SCUBA DIVING BRUCE PENINSULA (Tobermory)

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The Great Lakes, due to their size and nasty winter storms, house a good number of unfortunate ships in their depths. Remember the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot) in Lake Superior. Well, Lake Huron is no exception. And with the establishment of Fathom Five National Marine Park over 20 years ago, the wrecks are protected. Also with the absence of the boring worms found in salt water, these wooden wrecks have held up very well.

There are over 20 preserved Schooners, Steamers and Barges buried beneath the waves - . some dating back as early as 1852. For the divers interested in underwater geology, there is the famous flowerpot formations and underwater caves that are seen within the park. Further out - towards Manitoulin Island, can be found a submerged waterfall that marks some of the past history of the lakes during the Ice Age.

In 110 feet of water off Echo Island lie the remains of the Barque Arabia. The masts lie broken and scattered but the bowsprit still reaches gracefully forward. Severe fall weather has left ships like the 213 foot steamer, W.L. Wetmore, laying 30 feet under the water's surface. Whether diving or snorkeling, the remains of the Wetmore provide excellent recreational opportunities. Swim over the massive timbers and explore the huge boiler which reaches within 10 feet of the lake's surface. Then follow the trail of chain that leads to the anchor now resting among the rocks and debris off Russel Island.

One of the more interesting wrecks occurred when the 216 foot steamer Forest City was navigating in heavy fog on June 5, 1904. The intended course was between Flowerpot and Bears Rump Islands, but due to the fog she came to a brutally abrupt halt when the forward bow contacted the cliff on the northeast shore of Bears Rump. With the ship stuck fast the crew was rescued by the tug Joe Milton and for several weeks every effort was made to salvage the ship. Filling with water she finally tore lose from the bow plating stuck in the rocks and slid beneath the waves. The Forest City lies in 60 feet to 150 feet of water with the stern still intact. The bow plating is still jammed in the rocks.

Explore an area where submerged forests, canyons and underwater waterfalls date back to a time before modern man. View the remains of ancient coral in this once tropical sea or watch the modern inhabitants, crawfish, bass and sculpin as they go about their daily business.

Another "hotspot" for scuba diving is within the Bruce Peninsula National Park. Located just one kilometre from the day-parking area, is the beautiful Indian Head Cove and the infamous ‘Grotto’, where visitors will discover a huge cave formation with a deep pool of Georgian Bay water as its floor. The Grotto, is a popular site to see underwater caves, boulder fields and other geological wonders.

Some of the other locations around the Bruce Peninsula that offer great scuba diving experiences include Wiarton, boasting at least three shore dives and a petrified forest off the coast, Dyer’s Bay featuring an enclosed bay and Cabot Head offering a contemplative diver a peaceful and less crowded place to dive.

Thanks to The Bruce Peninsula Blogspot

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com

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Turning Man into Fish – Scuba Diving Advances

The exploration of the Oceans is still a very new concept for humans. In the 1300s is when man started building snorkels and then in the 1700s air pumps were invented. It really wasn’t until 1943 when Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invented the modern regulator and improved diving suits. Recreational diving is just under 70 years old. As are society grows and our technology – the more we get to learn about the ocean and it’s wonders.

Come 2010 – an American inventor claims to have invented a suit that turns man into fish. How is this possible?

Inventor Arnold Lande, a retired American heart and lung surgeon, has patented a special suit that would allow humans to breathe “liquid air”. The scuba suit would allow divers to inhale highly-oxygenated perfluorocarbons (PFCs) – a type of liquid that can dissolve enormous quantities of gas. The liquid would be contained in an enclosed helmet that would replace all the air in the legs, nose and ear cavities.

The technology of liquid “breathing” has been tested. PFCs have been used to assist babies born prematurely in breathing and the U.S. Navy Seals experimented with this type of technology in the early 1980s.

“The first trick you would have to learn is overcoming the gag reflex,” explains Lande, “But once that oxygenated liquid is inside your lungs it would feel just like breathing air.” says Arnold Lande.

The CO2 that would normally exit our body when we breathe out, would be “scrubbed” from our blood by attaching a mechanical gill to the femoral vein in the leg.

By using oxygen suspended in liquid, divers would no longer have to worry about decompression sickness – the often fatal condition known as “the bends” which occurs when nitrogen dissolved in the blood under the immense pressures of deep water bubbles out as we rise. It could potentially allow divers to descend to far greater depths than is currently possible.

Currently the world record for the deepest scuba dive is just 318 meters (1043 ft) , accomplished in June of 2005 by South African diver Nuno Gomes. It actually took Gomes only 14 minutes to descend to that depth, but took him 12 hours to ascend to the surface. Had he ascended any quicker, he would likely have died from a condition called decompression sickness, or “the bends“.

Thanks to Scuba Diver Life

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com

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Diving Barotrauma

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Barotrauma is physical damage to body tissues caused by a difference in pressure between an air space inside or beside the body and the surrounding fluid. In addition to humans, and in contrast with Avian lungs, bats suffer fatal barotrauma around wind farms.

Barotrauma typically occurs to air spaces within a body when that body moves to or from a higher pressure environment, such as when a SCUBA diver, a free-diving diver or an airplane passenger ascends or descends, or during uncontrolled decompression of a pressure vessel. Boyle's law defines the relationship between the volume of the air space and the ambient pressure.

Damage occurs in the tissues around the body's air spaces because gases are compressible and the tissues are not. During increases in ambient pressure, the internal air space provides the surrounding tissues with little support to resist the higher external pressure. During decreases in ambient pressure, the higher pressure of the gas inside the air spaces causes damage to the surrounding tissues if that gas becomes trapped.

Ear barotrauma

Barotrauma can affect the external, middle, or inner ear. Middle ear barotrauma (MEBT) is the most common being experienced by between 10% and 30% of divers and is due to insufficient equilibration of the middle ear. External ear barotrauma may occur on ascent if high pressure air is trapped in the external auditory canal either by tight fitting SCUBA equipment or ear wax. Inner ear barotrauma (IEBT) though much less common than MEBT shares a similar mechanism. Mechanical trauma to the inner ear can lead to varying degrees of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss as well as vertigo.

Barosinusitis

The sinuses similar to other air filled cavities are susceptible to barotrauma if their openings become obstructed. This can result in pain as well as epistaxis.

Mask squeeze

If a diver's mask is not equalized during descent the relative negative pressure can produce petechial hemorrhages in the area covered by the mask along with subconjunctival hemorrhages.


Pulmonary barotrauma

Pulmonary (lung) pressure damage in scuba divers is usually caused by breath-holding on ascent. The compressed gas in the lungs expands as the ambient pressure decreases causing the lungs to over expand and rupture unless the diver breathes out. The lungs do not sense pain when over-expanded giving the diver little warning to prevent the injury. This does not affect breath-hold skin divers as they bring a lungfull of air with them from the surface, which merely re-expands safely to near its original volume on ascent. The problem only arises if a breath of compressed gas is taken at depth, which will then expand on ascent to more than the lung volume. Pulmonary barotrauma may also be caused by explosive decompression of a pressurised aircraft.

Causes

When diving, the pressure differences needed to cause the barotrauma come from two sources:

* descending and ascending in water. There are two components to the surrounding pressure acting on the diver: the atmospheric pressure and the water pressure. A descent of 10 metres (33 feet) in water increases the ambient pressure by approximately the pressure of the atmosphere at sea level. So, a descent from the surface to 10 metres (33 feet) underwater results in a doubling of the pressure on the diver.

* breathing gas at depth from SCUBA equipment results in the lungs containing gas at a higher pressure than atmospheric pressure. So a free-diving diver can dive to 10 metres (33 feet) and safely ascend without exhaling, because the gas in the lungs had been inhaled at atmospheric pressure, whereas a SCUBA diver who breathes at 10 metres and ascends without exhaling has lungs containing gas at twice atmospheric pressure and is very likely to suffer life-threatening lung damage.


Avoidance and treatment

Diving barotrauma can be avoided by eliminating any pressure differences acting on the tissue or organ by equalizing the pressure. There are a variety of techniques:

* The air spaces in the ears, and the sinuses. The risk is burst eardrum. Here, the diver can use the Valsalva manoeuvre, to let air into the middle ears via the Eustachian tubes. Sometimes swallowing will open the Eustachian tubes and equalise the ears. See ear clearing.

* The lungs. The risk is pneumothorax. which is commonly called burst lung by divers. To equalise, always breathe normally and never hold the breath. This risk does not arise when snorkel diving from the surface, unless the snorkeller breathes from a high pressure gas source underwater, or from submerged air pockets.

* The air inside the usual eyes-and-nose diving mask. The main risk is bleeding around the eyes from the negative pressure[10] or orbital emphysema from higher pressures. Here, let air into the mask through the nose. Do not dive in eyes-only goggles as sometimes seen on land with industrial breathing sets.

* Air spaces inside a dry suit. The main risk is folds of skin getting pinched inside folds of the drysuit. Most modern drysuits have a tube connection to feed air in from the cylinder. Air must be injected on the descent and vented on the ascent.

Following barotrauma of the ears or lungs from diving the diver should not dive again until thoroughly cleared by a doctor, which can take many months.

Thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com

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The Best Diving Practices

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As soon as man enters the deep blue sea, there is a change of everything. Walking is no longer our way of getting around. We float in style. Our access to unlimited oxygen is cut down to a tank-full. Instead of shopping for fish, some fish shop for us. Scuba diving is fun. But it’s only fun when you come out of the water the same way you came in. Below are few points on some diving practices that are advised to those who respect themselves as divers and respect the places that they dive in.

Secure the obvious

Aqua-man, if you’re reading this: stay away! Everyone else is subject to the need of diving equipment. Diving shops can be tricky. If you’re new to scuba diving, try not to enter one on your own. If you have a friend who is an experienced diver, ask him/her to direct you to a competent diving shop that will not only sell to you your needs, but also cares for them.

When you’ve got enough equipment to survive a tsunami, go look for a good diving location. Ask yourself questions like, “What do I wanna see?” and “How do I get there?” How do you answer these questions? Do you literally have go beach hopping just so you can find a good diving spot? If your answer is yes, then my friend Google would be greatly insulted. I just said, “Google.” You’ll know what to do.

When in-depth

Now you’re in the water, and you feel like a scuba diving Boy Scout. You’ve got everything you need. Does this mean that you’re good for the day? Not quite. You need a sane and experienced “diving buddy”. If you’re going out with a group of friends that has been diving for awhile, then make sure you stick with them the entire time you dive.

But if you’re diving with a group of people you don’t know, it is crucial to find a dive buddy who will take care of you and knows what you don’t. Remember the movie, ‘Open Water’? Those two were not only diving buddies, but a couple. And they still ended up stranded alone in the ocean.

Creature Feature

Ah, yes- the ocean life. It is full of creatures big and small. Some are endangered, and some are dangerous. We need to take care of some of them, and we need to take care of ourselves from some of them. Observe all you want, but remember to keep you distance. Those who choose to take photos, choose your models carefully. A great white shark may be sensitive to flashes.

And yes, if I must say this, I’ll only say this once. Don’t feed them fishes. At first, it may sound safe and fun, but when you upgrade from bread crumbs to a Happy Meal, things may get ugly. If the unkind, bloodthirsty ones happened to notice that small “num-nums” keep popping out of you, they might get the idea that you’re a refrigerator.

Enjoy collecting memories, but make sure there’s still room for common sense.

Thanks to Sean of Expedition Fleet

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com

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Best Scuba Diving Spots In The World

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Once you've become a certified scuba diver, you'll want to visit one of the best scuba diving spots in the world. Travel to these unbelievable ocean escapes to see wrecked ships, go into deep caves or view vast coral reefs. Whatever adventure you are looking for, you will find them in these hot spots. Go around the world and see these awesome scuba diving sites in Africa, Egypt and even off an island in Hawaii.

1. The Yongala - Australia. If you love history and shipwrecks, then this is the best scuba diving spot in the world for you. The Yongala was a ship that sank in 1911 in Queensland. It's now a myopia of marine life like manta rays, sea snakes, octopuses, turtles, bull sharks, tiger sharks, and clouds of fish. Diving into the shipwreck however is off limits.

2. Blue Corner Wall - Palau, Micronesia. Wall diving is unique sport of scuba diving to where you use reef hooks to sustain your body to view the marine life around you. Here you will see a plehtora of barracudas, sharks, killer whales and large turtles.

3. Barracuda Point - Sipidan Island. If the idea hundreds of barracudas schooling around you excites you, this is where you need to go. This scuba diving spot is a barracuda haven along with leopard sharks and hammerheads.

4. Thistlethorn - Egyptian Red Sea. A British ship "Thistlethorn" sunk here in 1941. The ship is in great condition for wreck diving as it was filled with a cargo of war supplies: rifles, motor bikes, train carriages and trucks. It will take more than one day to see all the artifacts this sunken vessel has to offer.
5. Shark and Yolanda Reef - Egyptian Red Sea. This spectacular scuba diving spot offers three unique visuals. First a huge numbers of anemone; a shark reef, and finally the shipwreck "Yolanda."

6. Navy Pier - Western Australia. Considered one of the best shore dives on the planet, you'll find octopus, sting rays, white tip sharks, eels and humpback whales. You don't have to go deep into the ocean to get a great taste of aquatic life.

7. Manta Ray Night Dive - Kailua Kona, Hawaii. An unusual diving spot as underwater lights are placed on the ocean floor. At night the lights attract plankton which in turn attract manta rays.

8. Big Brother - Egyptian Red Sea. In this scuba diving spot, you'll find shipwreck the "Italian Aida II." This is considered a world class dive so you'll need insurance, logged 50 dives, and to own a surface marker buoy and a torch.
9. Great Blue Hole - Belize. This beautiful spot for divers is a ring of coral reef that surrounds a round hole. Inside you'll find sharks swimming along with colorful tropical fish.

10. Richelieu Rock - Thailand. Here you'll see barracudas, batfish and mantas, but that's not the main attraction. This is the best place to see whale sharks.

Thanks to mademan

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com

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