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The video speaks to the challenge burgeoning coastal
development is creating for the Coral Triangle, where
126 million people live in the coastal regions and
fishing places huge demands on the marine resources.
But it also speaks to the successes veteran divers are
now seeing in Komodo as a function of its 15 years
as a marine protected area. Fish populations are on
the rise, and underwater photographer Chip Scarlett
makes the on-camera observation that he was most
encouraged by the number of pregnant white-tip reef
sharks he saw while diving in the region. Despite some
ongoing challenges with enforcement in so vast an area,
procreation is alive and well in Komodo.
Marine conservation works, and strategic marine
protected areas where fish can aggregate to spawn is one
of our most enlightened strategies. It has been a way of
life in my Florida Keys home under the direction of the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and in this issue
we celebrate the 25 years of marine conservation the
government and dive operators of the Cayman Islands
have embraced. Their work with lionfish control and the
protection of the spawning grouper off Little Cayman
are big success stories in which impassioned individuals
are effecting significant changes for the better. This is
something we can celebrate, and it creates a baseline of a
quality marine environment for divers new and old.
In the video, Ron Taylor makes the comment, “I’ve
been diving for over 50 years, and I still get excited
because I get to see things I’ve never seen before.” I
had the same epiphany in early March while diving
off Bimini, photographing great hammerhead sharks
for the first time. They come to these waters only
seasonally, and in four decades of diving I’d seen one,
briefly, just once. To finally get a chance to interact with
a great hammerhead and observe how very weird this
shark appears, with its eyes on the sides of its immense
hammer, was an exciting new reality for me. My
baseline on hammerhead sharks was shifted, essentially
to the point of origination. I saw with fresh appreciation
this rather docile and extraordinarily graceful shark
— one that swam so close to my camera it actually
bumped my dome with its bizarre, hammered head.
Like Ron, I got to see something I’d never seen before,
a vision as exciting to me as the coral reef will be for all
those kids walking the floor at Our World-Underwater
when they go diving for the first time. May we never be
too old or jaded to get our baselines shifted.
AD
What’s New on
AlertDiver.com
Defending the
Vandenberg
If you enjoyed reading about
freediving (Advanced Diving,
Page 38), watch as Kirk Krack
and Erin Magee leap, glide and
battle over the USAFS General
Hoyt S. Vandenberg, maneuver-
ing about the ship’s decks with
superhuman finesse.
Australia’s Giants
Watch as thousands of the
world’s largest cuttlefish come to
spawn in the shallow waters of
South Australia, as seen through
the lens of expert videographer
Howard Hall (“The Denizens of
South Oz,” Page 68).
Capturing Cayman
Explore more of the famed
wrecks and reef walls of the
Cayman Islands (Page 60) in
this bonus gallery by pho-
tographers Alex Mustard and
Stephen Frink.
Ocean Views
There were just too many excellent
submissions to the 2012 Ocean
Views photo contest (Page 86). Visit
www.AlertDiver.com to peruse a
bonus gallery of some of this year’s
most captivating images.
Wild Washington
Can’t get enough of
Washington’s whiskered
welcoming committee and
the entrancing seascape
featured in Local Diving
(Page 30)? Keep exploring
this northwestern divers’
refuge with a gallery brought
to you by photographer
Brandon Cole.
www.alertdiver.com
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