August 2008 >> Archives
Caribbean Diving – No Passport Required
| In this issue | NEW Dive boat |
Lobster Season is here! |
Annual Coral Spawning | PADI Specialty of the Month | Love your BCD | Fish of the Month |
NEW Kokomo Cat II is here.
Come play on the newest dive/snorkel boat in the Florida Keys! Based on the same design as the old Kokomo Cat, our new boat is faster, quieter, and more stable. There's a great sound system, plenty of shade and a grill for cooking up our world famous hotdogs. Trip info
Lobster season opens Wednesday August 6th and runs until March 31st.
We've got all your gear!
More info on gear prep, air fills, hunting regulations, online license purchase and much more..
It’s an annual spectacle that occurs just after nightfall, a few days after the August full moon. The day and time depends on the species of coral. Montastraea (the predominant boulder coral in the Keys) spawns 6-8 days after the full moon about 3 hours after sunset. The branching corals, such as finger, staghorn and elkhorn, spawn 3-5 days after the full moon about 2 hours after sunset. The August full moon is on the16th.
See it for yourself. Book early to reserve your spot.
Click here for trip information.
Gear Meister answers your gear questions...
"Love your BCD " 
A good Bouyancy Compensation Device makes diving soooo much easier and more enjoyable.
Over the next few months, we’ll take a look at our BCD - why we use one, how it works, how we get air in and out, some different features you can find on various BCD’s, and how to take care of it.
Let’s start with what it is. By its name, it is a device that compensates, or corrects, our buoyancy as we dive. Remembering back to our basic Open Water Scuba class, every object (including us), placed in water has some level of buoyancy. This buoyancy can be positive making us rise or float, negative making us sink, or neutral, allowing us to stay at one level in the water column. That would be fine and dandy if we only wanted to go where our natural buoyancy was a perfect fit. But how much fun would scuba diving be if we were always positively buoyant and stuck on the surface? Or negatively buoyant when we tried to swim back to the boat?
The early days 
In the early days of diving, the only thing we really tried to correct was positive buoyancy so that we could descend. The easy solution was to add weights. The diver would add enough weight that with his wetsuit and other gear on, he was only slightly positively buoyant, allowing him to float on the surface with just a little bit of finning. When it was time to descend, the diver had to swim his way down for the first 10-15 feet (3-5 m). As the diver descended, the increasing water pressure continued to compress the air spaces in the diver’s 
body and wetsuit making him more and more negative. The only way to counter the negative buoyancy was to fin up to stay at a certain depth. But - aha! - divers also noticed that at one point in the descent and ascent, they could remain level in the water column with little or no effort – neutrally buoyant.
Happiness is adjustable buoyancy
Wouldn’t it be great to spend the entire dive in that neutral condition without having to fin to stay down or stay off the bottom? This led to the first attempt at an adjustable buoyancy device. The first ones were really no more than minimally modified versions of aviation life vests (very similar to the one under 
your seat). At the selected depth, they would manually blow enough air into the vest to make themselves neutral. As they changed depth during the dive, they would manually add or vent air to reestablish neutral buoyancy.
The first devices had some inherent shortcomings such as having to manually inflate and deflate, and the fact that without a crotch strap, they rode up into the diver’s face. With many modifications over the years, we’ve come to the modern BCD.
All modern BCD’s have some common features. They provide a way to attach our cylinder to our body, and a way to move air from our cylinder into the BCD and a way to vent air from the BCD in order to adjust our buoyancy during the dive. After that, it’s just a matter of variations to provide these two functions and then additions to make the BCD more useful and functional.
Now that we know what a BCD does, let’s dissect it and learn how it works.
How does a BCD hold air?
Early BCD’s were little more than a plastic bag (the bladder) inside a protective cover. This did the job, but had a few problems. Since the technology didn’t exist to really attach the bladder to the inside of the cover, the bladder tended to move around and bunch
up. This meant that the buoyancy might be trapped in one shoulder rather than spread out throughout the vest, resulting in poor balance. Second, the bladder also tended to be somewhat delicate and eventually developed leaks. And finally, since it was a separate piece, it was one more thing to malfunction.
Technology has improved and now most modern BCD’s use a nylon shell which is coated on the inside to make it hold air. This one piece design also makes it easier and more reliable when we add holes to attach our inflation and deflation ports.
Sounds great, but what can go wrong with it?
The enemies
The biggest dangers to the modern BCD are ultraviolet light, chemicals, excessive heat, and salt. Wait a minute – that sounds like a typical dive day at the beach! Not to worry, we’re talking about excesses without cleaning. The sun can break down the materials in your BCD. Heat can break down the glue and resins. Even sunscreen can stain and degrade the material.
Care and feeding of your BCD
So, don’t leave your BCD lying in the sun for several days at a time. Don’t store it in the trunk of your hot car for days on end. Wear a shirt, wetsuit, or dive skin under the BCD. After use in a swimming pool, the BCD needs to be rinsed inside and out to prevent the chlorine from degrading the material.
Same with ocean salt. When salt dries, it leaves salt crystals. On the microscopic level, these crystals are hard, jagged, and sharp, and can eventually wear holes through the inside of the bladder resulting in leaks. So, as with chlorine, your BCD needs to be thoroughly cleaned inside and out after every dive in salt water.
Stay tuned...
Next month we’ll go into detail about how air gets into and out of your BCD..
Visiting the Keys? Purchase a Mares BCD and get FREE shipping (domestic).
<< Sinking of the Adolphus Busch wreck in 1998.
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As you near the bottom, a recognizable shape begins to form. First, you see a straight line, then a round window. Next, a ship materializes in front of you. As you look at the wreck, past and the present meet.
Sunk intentionally or tragically, whether a sunken ship, a plane or an automobile, the call of wrecks is nearly irresistible to divers. Through the PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course, you'll get the skills, knowledge and procedures you need to answer the call of wreck diving.self.
Explore the past. For all the details, check it out at PADI.com
Spotted Trunkfish, Lactophrys bicaudalis.
Trunkfish are members of the boxfish family, which are protected by a bony, triangular skeleton. Trunkfish are distinguished from cowfish by their lack of horns above the eyes. The Spotted Trunkfish is white with black spots and white around the mouth. They will eat both plants and small animals and use their mouth to “blow” away sand while looking for dinner. Usually solitary, they are fairly curious and will not swim far away unless chased. Typically 6-12 inches (15-30 cm) long, they are usually found around the reef at depths of 15 to 60 feet (5-20 m).