Category: Diving

Well, this weekend I’ll be going back to Tioman. This time I’ll be bringing my daughters along, as I have promised them earlier. The best thing is my partner-in-crime Kimi will be joining us, after being bombarded with smoothies and sweeties (not of the feline kind).

Me, I’m just looking forward to doing more dives before ending up in the office again next week.

I know that removing the Crown-of-Thorns is meddling with the balance of nature, but something has to be done to save the coral reefs as man have created the unblaance by collecting the shells of the COT’s natural enemy: the Triton Trumpet (Charonia tritonis).

If I may quote from The Dive Gallery, the following:

The infamous crown-of-thorns starfish grows to over a foot across and has 10-20 arms. It is well known for its voracious appetite for live hard-corals. At various times it has been blamed for the killing of large portions of reefs in parts of the Pacific ocean, including a large portion of the great barrier reef of Australia during the 1960’s. It is so despised that many scuba clubs organize “starfish hunts” in which these starfish are rounded up in an effort to save reefs from destruction. These starfish should be handled carefully, since the long, sharp spines are mildly venomous and can inflict painful wounds (slow to heal, too, as I can attest!).

One explanation for local population explosions of these destructive starfish is the collection of this starfish’s natural enemy, the Triton Trumpet (Charonia tritonis). For this reason trumpet shellfish (if alive) should never be collected by divers and are often protected by law, because of their importance to reef ecology.

Diving for Dead Bodies

I normally dive on live ones….tsk..tsk.

Missing scuba diver rescued after drifting down current

I’m sure he had an SMB with him. Lucky guy.

Florida diver killed by ‘hit and run’ boat

Remember that dive boat accident in Sabah that killed a British OW student? I hope the western media will make a big thing out of this story.

Woman in critical condition after scuba diving accident off Oahu

Very vague…what accident?

When you sit down and your mind starts wondering whether you should go diving or not, you are bound to get calls and e-mails asking if you would like to go diving.

I might be diving in Tioman come day after tomorrow. Yesterday, out of the blue, a friend asked me if I would like to go to Tioman with him. Then this morning another friend asked me if I would like to go with him to Tioman this weekend.

Then you get into the office and start writing about wreck diving (since I plan to go to the Repulse early next month). Then my phone rang and gave me a very interesting deal…that is go on a LOB with him, get nitrox ceritification (TDI), as well as speciality ratings for deep and wreck dives. For RM1,000 less than what others are offering.

Just when you thought it’s all over, I get several more calls for Redang, Tenggol, Dayang, Tioman, Sipadan and…one LOB going to the Seven Skies wreck out in the international waters of the South China Sea.

I wish I can have legal tender photocopied notes to spend…and clone myself to go to all these dive sites.