We had a fun time at the Scuba Show, it was great to meet so many new people and see old friends (and thank some of our generous sponsors in person!). Hope to see you at the next meeting, July 19th at the Natural History Museum!

So what was exciting at the show? Well, in the humble opinion of your webmaster, I was excited by:



The SeaTool HC3 housing for the High-Definition Sony HD Handycam HDR-HC3, available from LAUPS sponsor Reef Photo-Video. It's a small housing, with plenty of features on the adjustable handle. The viewfinder mirror is on a ball joint, allowing you to see the display from any angle, above or behind the camera. All the video shooters who saw it were drooling over it.





The Atomic Aquatics AtomicVision Frameless mask. It's incredibly low profile, the glass is very close to your face, ideal for seeing through your SLR housing. The picture of the mask case gives you a better idea of how thin this mask is. Try one on, it really is different. Locally, Reef Seekers and Sea D Sea have them.




The H2O-D Leek water detector from Ocean Brite Systems. At only $20, it's a perfect addition to any clear housing:

Your prayers have been answered! It can be done automatically!

BubbleRings.com

Well, the Japanese and other pro-whaling nations did manage to win one vote: to pass a resolution stating that the moratorium on commercial whaling was meant to be temporary and is no longer needed. Pro whaling nations had the simple majority required to pass this resolution, but lacked the 75% majority needed to actually end the moratorium on commercial whaling.

According to articles, Japan is hoping to reform the commission and return it to what it sees as the commission's original mandate: regulating sustainable hunting, not only to harvest whale meat, but also to restore fish populations and reduce the pressure whales put on fish stocks.

Japan takes the helm at world whale talks - Yahoo! News

CNN.com - Small nations lead vote to resume commercial whaling - Jun 18, 2006

This year's International Whaling Commission meeting, going on now in St. Kitts, brought worries that Japan had added nations to the commission, nations which Japan had aided and would vote with Japan to restore whaling, or at least, weaken regulation or allow secret balloting.

Despite that, Japan has lost four votes: one to prevent the IWC from discussing dolphins and small whales; one to introduce secret balloting; one to allow some commercial whaling; and one to eliminate a Southern Ocean whale sanctuary.

We should have a great meeting this wednesday! The workshop will be on how to pack for travel, especially with digital. Our speaker will be members Dwight and Janet Crumb, our high-def video experts, and they will present their video workflow.

This month's competition is the Portfolio competition. Novices should bring 5 images, Open competitors should bring 8. You are also welcome to include a slide with a title slide.

The Video comp is 3 minutes, edited.

Please name your digital entries as follows:

0606_open_your-name_#_title.jpeg or
0606_novice_your-name_#_title.jpeg

Where # is 1-5 for novice, 1-8 for open. Use 0 for the title slide if you have one.

So my entries would be something like:

0606_open_Roger-Carlson_0_title.jpeg
0606_open_Roger-Carlson_1_garibaldi-juve.jpeg
0606_open_Roger-Carlson_2_garibaldi-kelp.jpeg
etc....

Please do your best to use these name styles. Every month we usually have a few entries incorrectly named. We'll display the images in alphabetical order, and if you don't use the right name styles, your images will display out of order.

A fisherman in Newfoundland has found a two-toned lobster.