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Date: 6/13/2025
Subject: The Aqua Tooter (June 2025). Aqua Tutus Diving Club's Newsletter
From: Oliver Edwards



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The Aqua Tooter

June 2025


 
Announcements and Club News
 
 
 
Greetings from the President
 
 
Jim Driggers monthly newsletter is here.

Board of Directors Meeting 
June 19
 
Want to have the club dive held at your favorite location? 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. 

Member's night ...
 
Members displayed their photo (and probably video) work in June's general meeting. Unfortunately no report was available at publication.

July Meeting program 
 

Entertainment being finalized, stay tuned!


 
Upcoming Dives
 
 
Want to dive more?
Use the ad-hoc dive forum
 
Planning your own dive? Want to find more dives with club members? Use the "Ad-Hoc dive" forum on our website. Posting dives on our site benefits everyone. Read the news article for details. 
 

Lovers Point 3 club dive
Saturday June 14
 
Moved from Hidden beach as San Carlos is overrun by sea lions. There are plenty of good dive options here. Arrive early to get limited parking.

Carmel River Beach club dive 
Saturday July 26
 
Carmel River beach is an excellent dive site when the conditions are calm. There's kelp (!), reef, often decent vis, and some nice pinnacles if you swim out towards the point. We will meet at 8:15 to assess conditions with North Monastery the primary backup. Please check out the dive forum for detailed information including parking instructions and the meetup point. Register for the dive and I will look for you if we have to move.

 
Dive Reports
 
 
South Monastery club dive report
 
Seven club members dove South Monastery on the May club dive. Conditions were reasonably calm for the first dive and picked up as the day went on. At least half the divers encountered equipment problems - they were either fixed on the beach or by a quick trip to a dive store. More details here


Breakwater dive and equipment check
 
Erik Hoagland and Oliver Edwards dove breakwater May 2 to check out some of Erik's new equipment and to have some fun. Report here

 
Diving Related News
 
 
 
 
 

Comic Relief
 
 
Neutral buoyancy is a good idea even when the turtles are not watching.
 
  
 
 
neutral turtle

"Vagrent" right whales first ever seen in Bahamas
 
A pair of critically-endangered North Atlantic right whales swam down the east coast to the Bahamas. There are only about 370 North Atlantic right whales left on earth. Extremely intelligent, there are no working hypotheses for why these relatively juvenile whales have paired up and gone so far out of their normal range. Article in the Good News Network here.

Shark Stewards May newsletter
 
Shark Stewards newsletters contain interesting ecological (and shark) information as well as having beautiful imagery. May newsletter here

Undercurrent newsletter
 
Among other articles, Undercurrent's May newsletter highlights TSA's ban on lithium powerpacks in checked luggage (up to $17000 fine!). It also talks about divers reading books during decompression. Some of you may recognize the deco bar in the photo.

Dan- Your Lungs and Diving
 
Diver's Alert Network, widely known for their affordable diving accident insurance, publishes many articles on safe diving and diving physiology. Their recent article "Your Lungs and Diving" explains important concepts about how our lungs work (or don't work) during diving.
 
(DAN dive accident insurance is available here. I recommend every diver have insurance - treatment for diving injuries can be very expensive.)
 
 

American Teenager completes 14 hour, 27 mile swim across Cook Strait
 
American teenager Maya Merhige withstood thousands of jellyfish stings during a 14-hour swim across the Cook Strait. And she claims to be terrified of jellyfish.  CNN story here.
 

South Korea's female free divers evolved for a life underwater
 
Scientists have determined that a unique community of freediving women, the Haenyeo, have genetically evolved due to the large amount of time spent underwater. Unfortunately, the community is dying out (average age 70) - young women are no longer interested in the tradition. CNN story here.

California's marine protected areas boost fish populations
 
 
A study led by UC Santa Barbara scientists determined that the California Marine Protected Areas do "work". (Good News!). Fish biomass increased across the whole network. MPAs with stronger protections saw greater gains. I imagine many of you have personally seen the results - Ling Cod lying out in the open at North Monastery is a great example. Article here.

 
Club Minutes
 
 
General Meeting minutes for may are here
 
Board of Directors Meeting minutes for May are here.
 
 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.