Ocean Views 2020: Glory Days

Q3/Q4 2020

As this year’s Ocean Views photo contest celebrates the 10th anniversary of the collaboration between Alert Diver and the Nature’s Best Photography magazines for the 2020 Nature’s Best Photography International Awards, the collection of entries is replete with speedballs of significance. The quality of the photography is the best we’ve judged yet and coincidentally the most eclectic in subject and location. Viewed in aggregate, the 31,000 images and videos submitted by 2,000 entrants from 67 countries cover a range of destinations including polar, Caribbean, Indo-Pacific and even freshwater habitats.

Oil and Particulates

Francois Burman, Pr.Eng., M.Sc.

Q3/Q4 2020

Research has described the effects on human health of elevated partial pressures of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) while diving, but only occupational health and safety studies have covered solids such as oil mist and particulate matter suspended in air and only in terms of breathing at the surface.

Solomons Sojourn

Tanya G. Burnett

Q3/Q4 2020

The Solomon Islands is a diverse expanse of islands that is jam packed with marine critters, plant life, history and more. The conditions are hot and humid all year round, but there is a rainy season. Learn more about the Solomon Islands.

Blessed Bonaire

Stephen Frink

Q3/Q4 2020

Blessed by geographic synergy with the sea and the coral reef, Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands. Bonaire National Marine Park features 86 dive sites marked with their names emblazoned on yellow-painted stones, all with easy access from the shore.

A Shot to Remember

Todd Aki

Q3/Q4 2020

The beauty of a dive resort’s house reef is that you can shoot a subject, return to your room, review the shot on your laptop, figure out how to improve it and reshoot it during the next dive. Diving a house reef in Sulawesi, Indonesia, before and after each day’s boat dives allowed me an abundance of time with the same creatures, and I was finally able to get what I was after — a shot that I will forever cherish.

Program Spotlight: Prepared Diver Course Makes Divers Safer

Q3/Q4 2020

Continuation of dive training and education beyond the open-water course is beneficial, and to make it easier DAN offers the Prepared Diver course to everyone at no cost. This video-based course is for all divers regardless of training level. By building on practices you’ve already learned, Prepared Diver can help you become a better, safer diver. Most important, this course focuses on mitigation and avoidance of the most common triggers of dive accidents and incidents.

DAN Dispatch: A New Dive Medical Screening System

Q3/Q4 2020

In 2017 the Diver Medical Screen Committee (DMSC) initiated an evidence-based review of the existing diver medical screening system. Following field testing and significant input from UHMS, DAN and other experts, DMSC has published the updated diver screening system. Endorsed by DAN, UHMS, the World Recreational Scuba Training Council, training agencies and others, the new Recreational Diving Medical Screening System allows everyone who can safely scuba dive to do so while also encouraging those with possible health risks to be medically evaluated for their fitness to dive.

Travel Smarter: Dive Locally, Dive Safely

Q3/Q4 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted dive professionals and businesses to enact stronger infection-control measures for the safety of divers, staff and themselves. As areas lift lockdown orders, divers are eager to return to the water — perhaps staying close to home — and are committed to keeping themselves and their dive buddies safe. When diving during the COVID-19 pandemic, exercise good judgment. If a dive operation is not following local guidelines or their infection-control procedures do not seem adequate — or if you don’t feel comfortable — dive somewhere else.

DAN Member Profile: Austin Gallagher

Patricia Wuest

Q3/Q4 2020

Austin Gallagher is deeply involved in working at the national and international levels to link shark research to policy and advocacy efforts, doing most of his work through Beneath the Waves, the conservation organization he founded. Beneath the Waves is embarking on a multiyear research campaign in the Caribbean, where Gallagher and his team are working with numerous governments to bolster shark conservation efforts through marine protected areas using noninvasive monitoring techniques such as deep-sea drop cameras and environmental DNA.