I’ve got two quick links for you today.

Sean at Expedition Fleet Blog has a few bits of useless diving trivia. One of them might come in handy if you ever get trapped in a shipwreck.

Noreen at Aquaviews goes over the choices for surface marker buoys, an important piece of dive safety equipment.

Snorkels are considered a core piece of scuba gear. Mask, fins, and snorkel: the three items every beginner starts with. We take this for granted, and dive away with those plastic tubes strapped to our head. After a while, though, we start to question the utility of a snorkel. When diving the smooth Caribbean waters, for example, is a snorkel really necessary?

At this juncture, there are a few paths the blossoming diver can take:

• Keep the snorkel. Your first option is to heed your training and continue to dive while wearing a snorkel at all times. Sure, it can be uncomfortable in a current, but you rest easy knowing it’s always there.
• Exchange the snorkel for a pocket snorkel. Your next option is to remove the snorkel from your mask. Aaah, how liberating! There are times when you may need a snorkel, so for those situations you carry a foldable pocket snorkel in your BCD pocket. In an emergency, it’s only a zipper away.
• Ditch the snorkel. Look out, divers, this future tech diver means business! The last option is to ditch the snorkel completely. I don’t imagine anyone throws their snorkel away, but rather keeps it in their gear bag and wears it on a case-by-case basis. Choppy waters with low viz? Bring the snorkel. Bonaire shore dive? No thanks.

If you find a snorkel uncomfortable, I think carrying a pocket snorkel is your best option. I don’t own one (yet), so I wear a snorkel based on the dive conditions. However, be aware that some dive operators may not let you in the water if you don’t have a snorkel. For this reason, you should always carry a snorkel with your gear.

What do you think? Are snorkels for sissies, or would only a fool go in the water without one?

Photo by chrisada

Last Tuesday (June 8) was World Oceans Day. Started in 2009, World Oceans Day was created by the United Nations as an opportunity to celebrate the ocean and the value it provides in the form of seafood, trade routes, and sport (in case you missed it, scuba fits in this category).

As a bit of activism on World Oceans Day, Project AWARE launched a petition to give sharks a fighting chance.

Sharks did not fair well at this year’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Eight threatened shark species were not awarded protection by the convention’s vote. Shark finning was at the top of the target list, but in general the desire is to limit catches based on scientific advice.

This petition was created to give the ordinary folks an avenue to express outrage and frustration at the convention’s shortsightedness. Personally, I am not a strong believer in petitions. I think their greatest strength is also their weakness—they require too little out of the signees. This lets one easily amass a large collection of signatures, but those signatures are relatively worthless.

Nevertheless, I signed it. If you care about the issue, you should sign it too. Even if it can’t help, it certainly can’t hurt. At worst it provides a small line in a future draft of legislature (“A recent petition collected over 100,000 signatures…”).

You can find the petition here: give sharks a chance.

The votes required 2/3 majority to pass. I’m curious if there was debate, and if so, what the other side had to say in defense of knowingly following a path of extinction for certain species of shark.

I thought we’d do something a little different today. Everyone is familiar with dolphins in some shape or form, but did you know there are 18 genera (plural of genus) of oceanic dolphins? We are going to cover some of the more common ones. Then you can look smart when someone shouts “Dolphin!” and say, “More specifically, that’s a Pacific white-sided dolphin.”

Common dolphin

It’s called the common dolphin, but is probably not the most familiar. There are over 20 species of common dolphin, in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Generally speaking, the common dolphin has a dark back with a white underbelly. Two of the most common variety are the long-beaked and short-beaked. These, like many dolphins, are found in pods of 10-50.

Bottlenose dolphin

If a dolphin should come to mind when you hear “common dolphin”, it should actually be the bottlenose. This is the dolphin of pop culture (Flipper) and seen in marine parks worldwide. These are the one of the larger types of dolphin, and are seen the world over, everywhere except in polar waters.

They have a short, well-formed snout that resembles an old-fashioned bottle. They tend to be grey all over, with slightly lighter bellies. Bottlenose dolphins also have more neck flexibility than other dolphins, making them capable of all the expressions that they have become well-known for.

Right whale dolphin

Right whale dolphins are predominantly black with small white underbellies. They are distinguished as being one of the only dolphins without dorsal fins.

Right whale dolphins tend to remain in the colder aquatic regions, although they have been spotted in warmer waters. They are divided into species of northern right whale dolphins and southern right whale dolphins. They can be distinguished based on their white patterns: southern right whale dolphins have white that extends further on their body, including their snout and flippers. If still unsure, you should also be able to tell the difference based on where you are in the world.

Killer whale

The killer whale, or orca, is actually a dolphin. Not surprisingly, it is the largest oceanic dolphin. Killer whales are apex predators, and thus have no natural predators.

Killer whales probably need no description, but they have black backs, white chests and sides, and a white patch above their eyes. They range in size from 5-8 meters (16-27 feet).

There’s probably not much you haven’t heard about this group, so here’s an interesting tidbit. To travel faster, killer whales will leap out of the water while swimming. This technique is called porpoising.

Next time we’ll get into the more obscure dolphins.

Common dolphin photo by mikebaird
Bottlenose dolphin photo by The Pug Father
Killer whale photo by *christopher*

So often in our haste to take pictures underwater we forget an important fact: to be a good underwater photographer, you first have to be a good diver. The good news, however, is that being an aspiring photographer doesn’t have to interfere with your development as a competent diver. In fact, it often accelerates it.

Many of the skills we develop in life are born out of necessity. Likewise, mastery of fin pivots, for example, may come out of the need to get in close to a photo subject rather than rote repetition. The ability to hover effortlessly may arise out of shooting stingrays and not advanced certifications.

The line is drawn where photography interferes with your ability to be a safe diver. It is your responsibility to consider the factors leading to a dive. If you don’t think you will be able to take pictures without harming the environment or doing so safely (including your responsibilities to your buddy), it is on you to make the call and leave the camera behind.

Usually this is not the case. Enjoy learning how to take photos underwater, and appreciate the side benefits it has on your abilities as a scuba diver. You may surprise yourself at just how competent a diver you become in the process.

Photo by PhotopediaPhotos

Hello again! It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time to share links around the web.

BBC News has a piece about fishing pirates, people who fish illegally throughout the world.

Actor Chevy Chase wrote an op-ed piece for CNN about how our lack of attention is killing the oceans. Chase and his wife have long been environmental activists.

Natalie’s scuba diving blog at about.com has an article on what makes someone a good dive buddy.

I really like Aquaviews, the online magazine of LeisurePro, a New York City based scuba supplier, and where I’ve bought 90% of my dive equipment. This week they have a two part article on coral identification. Part one covers identifying hard coral, and part two is dedicated to identifying soft coral. The series is an excellent primer for practically all types of coral you will encounter.

I randomly came across this interesting device. It’s an ear dryer, for drying out the insides of your ears after swimming or scuba diving. It even warms the air it blows into your ear canal.

I was a little surprised to see this device selling for $100 USD. Who would pay that much for this, especially when you can make homemade swimmer’s ear for a couple of bucks?

I started reading the comments on the sales page and it hit me. If you suffer from chronic ear infections, then anytime you come out of the water you are potentially facing doctor visits, medications, and other miscellaneous expenses—not to mention, no more diving until it clears up. This pretty much eliminates swimming or diving as a hobby for you.

Enter the ear dryer. For $100, you take a few minutes after each dive to clear out your ears. Presto! Your chances of ear infection are drastically reduced. If you fit into this category, then I imagine this is a great little device.

This is an interesting tidbit about human physiology, although it applies more to free-diving than scuba.

Try this out: take a breath and try to hold it. Unless you practice this sort of thing, it won’t take long before you feel the urge to breath, that tugging in your chest. Where does that feeling come from?

Most people would guess that your body needs oxygen, and that it translates this need into a physical response urging you to breath. This is close, but not correct. In fact, this reflex comes from the other half of the same cycle.

Breathing is a two part process, composed of an inhale and an exhale. The inhale brings fresh oxygen into your lungs, which gets absorbed into your blood and carried through your body. Meanwhile, blood is circulating back to your lungs, carrying carbon dioxide bi-product from your system. This carbon dioxide is released from your blood into your lungs, which is then expelled by an exhale. This process repeats for as long as you keep breathing.

The urge to breath, then, doesn’t come from the need for oxygen, but rather from a build-up of carbon dioxide. When you feel the need to breath, you are actually feeling the need to exhale!

Try the experiment again: take a breath and try to hold it. This time, when you feel you need to breath, try exhaling a little air gently. It helps, doesn’t it?

My favorite way to try this is climbing stairs in my building. Anytime you work your body, you are generating carbon dioxide. Work the body harder, get more carbon dioxide. This is why your breathing escalates during exercise. When I feel myself running short of breath, I make a conscious effort to extend my exhales instead of just increasing my respiration rate. Even if your body is low on air, as long as carbon dioxide levels are normal, your diaphragm won’t be stimulated to draw a breath.

This knowledge is useful for exercise. When you understand how this works, you realize that deeper breaths are not necessarily the answer to controlled breathing. Exhaling excess carbon dioxide is just as, if not more, important.

Photo by aquaxel