Mark Miller - Marine Invertebrates
Mr. Mark Miller will present a slide show and talk on marine invertebrates from both local and distant waters. Highlights will include colorful and exotic animals, some dangerous, some harmless, and all fascinating.
In the 35 years since being first certified as a PADI diver in the Pacific Northwest, Mr. Miller has logged over 10,000 dives in places like Truk Lagoon, Bikini Atoll, Kwajalein, Guam, Palau, Pohnpei, the Hawaiian Islands, and from British Columbia to Mexico, and Maine to Cozumel.
A marine biologist, and former commercial diver, he was also a pioneer in technical wreck diving in the far Pacific. He is the author of several books on scuba diving and maritime history, as well as numerous magazine articles and scientific papers. When not diving, he spends his surface intervals producing documentary and educational videos and teaching Oceanography.
Dr. Gregory Skomal - Sharks in New England: a Closer Look
The presentation will highlight research currently being conducted by the Massachusetts Shark Research Program. It will include new information on the biology and ecology of our local shark species, while touching on the conservation and management of these often misunderstood creatures.
Dr. Gregory Skomal is an accomplished marine biologist, underwater explorer, photographer, and author. As the principal investigator of the Massachusetts Shark Research Program, he has been studying and diving with sharks for over 25 years. He has written numerous scientific research papers and has appeared in a number of film and television documentaries, including programs for National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and PBS.
Laura Medrano-Hernandez of Dive Kulture
Dive Kulture is designed for at-risk and proven-risk, inner-city teens and young adults, Dive Kulture offers scuba diving certification together with environmental education and placement in jobs in the environmental industry. The program offers therapeutic outreach and long-term aftercare services to youth and their families by trained clinicians. Scuba diving is an activity very few inner-city youth are able to try.
More info on the organization Laura works for can be found at:
http://www.dive-kulture.com/about_us.html
Doug Scott - Finding the Stella-Marion Shipwreck - ROV Discovery
Doug Scott will present "Finding the Stella-Marion Shipwreck". Doug and his students of A+ Certification at Natick High School embarked on an exciting adventure to help Dr. David Switzer of Plymouth State University document a steamboat wreck site on Newfound Lake, NH.
The 49.5' Stella-Marion was built in 1900 by Ambrose Adams and used to haul logs, ferry passengers and to deliver mail around the lake. It burned and sank in 1917. Dr. Switzer documented the site in 1984, but the site had been lost after several attempts to relocate it. The first ROV built by A+ was "Nosinki" which helped relocate the wreck. To document the site with color video footage the students built "SeaMoose" an underwater ROV (remotely operated vehicle) that is controlled from the surface using a joystick and laptop.
The trip was a success; students got great footage of the entire wreck. Mr. Blackburn dove with SeaMoose during the trip and got great footage of SeaMoose in action. All footage has been donated to the Hebron Historical Society and Newfound Lake Region Assocation for addition to the lake history archives. Local NH volunteers provided eight pontoon boats for the students to work from.
The project was funded by The Natick Education Foundation, Mass Tech Leadership Council and several private donations, diving gear was supplied by Mass Diving of Natick. The trip was featured in The MetroWest Daily News, Natick Tab, and FOX 25 TV News.
Meeting Topic: Special Interest Groups
Ilir Capuni - A WWI Museum under the Adriatic Sea
Once Italy joined the Entente Powers in April 1915, a notable part of World War One at sea got confined in the Adriatic sea. Allied forces wanted to close the Otranto Straits and bound the Austro-Hungarian influence in the Mediterranian.
In this presentation we will focus on the most important wrecks of the Adriatic from WWI:
- SMS Zenta
- RN Regina Margherita
- SMS Szent Istvan
- S/S Brindisi
- RN Giuseppe Garibaldi
- S/S Re Umberto
- S/S Linz
Ilir will also list some of the undiscovered and highly important losses. The presentation will be based on the findings of the expeditions that Ilir has led and ones organized by IANTD Expeditions.
Bob Foster - Diving the "Titanic of New England"
The Steamship Portland, lost with all hands in a devastating storm at the turn
of the last century, was thought to be beyond the reach of scuba divers. In August of 2008, a group of Massachusetts divers pushed the boundaries of
technical diving and visited this untouched wreck. Bob Foster will take you
along on the first dives to the Portland, lost for almost 100 years after
sailing into the "perfect storm" of November 26th, 1898. This elegant paddle-wheeler carried over 190 passengers and crew as it left India Wharf in Boston bound for Portland Maine, and was last seen as night fell off the coast of Cape Ann. The wreck was discovered in 1989 and positively identified in 2002, lying over 450 feet deep in what is now the Stellwagen Bank Underwater National Marine Sanctuary.
Join Bob and fellow divers Slav Mlch, Dave Faye, Paul Blanchette and Don Morse as they become the first to visit the Portland in 110 years.
Bob has been an active diver since 1972, and became interested in wreck diving while living near the Great Lakes in the 80's. He has been searching for shipwrecks in Massachusetts Bay for the last 8 years, and has discovered and documented over 15 including the YF-415, Brenton Reef Lightship, and Augustus Snow. In 2007, Bob was among the first divers to visit the Palmer/Crary wrecks, 360 feet below the surface in Stellwagen Sanctuary. Bob's wreck diving interests have also taken him to Lake Superior and to the Florida Keys, as well as to New York/New Jersey to dive the U-869 and the USS Spikefish.
Debra Greenhalgh - Diving with
Disabilities
For those of you that have not had the opportunity to work with people that are physically challenged to help them enjoy sports through scuba diving it is an extremely rewarding experience. To assist them in overcoming and working around the challenges that restrict them and then enjoying the dive with them just can't be put into words. Every single volunteer feels it is an honor to help divers with disabilities and wounded warriors who laid their lives on the line for their country.
Debra Greenhalgh is National Underwater Association of Instructors (NAUI) Course Director, International Handicap Scuba Association and National Instructors Association of Divers with Disabilities (NIADD) Instructor, NAUI NITROX Instructor, and ASHI CPR / FIRST Aid / AED Instructor. She is an engineer at Naval Undersea Warfare Center, RI, an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, PA, and a former recipient of the Hugh Fletcher Memorial Scholarship with the Women Divers Hall of Fame. Through Scuba Made Easy LLc, she teaches recreational SCUBA to enabled and disabled people, local police, firefighters, and rescue dive teams. She is the cofounder of Divers for Hope nonprofit organization (www.diversforhope.org). Debra is also a 2009 candidate for the NAUI Board of Directors and Women Divers Hall of Fame Board of Trustees.
Mike Walsh - Diving the Lembeh Strait
Mike Walsh will present photographs from a trip taken in October 2008 to visit Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Certain parts of Indonesia are considered the center of marine bio-diversity. The Lembeh Strait affords the opportunity to find some of the most unique, rarest and poisonous marine creatures. The bottom of the strait is mostly black volcanic sand leaving few places for the creatures to hide. Although, it still takes a sharp eye to find them!
Mike Walsh is an avid scuba diver with a log book approaching 1000 dives ranging from the lobster infested New England coast line to the crystal clear cenotes of the Yucatan to the warm/exotic waters of the south pacific.
Sean Holland - Sinking of
Bianca C
Sean Holland, Fellow of the Explorers Club, will discuss the history and tragic
sinking of one of the Caribbean's leading deep water shipwrecks, the Bianca C.
Sean will share images gathered over his 10 years of diving this 18,000-ton ocean
liner, which rests off the coast of Grenada in 90 to 165 fsw.
Sean will also show images of the Shakem, a picturesque shallow-water shipwreck
near the Bianca C, and will provide us with an insider's guide to diving and
exploring the Spice Island.
Sean has contributed stories and underwater photographs to publications including:
Nitrox Diver, Immersed and National Geographic’s Adventure. Sean started diving
at 16 off Fairfield County, CT and Long Beach Island, NJ.
Jim McKnight - Lembeh Strait &
Bunaken National Park
In October 2007, Jim and fellow MWDC member Mike Walsh joined a group of
underwater photographers led by professional photographer Jonathan Bird for a
trip to Lembeh Strait, Indonesia. This area is famous for such creatures as the
deadly blue ring octopus and the dazzling flamboyant cuttlefish.
Lembeh is a "muck" diver's paradise featuring such creatures as frogfish,
scorpion fish, pipe fish, mandarin fish and other bottom dwellers. There are
also several coral reefs available which are home to a great variety of tropical
fish and corals. After Lembeh, Jim and Mike dove nearby Bunaken National Park.
Jim began diving in Thailand in 1995 and has logged over 400 dives. Diving
trips to the Pacific include Truk Lagoon (2005), Bikini Atoll (2006) and most
recently Lembeh Strait in October of 2007. Locally, Jim dives for lobsters most
summer and fall weekends and photographs such dive sites as the Isle of Sholes
and the U 853.
Jodi Burnham & Jerry Cronin -
Recr. Diving Off Cape Cod
Jodi Burnham and Jerry Cronin will present photography and video on some of their
favorite Cape Cod dive sites. These will include the Perth Amboy Barges,
Horatio Hall, Aransas, the Port Hunter and quite possibly a couple of others!
Jodi Burnham has been scuba diving since 2005. It is something she has a
tremendous passion for and wished she had started many years earlier. She has a
diversity of dives in her logbook. Her dives include locations North, South, and
East of Cape Cod. She has also dove in Florida, Roatan, Tortola, and Bonaire.
Some of Jodi's favorite dives are in the local waters of Cape Cod. Her interests
include photography, the local sea life and shipwrecks. She also enjoys exploring
and learning the history of the wrecks in the local waters.
Jodi is a Divemaster and recently became an SSI Instructor. She continues to
work on expanding her diving skills into technical diving. Jodi has met many
new friends in the diving community and finds scuba divers to be a remarkable
group of people and hopes to meet many more in the years to come. And in between
all of this, she works as the full time billing manager for The Cardiovascular
Specialists on Cape Cod.
Jerry Cronin's dive career spans four decades. During that time he has worked as
a divemaster and equipment repair technician for East Coast Divers and The Dive
Locker. Jerry has recently retired from his real job as a F-15 crew chief for the
102 Fighter Wing at Otis Air National Guard. Now that Jerry has retired, he is
the main divemaster for the Cape Diver Charter boat and an SSI Instructor.
Jerry has specialized in wreck diving and shipwreck research. He and many of his
friends have located and dove over 70 sites, concentrating on wrecks in New England
waters. He's made over 1000 wreck dives, 700 deep dives, and over 300 decompression
dives.
Some of Jerry's dives include wrecks like the U-853, USS Bass, Roy Jodrey - a 700ft
ore carrier in 250 feet of water. One of the well known dives Jerry has accomplished
is the Andrea Doria. To date he's made dives in excess of 300ft.
One of Jerry's greatest pleasures in life is to introduce new divers to the
incredible world of New England wreck diving. He's been running his own boat for
over a decade to these wonderful time capsules and challenges friends and
newcomers alike to "Come with him if you dare"
Joe Romeiro - SHARKS: Silent Requiem
Joe Romeiro will present a preview screening of “SHARKS: Silent Requiem”, a film
about the beauty and majesty of sharks. Filmed at various locations around the
globe, it showcases many of the world’s marquee shark species. Trying to replace
fear with facts, Silent Requiem utilizes stunning imagery and sound to show the
side of sharks rarely seen. The focus is on the sharks themselves and not the
glory of the divers. Shark populations have been in serious decline for decades
and the public needs to understand that these creatures need our help to
survive. If the negative campaign continues, some species of shark will become
extinct in our lifetime. Hopefully Silent Requiem will help viewers see that
sharks are worthy of protection and do not live up to their negative reputations.
Joe has traveled to the Azores, Guadalupe, North Carolina, Bahamas, Socorro
Islands, Fiji and locally to film sharks. He enjoys bringing people the
beautiful images of the oceans top predator. With the help of top researchers,
he has gathered little known facts about sharks with the hope his viewers walk
away with something new and an appreciation of preserving sharks for future
generations.
Peter Venoutsos - Shipwrecks, Sharks, and Seals
Peter Venoutsos will present "Shipwrecks, Sharks and Seals" - a thirty minute
video split up evenly between the three topics. Shipwrecks will focus on the
Chelsea, Neptune, U-853 and USS Bass. Blue Sharks were filmed while diving with
Captain Charlie Donilon of the Snappa docked in Point Judith, RI. The Harbor Seals
were filmed off the Isle of Shoals.
Peter has been a certified scuba diver since 1976 and a certified commercial diver
since 1983. He has worked for private underwater engineering firms, the Federal
government and the U.S. Navy. He has had articles and photos published by magazines
like Immersed, Skin Diver and Northeast Diver. Peter's interests include underwater
photography, video, shipwreck and cave diving.
MWDC - Special Interest
Groups
MWDC presents a first time, unique experience for divers by presenting a round
table discussion called "Special Interest Groups". Attendees will break up into four
groups; UW Photography, Boat Diving, Shore Diving and UW Hunting. We'll spend
twenty minutes or so with each group in an informal discussion listening to the
people who are leading the group. Gear, pictures, books, etc. could be used,
such as a book showing the various Cape Ann dive sites for shore dives, or using
a laptop to show pictures with the entry and exit points of specific shore dives
dives. Each group leader will bring their own materials and people are
encouraged to ask questions and engage in meaningful conversation.
We'd really like to run this as an information sharing session where the more
experienced people are helping those who have an interest in that particular topic.
The people leading the group may want to even prepare a single page of important
ideas to share as a handout. Here are the scheduled group leaders:
- UW Photography – Jim McKnight and Mike Walsh
- Boat Diving – Heather Knowles and Dave Caldwell
- Shore Diving - Alexine Raineri and Roy Mennell
- UW Hunting – John Desmond and Jeff Wagner
Ethan Gordon - The Wrecks of Truk Lagoon
Ethan Gordon will share his brand new images and stories of diving the wrecks of
the famed Truk Lagoon as well as images from an earlier trip to Lake Champlain.
Ethan became certified as a scuba diver in 1984 and has nearly 2800 dives under
his belt. Since 1989 he has taught scuba diving to hundreds of people and has
received awards for his skill as a teacher. He holds numerous certifications in
addition to his instructor ratings (PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer- 5 specialties,
SSI Dive Control Specialist Instructor- 10 specialties). He has been working as
a freelance photojournalist primarily in the diving, fishing and travel industries
since 1995. His assignment work has taken him from the cold waters off New England
to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Coral Sea, and numerous islands in the
Caribbean. Ethan has photographed thousands of marine creatures from around the
world. However, his skill doesn't stop at the water's edge. His topside photography
makes his assignment work stand out. Ethan has been honored twice by Skin Diver
Magazine and Asian Diver. Both magazines included his images in their prestigious
Photo Annual Collector's Editions, and once by Sport Diver, which included one
of his images in their first Photo Annual Collector's Edition. Ethan also served
as editor of Fathoms, the magazine of the underwater world, from May 2005 - February 2008.
Fred Calhoun - The Rockport Breakwater
Fred Calhoun will present a film called “The Rockport Breakwater”. The film is
about the building, abandonment and subsequent scuba diving on the granite
structure two miles from shore off the coast of Rockport, MA. The Rockport
Breakwater was produced by Chris and Fred Calhoun.Prior to the presentation there will be a short description and discussion of the situation in Gloucester having to do with the Diver's Flag Law and how people can be represented by it.
Fred has been an observer and participant in this arena someone has mis-dubbed “the scuba industry” for the last 55 years. Fred began diving while in high school in 1953. With two friends he assembled scuba units from CO2 fire extinguisher “bottles”, built “fins” from plywood paddles bolted and taped to low-rise war surplus “sneakers”, made “masks” from inner-tube bodies and cut glass ports. His first “professionally assembled” product was a do-it-yourself wet suit kit complete with a sheet of foam neoprene (10’ long by 4’ wide), a pattern (small-medium-large), and a bottle of glue – all in a box. Whenever we needed something, we built it.
Fred opened a dive shop on Boston’s South Shore and began teaching servicemen to scuba dive in the Army/Navy pool on Boston Harbor in 1957. He later sold the store and expanded his scuba school.
Fred wrote The Basic Course for the Underwater Society of America. He became “certified” as a NEC instructor, a YMCA instructor, a NAUI instructor (#380) and PDIC instructor. Fred became NAUI’s North Atlantic Manager in 1967 and has been training NAUI instructors since then to the present.
For the last 30 years Fred has been chartering his dive boat EASY DIVER out-of-Gloucester. During this time Fred has written 15 books on scuba diving (available from AQUA-QUEST or NAUI). During that same period Fred has produced and directed 10 underwater films.
Bob Foster - Diving the Palmer/Crary
Bob Foster will discuss the planning and execution of the first dives to the
Frank A Palmer and Louise B. Crary, two enormous coal schooners that collided
and sank together in December, 1902 in what is now the Stellwagen Bank
Underwater National Marine Sanctuary. The Palmer is believed to be the largest
4-masted schooner ever built at 274 ft. in length and a beam of 43 ft. In July
of 2007 Bob and three other local divers became the first to visit these wrecks,
which sit in 365FSW right here in our own backyard.Bob has been an active diver since 1972, and became interested in wreck diving while living near the Great Lakes in the 80’s. He has been searching for shipwrecks in Massachusetts Bay for the last 8 years, and has discovered and documented over 15 including the YF-415, Brenton Reef Lightship, and Augustus Snow. Bob’s wreck diving interests have also taken him to Lake Superior and to the Florida Keys, as well as to New York/New Jersey to dive the U-869 and the USS Spikefish.
While being one of the first divers on a new wreck is certainly a thrill, some of his most memorable dives are in the kelp forests off Monterey and the warm blue waters of Bimini and Puerto Rico.
Bjorn Bakken - Norwegian Wrecks and Landscapes
Bjorn has been a MWDC club member since 2000, board member since 2003, and
enjoys all types of scuba diving. From cold water ice diving in northern
Michigan, to the wrecks of the Great Lakes, to the warm tropical Caribbean and
Pacific waters. With a busy work schedule and two young children, there is
not as much time left for diving as one might want. But he and his wife (and
favorite dive buddy) Gayle make at least one dive trip each year. With kids in
tow, they find family friendly destinations where everyone can have fun. In Hawaii
this February, they found a local pre-school where the kids could play all day
while mom and dad got one week of good diving. The most memorable dive destinations
are probably a tie between Sipadan and Kapalai Islands of Borneo, Malaysia and
Cocos Island on the pacific of Costa Rica.The presentation will be from this summer's trip to western Norway with fellow club member Roman Ptashka, to dive a few of the many WWII casualties along the rugged Norwegian coast line. With only a simple acrylic housing for our "point and shot" cameras, neither Roman nor Bjorn claim to be underwater photographers. The presentation will show a few under water photos and some shots of the beautiful Norwegian interior and coastal. A 25 minute promo film will also detail the wrecks dived and the marine life encountered.
Copyright © 2009 MetroWest Dive Club
All Rights Reserved
Club meetings are held twice a month, on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in Natick, MA (Please see directions below). The first meeting of the month typically features a presentation, with the topics ranging from slide shows and video presentations, to dive science and physiology, to marine ecology, and many other fascinating diving-related topcs.
Every meeting also features a raffle of various member-donated prizes. Prizes range from dive gear to DVDs, to antiques, to just about anything else. Tickets are cheap and prizes worthwhile.
Members start gathering in the bar around 6:30pm to socialize and grab a snack, and the actual meeting starts promptly at 7:30pm. During the meetings we will quickly go through the club business and reports, followed by Dive Talk and then a short break. The break is then immediately followed by the feature presentation.
Second meeting of the month is currently a social meeting only. There is no presentation, but members meet and socialize over dinner and drinks at the Crowne Plaza Hotel bar from 6:30 until late.
The Crowne Plaza Hotel is located at:
Natick, MA
From the Mass Pike (I90) take Exit 13. Bear right after the toll booth. You'll be heading west on Route 30. At the second set of lights take a left (Shoppers World). You will be going through four sets of lights before you hit Route 9. After (AFTER!) the second set of lights bear left at the fork. You'll then come to the third and fourth set of lights. At the fourth set of lights you will be at Route 9 (the Circuit City will be across the street). Take a left onto Route 9 Eastbound. Very quickly you will see the Crown Plaza Hotel on your right. A map is also provided below for your convenience.
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