Seven New Species Of Deep-sea Coral Discovered

It is fascinating how much of our earth we know very little about! Too bad these new corals are too deep for diving!

ScienceDaily (2009-03-06) -- Scientists identified seven new species of bamboo coral in the deep waters of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. Six of these species may represent entirely new genera, a remarkable feat given the broad classification a genus represents. Scientists expect to identify more new species as analysis of samples continues.

Octopus causes flooding.

An octopus causes flooding at an aquarium, by playing with a value in it's tank....How typical that an octopus would do this...those things are so darn smart and playful! I remember diving in Yap and the octopus we encountered played hide and seek. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ7xVDuwhRU
If you want to read the article here is the link. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25114190-13762,00.html

MRSA on our beaches?

While I have known about MRSA (a class of supper bugs, which are difficult to treat with antibiotics as they are resistant to many of them) for a long time...more information about it comes out just about everyday. When I ran across this article I thought it would be great for everyone to read about it. Basically the article states:
-MRSA likes moist wet places
-MRSA lives and can be isolated in salt water
-MRSA can live on sand (actually it can live on most surfaces for up to 90days)
Since many people enjoy going to the beach, this should be thought about...one simple solution to this potential problem- Wash with soap and water after visiting the beach.
For us scuba divers- I would think about this-
Conjunctivitis has been known to be transfered from one person to another by the use of the mask rinse tank. I would bet that MRSA could also be transered in this way as well. It would be smart to shower after diving. Washing wetsuits with soap after each trip (beside you really need to sink the stink!) and washing all of the diving equipment such as snorkles, gloves, regulators and masks makes sense as well.

Google Earth

Google Earth has added an Ocean feature to it's database...pretty cool stuff on there...and as a scuba diver...they even have dive sites flagged! Oh I can't wait to see the stuff added.

I have heard of underwater pumpkin carving...but...

Now I have heard of underwater pumpkin carving, but his is something else...

New Video uploaded to YouTube

I am finally getting around to upload some more of my videos from my trip to Palau and Yap earlier this year. This video is from Yap, the current was really kickin and making the channel very murky, then this Manta Ray swims over my head, I could have touched him. So exciting!

Cool Jelly Fish Video with a hitchhiker.

Sea The Value!

Oceana – Protecting the World’s Oceans:Sea the Value Report

Oceana conducted a study to determine the value of of ocean resources for the scuba diver in the US. While I know that our ocean resources have value to us as scuba divers, I am not sure that their study reflects true value. My example is that I spent close to$8,000 to go to Palau and Yap...but if their reefs sucked I would not have spent that kind of money to go.
Check out their article....http://www.oceana.org/north-america/what-we-do/dive-into-ocean-conservation/sea-the-value-report/

Oceana Protecting the World's Oceans: Dive Into Ocean Conservation

You know I really do like the work that Oceana is doing for our environment and running across this...just shows how in touch they are with the diving community.

Lobster Hunt

Just back from the Wednesday night dive--lobster hunt! One our groups most successful dives...and this time we had around 40divers and quite a few bubble watchers. Unfortunately I did not get to eat lobster tonight, hot dogs for me. We had a fun night!

Today's Wednesday night Dive

Today we dove in Pike Lake in Allegan County, Michigan. Talk about braille diving...my most unfavorite diving! Actually the whole lake was not braille conditions, on the opposite side of the lake from the public access, it was actually about 5feet of vis and in the shallows and weed beds it was much greater. We saw a bunch of junk; traffic cones, bottles, part of a dock, a metal barrel, and more.
The best part of the dive was after...we had a potluck...lots of a great food and converstions, until a thunderstorm blew in...we just got packed up and back into the car before it down poured!

great dive tonight

Had a great dive tonight at one of my favorite local lakes....Lake Cora in Paw Paw.
The lake is shallow but warm...usually wear a wetsuit instead of my usual drysuit. Lots of fish and boy do the fish love to school especially around you while your diving.

Such a great dive!

Funny YouTube video

Found this funny YouTube video...I swear I have been known to mumble a few of these words while diving in Michigan....

Wed Night Dive

Tonights dive in Gull Lake at Ross Township Park...Poker night...I almost won $70 with 2 pairs queens and 6's, but triple 10's came in and got the cash. Great dive...finally saw the car that I keep missing.

Halloween Night dive

I just got back from a great Halloween night dive! We had a blast! We dove Gull Lake-Prairieville Park. There was some great big bass and pike just hanging out...more than I have seen in that area in the past....just a great dive!
I hope you all had/have a great Halloween.....

Photos from my Manitou trip!

DSCF0353a
Originally uploaded by cjsherlock

Here is a sample of the photos that I took on my trip to Manitou. You can find more photos on my Flickr account. In 2 sets, one of the lodge an the other the diving photos. http://www.flickr.com/photos/csherlock/

Back from my Vacation

Hello, everyone! I am back from my trip to Manitou! I had a BLAST! We stayed in a resort called Jolli-Lodge, it was right on the shore of Lake Michigan and our cabin was right off of the beach with a great view of the Manitou islands!
The first day the good old Lake Michigan was just too rough for our boat to head over to the Islands for our diving, so we did a shore dive in the Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve (proposed) on the Elmwood. The Elmwood was a great shipwreck. I took my camera and I do have pictures (I will upload later) I also took some video with my camera and I posted it on YouTube. After that dive we dove in front of our resort, pretty flat and a long way to the drop off, and with the lake being so rough it was a difficult entry!

On Sunday, we had much better luck with the weather, and we boarded our boat for South Manitou Island. The first wreck we dove was, the Franciso Morazan (and of course the Walter L. Frost). Unfortunately we did not swim over to the Frost as my dive buddy was having a lot of trouble with his mask, so we headed back to the boat to fix it.
Our second dive on Sunday was the Three Brothers. That was a great dive! I did not take my camera on the dives on Sunday...and I wish had, but the space as very limited on the boat and I was afraid the camera could get damaged.

Here is the video from the Elmwood:

Been a Long Time!

I am sorry that it has been a long time since I have posted! I have had considerable computer problems. First my home office computer was not working properly after a storm. I ended up having to reformat and reinstall everything, then something happened when installing and had to repeat the process a week later as things still would not work. Now it is working fine. Then my personal computer got a nasty virus when I had not updated the antivirus subscription for about a month...then I had to uninstall the antivirus software as I was upgrading to a different maker, wham bamm, thank you Mame, the virus was all over the place...really screwed up the operating system. A wipe of the hard drive and a reinstall later, Vista is working better than before!

This past Wednesday night dive- I was unable to dive the last "Wednesday Night Dive" that our dive shop- SASS -sponsors. I was bummed, but a mild cold will do that to ya! I still went to enjoy my friends and have some hot dogs!

Today's Dives and More

Today we did a trip on Lake Michigan to dive in the Southwest Michigan Underwater Preserve by the City of South Haven. This was my first "Great Lakes" trip, as I have dove mostly inland lakes. We dove 2 wrecks- the Rockaway and the Verano.
-Rockaway- 107' schooner that was lost on Nov 19th 1891. The wreck is pretty broken up but it was a great dive...water temp at depth was about 57degrees F. The vis was about 50'. It was a fun dive!
-Verano- 92' yacht, lost in 1946. The wreck is very broken up with pieces scattered about. The water temp was comfortable, but the Vis really droped down to 20', as the current was pretty strong there, which made it difficult to see the scattered pieces.

I can't wait until my dive trip in Sept to the Manitou Passage Preserve.


UPDATE- After reinstalling my computer this weekend I had to delay the new design. A new design will be launched on Monday....stay tuned. Check it out at www.seasquirrelproductions.net

Take The Oceana/Duke Dive Survey

You know how much your house is worth, your savings and investments … but how much is a healthy ocean worth?

Oceana wants to know how divers value ocean resources, so we’re asking you to fill out a short online survey. It only takes about 10 minutes, and it’s completely voluntary and confidential. At the end of the survey, participants will have the opportunity to enter a raffle for a free “Save Sea Turtles” T-shirt. The survey will not only support our work protecting the oceans, it’s also for the master’s thesis of one of our interns and a much-needed contribution to academic research in environmental economics.

Take the survey and tell us what the ocean is worth to you.

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