Limited to only 300 guests, I got a lucky last ticket when someone called to cancel. Sitting in the IMAX theatre, we we treated to four guest speakers and a short awards ceremony by LIDA president Steve Burke.
The first speaker was Steven McMurray, an award winning journalist, whose talk and film told of the sinking of the oceanliner Empress of Ireland in the St Lawrence River. His book is called Dark Descent. The ship had been forgotten about for 70 years before a group of divers found it and started diving on it in the 1960's. After a 30 year hiatus, one of the divers dove on the Empress again though being 70 years old. The film told her story and the experience of diving on the Empress again.
The second speaker was John Pfisterer, an award winning underwater photographer and videographer. He presented a film on the ecology of tidal wetland and marshlands and how they relate to the ocean and sealife. The footage for the film was taken along the shores of Long Island from Brooklyn to Jamacia Bay to the Great South Bay.
The third speaker was Andrew Martinez, a marine biologist and photographer. He presented a slide show displaying the diverse marine life that exists in the cold water of the North East and New England waters. Everything from coral to sponges, nudibranch to skates, flounder to snails and dozens of other denizens of the not so warm waters of the Atlantic.
The final speaker was Dan Crowell, diver and owner/captain of the famous dive boat Seeker. Some of his water video footage is regularly used in the Deep Sea Detective shows. He presented a film on wreck diving in what we locally call Wreck Valley, the area south of Long Island and east of New Jersey. From easy 40ft dives on small craft and tugboats to highly technical dives like 240ft down to the Andrea Doria, Captain Crowell showed the many different and varied ships and conditions that exist for any diver wishing to explore these wrecks.
After the films, there was food, music and drinks. Also several raffles, including a 50/50 and chances to win a dive trip to the Bahamas on the liveaboard dive ship Nekton. The films were interesting, heart warming and also educational. The need to protect our wetlands and the ocean ecology has to be broadcast more widely before they are lost to us forever.
LIDA Website
Edited by CaptSaaz, 09 December 2004 - 03:52 PM.
