Such has been the case for the past 20 years in scuba diving, with doctors flat out denying the privilege to insulin-requiring diabetics. In the past five years, however, that’s starting to change.

Data has come out that some diabetics are still scuba diving, and not dying. This has caused the diving medicine community, in particular, the Divers Alert Network (DAN), to revisit their stance on diabetics and recreational scuba diving.

If you are a DAN member, you have access to an online seminar concerning recent policy changes on diabetes and scuba diving. When logged in to the site, access it through Training & Education, Online Seminars.

Included in the approximately hour-long seminar is a PDF summary of guidelines for scuba diving diabetics. Here is an incomplete sample:

• Delay diving after starting or changing medication.
• No episodes in the previous year.
• No significant secondary complications.
• No depths greater than 100 ft (30 m) or 60 minutes.
• No decompression stops.
• Both you and your buddy should not be diabetic.

There are more, and you should consult the seminar if this applies to you, your friends, or if you are an instructor curious how to handle diabetics interested in diving.

I think it’s great that DAN has revisited long-standing policies to come up with an intelligent, yet simple set of guidelines to increase the ranks of potential scuba divers.

Even in my limited experience, I’ve found the medical community to be annoyingly conservative about anything related to scuba diving. It basically comes down to the fact that we understand so little about our bodies and their response to the underwater environment. This is true with a healthy body, so change one variable and the doctors default to a “no”.

I understand this point of view, but it is reassuring to see changes enacted once data becomes available.

Photo by .:[ Melissa ]:.

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A scuba diver in New York’s Niagara River found a 80 year old bottle of whiskey, presumably from the days of U.S. prohibition.

The U.N. says the world should protect coral reefs with networks of no-fishing zones. The study says that more, smaller pockets of protected waters is better than a smaller number of large protected areas.

Vegas is on a scuba kick. Scuba-certified guests of Mandalay Bay can plunge into their 1.3 million gallon aquarium, diving with six species of sharks, including sand tiger, white tip reef, and sandbar sharks. While still expensive, at $650 USD ($1000 for a pair of divers booking together), it is priced much more reasonably than the underwater show we talked about a few weeks ago. But since when has Vegas been about being reasonable?

Happy Wednesday everyone!

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Now, to be completely honest, scuba diving can be an expensive hobby, especially if you don’t live near good dive sites. However, with the appropriate planning there’s no reason why someone on even a modest income can’t enjoy what the world of scuba has to offer.

Prioritize

As with all things budget related, it’s all about priorities. In order to take scuba vacations, you have to want to do so more than other, perhaps more immediate, things.

I don’t eat out a lot. I don’t have cable. I don’t buy many clothes. I don’t purchase tons of toys and gadgets. In my mind, a single dive trip is worth more than a PS3, XBox 360, and big-screen TV put together. I have made diving a priority in my life, and as a result, I get to go diving many times a year, despite living in an area unfriendly to recreational divers.

You may not need to be as drastic as me. Perhaps you just want to dive once a year or so. That’s fine. The point is that you need to know where diving lies in relation to other things in your life that tug at your wallet.

Now that you’ve decided that scuba is something you want to spend money on, we can focus on reducing how much money is required.

Three costs

We can break dive vacations down into three costs:

• Travel expenses. You need to get where you’re going somehow, unless you’re lucky and have good local diving. Usually this will be air fare, but it could be a train ticket, or gas for your car.
• Accommodations. While traveling you need to eat and you need someplace to sleep.
• Scuba expenses. It costs money to actually get in the water. Boat fees, rental fees, and other expenses can add up.

We’ll tackle each of these one by one.

Travel expenses

Probably one of the best ways to reduce travel expenses is to double up. Going to Florida for a family reunion? Stay an extra weekend and make it a dive excursion.

Have a business trip to North Carolina? Rent a car while you’re there and go diving in the Outer Banks.

Keep an eye out for these opportunities. Basically anytime I go anywhere I check if there’s diving nearby.

Aside from this, you need ways to reduce your traveling expenses. There are entire sites dedicated to this, but here are a few ideas:

• Timing. Flying in the summer, especially recently, can be outrageously expensive. However, go in September and easily pay half for the same trip.

  On a finer scale, if you can fly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, or even sometimes Saturdays, you can save money. Try to have a flexible schedule, and check a variety of dates.

• Airlines. Check many avenues for getting to your destination. www.kayak.com is an excellent starting point for checking many airlines simultaneously.

  Keep an eye out for budget airlines as well, especially if you are flying in Europe. They’re not luxurious by any means, but they’ll get you from A to B.

• Location. Be flexible in your location. Maybe you have a rough timeframe when you can travel. Instead of getting your heart set on one location, keep a variety of options open, and check fares to all possible locations.

  Dive destinations can be remote, resulting in expensive direct flights. Look on a map for nearby locations you can fly into, and then take a bus / train / hopper / ferry / hopper flight into your final destination. The combined expenses may be much cheaper than a direct flight.

• Frequent flyer miles. If you’re a frequent flyer, then I probably don’t have to tell you to consider using miles to get to your destination.

Travel expenses can be a hefty cost, but there are options for those of us on a budget. The key is to be flexible.

Accommodations

The most significant cost when traveling is often accommodations: food and a place to sleep.

As with travel expenses, there are websites dedicated to saving you money, but here are a few specific ideas:

• Off-season. Rates for off-season travel can be much lower. Have you detected a theme? Summer vacations are unnecessarily expensive.
• Mooching. Do you know anyone you can stay with near your destination? Renting a car and staying a short driving distance away can still save a lot of money.
• More people. Get a room, and pack people into it. Splitting a room four ways instead of two saves you half your money. At the prices charged per night in some tropical destinations this can really add up.
• Priceline. Try using www.priceline.com to “bid” on a room price.This usually works better very close to the travel dates, but it can save you money far out as well, especially for off-season travel.
• Cook. Instead of eating out for 3 meals, consider cooking in your room. Even with minimal kitchenware, you can churn out some tasty meals for cheap.
• Bring your own food. My favorite, bring your own food. I like to stuff microwaveable, refrigerator-free meals in my suitcase when I travel.

Be smart, do your homework, and accommodations don’t have to break the bank.

Diving expenses

Unfortunately, scuba-related expenses are often the least flexible. We do have a few options, however:

• Shore diving. Boat trips can add up, s consider a shore diving destination. This can be especially advantageous for longer trips.
• Packages. It is definitely a good idea to buy a package whenever possible, instead of paying for 2-tank dives individually. This reduces your per dive cost. You can often get a discount on gear rentals when purchasing a package as well.

  Also, look into packages that combine diving with accommodations. These are quite common in most popular destinations. Just make sure that the combined price is actually a deal.

• Equipment. Rental fees can add up quickly, so having your own equipment saves money. Granted, scuba equipment is expensive, so you’d have to dive a lot to break even.

  Start with mask, snorkel, and fins. They’re cheap and easy to travel with. Plus, they double as snorkeling gear.

  If you have active scuba diving friends or family, think about borrowing equipment from them.

Scuba diving is not a cheap hobby, but it doesn’t have to break your budget. Plan well and be flexible, and you can probably afford more trips than you previously thought.

What are you favorite tips for saving money on scuba diving vacations? Leave a reply in the comments section below.

Photo by alamosbasement

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Physical description

The regal tang has an ovular shaped body characteristic of its tang family. It can grow up to a foot in length (31 cm), making it a decent sized fish.

The regal tang’s colors set it apart in the family. It is a royal blue color with yellow fins. The yellow tail fin is bordered by black stripes on the top and bottom.

There is a black swirl on the top of the fish, giving it the appearance of a painter’s palette, resulting in one of its many names (palette surgeonfish).

Geography and habitat

The Indo-Pacific region is home to a variety of colorful creatures, and the regal tang is one more species to chalk up for these waters.

Look for these fish in coral reefs at all depths.

Trivia

Most people know that the title character from the 2003 Pixar film Finding Nemo is a clownfish, but what type of fish is his friend, Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres)? That’s right, a regal tang. A bit of fun, spontaneous trivia for you.

Further reading

Wikipedia
Animal-World
FishLore

Photo by Jack Rydquist

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Duane at Precision Diving has a thoughtful writeup on being an instructor who goes above and beyond yet still respects the standards. After all, they are there for a reason.

A dive boat spotted a humpback whale off the coast of Atlantic City, of all places. I suppose the whale knew he had no chance of getting to Vegas.

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Finding a shop / resort

The first hurdle to overcome is finding a dive shop. In some cases, this may be a resort where you also stay. With the advent of the internet, this search has become immensely easier. Usually this is accomplished by typing “destination dive shop” into your favorite search engine, where “destination” is replaced by the part of the world in which you’re traveling (e.g., “fiji dive shop”).

Even with these advances, it can be hard to mill through the options. How do you choose one shop over another? Here are a few tips:

• Priorities. Decide what’s most important to you in a dive shop. Are you looking for super-cheapo diving, or do you not mind spending a little more to get pampered? Do you need something conveniently located, or will you have a rental car? Think about what you look for when you look for a dive shop.
• Reviews. Now that you know what’s important to you, try to find reviews online. Here are a few resources: www.tripadvisor.com, www.divematrix.com, www.yelp.com, www.scubadviser.com, and www.scubaboard.com.
• Outings. Confirm that the shop you are interested in is going out on the days you want. This is especially important during off-season travel. If you have choices, do research on dive locations and decide based on the dive sites you’d like to see.

After choosing, make any necessary reservations unless you are sure you can just show up and have a seat on the boat (doubtful, although you may prefer to visit the shop in person after arriving).

Agencies

The vast majority of you out there are probably certified through one of the major scuba agencies—that’s what makes them major. Even so, there are still many certifying agencies specific to regions and countries. If you hold a card with one of these, I would suggest checking that the shop you want will recognize your cert card.

Even if you do use a major agency, it can’t hurt to do a sanity check and avoid problems the day you want to dive.

Language

If you are reading this, I assume you speak English fairly well. English is a very common base language for communication, and popular destinations know this. Hence, almost all places you find yourself in will not pose a communication problem for you.

Nevertheless, difficulties can arise. While many instructors and shop employees are English-speaking transplants, it is popular to hire cheap local labor for running boats and leading dives. Thus, it is quite possible to find yourself unable to communicate effectively at times. Fortunately, these instances are few and far between, and are hardly ever over anything life critical.

If you are so inclined, it can’t hurt to learn a few key phrases and words should you ever find yourself in such a situation. I hardly consider it a necessity, though.

Local laws

The dive shop should notify you beforehand, but check up on any local laws for your dive destination. Some places don’t allow dive knives or gloves, for instance.

Another possibility is any fees required to get in the water. For example, the water around Bonaire is considered a marine park, and a $25 USD “admission” is required to scuba dive.

Units

Depending on where you are from, you either you use the metric or imperial system of measurement, or some derivative of one of these. In diving, this means you are either used to kilograms (weight), bar (pressure), and meters (length), or pounds (weight), PSI (pressure), and feet (length).

Here at The Diving Blog, I try to give you both units, but not everyone will be so kind. Therefore, you should check what is being used at your vacation spot and plan accordingly. Here is a breakdown of conversion between the two. Familiarize yourself with it.

• Kilograms (kgs) / pounds (lbs). For your weight belt, you will need to know how much weight to use. Depending on what you are used to, you may need to convert to the other unit. One pound is roughly 0.45 kilograms, and one kilogram is about 2.2 pounds.
• Bar / PSI. It doesn’t make sense to memorize the conversion between bar and PSI, since your cylinder pressure gauge will give one or the other, and will often have red markings to indicate low air situations. However, you should probably know that a full tank is about 3,000 PSI, which is about 200 bar. A half tank is then 1,500 PSI / 100 bar.
• Meters (m) / feet (ft). Probably the easiest is converting between depths. 1 meter is a little over 3 feet. Usually people remember that 10 meters is 33 feet and go from there. For example, 30 meters is about 99 feet.

Knowing these ahead of time can avoid a stressful situation. For example, if the boat is being loaded up and you are asked how much weight you need in kilograms, you may end up saying something stupid and being short on weight. Again, not incredibly likely, but any stress in diving situations should be avoided.

Emergencies

If diving with a reputable outfit, you shouldn’t need to worry about how to handle emergencies. It can happen, however, during shore diving or a rented boat, that emergency services need to be contacted while in a foreign country.

DAN, the Divers Alert Network, while based in the U.S., has services worldwide.

Many countries, especially popular dive destinations, have services dedicated to scuba emergencies. If this is the case, you will want to be aware and contact these services before regular emergency services. The savings in time could be critical.

As a last option, contact information for regular emergency services is needed where diving emergency or DAN services are not available. In any case, you will need to know where to find a telephone and how local telephone numbers work. This is easy, but shouldn’t be neglected.

Conclusion

Diving overseas is an exciting opportunity to see entirely new sites and critters, as well as expand your horizons. As with all things, a small bit of preparation goes a long way to increasing overall enjoyment. You may find the preparation time builds anticipation (in a good way) towards the upcoming trip. Have fun, and send me a postcard!

Photo by Irargerich

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Physical description

We’ve seen triggerfish before when we covered the black triggerfish. The clown triggerfish has the same basic body shape. This means an oval shaped body that is very flat. Ventral fins on the body and rear dorsal fins “wave’ to allow slow movement through the water, giving triggerfish what is probably their most recognizable characteristic.

What distinguishes clown triggerfish is their coloring. The bottom half of the fish is covered in large white spots over a dark background. The top of the fish is medium sized black spots over yellow color. The fish also has a few white stripes, in particular below the eyes and along the dorsal, ventral, and caudal fins.

If all that color isn’t enough for you, clown triggerfish have distinctive yellow lips, large like their triggerfish brethren. These lips mask strong jaws used for crushing sea urchins and the like.

Geography and habitat

Sorry Caribbean divers, but the clown triggerfish is found in tropical Indo-Pacific waters. Even in this region, the fish is relatively rare.

Nevertheless, look for it at all depths around coral reefs.

Due to their colorful appearance, clown triggerfish are highly sought by the aquarium trade, despite being difficult to maintain.

Further reading

Wikipedia
Fresh Marine
Animal World

Photo by mjwinoz

Juvenile photo by cliff1066

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Look for 3 articles a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Of course, there’s nothing stopping me from the occasional surprise post when inspiration strikes! For now, here are a few articles to enjoy elsewhere on the web.

Don’t know a knoll from a gully? Aquaviews gives a run down of dive site terrain terms.

DiverWire reports that DAN is expanding their data offerings to include complementary subscriptions to their magazine, Alert Diver, to academic libraries. Additionally, they are expanding access to an online interactive database. DAN has tons of great data that I hope to explore in the future, and these offerings only cement their standing as the go-to source for data on diving accidents and the like.

Blue Ocean Institute is now offering FishPhone, a free iPhone app for sustainable seafood options. I have not tried this app, but a pocket source for this type of information is never a bad thing.

Hope everyone’s end-of-summer (winter for you southern hemisphere folks) is going well!

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Apparatus

Not only is the idea of a diving bell simple, but the actual device is quite rudimentary, even in modern implementations. Any watertight container (except for the opening) can function as one. By submerging it underwater and keeping it vertical, a pocket of air becomes trapped inside by the water pressure.

This container usually takes the shape of a bell, hence the name diving bell. A bell is particularly effective for trapping air during submersion, although such a shape is certainly not required.

Of course, as the container grows larger, submersion becomes more challenging. As you know from your understanding of buoyancy, the larger an object is, the heavier it has to be to become negatively buoyant and sink. If you don’t believe me, try to pull a large plastic tub underwater while it is upside down.

Large containers can hold large amounts of air without drastic increases in weight. Air is essentially weightless, and thus makes the diving bell incredibly buoyant. The solution is to make a diving ball out of heavy, dense material, and to even add weights to the rim to aid in sinking.

Bell diving

Dropping a large metal container underwater serves little purpose, so naturally the idea is to put people inside it. This can be for any number of reasons, but is usually for exploration (watching things underwater) or commercial endeavors (recovering sunken items, intensive work, etc.). Putting people in a diving bell introduces two problems:

1. Depth. To do anything useful, the bell will usually have to go fairly deep. However, with every 10 meters of depth, pressure increases and decreases the volume of air. What this means is that by the time the bell has reached a suitable depth, the volume of breathable air has shrunk considerably, leaving most of the bell filled with water.
2. Respiration. People need to breath. In comes air, out comes carbon dioxide. Put a person in a fixed volume of air, and it won’t take long for carbon dioxide levels to reach a dangerous level. The diving bell needs fresh air.

The solution to both of these problems is the same: while the bell is submerged, continuously supply it with fresh air. This is commonly achieved by various hoses leading to the surface. Air is pumped from the surface to the bell at depth, keeping it full of fresh, breathable air, with excess easily escaping out of the bottom.

History

Diving bells have a long recorded history. In addition to Aristotle, Alexander the Great is said to have utilized them during the siege of Tyre, in 332 BC.

Fast-forwarding quite a bit, there are recorded uses of a diving bell, or a device conceptually identical, by Francis Bacon in 1597, Greek divers in 1538, and by various inventors in 1551 and 1616.

In 1687, Sir Williams Phipps used one to recovered treasure from a sunken Spanish ship off the coast of San Domingo. In 1640, a diving bell was used for a similar purpose in Charlton.

Before long, led by the likes of Denis Papin and Edmund Halley, users became quite adept at keeping the air in diving bell’s replenished, allowing long periods of uninterrupted diving.

Modern diving bells

By the 1800s, diving bells were used quite extensively in various recoveries and civil engineering tasks, from the construction of bridges to the repair of the Thames Tunnel in 1827.

One small variation is opt for smaller bells that essentially fit over the head only, rather than large constructions with room enough for several people. The trickiest part of these underwater “helmets” is keeping the air inside, since any significant tilt of the head will flood the device with water.

Even today, many destinations offer bell diving experiences. with modern versions that overcome many of the limitations that plagued early iterations.

Diving bells and decompression sickness

While submerged in a diving bell, the operator is breathing air at ambient pressure, and is therefore subject to the usual risks of decompression sickness. In fact, it was the early use of diving bells and their DCS-causing brothers, like the caisson, that eventually led to the discovered of “the bends” by bridge builders in the late 1800s.

With all the practical uses for bell diving, a cure for this curious disease became a priority, leading to the initial research by John Haldane, which forms the basis of decompression theory still in use today.

Bell diving is not so common for the recreational diver. Nevertheless, it is interesting to learn about its history, both from an engineering perspective as well as a precursor to modern scuba.

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Physical description

Garibaldis have the usual damselfish look: steep sloped head, heart shaped caudal fin, and the flowing dorsal and anal fins. However, the most identifying characteristic is their distinctive orange color. In fact, this bright red-orange color provides the fish with its name. It is named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary famous for his red shirt.

Juvenile garibaldis are not as bright in color, and often have shiny blue spots which disappear with age.

Garibaldis grow up to 30 cm (12 inches) in length. Between their length and unmistakeable color, they should be easy to spot and identify.

Geography and habitat

As mentioned, garibaldi damselfish call the coastal waters off the western U.S. home. They are particularly common in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the islands of both these cities.

Garibaldi are fiercely protective of their home, particularly when eggs are present. They have even been known to nip at humans who approach too close to a deposit of eggs.

They are found at depths up to 100 feet in rocky areas, which they prefer to call home.

Legislature

Since it’s the state marine fish and all, California has taken measures to protect garibaldi damselfish. This link summarizes the legislation, but in short, you’re not allowed to kill or take garibaldi without a special permit.

Further reading

Wikipedia
Monterey Bay Aquarium

Photo by Stan Shebs

Juvenile photo by Randy Morse

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