Newsletter

The next meeting is the Annual General Meeting which will be held at the Conservation Centre, 120 Wakefield Street on Wednesday 16^th May commencing at 7.30pm.

After the general business and elections, we will have a break.

Following the break we will be viewing some more of David Muirhead’s slides taken on his recent trip and other dives. Anyone else with slides is invited to share them with us.

Under our constitution nominations for Committee have to be published in this Newsletter. They are as follows:

As there are only the required number of nominations , no election should be necessary if the nominations are approved at the AGM.

People for non-committee positions can be nominated at the meeting.

HMAS Hobart

L’Uranie

18^th Dec 2000

Mr D Kitto

Senior Infrastructure Planner

South Australian Tourism Commission

Adelaide

Dear Mr Kitto,

On behalf of the Scuba Divers Federation SA Inc. and all other concerned parties I would like to thank you and your department for your efforts, on going commitment and dedication, to the Hobart project. Our members and the general diving community understand the complexities of a project such as this.

As chairman of the SDF I represent the states diving clubs and a significant proportion of the divers in South Australia. Once completed, we see the Hobart project as providing a great benefit to the State's tourism industry.

The SDF submission regarding the management of the Hobart dive site is as follows

1. The maximum number of buoys be acquired that funds and placement logistics allow and these be made available for commercial and recreational use on a 50/50 basis.
0. We wish to see the entire vessel opened up and made safe for access by all divers with suitable experience. All recreational divers have undergone training via suitable training agencies allowing them to dive within their competency standards. We feel that due to the nature of the dive training divers should be allowed access below decks, if they have been suitably trained and feel confident in their own ability. Signage should be placed upon the relevant access points warning divers not to proceed without the correct level of training and equipment.
1. There is a distance around the wreck (we suggest a minimum figure of 200 metres) declared as a no anchoring zone.
2. We suggest a maximum mooring time of 90 minutes be placed upon the buoys.
3. We suggest the WA model for time on the site is followed. This system is one of Day/Monthly/Yearly passes costing $20/$40/$80 respectively. Passes are displayed on the boats. On the day boats wait their turn to move onto a vacated buoy.
4. Permits be available for purchase at multiple points to make acquisition as easy as possible.
5. Once sunk the ship will require minimal further maintenance with the exception of the buoys which will require some maintenance, therefor we suggest the funds from the permit system are allocated to ongoing maintenance.

This management plan is a draft and should be revisited in the light of experience on a regular basis after the Hobart has been sunk and, if it is appropriate, changed.

We look forward to fruitful and continuing dialogue with you on this project that will be a boost for the South Australian diving scene and has the potential to attract many divers from interstate and overseas.

Yours Faithfully

Peter Koszegi

Chairman

Scuba Divers Federation of SA

In two of my articles in our February Newsletter (No.274) I mentioned Louis de Freycinet, Commander of L’Uranie between 1816 – 1820. The articles were "Quoy & Gaimard" and "More Early Naturalists". Since I wrote those articles I have received further information from Tony Flaherty at the Marine & Coastal Community Network. Tony’s "Wetstuff" e-mail included the following information regarding Freycinet’s ship L’Uranie.

ABC Online Thur, 1 Mar 2001 10:07 AWST Western Australia

A major expedition has been organised in an attempt to locate two lost ships used by early explorers to the Western Australia coast. William Dampier and Louis de Freycinet extensively explored the state's coastline in 1699 and 1817 respectively. Dampier named several places, including Shark Bay, and produced a natural science collection of the area. The Maritime Museum has organised the trip, which will set off this month for the Ascension and Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, where the ships, Roebuck and Uranie went down. President of Shark Bay shire Les Moss says the expedition will bring positive tourism benefits to the region. "If the trip succeeds, then obviously we’ve got a lot of diplomatic work to do with the British and French governments with regard to the raising of materials from the wreck and where those materials will be displayed. It will be a huge spin off."

© 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

I first wrote about the wreck of the Star of Greece in our September 1985 Newsletter (No.99) when it was a proposed alternative dive site that month. We ended up doing our dive on the wreck so our next Newsletter in October (No.100) included more details about the wreck. I wrote some more details about the wreck in our August 1988 Newsletter following the centenary of the shipwreck. Here is a quick review of details of the wreck.

The Star of Greece was a three-masted iron clipper ship built at Belfast in 1868. The ship was 227 feet long and sailed quickly around the world. She had been carrying wheat from Port Adelaide to the U.K. when she became wrecked at Port Willunga early in the morning of 13th July 1888. Seventeen lives were lost, making it one of SA's worst shipping disasters. There is a long, drastic story about the sinking and there is at least one book about the tragedy ("The Tragic Shore" by Geoffrey H. Manning). I, myself, keep a file of details about the wreck and it includes some photos of some of the artifacts held by the SA Maritime Museum at Port Adelaide. The reason for me reviewing this subject is that I recently discovered a tragic new part to the story of the wreck.

It seems that at the end of June 1888 the Star of Greece had just brought a 22-ton gun (7m long 9" breach loader) to Port Adelaide. The gun was to be installed at a fort being planned for Glenelg. The tragedy is that the fort was never built and two weeks later the ship left the Port only to sink at Port Willunga on Friday the 13th of July. Its fate could have been quite different had it not had to bring the unneeded gun to SA. The gun apparently sat in sandhills for something like a quarter of a century. It was never fired and just became obsolete.

Now for a quote from my 1985 dive report:- "When our contents gauges reminded us that we are mere mortals we were forced to leave the wreck to the lucky fish".

At the March General Meeting the subject of the Hemp Group and their proposed association with the Conservation Council was discussed. Coincidentally I had just received an update of Diving Medicine on Line with an item on the subject of marijuana and diving. I reproduce it here for your information - Editor.

Our article in the DAN March issue of ‘Alert Diver’ has brought some debate about the side bar containing information about not diving while using marijuana. This information was taken from our web page on marijuana and diving at http://www.gulftel.com/~scubadoc/marij.html

and is based on the following information and references:

To my knowledge, there are no studies on the use of marijuana and diving. The assumptions that have been made are those that a reasonable person would have to take into consideration when deciding whether or not to dive while taking the drug or when deciding whether or not to allow a person to dive while one is knowingly taking the drug.

"The main active chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). In 1988, it was discovered that the membranes of certain nerve cells contain protein receptors that bind THC. Once securely in place, THC kicks off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the high that users experience when they smoke marijuana. The short term effects of marijuana use include problems with memory and learning; distorted perception; difficulty in thinking and problem-solving; loss of coordination; and increased heart rate, anxiety, and panic attacks.

Researchers have found that THC changes the way in which sensory information gets into and is processed by the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a component of the brain's limbic system that is crucial for learning, memory, and the integration of sensory experiences with emotions and motivations. Investigations have shown that neurons in the information processing system of the hippocampus and the activity of the nerve fibers in this region are suppressed by THC. In addition, researchers have discovered that learned behaviors, which depend on the hippocampus, also deteriorate via this mechanism.

Recent research findings also indicate that long-term use of marijuana produces changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term use of other major drugs of abuse.

Someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems as tobacco smokers. These individuals may have daily cough and phlegm, symptoms of chronic bronchitis, and more frequent chest colds. Continuing to smoke marijuana can lead to abnormal functioning of lung tissue injured or destroyed by marijuana smoke.

Regardless of the THC content, the amount of tar inhaled by marijuana smokers and the level of carbon monoxide absorbed are three to five times greater than among tobacco smokers. This may be due to the marijuana users’ inhaling more deeply and holding the smoke in the lungs and because marijuana smoke is unfiltered.

Recent findings indicate that smoking marijuana while shooting up cocaine has the potential to cause severe increases in heart rate and blood pressure. In one study, experienced marijuana and cocaine users were given marijuana alone, cocaine alone, and then a combination of both. Each drug alone produced cardiovascular effects; when they were combined, the effects were greater and lasted longer. The heart rate of the subjects in the study increased 29 beats per minute with marijuana alone and 32 beats per minute with cocaine alone. When the drugs were given together, the heart rate increased by 49 beats per minute, and the increased rate persisted for a longer time. The drugs were given with the subjects sitting quietly. In normal circumstances, an individual may smoke marijuana and inject cocaine and then do something physically stressful that may significantly increase the risk of overloading the cardiovascular system.

A study of college students has shown that critical skills related to attention, memory, and learning are impaired among people who use marijuana heavily, even after discontinuing its use for at least 24 hours. Researchers compared 65 "heavy users," who had smoked marijuana a median of 29 of the past 30 days, and 64 "light users," who had smoked a median of 1 of the past 30 days. After a closely monitored 19- to 24-hour period of abstinence from marijuana and other illicit drugs and alcohol, the undergraduates were given several standard tests measuring aspects of attention, memory, and learning. Compared to the light users, heavy marijuana users made more errors and had more difficulty sustaining attention, shifting attention to meet the demands of changes in the environment, and in registering, processing, and using information. These findings suggest that the greater impairment among heavy users is likely due to an alteration of brain activity produced by marijuana.

Longitudinal research on marijuana use among young people below college age indicates those who used marijuana have lower achievement than the non-users, more acceptance of deviant behavior, more delinquent behavior and aggression, greater rebelliousness, poorer relationships with parents, and more associations with delinquent and drug-using friends.

Research also shows more anger and more regressive behavior (thumb sucking, temper tantrums) in toddlers whose parents use marijuana than among the toddlers of non-using parents."

http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/marijuana.html

Effects of Marijuana and Other Drugs: Updated Summary With References

http://www2.druginfo.org/orgs/dsi/Marijuana/MarijuanaMenu.html

Here are some more references:

Babies born to mothers who use marijuana during pregnancy have an eleven-fold increase in nonlymphoblastic leukemia. (Robison LL et al. Cancer 63:1904-1919, 1989)

In males, marijuana diminishes testosterone production and lowers sperm counts. In females, marijuana disrupts hormone cycles. (Gold MS. Marijuana, NY:Plenum Medical Book Co., p. 69-71)

Marijuana contains some of the highest cancer causing substances known. Marijuana contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, acetone, benzene, toluene, vinyl chloride, dimethylnitrosamine, methylethylnitrosamine, benz(a)anthracene, benz(a)pyrene, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and many more. (Huber, Gary: Pharm.Biochem.Behavior Vol.40. P.630, 1991. National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine report, Washington DC 1982, Marijuana & Health 1982)

Marijuana smoke produces airway injury, acute and chronic bronchitis, lung inflammation, and decreased pulmonary defences against infection. Smoking one marijuana cigarette leads to airway deposition of four times as much cancer-causing tar as does tobacco smoke. (Tashkin DP. West J Med 158:635-637, 1993)

Cases of cancer, including cancer of the mouth, tongue, larynx, jaw, head, neck, and lungs have been reported in young marijuana smokers. (Donald PJ Otolaryn Head & Neck Surg 94:517-521, 1986. Ferguson RP et al. JAMA 261:41-42, 1989. Taylor FM. South Med J 81:1213-1216, 1988, Donald PJ Adv Exp Med Bio 288:33-46, 1991)

Marijuana causes decreased resistance to diseases such as herpes. (Cabral GA et al. Proc Soc Exp Bio Med 182:181-186, 1986)

In a recent study of blood samples taken from 1441 impaired or dead drivers across Canada, marijuana was found in 38% of the samples. The study underestimates the drug use because in a number of cases, if alcohol were found, drug analyses may not have been done. (K. Wayne Hindmarsh, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Manitoba, Wayne K. Jeffery, R.C.M.P. Police Forensic Lab)

Marijuana causes many mental disorders, including acute toxic psychosis, panic attacks, flashbacks, delusions, depersonalization, hallucinations, paranoia, depression and "uncontrollable hostility". (Jenike MA. Drug Abuse. In:Rubinstein E, Federman DD, eds, Scientific American Medicine, NY:Scientific American, Inc., 1993)

A roadside study of reckless drivers not believed to be impaired by alcohol found that 45% tested positive for marijuana. (Brookoff D et al. New Eng J Med 331:518-522, 1994)

Marijuana has long been known to trigger attacks of mental illness, such as bipolar (manic-depressive) psychosis and schizophrenia. It has been shown that marijuana users are six times more likely to develop schizophrenia than are non-users. (Andreasson S et al. Lancet 2:1483-1485, 1987)

Marijuana is a "gateway drug". Children who smoke pot are 85 times more likely to use cocaine than non marijuana users. (Joseph A. Califano, Jr., President of The Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse)

Marijuana and tobacco comparison. Marijuana and tobacco cause at least the same amount of injury to the airways, pulmonary function, and lung immunity.

http://www.drugwatch.org/Documents/DWEV.html

Cognitive dysfunctions in chronic cannabis users observed during treatment - an integrative approach. By Thomas Lundqvist.

http://www.drugwatch.org/Documents/HNNPress95.html

A list of references

http://www.drugwatch.org/Documents/dyktam.html

April 2000 to March 2001 has been a very eventful time. Much activity and progress for the Society has been achieved.

Several members are now contributing a variety of articles for the Newsletter. This makes my other job of Editor much easier. The Newsletters are being widely distributed and are being very well received. One example is that of John and Jenny Ayliffe from the Kangaroo Island Marine Centre who have decided to assist MLSSA by sponsoring the postage costs for our Newsletter.

The 2000 Journal became a very large edition owing to a large number of late articles. It has now been decided to only produce a Journal when we have sufficient articles to hand without putting undue pressure on members and non-members alike.

General Meetings have been well attended, with excellent speakers contributing their expertise on many varied subjects. I must thank everyone who has spoken at a meeting for the giving of their time. I must also thank the Conservation Council and their staff for allowing us to use their facilities.

The third edition of the MLSSA calendar has been very successful with almost all the print run of 1000 being sold. Plans are underway for the 2002 production for which we have a PIRSA grant of $550 for the scanning of the slides to be used.

The Photo Index continues to expand. 200 slides are now in the fish section with a steady expansion of the Invertebrate section. Several organisations have used the Index during the year.

Much of the fish section is on our Website, which has been revamped by Liz Raymond and Danny Gibbins over a period of several months. It has a new, more user-friendly appearance. Plans are being made to expand the site this year. Thanks must go to Ralph Richardson for organising the hosting of the site which has been a bit of a problem at times. The site is now linked to the SA Government Information website.

The Jewels of the Sea (JOTS) project has begun. A first progress report was published in the January newsletter with the second to be published soon. We have made steady progress compiling the elements of the 6/7 kits with the version of the teachers guide for South Australia being written by Tony Isaacson.

Members attended several workshops and conferences and assisted at others during the year. Members also gave talks to various groups.

The reverse side of the coin/year reveals a continuing problem. Despite the appointment of two diving officers very few members are taking advantage of the planned MLSSA dives. I can only exhort you to consider our dive programme as a priority this year.

After the best ever Edithburgh long-weekend last year there was no support for the event this year.

We were unfortunate enough to have to pay 2 GST payments before succeeding in deregistering.

As Phil was overseas there was no MLSSA exhibit at the Adelaide Royal Show. Our policy is to only exhibit tanks when we are able to show them under ideal conditions. Nobody else in the Society had the required equipment available.

To finish on a brighter note, we were all pleased to seethe Leafy Seadragon proclaimed the State fish emblem. This followed a concerted campaign by MLSSA and many other groups. Our next aim is to get the Weedy Seadragon protected in South Australian waters.

I thank the members for their continuing support for the Society and look forward to another great year.

Well, another year has gone already! Where did it go? The busier that you are, the quicker time flies by. All of our committee members have been busy in their own ways. Philip has now been our President for 6 ½ years. Well done Philip. Phill McPeake has now been our Treasurer for 10 ½ years. Congratulations Phill. I myself have been SDF Rep for 12 ½ years. The ½ year bit comes about by a change of month for our AGMs. David has been a Committee Member for almost 6 years and Chris for 2 years. The two Phil(l)s and myself have been on the committee one way or another for most of our 20plus years membership. Although I have been Secretary before, I have now been the Secretary for the past 6 years.

Philip and myself also have other positions within the Society. We also all have other interests and involvement with other groups too, so we are very busy people. It’s no wonder that the years fly by. Philip has now (officially) been our Editor for 4 years. He makes sure, under all sorts of difficulties, that we publish a monthly newsletter and an annual journal. Thanks Philip. The rest of the committee help out in any way that they can with jobs such as printing (Phill) and article writing (Chris, David and myself). Thanks fellahs. I see that Alex and Tony in particular also helped out by writing articles and reports. Thanks guys.

As Secretary, I am now responsible for organising guest speakers for our meetings. We didn’t have too many during the past year since Philip, David and Chris often showed us slides. Alex gave us a talk one night. The only other guest speakers that we have had were Karina Hall, Hemant Chaudhary and Pat Harbison. Many thanks to all of these people.

Production and sale of calendars has been a time consuming exercise. Thanks to those who put in the hard miles. Our Journal for 2000 was our 18^th.

JOTS has been a big job for the Steering Committee, especially for Tony. Thanks everyone.

Then there has been the Beach Wash Guide project. It has had to take a bit of a back seat sometimes but progress has been made on it.

Events such as the Reefwatch marine invertebrate workshop and KESAB cleanup Australia day have been well supported by MLSSA members, especially Tony, Alex and myself.

I couldn’t go to the BBQ for Voronica Whitney-Robinson myself but understand that it was attended by other MLSSA members.

Phill and Liz helped me with a computer and e-mail programme. Thanks to them both. Thanks also to Philip for keeping me informed (and on my toes) through his e-mails.

We continued to have a good relationship with organisations such as the SA Museum, Conservation Council, Marine & Coastal Community Network and Scuba Divers Federation thanks to liaison by our members. I wasn’t able to attend many SDF meetings this year for one reason or another. The SDF have been busy with aspects of the Hobart, proposed dive standards and insurance for clubs.

We, ourselves, have been lobbying to have the Weedy Seadragon protected like the Leafy.

A donation from John and Jenny of Jenny Clapson’s Gallery on KI for our newsletter postage was much appreciated.

Unfortunately, we didn’t improve on the number of our diving trips to any great degree. I hope that this will change soon.

I am taking care of our library although storage space is a bit of a problem for me. Thanks to our committee for the various donations of material during the year.

Our Photo Index continues to grow larger and is now open to contributions from the general public.

Thanks go to people like Liz, Danny, Ralph and Philip for their work on our website and web page.

From my point of view this past year has been a very successful one for MLSSA. JOTS has progressed well and should be a great success when launched later this year. Thanks to those that gave their time and effort to assist Tony. We all look forward to seeing the finished product.

The Beach Wash guide is still progressing slowly and requires more articles. I must confess to not having contributed as much as I promised. Due to other commitments I have not been able to do so.

I think the Calendar has been a great success too. The new format especially. Everyone I’ve spoken to agrees. It is a shame we didn’t manage to sell them all and I hope all club members will make more effort this year including myself. It really does promote SA’s marine life.

The guest speakers have all been very informative and interesting, thanks to Philip and Steve for organising them.

I have completed an article on diving at Rapid Bay Jetty and finally sent it away with photos, hopefully to be published in an overseas dive magazine. If successful this will be followed up with some more articles and gives us a little overseas exposure.

The only concern I have is the lack of participation by members in club activities and I guess I’m at fault here too. I would like to see more people turn up for our club dives and maybe the MLSSA committee organise a few more weekends away diving, socialising, etc.

Lastly I’d like to thank the committee for a job well done and to those that have ably assisted us. This year would not have been as good without their efforts.

I hope this coming year is as good as the last or even better.

PS. I hope to get a new housed-camera system this year so you might see a few more quality slides from me.

2001 approximates to the number of times this committee member hopes to return to Pearson Island before he joins the carbon cycle. Coincidentally it also signifies the year in which we MLSSA have chosen to consolidate our presence in the increasingly dynamic local marine environmental community – through ‘liason by committee’ eg. Reefwatch, SDF, seagrass – roots diving (eg. Society Dives, definitely an improving scene, and also a little Museum Magic – or did I already drop that ‘Pearson’ word ?!) and, not least, another great Calendar effort. And all the while, behind the scenes the JOTS juggernaut rolls relentlessly on, towards its exciting climax.

Looking from within, I see that MLSSA’s traditional focus on conservation has been bolstered by the tireless work of our small but growing number of members with qualifications in marine biology and related disciplines who have strengthened our credibility in the diving community.

Yes, we are serious about conservation – but our meetings and activities remain fun, and there’ll always be room for the dabblers and amateurs like myself – so come along and enjoy, folks!

I enjoyed seven dives at Port Noarlunga reef in the past twelve months. Each of the dives were different enough and the visibility varied from poor to very good. I always enjoyed the fish life there, especially Long-snouted Boarfish and Rainbow Cale. The Advertiser of 15^th January had an article about the Port Noarlunga reef. The article said that thousands of people inspect the reef at low tide, descending from a ladder at the end of the jetty. I thought that much of this had now stopped since the jetty now falls short of the reef. The article also referred to the underwater trail markers with glass plaques. I don’t know about all twelve markers but some of the first few plaques seem to have been removed now. The article also said that more than 50 species of fish are found around the reef. My article in our MLSSA Journal No.5, December 1994, reported 67 species at the reef. The article went on to say that silt significantly damaged the reef as a result of a dredging operation at Port Stanvac. It said that the reef is slowly improving. It is looking better now than it did late last year.

An e-mail from a PhD student was read out at our July 2000 General Meeting. The student was Bob Wong, a student at the Australian National University’s Division of Botany & Zoology. Bob said that he is studying the reproductive ecology of Australian pipefishes. He points out that pipefishes are highly specialised for paternal care with males carrying and nourishing the developing embryos. He says that this phenomenon of male pregnancy is sometimes accompanied by a reversal in the usual direction of sexual selection. The males are choosy and females compete with one another for mates and are more brightly coloured. He says that this situation offers scientists the best opportunity for testing our understanding of sex differences and mating system evolution. I believe that Bob has agreed to publish the results of his studies in our MLSSA Journal. I see, however, that according to Project Seahorse, Amanda Vincent’s research showed that seahorses are not sex-role reversed in any sense. She found that the males compete more to get pregnant than females compete to give their eggs away. Seahorses have strict fidelity to one partner and scientists are wrong to speculate that the females compete for opportunities to mate.

The Conservation Council of SA and three of its committee members (current President Margaret Bolster, Richard Owen and past President - Prof David Shearman) are being sued by private developers Tom, Wendy and Andrew Chapman, in a major defamation action in relation to the Hindmarsh Island Bridge matter.

The legal action is an outcome of CCSA’s long term efforts to protect the River Murray estuary and Coorong Ramsar listed wetland.

The trial has been set down to commence on 2^nd July for six weeks of hearings, in the Supreme Court. We need to raise a further $50 000 to be defended in court.

This is the third time CCSA has been sued by the Chapmans, but this will be the first time a case has come as far as trial.

CCSA has already gone to great lengths to defend this highly complex case - being successful thus far in having a third of the original claims struck out or withdrawn.

The ongoing effect of this law suit has been to significantly constrain CCSA in its ability to campaign for SA’s environment. The implications for the whole conservation movement in Australia, should developers be successful in suing a state’s peak conservation body, are immense.

A national appeal has commenced, to all Australian conservationists, to assist CCSA to fend off this action, and in doing so to assert the rights of community groups to comment on matters of public concern.

Your donation to our "Legal Defence Appeal" will enable the Conservation Council to mount a strong defence and stop a dangerous precedent being set. The next 4 month’s preparation is critical for the future of the Conservation Council, and those officers being sued.

For more information on the case, contact Michelle Grady, CCSA Executive Officer, on 8223 5155 at <executive@ccsa.asn.au>