Divescapes 2009
Divescapes 2009: submitted by Connie & David Faas, Wainwright, www.abdivers.ca -
We learned so much about diving at Divescapes last
weekend (Oct 2009)!
What an experience! The AUC's Scuba Conference & Travel Show
in Calgary was so worth the trip down south. Congratulations Cathie
McCuaig, Brian Nadwidny and the AUC for putting on a great show. We
learned so much about Canadian diving: the Greenland sharks in
Quebec; Beluga whales in Manitoba; Newfoundland shipwrecks, BC
artificial wrecks; and the life in a BC kelp forest. We also
listened to the coolest stories about Canadians' adventures in
diving - stories about freediving; about diving in and under
icebergs, and also tropical diving. The trade show exhibitors were
also great: Calgary dive stores were there; plus freediving; Bill
Coltart & Sharon Morgan with dive trips to BC and beyond; Andy
Lamb and others with BC dive destinations; and a cool new
underwater 'geocaching' game - see aquaquest.com for more details
as their website is in final development - Clear Lake near
Wainwright, will have two of the destinations to be found.
Favourite
seminars: All the seminars and films were very good -
fabulous actually! It is hard to pick a favourite, but two that are
at the top of the list are Jill Heinerth's (explorer, photographer,
author and pioneering technical diver) and Mandy-Rae & Kirk
Krack's (world record holding
freedivers, and educators in courses, movies and documentaries
about the ocean planet).
- Ice Island: On Saturday night the feature film was the National Geographic film Ice Island - featuring Jill and the team exploring the largest iceberg to ever calve off of a glacier - Godzilla. Her introduction about how the film came to be was inspiring and hilarious, and the question/answer session afterward was fascinating.
- Freediving: This great presentation by
Mandy-Rae and Kirk Krack consisted of two parts: first about
freediving, how to do it safely, why people do it, and what the
average person can accomplish with just a little training. The
second part of the presentation was about the movie The Cove. The
Cove: All dolphin lovers just have to see this documentary film. It
has just been released, although the story has been worked on for
ten years. Freedivers have a small part in the film, which is about
a cove in Japan where a small group of fishermen believe it is
their heritage to participate in this event. This cove is
where
many
dolphins are 'herded' and selected for purchase for dolphin shows
throughout the world. All remaining dolphins, tens of thousands of
dolphins, in the cove are secretly slaughtered and the meat is
sold. The rest of Japan and the world know next to nothing about
how this is happening. This film will initiate discussions around
the world. Mandy and Kirk were thought provoking, they presented
both sides of the story, and they were very clear that this is not
a simple right/wrong issue:it is hugely complicated. Dolphins are
considered a 'pest' by these fishermen as they eat valuable fish
food stock - you can compare their attitude to how we feel about
rats as a pest who eat valuable grain.
The issues include
sustainability of the dolphin species, as entire pods of dolphins
will be killed at once, and dolphins do not breed within their pod,
so the scientific community is concerned. No research exists about
how many dolphins there are in the world, and if this affects
the survival of the species Another issue is can we condemn others
for killing and eating dolphins? Can we compare this to cattle
feedlots, where cattle are fattened just to be killed? Remember
that people from India think it is sacrilegious to eat cow meat.
Then there is the issue of selling the mercury contaminated dolphin
meat. Unfortunately, the public that buys this meat is unaware of
the contamination, and almost always unaware that the meat is the
unpopular dolphin - it is usually marketed as 'Emperor fish' or
another fish. Mandy and Kirk were neutral and calm as they
presented both sides of this story. This documentary film is up for
many awards since the release, and it will certainly provoke much
discussion around the world.
- WWII Shipwrecks in Newfoundland: I have never really thought about diving at the East coast of Canada - thought of the longish plane ride, and we already have great wrecks on the West coast. However John McCuaig's video presentation changed my mind - I have added Newfoundland WWII wrecks to my wana-dive list!
Kelp
Forest: Andy Lamb spoke on the ecology of a kelp forest.
Andy always has a greatpresentation, and I will now be looking much
more closely for the multiple forms of life in the kelp.
- Anotherher ship sinking in BC! The Canadian Navy will celebrate its 100th year with the sinking of the HMCS Annapolis - a 371' helicopter carrying destroyer escort. Guys, we have to go to BC to see this! No date is set yet, but Howie Robbins of the ArtificialReef Society of BC confirms that it will be next year in Halket Bay in Howe Sound - north of Vancouver.
Beluga whales: there are two reasons to go to
Churchill, Manitoba - to see polar bears and to see beluga
whales. 
Barb Roy was
there this Sept. and brought back stories and pictures - there is
no dive operator there, but snorkel trips with the belugas are
common. Cool!
Greenland sharks: Jeff Gallant, who is also the author of the Diving Almanac, has been on the leading edge of research for these sharks for years. They have a wide range, and he has focused on areas near the St. Lawrence River in Quebec.
He 
has the first
ever live footage of the sharks, and has the wildest stories about
their research, including ice diving at -50C! The week before these
dives was much warmer, the week after was much warmer, but the
expedition week was brutal! They now research and film in the
summer, and are having great results.
Best of all we were there at Divescapes 2009 in Calgary, touching base with our various Dive buddies from around the country: David, Connie, Sue & Deb enjoyed visiting and reconnecting with Derek Sather (world record holder - of the world's deepest beer contest), Bill Nadeau (author, tech dive instructor), Robbie Shaw (winner of one of the dive holidays to BC), the entire AUC council (including Mike Hussey, the heckler in the crowd), Fred Paddock, Connie & Tim Barker. Plus we were there making so many new friends and potential dive buddies - there were even attendees there from Regina, Sask and BC!
So it is our enthusiastic recommendation to remember to make plans to attend Divescapes 2011 - in Edmonton - watch for the fall dates, venue and potential speakers to come! It's well worth the effort to attend! The qualitity of speakers who were brought in for Divescapes 2009 was incredible & well worth the cost of the Gold Pass especially considering it included 2 meals (Friday's VIP Reception and Saturday's Banquet) before Keynote presenter's Film Show. Thank you Alberta Underwater Council for continuing the Divescapes Conference tradition in Alberta.
Special Thanks to our DIVESCAPES 2009 Prize Sponsors & Exhibitors
We had some great prizes here, divers - thank you for
your support! With your help we were able to bring to Alberta
some fabulous speakers for Divescapes 2009 & hope to be able to
do it again in fall 2011 in Edmonton for Divescapes 2011.
Divescapes 2009
Prize Donation
3 Nights Accommodation Package from Divi Flamingo Resort, Bonaire
Congratulations to: Gold Pass Ticket WINNER: Gayle Laskosky (Edmonton area & Wing Diver Club Member)
Divescapes 2009 Prize Donation
1 Dive Charter Package for Two from
Ocean Quest Adventures, NFL
Congratulations to: Gold Pass Ticket WINNER: Iain Kenny (Calgary area diver)
Divescapes 2009
Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Gold Pass Ticket Winner: Bryon Wadsworth (Edmonton area diver)
1 Week West Coast Dive Charter Package for Two
from Mamro Adventures
Divescapes 2009 Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Gold Pass Prize Winner: Connie Barker (Edmonton area & Wing Diver Club Member)
1 Day Dive Charter - 1st Diver Free, 2nd 50% off from Diver's Dream Charters, Anacortes, WA, USA
Divescapes 2009 Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Gold Pass Ticket WINNER: Dave Pohl (Edmonton area diver & Wing Diver member)
1 Day Dive Charter Package from Diver's Choice Charter's, Nanaimo, BC
Divescapes 2009 Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Gold Pass Ticket Winner: Robert Shaw
(Calgary area diver)
1 Day Dive Charter Package from Tahtsa Diving Charters, Tahsis, BC
Tahsis is a fabulous cold water diving location with easy access to incredible dive sites on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The majority of our most popular dive sites are within a 20-30 minute boat ride from the dock.
Divescapes
2009 Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Gold Pass Ticket Winner: Burny Schnellback (Edmonton area diver & instructor certifier)
1 Day Dive Charter (2 tanks) from Oceans Alive Adventures, Saltspring Island, BC
The waters around Salt Spring Island are full of rich variety of marine life. Visit our webstite at: diveoceansalive.com
Divescapes 2009 Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Calgary area divers: Phillilp Lowrie, Greg McCuaig, Brian Smith, Darrel Shaw
Scuba Gear donated by Cross Country Parts Distributors
Oceanic Scuba Regulator, Hollis Manifold, 2 Oceanic Dive Computers, 1 - Pinacle Dive Gear Bag
Divescapes 2009 Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Pat Boudreau of Fort McMurray's Wet & Wild Diving Society
1 - Framed Print - from the Red Sea donated by Andrew Bell Photography
Divescapes 2009
Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Paul Lamand
1 - Dive Text Book: "Technically Speaking" donated by "Deep Fathoms"
Divescapes 2009 Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Darin Esau
1- UK Dive Light D-4 - Donated by UK Canada
Divescapes 2009
Prize Donation
Congratulations to: Jeffrey Gallant
1 - Book by Andy Lamb: Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest (Hard Cover), 1 Paperback: Coastal Fishes
Donated by: Cedar Beach Lodge, Thetis Island