Harlow Sub-Aqua Club

Seasearch club talk

With the winter diving shut down upon us perhaps it's time to plant some
seeds for next year? If your club dives in the UK and wants to learn a
little more about the creatures they are seeing or missing then perhaps you'd
like to hear a little more about Seasearch.

Seasearch is a project run by the Marine Conservation Society and backed by
all the major diving organisations (our courses are recognised SDCs) and
uses the logging of recreational diving to build up survey information
around the British coast. Not only can this add a lot to your diving in
general its a worthwhile conservation activity which reflects well on a club
when looking for funding and publicity.

If you're interested in hearing more we'd be very happy to visit your club
to explain the project, how to get involved and identify any mystery animals
from your dives this year.

Dawn and Rob
Seasearch Eastern Region
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Vivid Oceans and Secret Seas
www.1townhouses.co.uk

COMPETITION - New Web Site Logo

This is a challenge to all of you with artistic flair and experience of graphic design.

We need a new cool logo for our new web site.

Please have a go at creating something appropriate and memorable...If it's any good, we'll use it on the web site.

If we get 10 or more entries from people submitting logos then we will have a vote to see which one will be the official logo.

The winner will receive a prize

Please email your design to

phillsb@pjbrown.eu

Many Thanks
and
Good Luck

Phillip

How to find us

To find us on Wednesday Pool night follow this link and enter the postal code CM18 7NQ. WWW.multimap.com

Decompression Sickness

It happens!

Below are a few of the incidents from BSAC’s Diving Incident Report 2007, for your attention. You will note that some of these incidents should not have happened, these dives were planned and the plan carried out, but divers still got hit.

We have had 2 None club members with bends from DCI, and both have continued diving, we do not want anymore, however if divers are careless or loose buoyancy, it could happen. You could complete a perfect dive and still get affected, it happens!!. The moral of the story is, the better you are prepared (training and diving fitness), the less likely you are of getting the bends.

Diving Officer.

Club Pool

The Club now have exclusive weekly pool facilities at Stewards School, Harlow, each Wednesday evening between 8.30p.m. and 10.30p.m. Entry fees will remain at £2.00 for members, £2.00 for guest swimmers, £3.50 for guest scuba visitors. The cost to the Club is approx £40.00 per week, so we encourage all members to turn up each Wednesday whenever possible, in the meantime, we shall now recommence advertising for Try Dives, new members and training now that we have an established venue.

scientific whales

Ocean scientists have recruited wild arctic whales to their team to probe the waters deep beneath an Arctic island fjord for the first time.

Sensors attached to the backs of the whales collected data as they dived deep beneath the fjord. The data was relayed back to the researchers via a satellite link each time the whales surfaced.

The sensors revealed a previously unknown influx of warm North Atlantic water beneath the Storfjorden Svalbard Arctic fjord during the winter months. It is not yet understood whether this is part of long-term climate change or shorter cyclical change that occurs over decades.

The Norwegian and British researchers attached sensors to the backs of white whales. These are known to feed at great depths and can easily descend to 200 metres to the bottom of the fjord. Extensive ice cover makes it nearly impossible for scientists to monitor the region using sensors deployed from ships.

Michael Fedack, a biologist at the University of St Andrew's Sea Mammal Research Unit in Scotland, says the whales were an extremely efficient way of gathering information from this inaccessible area.

Warm tongue

"The measurements show an interesting tongue of warm and possibly salty North Atlantic Water," he told New Scientist. "An important aim of the study was to show the oceanographic community that this could be done in a scientifically profitable and cost effective way."

He says the new approach can provide vital information to allow us to understand better the distribution of marine species and protect vital parts of their ecosystem. "And this fjord is an important one in terms of biology, with Ring seals, beluga whales and polar bears all making extensive use of it," he says.

Sophisticated Satellite Relay Data Loggers (SRDLs), which are normally used to relay information about the whales' movements, were modified to record the whale's depth and the temperature and salinity of the water twice a second.

Each time a whale surfaced the information was transmitted via satellite back to the researchers. The data was compressed while aboard the whales to improve the efficiency of the data relay.

Other research teams have attached sensors to whales and seals in order to track their movements and monitor ocean temperature. But those instruments have had to be recovered in order to retrieve the data. Fedack adds that other new remote sensing technology, such as robotic buoys, are helping scientists monitor the oceans better

Baggage allowance

BA confirms new baggage allowanceBA has confirmed that from February 13 2007 it will move away from pure weight restriction to a 'per piece' baggage arrangement. Each person can check in one piece of baggage up to 23ks whilst hand luggage will have to conform to size restrictions but no weight restriction. One piece of sporting equipment baggage can alo be carried free, weighting up to 23ks.

free air

free air to all members just bring your bottles along to the compressor hut and we will fill them up (we are getting around 220bar after are new refit in the hut)
as most of you may know the hut is open on a Wednesday from 7o'clock but if you need air other times you could try contacting andy,neil or alan and see if they can help you.
if you are not a member of the club you can still get air from andy on a Wednesday night but will have to pay for it so why not become a member and get it free (the hut is at the rear of the Moot House ,the stow,Harlow we will be pleased to see you

New web site up and running

New improved website is now online - you're reading it!

Please inform Angela if you have any of the following for the web site:

Anything that you find that requires amending.

Any thoughts/ideas/additional content to be added to the site.

Do you have a review of a holiday/trip you have been part of with the Halow SAC publish it for all to see maybe then they will want to join the next trip.