Flotsam & Jetsam

Another Scuba Diving Boat Catches Fire. In mid-January, 15 passengers and crew members were rescued by a nearby vessel when their 50-foot day-boat Triton, heading for Basalt Island, caught fire off Hong Kong's scenic Jin Island. A video of the vessel showed scuba tanks exploding before it finally sank. Nobody was reported injured. South China Morning Post

Scientific Diver Training Course. Want to be more useful underwater? Connecticut Scuba Academy trains and supports scientists, students, technicians, and volunteers in using underwater techniques and technology necessary to safely conduct underwater research and data collection. More info and prices: www.ctscuba.org

A Favorite Technical Diving Dive Site Disappears. Pirate salvors working in the South China Sea have completely removed the 80-year-old remains of the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser HMS Repulse. They were sunk in December 1941, north of Singapore, by Japanese air power. The loss of the Prince of Wales was the beginning of the end of the modern battleship.

Women's Scuba Hall of Fame Inductee Headed to Jail. New Jersey diving school pioneer Tamara Brown, 58, has been sentenced to 27 months in prison and fined $50,000 for wire fraud. She submitted false information in 2012 when renewing a required accreditation for Divers Academy International, needed to qualify for funds from the U.S. Dept. of Education. Brown was also accused of inflating rates of employment for her graduates and providing fraudulent information about advisory board meetings to qualify for funding. Courier Post

Divers Can Start Heading to the Philippines. Starting February 16, travelers with proof of full vaccinations will be allowed entry to the Philippines. There are exemptions for those medically unable to receive a vaccine and certified by a competent health authority in their home country, but no exemptions for tennis stars. www.pna.gov.ph

Have You Heard of Bonaire? Of course you have! But that hasn't stopped the tiny island in the Dutch Caribbean from hiring an expensive advertising agency, Dunn & Co, to "rebrand" it post-pandemic. In the press release, the agency note Bonaire's 85 well-known dive sites including 54 accessible from the shore, 350 species of fish, and 57 types of coral. The agency will release a global advertising and marketing campaign, but we must ask: what is Bonaire's current brand that is being rebranded, anyway?

Are "Diving Oxygen Scuba Tanks" the Future of Scuba? We received a press release from a London company named MR Accuracy Reports offering the dive industry report entitled Global Diving Oxygen Scuba Tanks Industry 2021, "a methodical research study based on the Diving Oxygen Scuba Tanks market, analyzing the competitive framework of the industry in the world, using efficient analytical tools such as SWOT analysis and Porter's five forces analysis." They include nine companies, including Sherwood, InnerSpace Systems, and KISS Rebreathers. They say the market will show "huge growth by 2028." The report price to a corporation: $7000. We wonder if a report on oxygen toxicity will accompany it.

Avoid Hot Dive Computers. Should you be tempted to buy a new computer online at a knockdown price, be aware it might have been stolen and there will be no manufacturer's warranty. Ask the seller to supply a photograph of the serial number. If it's legitimate, they would not object and you can cross-check it with the distributor or manufacturer. A second-hand computer should have plenty of dives in its memory, and that's another way to check you're not being sold a hot computer. But still check the serial number.

Orcas Kill Whales. A new study published in Marine Mammal Science describes pods of orcas preying on blue whales in what amounts to the biggest apex predator taking down the world's biggest prey. The attacks have been observed in Bremer Bay, Southwest Australia, twice in 2019 and once in 2021. People have documented orcas feeding on nearly every species of large whale worldwide, though most attacks have been on calves. These particular orcas off South Australia subsist on an unusually diverse diet. Anything that passes through Bremer Bay might end up in a killer whale's mouth. The Guardian

X-Deep Recalls its NX700 Regulator: Stop Using It. During routine servicing of some NX700 1st stages, technicians have discovered excessive membrane wear in some regulators. Consequently, all existing NX700 first stages have been recalled and need and the dry chamber body will need to be replaced. If you own an NX700 1st stage, stop using it immediately and contact the dealer from whom you purchased it. More info: www.xdeep.eu/files/nx700_recall_en.pdf

World Shootout Winners. Announced on January 29, among the outright winners of the 12 different categories of underwater photographs entered in 2021, were Martin Broen (New York, NY) with a beautiful cave shot entered in the wide-angle section, and Tanya Houppermans (Fredericksburg, VA) with three photos of sand tigers entered in the shark category. You can see the work of all the winners here: www.worldshootout.org

Sherwood Avid BC Woes. Undercurrent continues to get reports of Sherwood Avid BCs parting from the user's tank during a dive. It's a design fault that has never been corrected, and it was first drawn to the manufacturer's attention in 2016. The cambands of the BC do not pass through the buoyancy cell, as is normal with most other BCs, and instead pass through plastic mounts that often prove insufficient to take the strain of giant stride entries. Be warned. https://tinyurl.com/2p9bdkkn