Posts by sea-dog

TOP TIPS FOR UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY……

By sea-dog, 28 March, 2010, 1 Comment

If your intrested in capturing your underwater adventure then photography is your best choice. here at DJL Diving we belive in getting the most from our pictures, while leaving no impact on the local underwater enviroment. Here are our tips as recomended by project aware :-

1. Photograph with Care. Dive carefully as many aquatic creatures are fragile regardless of size. Improper techniques while taking or editing photos underwater can damage sensitive aquatic life and harm fragile organisms with the bump of a camera or tank, swipe of a fin or even the touch of a hand.
2. Dive Neutral. Camera systems may add weight or be buoyant. Make sure to secure photo and dive equipment and be properly
weighted to avoid contact with reefs or other vital habitat. Practice buoyancy control and photography skills in a pool before swimming near sensitive and fragile environments.
3. Resist Temptation. Don’t touch, handle, feed, chase or ride aquatic life. Don’t alter an organism’s location to get the perfect shot. Most aquatic creatures are shy and easily stressed. Your actions may interrupt feeding, disturb mating or provoke aggression in a normally nonaggressive species.
4. Easy Does It. While diving, move slowly and deliberately through the water. Avoid excessive use of flash that can startle underwater creatures. Be patient and still while photographing – allow organisms to show their natural behavior for a more significant and meaningful shot.
5. Sharpen Your Skills. Make sure the difficulty of the dive and the environmental conditions are appropriate for your current skills and comfort level. Don’t stabilize underwater by grabbing onto the reef for a better photo. Enroll in PADI’s Underwater
Photographer, Digital Underwater Photography and Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty courses to learn sustainable dive techniques and become a more skilled and successful photographer.
6. Be Informed. Know and follow local regulations and protocols regarding behavior around marine mammals and other animals before entering the water. Share this knowledge with other divers. These regulations protect creatures and aim to assure their preservation for future generations.
7. Be an AWARE Diver. Knowing more about the life and behavior of your aquatic subjects can help you get better shots. Consider enrolling in an AWARE – Coral Reef Conservation, AWARE Fish Identification, Project AWARE Specialty or Underwater Naturalist course to learn more about the environment you’re photographing.
8. Take Only Pictures, Leave Only Bubbles. Nearly everything found in the aquatic realm is alive or will be used by a living creature. Removing specimens such as corals and shells can disturb the delicate balance and quickly deplete dive sites of both their resources and their beauty.
9. Share Your Images. Use images for conservation by reporting environmental disturbances or destruction using your photographs as evidence. Assist scientific research and improve resource management by contributing your photos to species monitoring programs such as The Whale Shark Project. You can also submit your photos to Project AWARE. Your images have the power to change perspectives and influence conservation.
10. Conserve the Adventure. Support Project AWARE Foundation, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to conserving underwater environments through education, advocacy and action.
If you have the time a MASTER SCUBA DIVER course is a great option. You have two weeks of unlimited fun diving were we grantee you at least 50 dives, and also 5 PADI specialities certifactions. A example of a two week course :-

underwater photography spec- 1 day 2 dives       

Peak Perfomance Buoyancy spec- 1 day 2 dives

Fish id spec- 1 day 2 dives

Nitrox spec- 1 day 2 dives

deep spec- 2 days 4 dives

With unlimited fun diving in between. the PADI master scuba diver is the highest non proffesional diver rating.

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DJL JOINS PROJECT AWARE EARTH DAY 2010

By sea-dog, 26 March, 2010, No Comment

 

the DJL team after the last clean-upCalling all Divers and Water Enthusiasts!! Celebrate Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary Join Project AWARE Foundation’s Dive for Earth Day. Human activity is costing the Earth. And despite the oceans’ vast expanse it is taking its toll on aquatic eco systems. You can choose to make a world of difference by joining DJL DIVING Dive for Earth Day event during the week of 22 April. “Underwater volunteers are on the front lines, taking action and collecting data for conservation. This year is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and we urge everyone to commit to improving the health of our ocean. Protecting the ocean preserves the planet – including us,” said Project AWARE Foundation Asia Pacific Director, Henrik Nimb. Underwater environments are under numerous threats including pollution, climate change, overfishing, and coral bleaching. Dive for Earth Day is an extraordinary opportunity to take action and help address the underwater issues that concern you most. DJL DIVING, in partnership with Project AWARE is organizing a  Beach and Underwater Cleanup everyone can help make a difference for local dive sites by calling in at the shop and voluntering for a fun day of conservation, with a project aware pool party in the bar after to raise money for project aware, were u can wins prises and have a well earned drink, take a dip in the pool and enjoy our free bbq. Earth Day has raised environmental awareness on a global scale for 40 years. For ten years divers have put the ocean on the Earth Day Map. Globally the oceans cover 70 per cent of the planet’s surface and contain 90 per cent of the mass of life on Earth. Thousands of diver volunteers in more than 115 countries have helped protect underwater environments and educate local communities for Project AWARE’s Dive for Earth Day.

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WHAT WE CAN DO

By sea-dog, 26 March, 2010, No Comment

Here at DJL DIVING we belive its a privilege to be able to enter and experience the magical underwater world. However coral reefs around the world are under extreme threat, and if we want to ensure that furue divers can enjoy the same wonderful experiences then we need to dive responsibly. Our top tips for responsible diving recomended by PROJECT AWARE –

1. Anchors cause serious damage to reefs. Ask your skipper if they will be using a mooring, and about how they ensure the reefs will not be damaged.

2. Make sure that your point of entry to the water is away from fragile corals, it’s all too easy to damage them as you enter.

3. Practice your buoyancy over sand before moving towards corals and reefs. Even the sand kicked up by fin kicks close to corals and vulnerable organisms can damage them. Take part in PADI specialities like PPB and FISH ID.

4. Look don’t touch. Even robust looking corals and polyps can be destroyed by the gentlest touch.

5. Resist the temptation to feed fish and discourage others from doing so. You might affect normal patterns of behaviour and/or encourage aggression.

6. Ask your tour operator for their responsible tourism and diving policy – if they haven’t got one they are probably not taking it seriously.

7. Poorly treated waste from hotels destroys water quality and corals. Ask your hotel how they manage grey water.

8. Do not buy and gifts or souvenirs that are made from corals, shells or hardwoods.

Here at DJL DIVING we are proud members of PROJECT AWARE and a GO-ECO member. We belive in doing all we can to preserve our island. If you would like any info about eco friendly specialities just check out our DJL FORUM page.

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UNDERWATER CLEAN UP

By sea-dog, 2 March, 2010, No Comment

We are very happy to announce that our first PROJECT AWARE UNDERWATER CLEAN UP was a huge success!

It was an early 7am start, but well worth it. Our first dive was at Koh Tao’s famous dive site Chumphon Pinnacle, where we were lucky enough to see a whaleshark. The gentle giant was around 5 meters long and we had a great 45 min dive with it passing us many times. The sighting will be added to the Project aware shark trust data base, which monitors shark and whaleshark numbers around the world.

We had 18 people for the secound clean-up dive and we would like to thank everyone for there help, I think a free shot in the bar tonight is well deserved. The clean-up was on sairee reef , close to the beach where all the boats moor up in the evening. We collected 5 large bags of debris ranging from electrical wire, cardboard boxes, a car tire, plastic sheeting and well over 100 plastic and glass bottles. So many thanks to everyone who was involved in doing there part in preserving our paradise island.

Here at DJL Dibing we are proud members of PROJECT AWARE and a GO-ECO operator, it’s our responsibility to do all we can to help the local enviroment. We will be holding monthly clean-up days and starting a new coral reef monitoring project in the coming weeks.

So please remember to do all you can to keep our oceans a beautiful place to dive for yourself and the divers of the future.

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WHY NOT CHOOSE THE GREEN OPTION.

By sea-dog, 18 February, 2010, 1 Comment

When selecting your dives for the PADI ADVANCED OPEN WATER course why not choose the green eco friendly option. Here at DJL we are a proud memeber of project aware go eco group and we encourge all divers to do there bit in helping preserve our island. For the ADVANCED OPENWATER COURSE you have to do a deep dive and a navigation dive. When doing the deep dive we normaly go to chumpon pinnacle if the conditions are right, were you will get to see the sharks Kho Tao has to offer, all shark sightings will be added to the project aware shark trust data base. For the navigation dive we will teach you compass skills and how to use the natural enviroment for navigation, so no more getting lost in the sand.
Then you have 3 more dives to choose, The eco friendly choice would be peak perfomance buoyancy, helping you fine tune you buoyancy and giving you better control in the water, so no more excuses or that fin hitting the coral. Then the final two dive could be fish identifaction and underwater naturalist diver, you will learn about the local fish, coral and eco-system around Kho Tao island. The more knowledge we have about the local enviroment the better we can protect it for the divers of the fututre.
For more info about the ADVANCED OPEN WATER COURSE or project aware visit our main website.
Lets all do our bit to keep this island beautiful.

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