Dive Expeditions

By djl_team, 18 May, 2012, No Comment

During late April Ollie and myself set out as intrepid explorers to find some stunning new dive sites for DJL Koh Lipe.

Koh Lipe located on the South West coast of Thailand is surrounded by a multitude of islands varying in sizes that have some hidden gems that we hoped to unearth and add to the ever growing encyclopaedia of dive sites we have in this area of Thailand.

Plenty of research into possible new sites from scoping charts and talking to local fishermen.

We spent 4 days on Koh Lipe pretty much living on a long tail boat traveling around the islands dropping into many bays and coves. Some real gems were uncovered that I look forward to diving next season.

Come see us and you will be amazed.

Tom

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My favorite course to teach

By Sarah, 15 May, 2012, No Comment

Many people pass through Davy Jones Locker everyday taking many different courses. As an instructor perfection is a priority and we like to make sure we have fun with it as well. My favorite course to teach is the Rescue Course. Though I haven’t taught many in my year and a half of teaching, I always know it’s going to be an exciting three days when I get assigned one. The rescue course if the first course you will take as a diver that will put responsibility in your hands. It will make you into a better diver by being more cautious and aware but also make you a better diver by teaching and giving you the skills to help look out for your fellow dives out in the water. You will learn basic first aid, then get in the water and learn how to deal with diving emergencies by practicing many different scenarios. The Rescue course is a very serious course, but that doesn’t stop the other instructors and I from making it a very fun and enjoyable course just like any other course taught at our shop. My favorite part of the course is the ‘Dive from Hell’ done in open water on the last day. We go out on the boat and bring a few dive master trainee’s to help out and role play as ‘victims’ and set up scenarios all around the dive site so you have a chance to take what you learned in the pool and apply it to real life situations. A lot of ciaos is created above and below the water and between all the laughing and running (or swimming) around you get to take your skills and put them to the test. By the end of the day you (and your instructor) will be exhausted but satisfied because now you will be a certified rescue diver!
By Sarah Gilbert

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Don’t touch , Don’t break, don’t take

By djl_team, 12 May, 2012, No Comment

“Don’t touch, don’t take, don’t break”  has become part of my dive briefing just like “don’t forget your buddy checks” but once in the water everyone gets excited about what they see & forget about buoyancy & good dive skills & it’s something that all levels of divers are guilty of.  The majority of divers will unintentionally touch the reef or sand with fins at some point yet it is always avoidable by being aware of yourself, your equipment & your buddy & having good buoyancy control. We can all do our bit to protect the underwater environment that we enjoy so much, instructors, dive master & fun divers alike.

The information below was taken from http://www.mission-blue.org/node/56, although based in the Caribbean the information can be applied everywhere.

Matt Metcalf

Please Don’t Touch

By Rachel Nuwer

Most divers would agree that the beauty and intrigue of underwater communities are SCUBA’s major draw. But divers can harm the very biodiversity they seek to experience, whether through unintentional collisions or deliberate touches. New research has found that a little pre-dive education goes a long way to mitigating these impacts on delicate underwater habitats.

“It’s important to have some conservation education immediately before entering the water to really remind people,” said Emma Camp, a conservation biologist at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute in the Cayman Islands. Camp—a diver since the age of 14—suspected for years that divers might impact the corals, but that this behavior could be changed. She decided to investigate her hypothesis as part of her graduate work at Sheffield Hallam University in England.

Camp headed to the John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo, Florida, where she investigated four dive shops. Three were standard dive operations but the fourth was committed to conservation, training staff in ecology and briefing divers on how to avoid impacting corals. As a whole, the Key Largo area is aware of conservation, Camp explained, so she wasn’t sure if she’d find differences between normal dive operations and those dedicated to environmental integrity.

During the peak summer season, she donned gear and observed 83 recreational divers and noted each time they came in physical contact with the coral. Interactions included fin kicks, equipment collisions or touching the coral. She assessed whether or not the contact seemed to be intentional or accidental, and recorded factors like the diver’s gender, whether they were wearing gloves and whether they were carrying a camera.

After the dive, she handed out questionnaires to see whether divers thought the briefings enhanced their caution regarding the reef, and most agreed the briefings helped.

Still, 97 percent of the divers physically interacted with the reef. Their interactions equated to about 18 touches per diver on each 54-minute dive. These figures quickly add up considering each boat carries between 6 and 25 divers, and diving operations run up to three trips per day throughout the year.

Most of the reef touches were accidental, like kicking the coral, stirring up sand, or dragging loose equipment across the reef bed. Divers were also more likely to touch the reef during the initial stage of the dive, when they were adjusting equipment and buoyancy, or getting their bearings in the new surroundings.

Some boats dropped divers in shallow water just a couple meters above reefs, increasing their likelihood of accidentally banging into coral. “During one entry we literally came straight down over some of the healthiest elkhorn coral I’d seen,” Camp said, who noted that several divers hit the coral with their tanks. “If we’d been two meters to either side it wouldn’t have been a problem,” she said.

Experience didn’t change a diver’s likelihood of touching corals, either. Even someone with 1,000 logged dives may have bad habits or might not be aware of how to avoid impacting live corals. “It’s not a fair explanation that just because someone has been diving a long time, they’re a good diver and conservationally aware of their surroundings,” Camp said.

Surprisingly, divers who said they had prior biology or conservation training also displayed the same tendency to touch corals. Camp thinks this is because of differences in location. A diver hailing from England, for example, may be experienced with quarry dives, while a diver flying in from California might be confined to kelp gardens. These are very different ecosystems than Key Largo’s coral reefs.

However, simply briefing divers on responsible diving practices before they get in the water seems to work. Camp’s results, published in the journal Ocean and Coastal Management, revealed a significant difference between dive operations stressing conservation and those that don’t. The conservation-minded dive shop spent more time discussing techniques for avoiding impacting corals and explained the scientific reasoning behind the warnings. As a result, their divers interacted with the reef less than those from other operations, who touched the reef more than twice as often.

Overall, about 95 percent of divers Camp spoke with declared a concern for the state of the world’s coral reefs. Half of them thought that SCUBA diving does negatively impact coral reefs, and prior scientific studies have confirmed that their assumptions are true. The cumulative effect of too many divers can leave corals more susceptible to disease and even facilitate a phase shift from a coral-dominated to an algae-dominated ecosystem.

But simple managerial changes, like making sure divers’ equipment is secure before entering the water, and carefully choosing entry sites with the least risk of damage, could improve the situation.

Most importantly, providing an immediate reminder before divers enter the water may be the most effective means of alleviating diver impacts, especially if dive masters explain why touching coral or kicking up sand is harmful. “Having a conservation briefing is beneficial for everybody, even if they have previous conservation awareness or have done a lot of diving,” Camp said. “Conservation education can only improve the situation globally.”

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Whaleshark on Open Water Course

By Harry, 9 May, 2012, No Comment

Congratulations to Adam, Simon, Robert, Harri and Ben on completing the PADI Open water course.

With great conditions throughout the course, especially on the final day of the course, we were lucky enough to dive with a 5 metre whaleshark for most of the dive.

We hope you enjoy the rest of your travels and continue to dive – the DJL team

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Dive Kit

By djl_team, 6 May, 2012, No Comment

You are now into diving and are coming to DJL regularly to dive with us and are accumulating specialties in diving and wondering what other gear you may need.

After you have acquired the basics such as mask, BCD, fins and regulators you may want to add some extra amazing pieces of kit like……..

A reel, very handy to help measure distance in it’s most basic form. They come in various lengths and thickness.

If you are are a wreck specialist and love deep penetration of wrecks a reel is an essential piece of kit to own.

Tom one of our wreck specialist instructors recommends that once you purchase your reel, every 3 meters tie a knot in it. For example at 3 metres one knot, 6 metres 2 knots and so forth. This means in limited light situations or poor visibility, you know how far you have to travel on your reel.

A torch is one piece of kit that I would highly recommend you getting. Whether you are looking in nooks and crannies and under rocks for interesting marine life, or Night diving on some of the awesome dive sites here in Koh Tao where some say a torch is essential as it can be dark at night.

Torches are also very handy in wreck diving as well when limited light is possible due to lack of natural light in some wrecks. You should be careful on the type of torch you choose depending on your requirements and how much you plan to use it.

A dive knife is essential if you plan to dive on wrecks that have potential entanglement hazards. All dive knives have a blunt end to reduce chances of self harm. They will have a serrated edge, a sharp blade and a hook for cutting line. You can also choose your type of metal, titanium is probably best as it stands up best to corrosion.

Any advice you require, please don’t hesitate the team here at DJL

Tom

Team DJL

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