Welcome back ROCKSTAR! Good to see you again and grateful for you being a member of the Tribe K2! Have you subscribed to our RSS feed?

We write this stuff/post this stuff for you. Tell us what you like! Ping me at admin (at) K2SCUBA.com and tell me what you would like to see here!

You’ve made the decision to discover all the wonders of the ocean deep and are all set to swim amid the coral reefs, sea turtles, and colleges of fish. Yet ahead of taking the plunge into the blue, you require to make positive you have all the essential products and diving equipment! Although the most apparent factors that may possibly come to thoughts are the scuba diving masks and scuba diving fins, there is a bit a lot more comprising that vital checklist. To make positive that you are completely outfitted with all the scuba gear you will require, be confident to read on!

With any scuba gear and scuba diving under the sea gear that you acquire, you require to guarantee that it all fits you snugly and comfortably. The wrong mask or a scuba wetsuit that is as well little is a certain way to make your dive much less than perfect. So when picking out your scuba scuba diving under the sea mask, make positive that it can remain in location and that you can see properly behind it. The snorkel ought to fit properly with your diving mask on, and it is to be put on on the left side.

Subsequent up for your scuba gear are the fins, and be conscious that some of them ought to be worn with scuba booties. You will now want to locate either a wetsuit or a drysuit. You will want to really feel totally free to move about, but it ought to be snug towards your entire body. These are all a few of the staples in scuba scuba diving under the sea equipment, and now we are available to the a lot more complex scuba equipment. You will will need a buoyancy control gadget (BCD) with your diving gear and this not only assists to continue to keep you supported even though underneath water, but also the regulator, fat system, and air cylinder too. It is the regulator that then makes it achievable for you to breath although you are scuba diving.

You will want to locate a large high quality brand when choosing your scuba equipment, as this is an essential element of the encounter, and each and every regulator in turn must are available full with a second oxygen source, or an octopus. Following is the scuba cylinder, and you will want to purchase this last.
Lastly, you will do properly to take into account adding a diving flag and float to the record of your scuba scuba diving equipment, as it is essential in some locations. With all of your scuba products correctly match and chosen, you can now head off to find your adventures below the sea, and swim amid sunken ship or possibly even sharks!

Now here is a thing we hope you will truly like:

K2 Adventure: Scuba Scuba diving under the sea Colorado

K2 Adventure: Inexpensive Bahamas Family members Family vacation – Snorkeling Can Be an Cost-effective Activity

Taking care of your 7mm and 3mm scuba wetsuits will add years of life to the wear, warmth, and comfort. Check out the scuba equipment reviews of the most long wearing suits.A single of the extremely critical issues you are able to discover from diving scuba would be to rinse your equipment and products. Its very essential to sustain your own equipment to get highest possible lifetime span and make sure your products performs properly whenever scuba diving.

Washing Station Setup
The easiest technique to organize your own cleansing station is usually to fill a huge bath tub at household that will be filled up with refreshing h2o. If simply no bath tub then the basic garden hose or simply kitchen sink will probably function just like effectively. Several diving outlets or hotels should have a couple containers; one particular container will possibly be normal water for common equipment this sort of as wetsuits and other gear whilst the other will be for specialist products these kinds of as cameras and diver pcs and any other delicate devices.
Exactly where achievable if your equipment has a whole lot of sand on it is to hose it down prior to dunking it in the tub.

Regulator
The 1st issue just before you begin to scrub your regulator is to make certain your dirt cap is safe as any normal water that enters the very first phase will trigger h2o to enter in the inside components and result in damage.
Just before you replace the dust cap you will will need to dried up the dirt cap and the opening of the initial phase. The least complicated way is to use your tank to blow air onto the two elements and this will dry the elements adequately, alternatively you may use a dry cloth to do the job. You can find scuba regulators at absurdly affordable prices at Flipilicious.com.

Once this is carried out you will need to location the regulator in fresh water for 5 minutes, stay away from pressing the purge button as this will let h2o to key in the initial point. It finest to rotate any moving elements to make certain there is no salt which in the prolonged operate will rust. As soon as Its been soaked and cleaned hang it up and dried out.
BCD
Washing a BCD comes in two elements, the inner and exterior of the BCD. The outside is straight forward and can be dunked and soaked in a tub of fresh water to scrub any salt off the BCD.
Step two as described is the inner of the BCD, this will need to have to be completed as tiny quantities of saltwater will enter even though diving, and this will turn to salt crystals which more than time will lead to the values to malfunction and the inner bladder to tear.
So right here is how to do it, Press the deflate button on the BCD and let fresh water to key in to approximate 25%, afterwards shake the BCD and let the h2o the scrub all-around all corners. As soon as you are satisfied you have washed the interior the finest method is to use the exhaust values to empty the normal water which at the very same time will cleanse them too.
Now slight inflate the BCD to guarantee the inner bladder does not stick with each other when drying and hang out to dried out.

Dive Personal computer and Camera
Clean your dive personal computer in cleanse fresh water and not the exact same h2o you have washed your other machines as detergents and sand will injury your delicate gear. Soak this products for a longer time and press all the buttons guarantee there is no salt trapped. If feasible brush the surfaces with a toothbrush to hep cleanse it far better, but don’t use on the sensors or lenses region as it could destruction it.

Wetsuit, Booties, and Gloves
Your scuba wet suits , booties, and gloves need to be washed in freshwater and you may also like to add a wetsuit detergent. Submerge the items in the normal water and turn them within out as well and maintain cleansing right up until clean. Once clean hang out and let to dried out.
Snorkel Fins, Mask, Snorkel, and Other Gear
All other gear ought to be submerged in fresh new normal water, dunked up and down till clean up and hung up to dry.
Ideas: to prolong the existence of your products don’t hang out in direct sunlight as it will make the equipment discolour and minimize the lifestyle span.

Thanks for reading this far. Here are a couple of articles that you might find interesting:

K2 Vacation Ideas: Cruises & Scuba/Snorkel Diving – The Ideal Match

K2 How To’s: Basic Snorkeling Needs & Snorkel Equipment

Colorado is a landlocked state hundreds of miles from the nearest coast, but you can nonetheless take pleasure in scuba diving; Colorado has a number of lakes and rivers that can offer challenge and enjoyment. A Colorado scuba or snorkel diving family vacation is not as far-fetched as you may surmise. For all those who are "hard-core" about their scuba diving, Colorado lakes and rivers are just as good as anyplace in the globe.

The City That Drowned
One of the much more intriguing locations for a Colorado scuba diving family vacation is Horsetooth Reservoir southwest of Fort Collins. In 1946, the federal Bureau of Reclamation chose to drown the town of Stout, based along the La Poudre River. By 1949, the dam was finished and Stout, which had been established only seventy years earlier as a camp for stone quarry workers, had to be abandoned. The remains of the city are still beneath water at the lake’s southern end; with suitable training and dive gear, Colorado scuba divers can enjoy a fine adventure.

Historic Mining
Following outfitting at their nearby Colorado scuba diving equipment supplier, scuba divers may possibly wish to head for the higher nation to the historic mining community of Leadville, in which scenic Turquoise Lake is correct close by. The lake provides some exceptional opportunities for exploration by way of scuba diving; Colorado’s mining market was the heart and soul of the state’s economy for decades. Provided the close by town’s historical significance, who understands what exciting artifacts a diver may encounter on a Colorado scuba diving holiday?

Obtaining Your Dive Gear
Colorado has its fair share of merchants that sell correct tools, staffed by experienced personnel who also offer certification courses. Colorado diving equipment suppliers can also give you insight as to exactly where in the state to go. If you have the time and cash to go even more afield, however, the very good folks at Colorado scuba diving equipment supply shops can also arrange scuba diving vacations to other, much more exotic destinations as properly.

In any event, you will will need to be certified prior to you go scuba diving. Colorado demands are just as stringent as other spots in the U.S., and this of course is for your personal protection; you’ll need to have to know about the regular hazards, protection practices and how to correctly use and care for dive products. Colorado divemasters and senior divers local to the area can take you on this adventure and assist you in getting prepared for the scuba diving colorado specialties you will need to enjoy your vacation.

In Part 1, we looked at two factors that will influence the purchase of an underwater camera i.e the amount of money you are willing to pay and the area of interest that you will be taking pictures. Let us now look at other factors:

3.  Technical Skill Level

It is recommended that you first perfect your scuba diving skills before you attempt doing anything else underwater, taking pictures included. It is your diving skills that will determine the picture quality of your photo shoots while at the same time ensure your safety. Also consider the fact that while underwater you are your brother’s keeper, so your diving  skills should be good enough to take care of you and your diving partner in case of an emergency.

If you are comfortable with your diving skills, then you can look at your photography skills. If you are not very good at handling camera equipment, consider getting an automatic camera. Otherwise expert divers who can handle sophisticated camera equipment can go for manual camera systems since they are more willing to dedicate a lot of their time to pre and post dive equipment preparation and have the required skills to do it. Look through various scuba diving equipment reviews for more information on automatic and manual cameras.

4.  Diving Destination / Size of the equipment.

Divers who prefer local destinations can easily carry with them all manner of camera /housing equipment however bulky it might be. If travelling to remote destinations, carrying bulky camera equipment might be very inconveniencing, expensive and in some instances impossible taking into account recent travel restrictions.

The size is also a factor when considering other equipment that you will be using e.g. scuba tank, scuba diving bcd, dive computer etc. Carrying too much equipment can easily compromise your safety.

5.  Mode of Distribution

Nowadays, how you will distribute your photos and videos should be a major consideration. Cameras that record directly to memory or disc are preferable due to the ease in sharing the media afterwards. These memory cards are very portable and can easily be stuffed into your scuba wetsuit pockets. However, for others who need professional video and photos for e.g. broadcasting, they may opt for HD recording cameras which are more complex.

Having taken all the five factors into consideration, you can finally make a wise purchase of your underwater camera equipment. Happy buying!!

I used to feel warm and fuzzy inside when I saw the dolphin-safe logo on my tuna. I felt like a decision I made was helping the environment- like I was making a difference.

The commonly believed narrative about dolphin-safe tuna goes something like this: Lots of dolphins were being killed by tuna fishermen, outraged environmentalists led a massive PR campaign, legions of adorable children wrote to their elected officials, elected officials changed the rules to protect dolphins, and everything is better now. Hooray, we saved an innocent species and helped the environment!

That narrative is a great story. It shows that if a few people who care can convince others that their cause is just, there’s no limit to what we can accomplish. It’s inspiring. Too bad it’s not really true. As it turns out, we made things worse- a LOT worse.

Before we get into specifics, a little background  is in order. The tuna fishery, one of the world’s largest, employs tens of thousands of people and provides millions with a cheap source of protein. It can be difficult for people who have never seen it in action to appreciate the scale of modern commercial fisheries. Commercial fishermen aren’t out on the high seas with handheld rods and reels catching one fish at a time. The nets that tuna fishermen use, which are called purse seines, are miles long. With a net that size, it’s pretty much impossible to catch only tuna. Those nets also catch anything that happens to be swimming near the tuna. These unfortunate animals, killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, are called bycatch.

The diagram below shows how tuna purse seine nets work. Once a school of tuna is located (we’ll discuss how that happens a little later), a series of support ships help to deploy the giant purse seine from the main factory ship. The bottom of the net is drawn closed, and the contents of the net (tuna and bycatch) are brought onto the main factory ship.  Except for the fact that only tuna are shown caught in the net, it’s a reasonably accurate diagram.

Image from EuroPacificTuna.com

Once the tuna are located, the method for catching them is just as I’ve described above. The differences, and the source of the controversy with tuna fishing, comes from how the tuna are located in the first place.

There are three ways that tuna schools can be located. The first is to search for them directly using surface ships and small aircraft, which is inefficient, time-consuming, and not always effective (you can’t see tuna from the surface if they’re deep enough or if weather conditions aren’t ideal). The second is to attract tuna using floating objects, which we’ll discuss in more detail shortly. The third is to follow dolphins- for unknown reasons, dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific are often found associated with schools of large tuna.

Now that we have some background, let’s return to the “environmentalists saved dolphins from fishermen” narrative. The first part of the narrative is  mostly true. Because finding dolphin-associated schools of tuna was extremely easy (unlike tuna, dolphins have to return to the surface where they are easy to  spot), it was the preferred method for decades. The Eastern Tropical Pacific Tuna Fishery had a high rate of dolphin bycatch. According to NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Service Center, an estimated six million dolphins were killed during the forty or so years that purse seining around dolphin-associated tuna schools took place. That’s approximately 150,000 dolphins per year, which is by far the largest cetacean bycatch of any fishery in history. However, it is important to note that mortality from being tuna bycatch did not mean that dolphins were endangered. The two primary species involved are spinner dolphins (data deficient) and spotted dolphins (least concern).

The second part of the narrative is also true. A massive PR campaign led by the Earth Island Institute resulted in making it illegal to sell tuna caught from dolphin-associated schools in the United States. Dolphin-safe tuna was born.

Now that fishermen could no longer use what was previously the most common method for catching tuna, they needed to change strategies. They turned to using floating objects (sometimes called FAD’s or fish aggregating devices) to attract tuna to a known location. One of the strangest known behaviors exhibited by open-ocean animals is their tendency to aggregate around any solid object that floats. This might have something to do with the fact that many open-ocean animals go their entire lives without seeing any sort of hard surface. This method is extremely effective for aggregating tuna, but it also aggregates many other species. Setting a purse seine around a dolphin-associated tuna school results in catching primarily large adult tuna (the target size because they have more meat per unit effort and because they have reproduced already) and dolphins (which are not endangered) . Setting a purse seine around a floating object results in all sorts of bycatch, including endangered sea turtles, open ocean shark species which are already in serious trouble, and high numbers of small tuna (which have not yet reproduced).

Table from Hall 1998. “Log” = floating object, “school” = tuna found by plane or boat, “dolphin” = dolphin associated

A simple glance at the table above shows that while dolphins bycatch goes down, every other studied species (except “unidentified bony fishes”, “other sailfishes”, and marlins) has much higher bycatch rates in “floating object” tuna fishing than in “dolphin associated” tuna fishing. In other words, while better for dolphins, “dolphin-safe” tuna is disastrous for almost everything else. For open-ocean sharks, floating object fishing is orders of magnitude worse than dolphin-associated fishing. In some cases, such as mahi-mahi, wahoo, and triggerfish, the new method is exponentially worse.

Large numbers of these already threatened sharks are killed by “dolphin-safe” tuna fishing

If you do the math on this (and you don’t have to because the Environmental Justice Foundation already did), you find that one saved dolphin costs 25,824 small tuna, 382 mahi-mahi, 188 wahoo, 82 yellowtail and other large fish, 27 sharks and rays, 1 billfish, 1,193 triggerfish and other small fish, and 0.06 sea turtles.

You and I can argue about the relative value of dolphins vs. triggerfish all day, but the important take-home message here is that we are protecting animals that are not endangered at the expense of dozens of other species, and some of those other species are endangered.

Last summer, I went on NPR’s “The Pat Morrison Show” to discuss this issue with a representative from the Earth Island Institute, the organization most responsible for dolphin-safe tuna policies. I had expected him to acknowledge that the bycatch was a problem, but that it was still important to protect dolphins because they’re intelligent mammals (or something like that). Instead, he argued that there was no bycatch of endangered species taking place under dolphin safe tuna policies, and he accused me of perpetuating the propaganda of evil fishermen who “just want to kill dolphins”. Yikes. His ridiculous rants (and his subsequent refusal to continue the discussion on Southern Fried Science) cost the Earth Island Institute my respect, as well as that of many who heard the interview.

The fight to save the oceans is a long and difficult one, and I don’t know for sure how we’re going to win. I do know, however, that we will never win by making up lies about the other side or refusing to acknowledge when we make mistakes. Let us be honest with ourselves and with the world- the push for dolphin-safe tuna was a mistake. It was a well intentioned mistake, but it was a big mistake with disastrous consequences.

What can we do? The first thing that popped into your head was probably “ban tuna fishing”, which is a more politically correct way of saying “make it impossible for the world’s poor to have healthy balanced diets”. It’s just not feasible to ban purse seine fishing. If you’re interested in helping by “voting with your wallet”, you can support sustainably-caught tuna, which is caught with a rod and reel and has almost no bycatch, but this method makes tuna so much more expensive that it’s not a large-scale solution.

A conscious choice to go back to a previously-banned fishing method that kills large numbers of charismatic animals puts a bad taste in my mouth, but the fact is that fishing for dolphin-associated schools of tuna catches primarily non-endangered dolphins and adult tuna. Dolphin-safe tuna fishing is killing dozens of species, many of whom are endangered, and threatening the integrity of entire ecosystems. The old way may be the better of two bad choices.

~WhySharksMatter

This is a modified repost of “the ecological disaster that is dolphin-safe tuna” from the old site. That award-winning post and it’s over 200 comments can be seen here.

Sources

Au, DW (1991). Polyspecific nature of tuna schools: Shark, dolphin, and seabird associates Fishery Bulletin

Barker, M., & Schluessel, V. (2005). Managing global shark fisheries: suggestions for prioritizing management strategies Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 15 (4), 325-347 DOI: 10.1002/aqc.660

Girard, C. (2004). FAD: Fish Aggregating Device or Fish Attracting Device? A new analysis of yellowfin tuna movements around floating objects Animal Behaviour, 67 (2), 319-326 DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.07.007

Hall, M. (1998). An ecological view of the tuna-dolphin problem: Impacts and trade-offs Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 1-34

Joseph, J. (1994). The tuna-dolphin controversy in the eastern pacific ocean: Biological, economic, and political impacts Ocean Development & International Law, 25 (1), 1-30 DOI: 10.1080/00908329409546023

LEWISON, R., CROWDER, L., READ, A., & FREEMAN, S. (2004). Understanding impacts of fisheries bycatch on marine megafauna Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 19 (11), 598-604 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2004.09.004