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macado
Jun 3, 2003

How to keep an idiot busy, Click here.

jackyl posted:


That is amazing. I haven't seen anything like that in Caribbean, but they are still a common enough sight as is killing them and trying to feed them to eels (which I've heard described (maybe even here??) as a dubious strategy, since all it teaches the eels is that a nice diver will bring a dead lionfish to you for dinner).


This is actually very common in Cozumel now. Nurse sharks and eels are trained to basically eat lionfish.

The DM puts on a nice show for the paying customers but now a lot of them will come out of their hole as soon as they see divers. I'm neither for or against it but it's definitely a behavior that i've started to notice. Had a couple friends have eels swim up to them and up their arm.

Video of an overly friendly nurse shark I took. We were spearing lionfish and this nurse shark followed us through half the dive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eqp5eYsoUo

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SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

East gales to 35 kt. Wind waves 17 ft. Scattered showers.

Its time to DIVE
Lets face it Macado, Lionfish there or Peacock Grouper and Blue Stripe Snapper here.. Its never going to change...

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000

macado posted:

What people end up doing is only policing a fraction of the dive-able reef. A lot of places have done a great job about spearing lionfish in recreational depths down to 130fsw. It's very hard to do population control when you're only spearing a small percentage of the area where lionfish are commonly seen.
You're almost certainly right but it still feels good to participate in a lionfish hunting contests and such. I'm not sure what an effective solution to this problem is, but until then we might as well kill the ones we see.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Jul 2, 2013

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

Bishop posted:

You're almost certainly right but it still feels good to participate in a lionfish hunting contests and such. I'm not sure what an effective solution to this problem is, but until then we might as well kill the ones we see.

poo poo, you want to know how ridiculous the problem is? They are so effective at hunting, that they are becoming obese. Obese to the point they have been discovered to have liver damage due to how fat these fuckers are. http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...ecies_that.html

The only thing i could really think of is if we somehow turned the commercial fishing industry onto lionfish as a profitable fish. Get those dudes on the case, and you've introduced the best possible predator into the waters without harming the rest of the marine population theoretically.

macado
Jun 3, 2003

How to keep an idiot busy, Click here.
Yeah, I have no hopes in putting any sizable dent in the lionfish population but spearing things is fun. There really is no effective solution until another local predator learns to develop a taste for lionfish and their eggs.

Possible predators that could adapt to eating them like Goliath Groupers have had their populations virtually wiped out due to over-fishing. I believe in the pacific there are species of groupers, sharks and coronetfishes that are known to eat lionfish.

They're basically one invasive species that is here to stay weather people like it or not.

IM FROM THE FUTURE
Dec 4, 2006

I agree commercial fishing is the only hope. However I am unaware of effective methods of catching lionfish hook and line. For every rec depth site we clean up spearfishing there are dozens of deeper sites being decimated. Where I freedive I only see one or two per day. Atleast they are delicious. They are one of the most delicate white un-fishy fish you can eat. Hopefully one day a demand for their deliciousness drives commercial guys to figure it out.

macado
Jun 3, 2003

How to keep an idiot busy, Click here.
Tell the Chinese or Japanese that they cure impotence or restore vitality and they'll be gone within a generation or two.

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

macado posted:

Tell the Chinese or Japanese that they cure impotence or restore vitality and they'll be gone within a generation or two.

I'm sorry I think you meant, a month or two.

Just tell them it's "good for male stamina".

macado
Jun 3, 2003

How to keep an idiot busy, Click here.
First world problems...

One of my sets of doubles has air and the other set has 21/35.

Do I blow my $75 trimix fill on a 100' dive or do I just use air and suck on some more o2 and take the longer deco obligation and nitrogen loading? Or.. carry another stage with 32%, breath that down first and then switch back to doubles :-)

Although trimix at 100' might be lovely...

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000
I'm more interested in how you got a 21/35 fill on what I'm assuming are steel doubles for only 75 bucks...

Personally that would be a no brainier, I'd dive the air and just do some more deco, no use wasting trimix on a 100 foot dive unless you get narced really easy. Then again I'm also the guy that took air to 200' a few weeks ago so I might not be someone to take advice from. My general rule is I don't start thinking about helium until a dive that is mostly in the ~130+ range.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 09:54 on Jul 3, 2013

Le0
Mar 18, 2009

Rotten investigator!
So I've booked a scuba diving initiation in two weeks for me and the GF. We are going to the lake directly with a scuba club in our city.
I'm excited and a little bit scared :pseudo:

If all goes well and we like it we'll probably do an Open Water certification.

macado
Jun 3, 2003

How to keep an idiot busy, Click here.

Bishop posted:

I'm more interested in how you got a 21/35 fill on what I'm assuming are steel doubles for only 75 bucks...


Pay by cubic foot for helium and o2 here; It's around .80 or .90/cuft. Oxygen is .35/cuft. I guess it's pretty cheap compared to most places except Cave Country. There are shops that charge 2 or 3 times that much around here though.

21/35 in Double 100s is about $65 of helium. (72cu of Helium x .90 = 64.8) and 19cu of Oxygen (19x .35 = 6.58) $6.58 + $64.8 = $71.38 if I did my math right. Air top off is free.

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

Le0 posted:

So I've booked a scuba diving initiation in two weeks for me and the GF. We are going to the lake directly with a scuba club in our city.
I'm excited and a little bit scared :pseudo:

If all goes well and we like it we'll probably do an Open Water certification.

Congrats. Bring water and snacks, sunscreen, and basically anything you think you'd need for an afternoon at the lake.

Trivia
Feb 8, 2006

I'm an obtuse man,
so I'll try to be oblique.
Depending on the company, consider bringing a book for your surface intervals.

Most people usually just shoot the poo poo though.

Cru Jones
Mar 28, 2007

Cowering behind a shield of hope and Obamanium
My dive buddy (wife) is pregnant and out of commission. Bummer because I'd just gotten a new strobe and housing. Finally worked up the gumption to do some solo shallow lake diving and mess around.

Missed the focus by a hair, but he was scuttling like mad. Don't usually see them this big up north, stretched tail to tip I'd say he was around 6-7 inches at least.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

macado posted:

Tell the Chinese or Japanese that they cure impotence or restore vitality and they'll be gone within a generation or two.

It's a lionfish. This should be easy.

Trivia
Feb 8, 2006

I'm an obtuse man,
so I'll try to be oblique.
That is a pretty awesome pic. Too bad about the focus though, I can definitely see a slight bit of fuzziness (though it could be my phone)

Frozen Pizza Party
Dec 13, 2005

Can't tell if that guy is in the water, or on the shore. That's gotta be the clearest lake picture I've ever seen.

raffie
Feb 28, 2004
hopeless incompetent
Just got back from a week of diving in Manado, Indonesia. I did muck dives off the mainland of North Sulawesi, wall dives at Bunaken and even took a daytrip to dive along the Lembeh Strait where the weird critters live.

Along the way I also did my Advanced OW course and got nitrox certified. The deep dive was a hell of an experience, my first time feeling narc'd at 40m but I managed the exercises on the slate ok. We got caught in a downcurrent on our way back up and literally had to crawl up the wall from 35m up to 20m. I blew through a 100bar of air in the first 10 minutes of that dive and did a long 5m safety stop just cruising over the top of the reef.

It was an awesome week and i'm already planning my next trip back.

Slark
Nov 29, 2012

Fast as Wind
Silent as Forest
Ferocious as Fire
Immovable as Mountain

Cru Jones posted:

My dive buddy (wife) is pregnant and out of commission. Bummer because I'd just gotten a new strobe and housing. Finally worked up the gumption to do some solo shallow lake diving and mess around.

Missed the focus by a hair, but he was scuttling like mad. Don't usually see them this big up north, stretched tail to tip I'd say he was around 6-7 inches at least.



Which camera did you use for shooting this underwater photograph?

Cru Jones
Mar 28, 2007

Cowering behind a shield of hope and Obamanium
Olympus E-PL1, if you want the secret to super clear lake pictures?

Shoot in 6 feet of water

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

East gales to 35 kt. Wind waves 17 ft. Scattered showers.

Its time to DIVE

Cru Jones posted:

My dive buddy (wife) is pregnant and out of commission.

Nobody is willing to test the effects of diving on a fetus... It always remains a unknown :)

Congratulations btw :)

Bishop, Think we can get the above experiment started with enough persuasion? Like our Helium experiments :P

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

SlicerDicer posted:

Nobody is willing to test the effects of diving on a fetus... It always remains a unknown :)

Congratulations btw :)

Bishop, Think we can get the above experiment started with enough persuasion? Like our Helium experiments :P

Amniotic fluid makes the uterus a diving bell!

Or we get James Cameron levels of liquid O2 and the baby can dive down to 15 miles. There's really no in between

This is how baby's work right?

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004
Edit: Nevermind, realized I was quoting something really old.

It's been a while since I've been in the water, I really need to get back out there. Bishop are you down in FL at the end of the month/beginning of August? I have a couple days off and I'm looking for an excuse to spend some time underwater.

rockcity fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jul 8, 2013

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

East gales to 35 kt. Wind waves 17 ft. Scattered showers.

Its time to DIVE

Crunkjuice posted:

This is how baby's work right?

Thats how we can solve the economy! Make babies work!

So I am going to try to do some stuff Thursday I hope :)

let it mellow
Jun 1, 2000

Dinosaur Gum
We're gonna be in Hawks Cay for Labor Day weekend, hopefully this Keys trip won't get hurricane wrecked like last year's. I've also heard great things about Hawk's Cay, so I'm ready to :getin: Now I have to decide if I'm going to upgrade camera equipment prior to this. :iiam:

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

TLG James posted:

I know in the far south Caribbean, they're loving everywhere. They went from a somewhat rare sight about 4 years ago, to be in literally every single hole you look in, and at night they're everywhere.

A little late but I'm in Belize with the husband, and we spotted like 823592378598 of them on our 3 tank dive on Friday. However, because all the waters around here are conservation zones, we weren't allowed to kill any. It was a drat shame because my husband was really hoping to do some spear fishing!

I will post pics when we get back to the states. We did South Water Caye, at three different sites within that area. It was beautiful. We didn't even need wet suits because the water was so warm. :3:

let it mellow
Jun 1, 2000

Dinosaur Gum
Oh poo poo, tell me about Belize. We will be there in December for 10 days on Skymiles tickets, but haven't picked a place to stay or a dive shop yet. We are doing the Blue Hole of course, thats why we did our AOW last month, but that is all we know so far. Please give us recommendations!

let it mellow fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Jul 10, 2013

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

jackyl posted:

Oh poo poo, tell me about Belize. We will be there in December for 10 days on Skymiles tickets, but haven't picked a place to stay or a dive shop yet. We are doing the Blue Hole of course, thats why we did our AOW last month, but that is all we know so far. Please give us recommendations!

OK, we didn't do the Blue Hole because we are staying in Placencia (it is a 3 hour boat ride from here, so...umm, yeah). However, I am dying to come back but stay in Caye Caulker maybe, and head out to Blue Hole from there since the boat ride would be much shorter. Only thing is, my husband is terrified of Blue Hole and he doesn't have AOW yet. He might not ever get AOW. Who knows! But I don't think boats go very often to Blue Hole from here, maybe a couple times a month. You'd have to contact different shops here and ask.

Anyway, Placencia is a really cute village. There are a lot of good restaurants and several good resorts to choose from. We are staying at Robert's Grove, but some of the other divers on our boat were at Paradise Beach Resort and were enjoying it. We did our diving with Avadon Divers. They were top notch in their operations and safety, served fresh fruit during surface intervals and fed us BBQ chicken, mac and cheese, and red beans for lunch. Their rental gear was all ScubaPro and in great shape (I didn't pack my own gear--didn't feel like risking it with the airlines).

Some of the other dive shops here are:
-Splash Dive Shop
-Seahorse Dive Shop
-Robert's Grove Dive Center (this was attached to our resort but we opted against them because on TripAdvisor people slammed them for safety hazards and other issues)

But if you're really dead set on Blue Hole, I recommend staying at Caye Caulker, or even at San Pedro. That way you don't have an endless boat ride to get out there. But we have been loving Placencia. I am trying to figure out how we can expat to Belize.

GODS NOT REAL
Sep 25, 2012

YOU STUPID BUNNIES
Signed up for a Nitrox course because the NDL without enriched air is pretty low, really. How much more bottom time can I get with using Nitrox?

Mr.AARP
Apr 20, 2010

I was born after Kurt Cobain died. Now you feel old.

Gushing Granny posted:

Signed up for a Nitrox course because the NDL without enriched air is pretty low, really. How much more bottom time can I get with using Nitrox?

Speaking of this, how much does your standard Nitrox course usually run? I've been thinking about doing one of the e-classes and then justifying the cost of the class by the boat dives included.

Trivia
Feb 8, 2006

I'm an obtuse man,
so I'll try to be oblique.
I've seen nitrox courses go for ~$150 to $200.

You'll probably find a significant decrease in price if you go local instead of tourist shops.

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

Trivia posted:

I've seen nitrox courses go for ~$150 to $200.

You'll probably find a significant decrease in price if you go local instead of tourist shops.

Yeah, my dive shop charges 99 for it. As for how much more time you get. At 60 feet with air you have 40 min NDL,32% you have 90 min NDL (.9 ppo2), and with 36% you have 115 min NDL (1.01 ppo2). It makes a big difference. Not only does it increase your bottom time, but if you dive normal timed dives you can drastically decrease your surface interval time and get more diving in.

GODS NOT REAL
Sep 25, 2012

YOU STUPID BUNNIES

Crunkjuice posted:

Yeah, my dive shop charges 99 for it. As for how much more time you get. At 60 feet with air you have 40 min NDL,32% you have 90 min NDL (.9 ppo2), and with 36% you have 115 min NDL (1.01 ppo2). It makes a big difference. Not only does it increase your bottom time, but if you dive normal timed dives you can drastically decrease your surface interval time and get more diving in.

Sounds well worth it then. I'm getting it for £140, which includes the Nitrox course and a decent dive computer at half price.

Tomberforce
May 30, 2006

Not to mention it makes you feel goooooooood....

It may just be psychological, but nitrox seems to totally stop me feeling tired and drained after diving.

Gindack
Jan 30, 2010
So switching to a Steel 100 tank this weekend how much weight do you guys think I should drop to start? I was thinking around 10 lbs.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

Gindack posted:

So switching to a Steel 100 tank this weekend how much weight do you guys think I should drop to start? I was thinking around 10 lbs.

Depends on a lot of things. Fresh or salt water? How much do you weigh? What are you wearing wetsuit wise? How much weight are you diving with now?

I know people who dive Steel 100s who don't wear any weight at all, but it's one of those things you just have to try to find out.

Trivia
Feb 8, 2006

I'm an obtuse man,
so I'll try to be oblique.

Crunkjuice posted:

Yeah, my dive shop charges 99 for it. As for how much more time you get. At 60 feet with air you have 40 min NDL,32% you have 90 min NDL (.9 ppo2), and with 36% you have 115 min NDL (1.01 ppo2). It makes a big difference. Not only does it increase your bottom time, but if you dive normal timed dives you can drastically decrease your surface interval time and get more diving in.

Haha, I knew I was getting ripped off, but didn't realize it was THAT bad.

I don't regret it though, the extra cost is paying for convenience as I see it. Some of us don't have the luxury of being able to sign up for lessons whenever we want. :(

Tomberforce
May 30, 2006

Trivia posted:

Haha, I knew I was getting ripped off, but didn't realize it was THAT bad.

I don't regret it though, the extra cost is paying for convenience as I see it. Some of us don't have the luxury of being able to sign up for lessons whenever we want. :(

The dive shop I did my DM with in Western Australia charges $350 for it!! Nuts!

They were a bit pissed when I went to a rival shop and did it for $150.

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rockcity
Jan 16, 2004
I've been really thankful for having a friend who is an instructor. He's basically charged me the cost to get the c-card made for my classes. I think I paid him $20 for Nitrox.

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