Roughly 30 miles north of Whitehorse, Canada, divers have discovered a preserved stern-wheeler on the bottom of Lake Laberge.

The 108-foot A.J. Goddard sank on Oct. 22, 1901 in about 40 feet of water. Two crewmen survived and three drowned.

Doug Davidge of the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse found the gold rush time capsule during a sonar survey. He has been looking for it on and off since the 1980s.

The Instiute of Nautical Archaeology in Texas announced the find Monday.

"In 1901, a trapper camped on the shores of the lake saw Goddard’s tiny pilothouse, torn off the sinking steamboat, with two survivors, half frozen, clinging to it. He saved them. Three other crew members drowned, their bodies washing ashore to be buried by the Northwest Mounted Police. Diving on A.J. Goddard, it is as if these events happened yesterday," the institute said in a press release.

There are tongs in the forge on the deck and the framework of the tent the men slept in on the deck remains. There is an axe on the deck, along with a crewman’s coat and shoes. A cook pot was found in the mud next to the ship.

The steamboat was built in San Francisco, taken apart in Skagway and hauled over the mountains to Lake Laberge.

"The discovery has been reported to the Canadian government and the Yukon government, and the winter ice has once again sealed the grave of A.J. Goddard. A return expedition to continue the study of the wreck is planned for 2010, when the team will document the wreck further and probe its interior for further revelations about life on the gold rush frontier," the institute said.

Continue reading...

Cave divers are a breed all their own. Need proof? How many recreational scuba divers do you know that would spend almost a week, more than half a mile below the earth's surface, in one of the world's deepest caves?

Divers bravely went were no man had gone before in a bid to find a link between the colossal Aspoladeru la Texa and Cueva Culiembro caves in northern Spain for the first time ever.

Students from the Oxford University Caving Club spent six days and nights living in darkness while exploring the giant limestone chambers.

It was part of an ongoing project and six week trip to chart these giants caves and discover new rock formations.

"It is a very special place to be," said caving club member Fleur Loveridge, 32.

"You feel a long way from the entrance, but it teaches you self reliance and brings out good team work."

Continue reading...

Yes, you read that correctly. 11 years old.

Like many girls her age, 11-year-old Mee Rae Firkins will be taking part in a pumpkin carving contest this October. But unlike other girls, Mee Rae will be carving her pumpkin underwater, wearing 50 pounds of scuba equipment.

Firkins, a sixth grader at Burton Street Elementary, recently became a “master diver” at the age of 11. In doing so, she became the youngest scuba diver ever to achieve that distinction from National Aquatic Service, a Syracuse company that has taught about 36,000 students since it was founded 50 years ago.

To become a master diver, Mee Rae had to finish 50 dives and take classes in stress and rescue, night and low visibility diving, navigation, boat diving and dry suit diving. Since April, she has completed over 80 dives.

Last year, Sue Firkins wanted to get her entire family involved in a new activity. The entire Firkins family took classes in the fall, and waited until the weather was better to be certified. The family went to Little Cayman in the Caribbean for their certification, where Mee Rae dove with eagle rays, stingrays, barracuda and turtles.

Continue reading...

From UPI:

The warming waters of the Black Sea have attracted a poisonous species of jellyfish that is spreading along Turkey's coast, scientists said.

The new species has been drawn to the waters because the temperature of the Black Sea is becoming more like the Mediterranean, which, in turn, is becoming more like a tropical sea, said Snezhana Momcheva, a SESAME project coordinator in Bulgaria. SESAME is a European Union-funded study of ecosystems in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

Continue reading...

While shooting his latest comedy flick, Couples Retreat, Vince Vaughn admits that he had to overcome a lifelong fear of sharks.

The actor admits he was a nervous wreck at having to swim in shark infested waters off the Bora Bora coast for a stunt in the movie but managed to get through it without being eaten.

“I grew up around a lake so I was uncomfortable with what might be lurking in the water,” explains Vaughn. “There were sharks and we swam with them.

“It’s like anything in life. Once you get around something, you go, ‘Oh, this is kinda cool.’ But, originally, I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going in the ocean with a shark!’”

A good idea for times in need. Be sure to store this number in your cell phone.

Effective immediately, the phone number for the DAN 24-Hour Diving Emergency Hotline has changed. The new number is (919) 684-9111.

The change, dubbed “One Call,” is part of the continuing mission of Divers Alert Network® (DAN®) to increase the safety of divers. With the new hotline number, divers need only to call a single phone number to activate emergency services, regardless of what kind of emergency assistance is needed.

"Over the last few years, as the benefits and resources we provided the dive industry increased, so did the phone numbers to access the assistance," said Nicholas Bird, MD, vice president of DAN Medical Services. "Divers were getting understandably confused. By simplifying the process to a single phone number, we’ve given divers needing assistance one less thing to think about in a stressful situation."

The new number replaces the need to decide whether to call DAN, TravelAssist to facilitate emergency evacuation, or a medical facility. Simply call DAN at the new hotline number, and all emergency assistance will be triaged and facilitated from there.

"We had a goal this year to streamline our emergency assistance resources," said Dan Orr, president and CEO of DAN. "One Call is a huge step toward that goal, and it’s an extremely positive step in moving diver safety forward."

Continue reading...

And it only took ten years to bring the man to trial.

A prosecutor opened the trial of a Rhode Island man on Wednesday by accusing him of killing his wife while scuba diving in the British Virgin Islands to pursue a romance with another woman.

The director of public prosecutions in this British territory, Terrence Williams, said that David Swain knew a divorce would ruin him financially and he believed money from his wife's life insurance policy would help him win over his love interest.

"That dive was for this new woman," Williams told the nine-person jury.

The 1999 drowning of Shelley Tyre, 46, was initially ruled an accident. But authorities in the British Virgin Islands later charged Swain with murder after a 2006 Rhode Island civil trial found him responsible. Federal U.S. agents arrested Swain at his Rhode Island dive shop in November 2007 and he was extradited to Tortola.

Continue reading...

The invasion has arrived.

About 2,000 jellyfish washed up onto Oahu South Shore beaches on Tuesday morning, a city Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services Division spokesman said.

The box jellyfish washed up on shores from Waikiki Beach to Ala Moana Beach Park, the city said.

Lifeguards posted warning signs at Waikiki Beach and Ala Moana Beach Park.

Lifeguards treated 174 people with stings, mostly in the Waikiki area. Only one man who was taken to the hospital after he was stung because he had trouble breathing, officials said. He was in stable condition.

Continue reading...