Nobody likes waiting, and they especially don’t like people who make them wait. Don’t be that person!

When diving from a boat, make sure you are completely ready before moving to the platform. Dawdling on the edge of the boat is highly inconsiderate for those jumping in after you, the crew helping divers off the boat, and your buddy waiting in the water. It’s also dangerous, since a jolt to the boat could toss you overboard.

Before moving to enter the water, check that you have done everything to be ready, including

• Complete buddy check
• Mask defogged
• Mask strap adjusted
• Fins ready to put on (straps loosened)
• Extra gear (like a camera) ready

This list is by no means comprehensive, but is a starting point for what should run through you head. Please, don’t keep divers waiting. If you do it to me, I might push you in the water.

With over 28,000 individual species of fish (and the number keeps growing), it would take about 540 years for the fish identification series to cover them all.

Fortunately, we don’t have to do that. Using some common sense, we can get that number down to something reasonable. First, we can limit based on fish we may actually encounter while scuba diving. With this filter, the number drops to around 4,000. This is still too many, but much closer to being manageable.

Second, we can combine fish that are nearly the same. For instance, it is not critical to always know the difference between a white-mouthed moray eel and a spotted moray eel (although in this case it should be obvious). Simply knowing that they are both moray eels should suffice. Applying this idea we can reduce the list down to 30-50 fish families. Not bad! Now things are getting reasonable.

Some people like to combine these families even further into about 12-15 large groupings based on common characteristics. This is fine for subdividing a large task, but these groups generally don’t have a convenient name to use, so at the end of the day it doesn’t buy you all that much.

I’ll list the fish families and loosely group them based on similarities. Many of these families will look familiar, since we have covered them (or specific species in that family) in previous articles.

Ok, here we go:

Don’t be overwhelmed. Many of these families you can probably identify already. The rest should take no time at all. I’ll update links on this page as we cover each family. I may also add a family or two as I see fit.

You may have seen this floating around the web, but The Cayman Islands are holding a contest for a 7-night stay for two people at a resort, along with airfare!

To enter the contest, you must become a fan of The Cayman Islands Facebook page, and in 100 words or less describe your perfect day on The Cayman Islands.

The contest ends June 24, so you have about a month. I’ve never been to The Cayman Islands, but I’m sure they’re quite a popular destination for a reason. Given the small time commitment, there’s no harm entering the contest. Who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky!

Photo by Salvatore.Freni

New Horizon Reef Charter posted a list of 10 things to check before your next dive trip. This has to do with ensuring a reputable dive operator. Not all of these items are deal-breakers, for instance, “do they support local or global efforts in conservation or research”, but there are a few important, but occasionally overlooked, items.

Aquaviews gives a two-part rundown of the best scuba-related iPhone apps, Part I, and Part II. I am interested in the ones that map dive sites, although I can’t see myself getting into traditional dive logging on my iPhone.

Keri Wilk has an article on Dive Photo Guide about self modeling in underwater photography. The article provides an instructional (and interesting) look at posing for your own underwater photographs.

Yesterday I mentioned Tonga as one of my must-dive destinations before I dive. The Scuba Diver Girls Blog posted a destination report for Tonga.

Duane over at Precision Diving posted an article a few weeks ago on the top 5 places to dive before you dive—I thought I’d play along.

Most of my scuba diving experience has been around the Caribbean, so I tried to balance my list to not be entirely comprised of south Pacific destinations.

1. Tonga – Reading Tony Wu’s Underwater Photography Blog has given me Tonga fever. Sprawling islands with many dive sites, some untouched, makes this a diving paradise. I’d love to spend 1-2 weeks on a live-aboard out that way.
2. Thailand – Phuket, Ko Samui, Ko Tao, and many other places in Thailand are huge diving destinations. They are particularly popular for diving internships. I want to go and rent a bungalow for a month while seeing some of the most pristine diving in the world.
3. Belize – I wanted to balance the list out with some destinations close to home. Belize’s Blue Hole is very well-known. Whether or not it’s overrated, I’d like to see it.
4. Poor Knights Islands – I spent a little over three months in New Zealand, and even did a little diving, but I never made it up north to the Poor Knights Islands. The islands have been famous since Jacques Cousteau declared them one of the top 10 dive sites in the world.
5. The Galapagos – Probably my most in-demand destination that’s close to home, The Galapagos Islands are another prime candidate for a live-aboard. The Galapagos are famous for their diversity. As a bonus, they’re relatively close while being in the Pacific, which gives me a little variety from the usual Caribbean critters.

That’s my list that I’d like to revisit from time to time.

Your turn. Tell everybody in the comments where you want to scuba dive before your time comes.

On Saturday we went to Diving Unlimited International’s (DUI) Dog Rally and Demo Tour at Dutch Springs, PA. While there, we completed our requisite dives for a Drysuit Specialty. Look out in the future for a drysuit diving article.

First off, the demo tour was pretty cool, and I would highly recommend it for anyone interested in drysuit diving, for several reasons:

• Not many places rent out dry suits. This can make it difficult to try one or get your specialty. Often, divers have to make the expensive purchase before even trying out a drysuit.
• If you can rent a dry suit, good luck having a choice. DUI has the full line available, so you can try out multiple dry suits made of different materials.
• While not the only dry suit manufacturer, DUI is one of the main ones. Their line of suits is fairly complete for everyone’s needs.
• It’s cheap. Pre-purchase tickets are $10, which includes lunch.
• It’s complete. I supplied my own air, BCD, regulator, and weights. DUI provided everything else, including insulation, hoods, and fins.
• DUI’s ZipSeals are awesome for drysuit diving.
• You get a free hat.

The day wasn’t perfect, though. Most problems weren’t DUI’s fault. We had a few misunderstandings with Dutch Springs about tanks and weights rentals, and then it started to pour rain as we packed up to leave. The irony of remaining dry while scuba diving all day only to get soaked by the rain did not escape us.

One major annoyance was the lengthy wait to get fitted for a drysuit. We were told because the next day’s forecast called for rain, everyone went on Saturday. Regardless, I would think most tickets were pre-purchased and DUI would be aware of how many people would show up.

We finally got through the line. I was saved by the fact that although I’m average height, I’m about 30-40 pounds lighter than the “average” diver (why so many overweight divers? Sounds like a topic for another article). I got the last trilaminate suit in my size.

Not wanting to wait in line again, we did repeat dives with the same suits. I was curious to try crushed neoprene, but since I was new to drysuit diving, re-using the same suit was okay with me. I hope this was a localized problem, because everything else was great.

Has anyone else gone to the DUI Demo Tour? What was your experience?

Porcupinefish are always a fun sight on dives. They are sometimes called blowfish.

Physical description

The porcupinefish gets its name from the many long spines located all over the head and body. They are members of the pufferfish family, but should not be confused with pufferfish. The porcupinefish’s spines are visible even when they lay flat, whereas they are not usually visible on a pufferfish.

When threatened, the porcupinefish can inhale air or water to inflate its body to over twice the normal size. Additionally, this causes the spines to stand up, making the porcupinefish edible only by large predators.

You are not likely to see an inflated porcupinefish, even if you attempt to chase one. I have heard if you manage to grab one by the tail they will inflate, but we all know that’s not a good idea, don’t we? I have also heard that inflating is stressful and has an effect on the fish’s lifespan.

Porcupinefish are a grayish tan color, with white on the underbelly. They are usually covered with small black spots or splotches.

They can reach up to 36 inches (91 cm) in length. They have large heads which taper off towards the caudal fin. They are also distinguished by their large, round eyes which appear to watch you when swimming by. They also have oval-shaped mouths which are usually open.

Geography and habitat

Porcupinefish are found worldwide in tropical, and sometime temperate, regions.

They live in holes on reefs at pretty much all depths. Usually you will encounter them swimming out above reefs, though.

They tend to be solitary, but occasionally you will see them in small groups. They also tend to move very slowly, although they still swim faster than most scuba divers.

Toxins

Porcupinefish are known to produce toxins in their organs and on their skin. Nevertheless, they are known to be eaten in some areas. My guess is that the toxin is mild enough to only be dangerous to smaller predators.

Further reading

Wikipedia
Florida Museum of Natural History
Shedd Aquarium

Two wildly different links today:

Clay Today has an article about a SPLASH, a program design to introduce Florida foster kids to scuba diving.

The Design Blog has a post about a futuristic dive helmet. The design includes elements like heads-up displays and GPS-based underwater maps. The helmet basically acts like a rebreather, but extracts oxygen from seawater through eloctrolysis. I’m not sure how serious this design is supposed to be, given the lack of equalization ability and the (current) impracticality of extracting oxygen from seawater. Nevertheless, I’d be glad to test out a prototype.