405_April_24

O ne of my favourite female songs is Belinda Carlisle’s “ Heaven is a place on Earth ”. She sings. “ In this world, we are just beginning to understand the miracle of living .” We are told that more than 90% of fish are gone! What we see when we dive is nothing compared to the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. It has happened in our lifetime. We can fix this! We humans can restore the Garden of Eden. “ Heaven on Earth ” can happen, once again. Saving the planet is so, so simple. All we have to do is help Mother Nature restore that balance. Yes, it will take a huge mind shift but it will have to be done. Plant a few trillion trees, the birds and the bees will come. Many extinctions will be prevented. Build a pond, frogs will find it. Compost everything organic and you will provide a home for millions of worms and the myriad of amazing creatures that live in soil ecosystems. Soil Scientists calculate composted soil can reduce Carbon Dioxide and store Carbon in the soil to a degree that can reduce Global warming by up to thirty per cent by 2050. Protect a reef, give it time to recover; the power of creation will take over and it will be repopulated in a few short years.* Komodo Marine Park is a prime example. When Jos Pet tried to have it protected thirty years ago, he was attacked with weapons, had boats vandalised, suffered attacks from gunshots and ferocious opposition, along with the standard corruption of officials. Today, Komodo is a jewel in the crown of Indonesia’s ocean and is a world class marine ecosystem. Some Sharks are just beginning to make a comeback after thirty years. * Like all ecosystems, full recovery with all top order carnivores can take a century or two to reach full maturity. Jos had to resort to having trained park rangers with bigger guns and the power to arrest illegal fishers and the support of officialdom. Always a challenge. Mankind, in the search for food, profit and adventure keeps taking from the sea and giving almost nothing back. This gives us a clue to one of the great errors of modern life. We took the wood, coal and oil and burnt it to make our lives better and to lift us out of poverty. We took the whales and fish for three centuries until there were almost none left. But we never repaid Mother Nature by replacing the forests or restocking the seas. So we have an unbalanced atmospheric, terrestrial and ocean biomes. We chopped most of the trees down and fouled the air. It is so easy to fix. We will need energy more than ever in the future and people have developed dozens of energy sources that they argue about. My concern is the way we are going, we will run out of power and that in the near future, we will be sitting in the dark with nine blankets on and a candle in the depths of winter because we cannot agree. The big error in the climate debate is right there under our noses. If every country in the world plants a few billion trees a year, it will go a long way to helping to balance the equation. Restore the oceans and continents and Mother Nature will find a way to rebuild the Garden of Eden. Paradise will rise from the ashes and humans can live in a wonderful garden full of life and beauty. The life force on Planet Earth has recovered from many mass extinctions and gone on to proliferate and restore the balance. Parts of the Great Barrier Reef have been regularly destroyed by cyclones equal to tens of thousands of nuclear bombs over many millennia. Life on the reef always rebounds and regenerates. The power of regeneration of the Great Barrier Reef is underestimated by many. Corals have an incredible ability to recover from disaster. Sadly, our politicians are letting us down. There is money in stripping the planet of life and it will continue until the last of the great lifeforms are gone… unless we stop the carnage. One solution is to pass legislation. Another is for the people to take back the power from the corporations and demand effective action to protect our precious marine life. It is time for humans to wake up and make an effort to save the planet. We do it by thinking globally, and acting locally. OUR COVER PHOTO Our stunning front cover photograph was taken by John

Dive Log Australasia is a voice for Mother Nature and King Neptune. We use educational informative articles to help more humans to learn to appreciate and value marine life. We focus on excellent U/W photos and celebrate the miracle of life that is everywhere. To that end, I have written articles about the amazing Leatherjackets and another about Triggerfish. Learn a few things about these extra-ordinary fish families. Nigel Marsh has written another great article in his expert capacity as a talented fish watcher, Nigel has a real case of pisciphilia! ( love of fish), just like myself. We are also blessed to have Bill Gladstone giving us great insights into how fish taste their world. He tells us to appreciate the incredible senses of Goatfish, Catfish and Damselfish. Every dive from now on, you can give these fish a second glance and appreciate the information gathering barbels and how they help the fish to survive. It is real magic right before your eyes! David Mullins teaches us about the wonderful bio-diversity of the Thuridilla, a genus of the Sap Sucking Ophistobranchs (different to Nudibranchs). Regular readers would know that I always admire David’s exceptional articles which are consistently high standard of research, just for you! Dive Log is happy to support Paul Watson. He is fighting the good fight to save whales and stop the senseless slaughter that has deprived all of us the ability to enjoy marine life. Sadly. Money versus whales has won for many centuries and it takes an ocean hero like Paul to take decisive action to save the whales and sharks. Ken Hoppen, one of our favourite adventure divers, take us to the magnificent diving of Wolf Rock near Fraser Island. This big animal dive features sharks, groper, rays and much more. Ken’s advice is to do this dive for diving memories that will last a lifetime. Our story teller, David ‘Counter’ Strike has sent a very entertaining article on Ears. His advice, “ I have this fear that if I subject my ears to too much abuse then I’ll never hear that offer to buy me a beer. ” I always read Des Williams ‘Diving History’. This issue is a beauty called “Diver or Urinator?” definitely worth a read! We feature Cairns U/W photographer John Magee in our Spotlight. John has many outstanding photos and we are absolutely delighted to showcase some of his goodies. Dr Sally Gregory brings us really inspiring stories about Women of Water that feature high achievers who have worked hard for many years to create a dream lifestyle for themselves. This issue features Nikita Retsas, who is living the dream at Sea World. Lynn Holroyd has sent in a report about the seventieth anniversary of Underwater Research Group of Queensland. Every diver should appreciate that our wonderful sport is built on the backs of past divers who trail blazed the way forward in the past and set up research programs and protected dive spots for us to enjoy. We have a great report from the World Shootout photo comp, book reviews, Shipwreck topics from Steve Reynolds from S.A. and more S.A. news from Heather Creech. Dive Log April 2024, is issue 405. It marks four years since Vikki and I took over from Barry Andrewartha. Lucky for me, Vikki, our excellent Graphic Designer, is as enthusiastic as I am in striving to produce a world class scuba diving magazine for your reading pleasure. Our mission is to celebrate marine life through education. Quality U/W photos and a high standard of journalism and production.

Magee. The furtive Red Spotted Blenny, Blenniella chrysospilos taken with the Macro lens on the Great Barrier Reef is a very difficult photo to capture.

Mike and Vikki

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DIVE LOG Australasia #405 - April ‘24

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