Kentucky Blues

By Text and photos by Jennifer Idol

Q4 2024

Mammoth Cave National Park and other cave systems are part of a limestone belt that defines Kentucky’s landscape with its gently sloping bluegrass valleys. This geography made way for Kentucky to become the thoroughbred horse capital of the world and drive an economy built around events such as the Kentucky Derby. Beneath this limestone bedrock, a water supply often ranked No. 1 for water quality in the United States fuels well-known and developing dive sites that are surprisingly blue. 

Speared by a Spearfish

By Text and photos by Steven Kovacs

Q4 2024

About 12 years ago, a pair of commercial dive operators began offering adventurous divers a chance to go blackwater diving off the coast of Florida. Since then, blackwater dives have become an established fixture in the Palm Beach dive community, and I have been fortunate to log more than 1,000 such dives without incident.

Lionfish Hunting

By By Lad Akins

Q4 2024

Spearing fish has been a part of human sustenance since hunters first sharpened sticks. With the advent of masks and fins, spearfishing became its own activity. Whether for sport or to put food on the table, divers and freedivers seek these opportunities around the world. 

The Eel Bite That Almost Took My Hand

By Text by Spencer Slate; photo by Frazier Nivens

Q4 2024

You might know me already or at least know about me. I came to Key Largo, Florida, in 1978 to open Captain Slate’s Atlantis Dive Center. Early on I had an affinity for the marine life on our reefs, and my earliest mentor, Steve Klem, had established ongoing fish-feeding activity on the City of Washington wreck.

Silvia Ferrari

Por Madeline Coombs y Frauke Tillmans, PhD

Q4 2024

Known for her work in developing sophisticated algorithms and methods for managing and coordinating complex systems, Silvia Ferrari has applied her expertise to integrating scuba diving technology with robotic systems.

Chumming the Waters

By By Calvin Putnam

Q4 2024

Getting to the wreck of the Caribsea off the coast of North Carolina can take up to an hour and a half. While traveling to the dive site, I regrettably ate a prepackaged lunch with an indecipherable expiration date I had purchased the night before.

Monitoring Dive Incidents and Drug Use

By By Cat Harris

Q4 2024

The day-to-day tasks of injury monitoring at Divers Alert Network include tracking dive fatalities by sifting through emails, news alerts, and social media to collect information about recent events. Our goal is to report to the dive community our findings on what people report to us or what we encounter in our research. 

DAN E-Learning

By By Francois Burman, Pr.Eng., MSc, and JoAnn Perry, MSE

Q4 2024

DAN’s vision is to make every dive incident- and accident-free. Improvements in training, equipment, operations, dive boats, and dive computers have made diving significantly safer. The safety of a dive, however, relies heavily on the diver’s practices.

Wearing Contact Lenses While Diving

Q4 2024

Many divers wear contact lenses without issue during their dives. It’s crucial, however, to be aware of potential challenges, such as increased dryness or irritation due to factors like dry air in the dive mask, prolonged wear, mask squeezes, or exposure to saltwater. Maintaining good hygiene practices, including thorough handwashing before handling lenses and avoiding contamination, is essential.