NEWSLETTER October
10, 2003, Issue 33
Members are encouraged to
submit articles, dive plans and dive reports.
Visit club web site at https://www.angelfire.com/nj4/divers/
DA Dive Log
DA Dive Plan
Sustainable Species Cookbook
September DA Meeting
Minutes, Unapproved
Next Meeting Notice
Monday, October 27, 2003
5th Annual DA
Artifact and Story Contest
Location: Mario’s
Restaurant, 710 Van Houten Ave, Clifton, NJ
Halloween
Underwater Carving Dive
Sunday, October 26, 2003 at
8AM
Pumpkins are traditional,
but anything else will do! Carve it underwater and the judges will decide. Please
let Tom or Rich know if you plan to
participate.
__________________________________________________________________
Peggy’s News
We
see similar things off Maine after massive urchin harvesting a few years
ago - overgrown kelp beds, but where are the Juv. fish?
Or maybe it was the removal of all the cod in the first place that led to
other things, and now the problems with no groundfish in New England? (But
they want to solve it off Sandy Hook?)
Or, like some Canada fisherman are saying in Newfoundland and Labrador,
should we place the blame on all the seals that eat the fish since no one
wears seal skin anymore?
It isn't easy to say what came first but we have to do something to get the
ocean back in balance. Peggy
-----
The Domino Theory of Overfishing
Environment News Service - September 24, 2003
http://www.ens-newswire.com
Washington, DC - Overfishing of whales in the North Pacific Ocean may
have triggered one of the longest and most complex ecological chain
reactions ever described, according to a paper published in the
"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." The researchers
propose that such overfishing, beginning in the open ocean 50 years
ago, led to the decimation of Alaska's kelp forest ecosystems today.
The paper, "Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific
Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling?," offers a unified
explanation for why populations of harbor seals, fur seals, sea lions
and sea otters in Western Alaska have crashed during the last several
decades.
The authors propose that the decimation of baleen and sperm whale
populations by overfishing removed a major source of food for killer
whales.
They say this may have forced some killer whales to "fish down the
food web," preying on other marine mammals which in turn has had
devastating impacts on marine ecosystems.
"The message," said coauthor Alan Springer, an oceanographer with the
University of Alaska at Fairbanks, "is that overfishing and massive
extraction can lead to food web impacts that are unexpected and
unintended."
The authors present a domino theory of major ecosystem impacts and
restructuring, starting with the capture of hundreds of thousands of
great whales from the North Pacific Ocean from 1946 to 1979.
They argue that this removal of prey forced some killer whales to
seek alternative sources of food - first harbor seals, then fur seals,
then sea lions and sea otters.
The authors surmise that killer whales may have preferred harbor
seals and fur seals to sea lions because of the higher nutritional
value of harbor seals and because seals are less aggressive and easier
to catch.
As the pinnipeds became comparatively rare, the authors say, some
killer whales expanded their diet to include the calorically least
profitable mammals - the sea otters - with rippling ecosystem effects.
By the late 1990s low numbers of sea otters allowed an explosion of
sea urchins and decimation of the kelp forests due to the sea urchins'
over grazing.
The authors modeled the nutritional requirements of killer whales,
the nutritional value of sea lions and otters, and the number of
deaths necessary to explain the documented declines of marine mammals
in the Aleutian Islands.
They found that a dietary shift by less than one percent of the
estimated 3,888 killer whales across the region would have been enough
to drive the observed declines.
The eight authors of the study report that the importance of
predation in structuring food webs needs to be more fully appreciated
and understood - and humans are the ultimate predators. They add that
this points to the need for caution in managing fisheries today. The
kind of extraction that happened with whales fifty years ago still
goes on with other species, wearing away the resilience of the system.
"To me it very much is an overfishing problem - same damn thing - but
fifty years ago whales were the fish," said study coauthor Jim Estes
of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2003.
---------------------
Peggy
Bowen, Director, NJ Council of Diving Clubs
E-mail: mailto:pegdiver@monmouth.com
______________________________________________________________________
DA
Dive Log
Ash dove the Duane in rough seas off the coast of
Florida in early September. He said he loved the dive, but the current and high
waves were pretty bad and made the dive quite interesting. He was happy for his
NJ training. He said that the dive shop told him he was going on a shallow
dive. This one turned out to be about 105 feet. So much for dive shop info.
Ash dove the Spiegel Grove in high current on his
second trip to Florida in mid September. He and his buddy were the only two of
a group of divers to actually make it onto the big wreck. They dove through the
inside to get out of the current and had to ascend on the second of two
permanent buoyed lines. Ash didn’t make the line and had to do a free ascent
coming up well off the dive boat. They spotted him and did a smart recovery,
which he was grateful for.
His second dive that day was a calm reef dive with
lots of pretty fishes.
Tom, Rich and Ben dove the Shrewsbury River Thursday
October 1 and Rich found a nice torpedo bottle. Ben and Tom found some not so
old beer bottles, but all had fun with a nice dinner at Bahr’s Restaurant after
the dive.
Tom and Rich did a dive in the Shark River on
Thursday, October 16. Tom wanted to do some picture taking of marine life but
his camera did not cooperate. They did a tour instead and later did a bottle
dive in Horseshoe Cove. They found some interesting bottles but unfortunately
they were not intact, so they left them for the park ranger.
DA Dive Plan
(Any
sales of gear are subject to terms agreed upon by sellers and buyers.)
E-mail: Rick Farmer stainless steel
backplate and OMS back inflation BCD, Sunto Cobra dive computer
E-mail: Tom Gormley 50 cuft low pressure
steel tank, Nitrox ready, new condition
Smithsonian
To Publish Sustainable Seafood Cookbook
Smithsonian Books has announced the pending publication of a "one of a
kind cookbook bringing together the issues of ocean sustainability,
seafood species information, and delectable recipes by renowned chefs."
One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish: The Smithsonian Sustainable
Seafood Cookbook features more than 140 recipes from eighty-eight
professional and celebrity chefs across the country, and "provides
nutritious and delicious ways to prepare seafood caught or farmed in
ways that protect the long term health of both the species and the
oceans as a whole." The species covered range from oysters, mussels,
and clams; to octopus, squid, lobster, shrimp, prawns, and crayfish;
and "finally more species of fishes than the average cook knows
exist."
According to a Smithsonian Books press release: "Rich in recipes,
interesting facts about the seafood species, and information on "eating
green," One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish uses a positive,
encouraging, and enlightening tone to help the consumer make educated,
environmentally friendly decisions about the seafood we buy. With
coverage of seafood species ranging from the East, Gulf, and West
coasts of the United States, this book will appeal to cooks across the
country."
Source: Baldwin, Carole, and Julie Mounts. 2003. (October). One Fish,
Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish: The Smithsonian Sustainable Seafood
Cookbook. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 336pp.
For Further Information: Matt Litts, Publicity Manager, Smithsonian
Books. Tel: (202) 275 2206. Fax: (202) 275 2274. E-mail:
mlitts@sipress.si.edu
Divers Anonymous September
2003 Meeting
Greg, Norva, Tom, Rich,
Mike, Ben, Jamie, Gary, Gary, Rich, Don, Ian, Leo, Connie, Lara, Charlie,
Maurizia, Gaby, Al
The officers gave their
reports, there was no old or new business discussed and Mike De Charles from
Lakeland Dive Center showed an old Sea Hunt episode after Al hustled for a VCR
and TV which Tom and Garth fixed for the show.
2003
~ 2004
Divers
Anonymous Calendar
Updated 10-102-03 thru May 2004
|
Jan
2004 ·
01/05: DA Planning meeting 6:30 p.m. at 6 Bros
Diner Rt. 46 ·
01/10: DA Holiday
Party 7:30 p.m.
San Carlos Rest
620 Stuyvesant Ave, Lyndhurst ·
01/26: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m.
“White Shark Research Presentation” by Dean Fessler |
Feb
2004 ·
02/01: Bottle Show, South River ·
02/14: 4th Annual DA Ski
Day ·
02/22: Toms River Flea
Market ·
02/23: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m. Tom
and Ben’s Boat Charters, Payment and Sign-Up |
Mar
2003
|
|
Apr
2004 ·
04/04: Manasquan RR Bridge Dive, 8AM ·
04/07: Pool Dive for gear check and
warm-up 9:15 p.m. Clifton YMYWHA ·
Sunday shore dives ·
04/26: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m. Annual Dues and Officer Elections |
May
2004
|
June
2003
|
|
Jul
2003 ·
Local Shore Dives TBA ·
07/13 Ben Boat Dive on Spring Tide ·
7/19 & 20 DA Weekend at Dutch Springs ·
07/28: DA Club Meeting, Topic,
“Favorite Dives” |
Aug
2003
|
Sep
2003 ·
9/11 Thursday Night Dive, 9pm, Shark
River Inlet, Avon ·
09/14 Ben Boat Dive on Spring Tide ·
09/28 Ben Boat Dive on Spring Tide ·
09/29: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m. |
|
Oct
2003
|
Nov
2003 ·
Local Shore Dives TBA ·
Annual gear maintenance
workshop TBA ·
11/24: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m.
Kevin Mc Murray & Dan Crowell on USS Murphy |
Dec
2003 ·
12/15: DA Club Meeting
7:30 p.m. 2003 Photo Exhibit ·
12/28: Winter Shore Dive |
Pink highlighted events are subsidized by DA dues
Divers Anonymous first “read the newsletter” scuba
quiz. Originally posted many months ago.
1)
Name 6 middle ear equalizing techniques.
2)
Name the national park that was recently studied by marine biologists
within a year after the federal government declared its waters closed to
fishing.
3)
This man teamed with J Cousteau to invent the first scuba regulator.
4)
Name this local pioneer who tested one of the first submarines.
5)
What year did Europeans first visit New Jersey?
6)
What was the name of their ship?
7)
Who was the original captain of the dive boat Seeker?
8)
When did Divers Anonymous hold its first official meeting?
9)
These organisms are primarily responsible for the deterioration of the
Titanic.
10)
A perfectly round balloon has a volume of air equal to 1 cubic feet on
the surface. A diver takes it underwater in the Atlantic to a depth of 33 feet.
At that depth what is the diameter of the balloon measured in feet?
DA’s second “read the newsletter” scuba
quiz. Posted 10-18-2003
1)
Name the founder of PADI
2)
How many months has the scuba quiz appeared in the newsletter?
3)
Name the Sea Hunt episode shown by Mile De Charles
4)
Name the dive boat Tom and Ben chartered in 2001
5)
What is the recreational MOD for air using a PO2 of 1.4
6)
Name the wreck dove on DA’s first dive picnic
7)
How much does the salt weigh in 1 cubic foot of salt water
8)
What is the number 1 rule of scuba diving
9)
What is DA’s motto?
10)
Who is the honorary member of DA?
Rules
are: No member answered the first quiz, so no prize will be rewarded for that
quiz. You may give it a try for fun though.
First
member to email, telephone, mail, or communicate to Tom Gormley correct answers
to the second “read the newsletter” quiz at a passing level grade, by NAUI
standards, will be awarded a scuba prize to be determined by the judges, Tom
and Rich. Their decision is final.