FAIRFIELD COUNTY DIVING ASSOCIATION
March 2015
Volume 22 Issue 3
Inside this Issue
The Presidents’ Corner by
Mike Casssetta
page 1
FCDA Donor I
page 2
February Meeting DAN
Raffle Winners
page 3
Events of Interest to FCDA
Members
page 3
FCDA Member Ads
page 3
Amateur Divers Find LongLost Nuclear Warhead by
Barbara Johnson
pages 4, 5
Underwater Volcano
Eruption Creates New
Island Near Tonga by Marina
Guerges
page 5
5 Tips for Underwater
Navigation by Karl Shreeves
page 6
Top 10 Signs That You Have
Made Too Many Dives!
page 7
FCDA Donors II
page 7
New FCDA Members page 8
The Amazing Ocean by Alex
Brylske pages 8, 9, 10
Next FCDA Meeting
page 11
The Presidents’ Corner
by Mike Cassetta
Attention all: There is no March
meeting, as the last weekend of
March is the annual Beneath the Sea
Dive Exposition. If you show at the
cottage, you will be cold, it will be
dark and you will be alone.
We had a well attended February
Meeting. Don Brown was kind
enough to share slides and video
clips from Riviera Maya. Footage included cenotes and whale sharks. As
always, we had an excellent raffles
and a gathering at Luigi’s afterward.
Capt Noel will be our featured
guest for our April meeting. He will
be sharing slides from a trip to the
Maldives. Our schedule for 2015 is
filling up rapidly. We are looking to
fill slots for July & November. September will be our members present
meeting, so anyone with photos or
videos (ideally dive related) they care
to share would be most welcome.
AS A REMINDER, IT IS A NEW
YEAR. MEMBERSHIP FEES ARE REA-
SONABLE, SO PLEASE PAY UP.
Myself, Lisa Jarosik, Mark Dexter
and Tim Thomas were recently featured on a segment on Scot Haney’s
TV show Better CT. The segment
highlighted our dive program at the
Maritime Aquarium and came out
well.
The NUSAR Team conducted our
annual ice dive drill. I had the honor
to serve as Incident Commander. The
ice was quite thick, but is melting
quickly, and is now unsafe. i.e. (Stay
off the Ice).
Don’t forget that we still need a
secretary whose primary function is
preparing the monthly newsletter - it
doesn’t happen by magic!
As a final reminder. There is NO
MARCH MEETING. If you show,
you will be very lonely.
Look forward to seeing you all in
April.
Mike
Page 2
FCDA Donor
The business listed on this page has donated
dive gear and dive services to help support the
Fairfield County Diving Association.
New England's Tech Diving Center!
New England Dive Center
476 North Colony Street
Wallingford, CT 06492
203-284-1880
Fax 203-284-1355
Dealer
for
OMS,
UWATEC, Oceanic,
Mares,
Dacor,
C r e s s i - S u b ,
P o s e i d o n ,
Scubapro,
Bare,
O'Neill
and
Henderson.
P.O. Box 3005,
Fairfield, CT 06824
Internet mail: [email protected]
http://www.fcda.us
2015 Board
Presidents
Matt Rownin &
Mike Cassetta
Vice-President Mark Shannon
Secretary
Vacant
Treasurer
Paul J. Gacek
The region's foremost
source for scuba and
technical diving gear,
training
and
everything for the
recreational
or
serious tech diver.
Draeger
Atlantis I
Rebreather
training,
certification
and rental.
New England Dive Center offers complete training for all levels of
diving, from Open Water through the most advanced technical
courses. Our instruction provides certification through SSI, PDIC,
TDI and IANTD.
Visit us on the Web: http://www.nedive.com
Page 3
February Meeting DAN Raffle Winners
After a presentation on "Diving
Riviera
Maya
Mexico:
Reefs, Cenotes and Whale
Sharks” by our own Don Brown,
the club held its regular raffle to
support our DAN Platinum
sponsorship. The winners were:
Scubapro Dive Mask donated by
Orbit Marine Dive Center — Kate
Rickard; Suunto Slap Strap donated by Ski and Scuba Connection
- Tom Thomes, Tusa Water Bottle donated by Ski and Scuba Connection - Lisa Jarosik; Jaws De-
fog donated by Ski and Scuba
Connection - Lisa Jarosik;
Regulator Plug donated by New
England Dive Center — John
Hill; Gear Marking Paint donated
by New England Dive Center –
John Morgan; Red LED Flasher
donated by New England Dive
Center — Julie Cummings; Cell
Phone Dry Pac donated by New
England Dive Center - Julie
Cummings; Sea Life Camera
Bag donated by New England
Dive Center – Lisa Jarosik;
Mesh Fin Backpack donated by New
England Dive Center - Tom
Thomes and a BC Life donated by
New England Dive Center - John
Morgan.
Thanks to New England Dive
Center, Orbit Marine Dive Center and Ski and Scuba Connection for donating tonight’s raffle
prizes for our DAN raffle.
Remember, you can't win if you
don't buy tickets and you can't buy
tickets if you don't get up and come
out to FCDA events and meetings!
Events of Interest to FCDA Members
March 27-29 - Beneath the Sea 2015 - Meadowlands Exposition Center, 355 Plaza Drive, Secaucus, NJ 07094 Beneath the Sea, America’s largest consumer international oceans exposition, dive and
travel show is at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey the weekend of March
27, 28, and 29, 2015. Beneath the Sea, delivers almost 400 exhibitors and over 70 Workshops and
Seminars reflecting all aspects of diving from travel and diving safety to underwater digital photography. Come see it for yourself, be a part of the fun, festivities, and friendship when Beneath the Sea
2015 - only 8 minutes from New York City. Be there, make yourself a part of diving history, and a part
of diving’s future. Between now and then keep your eye on the website: www.beneaththesea.org
FCDA Member Ads
Hey - have you got a non retail-diving business that you’d like to share with fellow members of
FCDA? Get your business card size ad in the FCDA monthly newsletter “Surface Interval” for only
$50.00 for one year. Give your business a boost and help support the production of our monthly
newsletters. For more information, write to FCDA, P.O. Box 3005, Fairfield, CT 06824 or email to
[email protected].
Page 4
Amateur Divers Find Long-Lost Nuclear
Warhead by Barbara Johnson
Savannah: A couple of tourists
from Canada made a surprising
discovery while scuba diving in
Wassaw Sound, a small bay located on the shores of Georgia.
Jason Sutter and Christina Murray
were admiring the marine life of
the area when they stumbled upon
a Mark 15 thermonuclear bomb
that had been lost by the United
States Air Force more than 50
years ago.
The couple from London in Ontario, was on a two week vacation
in Georgia and Florida to practise
their favorite hobby, scuba diving,
when they decided to dive near
the shores of Tybee Island. While
admiring the plants and fishes near
the sea floor, they noticed a large
cylindrical item partially covered by
sand. They investigated the object
and found out that it was actually
a sort of bomb or missile, so they
decided to contact the authorities.
“I noticed an object that looked
like a metal cylinder, which I
thought was an oil barrel” says Jason Sutter. “When I dug it up a bit,
I noticed that it was actually a lot
bigger and that there was some
writing on the side. When I saw
the inscription saying that it was a
Mk-15 nuclear bomb, I totally
freaked out. I caught Chritina by
the arm and made signs to tell her
we had to leave. We made an
emergency ascent, went back to
shore and then we called 911.”
Rapidly understanding the gravity of the situation, the 911 operator contacted every possible emergency service, including the coast
The couple is still shocked after their frightening discovery and say
they will avoid diving for the rest of their trip.
guard and the military, leading to
the deployment of more than 20
ships and 1500 men in the area.
Using the GPS coordinates given
by the couple, they rapidly located
the powerful 3.8 megaton bomb.
An unmanned submarine was
sent to determine the condition of
the bomb, before explosive experts
were sent to disarm it. Fortunately,
the thermonuclear weapon produced in 1955 seemed in sufficiently good shape for a team of
Navy seals to try to defuse it.
They successfully deactivated the
warhead after hours of strenuous
work, allowing the rest of the
bomb to be moved.
The delicate recovery operation
took more than 48 hours, but the
bomb was finally recovered and
transported Mayport Naval Station
in Florida. A full set of tests and
analysis will now be performed on
the warhead to evaluate its actual
state and the possible ecological
and health hazard that its presence
in the bay for 50 years could represent.
The federal and state authori(Continued on page 5)
Page 5
Amateur Divers Find Long-Lost Nuclear
Warhead by Barbara Johnson (continued)
(Continued from page 4)
ties were well-aware that a nuclear
warhead had been lost in the area
in the 1950′s and had never been
recovered, but no efforts had been
done for years to recover it. It was
lost on the night of February 5,
1958, when a B-47 Stratojet
bomber carrying the 7,600-pound
hydrogen bomb on a simulated
combat mission off the coast of
Georgia collided with an F-86 Saberjet fighter at 36,000 feet of altitude. The collision destroyed the
fighter and severely damaged a
wing of the bomber, leaving one of
its engines partially dislodged.
The bomber’s pilot, Maj. Howard Richardson, was instructed by
the Homestead Air Force Base in
Florida. to jettison the H-bomb before attempting a landing. Richardson dropped the bomb into the
shallow waters of Wassaw Sound,
near the mouth of the Savannah
River, where he believed the bomb
would be swiftly recovered. The
crew did not see an explosion
Navy explosive ordnance Disposal technicians spent nearly five hours
working on the warhead before they were able to extract the detonator
and the uranium core of the weapon, allowing the fuselage to be moved.
when the bomb struck the sea and
they managed to land the B-47
safely at the nearest base.
For the following six weeks, the
Air Force looked for the bomb
without success. Underwater divers scoured the depths, troops
tromped through nearby salt
marshes, and a blimp hovered over
the area attempting to spot a hole
or crater in the beach or swamp.
Researches were finally abandoned
and the bomb remained hidden for
more than 50 years until the
unlucky couple stumbled upon it.
Reprinted from: http://
worldnewsdailyreport.com/ February 12, 2015.
Underwater Volcano Eruption Creates New
Island Near Tonga by Marina Guerges
A temporary island was formed
in the Pacific Ocean from a underwater volcanic eruption in Hunga
Tonga — located in the Tonga archipelago, between the small islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga
Ha’apai.
The volcano began erupting at
the beginning of 2015 and it has
continued to do so for about a
month. Just about 40 miles northwest of the capital, Nuku’alofa, the
eruption caused interruption with
international air travel due to the
dangerous ash in the air, according to Sci-Tech Today.
The eruption in the region of
the Pacific Ocean typically known
as the 'Ring of Fire' caused the
nearly 1-kilometer wide, fishshaped island to form. The Jan.
19 Pleiades satellite footage illustrates the birth of the new island
that formed from the eruption.
The satellite footage also shows
the steam, ash and nitrogren and
phosphorus that was erupted from
the ocean, where the volcano was
pushing up rocks and magma.
While the volcano could likely
take months to erode the entire
island, research showed the ocean
around the temporary island to be
fairly shallow. Since the surprising
island currently doesn’t have a
name, any naming rights will likely
fall to the king of Tonga.
Reprinted from:http://
www.scubadiving.com/
Page 6
5 Tips for Underwater Navigation
by Karl Shreeves
During the briefing, the divemaster said that there was a ripping current. She told the divers
to use the swim line to get to the
mooring line, then go hand-overhand to the bottom, and then
swim against the weaker current
there. They’d return to the mooring line for the ascent.
“Whatever you do, don’t get
behind the boat,” she cautioned.
“You’ll drift halfway to Cuba before we can come after you.” Paul
and Sven planned to turn back
with 1,800 psi.
The current was weaker on the
bottom, but the visibility was less
than expected. Paul and Sven
reached the mooring at 70 feet,
and swam an irregular course but
generally into the current to stay
ahead of the boat, getting slightly
shallower. After about 15 minutes, Sven signaled to head back.
The current pushed them quickly.
They drifted for about five minutes without spotting the line.
Paul’s computer showed 76 feet.
Realizing they had probably
missed the line, the pair stopped.
They both had about 1,500 psi, so
Paul signaled to swim
into the current until
they reached 70 feet,
then swim across the
current to find the line.
After searching for about
10 minutes without success, Sven was down to
600 psi. They had to go
up. They surfaced off
the boat’s port side,
about 100 yards away.
Swimming on snorkel
across the current as
fast as they could, they
barely made the trail
line, exhausted.
WHAT
THEY
DID Training is essential to become a firstWRONG
rate underwater navigator.
They didn’t navigate
pass use. Even when you don’t
tightly; Paul had a compass but
think you need to — sometimes
never used it. Even with topograyou’re middive before you realize
phy and current providing general
you need to figure out your beardirection references, in the low viz
ings.
they should have followed a spe3. LOOK BEHIND YOU on the
cific course.
first part of your dive. This helps
you see how things will look as
WHAT THEY DID RIGHT
you head back.
They noted their depth was off
4. TRUST YOUR INSTRUand stopped. They managed their
MENTS Your sense of direction is
gas conservatively. Better to wait
more likely to be inaccurate than
for a boat pickup than to run out
your compass.
of air underwater.
5. BE READY Even skilled
navigators mess up sometimes,
5 TIPS FROM THIS INCIDENT
so plan for it. In a current, for example, have surface signaling de1. BE PROFICIENT in compass
vices so the boat crew can easily
use and navigation. When low
spot you if you come up away
visibility and precise navigation
from the trail line.
are factors, it’s useful to be
trained in these skills. Take the
Reprinted from SportDiver.com
PADI Underwater Navigator
course.
2. BE CONSISTENT with com-
Page 7
Top 10 Signs
That You Have
Made Too Many
Dives!
10) You have to put your total
number of dives in scientific notation.
9) You look back at your logbooks and realize you've spent
more time at decompression
than work.
8) You're permanently prunefingered.
7) Your dive log is available on
Amazon.com.
6) You have named all the zebra mussels on your favorite
wreck.
5) You worry that your office
elevator is ascending too
quickly.
4) You've stopped logging your
dives because it's easier to just
log your surface intervals.
3) Your "time to fly" is measured in months.
2) Your picture appears on fish
identification tables.
1) You perform a Valsalva maneuver prior to stepping on a
down escalator.
Reprinted from scubadiving.com
FCDA Donor
The business listed on this page has donated
dive gear and dive services to help support the
Fairfield County Diving Association.
Page 8
The Amazing Ocean by Alex Brylske
A well-known Chinese proverb
maintains that a picture is worth a
thousand words. That’s especially
true in a world where we’re bombarded with information, where
data is amassed at a rate boggling
the minds of those of us who
learned math on slide rulers. It
seems that anything that can help
us “cut to the chase” is not only
appreciated, but often the only way
we can get a message across. The
famous KISS principle — “keep it
simple, stupid” — should perhaps
be revised to “keep it simple and
succinct, stupid” but I suspect there
might be a few concerns over the
new acronym.
New FCDA
Members
The following individuals
have recently become members
of the Fairfield County Diving
Association. Welcome aboard!
Mark Dexter
3 Valerie La
Danbury, CT 06811
H: 203 731- 0249
W: 203 702-8295
[email protected]
Joe Lockridge
280 Palmer Hill Rd
Riversde, CT 06878
H: 203 554-5541
[email protected]
Sean Leslie
20 Red Coat Ln
Monroe, CT 06468
H: 203 913-1697
[email protected]
In our quest for brevity, even
facts are sometimes too much to
process. In order to make a point,
we often render knowledge down
to its essence, much like boiling a
chicken for soup stock. These
snippets of knowledge can be very
powerful tools for describing the
sum and substance of a concept
or relating its true state. I was
reminded of the power of simplicity as I was preparing to write this
article on the plight of the world’s
oceans.
As many of you realize (I
hope), to bring the troubled state
of the aquatic realm to the fore,
this year has been designated by
the United Nations and others as
the International Year of the
Ocean. As I researched this story
it occurred to me that the best
way to make a point might not be
to try to bring any focus, elaboration or opinion to bear, but merely
let the facts speak for themselves,
like a great photograph — the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima
or the fireman carrying the child
out of the rubble of the Oklahoma
City bombing. Interpretation can
be a needless distraction at times.
What follows is merely a presentation of facts. Taken individually, none probably has much substance. But when viewed in context and in relation to one another, the story they relate is both
fascinating and alarming.
Ocean Facts
The oceans contain 99 percent
of the living space on Earth, covering over 71 percent of its surface. In all, the oceans contain
328 million cubic miles/1.34 billion
cu. km of water.
Ninety-seven percent of the
water on Earth is sea water. Less
than 1 percent is fresh, while another 2 to 3 percent is contained
in glaciers and icecaps.
The surface area of the Pacific
Ocean alone exceeds the surface
area of all land masses combined.
The record for the longest coastline goes to Canada, with 56,453
miles/ 90,906 km. That’s around 15
percent of the world’s total 372,384
miles/599,652 km of coastline.
Sea water contains almost every
element on Earth. In fact, if all the
salt were extracted it could cover
the continents to a depth of 5
feet/1.5 m. And if all the gold could
be extracted, every man, woman
and child on Earth would have
about 9 pounds/4 kg.
While the average land elevation
is 2,755 feet/840 m, the average
depth of the ocean is 12,238
feet/3,730 m. The deepest part is
the Marianas Trench in an area
called Challenger Deep, where it’s
35,802 feet/10,912 m to the bottom, a depth that could completely
submerge Mount Everest by more
than 8,000 feet/2,438 m. The pressure at the bottom is an astounding
8 tons per square inch. That’s like
one person trying to support 50
jumbo jets.
Speaking of Mount Everest, if
you thought it was the tallest
mountain on Earth, think again. Although Mount Everest is 29,028
feet/8,847 m, when measured from
the sea floor, Hawaii’s Mauna Kea is
33,465 feet/10,200 m. (Only 13,796
feet/4,205 m stands above sea
(Continued on page 9)
Page 9
The Amazing Ocean by Alex Brylske (continued)
(Continued from page 8)
level, however.)
On the subject of mountains, the
Earth’s longest range is — where
else? — underwater. It’s called the
Mid-Ocean Ridge and winds its way
from the Arctic Ocean through the
Atlantic, skirting Africa, Asia and
Australia, and crosses the Pacific to
the west coast of North America.
That’s four times longer than the
Andes, Rockies and Himalayas combined.
While land-based volcanic eruptions garner most of the publicity,
more than 90 percent of all volcanic
activity occurs in the oceans. Scientists have, in fact, located the largest known concentration of volcanoes along the sea floor of the
South Pacific in an area roughly the
size of New York state. The area
contains over 1,100 volcanic cones
and seamounts, two or three of
which could erupt at any time.
The Atlantic Ocean is still growing at a rate of 1.5 inches/4 cm per
year. That means it was about 66
feet/20 m narrower when Columbus
landed.
If you think it’s cold where you
dive, consider that the average seawater temperature is a bone-chilling
38˚F/3.5˚C. However, sea surface
temperatures in the Persian Gulf
can reach over 96˚F/36˚C.
Most of us think of ocean currents as relatively permanent features flowing in only one direction,
but there is a notable exception. In
the Indian Ocean, currents are seasonal, driven by the monsoon
winds. From November to March
the current is driven toward Africa,
only to reverse direction in May with
the changing wind pattern.
The term “Arctic” is derived from
the Greek arktos, meaning bear. It
was named for the polar bear, Ursus maritimas (sea bear). These
creatures are so adapted to life on
the ice packs that some never set
foot on land.
The largest t ida l wave
(tsunami) ever recorded was 210
feet/64 m high. It struck Siberia’s
Kamchatka Peninsula in 1737.
Life began in the seas sometime between 3.1 and 3.4 billion
years ago. But it didn’t move to
land until about 400 million years
ago, proving that our connection
to the sea is far older than to
land. Two thirds of the phyla, the
major groupings of life on Earth,
are exclusively or predominantly
found in the ocean.
The base of the marine food
chain is the tiny, free-floating organism called phytoplankton, on
which almost all other life in the
sea is dependent. In fact, as they
produce about 50 percent of our
oxygen supply, all life on Earth
depends on these diminutive wanderers. They are so prolific that
each year 200 million tons of
phytoplankton grow in the world’s
oceans. For comparison, that’s 10
times the weight of the entire human population of our planet.
The blue whale, Balaenoptera
musculus, is the largest known
animal ever to have lived on sea
or land. Bigger than even the biggest dinosaur, it can reach more
than 110 feet/33 m in length and
weigh more than 50 adult elephants. With a heart the size of a
Volkswagen Beetle, the whale’s
blood vessels are so large that a
full-grown trout could swim
through them. To sustain its bulk,
the blue whale must consume up to
4 tons of krill per day.
Speaking of big, while most divers know that the largest fish in
the sea is the whale shark, less well
-known is the largest bony fish.
(Shark are cartilaginous, remember.) The winner is the rarely seen
ocean sunfish, Mola mola, which
can grow to over 10 feet/3 m and
tip the scales at over 2 tons.
On the opposite end of the size
chart is the dwarf goby, Eviota sp.,
of the Indian Ocean. As a full-grown
adult it reaches a mere .35 inches/9
mm. The record for the smallest
shark is the spined pygmy, Squaliolus laticaudus, which measures a
whopping 6 inches/15 cm.
If you think finding a date is
tough, consider the plight of some
deep-sea fishes like the angler fish,
Photocorymus hippurus. The male,
tiny in comparison to the female,
attaches itself by biting his companion. Then the two merge into one,
with the male becoming nothing
more than a small, permanent appendage that fertilizes eggs.
Many divers are all too familiar
with the highly potent sting of the
jellyfish — actually a siphonophore
— called the Portuguese man-ofwar, Physalia physalis. The bluish
saclike creature can extend its powerful tentacles to depths of almost
100 feet/30 m. What you may not
know is that this critter isn’t a single
organism at all. It’s actually a colony of as many as 100,000 tiny individuals, each doing its own specialized job.
Few folks realize that a huge mat
of sargassum — a type of marine
algae — the size of India floats permanently in the middle of the North
Atlantic. It’s held there solely by the
circulation pattern of oceanic currents, most notably the Gulf
Page 10
The Amazing Ocean by Alex Brylske (continued)
(Continued from page 9)
Stream. Aptly, it’s known as the
Sargasso Sea.
It wasn’t until 1977 that scientists discovered an entirely new basis for life on Earth — chemosynthesis. Hydrothermal vents which
occur at fractures along deep-sea
oceanic plates spew sulfur compounds, which support the only
complex ecosystem known to run
on chemicals rather than energy
from the sun. It is now hypothesized by some that this is where life
on Earth began.
Stories of sea serpents may be
true after all — except that they’re
not monsters, but rare fish. Such
stories probably originated from
sightings of the oarfish, Regalecus
glesne, which at 50 feet/15 m long
is the longest bony fish in the
world.
The structure and chemistry of
coral is so close to human bone that
coral is now sometimes used to repair or replace bone in humans.
There’s a good reason Atlantic
horseshoe crabs, Limulus polyphemus, look like they’re products of
the special-effects department of
Jurassic Park. They have remained
essentially unchanged for the past
135 million years. More importantly
to humans, their blood is used to
test for the toxins that cause septic
shock, a condition which at one
time accounted for half of all hospital-acquired infections and one-fifth
of all hospital deaths.
Global fish production yields
more than cattle, sheep, poultry or
eggs and is the biggest source of
protein in the world. Yet in an
amazing example of Alice-inWonderland economics, the worldwide fishing industry spends $124
billion per year to catch only $70
billion worth of fish. This difference
is made up by government subsi-
dies.
Fully one-third of the total
worldwide catch (27 million metric
tons) of commercial marine fisheries is discarded as “by-catch,”
most of which dies. This includes
not only nontargeted fish, but seabirds, sea turtles and marine
mammals as well. The shrimp industry is even worse. Shrimp
trawlers discard 80 to 90 percent
of their hauls, so for every pound
of shrimp you eat, more than 4
pounds/1.8 kg of fish are wastefully tossed overboard to die.
Weighing 1,500 pounds/679 kg
and capable of swimming up to 55
miles/89 km per hour, Bluefin
tuna, Thunnus thynnus, are
among the largest and fastest
fishes. Unfortunately, they’re also
in high demand at Japan’s sushi
bars. One fish can sell for over
$25,000, placing an incredible and
unsustainable demand on the
stock.
Ask most people what’s the No.
1 pollution problem facing the
ocean, and you’re likely to hear
about oil spills. The fact is that of
the 5 million tons of oil that enters
the oceans each year, spills from
tankers and oil platforms account
for only about 5 percent of the
total. Twice that amount comes
from sewage treatment plants like
the one down the street from you.
Think of that the next time you
change your car’s oil and are
tempted to pour the waste down
the drain.
As testament to the interrelatedness of the atmosphere and
ocean, fully one-third of toxic contaminants and excess nutrients
entering the ocean come from atmospheric deposition from rain
and snow.
Serving as the drainage basin
for almost 40 percent of the conti-
nental United States, the Mississippi
River carries so many excess nutrients into the Gulf of Mexico that
oxygen loss from algal blooms has
decimated all life within 4,000
square miles/10,363 sq. km of bottom area off the coast of Louisiana
and Texas. Scientists refer to this as
the Gulf of Mexico’s “Dead Zone.”
One of the most serious threats
to marine ecosystems today comes
from hitchhikers. Various organisms, such as the zebra mussel,
Dreissena polymorpha, have been
transported worldwide in the ballast
water of ships. These organisms
often disrupt entire marine ecosystems. Not limited to bivalves, exotic
stowaways include fishes, plants,
poisonous algae and even diseases
such as cholera.
If it seems crowded when you
go to the beach, consider that onehalf of the world’s people live within
60 miles/97 km of the sea coast.
And it’s going to get worse. Within
30 years, a billion more people than
are alive today (6.5 billion) will be
living along the coasts.
In case you think global warming
isn’t a serious problem, consider
this: An increase of 7˚F/4˚C in the
average global atmospheric temperature would melt enough of the
polar icecap to increase the sea
level some 230 feet/70 m. Virtually
every coastal city in existence
would be history.
Recently, I read a quote by Arthur C. Clarke, a longtime ocean
advocate and author of the classic
novel 2001: A Space Odyssey,
which succinctly puts the issue of
the world’s oceans into perspective.
“It seems odd,” he writes, “that we
call our home planet Earth when it
is clearly Ocean.” How true.
Reprinted from Dive Training dtmag.com
Page 11
Next FCDA Meeting
Friday, April 24, 2015 - 8:00 PM
Coast Guard Cottage, South Benson Marina, Fairfield, CT
"Diving the Maldives
a presentation by
Captain Noel Voroba
Join us for the third meeting of the new year. Our
own Captain Noel Voroba
will be sharing his experiences from a recent diving
trip to the Maldives aboard
the Honors Legacy.
Fairfield County Diving Association
P.O. Box 3005
Fairfield, CT 06824
Address Service Requested