MINUTES 0F -THE GENERAL MEETING; WEDS. 10 MARCH 99

The general meeting was called to order by our president Bill Johns, with seven members present.

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS- No old business discussed, However Tom S. mentioned that he took a diving rescue class with 15 other people.

UPCOMING DIVE Jim Trayer is getting his boat ready to go on the 27 of March for a two tank dive trip for about 8 - 10 divers call him to sign up.. Meet at the Breakwater.

Steve Lopez has a full house for the annual Ft. Ross cabin & Ocean Cove dive. Call him for any further instructions or explanation on how to get there.

Peace Dive Boat 5th and 6th of June only four people have sent in and signed up, contact Tony for more info.

OTHER INFO: Elections were not held due to lack of a quorum the only nominations included Treasurer =Larry King, Safety Officer =Jeff Young &/or Paul Pearah, The full elections to be held next month.

The following members are the only now paid up members in the club for the new dive year -Jim Trayer and Ron Hill.

Please note that because of scheduling conflicts I will, no longer be able to do a quality job as club Secretary/ Historian and / Newsletter writerThanks for putting up with my poor spelling and typing, and lateness in reporting to you But it is time now for some new blood and fresh ideas.

SO WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING OUT THERE IN THE DIVING WORLD?

COME AND JOIN OUR CLUB- WERE IN IT FOR THE FUN OF THE SPORT!

Kelp Kritters Dive Calendar 1999

MAR -Monterey Boat dive Jim Trayer (408)985-2941

APR - Ft. Ross Cabin Ab dive - Steve Lopez (408)263-3536

MAY -Weekend Camp out -Volunteer Needed

Jun 5+6 1999 Peace Dive Boat - (open to anyone on a 1st come 1st. served basis! --- $195.) Tony Ferrara (408)395-6998

Jul -Altitude Dive - L. Tahoe Volunteer Needed

Aug - Low Tide Ocean Cove -Camp out Volunteer Needed

Sep -Dive Host Choice--Volunteer Needed

Oct / 23/99 - Pumpkin Dive

Nov - DIVE HOST CHOICE

Dec -X-MASS DINNER SITE T. B.A.

Special Note to all Members: The Peace Dive Boat new owners have contacted me restating the need to reserve our scheduled time slot with a money deposit. Therefore to all those who wish to go on this annual June 6 and 7, 1999 trip and made a verbal commitment now is the time to get your guaranteed berth, send in your $50-00 deposit to me right away. There will be a total of 13 spots but several of the bunks are set up for couples or divers who want to share a low cost dive .(Can total 16 spots) The more people who go will reduce the cost to all. Reserve now& Send in your deposit to : Tony Ferrara, 17692 Daves Ave. Monte Sereno, Ca. 95030 MAKE ALL CHECKS PAYABLE TO- KELP KRITTERS DIVE CLUB After first being offered to our membership, I'm once again going to put a notice onto the inter net so it should sell out fast. Basic cost right now is $195. but will go down proportionately by the number of members over 13 who sign up. )

GOING DOWN UNDER DOWN UNDER by Paul J. Pearah Jan. 1999

Hi Friends, I had promised an account of my Nov 98 Australia trip. I can see that the full story will probably never be written, so here are some highlights from the 10 days or so that I was over there. Our destination was Osprey Reef, a coral reef about 100 miles out in the Coral Sea. It rises up from about 3000 ft down, and breaks the surface a bit at low tide. Being that far off shore, the reef is in good shape, and there are even a few fish and turtles swimming around. We stopped and dived the Great Barrier Reef (hereafter GBR) on the way out. The spot we visited was teeming with colorful soft corals, but as with most waters anywhere near land, there were relatively few fish and no big animals because of mans recent influence. Still, it we had spent the entire week diving the GBR, it would have been a good trip. Instead, we continued to Osprey Reef, where we were greeted with beautiful weather. We could dive pretty much anywhere on the reef, as the winds were not a concern (very unusual on the open ocean). Consequently, we saw countless fish, at least 50 sharks, schooling barracuda swimming in circles, cuttlefish, several turtles (one four ft. loggerhead gliding along at 90 ft. stopped to peer into Betsy's mask from a few feet away for about half a minute (apparently they can hold their breath a long time!) Brightly colored giant clams up to 4 ft. across, lovely graceful lion fish with venomous spines, a great variety of homely-but lovable sea cucumbers, from pink to mottled green to brown and even more interesting "little things" too numerous and unfamiliar to name. This was my first encounter with sharks. They were of three different varieties, primarily whitetipped reef sharks about 5 or 6 ft. long. They swam practically within arm's reach, but never really paid any attention to us. They were just cruising the reef. That is, until the marine biologists got in the water. They would put down some bait and watch the sharks gather. Then they would sneak up on the sharks and look for ones that had previously been tagged when they found one they wanted to reweigh and remeasure, they would slip a lasso around its tail and drag it kicking and screaming back up to the boat. The scientific highlight was the capture of a very young white tip, umbilical still visible, perhaps a few days old. It was brought on board, weighed, measured, tagged, and then painstakingly placed back in the very same hole in which it had been discovered. The purpose of this research is to determine birth and growth rates for these reef sharks, and thereby estimate the sustainable catch rate, if any. People didn't used to eat these things, but since most of the other fish populations are either regionally extinct or seriously depleted, it seems that not even reef sharks are safe from the fishermen's nets. We were also studying nautilus. They are ancient ancestors of octopus and squid. They live in shells, but have tentacles and propel themselves through the water. They like to hang out at around 700 ft or so, so I helped to make and bait some traps that looked a bit like chicken-wire lobster traps. We refined the design as we went, so that the catches went from 5 the first night to over 30 on the last. There were several interesting people on board: three marine biologists, a GBR Marine Park Manager, and a representative from the United Nations International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which designates "World Heritage Sites" that are kind of like World Parks, and tries to protect them. The GBR is one of many such sites. There was also a crew from Discovery Channel doing a new show called "Aquanauts." Hint: One of the first episodes has the working title, "Shark Rodeo!" I think there were 26 people on board altogether, including the crew. Other passengers were from Australia, the U.S., Johnson Atoll, Malaysia and Switzerland. On the way back in, we stopped to dive the GBR one last time. We anchored near the reef about 20km off shore, took a night dive, and had a wonderful feast followed by some merriment. As the evening wound down, we could see lightning coming towards us from far out at sea. Beautiful, it was. We all retired to our cabins when ft started to rain. Suddenly at around lam the ventilation system stopped working and all was quiet. It turns out that lightning had directly struck the main electrical box, taking out EVERYTHING! That means no lights, ventilation, heads, motor, bilge pump and no radio. By that time the rain was pouring down in sheets and lightning was all around us. We could hear sloshing in the bilge as the ship took on water. People huddled in the cabin in utter darkness, the drone of the downpour broken only by the occasional muted thunderclap and concomitant lightning flash illuminating brooding faces in deathly white. One rabble-rouser told Betsy that the lifeboats were being readied (which was not true). All things considered, it was a somewhat worrisome situation. Fortunately, the engineer on board was quite competent and managed to get the engines and bilge pump (but none of the other things) going within a few hours. Ever vigilant for irony, I remarked after we were back on land that we as divers are often asked, "Aren't you afraid of getting attacked by a shark?" The standard replay is often, 'Shark attacks are very rare - you are far more likely to get stuck by lightning." Well, sure enough, we had been swimming with sharks all week long, dragging them around with ropes, holding them down between our knees as we tried to measure them. Messing with their young, the whole works. The sharks didn't bother us at all, but we did get struck by lightning! We stopped in Sydney on the way back home. Not a bad place for a city, eh Mate?