"Stupid people."

A DROWNING diver has a beluga whale to thank for helping to save her life after her legs were paralysed by cramps.

Yang Yun was taking part in a free-diving contest at Polar Land in Harbin, north-east China, in which participants were required to sink seven metres to the bottom of a pool and stay there for as long as possible without the aid of breathing equipment.

Ms Yun, 26, thought she was going to die amid the beluga whales she shared the arctic pool with, after struggling to move her legs while trying to kick her way to the surface.

“I began to choke and sank even lower and I thought that was it for me – I was dead,” she told The Sun.

“Until I felt this incredible force under me driving me to the surface.”

That “incredible force” was Mila, a beluga whale which had noticed her distress and clamped its jaws around her leg.

Using her sensitive nose, Mila drove Ms Yun carefully to the surface, to the amazement of onlookers and an underwater photographer who captured the entire incident on film.

“Mila noticed the problem before we did,” an organiser told The Sun.

“She’s a sensitive animal who works closely with humans and I think this girl owes her her life.”

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25856885-401,00.html

Here’s a little video I found on my computer from a few years back.

Enjoy.

Taking off the fins to go unassisted

Three years ago I was given a second chance.

Three years ago I was in in Dahab, Egypt.

Below an edited version of a blog entry I made in July 2006.

For the last month or so I have been diving with some of the best divers in the world, but most of the time I have just been doing shallow dives (10-20m) to look at fish and pretty things. But, I’ve had my eye on a 33m (100ft) unassisted (no fins) dive on one breath of air. Unassisted is the simplest form of freediving, also the shallowest because of its high level of difficulty. You use no fins, and your weight is constant throughout the dive. No sled, no dropping weights, no massive flippers, no mono-fin. You just swim down using a modified breaststroke kinda movement.

I had done many dives to almost 30m, just in bathers and a mask. I had no problems with my ears, No spleen contractions, a sign of low O2. All cool. 33m did not seem very far off, but I was not going to “go for it”. I took a “let’s see where things go” approach. Last night, I went to a little party here in Dahab, Egypt. I drank. Then, the party ran out of booze. I was about to leave. However, two Hungarians that returned with booze. Rum. Vodka. Beer. I stayed a little longer even though I had organised to go for a freedive with Helen, a South African Freediver the following afternoon. Helen was training for a world record attempt.

I woke up in the afternoon, of course, and met her by the water. I told her I was a little “under the weather” and I was only going to do some shallow dives, but we should go to the deep dive spot anyway. As we swam out to the dive line, a 35 metre rope attached to the sandy bottom and a buoy at the surface, I felt that my wetsuit was too big. It was ballooning at the neck. I should have taken it off. Getting the picture? I perhaps shouldn’t have taken the “let’s see where things go” approach.

Helen was doing some shallow training dives and we were spotting each other. A dive buddy for this sport is essential. The risk is Shallow Water Blackout (SWB). It is a ‘loss of consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia towards the end of a breath-hold dive in water typically shallower than five metres’ which occurs as a result of low O2 and the change in the Partial Pressure of O2 as a breath-hold diver ascends. If you experience SWB your buddy is there to bring you to the surface, which is usually enough for breathing to resume. If you don’t have a buddy, you drown.

Depending on your buoyancy , there is a point in a freedive (about 15-20m) where you begin to sink. This is a result of lung compression. Your lungs compress under pressure, changing your relative buoyancy as you decend. As you become ‘negative’, you no longer have to swim to continue your descent. You freefall. It’s a beautiful feeling. It’s not a free ride, though. When you are negative, it’s of course more difficult to ascend.

I went for a couple of moderate dives to about 25m. I was feeling okay. I saw the bottom was very close. On the next dive I passed the 25m mark and considered turning for the surface. I didn’t. I kept sinking. It feels great watching the line pass as you fall into the blue. So, I decided to sink to the bottom, 35m. It looked so close!

I got to the bottom, looked around for a second or two.  (EDIT: In retrospect, three years later, this could have been much longer. I may have had Nitrogen Narcosis, a kind of depth-induced spaceyness) I then felt heavy contractions, a sign of low O2. I was no longer relaxed. I took a big stroke to ascend and felt very heavy. My wetsuit was balooning, slowing me down. My first stroke took me nowhere. Bigger contraction. My second stroke, perhaps rushed, also took me nowhere.

I dropped my weight belt and took another few strokes. Then, I saw Helen. She had noticed that my dive was becoming long so she dove down to meet me. Very good safety diver. I remember seeing her face and thinking that I must be close to the surface. Nice feeling. Unfortunately I was wrong. The next thing I remember is being on the surface in a dream state. I had no idea what was going on. Why was Helen puffing and panting? Why was my mask off? Why do I feel like I have been kicked in the head by a mule?

Helen could have said “Great dive” And I would have believed her. In fact, she had met me at 20m and followed up, until I blacked out. I have no memory of blacking out 5 meters from the surface and expelling my air. I have no memory of her lifting me to the surface. I have no memory of not resuming breathing at the surface. I have no memory of being given rescue breaths. I have no memory of coughing seawater, mucus and blood. I have no memory of nearly drowning. I guess it would have been an okay way to go, really.

However, I will never forget the panic on Helen’s face as she said “That is the scariest thing I have ever seen.” I will never forget the bad decisions I made that day. I should not have dived, and I certainly should not have kept sinking.

After my near death experience (everyone’s gotta have one!), I lay down for about 12 hours. I’ve never had a headache quite like that one. I then went to see the famous Doctor Adel in Sharm El Sheikh as a precaution; Secondary Drowning can occur after SWB. All was fine. I resumed diving 48 hours later; albeit with some caution.

I am forever thankful to Helen. 

Bad decision, good lesson.
I’ve dived safely and happily ever after.

Spotted this black ray in Cape Patterson. She’s huge!
Rays like this are very territorial, I’ve seen her in the same spot twice.

This is not very far down the coast from the proposed desalination plant in Wonthaggi. Fingers crossed our marine diversity can survive this adversity.

Stumbled upon a dead whale in Venus Bay, South Gippsland Victoria.

Not sure what kind of whale it is.

It was near the mouth of a very tidal inlet and had some large ‘bite’ marks on its back. They looked too broad to be from scavengers.

What do you think happened?

It don't matter if you're black or white

Good news!

The humpbacks have begun their journeys North past Southern Queensland.

Sadly, many us learnt this from a story published last week.

On Sunday a baby humpback making its first migration washed up on a Gold Coast beach and died, possibly from exhaustion, although wounds to its tail fluke suggested it may have been entangled in shark nets.

Local Aboriginal elders plan to hold a traditional burial ceremony for the dead whale.

Humpback whales make a splash on the Gold Coast

What do you need to hunt the world’s greatest hunter? How about some fishing line and a six-pack.

Third Prize Winner Tropfest 2008.

Humpack Whale dies in shark net in 2002

I refer not to Robert Drewe’s excellent novel Shark Net, rather, those silly things we string across our most profitable stretches of beach.

 
Whilst in Queensland last Friday I was freediving the wreck of The Scottish Prince. It’s in about 14m of water outside the breakers. It lies in 14m of water on the sandy sea floor. Lots of lovely fish call it home. As I was diving I listened to the familiar sounds of Humpback Whales; though on this day they were schrill cries rather than sweeping calls.
Later that day I saw this article.

Whale caught in Queensland shark net
Friday 27 September
The Australian

ANIMAL rescuers are working to free a young adult humpback whale which has become entangled in shark control netting on the Gold Coast.

The whale was spotted entangled in shark control netting off Tugan Beach about 8.30am (AEST) today, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries acting shark control program manager Rick Exten said.
The Marine Animal Release Team (MART) was attempting to release the whale, he said.
“The whale is off Tugun Beach with the netting attached to its tail, however, the MART unit is close to cutting it free,” he said.
“It is believed the whale is a young adult around eight to nine metres in length.”
Mr Exten said that unlike Colette, the baby humpback which was euthanased after being found alone in Sydney’s Pittwater last month, the Gold Coast whale appeared to be in good health.
He said the rescue team was in boats alongside the whale and cutting the net to free it.
Including today’s entanglement, since 2000, 22 whales have been caught in shark netting in Queensland. Of these entanglements, 19 whales have been successfully freed by MART, which is based on the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and Mackay.
Mr Exten said it would be hard to tell if the whale was entangled in a net which went missing at Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast last Sunday.

He said the humpback was swimming with the net attached but any suggestion it was the missing net would be mere speculation.

It is quite possible the schrill cries I head were of the distressed whale starring above. I got thinking about the need for shark nets. Although I’ve never really been concerned about the danger of sharks,  as a boy I did take some comfort from the sight of sun bleached pale orange buoys bobbing out the back. Maybe you’ve felt the same.

 
However, I feel we’re not really being fair on the sharks. In addition to the many sharks that suffocate in nets, they are responsible for the death of rays, fish, turtles, dolphins and of course whales. It’s pretty sad really. Sharks are a least threat to money spinning tourists. However, oceaninc bio-diversity is threatned by our irrational fear.

 
Read more about shark nets here.

 
On a positive note, a recent scientific study has identified 113 new shark and ray species in Australia. Beautiful creatures. Harmless, mostly.

Australian reticulate swell shark

“Nearly half of the newly named sharks and other species are found only around Australia. The discoveries increase the continent’s tally of known sharks and rays by a third. One of the new fish, the collared carpet shark, is so rare that the only known specimen was found in the belly of another shark.”

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080919-new-sharks.html

Something to smile about.
 

Play close attention at 10sec. A little black fish darts into frame, then realises it’s on YouTube and freaks out.