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Date: 3/27/2025
Subject: The Aqua Tooter (April 2025). Aqua Tutus Diving Club's Newsletter
From: Oliver Edwards


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The Aqua Tooter

April 2025
 
Announcements and Club News
 
 
 
Greetings from the President
 
 
Jim Driggers monthly newsletter is here.
Cave diving in Yucatan
April 3 General Meeting 
 
Our own Neil Benjamin frequently dives in the shallow, long, interconnected caves of Yucatan Mexico. Neil's going to show us what he does in what I'm sure will be an entertaining talk.
Board of Directors Meeting 
April 17
Interested in how the club is run? Want to contribute to club activities? Come attend the Board of Directors meeting via zoom. All current members are welcome to attend. See the event for details. 
Fisherman's alliance and Blue Harmony
talked at March Meeting
 
The march general meeting talk was given by Josh Russo (Fisherman's alliance) and Peter Guinessa (Blue Harmony) on the history, status, and prospective follow-ons to urchin removal in Caspar Cove Mendocino County. The talk sparked a lot of question ending up taking roughly an hour. One interesting note is the Caspar cove and Del Monte beach licenses from Ca DFG were temporary, limited term licenses to evaluate the efficacy of their methods. Once the licenses expired, the efforts had to stop. If we want to move on to eradicating urchins it's up to someone to apply for a new license. 
 
Upcoming Dives
 
 
Ad-Hoc Dives or How to Dive
with Club Members
 
Planning to go diving outside the club dive? Want to find more dives with club members? Look on the "Ad-Hoc dive" forum on our website. Sharing dives on our website benefits everyone. Read the news article for details. 
 
McAbee club dive
Saturday April 19
 
Join us for a dive off of McAbee Beach! Great entry level dive site known for fine reef structure and abundant kelp. Optional longer dives to  the outer reef can find "McAbee Pinnacle".  Register at the aqua tutus event and see the dive forum (likely to be created 1 week before the dive) for more information. 
International Ocean Film Festival
April 11-13
 
Well it isn't a dive but it's the next best thing. Natasha Benjamin's "Sequoias of the Sea" documentary will be shown on Sunday, April 13 at 4:00 p.m as part of the festival. Details here. 
 
Dive Reports
 
 
"Semi-Annual" McAbee snorkel
report
 
Eight divers (including three guests) swam from McAbee beach to San Carlos beach during the March club dive/snorkel. Highlights included a "romp" of 10-15 otters and a good patch of Macrocystis (giant kelp). Read the full dive report and see photos over here in the dive reports forum. 
North Monastery dive challenged
by changing conditions
 
Three AT members dove at North Monastery during a forecasted lull between storms. Conditions were "ok" entering the first dive, but deteriorated during the dive leading to a challenging exit (opposite of the forecast that predicted improving conditions). Everyone agreed to pass on the second and call it a day.
 
 
Diving Related News
 
 
 
 
 

Comic Relief
 
 
what makes a shark happy?
 
  
 
 
shark watching shark week
Beautiful images from NOAA's 
"Get into your sanctuary" photo contest
 
 
NOAA runs an annual photo contest of images from their marine sanctuaries. There have some beautiful images. 2024's here and 2023 here.
 
Artificial "tire reef" turned out to 
not be a good idea
 
A plan to create artificial reefs in Puget Sounds using automotive tires has gone flat(!). Now they have to take the tires (10s of thousands) out. Article here. 
Cencal documents

 
Many Aqua Tutus members are also members of Cencal. Here are Cencal's March bod minutes and a recent report from the CA marine resources committee meeting.  
 
Crab species could help protect stressed reefs
 
A crab species that acts as a scavenger can protect reefs during heatwaves. See This article from BBC wildlife magazine. 
March Undercurrent online newsletter
 
Includes more liveaboard fires (again), divers hit by boats, rare species sighting and other stores. over here. 
 
Club Minutes
 
 
The General Meeting minutes are located at at March gen.
 
The Board of Directors Meeting minutes are located at March bod.
 
 Aqua Tutus' minutes are stored as news articles (under the categories "General Minutes", "BOE minutes" or for older minutes, under "Officer Reports") on our website, aquatutus.org.
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