Soundings
Greek Navy SEALs shake hands with an Exosuit
Phil Nuytten Publisher and Senior Editor
Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit’ in St. Petersburg, Florida (November 3rd -9th). BLUE is one of the combined seminars/exhibitry/film festivals that seem to get better every year. Kind of like Jo-Ann and Armand Zighan’s ‘Beneath the Sea’ in that respect. BLUE co-founders Charlie and Debbie Kinder really have done a great job with this show. Rumour has it that I will be up for the BLUE’s 2014 Legacy Award for Ocean Exploration. The presentation will be made by none other than Don Walsh; he of the Trieste and record dive fame. I’m very honoured to receive this special recognition and pleased to have our ‘Exosuit’ featured at the entrance to the show. We have received a lot of column
W
illie Nelson sings ‘On the Road Again’ and it looks like that’s where I’m going to be for the next month or so. First, to the ‘BLUE
Government’s Antiquities Department for the expedition. The one atmosphere suit allowed dives with hours of bottom time, instead of minutes, and with no risk of DCS – the ‘bends’. Jim gave a graphic description of the dives, about which you’ll read on page 18 of this fine magazine. They made some good finds, as well as discovering that the wreck site is far larger than previously thought. Plans are even now afoot to conduct further work on the site in 2015. Jim stopped his description of the dive site long enough
Imagine diving on a wreck with cargo believed to be plunder, looted from Athens in the time of Julius Caesar
inches and general interest in the Exosuit since it featured so prominently in the Antikythera expedition in Greece this fall. This issue’s cover story is a follow- up from the news brief on this subject last issue. Jim Clark, head of the diving division of JF White called to tell me about the expedition right after his return from Greece. JF White is a major construction firm out of Framingham, Mass. (near Boston). They provided their Exosuit ADS to the Royal Hellenic Navy and the Greek
to ask, “What’s that clicking sound?” I replied, “It’s just me, gnashing my teeth with envy!” Boy-o-boy, can you imagine diving on a wreck that goes back to the first century, B.C.?! A wreck with cargo believed by some scholars to be plunder, looted from Athens, aboard a ship that was heading back to Rome – in the time of Julius Caesar! Yeah, I wouldn’t mind diving on that site... A week or so after BLUE, I’m off
to the DEMA show in Las Vegas and the Academy of Underwater Arts and Science’s NOGI Award banquet with the induction of five new fellows into the ‘Diving Hall of Fame’. Man, I absolutely love emceeing the NOGI Awards ceremony and seeing some the
Phil and Jean-Michel with the Antikythera Exosuit
real heroes of the ocean get their well- deserved NOGI statuette, called by many the ‘Oscar’ of the undersea world. We’ll have the rundown in a future issue. Scurrying along: this issue has a good
crocodile piece by Andy Murch. He certainly shows us, once again, that he is a superb image grabber! The double gatefold on Cayman’s
‘Devil’s Grotto’ also shows some fine imaging. You can certainly guess what the tarpon are thinking as they look hungrily at the teeming silversides, but I wonder what the silversides are thinking… probably something along the lines of, “Take him, not me!!” Lots of other good stuff…among
which is the Cousteau Ocean Futures 15th year celebration. Jean- Michel and his team do great work,
of that there is no question. Go to
www.oceanfutures.org to learn more about this world-class group. If you want to join up, membership is free. By joining the Ocean Futures Society, you lend your voice to ocean conservation. Worth thinking about. It’s cold here in our part of the Great
White North. A good time to shift the bones and suet to someplace warm, where the water is clear, and do some… yup, you guessed it!
Regards Phil
www.divermag.com 9
Photo: Brett Seymour / ARGO, Russell Clark
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