Finding your way back

How's this for a stroke of luck? Six years after losing a camera underwater in Maui, it gets found in Taiwan and returned. I can only hope that if ever I lose my rig that it would survive and someone return it to me. But knowing the thieving scumbags on this island, that would never happen!

Link: HERE

"After a camera lost on Maui nearly six years ago ended up in Taiwan, it didn't take long for Hawaii News Now to track down its owner."

"The Canon PowerShot was in a waterproof case and it drifted thousands of miles to Taiwan. A China Airlines employee discovered the camera on a beach last month. The airline asked Hawaii News Now to help find the owner seen in many of the pictures. Once the story hit the airwaves and the internet, Scallan's friend sent her a link."

Liquid State

Remember that great film The Abyss? Remember Ed Harris having to learn to breath oxygenated liquid? Well it turns out that theory may just well turn into fact thanks to Arnold Lande, a retired American heart and lung surgeon.

"Lande envisages a scuba suit that would allow divers to inhale highly-oxygenated perfluorocarbons (PFCs) – a type of liquid that can dissolve enormous quantities of gas. The liquid would be contained in an enclosed helmet that would replace all the air in the lungs, nose and ear cavities."

"The CO2 that would normally exit our body when we breathe out would be “scrubbed” from our blood by attaching a mechanical gill to the femoral vein in the leg."

This is awesome, where do I sign up to get a gill attached to my leg??? I'll take two!!!

Link: HERE

 

The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn

Ok, I know the blog hasn't been getting super regular updates the last week or so, I'm currently out of the water nursing an arm that looks like a bag of rugby balls and suffering a bad infection.

My arm, yesterday.

Hopefully it will be business as usual in the next week or two as the doc has prescribed me more drugs than ICI make in a year!  In the meantime, please enjoy this video a cat sleeping with it's tongue hanging out.

Penguins and iPads

Because penguins deserve to play games too, dammit!!

One man and his sub

Ok, so it's not quite the same as being as in actual contact with the aquatic world but it's close enough for some people. A selection of 17 one man subs for your delight and interest courtesy of one of the regular tech sites.

Link:HERE

Swimming with spacemen

This is a pretty fascinating, not to mention spectacular article on Ars Technica about the role of the safety divers and their interaction with NASA simulated zero G training in the confines of a 6.2 million gallon water tank. This would be an awesome job!

"The safety divers operate with a standard "nitrox" mixture of 46 percent oxygen and 54 percent nitrogen, and the depth of the NBL coupled with their typical dive time means that decompression rarely poses a problem. Peterman was quick to point out that while the divers almost never need decompression time, there's always the possibility of other problems—such as a gas embolism—that require a hyperbaric chamber to treat. In the NBL's history, no major dive incidents have required use of the chamber to stave off decompression-related problems. Regardless, a full-time medical staff works on-site."

The closest I've ever come is to playing safety diver to a bunch of standard dress divers in a near freezing water tank in North Yorkshire. No contest really.......

Link: HERE

Yes, yes I would do this job.

Hasten down the wind

Well here's the reason why the diving ground to a halt this weekend. The Nor' Westerly has picked up considerably as predicted and is proceeding to give the coastline a damn good thrashing!

Fine for surfing but not to good for the diving. The fish market on the beach was almost swept away when we went past. At least the fish had a good chance to escape back to where they belong.

Seasons in the abyss

Well we have a strong NW due to roll over the island later today which will generally mess everything up for the weekend, so that's diving pretty much down the poop chute for us.

However an interesting article did pop up in the local rag about our very own abyss which I found pretty interesting, with discovery of some new species of marine life and some amazing video footage as well, you will not believe the amount of shrimp, it's like a living blanket of critters.

"Chief scientist for the expedition of the United Kingdom’s National Oceanography Centre, Jon Copley, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he believes laboratory analysis in the coming months will reveal some new life forms that have evolved in the pitch-black vent areas of the Cayman Trough."

“From body form alone, I am confident that we have found several new species on this expedition: probably a new species of sea anemone, a few species of bristle worms and some small crustaceans,” Mr. Copley said."

Who knew we had the worlds deepest volcanic vents right on our doorstep?

Link: HERE