There are a couple of local articles that are worth mentioning from over the weekend.

The first one is about a project by the Ocean Defenders Alliance to remove a huge 9,000 pound fishing net that had wrapped around the sunken fishing trawler Infidel, off of Catalina Island.

The wreck rests on the ocean bottom at 150 feet and the net, which is 40 feet high and several hundred feet long, has become a death trap for creatures such as dolphins, sea lions, sharks, seals and fish.

I have dove with some of the divers involved in this group.

This is a dangerous project due to the depth and hazards.

Towards the end of the article, it states, “The limit for normal scuba diving is 120 feet beneath the surface… the divers relied on tanks filled with a special nitrous oxide mixture that enabled them to spend more time at the bottom.”

In case you aren’t aware, nitrous oxide is an anesthetic – it’s laughing gas!

So, spending “more time at the bottom” on a “nitrous oxide mixture” is an eternity!

Maybe the reporter mistook “Nitrox” for “nitrous oxide?”

However, Nitrox only allows you to stay under longer, not deeper;  so, I am speculating that they may have used heliox or trimix.

The complete article can be found here: Divers Cut Away At Net That Has Been Killing Marine Life

Secondly – and I’m even surprised that it was offered to begin with – Carl Robbins and other SCUBA divers helped removed shark fin soup from the Barona Resort Chinese New Year celebration menu.

Shark fin soup is a controversial Asian “delicacy” that relies on the fins of sharks.

Some sharks are captured, hauled onto the deck and have their top fin sliced off before being released in a mutilated state back into the sea; this practice is being blamed for a decrease in shark populations around the world.

After an email campaign, the Barona Resort quickly, and apologetically, took shark fin soup off of the menu; I don’t think it’s a loss to any of the guests as I hear shark fin soups tastes like shit anyways.

The complete article can be found here: Scuba Diver Helps Get Shark Fin Soup Off Menu