Diving at night provides an exciting new dimension in underwater exploration. As the light fades and darkness spreads through the water, marine life exhibits different behaviors, and the underwater world takes on a new and ethereal quality.
I am grateful for the safety information DAN publishes, their recommendations for dive medicine physicians, and the peace of mind their insurance coverage provides. My wife, Julie, and I have had DAN insurance for many years and are fortunate to have called DAN in an emergency only one time, 13 years ago when a lionfish stung Julie. Our diving had been without any incidents aside from that, but our last trip to Little Cayman was different.
The inland seas of the five Great Lakes have a long history of tragedy and shipwrecks. Mariners who sail their waters know the dangers of autumn storms. Thousands of shipwrecks litter the bottom here due to errors in judgment, equipment failure, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When you think of a billfish, what comes to mind? Perhaps it’s a swordfish, a sailfish, or even the giant marlin from Ernest Hemingway’s classic The Old Man and the Sea. It can be confusing because 12 species are collectively known as billfish: one swordfish, four spearfish, two sailfish, and five marlins.
Smalltooth sawfish are critically endangered, making them exceedingly rare to encounter on dives in Florida. Some scientists believe sawfish face the greatest extinction risk of any family of marine animals.
Achieving and maintaining a healthy fitness foundation helps you safely enjoy diving. Time and money are the most common barriers to regular exercise, so a home gym can be a practical and cost-effective solution for fitting workouts into your busy schedule. It eliminates a commute to the gym and membership fees.
I’m 14 years old and a newly certified scuba diver. I’ve heard that many years ago divers got certified because of Jacques Cousteau or an old TV show called Sea Hunt, but those were way before my time.
When you are in an emergency while diving from a boat, you and the crew can’t waste precious moments looking for safety equipment. Whether on a day boat or liveaboard, some safety items should be readily available.
Many divers seek interactions with sharks, but others actively seek to avoid them. As long as sharks are in the water, people will look for ways to reduce the lethality of a shark bite or decrease encounters altogether.
In 2012 DAN released a tool for divers to report dive accidents to help us quantify their severity and frequency. We revitalized the reporting process to make it easier and more efficient and relaunched it in 2021.
