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At the meeting, our new location, we talked about where this year's dives are going to be. We're looking at doing Big Sur this year and are still open to suggestions. Scientists find new glue Purdue University scientists have found the glue that saltwater mussels use to affix themselves to rocks is a subject worth sticking to, both for its pure scientific interest and for its potential applications in medicine and industry. Jonathan Wilker and his research group have discovered that the formation of mussel adhesive requires iron, a metal that has never before been found in such a biological function. Wilker first became interested in this subject while on break from academic work, pursuing one of his favorite hobbies - scuba diving. "I was looking at mussels and barnacles while diving and wondered how they stick," he said. "I checked the literature for an answer and saw that many of the details for these processes were not known." While the discovery is valuable for its scientific merit, it also could impact the market as well, leading to surgical adhesives, rustproof coatings and antifouling paints to defeat barnacle adhesion. Source: Purdue University; Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096 Swimming with the Humpback Whales .. Giants
of the Sea Every winter, as many as 5,000 Atlantic humpbacks migrate to a 20-mile bank of shallow water 85 miles north of the Dominican Republic and southeast of Grand Turk. The waters are for the most part less than 100 feet deep. From December until mid-April, the area is designated as a whale sanctuary.Travel with Mary Peachin, Chicago Tribune reporter, on her weeklong snorkeling adventure aboard the Wind Dancer, a 120-foot, live-aboard scuba boat that sleeps 18. Whale snorkeling trips to the coast of the Dominican Republic are offered from mid-February through mid-April. They can sell out months in advance, so right now might be just the right time to be plan next winter's getaway! For the full story and details of her trip and these amazing whale encounters, visit: http://www.chicagotribune.com/. If all is as planned and hoped, on May 29, 2004 a crane will pick up the Boeing 737 jetliner currently resting peacefully on the deck of a barge floating a mile off Vancouver Island and drop it into the ocean. Once the plane plunges to the sea floor, scuba divers are hopeful that it will quickly become home for various species of local marine life and also attract dive tourists from around the globe! An airplane was sunk near Miami to serve as an artificial reef but was broken apart by hurricanes so this could well be the only Boeing artifical reef on the planet. The 737 was built in 1966. The ARS-540 is a decommissioned Boeing 737-200 airframe. For the full story visit: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ St Mary Professor May Have Located the
Wreck of the Comanche At low tide in San Francisoco Bay at Alameda, one can see the remnants of ships in a row covered with barnacles and showing signs of their age. St. Mary's College professor James Allan believes one of the shipwrecks is the Camanche, the West Coast's first ironclad warship. It sank 80 years ago in the waterway between what is now Coast Guard Island and Highway 880. Allan is a maritime archaeologist and has been searching for the Comanche remnants for quite a long time. Allan has spent considerable hours driving along the estuary to view beaches at low tide. As fate may have it, Allan was at the state Lands Commission offices when he happened to see an aerial photograph of the estuary just sitting on top of the map drawer. The very clue he needed to find the wreck! Last Friday, Allan and his students went to the mudflats shown in the aerial picture and made their way through the tidal zone to the shipwreck. The students stared at the wooden planks and iron remains trying to visualize what the ironclad ship might have looked like in its prime in 1865. They noted that the stern and bow looked a lot alike. This is a strong indication that this really could be the Comanche according to Allan. For the detailed story visit: http://www.contracostatimes.com/ |
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