When: Saturday, Oct 4, 2014 Who: ADA members, prospective members, family and friends

Where: John U Lloyd State Park, Jetty Pavillion, 6503 N. Ocean Drive, Dania Beach, Florida 33004 1.5 miles north of Sheridan St. on A1A

Time: Meet for beach dive at 9:00 am, raffle and BBQ at noon.

MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN RAFFLE PRIZES. MUST RSVP TO WIN PRIZES.

Call Lon at 305-251-4975 to sign up, deadline October 1st. For beach diving, bring all your own gear and a dive flag if you have one. The reef is about 100 yards off shore. The pavilion has covered shelter, very nice bathroom, showers, and changing room. We will have the BBQ and raffle, rain or shine, unless a hurricane threatens. BBQ will include burgers, dogs, chicken, extras and all drinks. A small fee is charged to enter the park ($4 for single occupancy vehicles, $6 for 2-8 persons per vehicle), free parking at the pavilion. Non-ADA members and non-family members may attend but will be asked to contribute $10 for the BBQ and are not eligible for the free raffle. They may also dive, but are not part of the ADA dive group.

"A" Is For Aruba

--by Carol Cox

Last month, ADA members submitted reviews of Bonaire and Curacao so this month, let’s complete the ‘A – B- C’s’ with Aruba.  July was my third visit to this island in the Dutch West Antilles, just 19 miles off the coast of Venezuela. The diving in Aruba, on both the west coast and south coast, is amazing. I dove with Red Sail Sports (again!) because they have such a well organized operation.  The divemasters are all friends and it shows in their friendly and warm personalities.  I still remember seeing two of the dive masters (one had a group of students, one was with me on a private underwater tour) do an underwater high five after one had found a frogfish and showed it to the other divemaster.  They have a very real camaraderie with each other.  Their boats are big and spacious and can easily accommodate 20 divers.

I spent most of my time diving the West Coast on such wrecks as the Antilla, Pedernalis and Debbie II. We found seahorses, frogfish, eels, octopus, arrow crabs, flamingo tongues, tons of tunicates, you name it. On one dive on the Antilla (I dove it 4 times – it’s really big), we saw a huge dog snapper – actually the only really large fish I saw all week.  It was easily a two-hundred pounder.  Most of the west coast dives are on wrecks while the south coast dives are drift dives along a long, sloping wall, very similar to diving in Bonaire. Sites such as the wreck of the Jane Sea and Renaissance Airplane are very popular . While the waters were too rough to dive the South Coast several days (the wind was blowing unusually stiff for July in Aruba) there was always a site to dive – there was virtually no current underwater. While the Antilla is Aruba’s most famous dive, Arashi reef is also very popular for its various airplane parts (propellers , engines and assorted pieces from an old airplane that has basically disintegrated), seahorses were found on Blue Reef, frog fish on the Antilla, Arashi reef and the Pedernalis (another rather scattered wreck that also hosts green moray eels) and a few octopus occupied all of the above.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort on Palm Beach, which was just a short walk along the beach from the Red Sail Sports boat dock (in front of the Hyatt).  Every hotel along the ‘high rise’ district is awesome and right on the beach.  While there is little in the way of shore-diving in Aruba, the west coast dives are only a five minute boat ride from the dock.  The south coast dives involve a 45 minute boat ride but the diving there doesn’t get any better anywhere in the Caribbean.  I’d go back to Aruba in a heartbeat.

ADA 2014 International Trip Fiji - March 10 - 17, 2015

After extensive research and negotiations, Dan and I have put together a great trip for both divers and non-divers alike. Captain Cook's Cruises offers the intimacy of a small cruise ship, with the accessibility to diving that can't be matched on a land based tour. Click here to go to our info page.

--by Carol Cox

Have you noticed those mustard colored branches and ridges around and on the coral reefs in south Florida and other parts of the Caribbean?  Have you brushed up against one and immediately regretted it?  Welcome to your close-up and personal encounter with fire coral, an animal more closely related to the jellyfish than coral.

Like jellyfish, fire coral causes a stinging pain from the nematocysts that protrude from the fire coral’s surface.  Nematocysts are tiny capsules that contain an ejectable thread. Soon after encountering fire coral, a burning sensation or stinging pain develops with a red rash and itching where contact was made.

Fire coral stings can be treated in a number of ways. First, rinse the affected area with sea water. Avoid fresh water as that is more likely to cause the stinging cells to fire, increasing the pain. Apply a 50/50 mixture of alcohol and vinegar to deactivate the venom.  You can also use ¼ strength household ammonia or baking soda, applied liberally onto the skin. Use a compress liberally soaked with the ammonia or baking soda solution and apply for at least 30 minutes or until the pain subsides. A paste made from Adolf’s Meat Tenderizer or papaya fruit may also be helpful, but do not exceed 15 minutes application time, especially on sensitive skin.  Concentrated citrus such as lime juice may also be helpful.

Try to remove the nematocysts with tweezers or with tape after deactivating the venom. Another method is to apply shaving cream or soap and gently shave the area with a razor. Apply a thin coat of hydrocortisone lotion twice a day. Lidocaine or Benzocaine may also provide short-term pain relief.  Keep the area immobile to avoid causing the venom to spread.

Watch for signs of allergic reaction, such as shortness of breath, swelling of the face, tongue or throat. If you experience any of these symptoms, seek immediate medical attention. A pain reliever such as Tylenol, Motrin or Advil can be taken if pain persists.  The best treatment however, is to avoid contact with fire coral by maintaining proper buoyancy, watch where you put hands and arms and generally avoiding contact with any marine organism.

Source: emedicinehealth; Scott H Plantz MD

Cruise and Dive Cozumel: The Suite Life

--by Rachel Davis

Cruising and diving doesn’t always have to be about finding the lowest possible rate. Sometimes savoring breakfast delivered to the balcony stateroom while watching the deep blue Caribbean sea glide by is well worth the price of the upgrade.

This is ADA members Rachel and John Davis enjoyed on a four-night cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Cozumel aboard Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas. This was a very relaxing vacation with one sea day, a day in Cozumel and another day at sea on the return. Although Vision is one of the older ships in the fleet, it was refurbished within the last year and everything was like new. The ship offered the usual amenities: fine dining, Broadway-style entertainment, fun activities like the men’s belly flop competition and the relaxing adults-only solarium pool area.

On July 5^th we arrived in Cozumel and went on the dive excursion offered by the cruise ship. We prefer to use the dive excursions offered through the ship because they are screened for safe diving practices and if the excursion for some reason gets delayed, the cruise ship will wait for you. Luckily this day there was only one other diver onboard, making for a total of 3 divers onboard.

The two dive sites were Cedral Wall and Tormentos Reef. On the wall we saw an abundance of marine life including lobsters, a huge shark, numerous tropicals, and the most amazing site of a nurse shark and large green moray eel cuddle up next to each other under a shelf. Amazing!

So world class diving is closer than you think and a short cruise on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship is a great way to experience it.

Fish Identification Series - Blue Runner

--by Jerry Kosakowski

Pictures and information from Wikipedia

This one is a little harder to identify. It is a blue runner. The blue runner is distributed across the Atlantic Ocean, ranging from Brazil to Canada in the western Atlantic and from Angola to Great Britain including the Mediterranean in the east Atlantic. The blue runner is distinguished from similar species by several morphological features, including the extent of the upper jaw, gill raker count and lateral line scale counts. The blue runner is known to reach a maximum length of 70 cm and 5.05 kg in weight, but is much more common below 35 cm. The species inhabits both inshore and offshore environments, predominantly over reefs, however it is known to congregate around large man made offshore structures such as oil platforms. Juveniles tend to inhabit shallower reef and lagoon waters, before moving to deeper waters as adults.

The blue runner is a schooling, predatory fish, predominantly taking fish in inshore environments, as well as various crustaceans and other invertebrates. Fish living offshore feed nearly exclusively on zooplankton. The species reaches sexual maturity at between 225 and 280 mm across its range, with spawning occurring offshore year round, although this peaks during the warmer months. Larvae and juveniles live pelagically, often under sargassum mats or jellyfish until they move inshore. The blue runner is of high importance to fisheries, with an annual catch of between 6000 and 7000 tonnes taken from the Americas in the last five years. The species is also a light tackle gamefish, taking baits lures and flies, but is often used as bait itself being a mediocre table fish.