Diving Thoughts

Last year a replica of a 16th century junk was built with the intention to demonstrate that Zheng He, China’s greatest admiral, could have reached North America nearly 600 years ago.  The Princess Taiping was 54 feet long and powered by cotton sails on three masts. It was built according to Ming dynasty specifications.

After a 10 month voyage from Taiwan to various ports on the US west coast, it sank 30 miles off Suao, a port in north-eastern Taiwan. All 11 crew were rescued. It was apparently hit by a freighter.

The Taiwanese captain describes himself as really ashamed for failing at the last minute. I find that a little harsh, since the chances of such a junk colliding with a freighter large enough to sink it 600 years ago is pretty remote. So as far as I’m concerned by getting from Taiwan to North America and within 30 miles of home, the team did demonstrate that Zheng He could have reached North America 600 years ago. The jury is still out on whether he actually did of course.

More from the BBC website, from which the above photo was taken.

According to the SCMP a 44 year old diver died while doing a night dive to catch fish with friends off Tseung Kwan O industrial estate on Monday night. Contrary to an initial report that I was told about yesterday he was not a commercial diver.

Apparently he went into the water around 22:00 and his friends called the police at 00:33 when they could not find him. He was found about an hour later floating 50 metres from the waterfront, but was certified dead on arrival at Tseung Kwan O hospital. He was described as a licensed diver who had dived in the area before.  It was not clear whether he was diving with a buddy, and if so how they became separated.

If you are an SCMP subscriber, you can read their full story here.

There’s a report that a diver went missing last night in Tseung Kwan O, and his body has been found this morning.  Apparently four divers were working together and one disappeared. He was in his 40s.

This extract is from Danny Mok of the South China Morning Post, in the City Digest part of the paper.

A male expatriate was found dead in Sai Kung waters after disappearing from a diving trip on Saturday. The 26-year-old, whose first name was Matthew, hit his head on the dive boat at 4pm off High Island after drinking alcohol. Marine police found his body near Pak A at about 1pm yesterday.

Not much information there, but it sounds as though it wasn’t a diving related incident, but a tragic accident.

The BBC’s website has an audio slideshow on animal camouflage which is well worth a look. It’s not specifically about marine creatures, although there are quite a few represented including flatfish, octopus and cuttlefish, and even a clown triggerfish. You can see it here, but it works better with IE than Firefox.

An ice bridge that was linking the Wilkins Ice Shelf to 2 islands in Antarctica has broken. The Ice Shelf, which is on the western side of Antarctica, is the size of Jamaica, and there is now concern that it will break away.

Professor David Vaughan,  a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey, planted a GPS tracker on the ice bridge in January to monitor its movement. He said that the shelf had been very stable since at least the 193os until it started to retreat in the late 1990s. This is another strong indication that global warming is affecting Antarctica.

Since it is ice that is floating, it won’t directly affect sea levels, but research has shown that when ice shelves such as this are removed, that glaciers and land ice behind them can move towards the sea more rapidly.

There is more on the BBC’s website.

Many of us have seen first hand how damaging dynamite fishing can be to the marine environment. I once dived Pedro Blanco, in Chinese waters east of Hong Kong, just after some dynamite fishermen had left. The seabed was carpeted with dead fish, and while we did manage a good lunch out of it, it was very depressing to see. More recently I dived a Japanese wreck near Malapascua and found hundreds of dead and dying fish lying all over the bottom.

But I suspect most of us don’t consider dynamite fishing as being dangerous to us as divers. Well perhaps we should because apparently a diver was killed in Vietnam after some fishermen mistook him for a big fish. They threw in an explosive, but when they went down to get their catch they realised they’d killed a diver. Police have said they will be charged with killing the diver as well as destroying aquatic resources and the illegal use of explosives.

When I first read this I thought it was an urban myth like the one about the diver found dead in a forest after a forest fire. Or perhaps an April Fool, but the story seems to have come out on 24 March. Both CDNN and Divernet have this story on their websites.

A 50 year old man has died off the coast of Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf. He was diving with family and friends when he failed to surface as expected. He was later found on the sea bed, but despite medical attention he died before reaching the shore. Police have impounded his gear and reported that he was apparently in 4-5 metres of water.

The New Zealand Herald has the story. Apparently he was free-diving, but according to the Herald’s story he was the only one “wearing snorkelling gear”. I can only assume that they meant diving gear.

Earth Hour took place on 28th March and people across Hong Kong were encouraged to switch their lights off for an hour from  8:30pm.

So how did it go? Well judging by this photo from WWF’s website, it seems to have gone very well (so well that it’s blending into the background of this website, sorry!).

As for my experience, after the Rugby Sevens had finished, a number of us headed over to a birthday party for Brian D., an SCDC member and a keen green. Despite having 60 guests the house was shrouded in darkness, although in deference to their guests, or to avoid them tripping over each other and breaking things, he had arranged for a number of candles to provide a little light. All in all it worked very well and certainly got the point across to anyone who did not know about it in advance.

On 29th March, the World Wildlife Fund Hong Kong (WWF Hong Kong) issued a press release which started with this statement:

“Last night, people across Hong Kong showed they care about the future of our planet by turning off their lights for an hour in support of WWF’s Earth Hour 2009. Over 1,800 buildings and many of Hong Kong’s well known neon signs went dark; over 600 companies and organizations, over 160 schools and all universities joined thousands of people across Hong Kong who switched off their lights.”

You can read the full press release on their website.

Two of SCDC’s long-standing members, Trevor and Brian, are leaving in the next few months. So on 22nd March they went out for dinner in Sai Kung with our original boat people – Mr. and Mrs. Yip.  We rented their junk for many years, and many of us had our first exposure to Hong Kong diving from it.

Mr Yip is now 89 and Mrs Yip is 87 and they are in remarkably good shape. SCDC started hiring their boat/ boats in 1980/1981, until their retirment some 11 years ago. Also at the dinner were Robert, George, Tam, Vienna, Let and Viv.