Accidents+and+Annual+Dives

Accidents+and+Annual+Dives
Originally uploaded by tiswango.

A divers chace of accidents decreses when they average 20 dives per year. Practice makes perfect.

Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina

Mark Townsend in Houston
Sunday September 25, 2005
The Observer

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.

'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'

Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said Sheridan.

The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy scientists had examined them.

Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.

The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea.

Criticism from animal rights groups ensured the use of dolphins became more secretive. But the project gained impetus after the Yemen terror attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detect mines near an Iraqi port.

After not booking a Tenneco trip fast enough with RJ, Ralph F. and I decided to finally go for the "Grand Traverse" at Lauderdale by the sea. We dropped all our gear at Palm Street in the portal. Lots of shade and sand free wall space to gear up. I parked the Escape at El Prado and walked back. We gear up with double AL 80s and headed out.

I"ll post more details later as I took notes, but the best areas to dive are Hibiscus to Palm and Datura to El Prado.

Heading North from Datura on the 2nd reef line, I always ended up turning at the "Big Dipper" a huge Star Coral with about a 10ft diameter base and several more colonies right next to it. That actually is the beginning of the BEST part. I found a Brain Coral of about equal size and very high coral density. It was incredible and I can't believe after 100 dives at LBTS I was missing the best part!

Once the portals are done I will write up some new shore dive plans for making the shorter transverse from Datura to El Prado out in front of the pier.

We saw about 10 lobster, caught several and only one was legal.

We didn't notice any concentrations of red algea!

Good Stuff!

Dive time 180 minutes (3 hours) beating my previous record of 2 hours and 45 minutes. We averaged about 20 minutes per block for 6 blocks plus the 20 minute swim out and back in.

Distance: Approx 1 mile.

Gas: Ralph and I both had 500 psi left of 32% in dub 80s at the end of the dive.

Photos, Panoramics, and more to come.

Underwater Photomerged Wrecks

Underwater Photomerged Wrecks
Originally uploaded by tiswango.

I left this one of the Rio Miami raw so you could see how the pieces really come together. With the "stamp" tool I can fill in the water in the background.

Now I can't wait to try this on the reef or at datura, if the vis improves and seas calm!

Underwater Photomerged Wrecks

Underwater Photomerged Wrecks
Originally uploaded by tiswango.

After 3 weeks of being dry, a new sad record for me, I finally got back in the water. I've been busy with photos from the Saint Louis trip, also posted to flickr. I have become addicted to photomerge in Photoshop Elements so I talked my team in to following me around a couple of the big wrecks off Miami and trying it out. This one had the best results