Minutes
Aqua Tutus Dive Club Meeting
March 6, 2025
Meeting called to order by Vice President Oliver Edwards at 7:00pm PST. This is a hybrid meeting with 17 members present at Roundtable Pizza in Castro Valley and 6 members attending via Zoom.
Tonight’s talk is given by Josh Russo (an introduction) and Peter Guinessa. The topic is what Blue Harmony is doing to assist in urchin removal to enable return of the giant kelp. The area discussed for urchin removal is Caspar Cove in Mendocino County. The talk sparked a lot of question ending up taking roughly an hour.
Oliver opened the business portion of the meeting at 8:00pm.
Officer Reports
- Secretary: February meeting minutes and Board of Directors meeting minutes have been posted onto the club website. Oliver called for approval of the meeting minutes. Hearing no objections, the minutes were approved as posted.
- Treasurer: Helga reported $3,797.21 in the training fund and $3,497.44 in the general fund. Total is $7,284,65.
- Training: Dennis noted that one person expressed interest in a Rescue Diver class, but we need a larger group to make that training experience effective. Instead, he urged members to joion the monthly club dives, pair up with an experienced diver, and gain more diving experience. During his report, a person inquired if an additonal club dive could be scheduled in April. Oliver said that was certainly posibble; he suggested emailing the Board with the request.
- Membership: Debbie was unavailable. People are continuing to renew their membership.
- Entertainment: David S gave a snapshot of coming speakers. A talk on fish identification was suggested.
- Newsletter: Oliver reported that the newsletter has been published. As alsways, he is grateful for input
- Communications: Derek was not available.
Old Business. None
New Business. None
Upcoming Activities. Oliver introduced this part of the meeting by illustrating how to navigate the club event calendar.
Mar 15 Monthly club dive; Jim Driggers is POC, annual snorkel from McAbee to Breakwater.
Mar 20 Board of Directors meeting (via Zoom); all members are invited.
Apr 3 Membership meeting; speaker Randall Spangler addressing how to assess ocean conditions for diving
Apr 17 Board of Directors meeting (via Zoom); all members are invited.
Apr 17-27 San Francisco Film Festival; Natasha Benjamin’s film, Sequoia’s of the Sea, will be shown.
Apr 26 Urchin culling in Mendocino County. There are camping opportunities. Remember, to par- ticipate in urchin culling you must have a California Fishing License.
Apr 19 Monthly cub dive; Lindsay Martin is POC, location to be determined.
May 1 Membership meeting; Members’ Night.
Diving Reports:
- A group of divers reported on diving at Dumagette in the Phlippines. There was an issue of a diver drifting away from the goup. Neil observed the importance of keeping up to date on SMB deployment.
- Dan W. Reported diving on reefs (Mr. Ed and off of Hopkins Reef) on Feb 23 from the Beachhopper.
- Arnie reported diving in Hawaii on the Sea Tiger wreck and on Horseshoe reef.
- Lindsey reported diving on a VDM-sponsored dive trip. She made some 17 dives and saw migrating Eagle Rays.
- David C. Reported diving during the week at San Carlos Beach. He noted that although conditions were fine, he was unable to fiind the pipe that leads out towards the Metridian field. Apparently, sand build-up has buried the near shore portions of the pipe. For the second dive, he dove the wall and reported seeing a lot of marine life.
- Alan S. Reported on the recent Lovers Point dive—Lovers 3 to Lovers 2. He, too, reported seeing a lot of marine life.
Bone Award. No nominations.
Good Buddy Award. David S. Nominated Dennis and Patti for their sustained hospitality
There being no further business, Oliver adjourned the meeting at 8:40pm PST.
Faithfully submitted:
Arnie Warshawsky, Secretary