The Down Under Dive Club (DUDC) is located in Melbourne on the sunny east central coast of Florida. Formed in 1984 by a group of enthusiastic divers, DUDC currently has about 100 members. Our mission is to promote safe, organized dive events, provide a social setting comfortable to everyone, and encourage environmental responsibility among the diving community. Our past dives covered the Atlantic ocean, from Georgia to Bonaire. We organize all types of dives: drift dives, wreck dives, shore dives, live-aboards, spring dives, and even shark dives! Our members include a diverse group of divers. There are men, women and kids, ages from 11 to 65+ with all certification levels from new Open Water divers to Instructors.
Meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 7:00 PM at the Indian River Lagoon House, Located just south of University Blvd. on US1 in Melbourne. Door prizes are awarded each month and we book a fascinating assortment of guest speakers. We invite everyone interested in SCUBA diving to stop by for some stimulating conversation, meet our group, and have some fun!
Three die diving on the Spiegel Grove
Saturday, March 17 2007
3 dead in Key Largo reef dive
BY CAMMY CLARK
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KEY WEST --
Three men died today during a
diving accident at the Spiegel Grove, a former Navy ship sunk in 2002
to make an artificial reef five miles off Key Largo.
Four men,
friends from New Jersey who were reportedly advanced certified divers,
hired a boat captained by Mark Cianciu of Scuba-Do Charters to take
them to the wreck. During the fatal dive, one man was stationed at the
entrance to the ship while the other three went inside, according to
the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
The man outside the wreck
began to run out of air and surfaced safely. Two divers from another
boat went down to search for the other men. They found one man in
distress and brought him to the surface.
The Coast Guard took
that victim to shore, performing CPR the entire way. Paramedics met the
boat but the man was pronounced dead at Mariner's Hospital, the Coast
Guard said.
The other two men were not immediately found. The Key
Largo Fire Rescue's Water Emergency Team, which has experienced divers,
searched for the missing men and found them just after 2 p.m. Both were
dead.
But the bodies are so deep it will be extremely risky to
recover them, said Capt. Sergio Garcia of the Key Largo Fire Department.
Garcia said the bodies may not be recovered until Saturday.
None of the victims were identified pending notification of family. All had dived the Spiegel Grove the day before.
It
was the sixth death at the Spiegel Grove. Three others have died in
separate accidents. In 2003, Eunice Lasala, of Fredericksburg, Va.,
died while also on the commercial dive vessel Scuba-Do.
Divers discover huge underground river
Tuesday, March 06 2007
A British diver and his German partner have discovered what they claim
is the world's largest submerged cave system - effectively an
underground river - beneath Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
Stephen
Bogaerts and Robbie Schmittner had spent four years exploring whether
the Sac Actun system links to other cave networks before they made the
final connection that revealed a single system that is 95 miles long.
The
two divers entered the system separately on January 23 and worked their
way through huge chambers and tiny tunnels to meet up at the connection
point they had always believed they would find. Mr Schmittner was
carrying a bottle of champagne, which they left secured to the spot.
"It was like putting a flag up on Everest," said Mr Bogaerts, who says
it took some 500 dives of several hours each to get to that point.
"We're still walking on air."
The
diver was speaking by phone from his home in the coastal town of Tulum,
a tourist haven beside the Caribbean that in recent years has also
become a Mecca for the international cave diving community.
Oceanic and AERIS Recalling Digital Dive Computers Due to Decompression Hazard
Monday, March 05 2007
Washington, D.C. (Feb 28, 2007 16:47 EST) Pelagic Pressure Systems is recalling about 2,800 Oceanic and AERIS digital dive computers due to a decompression hazard.
When performing a switch from one gas to another during a dive,
the dive computer's display will lock up and not return to the main
dive screen that displays dive times. This can cause divers to enter
decompression unknowingly or the diver could ascend prematurely,
resulting in decompression sickness.
Pelagic has received a report of two dive computers malfunctioning. No injuries have been reported.
The recall involves Oceanic-brand ATOM 2.0 dive computers with serial
numbers 1 through 2,079 (Revisions 2E, 3A, and 3B) and AERIS-brand EPIC
dive computers with serial numbers 1 through 712 (Revision 1A), which
can be accessed and viewed on the computer's display. Also, the serial
number and date of manufacture are printed on the bottom of the unit
(Oceanic ATOM 2.0 from August 23 to November 23, 2006, and AERIS EPIC
from October 18 to November 14, 2006). This recall does not include any
other Oceanic or AERIS brand dive computers.
Authorized Oceanic dealers sold ATOM 2.0 dive
computers nationwide from August 2006 through February 2007. Authorized
AERIS dealers sold EPIC dive computers nationwide from October 2006
through February 2007. Both computers sold for between $670 and $950.
Consumers should stop using the recalled dive computers and take them to an authorized Oceanic or AERIS dealer to get a free software upgrade.
Consumer Contact: Contact Pelagic toll-free at
(888) 854-4960 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, send
an email to
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, or write to: Pelagic Pressure
Systems, 2002 Davis Street, San Leandro, CA 94577. Information is also
posted on the Oceanic and AERIS Web sites (www.OceanicWorldwide.com and www.diveaeris.com).
The recall is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
Lost in the city of Atlantis - Underwater Burial
Friday, March 02 2007
By Kerry Sanders
Diving enthusiast and NBC Correspondent
Updated: 11:20 a.m. ET Feb 28, 2007
45 FEET DOWN, OFF KEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA— I never thought I’d get a dateline like this.
At
first I thought it was a little creepy: scuba diving where the cremated
remains of thousands will someday be permanently cemented into place.
But
down here, with the clear blue-green waters, the curious tropical fish,
and these lion statues and sculptured columns, it’s all rather peaceful
and inviting.
I guess that’s the point, and I’d say the dreamers who came up with this achieved their goal.
The
art down here is all new so it’s only beginning to take on that
crusted-over look scuba divers are used to seeing. Barnacles are just
now attaching themselves to the columns (the ones in the water for the
last month).
As a long-time scuba diver,
this caught my interest because as divers know, more often than not,
getting to dive sites can be the chore. Not the case here. It’s only
3.2 miles northeast of the light house on Key Biscayne, Fla. On a fast
speed boat from Virginia Key, you are here in less than 30 minutes.
Bangkok, Thailand (Feb 28, 2007 16:15 EST) At least 20 new species have been discovered in the first comprehensive survey of Indonesia's sharks and rays since the 1850s.
The five-year survey of catches at local fish
markets provided the first detailed description of Indonesia's shark
and ray fauna - information which is critical to their management in
Indonesia and Australia.
Based on the survey's findings, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research has published a 330-page, full-colour, bilingual 'field guide'
entitled: Economically Important Sharks and Rays of Indonesia.
"Indonesia has the most diverse shark and ray
fauna and the largest shark and ray fishery in the world, with reported
landings of more than 100,000 tonnes a year," says one of the guide's
co-authors, Dr William White of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research.
"Before this survey, however, there were vast gaps in our knowledge of
sharks and rays in this region.
"Good taxonomic information is critical to
managing shark and ray species, which reproduce relatively slowly and
are extremely vulnerable to over-fishing. It provides the foundation
for estimating population sizes, assessing the effects of fishing and
developing plans for fisheries management and conservation."
3 dead in Key Largo reef dive
A British diver and his German partner have discovered what they claim
is the world's largest submerged cave system - effectively an
underground river - beneath Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
Washington, D.C. (Feb 28, 2007 16:47 EST) Pelagic Pressure Systems is recalling about 2,800 Oceanic and AERIS digital dive computers due to a decompression hazard.
By Kerry Sanders
