Sunday, August 12, 2023
Temperature: 96
Humidity: 73%
Precipitation: Sauna soon come
Category Archives: Scuba Diving
‘Scuber’ Dive Gear-Share App Debuts On Blacktip Island
A Scuber delivery driver unloads two sets of scuba diving equipment for divers at Blacktip Island’s Spider Bight Thursday. (photo courtesy of Piers ‘Doc’ Plank)
A Blacktip Island entrepreneur announced Wednesday the introduction of what he is calling a ‘scuba dive gear-share app’ designed to provide rental scuba gear within minutes to shore divers anywhere on the small Caribbean island.
“This addresses a growing need on Blacktip,” Piers ‘Doc’ Plank said. “People lollygag to the beach, realize it’s a perfect spot to dive, but they don’t have any scuba gear so they’re out of luck. But now, they just type their info into our app, and we drive the gear out to them.
“We’re calling it ‘Scuber,” Plank said. “It gets their location from GPS, and folks can track our delivery vehicle in real time. Then, after the dive, they just tap the ‘done’ tab, leave the gear by the roadside and we come pick it up.”
Early testers praised the service.
“We entered what gear we needed and our sizes, and 10 minutes later we were wading into the water, ready to dive,” Palometa Fischer said. “We wanted to travel with just carry on, and weren’t sure we would dive at all. Then we biked along the east coast, and the sea was so calm and beautiful, we knew we had to give it a go.
“Scuber had two complete sets of dive gear to us in less than 15 minutes,” Fischer said. “After the dive, we just toweled off, left the kit for them to pick up and biked back to the resort. Worked great, and we’d certainly use them again. It’s the perfect service.”
Scuber is not without its detractors, though.
“It took them half an hour to get to us, when the app said 3 minutes,” Kenny Chromis said. “That’s a long time on the roadside, baking in the hot sun. Then, when we hooked up the gear, the regs free-flowed and the BCDs wouldn’t hold air. And because of some kind of legal gobbledy-gook in the terms of service, they wouldn’t give us a refund. They get zero stars, across the board.”
The service has also come under fire from island scuba charter businesses.
“Doc’s siphoning off divers that would otherwise be on our boats, in our rental gear,” Eagle Ray Divers’ operations manager Ger Latner said. “It’s legal, but it’s dirty pool. Blacktip’s too small for this sort of thing. Folks in the dive industry, well, we won’t be buying, or promoting, any of his Bamboo You dive gadgets anymore. And we damn sure won’t be working as his gear delivery drivers.”
Plank was unconcerned by the criticism.
“This is something new. People are always afraid of that,” he said. “Sure, we’re still working out the kinks, but people have to understand this is the wave of the future. Instead of criticizing Scuber, dive ops ought to be figuring out ways to incorporate it with their existing dive product. First one to do that stands to make a ton of money.”
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Blacktip Island Weather
Sunday, August 6, 2023
Temperature: 95
Humidity: 72%
Precipitation: Not today
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Genetically-Modified Mosquito Project Goes Awry on Blacktip Island
An experiment with genetically-modified, sterile mosquitoes on Blacktip Island has inadvertently increased the mosquito population on the small Caribbean island. (photo courtesy of Alvesgaspar)
A plan to release a genetically-modified, non-biting species of mosquito, aimed at decreasing Blacktip Island’s mosquito population has instead drastically increased the population, island authorities announced this week.
“The idea was for our modified, sterile, mango-eating mosquitoes to interbreed with the non-sterile extant mosquitoes to drive down that population,” Mosquito Control Unit chief Dusty Bottoms said. “Something went wrong, though, and it turns out when the two species breed, they create new, super-aggressive bloodthirsty mosquitoes.
“The problem was made worse by the efforts we made to help people differentiate between the good and bad mosquitoes,” Bottoms said. “Basically, part of the genetic modification process was to add a bit of firefly DNA to the mix to show the flashing mosquitoes weren’t harmful. But instead of flashing mossies meaning safety, they’re like tiny biological tracer rounds coming at you from everywhere.”
Island residents were outraged by the project.
“These new mosquitoes are an absolute terror,” Leigh Shore said. “They’re aggressive and hungry for blood. And there’s more and more of them every day. And near as I can tell, they like bug spray. They’ll swarm into clouds of it.
“Dusty and them need to be horse-whipped for creating these little monsters,” Shore said. “You can’t go outside anymore. And at night, mosquito netting helps, but all the flashing still keeps you awake. The only positive about ‘em is you can see ‘em coming and whack ‘em with a flyswatter.”
Others took an I-told-you-so approach.
“Doesn’t anyone read, or watch. science fiction anymore?” Belinda Graysby said. “This is basic ‘never do that’ stuff. Experiments like this never work out as planned, and almost always create a greater problem. It’s straight-up the old ‘who’s scarier, the monster or the person who created it?’ scenario.”
The island’s Mosquito Control Unit is attacking the new threat with all available resources.
“We got both our people out there with cans of bug spray, working 12-hour, alternating shifts so wo can attack the mosquitoes day and night, 24-7,” Bottoms said. “Problem is, these new ones are attracted to insecticide. And pissed off by it. We’re working up new sprays to put a dent in their numbers. So far a mix of Windex and iguana urine’s showed promising results.”
Island officials are taking extreme steps to protect visitors.
“We’re urging everyone to stay in their rooms, and we’ve wrapped all island bar areas with netting,” de-facto island mayor Jack Cobia said. “We also built tunnels to get folks out to the dive boats, since the skeeters won’t go more than 20 yards or so offshore. Long, term, we may have to lodge guests on the boats the whole time they’re here. Create mini-liveaboards, if you will. In the meantime, the flashing lights are quite popular with our guests.”
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Blacktip Island Weather
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Temperature: 94
Humidity: 74%
Precipitation: Finally
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Aggressive Boobies Terrorize Blacktip Island Residents
A flurry of recent attacks on people by usually-docile red-footed boobies has much of Blacktip Island on edge this week. (photo courtesy of Peter Wilton)
Blacktip Islanders this week are taking steps to safeguard themselves from attacks by protected red-footed booby birds along the small Caribbean island’s northwest coast road, authorities said.
“We don’t know why yet, but boobies along that stretch of road by the Booby Preserve have been swooping down and pecking at people’s heads,” Island Police Constable Rafe Marquette said. “It started with runners, then bicyclists and now casual walkers. Boobies are usually quite docile. I’ve never seen anything like this.
“We’re cautioning the public to avoid that section of the island, if possible,” Marquette said. “If you have to go up there, please wear a helmet and protective eye wear. We’ll get this sorted out, but until then, we ask people to use common sense. If that’s possible on this island.”
Experts offered varied explanations for the attacks.
“One school of thought is it’s nesting season and the boobies are protecting their young,” Blacktip Island Birding Society President Hoot Parrett said. “But they nest every year, and this’s never happened. We’re also researching the effects the current wave of extreme heat has on seabirds. The scorching hot weather may be making them more aggressive.”
Others see the attacks as part of a more ominous trend.
“Those boobies’ve been pushing their range for a while,” Peachy Bottoms said. “Used to be, they’d only nest on the far side of the booby pond, away from the road. Lately, though, there’s more and more of them nesting on this side. It’s pretty clear they’re expanding their territory, and are now protecting it.
“This is the problem with declaring them a protected species, and all that land being a booby preserve,” Bottoms said. “Their population’s grown too big for that parcel, and now they’re staking claim to more and more of the island. This keeps up, Blacktip won’t be livable. Conservation’s all fun and games until it turns into a Hitchcock movie.”
Some residents vowed to fight back.
“They’re a protected species until they try to peck my eye out,” Christina Mojarra said. “Then it’s game-on. I take a tennis racket with me when I walk up that way. Any of those suckers swoop at me, they’ll get strained through cat gut.
“We need to go on the offensive, big picture,” Mojarra said. “Cut down all the trees on this side of the pond, force the boobies back across the water. They’ve got to learn, having a protected sanctuary’s a right, not a privilege.”
Others, however, welcomed the attacks.
“I go up that way on purpose all the time,” Gage Hoase said. “If one of them kills me, that guarantees my tombstone will read, ‘Attacked by Boobies.’”
Filed under best scuba diving novels, Caribbean, Scuba Diving
Blacktip Island Weather
Sunday, July 23, 2023
Temperature: 95
Humidity: 74%
Precipitation: Nope. We’re roasting.
Filed under best scuba diving novels, Caribbean, Scuba Diving
The Blacktip Times 