BARBARY COAST DIVECLUB NEWSLETTER
NEWS AND EVENTS
PAGE 2
Whoa baby... hubcaps at Mackerricher SP ... campout with the gang ... Indian summer up the coast ... October 10 and 11 - Fri. and Sat. 2 sites reserved at Mackerricher SP for any club members that want to come up. What could be better??!!
Abalone Checkpoints Discover Violations:
An abalone checkpoint was held on June 14 at Russian Gulch on the Sonoma County coast. A total of 365 cars were stopped and a total of 42 citations were written. As with previous checkpoints most citations were given for report card violations and transporting abalone out of the shell. Altering report cards continues to be a growing problem.
Census of Marine Life Amazing Ten Year Study:
All around the planet in every ocean, scientists from two dozen nations are concluding preliminary field studies. When the results are combined they will serve as the foundation for the most extensive project of its kind: the Census of Marine Life. Preliminary census information reports some startling facts. Such as the fact that a bluefin swims at 45 mph from the warm Gulf to icy Newfoundland and can dive 2,000 feet deep in near-freezing water — all while maintaining a body temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Tags show great white sharks leave California for Hawaii, often diving more than 2,000 feet. The census seeks a fundamental understanding of all life that relies on the largely unexplored seas covering most of Earth...oceans stressed by climate change, pollution, development and more. This unprecedented field guide to millions of species is to be completed in 10 years. The costs are high perhaps as much as $1 billion, much of it funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and governments. For details and the full story visit: http://www.coreocean.org/.
Ruling on Navy Sonar:
A California federal judge ruled yesterday that the Navy cannot deploy a powerful new sonar system to detect foreign submarines because it did not properly follow federal laws when determining whether the sonar could endanger whales and other ocean creatures.
While Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte stopped the Navy from going ahead with its global deployment of the system, she also denied a request from environmental groups for a complete peacetime ban on the low-frequency sonar. She ordered the Navy and environmental groups to negotiate a permanent plan to allow limited use of the technology, which is designed to track certain kinds of diesel submarines that can be undetectable by standard sonar.
Beach Dive Photo Competition Winners Posted
The winners of the recent California Beach Dive Photo Competition have
been posted at www.ncups.org. Mark Krag
won Best of Show with a photograph of a cabezon.
Viking Long Ship Discovered in Loch Ness
This summer, Professor Svenson and Dr. Theo Valdivik announced the discovery of the remains of a Viking long ship at the bottom of Loch Ness. Using their NAVRAD remote bottom probing submarine, the two eminent academics scanned an area of the loch they had carefully selected using their exclusive mathematical formula and a little luck.
The pair were even more amazed to discover preserved coffee grounds in the timbers. All previous data indicates that the Vikings did not have access to coffee and this find may cause a whole chapter of their history to be re-written as it now appears that they may have sailed as far afield as South America before heading for the ancient cultural capital of Loch Ness, Drumnadrochit. The remains will now be sent to a mineral processing unit at NASA where they will be carbon dated and injected with fleuron, a special substance that glows if the material around it is more than 1000 years old.
Professor Svenson denied that his find was simply a cheap PR exercise to try and boost the flagging tourist season or a vain attempt to get a plaque erected with his name on it. "That's quite ridiculous. Eminent researchers like me are only devoted to the science and research of Loch Ness and would never issue statements unless we thought they were true. The fact that this is the holiday or silly season has absolutely nothing to do with anything".
updated 9/15/03