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Artificial Reef Update

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Submission Deadlines

Guy Balbirona

Recently, I was watching a program about ways to increase one's prosperity. One of the suggestions was to "pay yourself first." Of course, it got me to thinking how to pay yourself with scuba diving. What I came up with is to take your scuba abilities to the next level. If you would make the decision to advance your certification level you would be repaid not only by incentive in the form of $15.00 from ESDC, but you will gain in the prosperity of being a diver that can be counted on safely, have a higher level of diver awareness, meet others whom you could also dive safely with, support of the dive community, and gain recognition of your level completed.

With ESDC, we all have a great opportunity to make the decision to take the next step up in certification because we have some very good instructors and dive pros associated with our club. They are all very good in what they do and are active members that you could easily contact at any club meeting. If it is a matter of convenience, then please do support the nearest dive shop that you normally do business with, but consider that taking the step-up in continuing education and advancing your level of certification is a wise thing to do. I just believe that the quality of help available to us through the club gives a more personable approach to your learning experience. So please do take a look into it. You are making a wise investment when you decide to " pay yourself first!"

Darlene Ripley

In keeping with President Guy’s column we are starting a new list. If you are an instructor or dive master looking for students and would like your name and telephone number or e-mail listed in the monthly newsletter please submit to: esdcnewsletter@mindspring.com attention Darlene. Please submit first and last name, company certified with ( PADI, NAUI, etc.), and year of certification. If you work out of a dive shop and would prefer going through them please submit that as well.

Just to let you know, all submissions will be edited for grammar, spelling, etc.; Your content, however, will not be changed. Thank you.

No submissions.

If you usually do not attend meetings, you may want to February 4^th, as there is going to be a discussion regarding the club’s financial condition followed by a vote by the membership as to whether the club raises dues, charges a surcharge for club dives, etc. This is YOUR club and you have the right and responsibility to VOTE!

Elena DiPardo

Please join us on Wednesday, February 4, to listen to Roy and Mark Gresham discuss Cylinder Myths and give us knowledgeable information about the new series of cylinders available to us on today’s market. Roy is a long time member of ESDC and has been servicing many of our regulators for many years. I am looking forward to learning more about the new cylinders being offered us. I hope you are too. See you there!

January 13, 2004.

BOEING 737 TO BE NEW ARTIFICIAL REEF TO BOOST COMOX AREA DIVE TOURISM


The Artificial Reef Society of BC today announced that a Boeing 737 airframe will be sunk near Comox, on Vancouver Island, instead of near Sechelt as previously announced.

Tex Enemark, President of the Artificial Reef Society of BC, and Bill Coltart, Projects Coordinator for the Comox Valley Dive Association, said that an arrangement had been made by which the diving community and tourism operators in the Comox Valley area were taking on the responsibility for raising financing to place the plane as and artificial reef for divers about a mile off shore from Comox.

Enemark, speaking for the ARSBC said, "The Comox-area diver community has
wanted an artificial reef sunk nearby since the BC artificial reef program
started a dozen years ago but, for a variety of reasons, it has never
happened. This will be a very interesting and unusual artificial reef," he
continued. "It will add hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to dive
tourism in the area.

"By virtue of her being only 37 feet high," said Coltart, "she will be able
to offer divers the opportunity to do penetration dives shallower than 70
feet. This makes for an ideal training environment. The 6 ships that the
ARSBC have sunk are somewhat deeper, with main decks at over 80 feet in most
cases and the bulk of the artificial reef below that. Such depths are
sometimes intimidating for divers, and shorten the time a diver is able to
spend underwater. The airframe, with its wide-open inside space, numerous
existing windows, and extra access holes we will cut for divers, will offer
a well lit, expansive reef to explore at an advantageous depth. It will be
an excellent and safe place to learn wreck basic diving skills."

Howard Robins, Vice President of the ARSBC, who has led the preparation of
the airframe for sinking, said, "A large number local divers, as well as
divers from Washington State, worked very hard as volunteers to prepare the
airplane for sinking over the spring and summer.  The airframe is now clean
and ready for inspection, and the only thing between us and sinking the
plane is a detailed Environment Canada permitting process, which we now have
to start all over again. A permit was filed today"

"The plane was built in the 1960's and is 100 feet long, has a 96 foot
wingspan, and in its stripped state weighs about 20 tons. She served the
people of Canada very well for many years and now goes on to a whole other
career as a major interest to divers, a "condo for fish" and other marine
life, and a platform for scientific study. I cannot think of a single diver
who has ever ridden an airplane without thinking, 'Gee, this would make a
great artificial reef'.

"At this point do not yet know exactly where in the Comox area, or when, we
will be sinking the 737, " said Enemark, "because it must be environmentally
sound according to stringent Environment Canada rules and a permit is
required from Navigable Waters. Such a site must not be in conflict with
other users, among other things.  There is also a lengthy consultation
process to go through. We hope to sink her in May," he added.

 "Dive tourism," concluded Enemark, "is rapidly growing in BC. However, one
of the continuing challenges we face in making it grow more rapidly is
inadequate financial support from tourism promotion agencies. While BC
Tourism contributed $120,000 to promoting dive tourism in 1995, and both
Nanaimo Tourism and Vancouver Island Tourism have also been helpful in
recent years, the amounts have not been enough to adequately promote an
industry that adds about   $ 8 million per year to our tourism industry. In
its absence, the publicity from the activities of the ARSBC in sinking ships
to make artificial reefs have put BC on the world map of scuba diving, and
led to readers of Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine rate BC as one of the best
dive destinations in the world in recent years, with BC earning 8 'firsts'
in Rodale's Annual Survey, more than any other area.

The working capital for the artificial reef program was provided by the
Federal government's Western Economic Diversification ministry."

For further information please contact:

ARSBC:
Tex Enemark, President: (604) 275-5553, or (604) 836-1120
Howard Robins, Vice President: (604) 733-1122

Comox Valley Dive Association:
Bill Coltart, Projects Co-coordinator: (250) 338-6829, or (250) 338-3219

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Larry Reeves              Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia
lreeves@artificialreef.bc.ca          http://www.artificialreef.bc.ca

After an hour and 44 minute surface interval the five of us headed to the signpost to check out the Alitak and dry-dock, the air temperature reached a balmy 37 degrees, I veered off the trail to check out the Alitak before going to the dry-dock. On the trail and at the dry-dock we saw at least six black rockfish, lots of stripe sea perch, painted and kelp greenlings, kelp and sharp nose crabs, large moon snails, and clown and snowball-shaped nudibranchs. Both locations had their share of cabezon and ling cod with at least six egg sites from cabezon and around a dozen for the ling cod. While heading west along the outside of the north wall of the dry-dock a cabezon charged at me straight on, all I could do was put my large light between me and it. The cabezon bumped it twice before retreating to the dry-dock where I got to see the massive egg nest it was guarding.  On the south side of the dry-dock was the head of a ling cod that I thought I had seen the week before alive and hiding under the dry-dock. I recognized it because it was blinded in one eye. We headed back letting the current carry us toward the jetty and saw a dinner-plate- sized brown colored sole in the eelgrass. My services were needed to help the new diver out with leg cramps three times. I found out he had not had anything to drink between the dives; which probably contributed to his leg and thigh cramps. We surfaced at 12:33 p.m. maximum depth of 37', 53 minutes under water. I stressed to the new diver the importance of being properly hydrated before and between dives.  Today was sure a good day to dive: no wind, rain, or snow. I would like to say, "thank you", to Jim, Kerry, Matt, and Evan for joining me today. I look forward to the dives next Saturday, January 31. We will meet at the Junk Yard at 7:45 a.m. for the first dive and at cove two around 10:30 a.m. to dive the Honey Bear. See you all at the next club meeting. Bye.

No submissions.

Darlene Ripley

I bet you have all seen those rock things with fingers coming out of them . . . the ones that look like aliens, hundreds of aliens all over a wall, very spooky looking things.

The spooky alien rock dweller is the balanus nubilus, or as Puget Sound divers call it The Giant Barnacle. The barnacle is actually an animal that dates back to the Jurassic time, and whose ancestry goes back almost 400 million years. Most barnacles are hermaphroditic (having both male and female reproductive organs) but must be fertilized by a neighbor; which is why they live in huge colonies.

Scientist discovered the "cement" barnacles use to glue themselves to items will support 7,000 pounds and this is with one square inch and only ten thousandths of an inch thick. Regardless of extreme temperatures the cement will not melt or crack and does not dissolve in acids, alkalis, solvents, or water. If scientists can figure out how to make this cement it could be used to hold broken bones together and hold fillings in teeth.

So the next time you see this spooky alien rock dweller do not be afraid; instead, give it the respect it deserves for being one of few earthlings who have won the game of Survival of the Fittest.