Congratulations to Diane Ford! She won the Sea Level Scuba raffle prize. We wish you safe diving, Diane!

The Down Under Dive Club is planning a trip to Fantasy Island Beach Resort in Roatan, Honduras. It is slated to happen Saturday, September 8 - 15, 2012. The non-refundable $150 deposit should already be in to reserve your spot. There will be three additional payments.The first payment of $550 was due March 15. The second payment of $550 is due May 15. The final payment of $650 is due July 15. All slots are currently filled.

Payments may be made in person at the club meetings or by mail:

The package will include air travel from Miami, FL.

The package will also include meals, drinks, and an airport shuttle to/from the resort. It will include 3 daily boat dives, one night dive, and unlimited shore dives. Nitrox is available for the boat dives for an extra fee of $100 for the trip. The resort offers complimentary Internet access.

For more information, contact Vicky Spang ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ). She needs the proper full name as it appears on the passport for each person going. Several members can offer first-hand testimonials about the excellent diving and beautiful resort facilities.

There are some disturbing reports about the health of fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. Fox News has a report of eyeless shrimp and other deformities in sea life that fisherman in the area have never seen. There is significant suspicion that these issues are a result of the BP oil spill and/or its cleanup efforts. BP claims that the seafood is as safe as it was before the spill.

On Saturday, May 26, the Down Under Dive Club will be diving with Jupiter Dive Center. The cost is $53. The boat leaves at 9:00am (divers should be there by 8:30am). The expected dive profile will be 70-80 feet.

Rebreather Forum 3 will be held Friday, 18 May, 2012 - Sunday, 20 May, 2012. It will be hosted at the Caribe Royale in Orlando. This convention is dedicated to the enthusiasts and professionals interested in rebreather technology, training, and safe applications. This is not necessarily something of interest to the general diving community, but there may be some members with more than a passing interest.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had some unusual activity last year. In particular, a discrepancy in the way some legislation was written implied that a dive charter that had divers who took lobster would require that the divers hold a fishing license with a lobster stamp while the boat required a commercial fishing license. That is both must have a license. Luckily, The Diving Equipment & Marketing Association (DEMA) moved to bring sanity to the regulation. Although it was unable to resolve the discrepancy in short order, their efforts led to CS/HB 7025.

DEMA Executive Director Tom Ingram said the following in a statement:

As the previous legislation was written, it was unclear as to who would be required to possess the fishing and lobster license, and therefore unfair to both dive charter vessel operators and divers.

The law has passed the Florida House and Senate and has been approved by the Governor Rick Scott. It will take effect on July 1, 2012. It now clearly states that the license requirement is not required by both the diver and the dive charter. An appropriately licensed diver may legally harvest lobster on a dive charter whether or not the dive charter is licensed. A dive charter with an expensive commercial license may allow divers to legally harvest lobster whether or not each diver has a license.

Special thanks to Craig Capion for alerting the Down Under Dive Club to this generally unreported story.

Save the Manatee Club (SMC) has several tidbits of news.

The first bit of news that is interesting for divers are new protections for manatees in Crystal River and the surrounding area. The new rules mostly amount to being reasonable to manatees. Beyond a variety of specific rules against pestering them, they also added some restrictions to fishing, boating, and scuba diving during the winter (when manatees are particularly prevalent in the area).

Dr. Katie Tripp, who presented to us in January, traveled to Costa Rica in February. There she helped in education and conservation efforts while learning about the current state of manatees in that region.

There are three new manatees awaiting adoption. Squeaky, Annie, and Rocket are newly rescued manatees now available for adoption.

Manette Metcalf is a California teacher who grew up in Florida. Her 2nd grade class adopted a manatee named Howie and have been generally supportive of SMC.

Finally, SMC has put together a few particularly intriguing manatee videos in one convenient place.

James Cameron has successfully conducted a piloted mission to the deepest reaches of our ocean. There is a news story from USA Today, and even more information about the science and the experience from National Geographic. This coverage from National Geographic also includes some video. It is an amazing technical challenge to safely descend more than 35,000 feet below the surface of the water. Sir Richard Branson is still working on his own submersible intended to rival Cameron's Deepsea Challenger submersible. He would like to do a tandem mission with Cameron in the future.

Richard Branson has started Virgin Oceanic to build an advanced submarine meant to explore the deepest parts of the ocean. James Cameron has sponsored the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER to do the same. Both are racing (it is a friendly competition) to have a piloted submarine at Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. The depth is greater than 35,000 feet and the pressure will be greater than 1000 atmospheres. Though not the first such expedition, these expeditions are technically challenging and rare. The only other piloted vessel that has gone to Challenger Deep was the Trieste in 1960. Only two other robots have visited the area since that time.