Speared by a Spearfish

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.

deepwater cusk-eel larva

Kentucky Blues

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. 

Pennyroyal Scuba Park, van sunk in shallow

The Lives of Spiny Lobsters

Her legs move quickly as she scrambles over the sand toward a large coral reef. It’s a bold and risky move, as the expanses of sand between coral patches are full of predators waiting to take advantage of a lone spiny lobster. 

Caribbean spiny lobsters

Southern Right Whales

A few white southern right whales are born each year, but this leucistic trait is not a permanent feature. Their coloration usually gives way to a lighter gray in adulthood, indicating they were white at birth and distinguishing them from the more common darker whales.

Southern Right Whale

Stand-Up Paddleboard Exercises

Training on a paddleboard requires you to stabilize your body to maintain balance. Working your stabilizing muscles is beneficial for diving because they are helpful in dynamic ocean environments.

Downward Dog to Push-Up

Shared Sparks

My dad is always beside me in everything I do. It was no surprise when he followed me off the end of our dive boat and under the waves.

Shannon poses with her parents, Kim and Ben Amiot

Malaria Risks and Prevention

Malaria is a serious infectious disease threat that primarily exists in many of the world’s subtropical and tropical regions — areas popular with divers — where the environmental conditions support a stable, infected population of Anopheles mosquitoes.

mosquito