The Otter Limits Page 1

The Otter Limits

WWW.MONTEREYBAYSEAOTTERS.ORG

Volume 19 Issue #4 April, 2019

Treasurer’s Two Cents

Our March meeting was very interesting and informative about the diving program at CSUMB diving program. There are options for people to support research activities if interested! Dr. Lindholm drew names for the monthly raffle, and Vice President Tom and Tara Troyer were the happy winners this month! Walan Chang, Treasurer

Minute to Minute A MBSO Board meeting was held on April 17th, 2019. In attendance were President – Mark Holman, Treasurer – Walan Chang, Dive Coordinator – Corey Penrose, Safety

April 24th, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. Club Meeting, Crazy Horse Restaurant, Monterey

April 27th, Saturday, 8:30 a.m.* Club Dive, North Monastery, Carmel

May 10th, Friday, 6:30 p.m.* After-Work Dive, Wharf II, Monterey

May 25th, Saturday, 8:30 a.m. Club Dive, Metridium Fields, Monterey

RED indicates change from original calendar

*all times are for dive briefing – divers should be geared up

NEWSLETTER OF THE MONTEREY BAY SEA OTTERS DIVE CLUB

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Officer – Randy Phares, Newsletter Editor – Matt Denecour, Vice President - Tom Hubbard, and Activities Coordinator - Scott McReynolds. We talked about increasing club membership, and future speakers. Our next meeting will be May 15th, at 7:00 p.m. Everyone is invited to dial-in at 563-999-2090 (365378# access code) and follow along.

Jacques Cousteau

An early influence on many of us in our love of the oceans and the exploration of them, was the series of documentaries produced by French dive innovator, Jacques Cousteau. Here are a few interesting facts about the man, the myth, the legend and inventor of the Aqua-lung.

1. Cousteau joined the navy in order to become an aviator. Injuries suffered in an auto accident led him to swimming as a way to strengthen his broken arms. After his first swim with goggles, his life changed.

2. Cousteau married in 1937 and his wife was an integral part of his expeditions, even selling her family’s jewels to buy fuel for the ship. One year after her death from cancer, Jacques announced that he had been having a long-time affair with a woman thirty years his junior, and that they had two children. They later married.

3. The explorer’s famous ship, Calypso, started as a British minesweeper during WWII. It was purchased by Thomas Guinness of the Irish brewing family who leased it to Cousteau for one franc per year.

4. In 1985 he visited Cuba and had Fidel Castro onboard for dinner. Castro so liked Cousteau that he allowed him to liberate eighty political prisoners.

5. He predicted that future surgeries would give humans gills that would allow them to live underwater.

Source: mentalfloss.com Matt Denecour, Newsletter Editor

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Survey Says…

Keep your eyes open for a poll from activities director, Scott McReynolds. Coming soon to an e-mailbox near you!

April Meeting Do you love underwater photography, but your results are not quite National Geographic worthy? We all love to have great images to share with friends and family but it can be frustrating dealing with skittish subjects, poor lighting, floating sediment, and other environmental factors. Luckily, there is a place, Backscatter Photography and Video, that helps people like us by providing great instruction and equipment. Even luckier, they are right here in Monterey. Join Becca Boring from Backscatter as she gives us some pointers. In fact, if you send a sample to our Activities Director, Scott, he will give it to Becca to use for our meeting.

Past Meeting Recap Our speaker in March was Dr. James Lindholm. Dr. Lindholm’s talk was extremely interesting. First, he explained the differences between the different types of diving but focused on scientific diving. He explained that scientific diving was focused on research and risk management. He described the mission of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS). He gave Hopkins Marine Center and The Monterey Bay Aquarium as examples of organizations that are members. AAUS is made up of approximately 4000 individuals. In order to dive for research, one needs to get a letter of reciprocity, which is not very easy to receive. Once a diver gets one, it means they can dive with other research teams. As a science diver, you must dive with other science divers on a project to maintain your credential. Dr. Lindholm then talked about the CSU Monterey Bay program. It was founded in 2007, and they now have 550 marine students. There is a multilevel training program to help students learn how to dive. They have had students that had never swum before go through their dive certification program. To date, of the 400 that went through the program, 80 have become research divers. Many take training here and go back to their home countries to start programs there. Twenty percent of the students are committed to this kind of diving. There is also an open university that would allow anyone to learn to dive.

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Dr. Lindholm talked about the two types of science diving to gather marine animal information. They are underwater visual check, and checks with visual cameras. The program that CSUMB is doing is marrying the two. They get a nice compliment of data this way. This past year they have been mapping Monastery. To do that, they have dived Monastery eighty times. It has been dived weekly for research since 2016 and they are now doing night dives. They have been gathering lots of great information about how fish move based on time of day and season. We enjoyed the great examples of the research that they are doing.

Old neoprene

Is your old wetsuit or drysuit not doing its job anymore? Bring it to Adam at Bamboo Reef for recycling. You will keep it out of the landfill and your old neoprene will become a nice new yoga mat.

Safety First

Diving By The Numbers

62.4 - 64.0

Do the numbers 62.4 and 64.0 ring a bell? They are: a. tidal ranges in Monterey and Santa Cruz b. LORAN position of Pt. Piños c. length of the Coast Guard Cutter “Pt. Mugu” d. densities of fresh and sea water Of course, you knew the answer! It is “d”. The numbers are the densities, measured in pounds per cubic foot. Now you ask why you should give a hoot? Well, for one thing, the good news is that the density of water is close to the overall density of our human body. And that’s why we have close to neutral buoyancy when we are immersed in water. (Remember old Archie Meade’s law? A body immersed in a fluid experiences an upward, or buoyant, force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. Of course, the purists insist on calling the guy by his Greek name, Archimedes.)

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Being neutrally buoyant is, as we all know, a very desirable state of affairs for a diver. We, however, have to mess it up with our need for thermal protection in the form of a wet or dry suit, choosing something that gives us a lot of positive buoyancy, forcing us to counteract that by putting on something with a lot of negative buoyancy, namely a weight belt. (Wouldn’t it be nice if someone invented an efficient thermal protection suit that is neutrally buoyant? Hey, work on it out there in your labs!) Meanwhile, we have to cope; and we developed procedures to check and establish neutral buoyancy. The problem is only that it is different for fresh water and sea water. If you are perfectly weighted for the pool, that’ll work fine for Lake Tahoe, but not for the ocean. So, you worked hard to get your perfect weighting in the pool, and now you have to start all over again for your first ocean dive? Or, you are perfectly adjusted for the ocean but want to dive in a lake, and have to do it again? The lucky answer is: NO! With a little logic, arithmetic and a calculator, old Archie (the “Meade”) will tell you how to precisely calculate the amount of weight you have to put on or take off. Step 1: You do have to be perfectly weighted for one of the two environments. (If you don’t know how to do that, you probably shouldn’t dive. Certainly, you need help. Get it!) Step 2: Weigh the “system diver,” i.e., yourself and all the gear you’re wearing on that perfectly neutrally buoyant dive, on a scale, keeping in mind whether you were in fresh or sea water. Example: You and all your gear are neutral in sea water and weigh 200 lb. Having been neutral means that you displaced a volume of water with exactly that weight. Step 3: Archie tells you that if you divide this weight by the density of the water, you’ll know exactly how many cubic feet you (the “system diver”) displaced. Example: 200 lb. / 64.0 lbs/cuft = 3.125 cuft Step 4: Archie tells you if you immerse X cuft in a fluid, you’ll experience a buoyant force equal to the weight of X cuft of that fluid. Therefore, if you multiply these cubic feet with the density of the new fluid (here: fresh water), you’ll know exactly the buoyant force in that new fluid. Example: 3.125 cuft x 62.4 lbs/cuft = 195 lb. Step 5: The difference in these two weights, or rather forces, tells you how much weight you must add to or take off your weight belt. Example: 200 lbs - 195 lbs = 5 lbs Having been neutral in sea water would make you five lb. heavy in fresh water; you should take five lbs off your belt. If I have hopelessly confused you by now, I will simplify: A. If you are perfectly neutral in sea water, weigh yourself, divide that weight by 64.0, then multiply that number by 62.4. The difference of that weight to the first one is what you take off your weight belt to be perfectly neutral in fresh water. B. If you are perfectly neutral in fresh water, weigh yourself, divide that weight by 62.4, then multiply that number by 64.0. The difference of that weight to the first one is what you add to your weight belt to be perfectly neutral in sea water. The latter is what you have to do, if you prepared yourself in the pool and want to get ready for the ocean. This is, of course, a good idea to do whenever you drastically change the

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configuration of your gear. Try it out in the safety of the pool and prepare to be a comfortable and safe diver in the ocean.

Diving By The Numbers is a classic column by Martin Metzger from the Sea Otters archives.

Scheduled Club Dives

April 27th, Saturday, 8:30 a.m.* Club Dive, North Monastery, Carmel

North Monastery is one of those rare places where you can do a short kick from shore and go as deep as you would like to possibly dive. The huge granite boulders drop off at 60 degrees in to the black abyss of the deep-water trench that comes very near the shore. It is possible to

see the usual rockfish and perch and an abundance of lingcod that seem to thrive and grow large in this marine protected area.

This is an ADVANCED dive and divers that come here should be prepared for a more challenging entry and exit in course gravel. We will talk about some strategies for safely diving here on the steep beach that has humbled even the most experienced divers at times. Because this can also be a deep dive, we recommend that only experienced divers attend this club dive.

If conditions are not agreeable we will retreat to our sure-thing dive location, San Carlos Beach.

After Work Dive, Friday, May 10th, 6:30 p.m. Wharf II, Monterey

Our after-work dive will be at the Municipal Wharf #2. We dive this location with the permission of the harbormaster once a year. If you have not dived this location before you should definitely check it out. We will meet at 6 p.m. at the parking in front of the London Bridge Pub near the intersection of Del Monte and Figueroa. It gets dark about 8:00 so this is considered to be a night dive. We will have a mandatory dive briefing at 6:30.

This is generally an easy place to dive at night because it is very easy to navigate amongst all the pilings. The depth is a fairly consistent 20-25 feet deep. This is the only muck dive that we do in Monterey where we find both black-eyed gobies and bay gobies living amongst the oyster shells and discarded crab pots along the edge of the wharf. One spot fringeheads and the occasional sarcastic fringehead can be found in discarded bottles and timbers. This is a night dive, so please bring two dive lights and a marker light. After the dive we will probably eat something in a nearby pub or restaurant.

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Previous Dives

Club Dive, Saturday, March 23 – “Butterfly House”

Pacific storms had been pummeling the coast for the past month and this week was no exception. Mark Holman and I had been watching conditions along the Carmel side and they were predicted to get worse over the weekend. On Friday, we witnessed 8-10 ft. waves at the dive site, so we decided to move the dive to San Carlos Beach. The Breakwater was not too crowded Saturday morning, and it was a beautiful, sunny day. The conditions looked promising. Four divers came to the dive site…Sea Otter members Brian Buechner and Rick Dante and guests from Sacramento, David Krive and his wife, Abby. This would be their first time diving at the Breakwater. After a short briefing, the divers agreed to dive together and surface swim out near the end of the pier so that they could enjoy swimming with the sea lions.

After resolving some equipment issues, the group entered the water and began their long surface swim. On the way out, they were greeted by a sea otter and her pup. All divers descended and enjoyed a relaxing dive back to shore. The visibility was mediocre at best, 15 or so feet, and the water temperature was 50 degrees. Everyone returned safely and had an enjoyable dive!

Randy Phares

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Clean-up Dive, Saturday April 20

We met at the San Carlos Beach picnic benches at the usual 8 a.m. to survey dive conditions and formulate our plans for trash pick-up. The dive conditions looked OK with small waves. The topside conditions were a little coldish and a bit drizzly, but we’re all divers and used to being wet. We enjoyed delicious doughnuts and coffee generously donated by Peet’s Coffee. At 8:20, just as the drizzle stopped, Safety Officer Randy Phares conducted the dive briefing along with past Dive Coordinator, Christian Scholz. The divers, Wendy, Christian, Bill and Tom suited up and headed out to collect trash

along the Breakwater Wall in Neptune’s Kingdom. After logging the divers into the water, the topside crew started out their collection efforts. After about an hour of hunting for Easter trash, the topside crew of Matthew Vaughn, Tara, Scott McReynolds, Melanie Moreno, Walan Chang, and Randy Phares brought back several bags of trash which included a lot of plastics. Cigarette butts and bottle caps were the most collected items. The dive crews brought back a lot of fishing line, freakishly large fishing hooks, lures and lead weights. All stuff that should never have been abandoned underwater. The divers reported seeing 10’ of visibility and some surge.

It was a great effort on everyone’s part. It was a Pink Full Moon, and two days before Earth Day. The Monterey Bay Sea Otters were thanked and appreciated by many bystanders, divers, and Facebook followers for our clean-up efforts. If you missed this clean-up dive, you missed a lot of good clean-up fun. Hopefully, we will see you next time.

Tara Troyer, Clean-up Dive Coordinator

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Other Dive Related Opportunities Sometimes it’s nice to splash in a new, exciting destination.

Belize with Preston McKinney 9 days – 8 nights accommodation at the Sunbreeze Hotel on Ambergris Caye. 10 boat dives over five days 1 night dive Option to add the Blue Hole Contact Preston McKinney for more info. Bamboo Reef has an upcoming trip that might interest you. Bonaire June 22-29, 2019 Breakwater Scuba is hosting a free BBQ and fun dive, March 16 and a BBQ and night dive May 11th (with Bamboo Reef and Light & Motion) Bali November-December 2019 Raja Ampat January 2020 And Backscatter has some interesting offers as well… Digital Shootout, Little Cayman June 15-29, 2019 Cocos Island, Costa Rica July 8-19, 2019 See our business sponsors page for contact info!

Classes Aquarius Dive Shop www.aquariusdivers.com We can arrange classes for practically any PADI specialty to suit your requirements. Please call (831) 375-1933 for more information. Bamboo Reef www.bambooreef.com Open Water Class usually begins the third Tuesday of the month. Bamboo Reef welcomes arrangements for one-on-one instruction. In addition, any specialty or advanced course can be set up with a minimum of two divers. Please call (831) 372-1685 for more information. CSUMB – NAUI certification and classes.

Breakwater Scuba www.breakwaterscuba.com

Instruction from beginner to advanced tech diving, including rebreathers.

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Membership The MONTEREY BAY SEA OTTERS

• Promote diving for education and pleasure, under observation of the highest safety standards.

• Provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information, education, and training. • Strongly encourage continuing education, environmental conservation, good

sportsmanship, and cooperation with all other users of the marine environment. • Provide a network of dive buddies who believe in the ideals of this club. • Please follow link to the club website for more information or email:

info@montereybayseaotters.org

MBSO Club Dive Guidance The Monterey Bay Sea Otters dive club welcomes all certified divers to join club dives. For the diving pleasure of all participants, divers shall follow the following recommendations set forth by the club: A diver may participate as a guest for one dive, after which they are encouraged to officially join the club and pay the yearly dues. If a diver has not participated in a cold water dive during the past 6 months or exhibits irresponsible or unsafe behavior, the Beach Marshal may exclude them from the club dive and refer the diver to a local dive shop for an equipment check and refresher course. Attendance at the dive briefing is mandatory for participants. All club dives will also be posted on our Facebook page and also a reminder email with more details will be sent out a few days before the dive. Please note that in order to better prepare for these dives, we kindly ask that if you are in fact planning on attending a club dive, let us know prior to the dive. We would like to encourage divers to bring along a mesh bag to club dives, in order to assist in collecting any trash found in the ocean. If we have to change dive location or cancel a dive, the Dive Coordinator (Corey Penrose) will send out an email to all club members and the divers/guests, who already contacted them. General Guidelines For After Work & Night Dives: To participate in after work dives or night dives, divers must carry a minimum of two lights: one main light and a back-up light. In addition, divers should attach a colored marker light to their tank valve. Be sure to check your batteries before you arrive. For everyone’s diving pleasure the club would like to thank all participants for adhering to these recommendations for club dives.

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Editor’s Note The Otter Limits arrives just in time to get you excited for our monthly meeting and remind you of our upcoming dives. In an attempt to provide a steady publication date, all material, and reports, need to be submitted to the editor no later than the 3rd Wednesday of each month for publication. Any SCUBA related articles are welcomed and appreciated and will be included as space allows. Any high-quality underwater pictures are appreciated. Please email to newslettereditor@montereybayseaotters.org. The newsletter has a section for member-led events. If you have an idea, please submit it to a board member for inclusion.

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Local Sponsors

See you next month, Sea Otters!

Free air fills to club members. Limit 2 per day. 10% discount on merchandise

Phone: (831) 375-1933

Dive Conditions Line: (831) 657-1020 Free air fills to club members. 20% discount on gear

servicing

Kindly donating coffee for the MBSO beach clean-up

See Kendall for special MBSO pricing!

10% discount to MBSO members

225 Cannery Row Monterey, CA 93940 831.717.4546 www.breakwaterscuba.com

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Monterey Bay Sea Otters 2019 Dive Calendar

JANUARY S M T W Th F S

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31

11 After-work: San Carlos Beach

19 Clean-up Dive: San Carlos Beach

26 Dive: Carmel River Beach (Stewart’s Point)

30 Club meeting. Presenter and Board Nominations

JULY S M T W Th F S

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

12 After-work: MacAbee Beach

20 Clean-up Dive: San Carlos Beach

27 Dive: Copper Roof 31 Club meeting

FEBRUARY

S M T W Th F S

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

8 After-work: Lovers Cove 23 Dive: Stillwater Cove Backup: McAbee Beach 27 Club meeting. Presenter

and Board Elections

AUGUST S M T W Th F S

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

9 After-work: San Carlos 24 North Monastery 28 Club meeting

MARCH

S M T W Th F S

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

8 After-work: MacAbee Beach

23 Dive: Butterfly House 27 Club Meeting

SEPTEMBER S M T W Th F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

13 After-work: Lovers Cove 21 Coastal Clean-up Day:

San Carlos Beach 25 Club meeting 28 Dive: Club BBQ and

Dive: Lovers Cove

APRIL

S M T W Th F S

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

12 After-work: San Carlos Beach

20 Clean-up Dive: San Carlos Beach

24 Club meeting 27 Dive: North Monastery

OCTOBER S M T W Th F S

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

11 After-work: MacAbee Beach

19 Dive: Stillwater Cove Backup: San Carlos 26 Pumpkin Carving Contest:

San Carlos Beach 30 Club meeting

MAY

S M T W Th F S

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

10 After-work: Wharf II 25 Dive: Metridium Fields Backup: Breakwater 29 Club meeting

NOVEMBER S M T W Th F S

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

8 After-work: Wharf II 23 Dive: Butterfly House

Backup: Lovers Cove

JUNE

S M T W Th F S

1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30

14 After-work: Coral Street 22 Dive: Boat Dive,

Beachhopper II 26 Club meeting

DECEMBER S M T W Th F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

TBA MBSO Club Holiday Party

*Dive Locations are subject to change. Changed Info in RED

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2019 Board of Directors

PRESIDENT Mark Holman president@montereybayseaotters.org

VICE PRESIDENT Tom Hubbard vicepresident@montereybayseaotters.org

ACTIVITIES DIRECTOR Scott McReynolds activitiesdirector@montereybayseaotters.org

DIVE COORDINATOR Corey Penrose divecoordinator@montereybayseaotters.org

SECRETARY Caleb Lawrence secretary@montereybayseaotters.org

TREASURER Walan Chang treasurer@montereybayseaotters.org

SAFETY OFFICER Randy Phares safetyofficer@montereybayseaotters.org

NEWSLETTER EDITOR Matthew Denecour newslettereditor@montereybayseaotters.org

http://montereybayseaotters.org/ Webmaster – Corey Penrose Facebook