Alert Diver Category: Dive Slate

Dick Rutkowski spent six years in government service, co-created NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, wrote dive accident management manuals and more.

While working as a dive professional, I always carried a cutting device, which I rarely used. Although required by standards, it seemed like a “nice to have” rather than “need to have” piece of equipment. My experience off Mexico’s Pacific coastline taught me that cutting devices have a place on every dive trip. In a sea fraught with dangers, carrying a cutting device is just as much about rescuing corals from ghost-fishing nets or animals from discarded rope and plastic as it is about saving yourself or your buddy.

Greenland is anything but green, as an ice sheet covers about 80 percent of the country. But the surrounding waters have great dive opportunities. Divers are able to get below the frozen surface and explore frigid wonders.

The hope is that through advocacy for underwater cultural heritage preservation, local communities across the country will discover and appreciate what marine historic sites can teach us.

Ocean ecologist Jonatha Giddens, Ph.D., uses a combination of art, journaling and storytelling for her scientific endeavors. Currently, she’s using video to compute biodiversity indices.

While you may be an experienced diver, don’t get too comfortable. Mistakes happen to everyone…at any moment. Note these common mistakes and learn how to avoid them for your future dives.

This underwater farming experiment, which looks like something out of a Jules Verne novel, is in the Ligurian Sea, offshore from Noli, Italy. It’s called Nemo’s Garden, but the name doesn’t come from the animated lost clownfish.

African dust, unlike the usual suspects, can affect small, isolated reefs where the usual suspects are absent, and these dust events have increased in recent years. Due to behind-the-scenes politics and lack of funding, university and government agency scientists have yet to test dust and other chemicals.

Paul Bardo witnessed the second plane collide into the south tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. As a firefighter, he responded to the call. Scuba diving was therapy.

Cookiecutter sharks and pygmy sharks are unusual to see because of where they live, but they are common from the perspective of total oceanic diversity.