the aqua tooter - Aqua Tutus Diving Club

THE AQUA TOOTER
On the web at http://www.aquatutus.com
April 2015
Since 1958... a publication from the Aqua Tutus Diving Club, a non-profit organization established to promote Water Safety
and to further the sport of SCUBA Diving.
May Meeting Entertainment
At the May 7
General meeting, we will be
treated to a special presentation
by professional
photographer
Jason Bradley.
Jason is a selfcredit Joe Platko
taught
nature
and underwater
photographer from Monterey. His passion is telling stories of the aquatic ecosystems. Seascapes, wildlife, science, adventure sports and conservation issues photography are also a part of his portfolio.
Bradley Photographic offers workshops providing classroom and field seminars. In his seminars, Jason instructs on digital photo techniques as well as retouching
and post processing. Jason specializes in Lightroom and
Photoshop. Jason has partnered with Wetpixal.com to
lead many of their worldwide underwater photo expeditions.
Jason also offers archival pigment ink prints and retouching through Bradley Photographic Print Services.
He wants to encourage photographers to see the value of
a fine print in this digital era. Jason is finishing his new
book titled Creative Workflow in Lightroom which will
be available this spring.
Aqua Tutus Diving Club's
next regular meeting:
Thursday, May 7th, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Round Table Pizza
20920 Redwood Rd.
Castro Valley
UPCOMING CLUB ACTIVITY (LOCAL)
May 2 - Club Dive MacAbee to Breakwater
snorkel – Jim POC
June 19-21 – Salt Point – Debbie POC
Woodside Campground
Aug 22 - Otter cove – Jim TBA
BOD MEETING SCHEDULE
3rd Thursday Every month except December,
• Thursday May 15
http://www.meetup.com/Aqua-Tutus-Dive-Club/
or
http://www.my.calendars.net/atdc_events
For the Latest on Club Activities
VDM/Conception Dive Boat trip is now
scheduled, Sept 19 –22.
Tooters can sign up now
Please join us and bring your friends for a special evening filled with incredible images by Jason Bradley.
Advanced Open Water Class Calendar
• Aug 6 Aqua Tutus meeting (or sooner) pay class
fees and pick up materials.
• Aug 25, 27 and Sep 1 or Sep 10 Academics 7 –
10 PM at Dennis’ house in Newark
• Sep 12 dives at Sand Harbor Lake Tahoe
• Sep 13 dives at DL Bliss Lake Tahoe
• Sep 19 make up dives and night dive Monterey.
April 2015
Round Table Pizza
See Page 6
AMAZON.COM CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS TO AQUA TUTUS DIVING CLUB!!
Check it out on page 9
What’s Inside
March Entertainment Report
IN THE NEWS
VDM Dive Trip Announcement
April Gen Meeting Minutes
April BOD Meeting Minutes
Aqua Tooter Page 2-3
Page 4-5
Page 6
Page 7-8
Page 8-9
Pleasanton, California
April Meeting Entertainment
Reported by Linda Muth
At the April 2 General
Meeting we enjoyed a very
good program given by Reef
Check’s Central Coast Regional Manager Dan Abbott.
Dan has been involved with
Reef Check California as a
volunteer and part-time instructor since 2005 and begun working full-time with
them in September of 2014.
Dan began his diving after being certified at Steele’s in
1989.
Dan began his presentation with a short history of the
California coast. The coast of California used to be
abundant with organisms such as whales, otters and
fish. Then unsustainable harvest happened. Massive
numbers of gray whales were killed in the late 1800’s
with the peak of whaling from 1855-1865. Large scale
whaling ended in 1936. Some whaling continued until
1969 in Richmond. There is now an estimated 20,000
gray whales.
The ocean is changing, the water is warming, while
pollution and plastic garbage are taking their tolls.
In 1996, Reef Check World Wide was founded. Reef
check trained volunteer citizen scientists to count
“indicator species”. They built up local support for
conservation. Reef Check California was founded in
2006 to foster sustainable management here as was
being done in other parts of the world.
The original population of sea otters was thought to be
13,000 to 20,000. Harvesting started in 1803 and by
1812, sea otters were scarce. By 1840 they were
thought to be gone. Fortunately a small population of
50 was discovered in 1938. Otters began to move
north to Monterey where by 2012 there was a population of less than 3,000.
Abalone was also exploited starting in 1900’s. By
1996, the peak fishery closed. A dramatic decrease in
fish abundance has been seen since the 1970’s. In order to try to save the vanishing marine life, the Marine
Life Protection Act came to life in 1999. This act required the state to sustainably manage all living marine
resources. There are now 124 Marine Protected Areas
with 16% of them in state waters and nine no take areas.
Reef Check trains volunteers to help evaluate the
MPA’s. They also work with state agencies providing
valuable data. Reef Check covers 4350 reefs, does
9900 surveys and works within 93 countries and territories.
What is monitoring? Monitoring is broad, it looks at
many questions. For example, what is happening in
April 2015
page 2
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
Meeting Entertainment continued
the California kelp beds?
year, 63 sites were monitored and 3024 transects were
performed. All volunteers are required to do mandatory
refresher course each year.
This differs from scientific research which focuses on
data and one question. It is very specific.
Monitoring is long term and on-going. This information is used to influence management decisions and
for early detection of abnormal changes. With this
constant monitoring, it brings huge sets of data that
can be monitored by experts. The information gathered by Reef Check is publically available on their
website.
One of the current issues that Reef Check is monitoring is the sea star wasting disease. There was a big
increase in 2013 before the huge decline started.
With the decrease in sea stars comes an increase in
purple urchins. The urchins are eating the kelp. One
could ask, are there more urchins or are they just coming out of hiding now that the sea stars are no longer a
threat to them.
Reef Check also has other ways to become involved.
They offer tropical eco-expeditions in locations that
include Honduras, Malaysia and the Philippines. More
information can be found on their website.
Another ongoing issue is the recovery of abalone after
the die off. Last year there were large numbers of
abalone in Sonoma County, more than has been seen
in years, especially in Stillwater Cove. The question
is, will this hold?
Thank you again to Dan Abbott for a great presentation
about Reef Check.
In southern California in Catalina, the warm water
has brought an invasion of sargassum which as caused
the giant kelp to be mostly gone.
Reef Check holds classes annually to train new volunteers. After completing class room work on marine
life identification and safety, the participants head to
the pool to learn how to conduct surveys.
http://reefcheck.org/rcca/rcca_home.php
The cost for the training is $250. Please see the information on the next page for more details.
Following the meeting presentation, Dan mentioned
Reef Check has a KICKSTARTER.COM fund raising
campaign on the WWW to fund a Marine ecosystem
assessment of the Big Sur coast, to aid in it's conservation. It was launched a few days ago and Reef Check
is trying to get the word out as much as possible It’s
a good way for members who want to support Reef
Check, but don't want to dive, to do so.
More information at
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2033378493/
marine-ecosystem-assessment-of-the-big-sur-coast
THANK YOU PRESENTERS AND NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTORS for making this month’s
AQUATOOTER possible: Linda Muth, Helga
Mahlmann, Arnie Warshawsky, Bernhard Sterling, Alan Throop, Debbie Driggers, Dan Abbott
Buddy teams learn how to use transects to help count
fish, invertebrates, and algae. Once they are finished
with the pool training they head to the ocean. Last
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
April 2015
page 3
IN THE NEWS
Wharf II Diving Requirements
Hi everyone!
I just spoke with Brian Nelson in the Monterey Harbormaster's office about the requirements of diving at
Wharf II.
He said that they are:
1. You must dive with a buddy or have a spotter in
a boat, on the wharf or have a float with a dive
flag on it,
2. You can not dive past the "dogleg" in the pier,
3. You can not dive inside the pier pilings, only on
the outside of them,
IN THE NEWS
News leads from Helga
Feds Cancel Commercial Sardine Fishing
After Stocks Crash
Life has suddenly gotten easier for the sardine. Federal regulators are not only closing the commercial sardine fishing season early in Oregon, Washington and
California, but it will stay closed for more than a
year.
The decision to shut down the sardine harvest is an
effort to build up depleted stocks of the small, oily
fish. The conservation group, Oceana, says that sardine populations have crashed more than 90 percent
since 2007.
4. It is best to go out from the beach away from
the pier and then swim in to it in order to avoid
the fishermen and their lines, and
See the full story at http://www.npr.org/blogs/
thetwo-way/2015/04/16/400177895/feds-placecommercial-sardine-fishing-on-hold-for-morethan-a-year?sc=tw
5. You need to check in with the Harbormaster
before you dive.
You also might want to check out good news about
Monterey and
If you need to get ahold of the Harbormaster, the
number is 831-646-3950.
Why West Coast Sea Life Has Been Behaving So Strangely
I hope this clears things up a bit.
at http://m.theatlantic.com/national/
archive/2014/01/why-west-coast-sea-life-has-beenbehaving-so-strangely/283003/
Thanks!
Helga
April 2015
page 4
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
IN THE NEWS
More News leads from Helga
WWII Aircraft Carrier Is Found
'Amazingly Intact' On Ocean Floor Near
San Francisco
It fought in World War II and was used in two atomic
bomb tests. Now, 64 years after it was scuttled, the
USS Independence has been located by an undersea
survey team led by NOAA and the U.S. Navy.
A new image of the ship suggests it's in good shape
for a craft that was damaged by shock waves, heat
and radiation in the Pacific Ocean.
"Independence sits on the bottom as if ready to launch
its planes," said James Delgado, maritime heritage
director for NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
See the full story at
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwoway/2015/04/18/400602771/wwii-aircraft-carrier-is
-found-on-ocean-floor-near-san-francisco
“Old Tutors” Meet Up
On Kona
Abalone Caprese
You probably had the Italian dish caprese salad and
were surprised how good something this simple and
quick to prepare can taste: tomato, mozzarella, basil, sprayed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. But,
the carnivores among us feel something is missing;
shall we call it … savory?
A couple of months ago the ScubaChef for the California Diving News presented an impressive picture
of scallops caprese. Around that turn of year Baerbel’s cold water swim buddy Dave McMurdy gave
me an abalone as XM present (Baerbel got two
pounds of chocolate pralines, of course – smart guy).
As the cleaned meat alone was around two pounds I can only venture a guess what the shell size must
have been – I prepared three dishes: the showy abalone caprese stacks from the round-cut center, abalone ceviche and abalone fri1ers from the outside
chunks.
The annual mee5ng of Aqua Tutus West convened at
the Fish Hopper in Kona on April 7.
President 'Uncle' Joe Timmons headed up the fes5vi5es with O'ahu resident Arnie Warshawsky.
We reminisced about cold (brrrrr) diving days past.
The center cut steaks looked great and fit the large
beefsteak tomato slices perfectly but the aroma was
underwhelming. So they were turned into a chunky
paste with mayo, herbs and spices. TJ carries the
cute mozzarella balls.
Ab season is upon us!
Then we laughed.
Bon appe5te
Arnie Warshawsky
Bernhard
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
April 2015
page 5
April 2015
page 6
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
General Meeting Minutes
Date: April 2, 2015
Reported by Debbie Driggers
Meeting called to order by President Mike Barrett at
Round Table Pizza in Castro Valley, CA at 7:30pm.
Guests: Melissa planning to learn to dive. Chris has
been a diver for some time and is looking to get back to
diving.
Entertainment (Linda Muth)
May – Jason Bradley
June – Seacology
July – Members night
Aug – Oliver and Neil – Cozumel and the Yucatan
Sep – Paula Butler – Wakatobi
Oct – Craig and Susan Davis
Nov – Mike Boom – Tiger Sharks of the Bahamas
Treasurer’s Report (Helga Mahlmann)
$3449.73
Membership
43 Total
Training (Dennis Hocker)
Advanced class planned for the fall, cost $90 members/
$140 non members. Includes: training, all materials and
certification fees. Dives probably at Tahoe.
For more information on training contact Dennis Hocker
(510) 792-5606 [email protected] or Neil Benjamin
(510) 673-0073 [email protected]
Newsletter (Don Kelsey)
Input due by the 20th. He would like to have more input
and variety, submissions requested. Any suggestions for
changes are most welcome.
Web Goddess (Patti Shannon)
Making headway hoping to publish the new site this
weekend.
Meetup update:
Sign up is for members only
Old Business: None
New Business:
Club donation to Marine Mammal Center –
• Helga has proposed that the club donate $100 to the
center to help with the current deluge of pups. Connie
has seconded.
• Bernhard talked about how well the center has grown
and improved over the years and pointed out that we as
humans are drawn to mammals as opposed to fish.
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
• Gail talked about the number of dead sea lions
she’s seen recently and their poor conditions.
• Dennis and others point out that the population
goes up and down.
• Elaine would prefer the club as a whole to support
a less tightly focused organization.
• Jono took over for Mike as acting president so he
could speak. Mike feels that the MMC has made
way too much in donations and does not need our
help, would also prefer to donate to a broader coverage, less well funded non profit.
• The motion was voted down.
• Dennis mentioned that if the club as a whole does
not decide to donate that individuals can still donate to this cause.
Larry suggested the club purchase a copy of Bruce
Watkin’s new book and use that as a reference for
some new dive sites. Use of Meet Up to track new
sites and cross reference back. Debbie moved that
we purchase a copy of the book for this use. Discussion ensued and Jono offered to lend his copy for
this use. Debbie modified the motion to create the
lending library. Motion was voted on and passed.
Special Committee:
Party pricing and crowd planning (Jono and Debbie)
Still in the works.
Past Dives:
• Nick – club dive at Coral St. About 12 divers,
great vis about 40 ft. Moderate to heavy surge.
Lots of Hopkin’s Roses and other nudis. Lots of
brittle stars and purple urchins, very little kelp.
Several divers did a second dive at the Metidiums.
• Gail, Kari, Logan – Breakwater wall, great vis.
Gail pulled lots of fishing line and weights. The
need for a cutting tool was stressed.
• Bo, Dave and Mike - Butterfly House. Mild conditions, not much kelp. 60-80’ vis, little surgy.
Second dive lower vis stronger surge. Dove S.
Monastery the following day.
• Baerbel and Mike – N. Monastery or Carmel
Meadows (park and walk down behind the day
school) Some nice sites new to them that had easier access.
Bone Award Nominees: Jono Dove for bringing
his camera on the dive but not putting a memory
chip into it. Dave Chervin for not fixing a tear in his
dry suit before coming to the dive.
Winner: Dave, by a landslide
April 2015
page 7
General Meeting Minutes continued
Miscellaneous
Jono wanted to thank Gail for putting photos up on
the Meet Up site
Jono also wanted remind everyone to pay their dues
Upcoming Activity and Dives
2015
• May 2 - Club Dive MacAbee to Breakwater snorkel – Jim POC
• May16-30 - Turks & Caicos, POC Dennis. Filling
up the remaining spots. If you have any interest,
get your deposit in before it fills up. Sport Dive
and Alert Diver both had good articles about this
place. There is space available. Two weeks on a
live-aboard, 5 or more dives per day. Will venture
places the boat doesn't normally go.
• June 19-21 – Salt Point – Debbie POC Woodside
Campground
• July 11 – North Monastery – Mike POC
• Aug 22 - Otter cove – Jim TBA
• Sep 12-13 – advanced class Tahoe
• Oct – TBA
• Nov – TBA Helga
• Dec 12, 2015 - Club holiday party
• Dec 19-Jan 2, 2015 Cozumel - Patti POC
2016
July 10 - 24 Chuuk. Dennis is going one more time!
If you have any interest/desire, no better place to do
wreck diving. About 50 Japanese vessels are there.
It doesn't get better.
Up-Coming Entertainment:
May – Jason Bradley – photographic courtesy
June – Seacology
July – Members night
Aug – Oliver and Neil – Cozumel and the Yucatan
Sep – Paula Butler – Wakatobi
Oct – Craig and Susan Davis
Nov – Mike Boom – Tiger Sharks of the Bahamas
Treasurer’s Report (Helga)
Current balance is $ 3539.96
Membership (Bernhard)
10 life members
34 regular members
3 associates
Director of Training (Dennis Hocker)
AOW schedule will be announced at next meeting. Tahoe will be weekend after Labor Day.
If anyone has interest in other courses please email
Dennis at [email protected]
Newsletter (Don Kelsey) – not present
Give input by the 20th, will get out within a week.
Webgoddess (Patti Hocker)
Making final touchups and hopes to launch this weekend. Patti has added a photo gallery and links to our
Meet Up and Facebook pages as well as for Amazon
Smile. She’ll look into getting a .org site after she gets
the new site up and running.
Next Membership meeting:
May 7, 2015
MeetUp
There are 22 people pending several new since March.
Mike emails everyone but has had no response. Fritz
inquired if we were purging people who are no longer
active members. We will not purge at this time.
Next BOD meeting:
April 16, 2015
CenCal
Sent out a recent newsletter.
Meeting adjourned at 9:08 pm.
New Business
• Helga has the info to arrange a tour of the Monterey
chamber, we just need to pick a date.
• Helga would like to set up a plan to acknowledge
member anniversary years. Maybe note in the Tooter
at 5 year anniversaries and recognition at the holiday
party. Bernard can collect membership duration data.
Aqua Tutus Diving Club
Board Meeting Minutes Date: April 16,
2015
Reported by Debbie Driggers
Present: Jim, Helga, Michael, Patti, Dennis, Fritz,
Debbie, Bernhard, Larry, Greg
Meeting called to order at 7:05 pm by Mike
April 2015
page 8
Old Business
• Helga proposed we create a position Director of Social Media. Jono seconded that proposal and inquired
if Jim were willing to take on the role. Jim has agreed
to fill the role if it’s created. Jim will make a write to
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
BOD Meeting Minutes continued
present at the next general meeting, also send to Don
to publish in the Tooter and then voted on in the following meeting. Will hold further discussion until
Jono is available to join in discussion.
• Possible future dues increase. Prior to discussing further, Helga will outline and advise members of what
their dues buy. Helga will create a breakdown of club
costs (entertainment, classes, general expenses….)
Per Helga, dues pay Chamber donation, web, AV
equip, misc expense, PO box, MeetUp fee, and many
of the costs of the holiday party. It was decided that
this subject will be revisited after the Special Committee for the holiday party presents suggestions.
Special Committee
Holiday party planning. Jono and Debbie will come up
with options and present to the BOD by July. Nothing
to report.
Upcoming Events
2015
BOD meetings 3rd Thursday January thru November at
Castro Valley Round Table Pizza. 7:00pm meeting,
6:30 social.
All other Events discussed same as in General Meeting
Minutes.
Meetings
Next Membership meeting:
Thursday May 7 at Round Table Pizza, 7:30 meeting
starts
Next BOD meeting:
Thursday May 21 at Round Table Pizza, 7:00 meeting
starts
Meeting adjourned at 7:45pm
ATDC NON-PROFIT STATUS
IS NOW OFFICIAL AND REGISTERED AT
SMILE.AMAZON.COM
Helga announces, in conjunction with our official
IRS non-profit status, the club is now registered with
smile.amazon.com.
What is smile.amazon.com ??
Its Amazon.com’s
website where a small portion (0.5%) of revenue is
contributed by Amazon to charities selected by buyers. So, if you use amazon.smile.com instead of amazon.com, and select Aqua Tutus Diving Inc as
your favorite smile.amazon.com charity, 0.5% of
your purchase goes directly to the club. A painless
way (no cost to you) to help out the club treasury,
with contributions from Amazon.
Get the full story at
http://smile.amazon.com/about/
ref=smi_se_ft_abt_saas
HOW TO SIGN UP
On
your
first
visit
to
AmazonSmile
(smile.amazon.com), select Aqua Tutus Diving Inc
to receive donations from eligible purchases before
you begin shopping.
Amazon will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com
will result in a small donation, from Amazon.com, to
Aqua Tutus Diving Inc.
Its that easy. So sign up NOW!!!!
Don’s timeshare is now available for
2016. Book now while it is still
Available at a great low price.
Big Island, Hawaii
Kona Condo for Rent
June 29- July 13, 2016
$450 per week,+$14 tax
One-time $50 registry fee
covers one or all weeks.
Weeks run Weds to Weds
Contact Don Kelsey
925-820-8362
[email protected]
Resort details at www.thekonabillfisher.com
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
April 2015
page 9
Calendar of Events
See the latest BOD meeting minutes,
or
http://www.meetup.com/Aqua-Tutus-Dive-Club/
or
for the current schedule of ATDC Events
ATDC Dive Training
Advanced Open Water Class Calendar
Aug 6 Aqua Tutus meeting (or sooner) pay class
fees and pick up materials.
Aug 25, 27 and Sep 1 or Sep 10 Academics 7 –
10 PM at Dennis’ house in Newark
Sep 12 dives at Sand Harbor Lake Tahoe
Sep 13 dives at DL Bliss Lake Tahoe
Sep 19 make up dives and night dive Monterey.
• Dates are tentative, depend on participation, check
the webpage
• Classroom sessions held at Dennis’ house, 38962
Larkspur Street, Newark, CA
• For more information contact
• Neil Benjamin: (510) 673-0073
[email protected]
• Dennis Hocker: (510) 792-5606
dennis@ rxscuba.com
What is a “POC”
The “POC” is a Point of Contact for a club dive.
Any member is welcome to plan a dive and put in
on our web site calendar. You don’t have to be a
dive master, or the director of training, or a board
member to do this. Any club dive is done with the
expectation that there will be people there to help.
ATTENTION , ASPIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS AND WRITERS
WANTED—DIVE PICS AND STORIES
FOR THE TOOTER.
Send your input to Don at
[email protected]
Thank You Helga Mahlmann,
for providing lots of input
for IN THE NEWS
April 2015
page 10
http://reefcheck.org/rcca/rcca_home.php
2015 OFFICERS/BOD/Volunteers
President
Mike Barrett
[email protected]
Vice President
Jono Dove
[email protected]
Secretary
[email protected]
Debbie Driggers
Treasurer
Helga Mahlmann
[email protected]
Membership Chair
Bernhard Sterling
[email protected]
Training Director
Dennis Hocker
[email protected]
Entertainment Chair
Linda Muth
[email protected]
Newsletter Publisher
[email protected]
Don Kelsey
Board Members @ Large:
Greg Gleeson
Larry Muth
Fritz Welss
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Past President
Oliver Edwards
[email protected]
Web “Goddess”
Patti Shannon-Hocker [email protected]
ATDC Web page:
www.aquatutus.com
FIND Oliver’s Tutorial
BEGINNING PHOTOSHOP FOR
UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHERS
at
http://www.aquatutus.com/tooter/
beginning_photoshop_for_underwater_photography.pdf
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
Aqua Tutus Diving Club
P.O. Box 11952
Pleasanton, CA 94588
North Coast Diving since 1958
For quick access to Chuck Tribolet’s
Internet Resources
for the Bay Area Diver
http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/swell/
News from the Monterey Bay
National Marine Sanctuary
http://www.mbnms.nos.noaa.gov
https://www.facebook.com/MBNMS
Keep up with California Diving,
read
California Diving News
News from the Monterey Bay
Aquarium Research Institute
http://www.mbari.org/
http://www.cadivingnews.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MBARInews?
fref=ts
News from the California Marine
Sanctuary Foundation
http://californiamsf.org/index.html
News from the Pacific Grove
Hyperbaric Chamber
https://www.facebook.com/
PGHyperbaricChamber
http://californiamsf.org/pages/donatepgh.html
Aqua Tooter Pleasanton, California
April 2015
page 11