Yet another celebrity made enviro-documentary has hit theaters. This one by Jack Dawson himself; Leonardo DiCaprio, entitled "The 11th Hour".

"With help from more than fifty of the world's most prominent thinkers and activists, including reformer Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, The 11th Hour documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed. However, the most powerful element of The 11th Hour is not that it portrays a planet in crisis, but that it offers hope and solutions. The film ends with a call for restorative action through reshaping human activity."

This movie hit theaters in mid-August.

I watch Shark Week on the Discovery Channel and always thought it interesting that the Guadalupe Island Great Whites travel hundreds of miles to Hawaii and are rarely seen. Seems new information may suggest that they pass the Hawaiian Islands up for a 'secret' mating ground in the Eastern Pacific Ocean; over 1500 miles east of the baja peninsula. The study appears in the latest issue of Marine Biology.

Read an article here.

Darin and I met up at Vista Pt., Lake Pleasant in search of the deep wall and railroad tracks that lie beyond; or so we've been told. We geared up to go deep but didn't make it that far as by the time we hit 65' we were diving by braille. Maybe in a month or so as the water cools and viz improves we'll try again, viz continues to be awful in the lake.

Amazingly enough this was my only dive of the past month in the lake...

Dive #151
8/15/2007
Time In: 08:53
Viz: 0-10'
Bottom Temp: 67F
Bottom Time: 00:40
Max Depth: 63'
Buddy(s): Darin

Headed to OCal to grab my kidz and get some diving in. I've had my new Steel X8-119 for some time now and yet to suck it down, so Saturday Larry and I met up at Wood's Cove in Laguna Beach, he with his 130 me with my 119.

Conditions weren't great, viz was marginal and there was some strong surge. We attempted to find the outer reef structure but ended up just finding alot of sand, so kept most of the dive around the 30-35' range and the near shore reef. Dive time just short of 2 hours.

Sunday met up with Ruth and Larry at Shaw's Cove since Diver's was all full. Had a nice dive, the inner reef was too surgy to navigate so spent some time just inside the arch saw lots of octos a few eels and hopkins roses. Went out a little past turnaround rock and made our way back. Dive time and hour and a half on the nose.

Monday I headed to Diver's Cove knowing there would be nobody there. I wanted to dive this site to see the bat rays and perhaps some leopard sharks. As I was buddyless this was the first opportunity to put Laguna Beach's new less restrictive rules into effect and do a solo dive. There were some lifeguards on the beach with the Jr. Lifeguards doing swims, PT, etc. but nobody in the tower when I entered. Viz was awful, surge was huge, but I saw more than a dozen bat rays, one scaring the ----- out of me as I was inspecting a crevice in the reef only to look up in time to see it coming right for me and glide by missing my mask by inches. Of course the camera battery died 10 minutes into the dive, so very little proof. After about 40 minutes I decided I'd had enough of battling the surge and started to head in, as I passed over a reef I came upon a huge bat ray, as long as I was, with probaby a 5-6' wingspan, very cool. I exited without a problem with a lifeguard in the tower now, who paid me no mind but returned my wave.

Dive #148
7/28/2007
Time In: 09:02
Viz: 10-15'
Bottom Temp: 63F
Bottom Time: 01:54
Max Depth: 45'
Buddy(s): Larry

Dive #149
7/29/2007
Time In: 09:07
Viz: 10-15'
Bottom Temp: 68F
Bottom Time: 01:30
Max Depth: 40'
Buddy(s): Ruth & Larry

Dive #150
7/30/2007
Time In: 09:06
Viz: 5-7'
Bottom Temp: 71F
Bottom Time: 00:46
Max Depth: 27'
Buddy(s): SOLO