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As Kipling said (and my profile quotes) we have fed our sea for a thousand years And she calls us, still unfed
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Apr 23, 2024 01:56
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| # ? May 24, 2024 12:01 |
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Trig Discipline posted:I haven't had a close call with a submarine but the goddamn glass bottom boats full of tourists would come and just hover over us while we were working in Curacao and it pissed us off to no end. For one thing it's a safety issue, but for another thing we don't want tourists seeing us catch fish for research and think it's okay for them to do the same. The methods we use (barrier nets, dip nets, and chemicals while on SCUBA) are straight up illegal for anyone who doesn't have special permission. We're also often negatively buoyant and crawling around on the substrate, so it's not even a good example to set for the tourists for how to dive safely/responsibly. Research diving is loads of fun like that in touristy areas. Even when just getting down to the water - I'm sure there are dozens of tour buses worth of photos of my colleagues and I lumbering down the rocks to shore dives by lighthouses. Extra fun when you're overheating in 7 mm of neoprene and a hood on a hot summer day and some rando family of retirees wants to hear all about what you're doing! Fortunately, in those spots, I'm usually just the helper and I can abandon my buddy to her fate of telling them about her work while I happily splash around and cool off in the shallows. There are occasional benefits to mostly working in places that aren't as, uh, scenic.
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Apr 23, 2024 02:19
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I did all of my training wearing a 7 over 7 farmer john and shorty in northern California, and oh man those minutes of roasting on the shore were just my least favorite thing ever. Once I started actually doing my graduate work in tropical areas I was like "holy gently caress diving can actually be not incredibly difficult and maybe kinda fun actually?" I have done very little cold water diving since.
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Apr 25, 2024 10:08
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Trig Discipline posted:I haven't had a close call with a submarine but the goddamn glass bottom boats full of tourists would come and just hover over us while we were working in Curacao and it pissed us off to no end. For one thing it's a safety issue, but for another thing we don't want tourists seeing us catch fish for research and think it's okay for them to do the same. The methods we use (barrier nets, dip nets, and chemicals while on SCUBA) are straight up illegal for anyone who doesn't have special permission. We're also often negatively buoyant and crawling around on the substrate, so it's not even a good example to set for the tourists for how to dive safely/responsibly. Ugggg, That sounds horrible. I know exactly where you were, the CARMABI research station at Piscadera, next to the Hilton. Right across the channel from the Hilton, there are some shallow reefs that are great for snorkeling. I saw some glass bottoms boats over there, and I did wonder about how shallow it is there... Trig Discipline posted:I have done very little cold water diving since. I like cold water diving, but I can admit that it is a masochistic experience.
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Apr 25, 2024 19:38
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Squashy Nipples posted:Ugggg, That sounds horrible. Type 2 fun for sure.
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Apr 25, 2024 20:20
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Squashy Nipples posted:Ugggg, That sounds horrible. Yes! I have worked at CARMABI off and on for almost twenty years now (jesus christ really?). I've done a ton of work on those reefs right across the channel. They're generally nice but can get a bit nasty sometimes, but if you can get a little boat and head maybe 500m further up along the coast it is absolutely amazing. When we first started working there most of what currently exists wasn't built yet, none of the buildings had air con, and anything you set down anywhere would get stolen within thirty seconds. My first trip there I was working on sperm motility in wrasses, and needed to centrifuge samples to extract sperm. The best I could do given what was available there was to tie a string around an eppendorf tube and whip it around over my head as fast as I could. Then I got the idea to use the ceiling fan in one of the labs as a centrifuge instead, which worked slightly better.
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Apr 26, 2024 00:31
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Trig Discipline posted:My first trip there I was working on sperm motility in wrasses, and needed to centrifuge samples to extract sperm Shakin' dat wrasse
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Apr 26, 2024 07:55
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Trig Discipline posted:Yes! I have worked at CARMABI off and on for almost twenty years now (jesus christ really?). I've done a ton of work on those reefs right across the channel. They're generally nice but can get a bit nasty sometimes, but if you can get a little boat and head maybe 500m further up along the coast it is absolutely amazing. I cannot for the life of me fully express how much I enjoy the stupid bullshit improvisation aspect of field research, which is doubly the case for diving work - maybe someone somewhere was silly enough to build a tool for the strange task I am doing, but odds are they didn’t need to do it underwater…
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Apr 26, 2024 13:54
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Timmy Age 6 posted:I cannot for the life of me fully express how much I enjoy the stupid bullshit improvisation aspect of field research, which is doubly the case for diving work - maybe someone somewhere was silly enough to build a tool for the strange task I am doing, but odds are they didn’t need to do it underwater… It's one of my favorite parts of science. At one point my wife and I had a question where we wanted to determine the relative territoriality of terminal phase blueheads, so we built what I called "The Angryometer". It was a GoPro attached to a microphone stand, with a mirror attached to the base of the stand. The idea was that a TP male would see his reflection and attack the mirror, and by watching the video and counting the number of attacks in five minutes we could get a measure of relative aggression.  It didn't work, or rather worked too well. Every TP male we put it in front of basically attacked it nonstop until we took it away, so there was really no meaningful variance in the measurements. Aggro little shits.
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Apr 26, 2024 21:18
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Ordered a new backplate and wing to replace my old zeagle. Looking forward to giving it a go in Bonaire in a couple weeks.
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Apr 30, 2024 03:41
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Ropes4u posted:Ordered a new backplate and wing to replace my old zeagle. Looking forward to giving it a go in Bonaire in a couple weeks. Jealous.
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Apr 30, 2024 03:42
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My gf uses a travel Zeagle and my god that is the lightest BCD I've ever held.
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May 1, 2024 00:29
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Ropes4u posted:Looking forward to giving it a go in Bonaire in a couple weeks. Wish I could join you! I was trying to get together a dive trip to Bonaire for after Mother's Day, but it didn't happen.
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May 1, 2024 00:40
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Kesper North posted:Shakin' dat wrasse I see you baby
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May 1, 2024 04:05
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Trivia posted:My gf uses a travel Zeagle and my god that is the lightest BCD I've ever held. I had a ranger - while perfectly adequate it is a bit to bulky for my preference.
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May 2, 2024 02:55
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Trivia posted:My gf uses a travel Zeagle and my god that is the lightest BCD I've ever held. My steel backplate goes around the world. I love that stupid thing.
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May 2, 2024 08:16
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I went with an aluminum piranha plate, may need to get a steel backplate one of these days.
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May 3, 2024 13:44
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I have a steel because I need the weight at home. It’s a bit annoying to travel with - we can’t put much more than backplates, wings, and fins in a checked bag without going over weight. But in warm water with a 3mm suit I don’t need any additional weight at all.
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May 3, 2024 15:32
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I travel with my full sized Knighthawk, but I also bring one whole checked bag just for scuba gear. Bulky, but it doesn't weigh much. At home, I gets my extra weight from my giant steel tanks.
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May 3, 2024 15:36
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 Steel tanks loving rule.
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May 4, 2024 21:10
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Can someone explain the obsession with nudibranches?! Every instructor I've encountered mentions them like they're an Easter egg on a dive. I get that they're pretty loving trippy but is there more to them?
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May 13, 2024 22:45
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Leandros posted:Can someone explain the obsession with nudibranches?! Every instructor I've encountered mentions them like they're an Easter egg on a dive. I get that they're pretty loving trippy but is there more to them? There's ~3000 species and they're all radically different, like rare Pokemon. You'll likely never see the same specific weird alien thing again in your life.
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May 13, 2024 23:13
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they're cute and frequently weird looking. Also they can't run away and barely react, so they're easy to show off to a bunch of inexperienced students with terrible buoyancy
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May 13, 2024 23:44
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My better half is a nudibranch whisperer. She can spot them from twenty feet off the reef; It’s uncanny. We were semi-recently tide-pooling in Homer Alaska, and she spotted like eight of the things. The two local tour guides were beside themselves with how easily she was able to spot them.
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May 14, 2024 00:01
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Yea they have really pretty colors, strange shapes, usually difficult-ish to spot, and are like the top subject for someone doing macro photos. They barely look like they’re even from this planet.
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May 14, 2024 00:07
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They're weird and wild and a testament to a diver or guide's spotting ability. They're also rare enough that they're 'something new' for those of us that are very bored of the common fish on the reef.
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May 14, 2024 04:32
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That makes sense, thanks!
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May 14, 2024 08:29
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I am also obsessed with nudibranches. They're so loving cool. This cutey was somewhere in Coron, Philippines  I think this is a flatworm and not a nudibranch, but still neat! https://i.imgur.com/qlLEPxi.mp4
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May 14, 2024 08:32
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Flatworms are some of the coolest sea creatures. I love the way they move.
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May 14, 2024 08:54
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Speaking of worms, came across this feller in Elephant Cave, Crete:. Coming from a full frame DSLR to this bouncy camera with a shitload of presets but no manual control feels pretty loving restrictive so a lot of blurry photos but at least this one went somewhat ok. I wish I could splurge on a housing for my D750 
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May 14, 2024 10:11
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MrYenko posted:My better half is a nudibranch whisperer. She can spot them from twenty feet off the reef; It’s uncanny. We were semi-recently tide-pooling in Homer Alaska, and she spotted like eight of the things. The two local tour guides were beside themselves with how easily she was able to spot them. I have a friend who is like this with cephalopods. Able to spot camouflaged octopus from twenty meters away that I can't see from two. BTW if anyone is looking for a mostly scuba insta follow he is an absolutely excellent photographer: https://www.instagram.com/keishuasada/ Believe it or not, every one of those was shot with an Olympus TG-something without any additional lighting or case.
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May 15, 2024 00:10
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Just about the whole island of Bonaire is wrecked with Stoney coral loss disease https://shorturl.at/5HGZV Finding a place to beat what has been our favorite vacation for the last nine years will be tough, but I don’t see this place getting better with more development.
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May 19, 2024 23:37
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gently caress that's depressing.
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May 20, 2024 03:37
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Here in the Gulf of Thailand bleaching has finally started to show its ugly face. It follows what was arguably some of the hottest weather here in recent memory (according to the old hats). Very disheartening.
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May 20, 2024 07:10
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Trivia posted:Here in the Gulf of Thailand bleaching has finally started to show its ugly face. It follows what was arguably some of the hottest weather here in recent memory (according to the old hats). This popped up on my news feed: https://phys.org/news/2024-05-thailand-expo-coral-future.html Horrific.
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May 20, 2024 17:19
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Trig Discipline posted:gently caress that's depressing. Yes, but honestly, not THAT much worse then when I was there a year ago.
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May 20, 2024 17:44
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Squashy Nipples posted:Yes, but honestly, not THAT much worse then when I was there a year ago. Give it a few years. Fuuuuuuck.
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May 21, 2024 16:16
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| # ? May 24, 2024 12:01 |
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Squashy Nipples posted:Yes, but honestly, not THAT much worse then when I was there a year ago. I don’t think the coral disease will ramp up as fast as the lovely all inclusive beach tourists, rental boats (they are already warning divers to watch for them, jet skis, and electric surfboards (whatever they call them) But my wife has decided we are coming back in the winter, and the diving is still drat good, I’m just pessimistic about the future of Bonaire
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May 21, 2024 18:36
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