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On Thursday, Feb. 11th, The Dive Club chalked up another wonderful event hosted at Ocean First Divers. Dr. Bill Clem of Colorado Hyperbaric Medicine gave a very entertaining and informative presentation on diving at altitude, the effects on a diver's physiology, hyperbaric medicine and recompression treatment. It was another great turnout and well-received. We were also excited to have Boulder Fire Rescue attend the event. Next month Professor Mel Cundiff from CU will be giving one of his brilliant presentations on Echinoderms. We hope to see you there!

The Dive Club kicked off 20 10 with one of, if not the largest, socials to date. Seventy-three people attended this presentation on Indonesia. Ocean First Divers' fearless leader, Graham Casden, began the evening with a recount of his five week trip to the Philippines and Indonesia this past October. Graham shared his photographs and most memorable experiences with an enthusiastic crowd. Amy Christopher followed with her best video production to date- a fifteen minute visual and auditory delight that highlighted her two week fam trip to Misool Resort in Raja Ampat. This was a fantastic start to the new year and a tremendous turn out for an event that has gained popularity month after month. We will see you next time!

We were very honored to close out 2009 with one of the best socials of the year. Louis Psihoyos came over to OFD from the Oceanic Preservation Society and talked for about an hour on his experiences leading up to, through the filming process and the post production of his award winning documentary THE COVE. Louis has a very natural story telling ability and kept the crowd enthralled with his tales of working for National Geographic, how he forged some of his more lasting relationships in the industry and the importance messages he hopes to convey through the film making process. Thanks to Louis and the rest of our presenters for 2009. What a fabulous year!!! We thank all Dive Club members for their continued support and look forward to a even more exciting year in 2010

The Boulder Public Library will begin offering Kill-A-Watt meters for check-out to patrons on Tuesday, December 15.  The program, called "Power Check", is a collaboration with Xcel Energy and the joint City and County ClimateSmart program.  Power Check encourages residents to use the meters in their homes and learn how much energy appliances and devices consume.  The meters include instructions for use.

The Kill-A-Watt meters will be available at the Main Boulder Public Library, as well as the Meadows and Reynolds branches.  The meters check out for three weeks and must be picked up at the front desks.  The meters can be placed on hold in the library system using a library card.  Users may search for the meters with "Power Check" in the library catalog.

"The Power Check program is one more clear way that your public library provides sensible resources for residents' everyday lives," says Library Director Tony Tallent.  "Through this program, we're building a new partnership with Xcel Energy and ClimateSmart, as well as helping our community members understand more about their own household energy use, and for the library patron, it's as easy as checking out a book!"

For more information, please visit www.boulderlibrary.org or call 303-441-3100.
 

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"Imagine what people would say if a band of hunters strung a mile of net between two immense all-terrain vehicles and dragged it at speed across the plains of Africa.... left behind is a strangely bedraggled landscape resembling a harrowed field... this efficient but highly unselective way of killing animals is known as trawling... it is practiced the world over every day, from the Barents Sea in the Arctic to the shores of Antarctica and from the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the central Pacific to the temperate waters off Cape Cod."
 

As the world's fishing grounds reach the point of exhaustion, it becomes more and more important to consider what our actions are on the next seven generations. Depleting all the fish in the sea could result in a hunger epidemic unlike anything the world has ever seen. Do your part to promote sustainable fishing and choose your meals conscientiously.

An excerpt from Sacha Greene's 10 for Change statement...

"We are new to the program and I have yet to get as involved as I’d like to be. At Ocean First Divers, environmental responsibility is built into our business model.  We consider our impact on the environment with each action that we take and we have adopted a sustainability initiative to help us focus on progress.  The “Ten for Change” program is a great tool to help motivate us and to help us track our progress.
 
We began by scheduling an energy audit through Xcel’s energy assessment program.  This audit allowed us to identify the low hanging fruit and provided us a starting point. The first step was to start shutting down our computers every night rather than just shutting off the monitors.  We also implement a zero waste program, we now keep enough refuse out of the landfill to cover a football field each and every year.   Next we installed low flow aerators into all of our faucets and shower heads along with tank blocks in the toilet tanks to reduce our water use. This was a very simple task that involved one trip to McGuckin’s and an hour of work.  We then had motion sensors installed into all of the commonly used areas (bathrooms, break room, storage rooms, etc.) to reduce our electricity usage, and then continued that effort with a full lighting retrofit.

With lighting retrofit alone we’ve saved:
—  3390 kWh over the lifetime of the 68 bulbs replaced
—  $7,116 total savings

Which equals:
—  6475lbs  of carbon offset
—  14 trees planted
—  5763 gal. of river H2O kept free from mercury poisoning
 
We’ve been working extensively with Standard Renewable Energy who’ve been instrumental in helping us create a short and long term plan for greening our facility. We contracted them to tune our HVAC units quarterly and to install hail guards to ensure that they run as efficiently as possible.  They also helped us program our thermostats so that we’re not heating or cooling our building when no one is there! 
 
Our next step is to take advantage of the county’s ClimateSmart loan program. We have big plans in store to get our facility as off the grid as possible! Our key to success/improvement thus far is always to have the next few steps planned out and to look at the footprint of everything new (and old) that we do. We are very lucky to have a small and incredibly cooperative staff who are all fully committed to our sustainability plan. Without their full involvement we could never achieve our goals. 
 
We also have committed to offsetting the remainder of our carbon footprint, including all of the trips that we lead, through forestry and carbon credits done by Sustainable Travel International.  This commitment not only allows us to invest in new, greener technologies but also helps us quantify our impact.  Having the dollar numbers in our faces each month helps to keep our impact on the front burner and awareness alone helps us cut back."
 

Packed house! This might have been our biggest meetup yet. John Weller drew a crowd of about 80 people, evident by the fact that we had standing room only for over twenty guests. What an amazing presentation! John has an incredibly contagious passion for diving, Antarctica and preserving the last few precious resources our oceans possess. With stunning imagery and narrative eloquence, John put on one of the best received presentations ever. Join his campaign to preserve the last untouched wilderness area left, the Ross Sea, at http://www.lastoc.... Next month is customer appreciation on Dec. 11th and Louie Psihoyos on Dec. 15th. Let's go diving!

Ocean First Divers has the unique opportunity to share a special viewing of a new documentary film, A Sea Change, on October 24 here at Ocean First Divers. 

A Sea Change is also a touching portrait of Sven’s relationship with his grandchild Elias, as he mulls over the world that he is leaving for future generations. A disturbing and essential companion piece to An Inconvenient Truth, A Sea Change brings home the indisputable fact that our lifestyle is changing the earth, despite our rhetoric or wishful thinking. 

A Sea Change is the first documentary about ocean acidification. While emphasizing new scientific information, the feature-length film is also a beautiful paean to the ocean world and an intimate story of a Norwegian-American family whose heritage is bound up with the sea.

Please join Ocean First Divers on Saturday, October 24^th at 6pm for a special screening of this beautiful, poignant film and help us celebrate the International Day of Climate Action.

Date: Saturday, October 24
Time: 6 - 8 pm
Cost: FREE
Please RSVP by September 21 to 303-444-7234 or info@oceanfirstdivers.com
 

On Tuesday, the opening day of dolphin-hunting season, marine mammal specialist Ric O'Barry (right) and his son Lincoln stand near a cove where fishermen often kill dolphins in Taiji, Japan.

This week marked the opening of dolphin hunting season in Japan. During the six-month season, thousands of dolphins are corralled into narrow coves and captured for sale to aquariums or amusement parks. Those not captured are killed for meat. But this year, something different happened.

After Taiji's annual dolphin hunt was covertly filmed for a documentary, the little fishing village has suddenly found itself at the uncomfortable center of a media spotlight.

Police and fishermen in Taiji don't allow filming of the hunt, part of the villagers' everyday lives. But a team of activists and filmmakers went undercover to shoot the footage, telling their story in the 2009 documentary, The Cove.

Since its release, the documentary — which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival — has spurred an international outcry. In one case, Taiji's sister city — Broome in Western Australia — suspended its relationship with Taiji for as long as dolphins continue to be killed.

This week, activist and Cove star Ric O'Barry went back to Taiji for opening day of dolphin season. He was accompanied by a group of international journalists.

But this time, he didn't see any dolphins being killed. He didn't even see fishermen on the water.

That day, he blogged, "Today is a good day for dolphins."

While he's optimistic, O'Barry tells Weekend All Things Considered host Guy Raz that he isn't sure how long this will last.

The hunters are trying to figure out what to do, he says. They're thinking, " 'Should we go out? Should we be exposed? The world is watching.' And so far, they haven't killed any dolphins."

"I'm hoping it's over," O'Barry says, "that they'll just give up and stop killing dolphins." But he concedes that the future is cloudy. "We don't know what's going to happen. It's a day-by-day thing here. We just don't know."

The Cove is currently playing at the Starz Film Center in Denver until September 17.
Click here for more information and movie times.
 

When: Thursday, September 10 at 6:30pm
Where: Ocean First Divers
What: A great presentation along with snacks and beverages and raffle giveaways
Cost:  FREE EVENT

Join us as we host Rich Woulfe with the Manthiri luxury liveaboard, which is based in the Maldives.  A chain of about 1200 islands just south of India, the average elevation of these spectacular islands is a mere 7 feet above sea level.  Rich will discuss diving with whale sharks, huge schools of manta rays, and hundreds of different species of fish which call the Maldives home.  Don't miss this great presentation!

When: Wednesday, September 16 at 6:30pm
Where: Ocean First Divers
What: A great presentation along with snacks and beverages and raffle giveaways
Cost:  FREE EVENT

For our second social in September, Ocean First Divers will host Dr. Alex Antoniou from the Shark Research Institute.  Alex has led SRI field expeditions and filmed whale sharks in the Bay Islands (Honduras), Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), LaPaz (Mexico) and Cocos Island (Costa Rica), and Thailand, conducting both visual ID and satellite tagging of whale sharks.  In October 1999, his presentation of SRI’s work in Honduras and quantifying the value of the species to the local economy directly resulted in protection of whale sharks in Honduran waters.  Alex will also discuss his work tagging Great White sharks off of Isla Guadelupe near the Mexican Baja.  Come find out how you can get involved in this important research project!
 

Want a preview?  Visit www.sharks.org today.

Ocean First Divers is proud to invite Dan Goldan from South Metro Fire and the Boulder Emergency Squad to our August 13 social. OFD has a long history of working with our local rescue squads. Dan and his crew will be sharing information on Public Dive Safety and will have their rescue van and equipment on display. Kids are welcome to all OFD events!

Time: 6:30pm

Light refreshments will be served.

RSVP: info@oceanfirstdivers.com

Global Dive Operators Receive Environmental Honors

Project AWARE Foundation honors dive operators around the world who display commitment and excellence in their efforts to protect underwater environments within business operations and their community.

Project AWARE Foundation Chairman, Dr. Drew Richardson recognizes the importance of the scuba diving community taking its part on protection of global ecosystems. “The Environment Achievement Award is about rewarding vision, excellence and pursuit of conservation. More importantly, this award ensures the enjoyment of underwater environments for future generations," states Richardson.

Ocean First Divers is the ONLY only dive shop in the world to have earned this award every year running.  We operate in an environmentally responsible manner and demonstrates an outstanding commitment to conserving underwater environments through education, advocacy and action.

ECO Operators and Official Partners are committed to sustainable business practices and pledge to follow the ECO Operator guidelines.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/10/the-world-needed-to-see-what-i-was-witnessing/

I broke the surface having just completed the last day of diving on some of the most incredible reefs I had ever seen. Floating in the deep blue waters, I looked around and surveyed the dozens of forest covered limestone islands that surrounded me.

This was truly one of the most beautiful places on earth. I was filming the reefs in Raja Ampat off the western tip of Papua in Indonesia, one of the most remote and biologically diverse marine ecosystems on the planet.

Cruising back to our camp, we noticed a small fishing boat anchored in a shallow lagoon within the protected area. Curious, we decided to investigate. As we drew near, we made a grizzly discovery. On the blood soaked deck, covered with buzzing flies, were dozens and dozens of shark fins that had recently been sliced off of small reef sharks.

Looking into the water, an odd shape at the bottom caught our attention. Immediately we identified it as the body of a shark. It took all my willpower to control my feelings of anger and frustration. And then I recalled, where sharks should have been abundant on every protected reef, we had not seen sharks the entire week. Now it was clear why. It was also immediately clear what I had to do.

The world needed to see what I was witnessing.

Flipping my video camera on, I documented the gruesome reality of what lay strewn before me: the fins, the blood, the flies, grisly contradictions to these magnificent surroundings.

Loading my camera into my underwater housing, I threw on my snorkel gear and slipped into the water. Below me strewn across coral reef were a dozen, dead juvenile reef sharks rolling gently with the current. Descending down, my stomach turned as I saw the blood seeping from wounds where their fins had been. These beautiful sharks had been ruthlessly sliced and thrown overboard to drown, killed just for their fins.

After filming all I could stomach, I returned to the boat. Enraged, I wanted to do something. Certainly this reckless harvesting must be illegal. Our guide Andy then informed me that the fisherman had presented a legal shark fishing permit which for $30 granted him the right to fin sharks for 30 days. Quick math revealed 10 sharks per day times 30 days, or 300 sharks for $30.

Ten cents a shark!

This was the price for the life of each of the juvenile reef sharks below me on the reef. But what was the cost on the marine ecosystem and the local community that depended on it?

Something changed in me that day, something that would grow inside and drive me to dedicate my life to ending the short-sighted destruction of marine environments and first and foremost, by halting the shark fin trade.

So much of what I have learned about the oceans, I have learned while diving and filming. Much of what we watch, read and hear about marine life is only a shadow of the reality. For many people, the closest they come to this world is a seafood restaurant or sushi bar.
Take sharks for instance, one of my favorite subjects. We are taught to believe sharks are mindless killers, that even a drop of blood will send them into a feeding frenzy and that most species of sharks are “man-eaters”.

These myths couldn’t be farther from the truth. I have drifted with schools of over 500 hammerhead sharks and watched as 100 reef sharks formed hunting packs at night. I have knelt within touching distance while a dozen bull sharks, some more than 1000 pounds and 11-feet long, fed on fish. In all my dives with sharks, I never witnessed a deliberate attempt by a shark to injure or kill.

Sadly, however, I have also watched sharks disappear from the oceans. Sharks were once plentiful, but they have effectively vanished from all but a few remaining sanctuaries. And even within these “sanctuaries” they are being systematically targeted and killed for their fins. Fins!
Fins make up less than 3-5 percent of a sharks’ total mass, the other 95 percent is either thrown back in the ocean or used as a cheap by-product. Only small strands of cartilage from the fin are used, the rest discarded as trash. These cartilage strands are boiled and used as a flavorless thickener, like thin noodles, in a watery soup flavored by chicken stock. Shark Fin Soup.

Once popular on special occasions among the ultra-elite in Asia, the recent economic boom in China coupled with intense marketing by the shark fin trade, has fueled an explosion in demand for the soup.

More than 100 million sharks are killed every year primarily for their fins. In the past 20 years, many of the great shark species populations have been reduced by more than 90 percent. If nothing changes, sharks are hea
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In celebration of Earth Day 2008 on April 26th, the staff and friends of Ocean First Divers cleaned up a 2 mile section of Colorado Highway 119 (Boulder-Longmont diagonal). Dodging the spring weather for a few hours we managed to collect 30 bags of rubbish before we celebrated at our BBQ.

According to officials at CDOT in 2005 "Taxpayers realized a $1.5 million dollar savings through the Adopt A Highway, Sponsor A Highway and prisoner litter programs."

Ocean First Divers is proud to support our community and invite you to join us for the fall 2008 cleanup. Contact us at info@oceanfirstdivers.com.

Ocean First Divers partnered with Ecologic Designs to provide reclaimed wetsuits for the manufacturing of Eco-conscious products. Ecologic Designs uses the neoprene for their line of bags and soft goods. OFD initiated the partnership by creating a wetsuit trade-in program whereby customers could bring in old wetsuits and get a credit towards the purchase of a new suit. Ecologic Designs added their own incentive and is offering 15% off their product line for anyone participating in the trade-in program. Old suits are then collected and donated to Ecologic Designs for the manufacturing of Eco-conscious products. OFD recently expanded the program to include the other local dive shops, helping to ensure that almost all old neoprene in the Boulder diving market is reused. Have an old, worn out wetsuit? Thinking of upgrading to Thermaprene? Do your part and drop off your old suit at your local dive shop and keep neoprene out of landfills. For more information on Ecologic Designs and their Eco-conscious product line, visit http://www.ecologicdesigns.com.

Global Dive Operators Receive Environmental Honors

Project AWARE Foundation announces Environmental Achievement Award Recipients.

Project AWARE Foundation honors dive operators around the world who display commitment and excellence in their efforts to protect underwater environments within business operations and their community.

Project AWARE Foundation Chairman, Dr. Drew Richardson recognizes the importance of the scuba diving community taking its part on protection of global ecosystems. “The Environment Achievement Award is about rewarding vision, excellence and pursuit of conservation. More importantly, this award ensures the enjoyment of underwater environments for future generations," states Richardson.

Ocean First Divers, the only Colorado Dive shop in 2007, and the ONLY only dive shop in the world to have earned this award every year running.  Ocean Fist Divers operates in an environmentally responsible manner and demonstrates an outstanding commitment to conserving underwater environments through education, advocacy and action.

https://www.projectaware.org/shares/EcoOperators/

The 4th annual beach cleanup yet first as Ocean First Divers was a big hit on the 29 of September at the Boulder Reservoir.

Four divers were in the water looking for anything that doesn't belong there. The rest of us were patrolling the beach and surrounding grounds for the same. All in all it was in good shape yet many bags of rubbish were captured or recycled.

Thanks to everyone who participated and we look forward to seeing you next year as we do our part to the environment clean.

Many off the shelf cleaners contain a host of dangerous chemicals.  Each time you use them you risk the health of yourself, your family, and your environment. Common household cleaners contain ammonia, chlorine, and formaldehyde. These chemicals are not necessary to clean your home effectively.  In fact, they are a prime cause of health problems and environmental issues.

Ocean First Divers’ frustration finding reliable cleaning services that use green cleaning products came to an end when the company hired Clean Conscience, Boulder’s premier cleaning service that’s safe for people, pets and the planet.
Do you, your family and the environment a favor and clean with green products. For more information on Clean Conscience, visit http://www.cleanconscience.net

Last year the Colorado Department of Transportation spent $5.6 million dollars to remove 145,478 cubic yards of trash from the highways. Of that, almost 49,000 cubic yards were removed through the Adopt A Highway, Sponsor A Highway and prisoner litter programs, savings taxpayers $1.5 million. As a taxpayer, you have a say in how the funds are appropriated. Disposing of litter in trash receptacles and recycling commingles and paper products helps to prevent litter from finding its way onto our interstates.

On July 15th, 2007, Ocean First Divers adopted a two-mile stretch of highway at mile marker 50-52 between Longmont and Boulder in an effort to keep our community clean and reduce the taxpayer’s significant annual expenditure on litter removal. Do your part to ensure that trash and recyclables end up in their appropriate receptacles. For more information on adopting a highway, visit http://www.dot.state.co.us/AdoptAHighway/index.cfm

On July 16th, 2007, Ocean First Divers took the next step in reducing our organizational footprint when we adopted a Zero Waste Program. This new and exciting arrangement aims to increase the amount of recyclables at the business while reducing our trash.

This program entails dividing refuse into four distinct categories: compostables, commingled containers, mixed paper and trash. This division of waste allows almost everything to be recycled or composted and the end result is very little trash. Currently, Ocean First Divers has a two cubic yard container for mixed paper, a sixty-four gallon bin for commingled containers and compostables and a sixty-four gallon container for waste. As this program gains exposure, the company first hopes to reduce our waste until it’s as close to Zero Waste as possible. For more information on Western Disposal and their recycling policies, visit
http://www.ecocycle.org/

“The new owner of a Boulder scuba-diving shop aims to reduce the environmental impact of the excursions it organizes to take divers beneath the seas.

Graham Casden, who recently bought Boulder's venerable Scuba Joe dive shop and tour operator, plans to add solar panels to the shop, remodel the facility with recycled materials and buy enough carbon credits to offset the emissions of all the planes, boats and automobiles used in the scuba trips it organizes.

The environmental consciousness is a way to tap the loyalty of area divers concerned about the deteriorating state of the seas. It's also being done out of a sense of responsibility to the planet and the hope that the scuba industry will follow its lead, Casden said.

"We want to make companies that aren't doing this stuff an anomaly," said Casden, a Boulder resident.
On June 2, Casden's 30th birthday, the shop officially will change its name to Ocean First Divers and throw a grand opening party.

Casden arranged to buy the dive shop at 3015 Bluff St. months ago. Since then, he negotiated the purchase of the 7,500-square-foot building for $950,000.

The sale of the Scuba Joe store comes four years after its founder, David Cain, died on a dive trip to an island off the coast of Colombia. His son Michael Cain and widow, Linda Cain, owner of the Cain Travel company, took over.

Casden, a California native who became immersed in diving over the past decade and was a Scuba Joe regular, one day asked store manager Amy Christopher and educational director Bob Ross whether the shop's owners would sell.

Talks developed, and the transformation of Scuba Joe — with Christopher, Ross and the rest of the six-person staff staying on — will be complete with its "re-launch" next month.

Casden's purchase comes at an interesting time for the industry.

Scuba diving has struggled to regain its strength following the national decline in travel after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The number of new divers picking up the sport nationally has shrunk, according to the Boulder-based Leisure Trends recreation and sports market research firm.

The lean times sparked consolidation in the $726-million-a-year industry, said Jason Gee, director of retail sales tracking for Leisure Trends.

Shops in Colorado have largely avoided the industry troubles, he said.

Gee suspects it's because shops in land-locked Colorado have always had to work harder to hold divers' interest, and that makes them better at it, he said.

The shop's impact could be widespread, he said.

Ocean First Divers, like Scuba Joe, is one of the few dive shops that trains other scuba instructors. Ross said the store plans to ingrain the importance of an environmental consciousness in its curriculum for diving teachers, who then hopefully will pass it on and help keep the undersea world healthy for future divers.

"We want to do this for a long time, not just a weekend and then it's gone because we spoiled it," Ross said.”

For the complete Daily Camera article, click on the link below.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/22/with-an-eye-to-the-environment-scuba-shop-going/