 |
|
The liveliest letters from the DIVER mailbag...
|
|
I read with interest the news item concerning the proposed wind turbines at Portland Harbour (Wind Turbines Won't Spoil Portland Wrecks, Says Powergen, April). This subject has certainly caused some concern among fellow-members of my club lately.
Wind turbines are an issue which I encounter in my working life as a professional engineer. These and other sources of renewable power generation are a key means of reducing our carbon emissions.
The current government has committed the UK to the Kyoto Treaty and pledged to make substantial cuts in our carbon emissions. This is good news all round, and one of the better things it has achieved.
The same issue of Diver carried an item on the future of the Great Barrier Reef. If the scientific studies are correct, we have already lost one of the world's greatest natural treasures. I'm lucky, I've seen it. Plenty of people haven't. The cause of this loss? Global warming.
I'm not suggesting that we should allow big business to ignore the interests and views of either local residents or recreational water-users, simply that we should take a step back and appreciate a wider view.
As an instructor, I fully appreciate the benefits of sites such as HMS Hood at Portland, but who will want to learn to dive when there is nothing further out or abroad worth diving? Should we not welcome the development of new, clean and sustainable technologies, as these are in our long-term best interest, both as divers and for society at large?
Perhaps the diving community is missing a trick here. Commercial marine activities such as dredging or cable-laying disrupt or even destroy dive sites and wrecks all the time, yet we don't seem to oppose these as vociferously.
If we can work with organisations such as Powergen and garner their support, perhaps it will be easier to create new artificial reefs and wrecks such as HMS Scylla as suitable replacements - and perhaps there will be something worth seeing when we get there.
Dave Selvage, Chelmsford, Essex
Paul LeBourgeois may not have read the Under-water Photographers' Code of Conduct, but the large yellow pipefish he encountered in Milne Bay PNG obviously had! (Off-Gassing, April) .
Part of the code advises against handling or provoking marine life to create a reaction, as this may result in them being unnecessarily stressed. Paul's "yellow peril" obviously felt its personal space had been invaded and that attack was the best form of defence.
To avoid future injury, I suggest that Paul has a look at the code, which sets out good practices for anyone who aspires to take pictures or video under water. For copies, contact the Marine Conservation Society on 01989 506017 or go to www.mcsuk.org.
Lucy Kay, Llanfairfechan, Conwy
I read Gordon Short's letter (Who Wears a Watch Anyway?, April) and found the question he posed very interesting. A watch is the one bit of kit I have had since I started diving in 1976, when standard dress was a sharkskin wetsuit, an ex-Fire Service cylinder, a pair of Turnbull giant fins and a weightbelt set to make you as neutrally buoyant as possible, as we had no inflation device.
I have been reading Diver since then and seen many changes in diving. I have used dive tables from the British and US Navies, PADI, good old BSAC and IANTD. With each one, all you needed was the trusty diver's watch and a bit of brain to use it.
I'm not against computers. I have them at home, in the car and even on my motorbike, and I know there are many wonderful dive computers on the market. They have their place, but the humble watch and dive table has got me out of more than one sticky situation.
My kit is more advanced now - compression-resistant drysuits, ponies, wings and funky fins - but I still have my watch on every dive.
Maybe I am in the Stone Age, but as an instructor who has done more than 3000 dives in 28 years I am fit, healthy and very much alive thanks to my watch.
John Holman, Exeter
In December 2000, I did my PADI Open Water in the Caribbean, and was hooked. A trip to Australia followed and I was gradually introduced to the delights of the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, then UK diving and most recently under ice in Norway. I feel part of a fraternity, and have made many good friends. I have learnt much, but every dive makes me realise that I have considerably more still to learn.
How did all this come about? After those initial warmwater dives, I walked into a dive centre for advice. Ever since, I have been encouraged and motivated by the attitude of all the staff to aim for new targets, look for new experiences and gain new skills. Their emphasis has always been on customer service, their advice on all elements of diving impartial and clear, their training exemplary, and their dedication to diving visible to all.
I have made several major purchases through its stores and always found them very competitive. I always feel I am a valued customer.
I have visited several other dive centres in central/north London but none has made me feel part of a family as Scuba Zone does. As a genuine and typical customer, I have epitomised the role that Diver's Mystery Diver condenses into one visit. That's why I am very surprised at the attitude MD found at a Scuba Zone branch in the March issue.
Thank you to Scuba Zone for encouraging me to be the diver I am today, and wish to be tomorrow. I know I am not speaking only for myself.
Tony Birkby, Watford, Herts
I am surprised that you published Louise Trewavas's childish and irrational attack on me (It Makes Me So Mad!, April). Of course John Bantin is entitled to his opinion about sharks - however parasitical (Divers Are Shark-Killers, Deep Breath, March).
And no, John was not championing the wider cause of sharks. He genuinely believes that shark conservation is a waste of time. When he publishes such thoughts, this makes his position as a patron of the Shark Trust untenable.
The staff and other trustees of the Shark Trust were in agreement that he was not suitable as a patron because of this article, and I wrote to him a formal but private letter on behalf of the trust stating this.
We stand by our guns: the article was not constructive, it was negative, sloppy and damaging. A few feeble attempts at humour at the end did not redeem it.
For Louise to use this letter publicly to insult me ("the bloke who appears to own the Shark Trust" / "more bothered about protecting egos than protecting sharks") reflects very poorly on her. And that she feels entitled to assume the moral high ground and lecture me (or any other officer of the Shark Trust) on shark conservation issues and efforts I find nauseating.
I hope this unpleasant episode has run its course.
Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch, The Shark Trust
Reading Divers Are Shark-Killers!, it grieved me to think that I am one of the guilty parties. I do buy products from China and Spain (it's hard not to, as most things are made in China).
However, as much as I and anyone else would love to help by reducing such purchases, I don't think it's realistic.
Apart from the fact that we need neoprene suits to carry out underwater surveys and further our knowledge, companies would go bust and lots of people would lose their jobs.
But it does make me mad that so many sharks are killed each year just for their fins. I have never tried sharkfin soup, never will and always try to discourage anyone else from doing so.
Annabel Gardner, Blandford, Dorset
Asda's excuse for selling shark steak was pitiful: "There is a demand - we wouldn't stock it if it didn't sell." (Off-Gassing, April).
Who created the demand in the first place? I must have missed the queues of angry housewives demanding shark steak for the dinner table in deepest Lancashire, or anywhere else come to that.
Trying to use the excuse of "demand" is pathetic on another level. There is a "demand" for child pornography, drugs etc, but that doesn't make it right to supply them.
Spoilt children "demand" but responsible and caring adults don't always give in when they know it's not in the child's best interest.
Have we all become spoilt children to be given everything on a whim, and bugger the consequences? It seems so, especially after reading John Bantin's article Divers Are Shark- Killers! Depressing but true.
Jane Didsbury Mitchell, Shrewsbury
The article Peerless Piers and Bail Out Bays in your February edition is unfortunately incorrect in that the Herbrandston Jetty (formerly known as Esso Jetty) in Milford Haven is off-limits to recreational divers. The jetty remains private property and the Harbourmaster's permission would be needed before any diving can take place there.
Further, Milford Haven Harbour byelaws prohibit vessels from approaching within 100m of petroleum berths - which we still consider this to be - without permission.
Bill Hirst, Deputy Harbourmaster , Milford Haven
Mark Andrews says of my 313m dive (That Deep Dive, Off-Gassing, March) that such dives should not be put in a glamorous light, and I could not agree more. If readers think that this dive, which has killed or disabled many divers attempting something similar, is something they might try one sunny afternoon, think again.
For someone to attempt such a plunge, or even one half as deep, they would need to have given up the past 10 years of their lives, as I did, to prepare for it. I get many emails from would-be record attempters saying that now someone has survived seemingly unscathed from a sub-300m dive, it must be easy!
I would ask anybody (even Mark Andrews) not to think about dives below 180m, as this is as deep as mainstream decompression theories allow. Dives below 250m will kill all but an elite few divers who have swapped money-earning careers for diving experience.
Many people will attempt some kind of depth record this year, and sadly most will be severely injured or die. Trimix diver and instructor training nowadays prepares people only to dive to 90m for a few minutes.
Decompression strategies for deeper dives are a science in themselves and one, it seems, I alone am pioneering. Anything below 80-90m derived from the Internet, or trimix training from technical "gurus", should be treated as highly suspect.
I have shared my information with very few people for good reason. Knowing how I did it will not keep anyone else alive, and the information will kill many. Dives below 250m kill divers on the descent. If you survive that, then perhaps the information I have would be useful.
I managed to plan a successful dive this time and my reward was a minute of glory for a possible lifetime of pain. My reward is in proving my theories. I have no interest in setting records, as Mark suggests. I can send him my MRI skeletal scans if he wants to see how "cool" deep records are.
Mark Ellyatt, Thailand
With numerous deaths at Dorothea Quarry in recent years, I wanted to know if I could work out what the problems were. This former slate quarry in north Wales is the most amazing place, both above and below the water, where there are tunnels, pinnacles, a big wooden ladder, excavator, cables, huts and vehicles at different depths, and, of course, vertical walls of slate.
The waters are clear and cold below the initial thermocline. The ladder illustrates how both the clarity and cold can be problems. It starts at 40m, where the temperature can be around 7¡C in summer, but descends to 57m, where each breath of air uses about 14 litres as opposed to 2 litres at the surface. Your lungs are filled with extremely cold air from your depleting supply; add in narcosis to the equation and your brain becomes anaesthetised.
The good visibility is dangerous too. From 40m you can see the bottom of the ladder and beyond, so you get a feeling of confidence to explore the depths. Most dives around Britain over 30m are very dark and gloomy, which can put divers off going deep, but here visibility is good all the way down. You need the discipline to stick to the dive plan - but then, you plan at the surface, with no nitrogen to blur your mind.
Gases like trimix and heliair can reduce narcosis, but you still have a deep, cold dive and little or no emergency facilities at this very remote site. Go there with poorly maintained equipment, or for your first dive of the season, and you could become another statistic.
We shouldn't ban diving at Dorothea but we do need to educate divers about the problems they will encounter at such sites.
P Watts, Staines, Middlesex
Different suits and tanks aside, I have some problem accepting Tania Wheeler's logic on Red Sea salinity and buoyancy (Off-Gassing, March).
She states that the Red Sea has "double the salinity of your average sea water". This is patently false. Red Sea salinity is about 40 parts per thousand compared to the average ocean salinity of 34.7ppt. These figures represent relative densities of about 1.027 and 1.022 respectively (at 25°C).
Using these figures, a fully kitted diver weighing 113kg (a lot!) would need an extra 0.57kg of negative buoyancy, or that amount in lead. Where does her 2-3kg come from?
Experience can teach us a lot, but blindly believing everything we hear without checking facts gains us nothing. I don't have a masters in marine chemistry and Tania is a highly qualified Red Sea dive guide, so I could always be wrong.
Andy Johnson, Farnborough
After reading your articles on diving instructors' confessions on Divernet, I feel compelled to reveal my own embarrassing experience.
I was working as a divemaster in Sulawesi, Indonesia last year when I got a stomach upset. Like clockwork, after lunch I would be struck with severe cramps and have to run to the toilet.
As most of the dives were just 20 minutes from the resort by boat, and as we went either after breakfast or an hour or two after lunch, this problem had little impact on my diving - until we went for a day trip to the nearby atolls.
My stomach had been OK for a couple of days. We completed a great morning dive and settled down to lunch. I was cautious of eating too much, just in case. But as we were preparing for the afternoon dive I felt a twinge.
During the dive, the other divemaster was at the front and I was at the back, with a Dutch couple and two German women under our care. It was only as we began to move upwards that the cramps came back with a vengeance. At one point I was doubled over in agony.
As the gas expanded, so the cramps grew worse. I was saved by one of the Germans getting down to 50 bar. I signalled up. After an uncomfortable safety stop, we were at the surface.
I quickly took off all my equipment and wetsuit in the water and swam to the bow, where I could not be seen. Relief was instantaneous - then I looked up to see my own equivalent of the Exxon Valdese oil slick heading straight towards the German women, who had just swum from behind the back of the boat.
Overcome by shock at the consequences of my actions, I bolted back aboard the boat and signalled that we would leave straight away.
We didn't talk much on the way home. This uncomfortable and embarrassing experience taught me a valuable lesson from which I feel other divers could learn. Never eat local cuisine!
Mark Burton, Dry Drayton, Cambs
Global warming occurs naturally during interglacial periods every 10,000 years. Some scientists believe that human interference and global warming are not connected.
Isn't it possible that the coral in the Great Barrier Reef, through evolution, will evolve to be able to survive the increase in sea temperatures caused by global warming?
Hasn't it already been through glacial periods and survived the global-warming effects in the interglacial periods?
Ruth Wheeley, Loughborough, Leics
I saved for five years to visit Australia and dive both the Ningaloo and Great Barrier Reefs. My first dive off the Great Barrier Reef was with a dive centre that operates out of Port Douglas. I had booked two days' diving, paying for three dives each day.
The first dive, on St Crispin Reef, was extremely disappointing, with nothing but grey, dead coral. It had apparently been trashed by starfish.
We eventually came into the shallows, where people were snorkelling (for free, of course) and where the coral was beautiful.
It is extremely expensive to dive the Barrier Reef, so I complained to the shop manager. He said they hadn't been to St Crispin for seven months because of the damage and that we should not have been taken there. He apologised, but refused me a refund for the dive.
I think the dive centre should have checked out St Crispin to see if it had recovered before taking paying divers out there.
Janet Tonks, Borrowash, Derby
|
|
|
