Larry Ladd     Conservation Officer's Message April 3, 2012 2012 April Conservation From your Conservation Officer for April 2012 Hello again, I'd like to start by thanking everyone that came to the Installation Banquet on March 3rd, Without all of you, we just wouldn't have a great club. Have any of you done any “deep” dives lately? Well, James Cameron, the director of Titanic and Avatar to mention only a couple, made a dive in the Mariana's Trench reaching an astonishing depth of 35,756 feet, Of course, he didn't do it SCUBA diving but he used a one man submersible named Deepsea Challenger, it took him 90 minutes to descend to the absolute deepest part of our world's ocean, The article I read doesn't say how long it too to ascend back to the surface but I sure hope he made a 10 foot safety stop. For those of you who love to see Jelly Fish while your diving but are a little queasy about getting close to them. Here's you chance to see some of the worlds most fascinating Jellies up at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Opening on Sunday March 31st, the show will feature jellies that pulse, glow, flash colorful lights and some can pack a powerful sting. Among the jellies on display are Blubber Jelly, Flower Hat Jelly, Moon Jelly, Spotted Jelly and the Japanese Sea Nettles Jelly. So, the next time your up in the Monterey Bay area, drop by the Aquarium and check it out. One last thing, Don't forget to make your campground reservation up at June Lake for Labor Day Weekend, Spaces go fast and you don't want to miss out on your favorite spot. Vicki and I already have Squirrel # 40 reserved, So in those famous words of Larry the cable guy, “Get-er- Done. Your Conservation Officer Larry Ladd March 1, 2012 2012 March Conservation From your Conservation Officer   Hello again, This month I'm going to talk about the Catalina Clean up dive and our upcoming June Lake clean up dive,   First off, for those of you that didn't make the Catalina dive, it was a great trip, the weather was good, the visibility was excellent, and the comradely was wonderful, It was my first trip out for the clean up dive and I was pleasantly surprised at the sites to be seen under the boats in the harbor, the bottom was white and smooth so the sun shined through and it was bright and easy to see and navigate under the boats, and after 31 years of the clean up dive, there was still some old treasures to be found, my partner, Sam Childree found a "blob top" bottle from a bottling company in San Pedro, I had the bottle dated at around 1905, I found a whisky decanter from about the same time period, most of the trash brought back to shore was newer type stuff, the stuff that falls off boats but not really discarded trash, things like cell phones, GPS's, sun glasses, fishing gear, etc.   There were about 450 divers there on February 25th, and it looked like everyone had a great time, the raffle had a LOT of goodies including many, many "Dive Monkey's" a highly sought after prize, Sam hit the jackpot with a $1700 package that included hotel for three days, parasailing, dive charters, and some other great stuff.   We were joined by Robert Wisdom's friend and co worker at Honda from Japan, Sayuka Hanai, who goes by "Hanna" She flew all the way from Tochigi Japan on Thursday the 23rd to join us at Catalina and flew home on Monday the 27th, What a trooper!!.    I also made my first ever night dive at Casino point. Yes, I was impressed and now wonder why I waited so long to try it. Lots of critters come out of their hiding places at night so you can see them up close and personal, I also finally saw my first Spanish Shawl Nudibranch, Purple and yellow, very pretty,   It's that time of year to make your reservations at June Lake for our annual June Lake clean up dive and camp out. Geeeeze, the summer isn't even here yet and I'm talking about the last trip of summer. I know the price of gas may be prohibitive by then, but we can always cancel, but you can't cancel if you don't have a reservation. Right?   So in those great words of Larry the cable guy,,,, "Get-er-Done" Your Conservation Officer Larry Ladd January 31, 2012 Upcomming events First and foremost, I'd like to wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year, as I managed to let last months newsletter slip past me like the grains of sand in an hourglass. Our club has lots of cool things on the agenda for 2012. Starting off with the Catalina Clean up Dive on Saturday February 25th, Jack has actually shamed me into signing up this year and I will be there for the first time ever. If anyone wants to get signed up, just contact any of the club officers and we can send you the link to the registration form, along with the necessary release form and diver safety form that must be filled out prior to getting in the water at Avalon. The fee to be part of the clean up dive is $40.00 pre-register and $50.00 if you wait to do it out at the island. So If your gonna go, you may as get signed up early. Our next big event for this year is our Annual Installation Banquet which will be on Saturday March 3 at the Palmdale Hotel (same place as last year) and the price will be $30.00 per person, with happy hour starting at 6 PM and dinner being served at 7 PM. We have a lot of other events planned for 2012 including the Clam Chowder Dive, Fireworks sales prior to July 4th, several beach dives and boat dives, and ending the summer with our annual June Lake Clean up dive on Labor day weekend, Don't forget to mark your calendars for March 1st to make your reservations at Oh Ridge Campground to make sure you get your favorite spot. One last thing, Don Nipper was the lucky winner of the latest SCUBA tank raffle; he has picked "Yum Yum Yellow" for this tank color. Congratulations Don. We will be having several more tank raffles throughout the year. So be ready to pick up your raffle tickets when they go on sale, See you all at the February meeting, Your Conservation Officer Larry Ladd December 5, 2011 December's Message From your Conservation Officer for December 2011 Can you believe it? we've all made it through another year and here it is, December again and time for our annual Christmas Pot Luck and Yankee gift swap, So don't forget to mark your calendars for Monday Dec. 12 and start gathering the stuff for your favorite pot luck dish, Find that perfect Yankee gift that everyone will want to fight over and get traded three times before one lucky diver gets to take it home and call it their own.    Now for a little real conservation information. It's time to get out to your local sports supply store and get your 2013 fishing license, I checked a couple weeks ago and it looks like the price is the same as this year at $43.46 for the basic fishing license and then of course you have to update your lobster report card and buy the extra sticker on your license. I believe you have to send in your 2011 report card to Fish and Game so they can see how many lobsters were taken in the state. If anyone is brave enough to go abalone free diving you  have to have a sticker and report card for that also and that's gonna cost some more bucks, but just think how well our state takes care of all that money they take in? I'm sure they go out and give all the abalone and lobster little knit sweaters so they don't get cold out there in that big, salty, cold ocean. So do your part and get your new licenses and support your local fisheries. Hope to see you all at the Christmas Pot Luck. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you Your Conservation Officer Larry Ladd  Archives December 2011 January 2012 March 2012 April 2012