Wild Salmon Are Sacred - Get Out Migration!

Wild Pacific salmon stocks are endangered due to the impact of salmon farms on wild fish and ecosystems. There are some true blue grass root initiatives being actively promoted by British Columbia residents, Anissa Reed and Alexandra Morton of www.salmonaresacred.org

Check out their website for more information. The following posters highlight some of the good work these two guardians of the wild salmon are doing to draw attention to the plight of wild Pacific salmon.

Remember when sex was safe... and diving was dangerous?

40 Sites That Will Help You Become A Scuba Diver

Apparently, this site is one among the 40 listed...

"Hello, we just wanted to let you know that we have listed your site http://jettbritnell.blogspot.com/ in the article 40 Sites That Will Help You Become A Scuba Diver."

You can see the article at: http://www.onlinecertificateprograms.org/blog/2010/40-sites-that-will-help-you-become-a-scuba-diver/

Seas of Plastic - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

My friend, Gary Bridges, sent out an email today suggesting that people should Google the name "Capt. Charles Moore" and check out the two online videos that he has released. Here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7K-nq0xkWY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrhXUB4UJAE

Some have dubbed it the world’s largest “landfill” – actually a huge water-bound swath of floating plastic garbage that is twice the size of stated of Texas. Trapped in an enormous slow whirlpool called the Pacific Gyre, a mostly stagnant, plankton-rich seascape spun of massive competing air currents, this Great Pacific Garbage Patch in some places outweighs even the surface waters’ biomass six-to-one.

The following animation shows how the Pacific Ocean's currents flow:

http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expedition/news/trashing-our-oceans/ocean_pollution_animation

For more information, go to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation's website:

Jett Britnell Photographics Magazine Ad - Depth Magazine March 2010

Depth Magazine Continues To Honor My Work!

After a very busy day today, I was delighted to open my emails and find that Depth Magazine has once again selected one of my images as a cover shot for their March/April 2010 issue.













Check it out at http://www.depthmagazine.ca Registration is free.

And That's All She Wrote - Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games have now come and gone. And what a historic finish. Team Canada's win over the USA hockey team earned Canada its 14th gold medal of the 2010 Winter Games, thus setting an Olympic record for most gold medals won by a single nation in the winter Olympics! Congrats must go out to John Furlong and his VANOC Team for putting together such a successful sporting event on the world stage!

Underwater Photographer Shark Defence Maneuver #7

Try to intimidate larger sharks by forming a human tripod...

Browning Pass HideAway - The ad says it all!

The Shipwreck That Got Away

June 29, 1984: It was a fine morning and we were diving with a group of friends in Discovery Passage, near Campbell River, British Columbia when we came across this remarkable scene.

The night before, during her third cruise along Canada’s west coast, the M.V. Sundancer ran aground near Maud Island, just 16 km north of Campbell River, on Vancouver Island. After the accident, Sundancer anchored temporarily in nearby Menzies Bay to access the damage. With uncontrollable flooding below decks, the ship set sail for Duncan Bay, limping in an hour later at 1AM. All 787 passengers were evacuated. Many passengers stated that the Sundancer’s crew appeared to be disorganized and that they had to orchestrate their own rescue. The vessel was declared a total constructive loss after human error is blamed for the accident.

This vessel would have made a great shipwreck for divers, but she was refitted and lived to sail again.

Happy Valentines Day To The Love Of My Life!

A Long Obedience In The Same Direction...

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. He believed in life, creativity, health, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation,” which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. Often referred to as one of the first existentialist philosophers, Nietzsche's revitalizing philosophy has inspired leading figures in all walks of cultural life, including dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries.

Nietzsche once commented,

"The essential thing ‘in heaven and earth’ is. . . that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living."

"Happy Valentines Day", to my beautiful wife, Kathryn!

How wonderful my life is with her in the world. Truly, there is nothing more sacred, more gratifying, more intoxicating, or more worthwhile, than to be sharing with this adorable, incredibly talented and amazing woman... "a long obedience in the same direction."

Online Buyer Alert! - Canadasflorists.com

Before Christmas I ordered a flower arrangement from Canadasflorists.com and paid extra for a deluxe arrangement to be sent to a loved one in Oshawa. I would not have known they delivered a standard arrangement but billed me for the higher amount unless the recipient had not told me that the flowers were not up to usual snuff. She knows I spend upwards of $100. When I alerted Canadasflorists.com, they provided a credit only for the difference between the deluxe arrangement and the standard one. The embarrassment was all mine. They have lost me as a customer and approx $600 to $700 in future annual orders. I would not recommend them.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here is a picture of the Canadasflorist.com arrangement I ordered from their online ad, and another picture of the more expensive arrangement that they actually shipped. See the difference in quality? Oh yeah, they were supposed to ship 10 stems, but only sent 9 stems. Order at your own risk.

Toulouse Petit - Très Magnifique!

While in Seattle recently my wife and I enjoyed some rather scrumptious h'orderves and a sumptuous pre-concert dinner at a trendy New Orleans-inspired restaurant on lower Queen Anne called, Toulouse Petit.

A new favourite for both of us, this fine kitchen lounge-style establishment opened in November 2009 after apparently taking more than one year to adorn its interior with 5,000 pounds of stippled plaster walls, 125,000 ceramic and glass mosaic tiles, spacious velvet booths and attractive wood inlayed tabletops and bar.

The proprietor claims Toulouse Petit offers the most comprehensive and compelling Happy Hour Menu in the USA. Indeed, it is extensive with more than sixty food preparations, their entire desert selections, reasonably priced cocktails and more than fifty wines by the glass, bottle and carafe. The dinner menu choices are equally inspired. It was truly difficult to decide upon a main dish, as there were so many delectable choices.

Having myself dined in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter, I would unequivically give Toulouse Petit five stars for it’s efforts to create an overall Creole atmosphere. As for the dining fare, it was all Tres Magnifique!

Elton John & Billy Joel: Saturday Night’s Alright in Seattle!

The hits just kept coming during super duo Elton John & Billy Joel’s sold out, 3-hour, “Face 2 Face” musical extravaganza at Seattle’s Key Arena last night. These two piano playing pop icons performed their own songs, each other's songs, and several duets making the Seattle’s Key Arena seem like it was the world’s largest piano bar. And no surprise, John & Joel were damn good! My absolute favorite moment was Elton swapping verses with Billy on Uptpwn Girl. Good times!

February 6, 2010 Key Arena Set list

Elton & Billy Together

Your Song

Just the Way You Are

Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me

My Life

Elton's set

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

Levon

Madman Across the Water

Tiny Dancer

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Daniel

Rocket Man

Philadelphia Freedom

I'm Still Standing

Crocodile Rock

Billy's set

Angry Young Man

Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

Allentown

Zanzibar

She's Always a Woman

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

Foxy Lady

River of Dreams

We Didn't Start the Fire

It's Still Rock n Roll to Me

Only the Good Die Young

Elton & Billy Together

I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues

Uptown Girl

The Bitch Is Back

You May Be Right

Bennie and the Jets

Elton & Billy without Bands

Candle in the Wind

Piano Man

2010 Diving Almanac & Book of Records is now online!

Congratulations to Jeffery Gallant and his team!! The 2010 Diving Almanac & Book of Records is now online!!! Five years of hard work, 3000 articles, 484 diving records, 596 diving personalities, and much more updated on a daily basis. Best of all, it's absolutely FREE! Be among the first to sign up at....

http://www.divingalmanac.com

A River Runs Through It - British Columbia's Salmon Fishery's Decade of Decline

I just came across this news item from that appeared in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. The 10 year stats ominously detail how the Fraser River’s fish stocks have plummeted. Here’s a gloomy snapshot of the precarious state of British Columbia’s salmon fishery.

The Globe and Mail
December 25, 2009

In 10 years, the Fraser River’s fish stocks have plummeted. A look at the precarious state of the salmon fishery. In the early 1990s, about 24 million sockeye a year swam up the Fraser, suggesting the river might return to the 40 million it saw a century ago. It wasn’t to be.

1999 – More than eight million sockeye are expected but only three million reach the Fraser, the lowest figure since 1955.

2000 – About five million salmon return but fisherman take nearly half, plus the Weaver Creek and Cultus Lake stocks are nearly wiped out because the fish die before spawning, likely due to overly warm water.

2001 – Officials worry when fish travel upstream as many as 47 days early, and widespread fishery closures are imposed but not before 1.6 million salmon are taken. The overall run: 7 million.

2002 – More than 15 million sockeye show up (and about four million are caught), but some Fraser runs are very weak.

2003 – With the Fraser hitting temperatures over 19 degrees, the sockeye delay entering the river. The total run is only 4.8 million with just over 2 million caught.

2004 – Again about four million fish return but only 1.7 million live to spawn, 77 per cent below what biologists feel is needed to rebuild the stocks. Water temperatures set a record, and an abundance of sea lice is noted on young salmon migrating through the Broughton Archipelago.

2005 – With 12 million forecast, the run reaches just seven million sockeye, of which 3.3 million escape to spawn – half of what biologists had hoped for.

2006 – Just over half of the 17 million sockeye forecast show up, but fishing is allowed and the number of spawners is more than a million below target. The Sierra Club reports 38 sockeye runs as endangered, and Stephen Harper writes to the Calgary Herald: “In the coming months, we will strike a judicial inquiry into the collapse of the Fraser River salmon fishery.” Commercial fishers and the Stó:lô Tribal Council object, and the Prime Minister doesn’t follow through.

2007 – Broad fishing closures are imposed when only 1.4 million sockeye return to the Fraser.

2008 – Commercial fisheries are closed (after a harvest of 500,000) when estimates show another poor return, just 1.6 million. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature puts Pacific sockeye on its “red list” of threatened species, and scientists report that young fish in the Fraser are being infested with sea lice as they migrate north.

2009 – Between 11 and 13 million fish are expected, but just 1.3 million arrive, the least since 1941. The agency created by Premier Gordon Campbell in 2004 to examine potential conflicts between wild and farmed salmon runs out of money and closes. Researchers report catching Fraser sockeye near fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago, raising more concerns about sea lice infestation. Mr. Harper presses ahead with his judicial inquiry. “We are very concerned,” he says, “about the low and falling returns of sockeye salmon in British Columbia.”

"The Salish Sea" - It's now Official!

("The Salish Sea Map, Stefan Freelan, WWU, 2009")

In late 2009, naming boards in both Canada and the U.S.A. granted approval to use the name, “Salish Sea” for a body of water that extends from the north end of the Strait of Georgia and Desolation Sound to the west end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and south to the southern extent of the Puget Sound including the inland marine waters of southern British Columbia, Canada and northern Washington, USA. These separately named bodies of water form a single estuarine ecosystem. The new name for these waters has been embraced by citizens on both sides of the border, including the Coast Salish Gathering (the alliance of Coast Salish Tribal and First Nations leaders).

Salish Sea is not a historical term for the inland waters of British Columbia and Washington State. Marine biologist Bert Webber proposed it in 1988. Dr. Webber recognized the need for a single geographic term that encompassed the entire ecosystem, spanning across the international border. Having a name to identify the entire area calls attention to the trans-border commonality of water, air, wildlife and history. Rather than being a replacement for any of the existing names, the designation Salish Sea is an overlay that includes and unites the established and familiar names of the various water and land bodies (the Strait of Georgia, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, Gulf Islands, San Juan Islands, etc.). The name also pays tribute to the Coast Salish peoples who have inhabited the area since long before Euro-American explorers first arrived.