Spearfishing Tips, gear and more

Deep Waters Sunny SkiesMarlin Fishing in Hawaii

admin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 07:28:57 +0000

The Kona coast on the Big Island of Hawaii is renowned for Pacific blue marlin fishing. Considered the marlin capital of the world, it is home to the blue marlin, a spectacular sword-billed fighting fish. The largest marlin ever caught here weighed over 1,800 pounds!!

Besides marlin, Kona waters are rich with ahi–yellowfin tuna, sword fish, mahimahi, spearfish, aku–skipjack tuna, and ono (wahoo) one of the fastest fish in the ocean. Fish are plentiful year-round but are more numerous in the summer months.

Kona has more than 100 charter fishing boats,and 300 days of sun, making it an excellent place for sports fishing. Most boats leave from Honokohau Harbor, just north of Kailua-Kona. In addition to sunny skies, these fishing grounds boast warm, deep waters, and the ability to hook up a marlin just a short ways from shore.

If you go down to the docks, you can see charter boats returning around 11 a.m. from the morning charters and again around 3:00 in the afternoon. Most boats will fly flags indicating their catch. White flags indicate ahi, blue flags marlin, and inverted flags indicate a catch-and-release trip.

Mornings generally offer the best conditions. Most deep sea fishermen chartering out of Kona are novices, and most charter fishing boats will provide all the necessary fishing gear included in the cost. You can join a charter with others,or, if you have a total of six people in your party, you can charter the boat for yourselves. Remember that most boats do not include food or drink. So, take a lunch and something to drink. And don’t forget the sunscreen.

The Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, held annualy in Kona, however, is a different story. This is the premier event in the world for deep sea sports fishing, with competitors from all over the world. It may not be the best week for a novice fisherman to find a boat for hire, but it is an exciting time. In addition to the competitions, other festivities occur throughout the week. This is the highlight of the year for Hawaii charter fishing.

2006 marks the 47th year of this non-profit tournament. From July 24-28, competitive teams will
gather, lured by the thrill of hooking a prized Pacific blue marlin. For five days, Kailua pier will be the hub of activity. Each day, dozens of boats will line up just outside Kailua Bay awaiting the 7:00 a.m. signal to begin fishing, as a sea of anglers prepare for the thrill of big game tournament fishing.

In order to assure an ongoing supply of these large fish, most Pacific blue marlin are returned to the sea. Thanks to the tournament’s tag-and-release rules, which were implemented in 1986, most catches are tagged with a transponder and then released. The Billfish Association and the Pacific Ocean Research Foundation have been working together to make sure that future generations can enjoy the thrill of deep-sea fishing with an adequate supply of game.

The Kona coast of Hawaii’s Big Island is certainly an exciting place for world-class marlin fishing.

Bob Freer shares his love for travel through his writings. Hawaii travel, is described on his website. He writes more about Marlin fishing in Hawaii at: Hawaii-Travel-Online.com/Hawaii Charter Fishing.

Abu Garcia

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:25:04 +0000

Early history

The factory in Svngsta where there still is production. Photo taken from the north.

Still one of the most recognizable names in fishing technology, A B Urfabriken began at a factory located near the Mrrum River, in Blekinge, Sweden. The company, founded in 1921, originally manufactured watches, telephone timers and taximeters. However, the founder’s son, Gte Borgstrm, a fishing enthusiast, soon redirected its focus towards fishing reels during World War II, when demand for those products grew scarce. The reigning outdoor sports participant distributing and manufacturing firm THE GARCIA CORPORATION USA 1947-1978 was the largest fishing tackle company of its time, formerly known under the earlier name Charles Garcia %26 Company New York. The Garcia Corporation started importing and marketing ABU’s many reels in the 1950s, including the famous Ambassadeur reels. Garcia was already the leader in fishing tackle importing and distributing, marketing the famous Mitchell 300 spinning reel from France since 1947. Garcia Tackle Company 1979-1980 was a short-lived partnership between ABU and MITCHELL S.A. of France and in 1980, ABU AB acquired New Jersey based Garcia Tackle Company and changed their name to Abu Garcia. Mitchell S.A. would go their own way, but the two brands would join together again under the Pure Fishing banner only again to be sold to the Jarden Corporation in 2007.

Modern developments

A pair of ABU reels from the late 1960s, the smaller is the Cardinal 33, the larger is the Cardinal, 66, and the Swedish royal coat of arms can be seen clearly

ABU Garcia introduced a series of fishing reels and related products in the early 1950s. The Swedish-built ABU 444, the company’s first spinning reel, was introduced in 1955, followed in 1965 by the first model of the Cardinal series of spinning reels.

Beginning in 1957, the company also became known for its advanced spin cast reels (Abumatic) featuring several engineering innovations such as level-wind mechanisms (oscillating spools), under-rod spin cast reel designs (the Abu 500 series) and improved drags for fighting larger gamefish. The famous Ambassadeur series of bait casting reels, which utilized advanced metal alloys, ball-bearing friction interfaces, and precisely-cut gears, was introduced at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, and subsequent Ambassadeur models are still produced by the company.

The professional angler Paul Gustafson worked for seven years as chief angling consultant for ABU Garcia.

Today they still make ambassadeur’s along with a new model called a revo which is another version of the ambassadeur.

Collections

This section requires expansion.

There are collectors of ABU equipment.

ABU Garcia Collectors from all around the world choose to buy, sell and exchange rare items on popular auction sites such as eBay.com and Tradera.com (Swedish). Rare items can fetch thousands of dollars. Specialist sites exist to aid finding these items such as Auction Angler.

Publications that aid the collector of ABU Garcia merchandise include ‘The Ambassadeur and I’ and its sequel ‘The Ambassadeur and I Final Chapter’ both by Simon Shimomura. There is also a book titled ‘Vintage Fishing Reels of Sweden’ by Daniel Skupien that contains a large amount of valuable information on ABU Garcia fishing tackle.

A Guide to Scuba Diving Contests

admin — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 23:46:40 +0000

Scuba diving is a very exciting sport and recreational activity by itself. To put more fun and thrill, diving organizations and magazines regularly invite scuba diving enthusiasts to participate in contests that range from treasure hunting to photography to sweepstakes.

Joining these contests and competitions usually requires a membership or an upfront fee. Scuba diving contests are quite common in the diving community and have become a regular activity that has continuously attracted bigger followers.

Prizes
Aside from money, prizes can range from gift certificates to sponsored vacations. And these vacations aren’t too shabby, either. Overseas trips to tropical islands and popular diving sites are the usual top prizes, with airline tickets thrown in. If you’re really lucky, your prize could also include a set of brand name diving gear to use during your trip.

Other groups, magazines and sites also give away some pretty good stuff. Scuba Diving magazine, for example, in partnership with Florida Keys puts up a SeaDoo Explorer Underwater Scooter as top prize for their 2006 Drive and Dive Sweepstakes. Contest sponsors also give away smaller prizes that range from gift certificates for free air-fills to discounts on diving gears and equipment.

Contests
For scuba diving contests, one of the top sites to check out is www.scubadiver dot com. This site periodically sponsors contests and posts announcements on its website. Another site is www.divernet dot com, which sends out contest announcements through newsletters to members.

Some dive groups like the NorthWest Diver (www.nwdiver dot com), have a more varied approach to scuba diving adventures. Diving contests to retrieve prizes involve both freediving and snorkeling. Divers are put in deep pools or open water to retrieve tokens in exchange for scuba diving prizes.

Another popular contest is their Treasure Chest hunt, where divers will search for a sunken chest for a $1000. Other organizations also offer the same type of contest and prizes vary, depending on the sponsoring companies and size of the event.

Most competitions sponsored by major organizations involve underwater photography. Www.aquanaut dot com, for example, sponsors sea and sea photography competitions. Underwater photography contests are also sponsored by www.cyberdiver.net and www.diveremporium dot com.

Other clubs like the South Florida Underwater Photography Society (www.sfups.org) and Laguna Sea Dwellers Dive Club promote underwater photography as a hobby and an art to scuba divers who prefer to capture marine life and sceneries. Depending on club rules, photos may only be taken on site or submitted through a website for judging.

If you’re looking for a tougher activity, Dolphin Divers of Sacramento, holds a regular Labor Day Spearfishing Contest. The club also offers annual underwater scavenger hunts to its members.

Read up on ovulation signs at the Symptoms Of Ovulation website. Find information on removal of liver cysts at the Liver Cysts website. For info on is scabies contagious, visit the Scabies Symptoms site.

Fishing Industry In Russia

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:13:53 +0000

Management

Fisheries management is regulated by Russian federal laws. The federal law ‘On Fisheries and Protection of Aquatic Biological Resources’ of December 2004 (referred to below as the Law on Fisheries) divides fisheries into three main categories’ industrial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries of indigenous groups. Industrial fisheries includes coastal fisheries. This definition has been challenged and is under review.

The Law on Fisheries requires that total allowable catch (TAC) levels are set for fishery stocks. It defines these levels as the cientifically justified annual catch of aquatic biological resources of particular species in a fishing area. However, the Law on Fisheries then goes on to state that industrial fisheries are not necessarily required to base their catch on TAC. The Law does not explain this further, but calls for the federal government to issue a special TAC setting statute. Pacific salmon is the main stock that will probably not have TAC, but will have regulated fishing effort instead.

The Law on Fisheries also gives a definition of a fishing unit area and sets general principles for their use. The compiling of lists of fishing unit areas is delegated to the regional authorities. The Law on Fisheries has gaps and its application is criticized by parliamentarians and stakeholders. It may be expected that in the coming years at least two new federal laws, ‘On Coastal Fisheries’ and ‘On Aquaculture’, will be considered by Russian legislators.

Apart from TAC settings, fisheries are also regulated by the so-called Fishing Rules (Pravila rybolovstva). These rules are set separately for different geographical regions.

The Fishing Rules specify seasonal closures, closed areas, restrictions on specific gears such as retricting mesh sizes, minimum catch sizes, and restricted levels of allowable bycatch. Fisheries management has been changing since Soviet times, and further changes are likely.

The government has mismanaged the fisheries, with frequent restructuring of the institutions responsible for fishery management and control. Starting in 1992, the fishery authority has been reorganized at least five times. The head of the fishery authority was replaced seven times, and not one of these heads was a fishery professional. The issues involved in regulating fishing capacity were never really recognized. However, consistent fishery policies are starting to be developed now.

The extreme bureaucracy involved for a fishing vessel to make a port call and land fish results in coastal processing being bypassed. Instead, the seafood is just directly exported, unprocessed. Similarly, there are many bureaucratic difficulties in developing aquaculture. Getting a licence to use water and the necessary sanitary certificates is very time consuming, although it does guarantee environmental and health safety.

Artisanal

Fishing vessels off a jetty, believed to be Kostroma (Russia) Oil on canvas, 1839, by Anton Ivanov

There is no legally adopted term in Russia for artisanal fisheries. Artisanal or subsistence fishing usually refers to fishing mainly with traditional gear, with production delivered to the market but also used for subsistence. In Russia, the term covers also several kinds of fisheries classified as industrial, such as salmon, chars, whitefish, navaga, flounders and greenling fisheries in the Baltic, the Arctic and the Far Eastern Seas. Subsistence fishing by indigenous groups is also an issue. Indigenous fishers mainly work estuaries, lagoons and rivers (for anadromous fish). Legally, they are bound to use their catch for local consumption only. They are not allowed to sell their catch, but in reality, this is not always the case.

In Russia, poverty contributes to poaching and other threats to fishery resources. Poverty can leave people depending on natural resources to feed themselves. There may be little perceived incentive to protect fish and other aquatic life and to use them in a sustainable way. Lack of awareness and lack of public involvement in managing local resources can result in poaching, overfishing, and other kinds of illegal activities. Poaching by private individuals feeds the industrial IUU catch, and forms a vicious cycle.

The social impacts of traditional fisheries has rarely been analysed. The yearly fishing cycle still dominates life in the traditional fishing villages of the Pomor, dotted around the coast of the White Sea. Fishing has similarly influenced the life style of many indigenous groups, such as among settlers around the Pacific Coast, north of Siberia, and around the big lakes. In the late 1960s, administrative decisions were made to abandon many coastal villages and resettle people in larger settlements. This has disrupted the traditional ways and is associated with alcohol abuse and increased poverty. There is now a slow movement towards reviving cultural traditions. To succeed, there must also be a re-establishment of the sustainable fisheries that allowed such fishing communities to flourish.

Recreational

Recreational fishing occurs everywhere in Russia. The Fishing Rules do not distinguish recreational fishing from artisan fishing, so both are regulated under the same rules. In some areas,tourist fishing is growing.

In 1999, recreational and subsistence fishers took 4,300 tonnes, mostly perches and cyprinids. Later estimates are not available. The most significant recreational fishery by value is the Kola Peninsula Atlantic salmon fishery.

Industrial

Russia has three main industrial fisheries:

marine fisheries including brackish water and anadromous species, and estuarine fisheries

inland fisheries

aquaculture

Catch by fishery category, 2005

Fiji Islands Saltwater Fishing Report September 2008

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:27:11 +0000

Charter Operator – Matava Resort Gamefishing Average Water Temp – 26.0 AverageWeather – Yes, decidedly average. Often 20kts and rough, Occasional excellent days Water Clarity – Variable inshore, good offshore

The fickle winter weather conditions continued to frustrate with weeks of trade wind chop separated by perfect weather days and big fish numbers. Wahoo and sails have dominated with plenty of winter Yellowfin for added variety.

Warmer water currents moved through in August to quiet the wahoo bite a little but with it came huge numbers of mahi mahi for excellent light tackle action. Most are small around 20lbs but some good bulls mixed in to 50lbs.

All in all, the winter wahoo season didn’t live up to early expectations, mostly because of unusually poor weather. The GTs however love nothing more than crashing barrier reefs breakers and the popper casting has been and continues to be absolutely outstanding.

Still seeing a few nice black Marlin along the reef edge for the heavy tackle fans who don’t mind spending all day watching their carefully rigged baits being smashed by the razor gang. Its usually worth the effort when a big black gobbles a bait and puts on the normal spectacular airbourne display.

October will see game boats start to move offshore and dust off the heavy tackle with blue Marlin and Yellowfin the main targets. Expect the usual by-catch of mahi mahi, wahoo and the occasional spearfish making a valiant attempt at eating an 18′ marlin lure.

Our biggest catch? A black Marlin at 320lbs she smashed the existing M-130 Fiji National Record and Peter decided to weigh the fish. The first ever documented Kadavu Great Astrolabe Reef black that I know of tipped the scales just shy of 320lbs. Hardly a grander but what a start !It is our intention to take every opportunity to continue fishing for Kadavu island’s black marlin and to tag and release enough to paint a clear picture of their habits and seasons.

Given the sightings by divers and our own experiences of huge Black marlin here, our aim is to find Fiji’s first Grander. Sometimes its fun being a charterboat skipper…..

Adrian was born on the island of Cyprus and graduated to his first rod %26 reel at the age of five. Having fished around the world from the Arabian Gulf to the North sea and English Channel, he finally settled for the tropical waters of the South Pacific around the island of Kadavu, Fiji Islands. Director of Matava Resort Gamefishing, he skippers ‘Bite Me’, the resort’s 31ft DeepVee Gamefishing vessel and thoroughly enjoys exploring the light and heavy tackle fishing around the island and Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef. An IGFA Certified Captain, he advocates tag %26 release and is a keen supporter of the IGFA and the Billfish Foundation.

Cetacean bycatch Multiservice Multiplexer manufacturer Optical Ethernet Switch

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 04:29:49 +0000

Bycatch is increasing

A Dall’s Porpoise caught in a fishing net

Most of the world cetacean bycatch occurs in gillnet fisheries. The mean annual bycatch in the U.S. alone from 19901999 was 6,215 marine mammals, with dolphins and porpoises being the primary cetaceans caught in gillnets. A study by Read et al. estimated global bycatch through observation of U.S. fisheries and came to the conclusion that an annual estimate of 653,365 marine mammals, comprising 307,753 cetaceans and 345,611 pinnipeds were caught from 19901994.

While gillnets are a principal concern, other types of nets also pose a problem: trawl nets, purse seines, beach seines, longline gear, and driftnets. Driftnets are known for high rates of bycatch and they affect all cetaceans and other marine species. They are fatal for small toothed whales (Odontocetes) and sperm whales, as well as other marine mammals and fish such as sharks, sea birds and sea turtles. Many fisheries routinely use driftnets exceeding the EU size limit of 2.5 km/boat. This illegal drift-netting is a major issue, especially in important feeding and breeding grounds for cetaceans.

Cetaceans at risk

Bycatch is recognized as a primary threat to all cetaceans. The following cetaceans are at high risk for entanglement in gillnets:

Atlantic humpback dolphins

The Atlantic humpback dolphin (Sousa teuszii) is endemic to West Africa. Several stocks have been identified with numbers ranging from tens to a few hundred. Abundance estimates are lacking. Gaps in the species range and hence distribution is evident. Bycatch is only documented in a few West African countries. Surveys and evaluations need to be conducted to determine the presence/ absence of humpback dolphins in their historical range. Conservation measures need to be implemented to save this species. Because many people live off the sea, it is not feasible to have complete gillnet closures. Some areas may be designated as off-limits to gillnet fisheries. Eco-tourism may be implemented successfully because of high species diversity.

Baleen whales

North Atlantic Right Whale mother and calf.

Baleen whales, Mysticeti, are often taken in gill-nets and in fisheries that use vertical lines to mark traps and pots. Large cetaceans such as humpback and right whales may carry off gear after entanglement. This explains the large scars borne by whales along the U.S. Atlantic coast. Analyses show that 50-70% of Gulf of Maine humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, and North Atlantic Right Whale, Eubalaena glacialis, have been entangled at least once in their lifetime. The north Atlantic right whale is one of the most endangered large cetaceans and only 300-350 individuals remain. Minke Whales, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, are also at risk.

Burmeister porpoises

The Burmeister’s porpoise (Phocoena spinipinnis) is one of three cetaceans that are most often bycaught in Peru and Chile. Several thousand porpoises are caught each year in Peru alone. Bycatch is a frequent occurrence for this species because of the inability to detect them in the water. Surveys have shown that bycatch remains a concern in that area today and it is unknown whether or not the population is declining. Data, conservation measures and awareness are lacking. These porpoises are cryptic making surveying a challenge . It is also difficult to estimate bycatch because the sale of porpoise meat is no longer available at markets.

Commerson dolphins

A Commerson’s Dolphin in an aquarium.

The expanding trawl fisheries devastated the Commerson’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii) populations in Patagonia. Trawl fisheries greatly expanded for twenty years until they crashed in 1997. Pelagic squid fisheries took over which use pelagic trawls that are harmful to dusky, short-beaked common dolphins, and Commerson dolphins. There are approximately 21,000 Commerson dolphins remaining today. Two stocks have been identified in the population but genetic information and bycatch levels are unknown. With anchovy fisheries expanding, it is imperative to assess the Commerson dolphin population before these fisheries grow. The seasonal operation of in-shore gillnet fisheries are known to involve bycatch of cetaceans. Presently, there are no known estimates of gillnet bycatch. The bycatch problem in Argentina is political in nature. Improvements in fishing technology, awareness, and a large scale survey of Commerson dolphin populations and the impact of bycatch is essential.

La Plata dolphins

The La Plata or Franciscana dolphin (Pontoporia blainvillei) is the most threatened small cetacean in the southwest Atlantic Ocean due to bycatch. They are only found in the coastal waters of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. This species has been divided into four ranges (FMU: Franciscana Management Units) for management and conservation purposes. These populations are genetically different. Mortality rates are 1.6% for FMU 4 and 3.3% for FMU 3 but it is unknown whether these estimates are accurate. Aerial surveys have proven inconclusive so far as to the population numbers of franciscanas. To rectify this situation, more surveys are needed as well as political commitment, awareness campaigns and bycatch mitigation techniques.

Harbour porpoises

There is substantial incidental catches in fishing operations. Often, the Harbour Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) is killed by incidental by-catch (10, 11, 12). Gillnets pose a serious threat to the harbour porpoise as they are extremely susceptible to entanglement. A study by Caswell et al. in the western North Atlantic combined the mean annual rate of increase of the harbour porpoise with the uncertainty of incidental mortality and population size. It was found that the incidental mortality exceeds critical values and therefore by-catch is a significant threat to the harbour porpoise. Harbour porpoises become entangled in nets due to their inability to detect the nets before collision. In 2001, 80 harbour porpoises were killed in salmon gillnet fisheries in British Columbia, Canada.

Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins

Hector’s dolphins have a unique rounded dorsal fin.

In New Zealand, these dolphins have a high rate of entanglement. Hector’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori) is endemic to the coastal waters New Zealand and there are about 7,400 in abundance. A small population of Hector dolphins is isolated on the west coast of the island and have been declared a subspecies called Maui’s Dolphin. Maui’s dolphins (Cephalofhynchus hectori maui) are often caught in set nets and pair trawlers resulting in less than 100 left in the wild. For protection, a section of the dolphin range on the west coast has been closed to gillnet fisheries.

Indo-Pacific humpback and bottlenose dolphins

Drift and bottom-set gillnets are the biggest conservation threat to these dolphins in the Indian Ocean. There have only been assessments in some areas such as Zanzibar. Hunting up until 1996 reduced the population and contributed to their decline. Now hunting has been replaced with eco-tourism. It was estimated in 2001 that there are 161 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus)] and 71 Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin (Sousa chinensis) that are left based on photo-identification mark-recapture techniques. A study on bycatch revealed over 160 incidences of bycatch since 2000. Approximately 30% of bycatch is in drift and bottom-set gillnets. Mortality is about 8% and 5.6% for bottlenose and humpback dolphins respectfully . The mitigation of bycatch is imperative for these species and eco-tourism.

Irrawaddy dolphins

Based on a survey in 2001, fewer than 70 Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) left in the upper region of the Malampaya Sound in the Philippines and 69 individuals in the Mekong River. They have been severely impacted by lift nets, and crab gear and they are critically endangered. It is estimated that mortality from bycatch may be greater than 4.5% in Malampaya Sound and 5.8% in the Mekong River. The population is declining dramatically. Current bycatch levels are unsustainable and bycatch reduction measures as well as long-term systematic monitoring are urgently required. The elimination of gillnets from areas of high use is needed and economic incentives need to be provided to the local people.

Spinner and Fraser dolphins

Spinner dolphins.

In the Philippines, tuna driftnet fisheries have a substantial impact on the populations. One tuna fishery alone kills 400 Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris) and Fraser’s dolphins (Lagenodelphis hosei) each year. Round-haul nets are an even greater concern with a bycatch of up to 3000 dolphins per year. Dolphins that are bycaught often end up as shark bait for longline fisheries. There is not enough data to conclude total bycatch for the Philippines. Initial assessment indicates that bycatch is not sustainable. Monitoring of dolphin populations and fisheries is urgently needed.

Yangtze River dolphins and finless porpoises

Illustration of a Baiji dolphin.

The Yangtze River or Baiji dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) is the most endangered cetacean and is only found in the Yangtze River, China. A survey conducted in 1997 found only thirteen dolphins. The Yangtze River finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis) also lives in the Yangtze River. Abundance has declined and there are fewer than 2000 dolphins left. This may be due, in part, to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam which covers a significant amount of the dolphin habitat. Both species are often subject to entanglement in gillnets.

Vaquita

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is highly endangered and is endemic to the upper Gulf of California, Mexico. They are killed in both gillnets and trawl nets from commercial and artisanal fishing. There are presently less than 600 vaquitas left in the Gulf of California.

Mitigating bycatch

Acoustic deterrent devices

The use of acoustic alarms to mitigate by-catch and also to protect aquaculture sites has been proposed but has advantages and risks associated with the alarms. Acoustic deterrent devices, or pingers, have reduced the number of cetaceans caught in gill nets. Harbour porpoises have been effectively excluded from bottom-set gill nets during many experiments for instance in the Gulf of Maine , along the Olympic Peninsula, in the Bay of Fundy, and in the North Sea. All of these studies show up to a 90% decrease in harbour porpoise bycatch. Pingers work because they produce a sound that is aversive (20; 15). There has been a recent re-evaluation of the potential of pingers and their use in other fisheries due to their growing success. An experiment on the California drift gill net fishery demonstrated how acoustic pingers reduce marine mammal bycatch. It was shown that bycatch was significantly reduced for common dolphins and sea lions. Bycatch rates were also lower for other cetacean species like the Northern right whale dolphin, Pacific white-sided dolphin, Risso dolphin and Dall’s Porpoise. It is agreed upon that the more pingers on a net, the less bycatch. There was a 12-fold decrease in common dolphin entanglement using a net with 40 pingers. However, the widespread use of pingers along coastlines effectively excludes cetaceans such as porpoises from prime habitat and resources. Cetaceans which are extremely sensitive to noise are effectively being driven from their preferred coastal habitats by the use of acoustic devices. In poorer quality habitat, harbour porpoises are subjected to increased competition for resources. This situation is recognized as range contraction which can be a result of climate change, anthropogenic activity, or population decline. Large scale range contractions are considered indicative of impending extinction. A similar form of deterrent is noise pollution originating from vessel traffic.

Barium sulfate

A promising gillnet that is effective in reducing bycatch for harbor porpoises contains barium sulfate. These nets are detected at a greater distance than conventional nets because the barium sulfate reflects the echolocation signal, and also renders the nets more visible. Barium sulfate makes the nets stiffer if it is added at high concentration. All three factors: echo reflectivity, stiffness, and visibility may be important in reducing bycatch. Fish takes in the Bay of Fundy were normal, except for haddock takes, which were down by 3-5%. The advantage of this approach is that it is passive and thus does not require batteries, and there is no inner bell effect. The potential advantage of these nets is greatest in the artisanal fishery. NOAA would like further testing to verify the effectiveness of the nets.

Fishing regulations and management

Management and regulation are lacking in many fisheries today. Management measures are urgently needed to monitor fisheries (and illegal fisheries) to protect cetaceans. Efforts to document bycatch should focus on gill-net fisheries because cetaceans are more likely to be caught in gill-nets. Conservation efforts should be directed to areas where marine mammal bycatch is high but where no infrastructure exists to assess the impact. There is a lack of reporting on a global scale of cetacean bycatch.

In the U.S. the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits the use and sale of marine mammals captured by fisheries. Similar legislation prohibits the use and sale of marine mammals in other countries. A marine mammal mortality monitoring program for commercial fisheries occurs in the U.S. where ake Reduction Teams observe the extent of bycatch and then formulate strategies to reduce bycatch and Take Reduction Plans are put into place.

Temporary closure

Temporary closure of fisheries during the short period of the year when cetaceans are migrating through the area would decrease bycatch significantly.

Observers on boat

Observers on boats should be present on fishing vessels to spot cetaceans in the water so that they can be avoided.

Other Ways of Mitigating Bycatch

Choose only fish that are caught using cetacean friendly fishing gear.

Buy food that has a olphin safe label.

Read The sustainable seafood guide for information on seafood that is produced sustainably.

Volunteer locally.

Raise awareness for cetacean bycatch.

Fish caught in nets that are designed not to harm dolphins is marketed as ‘dolphin safe’, though this label may not be truly indicative of the harm done to dolphins in that fishery.

Notes

^ Alverson et al. (1994)

^ Demaster et al. (2001)

^ a b c d e f g h i Read et al. (2006)

^ Silvani et al. (1999)

^ Miragliuolo et al. (2002)

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Reeves et al. (2005)

^ Knowlton (2003)

^ a b c d e f g WWF (2004)

^ Hammond et al. (2002)

^ Jefferson %26 Curry (1994)

^ a b Caswell et al. (1998)

^ Kastelein et al. (1999)

^ Kraus et al. (1997)

^ Gearin et al. (2000)

^ Trippel et al. (2003)

^ Larsen (1997)

^ Reeves et al. (1996)

^ a b Barlow %26 Cameron (2003)

^ a b Culik (2001)

^ Boughton et al. (2005)

^ Mooney et al (2004)

^ Mooney et al (2007)

^ Trippel et al (2008)

^ Murray et al.(2000)

^ Animal Freedom (2008)

References

Alverson, DL, Freeburg, MH, Murawski, SA and JG Pope (1994). A global assessment of fisheries bycatch and discards. Fisheries Technical Paper. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome. 339 pp.

Animal Freedom (2008) Cetacean Bycatch

Barlow, J %26 Cameron, GA (2003). Field experiments show that acoustic pingers reduce marine mammal bycatch in the Californian drift gill net fishery. Marine Mammal Science. 19: 265-283.

Boughton, DA, Fish, H, Pipal, K, Goin, J, Watson, F, Casagrande, J, and M Stoecker (2005). Contraction of the southern range limit for anadromous Oncorhynchus mykiss. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS. NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-380. U.S. Department of Commerce.

Caswell, H, Brault, S, Read, AJ, and TD Smith (1998). Harbour porpoise and fisheries: an uncertain analysis of incidental mortality. Ecological Applications. 8(4): 1226-1238.

Culik, BM, Koschinski, S, Tregenza, N, and GM Ellis (2001). Reactions of harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena and herring Clupea harengus to acoustic alarms. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 211: 155-260.

Demaster, DJ, Fowler, CW, Perry, SL, and ME Richlen (2001). Predation and competition: the impact of fisheries on marine mammal populations over the next one hundred years. Journal of Mammology. 82: 641-651.

Gearin, PJ, Gosho, ME, Laake, JL, Cooke, L, DeLong, R, and KM Hughes (2000). Experimental testing of acoustic alarms (pingers) to reduce bycatch of harbor porpoise, Phocoena phocoena, in the state of Washington. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. 2:1-9.

Hammond, PS, Berggren, P, Benke, H, Borchers, DL, Collet, A, Heide-Jorgensen, MP, Heimlich, S, Hiby, AR, Leopold, MF, and N Oien (2002). Abundance of harbour porpoise and other cetaceans in the North Sea and adjacent waters. Journal of Applied Ecology. 39: 361-376.

Jefferson, TA and Curry, BE (1994). A global review of porpoise (Cetacea: Phocoenidae) mortality in gill nets. Biological Conservation. 67(2): 167-183.

Kastelein, RA, Au, WWL, and de Haan, D (1999). Detection distances of bottom-set gillnets by harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates). Marine Environmental Research. 49(4): 359-375.

Knowlton, AR et al. (2003). Analysis of scarring on North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis): monitoring rates of entanglement interaction. Final report. Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Kraus, S, Read, AJ, Solow, A, Baldwin, K, Spradlin, T, Anderson, E, and J Williamson (1997). Acoustic alarms reduce porpoise mortality. Nature. 388:525.

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Miragliuolo, A, Mussi, B, and G Bearzi (2002). Observations of driftnetting off the island of Ischia, Italy, with indirect evidence of dolphin bycatch. European Cetacean Research. 4pp.

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Mooney, TA, Au, WWL, Nachtigall, P, and Trippel, EA (2007). ‘Acoustic and stiffness properties of gillnets as they relate to marine mammal bycatch.’ ICES J. Mar. Sci., 64: 1324-32.

Murray, KT, Read, AJ, and AR Solow. 2000. The use of time/area closures to reduce bycatches of harbour porpoises: lessons from the Gulf of Maine sink gillnet fishery. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. 2(2): 135-141.

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The Florida Keys Tropical Paradise Offers Fishing Diving Camping and the Best Margaritas Anywhere

admin — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:40:32 +0000

One of the things I like best about living in Florida is that it’s a great place for a vacation, even if you live here. It seems no matter where you live, east coast, west coast, in the Panhandle or Southern Florida just a couple of hours drive in any direction and you can be somewhere that doesn’t look like home so you feel you’ve really gotten away from it all. The panhandle is fondly referred to as the Redneck Riviera with its emerald green water and white sand beaches. The west coast is a great place to go ‘island hopping’ with Sanibel, Lovers Key and all the other little places nestled there. The east coast is great for surfing, the small wave capital is here on our own Cocoa Beach and history, St. Augustine, also on the east coast of Florida, is the nation’s oldest city, but if you really want feel like you’ve gotten away head south. Southern Florida is truly a tropical place; the tropics actually start in south central Florida and it gets more lush and green the farther south you go.

We have our own little tropical paradise known as the Florida Keys. The Keys are made up of many small islands and chains of island and are set at the tip of Florida so they lie in the Atlantic Ocean on one side and in the Gulf of Mexico on the other. Key Largo is the top and considered the first Key. Key Largo is the one made famous by the movie staring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and the song. The waters around the Keys are warm and crystal clear this attracts many divers and snorkelers which lends to Key Largo having the popular moniker of the ‘Diving Capital of the World’.

Islamorada is the next most popular spot to stop on your way down the island chain. Islamorada is actually made up of six different islands and has a reputation as The Sport Fishing Capital of the World. They have a fleet of extremely skilled recreational fishing captains who’ll be more than happy to go out with you for a day to see what biting. Islamorada is also famous for a place called Robbie’s Marina this is the place where they sell buckets of bait for feeding swarms of tarpon that hang out around the docks. It’s so much fun to feed them, I’ve done it. Islamorada is also famous for the opportunities they provide to swim with dolphins. They also have a History of Diving Museum there which is pretty interesting.

Another not to be missed place is John Pennekamp State Park. They are known as a great place for diving and snorkeling and have the only living coral reef in the continental United States. Over a million people come from around the world to enjoy the water, trails and camping facilities offered by the park. They also have the “Christ of the Waters”, a 19 foot bronze statue people dive all around, some even dive down to touch His outstretched hands.

Marathon is considered by many to be the ‘middle’ of the Keys and the place of the world famous 7 mile bridge. Marathon, too, is a major sportsfishing destination; it is also a popular for spearfishing and they have an open lobster season during the year, Marathon is a great place to try and catch a few.

Big Pine Key is just a short distance past the famous Seven Mile Bridge where the Keys take that gentle westerly turn and is considered the start of the ‘Lower Keys’. This is the place where you can come to relax its a little less crowded and more natural than some of the other Keys. Probably one of the biggest draws to Big Pine Key is the National Key Deer Refuge, home of the adorable Key Deer, the smallest of the Virginia white-tailed deer; they are in danger of extinction and are therefore federally protected. Bahia Honda State Park is another draw to the area. You can picnic, take a swim, dive the reef, snorkel the shallows or simply relax on Sandspur Beach voted #7 on the Travel Channels top 10 Florida beaches.

Key West is considered by some to be the crown jewel of the Keys but I don’t think that’s really fair considering its ALL good. Key West, however, is THE place to party in the Keys. Duval Street is famous for their bars and history, Mallory Square is famous as a place to enjoy the sunset and ensuing party that happens every night. The street vendors and performers are a sight to see. Every year around Halloween, Key West hosts Fantasyfest a party where people dress up and dance in the streets, its wild.

The Keys are a great place to get married, have a honeymoon or a family reunion. You can dive, snorkel, fish or just lie on a beach and relax anywhere and everywhere in the Keys. You can dance and party the night a way, shop at one of the unique, quaint shops, or have a fabulous meal at one of the outdoor cafes all while enjoying a fruity tropical drink. In this day of people vacationing closer to home we Floridians are truly blessed to have such a beautiful Caribbean-style place to come visit without ever leaving ‘home’.

Swim with dolphins, snorkel, go fishing or just enjoy the crystal clear water. If you’re looking for things to do in Florida, you’ll find the Florida Keys one of the best values anywhere.

Timeline Of Diving Technology

admin — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 13:26:49 +0000

Pre-industrial

Several centuries BC: (Relief carvings made at this time show Assyrian soldiers crossing rivers using inflated goatskin floats. Several modern authors have wrongly said that the floats were crude breathing sets and that they show frogmen in action.)

Ancient Roman and Greek times, etc.: There have been many instances of men swimming or diving for combat, but they always had to hold their breath, and had no diving equipment, except sometimes a hollow plant stem used as a snorkel. See this link (in Portuguese).

About 500 BC: (Information originally from Herodotus): During a naval campaign the Greek Scyllis was taken aboard ship as prisoner by the Persian King Xerxes I. When Scyllis learned that Xerxes was to attack a Greek flotilla, he seized a knife and jumped overboard. The Persians could not find him in the water and presumed he had drowned. Scyllis surfaced at night and made his way among all the ships in Xerxes’s fleet, cutting each ship loose from its moorings; he used a hollow reed as snorkel to remain unobserved. Then he swam nine miles (15 kilometers) to rejoin the Greeks off Cape Artemisium.

The use of diving bells is recorded by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in the 4th century BC: ‘…they enable the divers to respire equally well by letting down a cauldron, for this does not fill with water, but retains the air, for it is forced straight down into the water.’

1300 or earlier: Persian divers were using diving goggles with windows made of the polished outer layer of tortoiseshell.

15th century: Leonardo da Vinci made the first known mention of air tanks in Italy: he wrote in his Atlantic Codex (Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan) that systems were used at that time to artificially breathe under water, but he did not explain them in detail due to what he described as ‘bad human nature’, that would have taken advantage of this technique to sink ships and even commit murders. Some drawings, however, showed different kinds of snorkels and an air tank (to be carried on the breast) that presumably should have no external connections. Other drawings showed a complete immersion kit, with a plunger suit which included a sort of mask with a box for air. The project was so detailed that it included a urine collector, too.

1531: Guglielmo de Lorena dives on two of Caligula’s sunken galleys using a diving bell from a design by Leonardo da Vinci.

1616: Franz Kessler built an improved diving bell.

Around 1620: Cornelius Drebbel may have made a crude rebreather: see Rebreather#History of rebreathers.

1650: Otto von Guericke built the first air pump.

1772: Sieur Freminet tried to build a scuba device out of a barrel, but died from lack of oxygen after 20 minutes, as he merely recycled the exhaled air untreated.

1776: David Bushnell invented the Turtle, first submarine to attack another ship. It was used in the American Revolution.

19th century

1800: Robert Fulton builds a submarine, the ‘Nautilus’

Diving helmets appear

1808: Brize-Fradin designed a small bell-like helmet connected to a low-pressure backpack air container .

1820: Paul Lemaire d’Augerville (a Parisian dentist) invented and made a diving apparatus with a copper backpack cylinder, and with a counter-lung to save air, and with an inflatable lifejacket connected. It was used down to 15 or 20 meters for up to an hour in salvage work. He started a successful salvage company .

1825: William H. James designed a self contained diving suit that had compressed air in an iron container worn around the waist.

1827: Beaudouin in France developed a diving helmet fed from an air cylinder pressurized to 80 to 100 bars. The French Navy was interested, but nothing came of this.

1829: Charles Anthony Deane and John Deane of Whitstable in Kent in England design the first air-pumped diving helmet for use with a diving suit. It is said that the idea started from a crude emergency rig-up of a fireman’s water-pump (used as an air pump) and a knight-in-armour helmet used to try to rescue horses from a burning stable. Others say that it was based on earlier work in 1823 developing a ‘smoke helmet’. However the suit was not attached to the helmet, so a diver could not bend over or invert without risk of flooding the helmet and drowning. Nevertheless, the diving system is used in salvage work, including the successful removal of cannon from the British warship HMS Royal George in 1834-35. This 108-gun fighting ship sank in 65 feet of water at Spithead anchorage in 1783.

1829: E.K.Gauzen, a Russian naval technician of Kronshtadt naval base (a district of Saint Petersburg), offers a ‘diving machine’. His invention was an air-pumped metallic helmet strapped to a leather suit (an overall). The bottom of the helmet is open. The helmet is strapped to the leather suit by metallic tape. Gauzen’s diving suit and its further modifications were used by the Russian Navy until 1880. The modified diving suit of the Russian Navy, based on Gauzen’s invention, was known as ‘three-bolt equipment’.

1837: Following up Leonardo’s studies, and those of Halley the astronomer, Augustus Siebe develops standard diving dress, a sort of surface supplied diving apparatus.

1837 By attaching the Deane brothers helmet to a suit, Augustus Siebe develops the Siebe ‘Closed’ Dress combination diving helmet and suit, considered the foundation of modern diving dress. This was a significant evolution from previous models of ‘open’ dress that did not allow a diver to invert. (Siebe-Gorman went on to manufacture helmets continuously until 1975).

The first diving regulator

1838: Dr. Manuel Guillaumet invented a twin-hose demand regulator. It was demonstrated used as surface-demand. Use duration was limited to 30 minutes by diving in cold water without a diving suit.

1839 Canadian inventors James Eliot and Alexander McAvity of Saint John, New Brunswick patent an ‘oxygen reservoir for divers’, a device carried on the diver’s back containing ‘a quantity of condensed oxygen gas or common atmospheric air proportionate to the depth of water and adequate to the time he is intended to remain below’.

1839: W.H.Thornthwaite of Hoxton in London patented an inflatable lifting jacket for divers .

Around 1842: The Frenchman Joseph Cabirol starts making standard diving dress.

1843: Based on lessons learned from the Royal George salvage, the first diving school is set-up by the Royal Navy.

1849: Saint-Simon-Sicard (a chemist) made the first practical oxygen rebreather. It was demonstrated in London in 1854 .

1856: Wilhelm Bauer starts the first of 133 successful dives with his second submarine Seeteufel. The crew of 12 was trained to leave the submerged ship through a diving chamber.

1860: Giovanni Luppis, a retired engineer of the Austro-Hungarian navy, demonstrates a design for a self-propelled torpedo to emperor Franz Joseph.

1863: H.L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to sink a ship, the USS Housatonic, during the American Civil War.

Diving set by Rouquayrol and Denayrouze with barrel-shaped bailout air tank on the diver’s back

1865: Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze design a diving set with a backpack spherical air tank that supplied air through the first known demand regulator. The diver still walked on the seabed and did not swim. This set was called an arophore (Greek for ‘air-carrier’). But air pressure tanks made with the technology of the time could only hold 30 atmospheres, and the diver had to be surface supplied; the tank was for bailout. The durations of 6 to 8 hours on a tankful without external supply recorded for the Rouquayrol set in the book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, are wildly exaggerated fiction. Judging by Jules Verne’s inaccurate attempts in the book at describing how the Rouquayrol set worked, how the demand regulator works was not generally known or had already been forgotten when he wrote the book, which was published in 1870. But Jules Verne knew about the tendency of some divers, when surfacing into rain, to want to stay underwater to keep out of the rain.

1866: Minenschiff, the first self-propelled (locomotive) torpedo, developed by Robert Whitehead (to a design by Captain Luppis, Austrian Navy), is demonstrated for the imperial naval commission on December 21.

Gas and air cylinders appear

Late 19th century: Industry begins to be able to make high-pressure air and gas cylinders. That prompted a few inventors down the years to design open-circuit compressed air breathing sets, but they were all constant-flow, and the demand regulator did not come back until 1939.

1876: An English merchant seaman, Henry Fleuss, develops the first workable self-contained diving rig that uses compressed oxygen. This prototype of closed-circuit scuba uses rope soaked in caustic potash to absorb carbon dioxide so the exhaled gas can be re-breathed.

1893: Louis Boutan invents the first underwater camera.

Decompression sickness becomes a problem

1841: First documented case of decompression sickness occurs, reported by a mining engineer who observed pain and muscle cramps among coal miners working in mine shafts air-pressurized to keep water out.

1870: Bauer publishes outcomes of 25 paralyzed caisson workers.

From 1870 to 1910 all prominent symptoms/causes will be established: explanations at the time included: cold or exhaustion causing reflex spinal cord damage; electricity caused by friction on compression; or organ congestion and vascular stasis caused by decompression.

1871: The St Louis Eads Bridge employs 352 compressed air workers including Dr. Alphonse Jaminet as the physician in charge. There were 30 seriously injured and 12 fatalities. Dr. Jaminet himself suffered a case of decompression sickness when he ascended to the surface in four minutes after spending almost three hours at a depth of 95 feet in a caisson, and his description of his own experience was the first such recorded.

1872: The similarity between decompression sickness and iatrogenic air embolism as well as the relationship between inadequate decompression and decompression sickness is noted by Friedburg. He suggested that intravascular gas was released by rapid decompression and recommended: slow compression and decompression; four hour working shifts; limit to maximum depth 44.1 psig (4 ATA); using only healthy workers; and recompression treatment for severe cases.

1873: Dr. Andrew Smith first utilizes the term ‘caisson disease’ describing 110 cases of decompression sickness as the physician in charge during construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. The project employed 600 compressed air workers. Recompression treatment was not used. The project chief engineer Washington Roebling suffered from caisson disease. (He took charge after his father John Augustus Roebling died of tetanus.) Washington’s wife, Emily, helped manage the construction of the bridge after his sickness confined him to his home in Brooklyn. He battled the after-effects of the disease for the rest of his life. During this project, decompression sickness became known as ‘The [Grecian] Bends’ because afflicted individuals characteristically arched their backs: this is possibly reminiscent of a then fashionable women’s dance maneuver known as the Grecian Bend.

1878: Paul Bert Publishes La Pression barometrique, providing the first systematic understanding of the causes of DCS.

20th century

1900: John P. Holland builds the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the U.S. Navy, Holland (also called A-1).

1900: ## Leonard Hill uses a frog model to prove that decompression causes bubbles and that recompression resolves them.

1903: Siebe Gorman starts to make a submarine escape set in England; in the years afterwards it was improved, and later was called the Davis Escape Set or Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus.

1905 Several sources, including the 1991 US Navy Dive Manual (pg 1-8), state that the MK V Deep Sea Diving Dress was designed by the Bureau of Construction %26 Repair in 1905, but in reality, the 1905 Navy Handbook shows British Siebe-Gorman helmets in use. Since the earliest know MK V is dated 1916, these sources are probably referring to the earlier MK I, MK II, MK III %26 MK IV Morse and Schrader helmets.

1905: The first rebreather with metering valves to control the supply of oxygen is made.

1907: Draeger of Lbeck makes a rebreather called the U-Boot-Retter. = ‘submarine rescuer’.

1908: ## Arthur Boycott, Guybon Damant, and John Haldane publish ‘The Prevention of Compressed-Air Illness’, detailed studies on the cause and symptoms of decompression sickness, and propose a table of decompression stops to avoid the effects.

1908: ## The Admiralty Deep Diving Committee adopts the Haldane tables for the Royal Navy, and publish Haldane’s diving tables to the general public.

1912: ## US Navy adopts the decompression tables published by Haldane, Boycott and Damant. Driven by Chief Gunner George Stillson, the navy sets up a program to test tables and staged decompression based on the work of Haldane.

1913 The Navy also begins developing the future MK V, influenced by Schrader and Morse designs.

1915 The submarine USS F-4 is salvaged from 304 feet establishing the practical limits for air diving. Three US Navy divers, Frank W. Crilley, William F. Loughman, and Nielson, reached 304 fsw using the MK V dress.

1916 With the addition of a battery-powered telephone, the design of the MK V is finalized however, several more design improvements are made over the next two years.

1916: The Draeger model DM 2 becomes standard equipment of the German Navy.

1917 The Bureau of Construction %26 Repair introduces the MK V helmet and dress, which then becomes the standard for US Navy diving until the introduction of the MK 12 in the late seventies

1918: Ohgushi (he was Japanese) patents ‘Ohgushi’s Peerless Respirator’. It was a constant-flow diving and industrial open-circuit breathing set. The user breathed through his nose and switched the air on and off with his teeth.

Around 1920: Hanseatischen Apparatebau-Gesellschaft make a 2-cylinder breathing apparatus with double-lever single-stage demand valve and single wide corrugated breathing tube with mouthpiece, and a ‘duck’s beak’ exhalent valve in the regulator. It was described in a mine rescue handbook in 1930. They were successors to Ludwig von Bremen of Kiel, who had the licence to make the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus in Germany .

1924 Yves le Prieur invented a hand-controlled self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. It delivered air at constant pressure without a demand regulator. He first experimented with it in 1926.

1926: Draeger displayed a rescue breathing apparatus that the wearer could swim with. While the previous devices served only for ascending to the surface and were designed also to develop lift so that the wearer arrived at the surface without swimming movements, the diving set had weights, which also made it possible to dive down with it, to search and save after an accident.

1937: US Navy publishes its revised diving tables based on the work of O.D. Yarbrough.

Swim-diving starts

The 1930s:

In France, Guy Gilpatrick starts swim diving with waterproof goggles, derived from swimming goggles (which were originally intended to keep salt water out of the eyes at the surface).

Sport spearfishing became common in the Mediterranean, and spearfishers gradually developed the common sport diving mask and fins and snorkel, with mostly Georges Beuchat in Marseille, France, which created the speargun and the 1st isothermic wetsuit, and Italian sport spearfishers started using oxygen rebreathers. This practice came to the attention of the Italian Navy, which developed its frogman unit Decima Flottiglia MAS using oxygen rebreathers and manned torpedoes, playing a large role in World War II.

1933:

In France, Louis de Corlieu patents the first swimming swimfins.

In San Diego, California, the first sport diving club is started, called the Bottom Scratchers. As far as it is known, it did not use breathing sets; its main aim was spearfishing.

More is known of Yves Le Prieur’s constant-flow open-circuit breathing set. It is said that it could allow a 20 minute stay at 7 meters and 15 minutes at 15 meters. It has one cylinder feeding into a circular fullface mask. Its air cylinder was often worn at an angle to get its on/off valve in reach of the diver’s hand; this would have caused an awkward skew drag in swimming.

1934:

In France, establishment of Beuchat, oldest scuba diving and spearfishing company in the world,

In France a sport diving club is started, called the Club des Sous-l’Eau. It did not use breathing sets as far as is known. Its main aim was spearfishing.

Otis Barton and William Beebe dive to 3028 feet using a bathysphere.

1935: The French Navy adopts the Le Prieur breathing set.

1936: On the French Riviera, the first known sport scuba diving club started. It used Le Prieur’s breathing sets.

1937: The American Diving Equipment and Salvage Company (now known as DESCO) develops a heavy bottom-walking-type diving suit with a self-contained mixed-gas helium and oxygen rebreather.

1937: ## US Navy publishes its revised diving tables based on the work of O.D. Yarbrough.

1939: Hans Hass developed from the escape set a type of rebreather with its bag on his back and two breathing tubes but no backpack box. These sets appear much in his movies and books.

1954: Underwater hockey (octopush) is invented by four navy sub-aqua divers in Southsea who got bored swimming up and down and wanted a fun way to keep fit.

The diving regulator reappears

1937: Georges Commeinhes developed a two-cylinder open-circuit apparatus with demand regulator. The regulator was a big rectangular box between the cylinders. Some were made, but WWII interrupted development.

World War II

1939: Georges Commeinhes offers his breathing set to the French Navy, which could not continue developing uses for it because of WWII.

July 1943: Commeinhes reached 53 meters (about 174 feet) using his breathing set off the coast of Marseille.

1944: Commeinhes died in the liberation of Strasbourg in Alsace. His invention was submerged by Cousteau’s invention.

Christian J. Lambertsen of the United States designed a ‘Self-Contained Underwater Oxygen Breathing Apparatus’ for the U.S. military. It was a rebreather. It was the first device to be called SCUBA.

Various nations use frogmen equipped with rebreathers for some of the best known and most spectacular war actions: see Human torpedo.

Hans Hass later said that during WWII the German diving gear firm Drger offered him an open-circuit scuba set with a demand regulator. It may have been a separate invention, or it may have been copied from a captured Commeinhes-type set.

1943: Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan invent and make an open-circuit diving breathing set, using a demand regulator which Gagnan modified from a demand regulator used to let a petrol-driven car run on a big bag of coal-gas carried on its roof during wartime shortages of petrol. Cousteau had his first dives with it. He made two more aqualungs: there were now 3, one each for Cousteau and his first two diving companions Frdric Dumas and Taillez. His aqualung remained a secret until the south of France was liberated. This type of breathing set was later named the ‘Aqua-Lung’. This word is correctly a tradename that goes with the Cousteau-Gagnan patent, but in Britain it has been commonly used as a generic and spelt ‘aqualung’ since at least the 1950s, including in the BSAC’s publications and training manuals, and describing scuba diving as ‘aqualunging’.

Early 1944: the USA government, to try to stop men from being drowned in sunken army tanks, asked the company Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) for a suitable small escape breathing set. MSA provided a small open-circuit breathing set with a small (5 to 7 liters) air cylinder, a circular demand regulator with a two-lever system similar to Cousteau’s design (connected to the cylinder by a nut and cone nipple connection), and one corrugated wide breathing tube connected to a mouthpiece. This set was stated to be made from made from ‘off-the-shelf’ items, which shows that MSA had that regulator design before; also, that regulator looks like the result of development and not a prototype; it may have arisen around 1943. In an example recovered in 2003 form a submerged Sherman tank in the Bay of Naples the cylinder was bound round in tape and tied to a lifejacket. These sets were too late for the D-day landings in June 1944, but were used in the invasion of the south of France and in the South Pacific war.

1944: In October, Frdric Dumas reaches 62 meters (about 200 feet) with a Cousteau aqualung.

1945: Cousteau’s first aqualung is destroyed by a mis-aimed artillery shell in an Allied landing on the French Riviera: that left two. Afterwards, he had more aqualungs made and gathered more men and taught them to aqualung dive. In Toulon he started an unofficial mine-clearing and wreck-clearing unit. Later this unit was made official. One of the men who he trained was Broussard, who founded the first post-WWII scuba diving club, the Club Alpin Sous-Marin.

Postwar

The public first hears about frogmen.

The first known underwater diving club in Britain, ‘The Amphibians Club’, is formed in Aberdeen by Ivor Howitt (who modified an old civilian gas mask) and some friends. They called underwater diving ‘fathomeering’, to distinguish from jumping into water .

1946:

Cousteau-type aqualungs go on sale in France.

Yves Le Prieur invents a new version of his breathing set. Its fullface mask’s front plate was loose in its seating and acted as a very big, and therefore, very sensitive diaphragm for a demand regulator: see Diving regulator#Demand valve.

The Cave Diving Group (CDG) is formed in Britain.

1948: Auguste Piccard sends the first bathyscaphe, FNRS-2, on unmanned dives.

Siebe Gorman and/or Heinke start making Cousteau-type aqualungs in England. Captain Trevor Hampton had a dive with one. Siebe Gorman and the Royal Navy expected aqualungs to be used with weighted boots for bottom-walking for light commercial diving: see Aqua-lung#’Tadpoles’.

Ted Eldred in Australia starts designing the first open-circuit single-hose scuba set known: see Porpoise (make of scuba gear).

Georges Beuchat in France creates the first surface buoy.

1948 or 1949: Rene’s Sporting Goods shop in California imports aqualungs from France. Hollywood sees them and gets interested.

1949: Otis Barton makes record dive to 4,500 feet in his Benthoscope.

1950: Cousteau-type aqualungs go on sale (but very expensive) to industry and civilians in Britain. Siebe Gorman made it at Chessington.

A British naval diving manual printed soon after this said that the aqualung is to be used for walking on the bottom with a heavy diving suit and weighted boots, and did not mention Cousteau.

A report to Cousteau said that only 10 aqualung sets had been sent to the USA because the market there was saturated.

The first camera housing called Tarzan is released by Georges Beuchat,

1951: The movie ‘The Frogmen’ is released. It is set in the Pacific Ocean in WWII. In its last 20 minutes, it shows USA frogmen, using bulky 3-cylindered aqualungs on a combat mission. This equipment use is anachronistic (in reality they would have used rebreathers), but it shows that aqualungs were available (even if not widely known of) in the USA in 1951.

1951: The US Navy starts to develop wetsuits, but not known to the public. .

1951: In December, the first issue of Skin Diver Magazine (USA) appears. The magazine ran until November 2002.

Cousteau-type aqualungs go on sale in Canada.

1952: Cousteau-type aqualungs go on sale in the USA.

Ted Eldred in Australia starts making for public sale the Porpoise (make of scuba gear). This was the world’s first commercially available single-hose scuba unit and was the forerunner of most sport SCUBA equipment produced today.

Public interest in scuba diving takes off

1953: The National Geographical Society Magazine publishes an article about Cousteau’s underwater archaeology at Grand Conglou island near Marseille, and in French-speaking countries a diving film called paves (Shipwrecks) came out. That started a massive public demand for aqualungs and diving gear, and in France and America the diving gear makers started making them as fast as they could. But in Britain Siebe Gorman and Heinke kept aqualungs expensive, and restrictions on exporting currency stopped people from importing them. Many British sport divers used home-made constant-flow breathing sets and ex-armed forces or ex-industrial rebreathers. In the early 1950s, diving regulators made by Siebe Gorman cost 15, which was an average week’s salary.

After the supply of war-surplus frogman’s drysuits ran out, free-swimming diving suits were not readily available to the general public, and as a result many scuba divers dived with their skin bare except for swimming trunks. That is why scuba diving used often to be called skindiving. Others dived in homemade drysuits, or in thick layers of ordinary clothes.

After the supply of war-surplus frogman’s fins dried up, for a long time fins were not available to the public, and some had to resort to such things as gluing marine ply to plimsoles.

Captain Trevor Hampton founds the British Underwater Centre at Dartmouth in Devon in England.

Rene’s Sporting Goods shop (now owned by Spirotechnique) becomes U.S. Divers, now a leading maker of diving equipment.

Georges Beuchat in Marseille, France invent and release the first isothermic wetsuit.

15 October 1953: The BSAC is founded.

1954: USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, is launched.

The first manned dives occur in the bathyscaphe FNRS-2.

First scuba certification course in the USA is offered by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. Program created by Albert Tillman and Bev Morgan now known as LA County Scuba.

1954: In the USA, MSA advertises (in Popular Mechanics magazine) a two-cylinder aqualung-like open-circuit diving set using the MSA regulator.

1955: In Britain, ‘Practical Mechanics’ magazine publishes an item ‘Making an Aqualung’.

1955: Louis Malle, a young film maker of 23, and Jacques-Yves Cousteau shoot The Silent World, one of the first films to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color.

1956: Wetsuits become available to the public.

1956: ## US Navy publishes tables that allow for repetitive diving.

Around this time, some British scuba divers start making homemade diving demand regulators from industrial parts, including Calor Gas regulators. (Since then, Calor Gas regulators have been redesigned, and this conversion is now impossible.)

Later, Submarine Products Ltd in Hexham in Northumberland, England designed round the Cousteau-Gagnan patent and made sport diving breathing sets accessibly cheap. This forced Siebe Gorman’s and Heinke’s prices down and started them selling to the sport diving trade. (Siebe Gorman gave its drysuit the tradename ‘Frogman’.) Because of this better availability of aqualungs, BSAC’s policy towards rebreathers became merely ‘Here be dragons: keep out!’ and remained so for a long time. In the USA, some oxygen diving clubs developed down the years. Eventually, the Cousteau-Gagnan patent time-expired and any firm could legally copy it.

1956: The Silent World receives an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival.

1957: The television series Sea Hunt begins. It introduces scuba diving to the television audience. It ran until 1961.

1958: USS Nautilus completes the first ever voyage under the polar ice to the North Pole and back.

1958: The CMAS (World Underwater Federation) is founded in Brussels.

1959: NAUI is founded by Albert Tillman and Neal Hess.

1960: Jacques Piccard and Lieutenant Don Walsh, USN, descend to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the ocean (about 10900m or 35802 feet = 6.78 miles) in the bathyscaphe Trieste: see at this link andthis link

USS Triton completed the first ever underwater circumnavigation of the world.

In Italy, sport diving oxygen rebreathers continued to be made well into the 1960s.

1964: in France, Georges Beuchat create the Jetfins, first vented fins.

1965: ## Robert D. Workman of the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) publishes an equation for computing decompression requirements suitable for implementing in a dive computer, rather than a pre-computed table.

The film version of James Bond in Thunderball (using both sorts of open-circuit scuba) is released and helps to make scuba diving popular.

1966: PADI starts.

1968: First known rebreather with electronic parts is made: the Electrolung.

1971: Scubapro introduces the Stabilization Jacket, now in England commonly called stab jacket, and elsewhere Buoyancy Control (or Compensation) Device (BC or BCD).

1972: Scubapro introduces the decompression meter (the first analogic dive computer).

1976: ## Professor Albert A. Bhlmann publishes his work extending the equations to adapt to diving at altitude and with complex gas mixes.

1983: The Orca Edge (the first electronic dive computer) is introduced.

1985: The wreck of RMS Titanic is found. Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747 aircraft, is found and salvaged off Cork, Ireland during the first large scale deep water (6,200 feet) air crash investigation.

1989: The film The Abyss (including an as-yet-fictional deep-sea liquid-breathing set) helps to make scuba diving popular.

The Communist Bloc falls and the Cold War ends (see Fall of Communism and Collapse of the Soviet Union), and with it the risk of future attack by Communist Bloc forces including by their combat divers. After that, the world’s armed forces had less reason to requisition rebreather patents submitted by civilians, and sport diving automatic and semi-automatic mixture rebreathers start to appear. See ‘rebreather history’ link below.

1995: BSAC allows Nitrox diving and introduced Nitrox training.

1996: PADI releases their Enriched Air Diver Course.

1997: The film Titanic helps to make underwater trips onboard MIR submersible vehicles popular.

1998 August: Dives on RMS Titanic occur using Remotely Operated Vehicle controlled from the surface (Magellan 725). First ever live video broadcast from the sunken White Star liner is made.

1999 July: The Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft is raised from 16,043 feet (4891 m) of water in the Atlantic Ocean during the deepest commercial search and recovery operation to date.

2001 December: The BSAC allows rebreathers to be used in BSAC dives.

Notes

^ Entries marked ## are about decompression tables.

^ Arthur J. Bachrach, ‘History of the Diving Bell’, Historical Diving Times, Iss. 21 (Spring 1998)

^ a b c d e f g h Acott, C. (1999). ‘A brief history of diving and decompression illness.’. South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society journal 29 (2). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6004. Retrieved 2009-03-17.

^ a b c d e Historical Diving Society magazine issue 45, page 37

^ Edmonds, Carl; Lowry, C; Pennefather, John. ‘History of diving.’. South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal 5 (2). http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/5894. Retrieved 2009-03-17.

^ Mario Theriault, Great Maritime Inventions 1833-1950, Goose Lane, 2001, p. 46

^ a b Quick, D. (1970). ‘A History Of Closed Circuit Oxygen Underwater Breathing Apparatus’. Royal Australian Navy, School of Underwater Medicine. RANSUM-1-70. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4960. Retrieved 2009-03-16.

^ a b Butler WP (2004). ‘Caisson disease during the construction of the Eads and Brooklyn Bridges: A review’. Undersea Hyperb Med 31 (4): 44559. PMID 15686275. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4028. Retrieved 2008-06-19.

^ Bert, P. (originally published 1878). ‘Barometric Pressure: researches in experimental physiology’. Translated by: Hitchcock MA and Hitchcock FA. College Book Company; 1943.

^ Boycott, A. E.; G. C. C. Damant, J. S. Haldane. (1908). ‘Prevention of compressed air illness’. J. Hygiene 8: 342443. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/7489. Retrieved 2008-08-06.

^ a b c d e Carter Jr, R. C. (1977). ‘Pioneering Inner Space: The Navy Experimental Diving Unit’s First 50 Years’. US Naval Experimental Diving Unit Technical Report NEDU-1-77. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4799. Retrieved 2008-04-21.

^ Historical Diving Society magazine issue 45, page 43

^ Vann RD (2004). ‘Lambertsen and O2: beginnings of operational physiology’. Undersea Hyperb Med 31 (1): 2131. PMID 15233157. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3987. Retrieved 2009-03-16.

^ Butler FK (2004). ‘Closed-circuit oxygen diving in the U.S. Navy’. Undersea Hyperb Med 31 (1): 320. PMID 15233156. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3986. Retrieved 2009-03-16.

^ a b Historical Diving Times, issue #44 (summer 2008), pages 5-12

^ Fulton, H. T.; Welham W., Dwyer J. V., Dobbins, R. F. (1952). ‘Preliminary Report on Protection Against Cold Water’. US Naval Experimental Diving Unit Technical Report NEDU-5-52. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3387. Retrieved 2008-04-21.

^ Valentine, R. BSAC: The Club 1953-2003. BSAC. ISBN 9780953891955.

^ a b c BSAC. ‘Section 1.1 A Brief History of the British Sub-Aqua Club’. BSAC. http://www.bsac.org/page/52/11-brief-history-of-bsac.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-05.

^ ‘LA County Scuba’ (in en-US). LACountyScuba.com. http://www.lacountyscuba.com/. Retrieved 2009-07-16.

^ Workman, R. D. (1965). ‘Calculation of Decompression Schedules for Nitrogen-Oxygen and Helium-Oxygen Dives’. US Naval Experimental Diving Unit Technical Report NEDU-6-65. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3367. Retrieved 2008-04-21.

^ Bni M., Schibli R., Nussberger P., Bhlmann Albert A. (1976). ‘Diving at diminished atmospheric pressure: air decompression tables for different altitudes’. Undersea Biomedical Research 3 (3): 189204. ISSN 0093-5387. OCLC 2068005. PMID 969023. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/2750. Retrieved 2009-03-16.

^ Allen, C (1996). ‘BSAC gives the OK to nitrox. reprinted from Diver 1995; 40(5) May: 35-36.’. South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society journal 26 (4). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6275. Retrieved 2008-09-05.

^ Richardson, D and Shreeves, K (1996). ‘The PADI Enriched Air Diver course and DSAT oxygen exposure limits.’. South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society journal 26 (3). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6310. Retrieved 2008-09-05.

References

Mark Lonsdale, The Evolution of US Navy Diving.

Other diving history timelines (external links)

There are other diving history chronologies at:

Diving Lore from its origins to the aqualung breakthrough.

rebreather history

hem.passagen.se

marinebio.org

BSAC info

Rebreather Diving History

Museum of old scuba gear

History of Cave Diving

Categories: Technology timelines | Underwater divingHidden categories: Articles needing additional references from January 2009 | All articles needing additional references

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How to Reduce Job Stress as a Teacher

admin — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 11:56:08 +0000

Teachers, job stress reduction is important to your health. You know that. Your physical bodies, emotions, minds, and spirits are all involved in school work. Even on holiday, you may find yourself working, or at least thinking about your work.

Such dedication need not be negative. A teacher should, above all, be a person who wants to make a big difference in students’ lives. The challenge is to make that difference without permitting stress to drive you out of teaching. The challenge is to practice good stress reduction techniques.

Understanding Stress Reduction

An understanding of stress reduction must begin with an understanding of stress. Stress is not that stack of un-graded papers. Stress is not the child who insists on asking endless questions, no matter how well you explain. Stress is not a matter of two teenagers leaping into the aisle to fight, while the rest of the class chants, ‘Fight, fight, fight.’ Stress is not the parent who calls repeatedly to complain that you are not doing what is best for her child. Stress is not even the principal inviting you to the office for a job review conference.

All of the above are stressors, not stress.

Stressor Defined

A stressor is a stimulus that causes stress. The illustrations above are of stressors. When Job broke that expensive science equipment, his action was a stressor. When Betty brought her father’s spearfish for show-n-tell – and stabbed it into your right arm – that was a stressor. They were stimuli that caused stress. They themselves were not stress, but they stimulated stress.

Stress Defined

Stress is your RESPONSE to the above examples. ‘Good stress’ or ‘bad stress’ is produced dependent on your response. Which calls for job stress reduction?

On the one hand, you respond negatively in fight-or-flight mode. Adrenalin floods your body and muscles tense. Blood is shunted from extremities to core organs. All systems are ‘go’ for fleeing or fighting the enemy.

On the other hand, you respond positively by becoming excited and challenged. Endorphins power happy determination to move ahead. You are flooded with a feeling of euphoria, ready to make the best of the stressor.

Stress, negative or positive, is your response to stressors.

We continue with a brief look at the two kinds of stress.

Eustress – Beneficial, Good Stress

Teachers, job stress reduction programs are unnecessary when the stress involved is eustress. Eustress is an appropriate, positive response to the stressors teachers meet. ‘Eu’ means ‘good’ in Greek. Picture joy and laughter. Eustress is pleasant, healing stress.

Eustress may appear to be an emotional, mental, spiritual, or physical overload, but it does not drain away power. It energizes you; helps you handle the overload. Teachers’ job stress reduction programs should begin with a presentation of eustress and the benefits it offers.

Distress – Detrimental, Bad Stress
Most teachers’ job stress reduction programs focus only on distress. Distress is an inappropriate, negative response to the stressors of a teacher’s job. ‘Di’ means ‘two’ in Greek. Picture double trouble coming your way. Distress is often a disabling, crippling stress.

Distress, like eustress may appear to be an emotional, mental, spiritual, or physical overload. Unlike eustress, distress drains power for anything other than fight or flight. Distress tires you; freezes the brain, and makes it difficult to handle the overload. Teachers’ job stress reduction programs should include a presentation of distress and the detrimental effects it carries.

Employ Stress Augmentation!

Paradoxically, teachers, job stress reduction can be as simple as job stress augmentation. You need to augment, or increase, eustress on the job.

Remembering that stress is nothing more than your response to the demands placed upon you, recognize that you have control over job stress. You may choose to respond positively or negatively; with eustress or with distress.

Look at the following two examples.

1. You face a huge stack of un-graded papers at the end of the day.

A distress response is to sigh, and take ‘flight’ down the hall for another mug of stale coffee and some small talk. Eventually, you plod back to the classroom, ‘flight’ still written clearly on every part of your body. You sit down forlornly, and gaze dejectedly at the clock. Your shoulders slump as you reach for the first paper. You wish for job stress reduction, unconsciously defining it as a magic wand that will make the papers go away. That does not happen, of course, and you begin to reap the detrimental effects of distress.

A eustress response is to smile, allot 2 hours to finish the work, and divide the stack into 8 stacks. Now you have bite-sized work piles. You set a goal of completing each stack in no more than 15 minutes – less if responsibly possible. Promising yourself a cup of coffee after the first hour, you tackle the first stack, eager to meet or beat you goal. Augmenting eustress, you enjoy job stress reduction and all of its healthy benefits.

2. Betty insists on asking endless questions, no matter how well you explain.

A distress response is to ‘fight’ with Betty, stress reduction hopes shattered. You feel neck and shoulders muscles tighten. A frown yanks your mouth downward as you approach Betty’s seat. Unconsciously, you clench your fist. You will not permit Betty to demand so much attention, and you make that very clear in sharp, ‘fighting’ tones. Betty cowers into silence, and you begin to reap the detrimental effects of distress.

A eustress response is to smile quietly, and see Betty as one reason you decided on a teaching career. You want to teach Betty stress reduction along with proper listening techniques. You wait for a time when the rest of the class is occupied, and then go quietly to Betty’s desk. Smiling, you take Betty’s hand and lead her gently into a quiet, private part of the room. Relaxed and happy, you set a goal with Betty. You and she will work together to help her listen in such a way that she needs fewer questions. As she learns to control her response to the stressor of listening, she can win small rewards along the way. By the time Betty returns to her desk, you both are happy. Augmenting eustress, you enjoy job stress reduction again.

Tip: Teachers, job stress reduction is a choice. No elaborate stress reduction program is necessary if you have the backbone to commit to augmenting eustress and refusing to engage in distress.

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Spearfishing Forums Are Exciting And Versatile

admin — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 02:32:39 +0000

The activity of spearfishing has been known for centuries in this world. It was the most common form of fishing for several centuries, after mankind had learned to develop sharp tools. Though it is an ancient from of fishing, there are many people who still use this method to fish. They use tools called spear guns, which kill the fish. This is the modern way of spearfishing.

Many methods are being used for spearfishing, especially diving. But this method allows only a small amount of catch, and it could rather a hobby than a profession. The spearfishing forums as it sounds, are completely dedicated to the activity and also the people who are involved in the sport. Through this online community, those involved in spearfishing can find all the information that is required for the activity.

These forums will provide an opportunity for the community members to post suggestions, and also to post comments about what the others have written. The posts will of course vary from person to person. There could be various numbers of topics. Because spearfishing is done all over the world, the forums will provide a platform from anyone across the world to be part of this online community.

There will be discussions about the various areas of fishing, and there will also be inputs about how the fishing conditions are around the world. The forums are always updated regularly, so there is no need for the users to miss out on any information. Since the world climate differs from place to place, the number of people fishing and posting information will vary from country to country.

Since postings on the forums are almost immediate and also are free of cost, there are people who may use this as a way to sell their spearfishing equipment. This is also exciting as there will be many people who will want to have a collection of the spearfishing equipment as part of their collection. One only has to register on the forums to be a member.

The entire process of registration will only take a few minutes. The biggest advantage of the spearfishing forums is that it will allow readers and other users to search for topics. As there will be thousands of topics being posted every day, there will be the need to hunt through them all if someone needs particular information.

Using the search option will make things easier for the members as well as readers. The forums will also have suggestion boxes, where the users may send in suggestions about how to improve the sites. Publicity is also done inviting all the people of the spearfishing community to be a part of these forums. Members can also send private messages to one another if they wish to.

There are many levels and groups within the spearfishing forums such as administrators and moderators. Exploring these sites are a big excitement for those who are passionate about spearfishing. acp13243546ch

Sig Yanosway is a spearfishing fanatic, he can frequently be found lurking on World Spearfishing Guide’s WorldSpearFishingForums.com