Calling all divers ... will you help?

MJB you are very well versed in the hazards and necessary percautions of diving. If you are interested in being a team leader, please let me know. I want to make it clear that we are going to be in teams, with team leaders that will have the right to make you return to the surface and stay out of the water. No wandering off :no-no: :no-no: !! I hope to get enough rescue divers to have one for each team. You will have an assigned area to cover and must stay with your partner, following your leader. Anything else, and you will be asked to surface.

I am looking for people with the knowledge of MJB. I am also trying to arrange for a couple of warm up dives. I noticed that forumosa has a camping trip that falls on the weekend before (I think), so when would be a good time to do our practice/training dives? I don’t want to interfere with other planned events.

A little mention, I am a woman, no need to call me madam. Honour or Lee-Ann is just fine with me :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Oh yeah, MJB you are the one with the underwater camera! I would like to talk to you about before and after shots in all three counties. I am trying to find other underwater photographers, but for now, you are all I got!

Special thanks to our two newest additions Wookie and Chichow :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:

How does June 18th and 19th work for everyone?

We need six people and a rescue diver and we can have “Team Forumosa!”

From this forum there are 8 divers. I think this could work out well. MJB (if you would) can be the event underwater photographer/leader of this team. What do you guys think?

It’s in Taipei city, Neihu District, near Xizhi and Nangang.

I can barely get out of bed by 9am, so it would be best for me if we camped onsite, Fri. nite, then just got up and geared up Sat. am. You could put me to bed in my wetsuit, and somebody just give me a swift kick in the morning… :smiley:

Nothing like a swift kick with a frozen flipper to start the day.

I know they are called fins, but flipper sounds better.

Gumper Poetry

Congratulations to all of you who volunteered to pitch in and double-congrats to those who actually follow through. You’re doing more to clean up this place than I am.

But I have a question. Is this really a logical method of cleaning up the coast or is it more of just a goofy excuse to go diving? After all, rather than having 6 guys (and a gal) swimming around underwater for an hour or so looking for random bits of trash to pick up, couldn’t one just as easily round up 50 or more volunteers to walk down the coast for a few hours filling bags with trash that would otherwise end up in the sea the next day?

Seriously, wouldn’t a clean up the coast effort be much more effective on land or is that beside the point? Just curious.

A shore cleanup by non-divers is an excellent solution, but it doesn’t remove the junk already on the seafloor. As for a goofy reason to dive, picking up junk in poor diving spots is hardly my idea of great diving. No, it would definitely be a chore, but a worthwhile one.

Okay, nothing goofy about cleaning up what is killing our marine life. Speaking with my consulting marine biologist, he constantly sees stomachs full of instant noodle wrappers, those red and clear stripped plastic bags, bottle caps, and every other form of plastic/litter you could think of. The tossed netting is a whole other story that ranges from actually drowning them to sealing their mouths shut so that they are unable to eat, not to mention that the deep cuts they suffer from the nets getting wrapped around them. Random bits of trash? :noway:

I have mentioned before that this is a dive and clean/ coastal tree line clean up project. I have to arrange the divers first because they have the highest level of need. Air, boats, safety, training, ect. As MJB mentioned, visibility is going to disappear about two minutes of our start time. Safety first!

Are you going to help? Or did you just come in to add a little rain on our thing?

I can’t help with your diving cleanup. I’m not a certified diver and don’t have any gear. Nor do I have the time (or so my wife says). I didn’t mean to rain on your project; I was just curious. We’ve all heard of marine life choking to death on six pack holders or baloons, and we’ve all seen all the crap that litters the coastline, but I’m surprised there’s enough garbage beneath the surface that one could actually gather a significant amount while swimming down there. But if one can, then good for you. Good luck.

One could and one can. Honour deserves nothing but praise for these efforts, IMO. I simply fail to see ANY downside to this.

Last time I checked, God gave each of us the same amount of time.

It’s just a matter of deciding whether to spend part of it making a difference…

From a logical perspective, any clean-up of a dive site would necessarily start with a beach clean-up, and, from experience, that’s the way it’s usually done.

Remember the story in the Taipei Times about a year and a half ago about a Taiwanese medical student who was doing his alternative military service somewhere in Africa?. Well, he was apparently appalled by the amount of trash in that country and came up with a plan to give clothes–donated by Taiwanese–to people who brought in a bag of trash. I’ve often thought of the irony of that.

Actually, I’ve thought about the idea of doing a “clean up the trash” drive around Taiwan for a few years, as I am sure a lot of people have, but I haven’t done much more than thought about what a brilliant idea it would be.

So, hat’s off to you Honour, for getting this started!

This sounds like a cool idea. I’m in Taipei and am open water certified. Once the final dates are made I will be able to say yeah or nay.

[quote=“Honour”]MJB you are very well versed in the hazards and necessary percautions of diving. If you are interested in being a team leader, please let me know. I want to make it clear that we are going to be in teams, with team leaders that will have the right to make you return to the surface and stay out of the water. No wandering off :no-no: :no-no: !! I hope to get enough rescue divers to have one for each team. You will have an assigned area to cover and must stay with your partner, following your leader. Anything else, and you will be asked to surface.

I am looking for people with the knowledge of MJB. I am also trying to arrange for a couple of warm up dives. I noticed that forumosa has a camping trip that falls on the weekend before (I think), so when would be a good time to do our practice/training dives? I don’t want to interfere with other planned events.

A little mention, I am a woman, no need to call me madam. Honour or Lee-Ann is just fine with me :slight_smile: :slight_smile:[/quote]

I will be happy to assist in any way possible, but have been pretty “dry” for the last couple of seasons (less than 10 dives over the last two years). There are others on forumosa with more advanced certification than myself (I’m a Divemaster) and who are more active. If they don’t pipe in by D-day then yes I’ll be happy to do it.

I just spoke up first :wink:

I spent all of the 90’s doing 50-100+dives per season. 90% of those were in local conditions on the Northeast coast.

Also, do the volunteers have to be forumosans? We are putting out the word to several other divers in Taoyuan county, and could come up with a dozen or more bodies (certified) including another Underwater photographer.

As for underwater photography, I have a working Nikonos V with a standard lens and strobe. My Wide angle lens is out of comission (someone did a giant stride on top of it at German channel in Palau) and is unrepairable. I’ll make do with what I have, but if anyone out there has a 28mm,20mm or 15mm wide angle lens for a Nikonos we’d have much better documentation. I’d be willing to pay to rent any of the above mentioned lenses.

I’m at your service… :slight_smile:

am almost a divemaster and am definitely interested. am sure i could come up with a bunch more bodies if you need them. let me know as you sort out the details.
sbz

Everyone is welcomed to participate, thanks for putting the word out. The more the merrier! Team Forumosa was just an idea. I will hopefully be able to put a post up early next week confirming the details.

Please remember that we are also looking for tree line clean up crews. Anyone that doesn’t have a license to dive, but would like to help we could definately use you there. (or in the kitchen, or on the grill, or… :smiley:)

The activity after this one will be planting wind and salt tolerant trees along the coastal tree line. I would never leave the tree line out of my ocean protection strategies, it just wouldn’t make sense!

Thanks everyone! :notworthy:

Thanks MJB! We will catch the bill for all related expenses, no worries about that!!

As soon as things settle down a bit, we can chat out the details of the “needs.”

Take care!

Hello,

Is there alreday a schedule with dates and place where to dive ?

Hi everyone!

I have been busy with trying to get sponsors, insurance, and all the other technical aspects taken care of. I have come across possible sponsors that would be able to donate a lot of money to this project, but they need a lot of evidence that I have to make contacts to get. For example, does anyone remember the thread “The filthiest planet in the world?” It was regarding an index that stated that Taiwan was the fourth filthiest country in the world? I haven’t had the time to go find it, but I need to get a copy of the original index itself, not the media report. If anyone can help me find that index, or even just the media report it would be greatly appreciated.

I need help with budget investigation. For example, how much is it going to cost to suit up one diver, including air? We do have some people willing to donate some of the equipment but I need to do a tally of total costs per diver. If you can help me with that, please include everything that a diver would need to be safe during this project at max 20 meters down. Rescue divers as well. We are not buying the equipment, just rental fees! I also need first aid land crews.

I would like to introduce “Totally Tika” she has agreed to be our kitchen coordinator for Hualien county! Thanks Tika :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:! Anyone wanting to help in the kitchen in Hualien, or coordinate kitchen ideas for all three counties, can chat with her. When I finish taking care of the divers and land clean up crews. I will join in on the discussion. For now, if you want to help out in that area, you guys can brainstorm.

This project is getting bigger and bigger everyday. I originally only planned to do something of a medium sized operation, but have had such a enormous reponse that this might be huge! I’m very pleased, and feel uplifted by everyone’s generosity! :bouncy:

THE DATES: I had thought we would be able to pull it off in three counties at the top of the summer June 18th and 19th, but since the volunteers and sponsors have suprised me with their responses; I might have to push the date back a bit, perhaps July. I realize this is typhoon season, but its not like we get slammed everyday. I will meet with the weather bureau to discuss when the most optimal window for such and activity would be, then set a date. Please be patient!! Thanks again for all of your support :notworthy:

The report in question was written up in the New York Times:

NATIONS RANKED AS PROTECTORS OF THE ENVIRONMENT
By Felicity Barringer
New York Times
January 24, 2005

nytimes.com/2005/01/24/science/24enviro.html

(but need to go through registration crap to read the article; or, try www.bugmenot.com)

The report is called the Yale Sustainability Index, and all the info for the proceeding years (since 2002) is here:
ciesin.org/indicators/ESI/

this year’s report is here:
yale.edu/esi/

Finland, Norway and Uruguay held the top three spots out of about 150 countries.

Taiwan was among the lowest ranking countries–along with Haiti, Iraq, Kuwait. and North Korea…

~hope that helps

Since nobody has responded, I’ll try to give you a quick rundown on rental prices.

Full set (including tank, wetsuit, BCD, regulators, weights, and mask/fins/snorkels/booties) will run between 800-1,000NT.

Tanks run around 200 a bottle.
Regs will run 200-250NT
BCD is around 200NT
Wetsuit around 150-200NT
Mask/fins/snorkel/booties should be around 200 as well. Note: I’d hope that a certified diver would have at least this equipment, as he/she would have been required to purchase it for their OW course.
Weight belt 50NT
Dive light/Chem glow sticks? price of batteries plus 100NT or so.

Hope this helps…Do you have your target locations yet?

Your most important peice of safety equipment is going to be an on-demand oxygen supply… :sunglasses: