DIVE CLUB RELOADED


The Bangalore Dive Club recently celebrated a year in existence!

2009 saw lots of fun and initiatives to preserve the environment, which include:

  • Lobbying against the government which resulted in Nethrani being reopened for diving
  • Spreading  awareness about the effects of pollution on corals
  • Beach clean ups
  • The Maldives and Tioman trips especially for club members and numerous club meets constitute the fun quotient.

We are celebrating the first anniversary at IVY-Unwind Island this Sunday.,July4, so join us for a day of fun-full of lots of activities for divers and enthusiasts.

Contact us for details: Shirley/ Rashmi #08025213366

KILLER WHALES


There are three forms of killer whale: residents who eat fish; transients who eat mammals; and offshores about who little is known. These three types never associate with each other. Scientists have established that residents and transients are genetically distinct and it looks like these two populations of killer whales are on their way to becoming separate species.

Orcas live in all oceans, from the poles to the topics. They have a highly developed social structure and hunt as packs. This, together with their speed and size, means they can hunt even the largestanimals.

Resident orcas are very fussy about the fish they prefer. They take this to an extreme: if their chosen fish species disappear they find it difficult to adapt and choose a new prey. This can even lead to the death of a whale.

The collective name for a group of whales is a pod. Resident killer whales fish in large pods. Transient pods are much smaller, often with only 5 or 6 members, which is more suited for hunting warm-blooded prey. They are also much less vocal: using stealth to surprise their victims.

Resident killer whales have been known to dive to 264 m. Less is known about the diving behaviour of transients but they are thought to stay much shallower.

The killer whale is a toothed whale in the family Delphinidae which comprises the oceanic dolphins, making the killer whale in fact a very large dolphin.

As with other oceanic dolphins, killer whales hear sounds through the lower jaw and other portions of the head, which transmit the sound signals to the middle and inner ears. Killer whale hearing is the one of the most sensitive of any toothed whale.

Female killer whales start having young when they are between 10 and 17 years old. They continue to do so at intervals until they are around 40. Like humans they can live for 90 years or more. Males are shorter lived, estimated at 50-60 years.

FEAR STREET


The most common fear that my first -time divers have, is that they will be attacked by sharks underwater. It’s absolutely no surprise that this fear stems from Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster “Jaws”! On the 35th anniversary of the film, the award winning film maker apologized to viewers for misrepresenting the intent of sharks, as beach-goers round the world are still paranoid about being attacked!

Gianrico Mureddu, Course Director at the Andaman Diving Academy clarified that sharks are quite peaceful and only attack when provoked, which is why they never attack peaceful divers.

Most divers explore the ocean in the hope of getting a glimpse of these beautiful creatures!

DIVE BUDDY


Always wondered why you can’t dive alone?

Buddy diving is the use of the buddy system by scuba divers and is a set of safety procedures that improve divers’ chances of avoiding or surviving accidents in or underwater by diving in a group of two or three divers. When using the buddy system, the group dives together and co-operate with each other, so that they can help or rescue each other in the event of an emergency.

In recreational diving, a pair of divers is the best combination in buddy diving; with threesomes, one of the divers can easily lose the attention of the other two. Groups with more than three divers are not using the buddy system. The system is likely to be effective in mitigating out-of-air emergencies, non-diving medical emergencies and entrapment in ropes or nets. When used with the buddy check it can help avoid the omission, misuse and failure of diving equipment.

As JJ, a dive instructor for ten years puts it, having a buddy offers not only security but also a partner in crime. He fondly recounts, “Sometimes, you and your buddy are together and the rest of the group is at some distance and we see a shark zip by together and the others miss it and we get to tell the rest when they catch up-We just saw a Shark!” Your buddy is the only other person who will truly understand what you feel in that moment when you see that shark or manta together.

Have any such stories with your buddy?

Send them right in!

SIPADAN


This “untouched piece of art”, as it was named by the late Jacques-Yves Cousteau, is amongst the top 3 dive destinations in the world.

Sipadan is most famous for diving, thanks to the abundance of marine life in the area. Normally, rare diving scenes are frequently seen in the waters around Sipadan: schools of green and hawksbill turtles nesting and mating, schools of barracuda and big-eye trevally in tornado-like formations, pelagic species such as manta rayseagle raysscalloped hammerhead sharks and whale sharks.

With nearby islands of Mabul and Kapalai Islands there are hundreds of dive sites to choose from. Nothing beats scuba diving in Sipadan. If you can name it, then there’s a dive site in the area that has it; from macro life to pelagic, wrecks to wall dives, coral gardens teeming with a rich diversity of corals and fish, underwater caves where sleepy sharks go to chill out, and caverns where turtles go for eternal rest… Sipadan diving has it all and then some.

Sipadan is also famous for macro. If your eyes are good enough, you are likely to spot some of the most beautiful nudibranchs and shrimps on every single dive. But it is not the only incredible world; you will also see turtles, barracudas, stingrays, cuttlefish, reef sharks, bump head parrot fish, moray eels, jack fish, napoleon wrasses and lion fishes, just to mention a few.

Besides all that there is to explore in the parallel world underwater, the island itself seems like the kind of place Shakespeare was at when he wrote The Tempest. It’s the kind of place that makes you want to be stranded there!

We urge you to join us as we explore this magical island in July.

Planet Scuba India promises you the experience of a lifetime!

Check the gallery ….let the pictures give you an idea of what we’re talking about.