Finding Treasure and Losing History
For more than a year, the marine salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration has been embroiled in a legal battle with the government of Spain over the rights to a site they call “Black Swan,” which might hold the most valuable sunken treasure ever recovered. At the same time, underwater archaeologists working with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization have succeeded in creating a treaty that bans treasure hunting in the territorial waters of signatory nations. But you won’t hear much about any of that in Treasure Quest a new series on Discovery Channel (Thursdays at 10pm) that takes a completely uncritical look at Odyssey’s business of finding, removing, and selling archaeological artifacts from the ocean floor. As the UNESCO treaty takes effect and legal pressures mount against Odyssey, the Discovery Channel is cashing in on the business of systematically looting shipwrecks.
The first episode opens with a scene at “Black Swan,” where the Odyssey crew gleefully scoops up gold and silver coins using a submersible remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Odyssey claims that “Black Swan” is not a shipwreck, it is a debris field–a site where treasure may have been thrown overboard perhaps from a ship that was in danger of sinking and needed to quickly off-load a large amount of weight. If this claim is true, then the treasure could be considered abandoned property. Because the treasure was found international waters, it would belong solely to Odyssey. The Spanish government isn’t buying this story. They believe that Odyssey has found the wreck of Nuestra Senora de la Mercedes , a ship that sunk in 1804 carrying a large amount of coins. They are demanding to know the site’s location and to be able to inspect the artifacts that Odyssey has recovered. If the coins came from Mercedes then the treasure is Spanish property and Odyssey might not get any of the treasure. On the other hand, the judge in the case could give Odyssey a salvage award that could be more than 90 percent of the treasure as compensation for its recovery. Treasure Quest reveals very little about the site (Odyssey considers even basic information about the site proprietary). The legal battle is only briefly mentioned during the first episode, but the scene at “Black Swan” does show that the program’s producers are more interested in the search for gold than history.
The narrator breathlessly repeats that the coins are valued at $500 million, a number that a coin marketer working with Odyssey came up with shortly after the find was announced. The narrator doesn’t mention that months later, the paper work that Odyssey filled out so they could move the coins from Gibraltar to Florida became public knowledge. Odyssey’s export license application for the coins used a figure of only $4 million. No doubt, whatever money Odyssey is making from its deal with the Discovery Channel will help defray legal fees and the costs of looting other historically important shipwrecks such as Merchant Royal , a 17th-century English ship that the show’s narrator claims went down with a billion dollars worth of treasure. The value of the treasure aboard Merchant Royal is disputed by scholars who interpret historical documents about the ship differently than Odyssey’s researchers. However, that controversy never comes up even though the search for Merchant Royal is the focus of the first episode.
Odyssey’s critics don’t appear on the show, so there is no one to refute some of the ridiculous things that are said. “Archaeology ain’t an art anymore, it’s a science,” says Odyssey’s archaeologist Neil Cunningham Dobson, “and I want to take it into the 21st century.” It is a bold statement to make when Odyssey’s approach to investigating shipwrecks violates one of the key requirements of science–research results have to be repeatable. If an archaeologist analyzes a collection of artifacts and comes to some conclusions about the history of a shipwreck, it is difficult, if not impossible, to repeat that analysis if the artifacts have been sold off to hundreds of random collectors who may or may not want scholars examining their property. Archaeologists who work on projects where artifacts are put up for sale have made a decision to work outside the ethical codes and standards of the field, and no amount of hi-tech hardware changes that.
Likewise, Odyssey’s “21st-century science” isn’t subject to peer review, the process whereby other scientists look for weaknesses and mistakes in a research study before it is published in a scientific journal. For all the noise Odyssey makes about doing scientific research, its investigations, spanning more than 20 years, haven’t produced any scientific journal articles. Much of the information about the sites Odyssey investigates is considered proprietary and is not shared with scholars outside the company. Odyssey’s interpretations are the first, last, and only word on the archaeology of the wrecks they investigate. Because there is no way to know if their interpretations are the most plausible ones or simply the ones that best help them sell coins, win lawsuits, and make TV shows.
Treasure Quest is a slow moving affair. It relies on extensive narration to drive the show instead of letting people’s actions carry the story the way it does on Discovery’s more interesting programs such as Deadliest Catch , which chronicles the lives of crab-fishermen on the Bering Sea. Instead of scenes of hard-working people struggling against the elements to make a living, Treasure Quest has scenes of middle-aged men sitting in comfortable chairs sipping coffee and cracking lame jokes while the ROV pokes around a couple of wreck sites that had been discovered years earlier. Nothing that happens in the episode reveals much about the character of the individuals working for Odyssey. They all get treated like heroes by the shows producers who often use low camera angles to make the Odyssey crew look taller and more impressive.
The only moments of dramatic tension come when Odyssey’s ship is parked in the English Channel examining a wreck they think could be Merchant Royal . As they do this, they are blocking a shipping lane, and an approaching cargo freighter gets close enough to set off their collision alarm. After that, a French Navy jet does a few low flyovers to emphasize the point that they need to move their ship. The flyovers incense Odyssey’s crew. The captain claims, without irony, that what the jet is doing is dangerous and illegal, apparently forgetting that his own actions nearly caused the collision with the freighter.
The technology that Odyssey uses to explore shipwrecks is the most interesting part of the program. But the shows producers seem to confuse using cutting-edge technology with doing cutting-edge science. The gee-whiz gadgetry doesn’t create much information that is useful to the academic archaeological community, and that is a big loss. The artifacts that Odyssey sells might inspire people to wonder about what life was like on-board a ship a few hundred years ago when they played an integral role in the rise and fall of nations, but getting real answers about that history requires wrecks to be scientifically excavated and analyzed. The results have to be shared and debated so that they can become part of the historical and archaeological records. Otherwise the artifacts are just trinkets, conversation pieces, or decorative touches on the coffee tables of those who can afford them. The world’s underwater heritage is a fascinating and nonrenewable resource. It captivates people’s imaginations precisely because it can reveal so much about our history.
For a show that takes viewers deep under the surface of the ocean, Treasure Quest seems content just to skim the surface of what Odyssey does. What could have been an interesting look at the issues surrounding a controversial way of investigating nautical history, is instead an endorsement of destroying the archaeological record for profit.
Zach Zorich is a senior editor at ARCHAEOLOGY.
Open Ocean Lab FLIP Vessel: How it Works
A carefully choreographed sequence of flooded ballast tanks turns this craft from a boat to a buoy in a half hour.
Shaped like a giant baseball bat, the 700-ton FLIP, or Floating Instrument Platform, is a Navy barge operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. Once towed to a site, the vessel flips to vertical. “It was built in 1962 to refine acoustic targeting for submarine rockets, but scientists quickly realized that it would be useful for all kinds of research,” says Bill Gaines, FLIP’s program director. “So 45 years later, FLIP still serves the oceanographic community.” And it is still one of a kind.
Stability
Tanks 5, 8 and 9, and parts of tanks 6 and 7, remain filled with air to keep FLIP buoyant. Like the Louisville Slugger that the vessel was modeled from, FLIP increases in diameter from bow to stern — a profile that contributes to its stability when vertical. “A design criterion for FLIP was that it move less than one-tenth of a passing wave’s height,” Gaines says.
Staying in place
Three nylon lines, each connected to a chain and anchor weighing a total of 9 tons, maintain FLIP’s position. For some research projects, however, FLIP is allowed to drift unmoored — on one occasion, for 150 miles.
Power
Though it has no propulsion, FLIP has a small, hydraulically operated thruster that can rotate the vessel and maintain a heading. FLIP also has three diesel generators that supply 340 kilowatts of power. These ride high above the water so that they don’t contaminate acoustic data collected by FLIP’s underwater sensors.
Orientation
The engines, large galley equipment and bunks are mounted on trunnions, allowing the vessel to rotate around them, and then are locked into place with pins. Every room has a door in both the wall and ceiling, and there are two showers — one for the boat’s horizontal position and one for its vertical.
Flipping back
Reorienting to horizontal takes only half as long, but involves twice as many steps as the vertical flip. Up to 3000 cu. ft. of compressed air, stored at 250 psi, is blown into the ballast tanks — pushing water back out through the flood openings. The operator floods tank 9B so that the keel remains down as the vessel swings back to the surface.
Ocean science
FLIP’s stability and soundlessness make it an ideal platform for listening to ocean acoustics; hydrophones can detect anything from whale calls to underwater earthquakes. One recent find: the sound of all-night fish choruses as loud as fans in a stadium stomping their feet. Other sensors, lowered from the deck by booms and winches, can measure temperature, wave height and water density. Doppler sonar deployed along FLIP can pinpoint the motion inside waves with an accuracy of one centimeter per second in a cubic kilometer of ocean. “It’s hard to measure wiggly things, like waves, from a ship that’s bouncing,” says Robert Pinkel, a physical oceanographer at Scripps. “I’ve spent a couple of years total on FLIP over the course of my life — it’s been a godsend.”
Environmental Achievement Award
2008 was a strong year for our environmental efforts island wide. Only a few schools were recognized in Thailand and we’re very proud to be one of them. In 2008 many companies saw not just diving companies but all companies using the ECO issue to promote themselves without actually making any sacrifice or commitment. I think you’ll find that all individual schools who received this award made an actual measurable effort towards the environment.
It’s nice to know that there is still recognition for companies working hard to make a difference without using Go ECO as a business platform. Thank you to everyone who volunteered in 2008 and we look forward to continued efforts in 2009.
You can read more here and here
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Congratulations Big Blue!
Project AWARE is delighted to award Big Blue Diving in Koh Tao Thailand the 2008 Environmental Achievement Award. We have determined that your dive operation has met all requirements set forth for Project AWARE’s Environmental Achievement Award and shown exemplary efforts to conserve aquatic environments through education, advocacy and action. Therefore, we’re proud to name you an official 2008 recipient!
You’ll find your facility already listed on the Project AWARE website honoring 2008 Environmental Achievement Award winners, which can be viewed at: http://www.projectaware.org.
In a separate email I will forward you the Project AWARE Environmental Achievement Award website banners. Please use these banners to increase your exposure of receiving this honor and stay tuned to industry communications for announcements and recognition. Once again congratulations and please keep us posted with all your eco news and activities.
Best wishes,
Joanna McNamara,
Marketing and Fundraising Coordinator,
Project Aware.
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Event – PFO and Diving Lecture
On January 30th Dr. Mihaela Ignatescu from DDRC (Diving and Diseases Research Centre) in England will be giving a lecture at Dirty Nelly’s upstairs conference hall in Koh Tao about PFO’s and Diving.
This event is free and requires no reservation to attend.
Dr. Mihaela Ignatescu is currently working at the Diving Diseases Research Centre in Plymouth as a Senior Hyperbaric Physician and will move to London in March to become the Medical Director of the Hyperbaric Unit at Whipps Cross Hospital. She has been involved in diving medicine for the last 10 years and has worked at various chambers including Sharm el Sheikh (Dr Adel Taher), Ravenna, Italy (Dr Longobardi) and London, Whipps Cross were she has treated numerous cases of decompression illness. In 2007, Dr Mihaela has completed a postgraduate study in Underwater Medicine at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.
Dr Mihaela has been lecturing in Thailand in 2006 and she is regularly lecturing on the DMT courses and physician introductory courses in diving and hyperbaric medicine. She is a keen diver with experience in recreational and commercial diving. She also enjoys other sports like skiing and horse riding and she is speaks 6 languages fluently.
Tagging seahorses
The UK’s Seahorse Trust hopes to secure funding to use VIFE tagging on the seahorse population found in costal waters in southern England, in order to learn more about the unique marine animals. (Words and pictures by Maria McGlynn)
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Conservationists are concerned about the long-term survival of seahorses because the creatures live among coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves, which are among the most threatened habitats on the planet.
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Project Hippocampus, based in Mar Menor, south-east Spain, has been running a programme for two years to identify and tag seahorses in an attempt to learn more about the creatures’ movements and behaviour.
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The tagging of seahorses is a delicate process because they have rigid bodies, prehensile tails and small fins. The researchers have developed a novel technique that allows them to tag the creatures without the need for risky continual adjustments.
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The team uses Visible Implant Fluorescent Elastomer (VIFE), a fluorescent polymer that is biologically compatible with seahorses. The liquid is injected under the skin in a position unique to each seahorse, allowing the team to identify individuals.
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The elastomer forms a solid visible mark, seen here in the middle of the seahorse’s back. The marker, which becomes fluorescent under a blue light, comes in a variety of colours. In this case, the researcher used an orange elastomer.
Try Technical Scuba Diving
Yesterday Big Blue Tech took 3 lucky divemaster interns out for a discover technical diving afternoon with a small introduction to some of the caverns and caves around Koh Tao. It was a chance for these future technical divers to actually try diving in the equipment and also expose them to mock overhead environments to see if they were interested in that sort of diving, especially with our upcoming cavern/cave trip in February.
All 3 took to the skills and diving conditions really well and remarked at how different it really was causing even more interest in this style of diving.
The Origional Divers Watch
January 19, 2009 One of the most desirable technological boys toys throughout the last 50 years has been the Blancpain 50 fathoms watch. The Fifty Fathoms watch was born in the 1950s when Blancpain was asked by the French Ministry of Defence to create an elite “Combat Divers” watch that was reliable and readable to a depth of 50 fathoms (91.45 metres). Blancpain delivered, and the hardcore military kit was subsequently commercialised in 1953 with the first modern diver’s watch – that’s an original 1954 advert at right. A new exhibition opens tomorrow in Geneva, the Cité du Temps, tracing the history of the watch with all the models and variations of the collection assembled under a single roof.
Through this unique exhibition, Blancpain is retracing the history of a passion: from the 1953 birth of the legendary Fifty Fathoms diver’s watch through to its latest interpretation that is more contemporary and technically accomplished than ever. The Manufacture in Le Brassus revisits this iconic model with its characteristic concern for detail and thirst for perfection, while preserving the DNA on which it has built its reputation.
Blancpain is also exhibiting the fascinating underwater photos from its “Fifty Fathoms Edition” book. This collection of subaquatic art photographs reflects the qualities of the diver’s watch after which it is named and calls upon printing techniques that are pushed to extremes.
Wreck Diving in Thailand
A few days ago Big Blue Tech was hosted by the MV Trident for a chartered day of diving on one of our local wrecks, the Unicorn Wreck.
Big Blue Tech attended with 15 divemaster interns, divemasters and instructors for an full day of deep wreck diving.
The day exposed many divers to new depths and challenges giving them well deserved diving experiences many of us take for granted. The day included breakfast and lunch, 2 dives and all the cold beer you can buy on the way home.
As special thanks to Peter, Stewart and Jamie for accommodating us on the Trident and Thank You for all the divers who attended.
Conservation officers conduct ice dive training
TERRE HAUTE — After reaching the bottom, about 10 feet down, Indiana Conservation Officer Matt Landis began making sweeps in a circle search pattern as part of his training for his first ice dive Thursday in Fowler Park in southern Vigo County.
The water temperature was 39 degrees, according to a small monitor attached to his special orange-colored dry suit, designed to keep cold water from touching his body.
After about 10 minutes, his training dive was over, but he still faced a unique challenge from the depths — finding a hole cut out of the 41⁄2-inch-thick ice above him.
“You could actually see a couple of feet, which makes it a little easier to orientate yourself once you get down to the bottom. Coming up, you can see the sunlight and it just looks like a roof of glass,” Landis said of the frozen lake above him.
“You think you are coming up in the hole, but once you start coming up, you bump against the ice and you know you are still under,” he said.
That’s where the safety line comes in, which directs the diver back to the opening in the ice. Such conditions require the use of a harness on each diver, said Conservation Officer Max Winchell, a dive master, who said the training helps officers experience the cold and learn to take extra precautions with equipment.
“There are a lot of people out using the lakes and the river in the wintertime, so the potential [for a rescue] is always there,” Winchell said, adding that people ice-fishing or hunting fowl or in some conditions, snowmobilers, can fall through ice and into a lake or pond or even river.
“It pays to be prepared for this, because a lot of things can go wrong when diving in the ice. Equipment malfunctions is one of the biggest things and that is why we dive monthly to make sure everything is working good,” Winchell said.
“You have a lot more room for error when it is cold,” he said.
One safety precaution includes using a shovel to move snow to form a large circle around the ice hole, with several straight lines leading back to the hole. It is supposed to help divers find the hole, if needed. Landis said he could not see the lines because of the sunny conditions.
“I’m told you could see the lines in more cloudy conditions,” said Landis, who has been a conservation officer for two years and started in June as a scuba diver. Eleven Indiana conservation officers participated in ice dive training on the north side of a lake at Fowler Park. The dive is conducted annually.
Nine of the divers were from District 5, which includes Vigo, Vermillion, Parke, Sullivan, Clay, Owen and Putnam counties. Landis and other divers used a communication headset underwater, which was connected to a small box on the surface, allowing others to hear them, even as they breathed, as well as talk to the divers if needed. Divers also trained using hand and touch signals to communicate, Landis said.
Winchell said rescue attempts in cold water do allow rescuers some time. “There are what we call ‘cold water drownings’ and a lot of it depends on the survivability of the person. We have up to an hour and in some cases even 90 minutes in a cold-water drowning situation where a person can be brought back with no ill effects in some cases,” Winchell said.
“In Indiana we can have a cold-water drowning in the summertime,” Winchell said, because the water temperatures might be 75 degrees at the surface, but just 10 feet or more below, temperatures fall drastically, especially in former surface coal mine pits, some as deep as 60 feet.
Review: iDive 300 iPod/iPhone underwater case
If you’re a professional scuba diver, there’s probably one aspect of your career that you really dislike: the interminable decompression stops. For those who don’t know, professional divers tend to dive much deeper, and for much longer, than do recreational divers such as myself. As a result, they build up lots of inert gases in their bloodstream, and these gases need to be purged before surfacing so as to avoid decompression sickness. For example, the US Navy’s dive tables show that a diver spending 60 minutes at a depth of 130 feet must make four decompression stops totaling nearly 90 minutes before surfacing!
As a recreational diver, I don’t have anywhere near such requirements—just a three minute “safety stop” at 15 feet of depth. I can easily pass those minutes by just looking around at the undersea environment. But if I had 90 minutes or more to wait before surfacing, the surroundings would quickly turn monotonous. You can’t read a book or magazine, for obvious reasons, and taking a nap isn’t a good idea, either, as you need to maintain your depth and be awake to monitor your equipment. Sounds like a recipe for hours of boredom, doesn’t it?
Until recently, it probably was. But add H2O Audio’s iDive 300 Deep Dive Waterproof Case & Speakers to the mix, and you can use those decompression stops to watch a movie, listen to an audiobook, or be serenaded by your music collection. You can also use the iDive 300 during your dive, as well as while snorkeling and swimming.
The iDive 300 lets you use your iPhone or iPod underwater to watch video and listen to audio (you can’t run apps or use the phone). Specifically, the iDive protects your player down to an incredible depth of 300 feet—recreational divers are limited to 120 feet, and most “waterproof” iPod cases we’ve tested work only to 10 feet or so. Your iPod or iPhone fits snugly inside the case using several included spacers and trim pieces. The iDive 300′s amplified, outside-the-ear headphones—actually small speakers—are permanently connected and can be either clipped to the sides of your mask or tucked inside a dive hood.
How does the iDive 300 let you use the touchscreen on an iPod touch or iPhone, or the Click Wheel on an iPod, through the thick plastic required to withstand the incredible pressures at such depths? It doesn’t. Inside the iDive, you’ll find a circuit board, a dock-connector plug, and space for three AA batteries (for powering the case’s circuitry and headphones). You control your player using buttons—for volume, playback, and menu navigation—on the side of the iDive, which communicates with your iPod or iPhone through the dock-connector port. In other words, the iDive is more like an iPod speaker system in a waterproof enclosure than a simple waterproof case (which partly explains its higher price).
How well does the iDive work in the real world? A recent short trip to Cabo san Lucas gave me the opportunity to use the iDive on a real dive, using my iPhone 3G as the audio and video source. After testing the case at home to make sure it was watertight, I set out on the trip, still with a good deal of trepidation over immersing my iPhone 3G in the open ocean!
I neeedn’t have worried, however, as the iDive performed perfectly. Once in the water with the iDive, I tested both movie and audio playback, and everything worked as expected. I was able to easily navigate menus, start and stop audio and video, and watch and listen to my iPhone while scuba diving. I had a bit of an issue during setup, requiring me to turn the iDive on and off a couple times to get it to “see” my iPhone, but after that, it worked fine.
There’s something decidedly weird about listening to music (not to mention watching a movie) while gliding 60 feet under the surface. The underwater world is usually quiet, with the exception of the noise from breathing and bubbles…but not for me, at least not on this dive. I tried a variety of music, and found that classical seemed to work nicely with the slow, easy pace of scuba diving. (The faster you swim, the faster you use up your air supply, so scuba divers are generally very slow swimmers.)
Using the iDive while diving was reasonably easy, at least in warmer, “no glove” water. The buttons were all easy to press, and I could operate them by touch after I became familiar with their locations. For colder water use, I tested the iDive 300 at home with my light dive gloves on, and the buttons were large enough to distinguish and press. I didn’t, however, bring the gloves on the trip, so I can’t comment on how well the gloves would work with the iDive 300 in the real world.
The sound from the headphones is adequate, if not of the highest quality—I found the sound somewhat tinny, with bass response lacking. I had the speakers clipped to my mask, resting over my ears; I imagine that had I been wearing a dive hood with the headphones tucked inside, the sound might have been better. To be fair, reproducing sound accurately underwater is very difficult, especially at the lower frequencies, so the iDive did an acceptable job, in my opinion. Volume levels were easily loud enough—the amplified speakers did that job with ease.
Seeing the iPhone’s screen also wasn’t a problem, at least not in the water we were diving in, which was generally clear with visibility ranging from 20 to 50 feet. I didn’t see any distortion from the case’s plexiglass, which is impressive, given its thickness. I recorded a short movie, below, of the iDive 300 in action at approximately 65 feet (using a Canon SD850 IS in a waterproof housing), so you can get a sense of how it looks. You’ll notice that the colors are somewhat off due to the lack of natural light during a scuba dive and the fact that I recorded the video using a compact digital camera.
Being a recreational diver, I got nowhere near the iDive’s 300-foot limit, as our dive ranged between 50 and 65 feet. Still, there’s a fair amount of pressure at those depths, yet the iDive 300 remained perfectly sealed, and all of its controls worked fine. At the conclusion of the 45-minute dive, there wasn’t any sign of water anywhere inside the case.
The biggest problem I had while using the iDive 300 was simply managing the cables it adds to an already cable- and cord-heavy hobby. The headphone cable leading out of the iDive splits into left and right cables after a foot or so. Combine those cables with the buoyancy-jacket inflator, the instrument cluster, and two regulators, and you’ve got a potential tangle on your hands. I did my best to route the cords in such a way that they wouldn’t interfere with the rest of my gear.
Another potential issue with the iDive 300 has nothing to do with the product and everything to do with how you use it: While enjoying your music or movie, you may forget to check your depth, your air supply, the location of your buddy, and/or the direction you’re moving. Overlooking just one of these things while diving could potentially lead to a fatal accident, so it’s critically important that you stay involved with your dive while using the iDive 300.
Macworld’s buying advice
Overall, I was very impressed with the iDive 300. While it’s not cheap at $299, you do get what you pay for: It’s amazingly well-engineered, solidly built, and worked exactly as advertised during my time with it. It was relatively easy to set up, its buttons were large and easy to press under water, and there was more than enough volume at the depths I tested it. Sound quality is about what I was expecting, given the difficulties of reproducing sound underwater, and was certainly good enough to understand words and listen to music.
If you just want to use your iPod or iPhone around the pool or while snorkeling in shallower waters, H2O Audio’s Amphibx line will handle those needs. But if you’re looking for a well-built, waterproof case that you can use while scuba diving, the iDive 300 is well worth your consideration.
Green diving legend Hans Hass turns 90
Austrian diving legend and documentary maker Hans Hass – who was part of Hitler’s elite diving squad in WWII and became an environmental campaigner late in life – turns 90 tomorrow (Fri).
Vienna-born Hass is regarded as a visionary of deep-sea diving and one of the most important influences for the development of underwater film-making.
Hass once said: “I was always trying to do new things – things no one else has ever done before.”
Hass, who had to do without any subsidies for the longest part of his career as a diver, explorer and film maker, produced not less than 24 TV documentaries and six movies. Furthermore, he published 31 books. Hass also worked for the BBC as well as for several other international broadcasting companies and film producers.
Hass, who was born to a lawyer, discovered his passion for diving when he went to the French Riviera after graduating from school aged 18.
During the Second World War, Hass had to serve in the Nazi Wehrmacht. Due to his excellent diving skills, he was assigned to the so-called “Fighters of the Sea” battalion.
Founded in 1943, their main mission was to explore enemy port facilities, to eliminate the enemy’s vessels and to destroy bridges and floodgates in inland waters.
In 1951, his film “Abenteuer im Roten Meer” (Adventures in the Red Sea) were awarded with the ‘Great Prize’ of the Biennale Film Festival in Venice.
Eight years later, Hass was honoured as “Outstanding Underwater Photographer of the Year” in Los Angeles.
Hass was awarded the Golden Honorary Medal of the city of Vienna in 1999.
Already last Sunday, Hass celebrated his birthday at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum for Natural History) as well as the 80th birthday of his wife Lotte Baierl who he is married to since 1950.
Number 1 Worst Job: Hazmat Diver
They swim in sewage. Enough said.
“The worst was at a factory pig farm,” says Steven M. Barsky, the author of Diving in High-Risk Environments, the industry bible for hazardous-materials divers. “A guy had driven his truck into the waste lagoon and drowned. Not only was it full of urine and liquid pig feces, the farmer had dumped all the needles used to inject the pigs with antibiotics and hormones in there.” Someone had to recover the body, and the task fell to commercial hazmat divers.
Outfitted with fully encapsulating drysuits, these Jacques Cousteaus of the sewers swim into clouds of waste, inside nuclear reactors and through toxic spills on America´s coasts and inland waterways. When the Environmental Protection Agency identifies pollutants, it contracts with a hazmat team to clean things up. That means using giant vacuums to suck up a polluted lakebed, hoisting leaking barrels to the surface, or diving into the heart of an oil spill or into a sewer to fix a clog. It´s dangerous work-one breach in the drysuit, and a whole stew of bacteria and toxins can fill ´er up. Jesse Hutton, of Ballard Salvage and Diving in Seattle, has seen his share of close calls. “I´ve been on jobs where suits have been breached by rough steel or something sharp,” he says, pointing out that divers must keep their shots up to date.
The divers are generally well-paid, but hey, so are accountants. “To be an expert,” Barsky says, “you need to be a chemist, a physician, a biologist and 10 other things. Not many people are.”
Decompression in Paradise
Recently the weather has changed, causing a mas exodus from the island on to dve boats to quickly get down before the next storm comes along.
With this perfect window of opportunity 2 of the technical team James and Oskar took advantage with some accelerated decompression diving at Chumphon Pinnacle.
The goal of this dive was to get down to around 50m and look for dropped treasure from uncoordinated recreational divers. Unfortunately all we found was a bout 20 weights and weight belts and a diving mask from “NANS”. This was not all that unique as people always find “NANS” masks. However it was good to get out and do some proper diving for change.
Full Day Trip – Nitrox
Big Blue Tech conducted this seasons first Sail Rock full day trip taking us over 2 hours away from Koh Tao wil food, sun, drinks and 3 dives.
Today was, however more about nitrox diving then anything else as we trained up the interns on the use and methods of enriched air nitrox.
Many would later continue on to their deep course and the upcoming wrck trip, but for today it was a great chance to relax and feel like students again.
Returning to Shore we were met by other members of the technical team who decided to have a day off and enjoy the sunset soaking in the sea, having a beer and floating in their BCD’s. Otherwise called a “Beer Float”
By the way Emily, you are actually topless in that picture.. just to clarify that.
Oil exploration bid off Koh Tao Nixed
CIVIC groups are against a plan to explore oil off the coast of Koh Tao for environmental reasons.
This surfaced during a recent public hearing with various civic groups on the island. The hearing was presided over by Somnuek Much-Chika of the energy department office in Chumphon province.
The government has tapped Soco Exploration Co. Ltd. to explore for oil in the sea 65 kilometers off Koh Tao. During the hearing, civic groups opposed the exploration project saying it could cause serious damage to the marine life and coral reefs in the area.
Although the company has been given concession to explore the area, it could not start work unless it gets approval from people likely to be affected by the project.
Soco Exploration has reportedly hired a company to make an analysis on the effect of the project to Koh Tao residents and to draw up compensation measures to fishermen who will lose income once the oil exploration begins.
It was pointed out during the hearing, Somnuek said, that aside from dislocating fishermen, the oil exploration could destroy the habitat of various fish species like mackerel.
The mackerel, he said, lay their eggs during this time of the year. Having the exploration done at this time, he added, could potentially destroy the fish stock.
Diving establishments on Koh Tao are also expected to oppose the project. The beautiful underwater landscape around the island, Somnuek said, could be destroyed from the three-dimensional seismic survey method used in exploring for oil.
The planned seismic survey is set to for January and February 2009.
Soco Exploration has promised to do all it can to prevent any damage to the environment in doing the seismic survey.
Into The Deep – Video
NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY — It’s every pool kid’s dream – a 40-foot by 75-foot heated swimming pool. All it’s missing is a diving board. However the 40-foot depth, the fitting for an aquatic crane and the plans for an airlock at the bottom reveal a purpose more utilitarian than recreational.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun.
On Jan. 15, the first class from the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center splashed into the breathless work of training. For the instructors, the new facility was a welcome addition. With the floors adjustable to different depths, airlock chambers and machinery attachments the the pool has smashed open new avenues for training.
Equally important, the new facility should break up the training logjam. The dive school has nearly tripled in size, recently. Previously, only one 12-foot-deep pool was available for the dive school, the Navy Experimental Dive Unit, special warfare developers and any of the various Army, Air Force and Marine Corps dive classes going through.
“I want to stress this is the Joint Diver Aquatic Training Facility,” said Cdr. Timothy Richardt, NDSTC commander.
“We put through Army divers. We train Air Force pararescue combat divers, we train Marine Corps combat divers. We train Coast Guard divers,” Richardt said. “We train all different facets of Navy diver: the Navy deep sea diver, Navy explosive ordinance diver, the Navy Seabee underwater construction diver, we put through both the basic divers and the advanced, first class divers. We also train the Navy scuba divers.”
Richardt said the facility would be a “shot in the arm” for the school, which now moves through about 1,700 students in a year.
The facility is still not entirely piped up. Airlocks are awaiting completion, but the trainers wasted little time in getting students in the water. Instructors drilled the pool’s inaugural class Thursday, putting the recruits through confidence training.
Students shout gear checks before splashing as pairs into the water and moving toward an instructor. The dive instructors then send the students through gear checks, make them tread water and then pack them off to the end of the pool.
A few are sent to the bottom to practice the gear bailout known as “ditching and donning.”
At the bottom, in this instance the basin was at 12 feet, the students slowly peel away their fins, dive masks and air tanks before shutting off the air valve. Then, the diver begins a controlled ascent toward the surface with an instructor making sure that the whole way up the students exhale to prevent decompression sickness. The student pokes his head above the surface for only a second, before returning to the bottom and redonning his gear.
“Underwater hazardous situations could cause you to become more fouled up or entangled … you have to be able to be relaxed,” said Chief Petty Officer Mark Cooper. “We’re not trying to take their fear away from them. We’re just trying to teach them how to stay focused in a hazardous situation.”
Though the students were just getting started in the pool, Richardt said the instructors already had given it the once over and were looking forward to having the facility entirely finished up and put through the hoops.
“From the perspective of a guy who started off in 1981 diving in waters that were not anywhere near as nice as this, as clear as this, as warm as this … all my years of diving, this is a real revolution,” Richardt said. “It’s just wonderful.”
http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/979295768
Gas Blender Course in Thailand
Today we completed yet another DSAT Gas Blender course taking 2 new and lucky gas blenders from never touched a compressor to being very comfortable with all pressure gas toys we have.
The course included
- Manifolded Filling Station
- Partial Pressure, Continuos Flow filling systems
- 2 types of compressors (Bauer and Coltri) Use
- Air filter packing, oil changing and compressor trouble shooting
- Oxygen handling, oxygen cleaning
- Cylinder visual inspection process
- and of course theory and final exam.
Both Donna and Mickey did really well, we won’t mention this to him, but if you look at one of the pictures you can see mickey conrolling the flow to the panel with the calibration dial.. oops
Event – Technical Liveaboard – Similans
In response to growing demand for diving alternatives and inclement weather on the east coast. Big Blue Tech will be conducting a 3 day 3 Night Technical Diving Liveaboard in the Similan Islands. The following dates are available.
Richelieu Rock Included!
January 21th ( 4 spaces )
January 26th ( 4 spaces )
This trip will be open to technical divers from around Thailand diving with Big Blue Tech from Koh Tao and Khao Lak.
Pre-Requisites: Must Be Minimum Technical Extended Range Diver. (Can be combined with a technical diving course)
Conduct: This trip will be a non-decompression diving (except on wrecks) venture and will be done with deep oceanic coral and extended range for up to 2 hour long dives with Manta Rays, Whale Sharks and all the marine life found in the Andaman sea. The dives will be lead by certified technical dive leaders with intimate knowledge of the dive sites.
Included: Marine Park Fee, Nitrox, Oxygen, Equipment Rental, Food, Accommodation night before and night after the trip. All non-alcoholic drinks on board. Mini Bus from Chumphon, Bangkok and Phuket to Khao Lak.
Not Included: Alcoholic Drinks
Vessel: Luxury liveaboard with 5 star accomodation and facilities. On board blending and support for technical diving operations.
Prices: Contact Us.
British scuba divers break world record… for underwater ironing
The divers braved water temperatures of just 41F (5C) to carry out the attempt at the bottom of a 173ft-deep flooded quarry.
They each had to iron one item of linen within a 10-minute time limit – and 86 of them completed the task under the watchful eye of adjudicators.
The group beat the previous world record of 72 set in Melbourne, Australia, last year.
Their incredible feat at the National Diving and Activity Centre in Chepstow, Wales, was captured on camera by 11 photographers armed with special underwater cameras.
Organiser Gareth Lock said the charity challenge is set to raise £10,000 for the RNLI – while raising awareness about the “joys” of underwater ironing.
Mr Lock, 37, said: “This was an unusual attempt, I admit, but it seemed like the perfect way for a load of divers to raise money for the RNLI.
“We advertised the event by word of mouth and via diving websites, and expected there to be quite a good turnout.
“But we were shocked when so many people arrived, ready and willing to take part – and even more stunned when we snatched the record.
Around 140 people from across the UK volunteered their time, with 128 of them qualified divers.
Depending on experience, each sunk to the quarry bed at different depths with an ironing board, iron and an item of linen.
A record 86 divers managed the task simultaneously, while the remainder were either disqualified for starting too early, or penalised for overshooting the 10-minute time limit.
Diver Mark Williams, 38, who took part in the underwater challenge, said: “My ironing came out pretty creased – luckily they don’t mark you down on the quality of your ironing.”
Last stop bottom of the ocean for New York subway cars
The last stop for more than 40 New York City subway cars in 2008 was the Bass Grounds Reef — the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, 10 miles off the coast of Ocean City.
The Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative, the Ocean City Reef Foundation, New York City Transit Authority and the town of Ocean City have partnered to submerge retired subway cars for the creation of an artificial reef that will provide a habitat for marine organisms.
In May, more than 40 cars were submerged at the Jackspot Reef, 20 miles off the Ocean City coast.
“We know it’s going to be a success because it’s been a success on other places on the East Coast,” said Marta Beman, administrator for the Ocean City Reef Foundation.
From 2001 to 2003, 1,269 Redbird subway cars were submerged along the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia.
The Ocean City Reef Foundation, a nonprofit organization, constructs artificial reefs from man-made materials.
The foundation places approximately 12 artificial reefs each year, funded by private donations.
“They are a hot commodity with the fishermen,” Beman said, as the growing fish populations offer more opportunity for charter fishing boats.
Prior to placement, doors, windows, light fixtures, bulbs and anything that could float are removed from the cars.
Any part that has grease or oil is either removed or cleaned with the entire process taking about two days.
New York City Transit has been pleased with the outcome, said Michael Zacchea, assistant chief operations officer of asset recovery for the New York City Transit Authority.
It’s a double bonus because it is cheaper for the transit authority to do this and it is positive for the environment, he said.
At 60 feet long, 10 feet wide and 9 feet in height, the cars offer hiding places for fish and surface area for the growth of marine organisms, such as mussels, anemones and corals. These organisms provide food and habitat for a variety of fish and shellfish.
Each car is expected to last for 50 to 60 years.
Monty Hawkins, a board member of the Ocean City Reef Foundation and captain of the Morning Star, a charter fishing boat, has seen a resurgence of fish like sea bass and tautog after the Jackspot Reef was created.
“It’s unbelievable how much better the fishing can be with artificial reefs,” Hawkins said.
The idea for the program originated in 2000 when the transit authority was retiring a significant portion of its fleet — 1,300 at once.
Zacchea spoke with the Army Corps of Engineers, who suggested that they would be useful as artificial reefs.
Initially concerned that the cars contained asbestos, Ocean City did not participate in the 2001 program.
“Once it’s underwater, it (asbestos) doesn’t present any threat to the environment or marine habitat,” Zacchea said.
Each shipment of cars cost $26,000, a little more than $600 per car.
The Ocean City Reef Foundation is now raising money for two more subway reefs at Great Eastern Reef and Isle of Wight.
Meet Your Neighbor: Diving Deep
“I’m a diver. I do underwater construction.”
As simple as it sounds to say, it can be one of the most amazing, scary and thrilling occupations all rolled into one. For one Stuttgart resident it’s what has fulfilled his expectations in a job.
Brent Saranie, who grew up in Stuttgart, has now returned to start a family, but what he does when he is away is what makes one part of his life so interesting — what he does for a living.
He has worked on a multitude of things — all underwater — bridges, pipelines, nuclear plants, dams, drinking water intakes, boats, ships, salvage, steel and paper mills.
Saranie started his underwater career eight years ago when he decided to go to school for the occupation.
“I used to mortgage houses — went to college — mortgaged houses,” he explained. “I wanted to go find a way to make a living and see a little bit of the planet — see different things. And I wanted to come back one day and be able to tell my kids about it and go ‘that’s what I did.’ I scuba dove. I was spear fishing up in Hot Springs all the time and just picked up the phone book one day and asked how you get hired. They told me I had to go to school.
So Saranie did just that. He went to Houston and started at Ocean Corporation. It took 900 hours. They trained four days a week 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for seven months.
You can see the excitement in his eyes, the facial expressions and the ever moving hands as he tells about the things he gets to see — things most never see in a lifetime.
“My favorite part is seeing the things that you are going to work on — it’s cool,” he says. “You get to see cool stuff. You see robots that go down to 3,000 feet deep and turn bolts and video of the creatures that are down there. Just being around things that you don’t normally see. Another thing I like is working with people from around the world. You work with people from all over and dealing with the people every day — it is interesting, you learn a lot. It is fun, but at the same time, it is nerve racking.”
Another part of the job he enjoys is getting numerous days off, which everyone can relate to as being a good aspect of any job.
The only part of the job he said he could do without is being away from his family. He is recently married and also became a father, so he misses his family quite a bit when he is out on a job.
“Being away from family and that is about it,” he says. “Because it’s fun when she [his wife Melissa] goes with me — you know when we go inland — we have a blast.”
Saranie works for Veolia Special Services. The farthest place he has been for a job is Zhanjiang, China.
Surface diving
Like most occupations, there are different facets to the job. In Saranie’s case, there is different diving. The first is surface diving where you are breathing air.
“You can go down about 180 feet on that. At that depth, you have a 35-minute bottom time — on air. Then you have five hours of decompression. I wear my diving hat and a hot water suit,” he explains.
The hot water suit takes hot water from a heater above, which pumps down and disperses water around his body. It is not an enclosed suit, which means it flushes water out also.
Diving in nuclear plants
In a nuclear plant the diver wears a chiller suit and it’s a closed circuit where everything is being pumped back to the surface.
“That is a whole different ballgame talking about it and to see it,” he says. “The water acts as an insulator to protect your nuclear rods and to keep your radiation away from everything. Some of the tanks are 40 feet deep and they can’t drain them so they will send us in.”
The water is hot — 104 degrees — hot.
“So what your do is you wear an encapsulated suit, everything is sealed and the hat seals to the suit,” Saranie explains.
Your two options are to wear the suit or have your body packed in ice, although the ice doesn’t last that long.
Gas diving
After the initial 180 feet, helium is mixed with oxygen.
“Because we breathe 21 percent air here — air is toxic when your parcel pressure goes up,” Saranie says. “When the pressure on your body is forcing the oxygen into your muscles it becomes toxic and you can have seizures and stuff.”
The only downfall of mixing is the helium robs the body of heat in the body’s core temperature.
“So when you exhale it exhales all your heat. So they always make you wear hot water, you get chilled really bad. The deepest I have been on gas, jumping off the side of a boat, is 242 feet and I had a five and half hour decompression. I had so many hours in the water decompressing then I went into a decompression chamber.”
Saturation diving and the chamber
In saturation diving, which is what Saranie is doing now, he lives in a decompression chamber.
The chamber — the one he currently stays in —is seven and half feet in diameter and 20 feet long. There are six guys living there. The bathroom is bolted on and it is eight feet long and seven feet wide.
“Then we have what they call a bell — the bell is how we travel back and forth to work. The saturation system is bolted to the top of the ship so it is in the dry — everything is in the dry,” he says. “They press you down to the depth pressure and hold you there. When they want you to work, you crawl into the bell, it seals up with airtight doors and they launch it over the side or through the center of the ship.”
When the desired depth is hit, water will start to flood the bell and divers let the operators know that they need to stop to let the bell partners get ready.
“You tell them to stop and you lift the door up and tie it off,” he says.
There are two divers in the bell and they help one another get dressed to begin the work.
Bell partner
“He is your person,” Saranie explains about his bell partners. “Like, if you get an infection, or if you get burned or cut or if he has ear infection — you are putting the drops in his ears and he is helping you. I got burned the last time and he was putting the cream on me every night. Ya’ll are friends — that is your person. If you have to talk to somebody, if you have some issues that you need to go over, you have to discuss it with your bell partner — you have a very close relationship.”
The relationship has to be strong because they depend on one another.
“You put up with him and he puts up with you. We stay in there for 28 days and you work for 21 and then you decompress for seven. So it is seven days of sitting around,” he says.
The waiting time
Saranie says he can read a 400-page novel in one day. His last stretch he read a total of 12 books and finished a crossword and Sudoku book
“And we take movies down there and your PSP [PlayStation Portable] works down there and my phone works — I can text Melissa,” he said.
His food is brought to him, the toilets are flushed for him and the water is turned on for him.
“Everything is handled from the outside for you in there,” he says. “All your living is monitored.”
Do you get scared?
“Yeah, you’re not human not to get scared,” he said. “When you get below 500 feet, life changes.”
Practicing in school will teach you, he explains, but not like on-the-job training.
“You practice in school. Schools have different things, some dive in tanks because they can control everything, and some take you out to a bay. It is a good stepping stone but you don’t really get into it — most of it is on the job,” Saranie says.
When the diver gets below 500 feet, half his body will be cold and half will be hot.
“Below 500 feet is miserable,” he says.
At 650, he explains, it is like walking around breathing through a straw all day.
“What you do is open your suit up and break all this out [chest area] and let the cold water hit my chest and the cold water slows your heart down,” he says.
He is being monitored at all times and operators can talk with him. He has a beacon strapped to his back and GPS monitors his every move.
“They can see where you are walking, they know how deep you are, they know where the crane is, where the boat is, where the bell is and, I mean, they know where you are at and they can tell you everything you need to know,” he said. “You got to get in your mental mind like George Burke said, that depth is tough.”
During penetration diving, Saranie has found himself scared. Penetration diving has only one way out — the diver is inside a pipe. So no matter what, he has to get himself out of the pipe before he can be brought back up. Saranie’s longest penetration was 2,800 feet.
Where you have seen my work
Saranie had worked on Nuclear One in Russellville. He was also a part of constructing a bridge going across Tampa Bay. He also has worked on the Las Vegas water system. Currently he is working in China and will continue to work there for six, possibly seven, more years. Four oil platforms have been built, but the company wants 10 more.
When asked if he sees himself doing anything else in life, with a hearty laugh he replies, “maybe on my days off.”
Saranie lives with his wife Melissa and daughter Nadia in Stuttgart.
Cement spill threatens Racha reef
RACHA YAI, PHUKET: A barge loaded with building materials almost capsized in Phlap Phla Bay off Racha Yai island early Thursday afternoon, causing the captain to offload 30 sacks of cement into the sea over an artificial coral reef.
Paitoon Praechaiyaphum of the Marine and Coastal Resources Department Region 5 office, who has visited the site, said that officials were mounting a clean-up operation but that some of the coral reef had begun to turn white and die.
Divers who surveyed the site found 10 sacks of cement in the water, as well as cement powder and stones covering the reef, he said.
Mr Paitoon said the barge operator was using the craft to store building materials for construction projects in Siam Bay.
A large wave hit the barge, causing it to list and allowing water to soak the sacks of cement, he added.
Fearing the barge would sink, the crew on board used a backhoe to scoop up 30 sacks of cement and drop them into the sea over the reef, making it easier to pump the water out of the hull.
After visiting the site, researcher Lalida Patchim of the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) said an initial inspection of the area showed that there were bags of cement around the reef.
Much of the cement had already hardened inside the bags and did not cause serious harm to the reef, though there was some blanching of coral as a result of exposure to cement powder, she said.
A quick clean-up operation would minimize the damage, she said.
The owner of the barge is co-operating with officials, understanding the need for a quick clean-up.
How Thunderball Underwater Shots Were Filmed
Interview with Jordan Klein to talk about his early career and his first brush with James Bond on “Thunderball”…
“Thunderball” is noted for its large-scale underwater sequences. How were these in pioneering and how is such a big production handled underwater?
It was amazing. We had 40 divers in one scene, plus camera and safety personnel. It was the good guys (in white) and the bad guys (in red and black) and the camera crew. That was truly incredible. We had trouble finding divers that understood quarter inch wet suits and their compressibility. Most would weight themselves to sink at the surface, as they went down they became heavier and went down rapidly, some with dire results like blown eardrums. So divers would jump in the water and we’d tell them, “OK trim yourself out and go to the bottom.” We had safety divers in the water watching them. All these hot-shot divers from up and down Miami and the coast of Florida came over and jumped in the water and ended up with about six blown ear drums and all kinds of problems. The rubber in the new suits was monocellular, so the water just compressed the bubbles it didn’t squeeze the air out. When you went down you would get less and less buoyant because the bubbles were being compressed in the wetsuit. The weight you put on the surface was about four times what you needed to stay at the bottom. Once they started down the suits provided less and less buoyancy which made the diver descend more rapidly, crashing to the bottom. It became a nightmare to get enough people. It took us over a week to get enough divers for the fight scene.
What were you responsible for on the Thunderball shoot?
My job as ‘Director of Underwater Engineering’ was to provide workable underwater props. The Bomb Carrier, as well as the Sleds, had to work almost every day. This required all 28 batteries to be charged, spears reloaded into the Bomb Carrier, all air ballast tanks had to be filled and any repairs had to be made. This took four technicians all night to accomplish.
You were back with the Bond team for “Live And Let Die” where you were responsible for shark wrangling. What aspect does this add to the production?
I was involved with the shark wrangling, yes. I did filming on that. In one scene there was a good guy and a bad guy and they were fighting away and I see a shark in the background. I think, “I don’t believe this!” The shark is coming and coming and I kept the camera running. Then the fighting guys both look and see the shark and they both stop fighting, watch the shark and then the shark swims by and they continue fighting. You couldn’t have set up that scene.
What goes into guiding the sharks and keeping the actors safe?
We had a pretty good system on shark wrangling that we started, I think, it was in that picture. After that there were a lot of pictures with sharks and we figured it out pretty quick. Ricou Browning was the Underwater Director on that, and he also wrote “Flipper” – he’s a true animal lover and likes to train them.
We ended up having a pretty good system. We knew how to release them to come toward the camera, to go away from the camera, to go up or down. It was very interesting.We understood the psychology of a specific shark after working with him for just a few minutes. The psychology was different for almost every one of them. Fortunately, we could out think them.
Having worked on both “Never Say Never Again” and “Thunderball”, which share plot elements and sequences, from your perspective and role, how did they differ?
“Thunderball” would have to be my overall favourite. I did the exact same thing on both of them. I built the underwater hardware and props and some of the sets. I started out doing filming and ended up operating the Bomb Carrier. As far as the excitement of shooting those particular scenes, and being involved, there were some of the scenes of “Never Say Never Again” that I enjoyed doing a lot more than “Thunderball” and vice-versa. The funny part that I remember during the shooting of “Thunderball” was that the word got out but I don’t remember how, was that “Thunderball” was going to be the first $100 million gross production! You can do that in a weekend now. Of course, $100 million won’t buy what it did back then.
How much did you work with the actors versus stunt doubles?
We worked with the actors – with Sean Connery and a lot of the girls. They had training but not too much time to get serious training. Connery really didn’t like diving all that much, but he was there for the important shots. The best part of the day was heading back to the dock after a day working with the girls. They would change out on deck as if they were one of the guys!
On the Bond productions, who is responsible for the direction or the over-all vision of an underwater sequence?
Ricou was the director – and he is the best wet director ever to do underwater – he’s not the kind of director to sit up there in a chair in the sunshine and talk about it. He’ll be the first in the water and the last out. He knows what he wants to see and then he’ll discuss it with the camera crew as to how it can be done. I did most of the rigging with a crew, pretty much at his direction.
What are some of the technical challenges filming a portion of a picture underwater compared with regular filmmaking?
What most Producers and Directors don’t consider when working on an underwater project – they don’t put themselves in an underwater environment. That’s a deadly sin for a director. The underwater camera is omni-directional, it can move in any direction, you can go backwards, forwards, do a 360-degree roll or invert yourself or all of the above at once. In production people don’t think that way. This makes production more costly and without the action they are seeking. The underwater camera can produce shots that can only be dreamed about on land.I think the camera underwater should be moving all the time to enhance the action. You can always enhance the action by moving away or back of following or passing by. The cameraman has to understand the physics of the whole thing, what he can and can’t do and the amount of time the scene is going to take. I feel very comfortable under these circumstances.
Are you currently involved in any film or television productions and if so what are your responsibilities?
I wrote a script while working on another picture in 1993. The name of it is “Whiskers” – which is a working title. It’s about a Sea Lion that is a “Fugitive”. None of the three S’s is involved – no sex, shooting, swearing – so it probably can’t be successful with what is going on in today’s market, but we’ll give it a hard try. I have interested parties saying that they’ve got the money and we can go to production very soon. That should be an interesting show and it’s ideal for a TV series.
