Florida

After two years of disruption because of the pandemic, DEMA Show was back in gear. Well, largely. It was still markedly more compact than the pre-pandemic editions but still a large show with far more booths than one could reasonably manage to visit during its four days. Also importantly, the mood appeared to be upbeat, with businesses eager to ramp up activities as the industry and travel activities pull away from the doldrums. 

Rising temperatures are making it too hot for Florida’s turtles to enter the dating scene—literally.

The recent heat waves have raised the temperature of the sand on some beaches so much that nearly all turtles born in the last four summers have been female.

A turtle's gender depends on the temperature of the developing eggs, and this is dependent on the temperature of the sand in which the eggs are buried.

Florida’s seagrass flats used to be the place where anglers from around the world would congregate to catch the bonefish. However, this is no longer the case, as populations of the fish—nicknamed “grey ghosts”—have fallen by more than 50 percent over four decades.

In an article published in The Guardian, according to Dr Jennifer Rehage, a fish ecologist and associate professor at Florida International University (FIU), many anglers had said they could not find bonefish in the seagrass flats anymore.

Sotis was the 80% owner of Add Helium, a diving equipment and training company in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The charges stem from the defendants’ scheme to cause the illegal export of rebreather diving equipment to Libya in August 2016.

If rebreathers are to be exported to any countries with national security concerns, such as Libya, it requires a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

If the name Peter Sotis rings a bell, it is no coincidence. He was Rob Stewart's dive buddy when the filmmaker tragically lost his life on a deep rebreather dive in 2017, after which he was ostracised by the dive community as well as sued by Stewart’s family for his role in Stewart's death. Both the incident and the lawsuit have been covered in the magazine.

In a region already woefully short of adequate hyperbaric emergency services for divers, chambers from Mississippi to Northwest Florida are reportedly now filling up with Covid-19 patients fighting for their lives.

As reported earlier on this site, the closest decompression chambers to the popular Oriskany dive site and Florida Panhandle Shipwreck Trail are in Mobile, Alabama which is out of state—or in Fort Myers, more than 600 miles away.

By comparing shell lengths, researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) have discovered that loggerhead and green sea turtles have become smaller in size over the past few decades.

They have yet to come up with an explanation for this, according to a study published in the Ecosphere journal.

On Friday 23 April 2021, Zale Dudas (9) and Saxon Nairne (7), along with their father Rodney Nairne, visited a property in Jensen Beach. It is believed that the purpose of the visit was to demonstrate a DPV or Diver propulsion vehicle.

According to mainstream media reports, the siblings were “described by their father as experienced swimmers and proficient divers”. This is not a surprise because the family are ardent and experienced scuba and technical divers, and several members have done work in scuba diving.

Link to GoFundMe page: Help Suzie

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Update

We are both devastated. Rodney Nairne

On 28 July 2021 Rodney Nairne - Zale Dudas and Saxon Nairne's father - contacted me. He stated that both he and Suzie had agreed to donate the children's organs. 

As at the end of January 2021, 68 north Atlantic right whales have been spotted in the waters off the coast of southeastern United States, a number that wildlife officials in Florida describe as “encouraging.”

Three of these are young calves that have been spotted for the first time.

The mothers of these calves are a 12-year-old whale named Champagne, a 19-year-old named Infinity and a 14-year-old with no recorded name (but is known simply as Catalog #3720).