Meeting Location

The regular meetings of Patowmack Divers are at Traditions Restaurant at the Holiday Inn, 625 First Street, Alexandria on the first Wednesday of the month.
All meetings start at 7:30 pm unless otherwise specified.

Click here to get an excellent map of the meeting location

Click here to get a zoomable map from Yahoo (printable).

Upcoming Presentations

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

David Alberg  –  NOAA Monitor Sanctuary & Diving Laws Dave serves as NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary superintendent and contact at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA. He joined this program in the fall of 2005. He has been involved with the conservation of thousands of artifacts recovered from the wreck of the USS Monitor, and also with the cultural resource management and exhibit development for this high-profile shipwreck. For his program, Dave will discuss the possible expansion of the Monitor Sanctuary, and also discuss some of the maritime laws that cover shipwrecks and the implications this might have for divers who explore these wrecks.

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Dr. Esat Atikkan –  “Diving Freshwater in West & SW U.S !”

Selected Recent Meetings

April 2010

Dave asked for volunteer divers to help him locate, investigate, and identify some of the various submerged "targets" he will be investigating this up-coming season.

For more information on IMH, visit their web site http://www.maritimehistory.org

February 2010

Larry Gordon: Top 10 Photos From Top 10 Dive Sites. Patowmack Divers Larry Gordon will show pictures from some of his favorite dive sites: St. Vincent, Cozumel, Puerto Rico, Saipan, Palau, Gallapagos, Chuk, Bonaire, and more.

August 2009

Dr. John Ware: "Reefs in the Greenhouse"
Many of you are aware of the evidence that indicates increasing levels of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is resulting in global warming. But are you aware of how global warming is affecting the overall-health of Earth’s oceans? Dr. John Ware is a certified scuba diver and dive instructor with a background in engineering and marine biology. As an extension of his personal interest in scuba diving and marine biology, Dr. Ware has compiled a presentation titled “Reefs In The Greenhouse” that provides evidence for global warming, and also describes how global warming will likely affect marine-life in the world’s oceans. While the main focus centers on how warming impacts reef-life, he also discusses other issues such as run-off and nutrient loading, and the combined or synergistic effects that all of these have on marine ecosystems. This presentation was last shown at a Patowmack Divers meeting about 4 or 5 years ago, but because of Dr. Ware’s participation in conferences and his own personal research and observations, he continually up-dates his presentation to provide the latest information on this subject. He will, of course, answer question during and after his slide presentation. Dr. Ware is the Treasurer for, and a member of, the Council of the International Society for Reef Studies. He is also involved with on-going studies and research with the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) and the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF).

April 2008

Dr. Zaid Fadul will be the guest speaker at April’s dive club meeting. Dr. Zaid has travelled around the world (Caribbean Islands, Red Sea countries, etc.) to practice medicine. While he was at many of those islands and countries, he had the opportunity to sneak some diving into his free time activities. He took some pictures, and he is also developing a Reef Fish & Creature ID system called SCUBA.dic to help divers identify fish and other creatures.

February 2008

Esat Atikkan and Zeki Findikoglu: Esat and Zeki will show pictures and discuss underwater ecology.

Esat is also teaching a course of Coral Reef Ecology for Divers at Montomgery College in the Spring 2008 semester.

Learn marine ecological principles and elements currently impacting the marine environment. Examples will be drawn from coral reefs, coastal ecosystems, and the open sea. The impact of development, fisheries, and other anthropogenic factors on those systems will be discussed. Tuition waiver applies; seniors pay fee only.

Additional Information: This is a non-credit class designed for those interested in the marine environment, particularly coral reefs. Material is presented to make the topic ‘practical’ for hobbyists, scuba divers, snorkellers and all those interested in the marine environment. It concentrates on the reefs of the Caribbean and Florida, their formation, development, and unfortunate decline, the various relationships, interactions and behaviors among reef residents, reef builders and reef visitors, including humans. The approach is a systems one, where the relationships across the various zones of the reef are discussed in an attempt to bring out the unity. Part of the time will be devoted to the identification of common species of invertebrates and fishes, as well as to techniques of improving ability to approach and observe the reef.

Lecture 1: The coral reef, coral reefs of the Caribbean and Florida, Reef zones, physical factors and biological factors that define reef zones Lecture 2: Adaptations, relationships: symbiosis, predator-prey,
Lecture 3: Invertebrates, plants and contribution to overall system
Lecture 4: Fishes: identification, guilds, behavior, ontogeny
Lecture 5: Human factors, field trip prep

For more information: http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/ or http://www.naui.com/events_more.php?ID=246

November 2007

Curt Newport: Deep Sea Salvage and Exploration
Curt Newport from the deep-sea salvage and exploration firm Phoenix International will talk to the club about his line of work. He has participated in numerous high-profile undersea operations such as the search for the Space Shuttle Challenger, TWA 800, the broadcast of live images from the sunken ocean liner RMS Titanic, as well as many other classified missions involving the loss of military aircraft and weaponry. In particular, he organized and led an expedition to locate and recover Virgil I. Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft. He succeeded in finding the tiny capsule on May 1, 1999 and recovering the space-age artifact from waters 16,043 feet deep later that year. He also led an expedition to the Philippine Sea during a search for the Heavy Cruiser USS Indianapolis (covered by Discovery Channel in 2001). In addition, Newport found and documented the deepest wooden shipwreck ever discovered (a 19th century merchant ship lost in over 16,000 feet of water) in June of 2001.

August 2007

Trevor Corson -- Author of The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean and also The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket, will discuss two of his most recent book. Since, as divers, we come in direct contact with lobsters, Trevor’s presentation will focus mostly on all the interesting aspects of the life of the American Lobster. The presentation will include great underwater video footage and discussion on the lives of lobsters, lobstermen, lobster industry, lobster scientists, etc. As a spin on the scuba/underwater theme, Trevor will also include a discussion about his new book on sushi, which includes a mini-tour of a number of interesting sea creatures, as well.
More info about The Secret Life of Lobsters can be seen at http://www.secretlifeoflobsters.com/
Trevor’s website can be viewed at http://www.trevorcorson.com.

July 2007

Mark K. Ragan, author of the books Hunley: Submarines, Sacrifice, and Success in the Civil War and Submarine Warfare in the Civil War, will visit the Patowmack Divers to discuss his research and work on these subjects. Mark spent years combing factory records, archives, and log books to help raise and restore the civil-war era experimental submarine CSS Hunley, which sank the USS Housatonic during a daring nighttime operation. Mark also owns his own 2-person model #K-250 dry submarine, which he offers lessons in how-to-use and operate in the area of Annapolis, MD (Chesapeake Submarine Services, Inc).

June 2007

Dr. Dwayne Meadows: "Riding the World's Biggest Wave: Stories of the Survival and Recovery of People and the Marine Environment from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami" This is the story of how Dr. Meadows, a marine ecologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, ended up getting a 1 mile ride from the Indian Ocean tsunami. After a three day scuba diving vacation trip, he stayed the night in Khao Lak, Thailand; the worst hit part of Thailand where 80% of the 10,000 deaths in that country occurred. At the time of the tsunami he was in a bungalow 50 feet from the ocean. His group of 1,000 survivors was cut off from assistance for over one day. This presentation is the story of the survival and recovery of many people during those horrible days. Dr. Meadows' will also discuss how he used his experience in marine debris removal and coral reef ecosystem restoration to aid the recovery of the marine environment. Since the tsunami he has returned twice to Thailand to advise and assist in three projects throughout the country.
To help with the recovery in Thailand, look at 4Kali.org which is named after one of the victims of the tsunami.

April 2007

Gloria Freund: Patowmack Diver and Photographer

Gloria will show her photographs from Lembeh and Gangga, Indonesia. Expect lots of little critters and stories about muck diving.
Also, we'll have a report on our recent Pasta Pigout coordinated by Bruce Baker and hosted by Steve Halbert.

February 2010: South Pacific

A group of divers are going to the South Pacific for two weeks of diving

February 2009: St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

A group of divers went to St. Vincent for a week of critter diving. There's not a lot of big stuff in St. Vincent, but with Bill Tewes and Dive St. Vincent we saw tons of small fish and other critters such as seahorses.

January 2007: La Parguera, Puerto Rico

For some us, this was our third dive trip to Puerto Rico in three years. La Parguera is on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico about as far from San Juan as you can get. The reefs are in beautiful condition and La Parguera Divers runs a great boat. We stayed at Posada Por La Mar, which is about 10 feet from the dive dock.

November 4-11 2006: Cozumel

Diving "Dive Paradise", where the dive master goes down with us (for safety and to point out interesting things). The week of November 4-11 includes Veterans Day holiday. I stayed in this Villa in December 2004; it is very nice, spacious, comfortable, and relaxing. Each villa has a large kitchen/dining/living area, in addition to the bedrooms.

Labor Day Weekend 2006

We dove with Olympus Diving in Moorehead City, Wreck Capital of North America. Tropical Storm Ernesto canceled diving in Saturday, but Sunday and Monday were fun. Water temps were in the 80s. The visability was only about 25 feet. We did all our dives on tha Papoose.

January 7-14 2006: Mona Island, Puerto Rico

Club members spent a week on the Nekton Rorqual diving around Mona Island, which some call the Galapogos of the Caribbean. Mona is located between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

August 13-14, 2005: Morehead City, NC

We made our annual dive trip to "Wreck City" also known as Moread City. Water temperatures were in the low 80s and visibility approaching 80-100 feet! We're planning our return for 2006.

March 19, 2005 - Pasta Pig Out

OK, it was not a dive trip, but it's almost as fun! The 2005 Annual Pasta Pig Out was hosted by the Gordons.

January 15-22, 2005 - La Parguera, Puerto Rico

On our trip to La Parguera, Puerto Rico where we dove with La Parguera Divers. Puerto Rico is an undiscovered dive destination. Diving around Puerto Rico is largely undiscovered. Diving on the north shore around San Juan is not exciting, but the other areas such as the southwest are great. Water temperature was around 80 degrees and the visibility was a little under 100 feet. We saw a variety of critters including the usual suspects such as angels and nurse sharks. There were also sitings of octopus, squid and shrimp. We did 12 dives during the days plus 2 night dives.

There was also some excellent snorkling around mangrove islands.

April 2003 - Cozumel

We did 15 dives (1 night dive) while in Cozumel. Our day off was spent in Tulum and Playa del Carmen. El Foco is now the official purveyor of Patowmack Divers. A good time was had by all!

June 22, 2003 - Virginia Beach

Although the seas were a tad rough and the boat ride long, Eric D., Eric S., Guilhem M., Bob B., and Dave O. made it out to the Eureka and had relatively warm waters and decent vis, albeit we were buffeted by a 1-1.5 kt current. Some of us need to get scooters :) !

October 11-12, 2003 - Morehead City, NC

Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Isabel, this trip was blown out :( . However, we have rescheduled and are headed back to Morehead City on Oct 11-12! We are diving with Olympus and hope to get in at least 2 good days of diving over the Columbus Day weekend.

October 4-6, 2003 - California Kelp Forest Dives

We went diving with Psalty Adventures, an outfitter out of San Pedro, CA. We flew out Friday Oct. 3, 2003, stayed on the boat that night and headed off for a three day cruise in the morning. The boat is a fast six-pack, and we visited some prime dive sites around Catalina Island. October is lobster season in California, so we might partake in that too. I've got a really good lobster recipes. Water temperatures were in the mid-60's.