411 Dive Log Australasia April 2025

One of my favorite Harry Nilsson songs is “Jump into the fire” which is has a simple message about how we can ‘make each other happy’. Of course, that is a modern version of “Love one another” by Jesus Christ. The sentiment is exactly what the world, humanity and Mother Nature needs right now. From this point, we can adopt the meditation technique of soaring, higher and higher. Let your inner eagle fly way, way up to a thousand kilometres above the earth and take a look. Most of the earth’s surface is dramatically altered. Half of the forests from the stone age are gone, chopped down, burnt, buried in tar and cement most important of all, not replaced! The Sahara Desert has grown tenfold in our lifetime! Same is true for the world’s oceans. Whales and fish stocks plundered down to less than 1% just a few years ago. A few species are slowly cling onto survival and some are thankfully are coming back from the brink. Many have gone forever. Mankind must stop the endless over-exploitation of the sea! As time passes, it is more and more plain to see that the ocean is a finite resource and it is in dire straits. Scientists keep on telling us about extinctions, threatened species, the dangers of overfishing, the collapse of entire fisheries and coral reefs. Humanity’s struggle to survive has left our earth in a total mess. There is the use of the ocean as a sewage disposal place. When will we ever learn? Mother Nature is in tears. She is in dire need of protection right now. When Mother Nature’s tears fall on to the Earth, we are in danger of cutting off the very lifeline that she provides for us. Next, we learn from Chomsky. Our rulers tell us about insurmountable problems, identify our deepest fears and give promises of hope so that we relinquish all power to them while they take the power and make wars and exploit Mother Earth even more. Most world rulers pander to massive corporations to the point that they now control our lives. This includes the rape of the ocean, the land and the air and the destruction of Mother Nature, all for profit. Then there is the marketing of sugar, tobacco, drugs and so much more. More importantly for Dive Log, the total control of the media by a few giant corporations. Mind Control in the comfort of your living room is big business. Worse still, thought control is the fastest growth industry courtesy of massive corporations that filter information, knowledge and the way we think. Now, real individual intelligence is being replaced by computers. So many of us are divorced from Mother Nature and live in little concrete boxes. Far too many people have most of their views of the world mapped out by their mobile phones and laptops. Far too few have a garden. How did this happen? What will happen next? When we have lost all of our personal freedoms including the ability to write, imagine, think for ourselves and debate issues intelligently, where will we be? We are turning into economic slaves and automatons of corporations so powerful that they dwarf entire countries. As a result, some people cannot listen to any alternate viewpoint on any subject. The science is done and the debate is dead. Really? This tragedy comes from narrow biased mass media. Hopefully, the day will come when we have more of an awakening and people take back their freedom to think for themselves, to have unbiased media free from absolute corporate manipulation. Shakespeare will be impressed that children will write stories, sonnets and drama using their brains and their own imagination again rather than getting a machine to write it for them and thus giving up the very OUR COVER PHOTO This outstanding photo of a Blue Ring Octopus, taken in 2008, has been sent in by David Mullins. The camera was a Nikon E5000.

thing that makes them human, their imagination and their individuality. Wouldn’t that be great? Shakespearwe can stop rolling in his grave! We might even have more governments that actually do good for the population instead of yielding to big business and taxing us to death. Governments are happy to allow massive overfishing and over exploitation of our marine and land reserves. Australia could build a sovereign wealth fund and provide free education and health care for all from our natural wealth instead of allowing overseas corporations take almost all of the profit, leaving oh so little for the people. There is a way forward and it is oh so simple! Help Mother Nature! She has such great powers of recovery. The life force she possesses is the greatest force in the universe. The miracle of life is the most precious thing. It is all we have got! Plant a tree. If you can, plant ten! Help Mother Nature get a smile back on her face. She will reward humanity infinitely, year on year. She will restore entire ecosystems. Lifeforms on the brink of extinction will recover rapidly in just a few decades and repopulate the Earth. Paradise will be regained; the birds and whales will sing everywhere and the flowers bloom. So, we come full circle. We can make Mother Nature happy. Every nation on earth could plant billions of trees. Mother Nature will do a great deal to return the world’s biomes to health very quickly. This will help to correct climate issues and ameliorate the Greenhouse effect that the media hysteria has been banging on about for decades whilst the rape of the planet goes on unabated. We are told that the Amazon creates its own weather systems just as cities create major weather changes. Just how much of the deforestation of earth is a cause of variations in carbon dioxide, the most valuable gas, after water, to life. No media outlet would print that life would benefit from a co2 level of 500 ppm but it is true. Photosynthesis loves elevated co2 levels and plant growth improves dramatically. That is why glass climate controlled greenhouses pump Co2 until it reaches one thousand ppm. About 2 and ½ half times our atmosphere. Look it up if you do not believe me! It is called Science of photosynthesis. It is one of two of the most important chemical processes in the universe. It turns CO2 and water into glucose, it replenishes oxygen and it is the basis for all of the food on the planet. Someone please remind our leaders about using the knowledge of science to make a better world. You are the solution! You can do something to help to rebuild the Garden of Eden. You have the power! Dive Log’s contribution is to provide education, to reveal the miracle of life forms in the ocean and to celebrate adventures with marine life. To that end, this issue of Dive Log is superb. Every diver in the world deserves to read and enjoy the wonderful contributions by our team. We have stunning images of Belugas by regular contributor, Malcolm Nobbs. You will fall in love with Belugas after reading his story. David Mullins showcases outstanding photos in his Spotlight and continues his excellent series on Nudibranch defences. Nigel Marsh takes us diving with Blue Whales in Timor. Ken Hoppen shares amazing Tiger shark adventures in the Maldives. Dr Terry and Cathie Cummins go on an exciting Coral Sea Odyssea. I share live aboard adventures on the Pelagian, The Spirit of Freedom as well as a few tips on how to photograph sharks. My article on the GBR off South QLD near the town of 1770 shows the enormous benefits of protecting the reef. It provides superb diving and shows how quickly the ecosystem can rebuild from the misuse of the past. The GBR will surely become the world’s number one dive destination because of this protection in the next decade. Read on and enjoy this blockbuster and share will your diving friends. We are always looking for good photos and good articles. Send them in and get the thrill of seeing your work published.

Mike

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Divelogaustralasia #411 - April ‘25

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