 12m down, Tony went to take a breath of air but there wasn't any - his gauge was on empty. He swam to his instructor , who was in front, pulled on his fin and signalled out of air while grasping for his octopus. They did an emergency ascent together.
As Tony coughed and spluttered on the surface, the instructor told him that he had been due to do an emergency ascent later that day, but as he had already done it for real he would leave that one. Whoops!
Ms S Bill, Northampton
I can't believe that so many words have been written by so many over a piece of diving kit that is now redundant! I don't wear a watch, as I now have a computer. I don't know anyone who actually does wear a watch under water.
Yes, we all have some massive all-singing, all-dancing job, but that's just for posing in the pub. It's too valuable to wear under water and it won't even fit over a drysuit. And try to get a cheap Casio or even a good Seiko on, and you'll find that you're needing a longer strap.
If you need a back-up, then a dive-timer at £60 or so is surely the way to go. If you're still using a watch, for you're own sake get a computer - this isn't the Stone Age!
Gordon Short, Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire
I read John Bantin's Divers Are Shark Killers (Deep Breath, March) in a daze. I blinked, re-read it and realised that Mr Bantin, with his scatter-gun examples and cartoon logic, appeared to be serious. The thrust of his argument would parallel someone saying that there is no point in getting out of bed in the morning because you are going to die anyway.
Mr Bantin labelled as hypocrites those Diver readers who support conservation charities that attempt to slow or reverse the devastation inflicted on sharks worldwide. He further insinuated, by specifically mentioning the Shark Trust, that our own efforts are a waste of time.
I hope most Diver readers who value the natural world think that it is worth fighting for. I further hope that the defeatist attitude embodied by Mr Bantin represents an insignificant part of the diving community.
I personally find it distasteful that someone who should be so happy to spend so much time diving with sharks should be so cynical of those who attempt to conserve them.
Diver Group has, since the very inception of the Shark Trust, been a generous and helpful supporter and I am confident that Mr Bantin's thoughts are entirely his own.
Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch, The Shark Trust
Comment: Sorry, Jeremy, but we stand by John's assertion that it is worth considering the wider world view in relation to the threat to sharks, which is all he was saying. John has always championed the cause of sharks and will go on doing so - though not in his former role as a patron of the Shark Trust, as we understand that since his article appeared you have expelled him!
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