Editorial
Get Down to Safety
By Alex Brylske Photo by Joseph C. Dovala

Robert Rossier's Instructor Tips column this month addresses a topic that, unfortunately, receives almost no formal attention during most diver training courses. That's a shame because, in my view, it's the point in a dive at which problems are most likely to happen. These aren't always life-threatening problems, but they're problems that can ruin a dive and, if not addressed quickly, can lead to some very serious consequences. The topic I'm referring to is the simple act of floating on the surface.
The thing is, simply floating on the surface
isn't always so simple. A diver on the
surface is on a thin line between two worlds: the realm of the air breathing and the realm of the aquatic. Rather than getting the best of both worlds, the diver is at a disadvantage. It's sometimes difficult to get this point across to new divers because, after all, the surface is the place they feel most safe. But the reality is just the opposite. Although it may seem counterintuitive, good divers quickly learn that the best thing to do when it comes to bobbing around like a cork, especially in choppy conditions, is to remain in that state for as little time as possible.
The passage from the somewhat two-dimensional world of the atmosphere to the clearly three-dimensional world of the hydrosphere is usually best made quickly. To an experienced diver the surface is a netherworld — not quite here and not quite there. It's a point you want to transition through smoothly and efficiently by being prepared to descend immediately upon gaining your buddy's attention.
I remember in the ancient history that describes my own career as a diving educator, the original "Easy Diver" himself, Lou Fead, preached the dictum "look down to safety." Truer words have never been spoken. Once in the water, a diver is no longer a land dweller. His scuba equipment, while providing adequate buoyancy for floating at the surface, is designed for peak performance underwater, not above. To a diver the surface is the realm of motion, compromised movement, confusion and, sometimes, nausea. With apologies to Lou, however, perhaps the dictum should be even more direct — not look down but get down to safety.

buddy lines

A Fan Far From Home
My son, Pvt. Christopher Brimmer, 21, is a fan of Dive Training. He is over in Iraq with a U.S. Army Engineers Battalion. Chris loves scuba diving. He has been diving at home in Minnesota lakes, and in Grand Cayman and Baja Mexico. He is an Advanced Open Water-certified diver. Your magazine helps remind him of home and of the good times he had diving. Also, our other son, Nick, 17, likes to read your magazine as well. We have been reading your publication for 11 years and just wanted to let you know that we really enjoy it.
Jerome T. Brimmer
Oakdale, Minnesota

Moray Backbone
Thanks for the world's best scuba diving magazine! I'm an eight-year reader who anxiously awaits each new issue. I appreciate the quality and thoroughness of your articles and your willingness to dedicate several column inches, in two separate features, to reader comments and questions.
It is in this spirit of openness that I humbly offer a small correction to the otherwise excellent article on Long Island (Bahamas) by Linda Lee Walden. In her description of the Blue Tang dive site, she wrote "Invertebrates included a spotted moray and a spider crab." The spotted moray eel (Gymnothorax moringa) is a proud member of subphylum Vertebrata — the price of admission for which is a backbone. Probably won't matter to most readers, but to fellow science "geeks," well….
Thanks again for your excellent publication.
Steve Pate
Oceanside, California

Exploding Tanks
In your June 2009 magazine, you published an article by Lynn Laymon warning of the danger of transporting scuba cylinders in the rear of a car on a hot day ("What It Looks Like When … Scuba Cylinders Have It Made in the Shade").
Lynn's points are all true. All except for the sense of danger and imminent disaster the article conveyed. This article reminds me of the periodic fuss made by new divers whenever someone publishes a picture of a diver wearing his or her mask on their forehead, regardless of circumstances. No masks on foreheads, no cylinders in the sun, no solo diving, always wear a snorkel — all dive lore that doesn't really stand up to examination.
In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association on February 10, 1999, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) described experiments it conducted to determine the range of temperatures achievable in car interiors and trunks. Its interest, of course, wasn't exploding scuba cylinders but the effects of rising heat on children left in parked cars on hot days. It found that the maximum temperature achievable inside a car on a day when the outside temperature was 100 degrees [38 degrees Celsius] was about 170 [77 C].
Charles' law says that for every degree Fahrenheit that the temperature of a scuba cylinder rises, the pressure of the gas inside will increase about 5 psi. Let's say you fill your scuba cylinder to 3,000 psi in an air-conditioned dive store where the temperature is, say, 70. Then you put the cylinder in your trunk and park it in the sun. If it's a hot day and the CDC is correct, the temperature inside that cylinder will rise to maybe 170. The 170 (temperature after heating) minus 70 (temperature when filled) is a temperature rise of 100 degrees. Multiplying 100 times 5 psi per degree brings the pressure of your cylinder to 3,500 psi.
Burst discs are designed to burst at about 140 percent of the cylinder's working pressure. A total of 140 percent of 3,000 psi is 4,200 psi, leaving a safety margin of 700 psi.
John Bowden
Marietta, Georgia

Dry Suit Guidelines
I just read your June 2009 issue and your dry suit diving instructions are in direct contradiction to PADI [Professional Association of Diving Instructors] guidelines. The use of the dry suit itself is the PADI method for buoyancy and the BC [buoyancy compensator] is used for surface buoyancy only. I am unsure what other scuba certification agencies state in this regard, but you might want to mention the difference between the various guidelines to keep the instructions simple and congruent if there are different instructions.
Patrick Patterson
Via e-mail

Cheers for Buddies
Your story on buddies brings up a topic I think sometimes goes underappreciated ("Buddies for Life: The Pleasures — and Potential Pitfalls — of Diving as a Couple," July 2009, Dive Training). How much would we truly enjoy diving without someone to share the experience? I've been on hundreds of dives and not one ever seemed complete until I could talk about it with my dive buddy back on board the boat or my wife back home or my other diving friends. A big reason diving is fun is because it's social. I hope we never lose sight of that.
Jerry Burroughs
Via e-mail

Electronic Gadget Groans
Congratulations on a substantive article on buoyancy "Positive, Negative, Neutral: Mastering the Basics of Buoyancy" (June 2009). As a sinker who always had a hard time attaining neutral buoyancy, I appreciate any guidance you can provide.
So much for the kudos.
Your article "Following the Pied Piper: Teaching Students About Underwater Audio Entertainment Systems" (June 2009) I found repugnant. OK, maybe it's a generational issue. People my age do not need to be continually entertained by electronic gadgets. Why are we risking our lives in an alien environment if not to enjoy nature with only the gentle whisper of our air bubbles? I always considered diving the ultimate escape from the visual and audio pollution of life on the surface. And what happens if one of our fellow divers needs our help and we are so self-absorbed listening to music over high-tech headphones that we do not hear the drowning soul trying to get our attention by tapping on his/her air tank with a dive knife?
Thomas F. Johnson
Annandale, Virginia

Dive Observer

Nereus Reaches Deepest Part of the Ocean

By Gene Gentrup

A new deep-sea robotic vehicle, Nereus, has reached the deepest part of the world's ocean, reports a team of U.S. engineers and scientists aboard the research vessel Kilo Moana. The dive to 6.8 miles (10,902 m) occurred May 31, 2009, at the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.
The dive makes Nereus the world's deepest-diving vehicle and the first vehicle to explore the Mariana Trench since 1998.
The unmanned Nereus is remotely operated by pilots aboard a surface ship via a lightweight, micro-thin, fiberoptic tether that allows Nereus to dive deep and be highly maneuverable. Nereus can also be switched into a free-swimming, autonomous vehicle.
"The Mariana Trench is the deepest known part of the ocean. Reaching such extreme depths represents the pinnacle of technical challenges and the team is very pleased Nereus has been successful in reaching the very bottom to return imagery and samples from such a hostile world. With a robot like Nereus we can now explore virtually anywhere in the ocean," said Andy Bowen, the project manager and principal developer of Nereus at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). "The trenches are virtually unexplored, and I am absolutely certain Nereus will enable new discoveries. I believe it marks the start of a new era in ocean exploration."
"Much of the ocean's depth remains unexplored. Ocean scientists now have a unique tool to gather images, data, and samples from everywhere in the oceans, rather than those parts shallower than 6,500 meters (4 miles)," said Julie Morris, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Ocean Sciences Division, the principal sponsor of the $8 million project. "With its innovative technology, Nereus allows us to study and understand the ocean's deepest regions, previously inaccessible. We're very pleased with the success of these sea trials."
Aside from NSF, funds for Nereus have been provided by the Office of Naval Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Russell Family Foundation, and WHOI.
The Mariana Trench forms the boundary between two tectonic plates, where the Pacific Plate is subducted beneath the small Mariana Plate. It is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a 25,000-mile (40,000-km) area where most of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. At 11,000 meters (36,300 feet), its depth is about the same as the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner.
To reach the trench, Nereus dove nearly twice as deep as research submarines are capable of and had to withstand pressures 1,000 times than at Earth's surface — crushing forces similar to those on the surface of Venus. Only two other vehicles have succeeded in reaching the trench: the U.S. Navy-built bathyscaphe Trieste, which carried Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh there in 1960, and the Japanese-built robot Kaiko, which made three unmanned expeditions to the trench between 1995 and 1998. Neither of these is available to the scientific community. Trieste was retired in 1966, and Kaiko was lost at sea in 2003. For more information, visit www.whoi.edu.
THE ‘POOL' IS OPEN AS DIVERS DESCEND ON VANDENBERG
A retired Air Force missile-tracking ship intentionally sunk to create an artificial reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary opened Saturday, May 30, to the public.
The 523-foot-long Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg is about seven miles (11 km) south of Key West. The bottom of the ship's hull rests on sand in depths that average 145 feet (44 m). But the ship is so massive that the superstructure begins about 45 feet (14 km) below the surface.
"I've dove a lot of ships," said Tom Kanczuzewski of South Bend, Indiana, after surfacing May 30. "This is the ship of all ships. I'd love to come back in a year and see all the fishes."
The ship tracked the U.S. space program's launches off Cape Canaveral, monitored U.S. defense missile test launches and eavesdropped on Russian missile launches during the Cold War.
The wreck is already fulfilling its promise of attracting visitors to the Florida Keys.

"We have calls coming in from as far as Germany and Norway from people planning to come just to dive this wreck," said Bob Holston, owner of Dive Key West and president of the Keys Association of Dive Operators. "We have more pre-bookings for the summer now than we've had in 38 years of being in business.
"This is probably going to be one of the world's classiest wrecks to dive," Holston said. "And it's just a corner piece of the wreck trek of the Florida Keys."
Monroe County Commissioner Mario Di Gennaro, who helped find public money to fund the project, says the project will help take recreational dive pressure off natural coral reefs.
"It's going to protect our reef and put heads in beds and increase our tourism, which is our main industry down here," he said. "That's the goal of this whole project, to protect our environment and also to benefit our economy."
Dive instructor Megan Collins thinks the Vandenberg's mammoth size should be appealing to scuba divers of different skill sets.
"It's the possibilities for people of all levels without having to jeopardize their safety," she said. "There's so much to look at on the superstructure of the Vandenberg that no matter your temptation, you don't have to go inside."
Project initiator Joe Weatherby, who 13 years ago chose the Vandenberg from 400 ships rusting away in "mothball fleets" across the country, was ecstatic after his dive.
"I think it's exactly what we planned it to be," said Weatherby, after assisting Di Gennaro who smacked a champagne bottle against a ship stanchion 70 feet (21 m) below to celebrate the project's completion. "It's the world's best wreck dive."

HAWAII GIVING AWAY FREE DIVE FLAGS
The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is giving away free dive flags through August to promote dive and boat safety in the summer months.
"In recent years, DLNR has been alerted to cases in which vessels are running over dive flags while at cruising speeds. Boaters should be on the lookout for dive flags and steer well clear of them. Divers also have the responsibility of marking their dive locations. Saving lives is the reason we have this rule in place," DLNR chairperson Laura H. Thielen said in a statement.
Divers are required by law to use a dive flag when swimming or diving underwater, officials said. They are also required to surface within 100 feet (30 m) of the flag. All vessels are prohibited from coming within 100 feet of the dive flag.
Failure to employ a dive flag is punishable by up to six months in prison and/or a fine of up to $1,000.
The dive flags are being given out in weekly drawings. People interested can send a postcard to:
Dive Flag Drawing, in care of the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, 333 Queen Street, Suite 300 Honolulu, Hawaii, 96813.

STEPÁNEK SETS
NEW RECORDS
Freediver Martin Stepánek recently set two new world records. On May 22, in the freediving discipline of constant weight with fins, Stepánek reached 122 meters (403 feet) in 3 minutes, 36 seconds. In this discipline, during both the descent and ascent, the diver uses breaststroke only, without fins.
The second record was set in free immersion, when Stepánek swam to 110 meters (363 feet) in 3 minutes, 56 seconds. In free immersion, the freediver pulls on a rope during ascent and descent. Using fins is prohibited. For more information, visit www.stepanek-wr09.cz.

AIRLINES GO CASHLESS
Major airlines are switching to "cashless cabins," meaning that many of them no longer accept cash to pay for small snacks, alcoholic beverages, light meals or headsets.
The move to "no cash" began a few years ago when airlines began allowing customers to pay with credit cards. The preference for credit cards has been so positive, airlines say, that cashless will likely be uniform.
American Airlines went cashless June 1 on flights within the United States and flights to and from Canada. Delta, United and Southwest went cashless earlier this year. Other airlines with plastic-only policies are Alaskan, Frontier, JetBlue and Midwest. Continental Airlines may soon join them. The airline is testing the skies with credit-only cabins. Until recently it was the biggest airline that refused credit or debit cards for in-flight purchases.

DIVERS SURVEY
FAMOUS CIVIL WAR SHIPWRECK
Divers armed with state-of-the-art technology recently gathered information on the condition of the USS Monitor, a Civil War shipwreck protected by a federal national marine sanctuary.
During the expedition, divers surveyed and photographed visible sections of the Monitor using noninvasive techniques, including high-resolution digital still and video imagery. Deep Explorers and Rutgers University's Institute of Marine and Coastal Science (IMCS) also deployed an autonomous underwater vehicle that scanned the wreck using sonar and collected water quality data. This was the first time a survey of this type will be conducted over the Monitor wreck site and the surrounding area. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will use the information gathered during the survey to monitor the condition of the historic vessel and the sanctuary.
"This expedition will be invaluable to the Monitor," said David W. Alberg, superintendent of Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. "The information collected during this expedition will be crucial to our efforts to continue preservation of this historic shipwreck."
The expedition is supported through contributions of time, equipment and other support by various individuals and corporations, including Rutgers IMCS, Aqualung USA, Silent Diving Systems, Deep Outdoors, TMBA Broadcast Animation, O.C. Diver, Margie II, Sartek Industries, Sony XDCAM, Sony HDV and Fujinon Optics.
To learn more about the expedition, visit the USS Monitor 2009 Mission site at http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/missions/2009monitor/.
The USS Monitor is in 230 feet
(70 m) of water 16 miles (26 km) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, where the ship sank on a stormy New Year's Eve in 1862. To protect the nation's most famous ironclad, the federal government designated the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary on January 30, 1975. In the late 1990s through 2002, several iconic Monitor artifacts were recovered and are being conserved at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia.

In memoriam. Daniel M. Fasano, who financed the bulk of the costs to sink the MV Miss Lourdies as an artificial reef off the coast of Florida, died June 9, 2009, three days after the vessel was sunk. He was 47.
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Fasano overcame a fear of the ocean to become a scuba diver in the mid-2000s, before being diagnosed with cancer. Despite his illness, Fasano was active in plans to sink the freighter, rechristened Miracle of Life. It rests in the ocean 135 feet (41 m) deep about a mile southeast of the Boca Raton Inlet. He contributed thousands of his own dollars to the project, said dive shop owner Arilton Pavan, who called his friend "passionate" about the new reef and the undersea world. In April, Fasano created the nonprofit Miracle of Life Foundation, which he hoped would benefit artificial reefs, cancer-fighting causes and HospiceCare of Southeast Florida and its annual fund-raising regatta.

EVENTS

LEGENDS OF DIVING AUGUST 7-9
Bob Meistrell, who co-founded Body Glove with his twin brother Bill and holds Los Angeles County Underwater Dive License 0001, is the featured guest at this year's International Legends of Diving, scheduled for August 7-9 at Portage Quarry in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Other guests include Dottie Frazier, the world's first female scuba instructor, hard-hat diver, dive shop owner and operator. Frazier also was the first female to produce wet suits and dry suits. She was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2000.
Also coming is Robert Croft, who set several world records as a freediver. He plans a return appearance.
Other activities include an underwater photo workshop and brass helmet diving. For more details about the event, visit www.internationallegendsofdiving.com.

PROGRAMS

‘Marine Life Keywords'
A new time-saving program for underwater photographers allows users to quickly and accurately keyword the marine life images in their library.
It applies common and taxonomic names to the user's metadata and helps them avoid having to look up and repetitively type Latin and Greek taxonomic terms. Users simply enter the common name of a photograph and with a single keystroke all the relevant taxonomic terms get "attached" to the keyword metadata in the
selected images.
Marine Life Keywords can be imported into Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture photo management software programs.
The program is the product of underwater photographers and educators Dive Training marine life editor Marty Snyderman, contributing editor Barry Guimbellot, and Eric Cheng. Their keywords include the common and automatically attached taxonomic names for more than 12,000 species from oceans all over the world.
Applying the keywords makes marine images "searchable" by common name and by taxonomic names, including the genus and species, order, class, family and phylum as well as a number of other often-used terms.
Supplying accurate common and taxonomic names is necessary when submitting images to publishers, photo agencies, and for some photo contests.
The MarineLife Keyword List can be imported into both Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture without adversely affecting your current keyword database. Upon import, the keywords are available for immediate use. Marine Life Keywords is being acclaimed as a time saver for those using Breeze Browser, Adobe Bridge, Microsoft Expression media and Extensis Portfolio.
MarineLife Keywords is available as a direct download. To learn more, go to www.marinekeywords.com.

BOOKS

Howard's Search for a Home:
An Underwater
Adventure of
a Moray Eel
Tim Watson, a volunteer diver and underwater photographer at Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration in Connecticut, has brought a former aquarium resident to life for children. His children's book, "Howard's Search for a Home: An Underwater Adventure of a Moray Eel," uses digital underwater photography, animal facts and a story to inspire children to learn about and appreciate our oceans.
Watson's story focuses on Howard, a moray eel who has decided to retire and sets out to find a new home. He eventually discovers that Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration is the perfect place to spend the rest of his life. The book provides educational facts on each animal featured and Watson's underwater images of various sea creatures, including sea turtles, beluga whales and sharks that can be seen in the aquarium's exhibits.
A portion of the proceeds of the 24-page paperback will be donated to the Mystic Aquarium's volunteer scuba program (for cleaning and maintenance), research and stranding programs.

Always Learning

An Ordinary Saturday:
Extraordinary Lessons

Story and photos by Marty Snyderman

One ordinary Saturday about a month ago I enjoyed an opportunity to brush up on my dry suit diving skills and update my knowledge about the latest dry suit technology. I attended an event held by dry suit manufacturer DUI at the outdoor diving tank at the National Polytechnic College of Science in San Diego, which is near my home. As soon as I arrived I overheard one of the dry suit gurus talking to attendees about "lofting" their dry suit underwear during their dives to help them keep warm. I have used dry suits for more than 30 years, and I had no idea what the term lofting meant. That made me curious, especially because I am going on a diving-while-camping trip to Alaska this summer. I hope to film salmon sharks, a close relative of great white, porbeagle and mako sharks. Salmon sharks are fast-swimming, elusive animals that present a significant challenge for underwater photographers.
Our effort will take us into the wilderness in the Prince William Sound region (remember the Exxon Valdez oil spill) in southeast Alaska. Three members of our group of six have significant experience in this type of camping and diving expedition, and I have dived with two of them before. The expedition leader, Travis Swanson, is a good friend. He introduced me to diving with bluntnose sixgill sharks in Canada and Seattle several years ago.
But experience doesn't change the significance of one fact. We will be in a remote area at least 24 boat hours from the closest road. That's serious stuff, and while the intent is to have fun, I know that we can only have fun if we are warm, dry, well fed and safe first.
There have been times when I might not have been so attentive to the details of our upcoming Alaskan expedition. But having learned some of my wilderness lessons the hard way, I was all ears to hear what the dry suit gurus had to say about staying warm in a dry suit.

Lofting and Lubing
I soon learned that "lofting" is a technique in which a dry suit user raises part of his or her body higher than the rest of the dry suit so that warm air inside the suit will flow into the undergarments in the area that is raised. If, for example, you are diving in a dry suit and your arms get cold, you can roll to your side, lift one arm and hold it for a few seconds, allowing air in the dry suit to fill the area around the raised arm, then roll to the other side, lift that arm and hold it up for a few seconds. Both arms should soon feel warmer. The idea is that the air will "fluff up" the undergarment, helping provide better insulation and increased warmth.
Using the lofting technique can directly translate into longer bottom times and a more pleasurable diving experience. The experts at the event explained that given my diving background that I have been using the lofting technique for years. I am not certain about that, but I feel confident that I'll be aware of this information and put it to use during my trip to Alaska and on other dives when I am in my dry suit.
As the lofting discussion wrapped up, one of the attendees asked about the best way to take care of a dry suit zipper. That's a great question. A dry suit zipper is one, an expensive part of a dry suit, and two, a key component when it comes to keeping dry and warm. A leaky zipper is the definition of a bummer.
The dry suit expert quickly outlined the process, saying the idea is to minimize stress on the zipper. He suggested several things a diver should do to help maximize the zipper's life and keep it leak-free. One, always keep the zipper properly lubricated. All dry suit zippers are made by a single manufacturer who recommends using a lubricant that is part beeswax and part paraffin. If used by itself beeswax is too soft and tends to gum up the zipper. Paraffin, by itself, is too hard and does not provide enough lubrication. A dry suit zipper should be lubricated at least once daily when in use and before storage. When the diving's done the suit should be stored with the zipper open.
Years ago I used to sell dry suits, and I have used them on a regular basis for more than 30 years, but there have been times that I have been a little lazy in keeping the zipper well-lubricated, and I often forget that I should store my suit with the zipper open.
No doubt, it's one thing to know about dry suit zippers in an academic sense, and quite another to be in the icy waters of Alaska and have to deal with a faulty zipper.
The bottom line is that like a regulator, buoyancy compensator or other dive gear, a neglected dry suit zipper can result in an aborted dive and a rather unpleasant experience. That's the bad news. The good news is that taking care of a dry suit zipper is easy. Just do what the gurus tell you to do. Believe me, when I am in an Alaskan wilderness I'll be doing my best to do exactly that.

New Techniques,
New Threats
That same afternoon when I returned home I had two e-mails waiting for me on my computer. One was from my friend Barry Guimbellot, a regular contributor to Dive Training. Barry's e-mail informed me about a new photographic technique in which some underwater photographers are using an image-amplifying TeleXtender behind an extremely wide-angle lens. The idea is to allow the photographer to fill their frame with a nudibranch- to angelfish-sized subject and have both their subject and the distant background be in sharp focus. In essence, the combination provides a "new perspective," and thus, a new option in an underwater photographer's tool kit.
My first thought was "wow, that's interesting." Immediately after that I wondered why in the world I had not thought of that technique. After all, I have been a professional underwater photographer since the late 1970s, and the instant I read Barry's e-mail the idea made perfect sense to me.
I immediately grabbed a topside camera, a TeleXtender and a fisheye lens and went outside to try the technique on land with a close-up shot of a flower. It worked like a charm, and once again this old dog was learning a new trick.
An hour or so later I returned to my computer to read the second e-mail. This one was from another friend who sent me an article that said the acidification of the ocean will likely disorient some species of fishes. Studies show that when young anemonefish are reared in waters with an acidity level like the one expected in the ocean by the end of this century, the fish are unable to find their way to their home anemone. These fish normally rely upon their sense of smell as a directional, or homing, aide, but the increased acidification of the water rendered their sense of smell incapable of helping them find their way.
The bottom line of the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is that the pH of the water in the world's oceans has not changed much in the last 650,000 years, but in recent years the water is becoming increasingly acidic (actually less of a base) at an alarming rate. Many specialists fear that many marine organisms will be unable to keep pace in their ability to adapt, and the anemonefish is just one of many examples of how rising acidification will likely affect marine creatures. Other studies have shown that increased acidification, a byproduct of increased carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, renders sperm incapable of fertilizing eggs in some animals.
This was not exactly the sort of news I was hoping to end my day with, but no matter what the circumstances, the only way to make wise decisions as
an individual or as a society is to first be informed.
On that ordinary Saturday I realized how extraordinary it was to be able to continue to learn new things about the ocean and how to safely explore it — even after 35-plus years of diving and 10,000-plus dives.

no dumb questions

By Alex Brylske

Q:An e-mail came in from Supatranai Nong Nopakun (and I thought pronouncing my name was a challenge) regarding a subject that's never been addressed in this column. "As we all know, lead is a neurotoxin for humans. Every time we dive with shot lead weights, we can see a cloud of dust falling from the lead weights, even if they are 3-4 years old and used hundreds of times. Some scuba stores with pools on site usually have weights in the pool area, and lead weights are used in the pool on a daily basis. My question is if this could become a health issue for divers, being exposed to lead in the water, which is not that different from exposures to lead in dry paints. There have been times when cities shut off their water supply to the general public due to lead detection in drinking water."

A:Years ago, when I was working at a dive center in California, I remember that either county or state health officials (can't remember which) required that we post a warning about the hazards of lead poisoning because of the concerns you raise here. Having not lived there for many years, I have no idea if such warnings are still required, and I've never encountered this anywhere else. In researching the issue I also found relatively little information specific to diving weights. The only thing of real substance that I found was from Dr. Ernie Campbell's outstanding Web site, Scubadoc's Diving Medicine. Here's a synopsis.
They ascribe the risk of lead absorption from diving weights as minimal for divers; possible via the hands to mouth in divemasters, instructors and professionals who commonly handle weights. They suggest that divers rinse weights with fresh water after diving, wash hands after handling lead weights and even consider keeping weights separate from other gear.
While no studies have assessed the true risk, the rationale for the recommendations is that lead is changed chemically when it's placed in water. It can form various salts and chlorides that can be absorbed, and this process can be facilitated depending on the temperature and acidity of the water. The amount of surface area of the lead object is also a factor. As you describe, lead shot in bags offers significantly greater surface area than traditional lead weights, and pools are generally kept fairly warm. However, the chlorination process alkalinates the water, which is then filtered.
Furthermore, research has established clearly that inorganic lead can be absorbed through the skin, and accumulate in many organs while not being present in high levels in the blood. This may be problematic because blood testing is the primary means of assessing lead levels in people. The bottom line is that recreational divers probably have nothing to worry about; but dive professionals, especially those who routinely handle equipment, may be well-advised to wash their hands regularly.
One final note about children exposed to lead: Ingestion of lead dust is the greatest source of exposure to lead in kids, so this should be considered when dealing with the bagged lead weights. If this still doesn't set your mind at ease, you can learn more about occupational hazards of lead poisoning (plumbism) at www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/l2347.htm, but as one writer has put it, probably the greatest hazard of lead diving weights is in handling them while wearing flip-flops.

Q:An e-mail from Kim (no last name) came in as a good follow-up to a subject that I addressed recently. "I was wondering, when using a BC [buoyancy compensator] with an integrated weight system, if I'd get better trim if I put more weight in the upper back weight pockets? In the front I wear 8 pounds on each side, and in the upper back pockets I wear 2 pounds on each side. I have been doing wreck diving and I am concerned about losing a front weight pouch that could cause a rapid ascent."

A:You actually asked two different questions, so let me address each separately. Clearly, redistributing weight will provide better trim. That's the whole purpose of doing it, and why many BC manufacturers now put pockets for small weights in the rear portions of the devices. Some have found success in simple tricks like clipping an ankle weight around the tank valve, or securing small weights to the tank itself. Anything that will shift the center of buoyancy to the point where you can achieve a more comfortable horizontal swimming position is likely to reduce your level of exertion and, therefore, your air consumption. It can also go a long way in reducing anxiety.
The second issue — the danger of a rapid ascent — is another matter. I addressed this for another reader back in the June issue, so I won't belabor the point here again. The risk of an abrupt buoyant ascent resulting from the loss of a weight belt, unless you're wearing an overinflated dry suit or you're in extremely shallow water, is largely myth. In your case, especially, even if you lost a front weight pocket inadvertently, you'll still have the remaining ballast in the rear compartments. As many divers come to learn, unlike in a swimming pool, when you ditch your weights at depth you almost always have to initiate an ascent by kicking before the effect of positive buoyancy takes over. Stick to your plan and concentrate on weight redistribution for better trim, and don't be too concerned about the rapid ascent consideration.

Q:Devon Maggioni wrote with a question on the risk involved in recovering lost objects. "I'm writing to you to settle an argument based on something that happened recently. A friend and I were out diving. We like to think that we're conscientious divers and practice safe diving. We had just finished a safety stop, and were headed back to the boat. I was behind my buddy, and as he boarded the ladder, his camera came loose from his BC and started drifting down past me. Luckily I was able to retrieve it. When I got on the ladder, I could tell he was already aware of the situation from the look of horror on his face. Before he said anything I handed it up to the divemaster, and a more thankful expression I've never seen on my friend's face. Later on, we were discussing what we would have done had I not caught the camera. He insisted that he would have returned immediately to retrieve it. I understand his point, given that it does represent a reasonable chunk of change, but I told him that I wouldn't have gone back due to concerns over decompression illness. His retort was that we still had ample time on his computer, and plenty of air. What would you have done?"

A:It's really difficult to answer this question out of context, and as you provided no information on your profile, depth or any environmental conditions, all I can say is that "it depends." I will say that one of the best ways to get into trouble is to assume something is OK because "my computer said it was all right." Computers aren't omniscient; they simply crunch numbers. They can't think or take into account circumstances that may put you outside the parameters assumed in their decompression model. One example is that, regardless of what decompression models predict, many authorities believe that the kind of descent that you describe — often termed a "bounce dive" — is ill-advised. The reason, they theorize, has to do with silent bubbles. Divers develop these bubbles quite frequently, though not necessarily all the time. However, it's thought that most are trapped in the fine vasculature of the lungs, where they diffuse in the normal respiratory process. One hypothesis is that a quick, deep dive soon after surfacing could compress these bubbles to a point where they might be able to pass through the lung's "bubble net," and into arterial circulation. How valid such a concern really is, we just don't know, but it is plausible.
Still, even without the silent bubble issue, there are other potential problems. Rarely does anything dropped from the surface drop directly to the bottom, so finding a lost object often turns out to be much more difficult than you might imagine. This means it almost always takes more time than assumed, and using a tank with an almost exhausted air supply is a recipe for disaster. Of course, this all depends on the visibility and water depth, so in some cases with surface-to-bottom visibility in shallow water — with very ample remaining bottom time — a quick dive back down to the bottom might not be that big of a deal. On the other hand, it does involve some risk, which could be substantial. As you mentioned, the value of the object in question is also an issue. While I'd never consider going back just to recover a snorkel or a knife, a camera worth several hundred dollars or more could probably make me think twice. In the final analysis, it's your call, but in most cases I'd probably come down on your side of the argument.

Dive Training Quiz

Test your knowledge of the information
featured in this month's issue of Dive Training.

1. One species of parrotfish has an
extra joint on its lower jaw that allows its mouth to open extra-wide. This
feature is called:
A. An intramandibular joint.
B. An extramandibular joint.
C. A hinge.
D. A "widemouth" jaw.

2. An additional set of fully formed jaws in the back of a fish's throat is termed:
A. A gullet.
B. Pharyngeal jaws.
C. A "gill" set.
D. Laryngeal jaws.

3. There are actually several types of oxtox, but the two relevant to diving are the chronic form that affects the lungs and the acute form that affects:
A. The heart.
B. Vision.
C. Thermoregulation.
D. The brain.

4. Acute oxtox is of concern to divers because it triggers:
A. Blindness.
B. Hypothermia.
C. Grand mal-like seizure.
D. All of the above.

5. The phenomenon that each partial pressure is proportional to the number of molecules of that gas within the
mixture is described as:
A. Dalton's law.
B. Boyle's law.
C. Henry's law.
D. Braille's law.
6. Probably the most common cause of a stuck BC inflator valve is:
A. Pushing the button too hard.
B. Failing to attach the hose properly.
C. Poor or neglected maintenance.
D. All of the above.

7. The fastest way to solve the problem of a stuck inflator valve is to:
A. Cut the inflator hose with a knife.
B. Disconnect the low-pressure hose
from the inflator.
C. Turn off your air supply.
D. All of the above.

8. It is impossible to breathe safely from a free-flowing regulator.
A. True.
B. False.

9. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is part of a chain of islands known
as the:
A. Easter Islands.
B. Enchanted Islands.
C. Westward Islands.
D. Windward Islands.

10. St. Vincent's La Soufriere is:
A. A national holiday.
B. A famous shipwreck.
C. A local dessert favorite.
D. An active volcano.

Answers: 1. A 2. B 3. D 4. C 5. A 6. C 7. B 8. B 9. D 10. D