Shoreline Scuba

Advanced Diving is not for Just Young Jocks!

2010-10-18T08:34:00.002-04:00

Mom always told me and expected that I respect my elders and treat them with kindness. How many times have you heard, “Your Mother knows best”! Agreed, we place emphasis on Mom and her wisdom. But, what we do not always admit to our self is that Mom is right 90+% of the time.

Shoreline Scuba and I had the privilege to meet and spend 14 days with Tom in St Thomas. It started out as a 5 day diving and working trip doing refresher dives, scuba review but maybe more of it was for safety and reminding how to do diving the “right way”. Tom was taught diving using a technique not good for him or anyone. Hence, make sure your dive shop cares as much about teaching diving, as it does making money. Too many dive shops are taking tourist and using a “tea bag” technique for teaching diving (drop you into the water and pull you back up, congrats you can dive aka tea bag). Thanks to Hurricane Otto the trip was forced to be much longer.

Tom decided to work on his Advanced Open Water. By the end of the 14 days, he became an Advanced Open Water diver. This may sound like no major accomplishment but considering: during his training he had major ear problems- almost lost his hearing, his fear of diving and (he will now be mad at me) his age. However, Tom set a goal and achieved it.

Tom is retired. He is probably the most active senior that I have ever met. His philosophies on use it or loose it, helps keep him young. He exercises every day by running and lifting. He finds organizations/clubs that challenge him mentally. He does not let his fear stop him from accomplishing any goals. He is still works part-time doing research and development of new products. Tom has helped inspire me as a diving instructor to be a better instructor by not judging anyone’s ability.

Respecting our elders is not based only on age but on their wisdom. If you spend some time with elders, who have experienced life, then they are more than willing to share their wisdom and help you grow into a better person.

Shoreline Scuba wants to congratulate Tom for sticking with diving and becoming an Advanced Open Water Diver.

That Pretty Shell is DEADLY

2010-10-09T22:15:00.004-04:00

I was diving the other day with Thom and Shorelinescuba.com in Hullover Bay, St John USVI. The Caribbean diving in St. John is maybe 2nd best to St Croix diving. We always find Conch shells and look to see if they are alive. Note to former Dive Students: I never touched the marine life. But someone else picked up this pretty shell and then it hit me like lightning the "TOP 10 DEADLIEST MARINE CREATURES" that runs on the Animal Plants every night after midnight.

THE CONE SHELL NUMBER 3 (I made the number up my memory is not that good)

So if you are planning a Caribbean diving trip then you should probably read the following.

Cone shells are another venomous organism of the Caribbean reef. The cone shell or cone snail is actually any of several marine snails from the phylum Mollusca, subclass Prosobranchia and the class Gastropoda, that comprise the genus Conus and family Conidae. Conidae contains about 400 species of snails. Usually it is straight sided having a low spire with tapering body whorl (one of the turns or volitions of a spiral shell), and narrow aperture, or opening into the first whorl in the shell. The Cone shell injects a highly poisonous paralyzing toxin by means of a dart-like mechanism near the tip; a few of the larger species have fatally stung humans. Wow! Did you get all that? In laymen term, it is a pretty shell with a deadly sting.

Their usual prey is worms and mollusks and an occasional small fish. The length of their shells can range from 1-5 inches. Colors of the shells vary from bland grayish/brownish to very brightly color. The cone shells reside mainly in tropical and subtropical waters. They are mainly shallow water dwellers and are often associated with coral reefs. The cone shells are mainly nocturnal while hiding during the day on the sandy bottom.

Cone shells are predators and are divided into three main groups; the ones that feed on worms, the ones that feed on mollusks and the ones that feed on fish. The last group is the most deadly for humans. These cone shells are called the piscivores, Cones have modified radular teeth. These teeth are detachable and can act like a spear gun. When the cone makes contact with its prey, its radular tooth is shot out, piercing the victim’s skin and injecting its venom. This venom is very effective at paralyzing and eventually killing the prey before it’s ingested. The most poisonous cone shells have killed humans, while others may have weaker effects. Swelling will usually occur and numbness may spread quickly throughout the entire body. Muscle paralysis has been involved in severe cases. The venom of cone shells is thought to be a competitor for acetylcholine receptors at neuromuscular junctions.

The impact of cone shell envenomation on humans seems to be minimal. The greatest number of reported stings occurs in the Indo-Pacific area. Why Indo-Pacific you may ask? The answer is because the most valuable shells are found in this area. Some species may bring in $2,000-$4,000 by these collectors. One of the most sought after cone shell by collectors is the shell of the Glory of the Seas cone snail (Conus gloriamaris). Glory of the sea has special significance because for many years it was one of the most desirable and considered one of the rarest, shells in the world. Glory of the Sea has an elegant beauty, and moderate rarity even today, which continues to elevate the Glory of the Seas above most other cones in terms of desirability.

What is really out there in the water?

2010-10-05T11:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, after diving with Shorelinescuba.com, it was a first for me. I was standing on the dock at Water Island right next to the sandy shoreline. I saw a catfish swimming (midwest USA raised) by shore in less than 1 foot of water. Then it hit me! That it is not a catfish but a SHARK! Holy crap, I had an epiphany! I am making my claim to fame right here, that catfish are related to sharks at least sand sharks because the have similiarities: head, eyes, swimming style, and live in water.

But what is more amazing than my epiphany is the below article. Enjoy!

WASHINGTON – The world's oceans may be vast and deep, but a decade-long count of marine animals finds sea life so interconnected that it seems to shrink the watery world.
An international effort to create a Census of Marine Life was completed Monday with maps and three books, increasing the number of counted and validated species to 201,206.
A decade ago the question of how many species are out there couldn't be answered. It also could have led to a lot of arguments among scientists. Some species were counted several or even dozens of times, said Jesse Ausubel of the Alfred Sloan Foundation, the co-founder of the effort that involved 2,700 scientists.
The $650 million project got money and help from more than 600 groups, including various governments, private foundations, corporations, non-profits, universities, and even five high schools. The Sloan foundation is the founding sponsor, contributing $75 million.

28 Lionfish caught off Frederiksted Pier

2010-10-01T21:59:00.000-04:00

September 28, 2010
Virgin Islands Daily News
by Daniel Shea

"ST. CROIX — An official and some of the volunteer divers who have made it their mission to rid the coastal waters of the destructive lionfish caught 22 of the invasive species off Frederiksted Pier during the weekend and six more Monday.

What started out as a recreational dive off the Frederiksted Pier Friday turned into a four-day lionfish-hunting expedition, local diver Paul Vrabcak said.

He said he will be diving on the south side of the pier throughout much of the rest of the week, continuing the search for the lionfish.

“We don’t have a year to study what’s going on,” Vrabcak said. “We need to get them out of the water.”

William Coles, chief of environmental education for the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources, has been working with Vrabcak and other volunteer divers to do just that.

Coles teamed up with Vrabcak on Sunday and Monday to search for the invasive species from the Pacific Ocean that has been wreaking havoc on marine life in the Caribbean since it first spilled out of a Florida homeowner’s aquarium during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

But he had never seen a cluster as big as that found over the weekend off the pier, he said.

“We’ve never caught that many in one spot,” Coles said.

The weekend influx shot the total number of lionfish caught off St. Croix to about 140, Coles said.

“This last week has really upped the numbers a lot,” he said.

By Vrabcak’s own count, he has caught 62 lionfish, he said. It has been with the help of volunteers like Vrabcak and local fishermen that the majority of those lionfish have been removed from the waters, Coles said.

Nearly all of the lionfish caught last weekend were no larger than two inches long, Coles said.

“This looks like it has been a breeding session that has gotten to us,” Coles said.

“We’ll know what’s going on,” he said. “The Frederiksted Pier pier is heavily dived, anyway.”

Vrabcak had a different theory. With the distant passing of Hurricane Igor came a change in weather: The wind and current came down from the northwest — the general direction of Puerto Rico, which has a severe lionfish problem.

“We just had two storms blown through, and the wind was coming from the northwest,” Vrabcak said. “I would tend to believe that these were wind-blown.”

While Vrabcak’s theory differs slightly from Coles’, the two men agree adamantly that they need more funding to comprehensively fight off the lionfish, which eat up just about anything in their path and have no natural predators in the Caribbean to stop them.

“We need money last week,” Coles said. “This is a really critical thing. And we could easily make the mistake and not do anything about it, and then we’d be like everyone else. And that’s not what we want.”

“We need to be working together on this,” he said.

Shoreline Scuba

2010-10-01T11:18:00.000-04:00

I moved to St Croix with this grand idea of a great life in "PARADISE" and to help me find PEACE. Like most people in the Caribbean, from the time of the pirates to today, they are all running from something or searching for something, usually searching for "paradise". I am probably no different. This is my crazy adventure of starting my newest project Shorelinescuba.com

St Croix scuba diving ranks as some of the best diving in the world. It also ranks extremely high as one the best places to do shoreline scuba entries.

As I tell everyone, St Croix diving is almost paradise but if paradise is a postcard picture taken from a plane, then you better watch out!