Over at Divester, I posted about a site that I knew
would be of interest to divers called Marinebio.org. The thought being that most
divers are actually marine biologists at heart. You dive, you explore the underwater world, and you do these things
with an intense curiosity about them. How does that reef grow? How long does that crab live? Why does that fish behave
that way? These are the questions that float through the minds of all bubble blowers. And conveniently, these are the
kinds of questions that are answered over at marinebio.org, a site dedicated to
everything below the surface of the ocean. I have now spent some time at this site and really like it. And given
the fact that I am going diving in less than a week, it was a timely find for me.
Photo of the Day: (6/03/05)
I got so excited reading about Truk Lagoon that I decided to call out
this photo of a skull on the reef as our POTD. It’s a remarkable
photo, and I suppose I wanted to doubt its veracity, but it seems legit. As creepy as it sounds, I think it would be
very cool to dive and find a human skull. But maybe that’s just me.
Diving Truk Lagoon
It is considered one of the world’s best dives, and they say the more you dive Truk Lagoon,
the more you discover because not only is the dive riddled with wrecks, but the sea life is amazingly abundant. There
are many places to dive around Truk, but one hot spot is the wreck of the Fujikawa Maru, a Japanese WWII wreck that
stretches some 435 feet along the bottom of the sea. The area around and inside the wreck is riddled with rice bowls,
gas masks and brass lamps, all not to be touched.
If you want to read more about Truk Lagoon and see some sweet pics, check
out this site. It has detailed info on the various dives and
a nice gallery comprised of photos from several
photographers. Another site has a list of the ships in the lagoon
and full page pics. And finally, a wonderful full-length shot of
the wreck Fumizuki. Happy diving.
Jawsfest
It seemed appropriate to post about Jawsfest over at
Divester given that in one of the Jaws films (I forget which…not the first one)
several divers were gobbled up by the now-famous great white. But I’ve read a few other stories since I posted at
Divester and I have to say I think the event would be damn fun to attend. There will be members of the cast in
attendance and all sorts of Jaws-related activities. Peter Benchley,
the author of Jaws, will actually be there.
Jaws was such a formative emotional experience for many of us. It was the first very vivid, cinema-based exposure to
horror that many of us had. And it was SO REAL. For good or for ill, that was very impactful. For me, having grown up
by the beach, it affected my swimming habits for a while, but didn’t cause any long-term psychological damage, thank
goodness. But it did expose me really for the first time to the power of movie-making…something that would be triply
emphasized two years later with the release of Star Wars.
To be honest, I think the most amazing thing about Jaws is that it is thirty years old. I mean…was it THAT long ago? I
was but a wee lad, but three decades later, when I’m in the water, I do sometimes hear that song in my head: da
dum. Da dum da dum.
Just a little more Palau…
I came across another video of Palau’s underwater world – specifically the mantas. Not much to say bout it other
than, if you like underwater videos, it’s a pretty cool video. I’ve never had the chance to dive with mantas so I’m in
particular awe. The music on this video is a little more relaxed than the blue corner video I posted yesterday.