Stifle Verb: To prevent something from happening, being expressed, or continuing. Example one: “She barely stifled a yawn as he droned on.” Example two: “The parliament stifled dissent by jailing the opposition.” I joined a school of fish in Palau for a photo opportunity.
Elide Verb: To suppress or alter a sound, a word or other fact. Example one: “in the word “ain’t” we elide the r and the o sounds from are not.” Example two: “while singing the praise of government action the press elided the consequence of the new dependency.” The photo is again from Palau in 2015. A large friendly fish the name of which I have forgotten. In this description I elided the fact that the fish was begging to be fed.
Aphasia Noun: Loss of ability to understand or express speech, most often caused by brain damage. Example: “Just because you can’t remember anyone’s name doesn’t mean you are suffering from aphasia.” Photo is a semi wild donkey (burro) in Grand Cayman taken in 2006.
“When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.” Friedrich Nietzsche
While in Roatan Scuba Diving at Coco View Resort in April there was a concerted effort going on to Kill the Lion Fish. They were deputizing divers to join the hunt and training them to kill. All this to restore the reef back to what it was like in roughly 1975.
The attempt to eradicate Lion Fish is hubris of the first order. It won’t succeed.Read More »The International Lion Fish Sanctuary
In April I went diving in Roatan, Honduras with the Codger Divers. We had a great trip with excellent camaraderie and very good diving. CoCo View was the first place the Codgers dove back in 2003. As far as I can tell the reef is still as healthy sixteen years later but there are less fish. The big changes are not climate change. They are Lion Fish, an invasive species from South Asia that eats all the reef fish and has no natural predators, and Cruise Ships, an invasive species from the First World that homogenizes the culture and destroys the ecosystem. Read More »Invasive Species
We call it the Nanny State and don’t like it because as it attempts to make you safer it becomes intrusive and takes away freedom of choice. But if you call it the Concierge State it sounds pretty good. Same intrusions and limited choices but with an attitude of helping and positiveness. I’ve had three examples of the concierge state this year. First was on my dive trip to Palau with Brock in January. It was a live aboard boat where everything was taken care… Read More »The Concierge State
I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges?
