Next Club Dive:

Aug 1 - Stillwater Cove. 2 sites #22-23. If you have friends you want to invite they should get there own site.

It is very easy on the internet

In Other Ocean News:

Poachers Threaten Monterey's Endangered Black Abalone

California game wardens recently made two new arrests in a series of black abalone poaching cases in Monterey County. Jerry Jones, 37, of Monterey, and Terry Callahan, 47, of Seaside were arrested by the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) on May 13 after being found in possession of 51 black abalone from Point Lobos State Park. Poaching charges against the two men are pending. In addition to the illegal operation discovered on May 13, other notably large cases include:
November 2008: Hoa Van Pham, 45, of Moss Landing, and Ty Van Lieu, 54, of Marina were found in possession of 66 black abalone that had been taken from a cove in southern Monterey County. Lieu had previously been found guilty of poaching abalone for commercial purposes in 2002 and 2005, and was arrested for another abalone violation in 1996. Pham had three prior poaching convictions, two in 2000 and one in 1998, specifically related to taking of marine life from a marine protected area. Both subjects pled guilty to the charges. Pham was sentenced to 30 days in jail, three years probation and a $25,000 fine, while Lieu was sentenced to 90 days in jail, three years probation, a $25,000 fine and a lifetime commercial fishing license revocation.
February 18, 2008: Haeng Ju Shin, 42, of Cupertino, was found by a California State Park Ranger to be in possession of 18 abalone, 69 mussels, four limpets, three turban snails, one sea urchin and one kelp snail. She was arrested on charges of unlawfully taking abalone and marine invertebrates from a marine conservation area. Shin admitted using a knife to take the marine animals. She was fined $15,000, $7,500 of which was suspended.

A Giant Awakes in Nantes
The latest performance by the French mechanical marionette street theater company Royale De Luxe - with some remarkable pictures of their latest creation.

He went to the bottom of the ocean to get to the Titanic ... yes, there's a long story.

 

Invitation to join Reef Check and monitor our California reefs:

You are invited to sign up for Reef Check California's last 2009 training course! Reef Check California is a non-profit organization that has trained 300+ divers statewide in a monitoring protocol that assesses the rocky reefs of California to help marine managers make more informed decisions with our resources. You can take our course, learn how to identify, count, and size many of the critters seen while diving, and then utilize your skills on our planned survey charters and beach dives. Reef Check diving is a great way to learn more about your diving environment, is a perfect avenue for diving new locations in California, and will improve your dive skills (such as effortless buoyancy and underwater navigation) tremendously.

The course is two weekends long and costs $200. This includes one weekend of classroom and pool training, two three-dive days on a Monterey charter, your own UW data slate, transect tape, and measuring calipers, a training manual, flash cards of our 73 indicator organisms, and either a NAUI or PADI Reef Check Ecodiver Specialty Certification card!

The date and location of this final course is:

July 25-26 on the Cypress Sea out of Monterey

If you are interested please sign up online: http://reefcheck.org/rcca/training_schedule.php

You can also contact megan@reefcheck.org with any questions.

If you can't make this course check our website in the fall for our 2010 training dates!

See you in the water!

Megan Wehrenberg
Northern/Central California Regional Manager
Reef Check Foundation
phone 831-345-0893
fax 831-644-0556
http://www.reefcheck.org

 

Science Adopts A New Definition Of Seawater; 'Should Be In Widespread Use Within 18 Months'

PARIS, France -- In Paris late last month the General Assembly of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) accepted the case for the introduction of a new international thermodynamic description of seawater, cast in terms of a new salinity variable called Absolute Salinity.

Absolute Salinity S A can be expressed in terms of Practical Salinity S P as: S A=(35.165 04 g kg-1/35)S P+? S A(?, ?, p)

"Scientists will now have an accurate measure of the heat content of seawater for inclusion in ocean models and climate projections," Dr McDougall says.