Scubaism

On 24 June, in Lincoln Nebraska, someone took off with $3,700 worth of scuba diving equipment from a yard shed. Police Capt. Jim Thoms said sometime between 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. in the 1600 block of South 24th Street, the burglar or burglars pushed in a sliding door to the yard shed to get inside and took a regulator, wet suit, fins and other scuba equipment. Police have no suspects.

Just one set of gear? If a guy is that desperate to dive, yippee for him. I don’t think the black market for diving gear is that big.

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The FBI have issued an advisory to the American diving industry to be on the lookout for suspicious behaviour. (As early as 2003, The Department of Homeland was already warning of scuba attacks.) The most recent advisory includes:

1. Requests for odd specialty training that are inconsistent with recreational diving, including requests to dive in murky water or sewer pipes and inquiries about specific procedures such as diver towing.
2. Requests to learn advanced skills associated with combat swimming, including use of re-breathers and diver propulsion vehicles (DPVs), deep diving, conducting kick counts and extra navigation training.
3. Requests for advanced diver training by applicants from countries where diving is not a common recreational activity.
4. Training sponsorship by groups or agencies such as religious organizations, cults, associations, or charitable agencies not normally associated with diving (Scubaherald: So, let’s be suspicious of any Swizz diver and YMCA divers…. .)
5. Volume purchasing inquires related to Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (SDVs) and Diver Propulsion Vehicles (DPVs).
6. Paying cash for diving instruction (huh?!) and refusal or reluctance to provide personal information.

To this list, I would also add:

1. Reluctance to learn how to ascend.
2. Reluctance to learn how to remove, clean and store gear.
3. Reluctance to learn how to deploy signaling gear.
4. Bulk purchases of scimitar-shaped diving knives.

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Customs officers at Kuala Lumpur’s airport seized 404 Indian Star Tortoises in April from an Indian national’s cabin luggage. The man was immediately deported to India and no charges were laid. The tortoises, scientifically known as “Geochelone elegans”, could have fetched up to $23,700 in total. The case underlines large-scale smuggling of tortoises and other endangered wildlife into and through Malaysia. But only 385 of the tortoises will make it to India as the remaining 19 have since died.

Native to the Indian sub-continent, the tortoise is distinctive, growing up to about 30 centimetres across the carapace, conservationists said. But it faces a number of threats: it is traded for food, used in traditional medicine (primarily in Asia) and kept as a pet in Asia and North America.

In India, it is illegal either to possess or trade the Indian Star Tortoise and the species is also legally protected in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, it said. According to the Turtle Survival Alliance, India has 28 species and subspecies of tortoises and freshwater turtles, making it one of the most diverse chelonian faunas in the world.

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Police have found the man who posted a video on Youtube of a group of beach goers who tortured an eagle ray to death on Rivera Beach in Palm Beach County, Florida.

On the video, a man is seen poking the ray with a knife and then cutting off its tail. The video was removed from Youtube by the poster on 19 June. But follow the newslink and you can watch a TV news report featuring clips from the video. The 90-second video had been posted on YouTube for nine months under the title of “Manta ray Peanut Island”.

Officials said bystanders laughed and encouraged the man to keep torturing the ray and some even stepped on its head. The animal died a slow death, officials said. State wildlife officials said they have found the man who videotaped the torture, but he claims he did not participate in the incident and even tried to call authorities after it happened. The man said the online death threats are all in response to the videotape.

Killing a protected eagle ray is punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine, according to a report. Anyone with information about this incident is urged to call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 888-404-3922.

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