NSF Speakers

May 15, 2008 - Patrick Madden & Annette Spaulding -The Ghost of Charron Lake

Teams have searched for the aircraft since 1975. This is the conclusion of the successful search and recovery of a historic, 1928 Fokker Standard Universal aircraft that broke through the ice on Charron Lake, Manitoba, Canada in December 1931 and subsequently sunk in the spring of 1932.

Patrick Madden has been diving since 1968 and is a Master Instructor and Instructor Trainer. He is a retired 26 year Veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was the dive supervisor and instructor of their Underwater Recovery Team. He has trained in U/W archaeology, pollution and sedimentolgy.

Annette Spaulding, a certified master diver, has been diving for over 25 years and has worked in many countries and states on shipwreck searches and other projects. She has been on the U/W S&R team in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire since 1981 and is trained in U/W evidence recovery. Both Pat and Annette are NSF Club members.

Presentation to follow an abbreviated club meeting at 8:00 PM:
Beverly Golf & Tennis Club
134 McKay Street
Beverly, MA 01915

Updated: Sunday, May 11, 2008, 6:53 AM by Rob Falk >>

July 24, 2008 - Peter Venoutsos - Last Kill


Peter Venoutsos has been a certified scuba diver since 1976 and a commercial diver since 1983. As a commercial diver he has worked for private engineering firms, the Federal Government and the US Navy. His primary interest is underwater photography and videography of shipwrecks and caves. Peter has produced and presented one of the most comprehensive historical information and digital media videos of the German U-Boat U-853.

Peter has presented his video and lecture in venues such as Beneath the Sea (NJ) and Our World Underwater (Chicago) and has published articles in Immersed, Skin Diver and Northeast Diver. Peter’s video takes you on a tour from the building of the U-853 through her sinking on May 5, 1945 when she was depth charged off the coast of Block Island - the last kill of World War II.

Updated: Saturday, May 10, 2008, 10:38 AM by Rob Falk >>

April 17, 2008 - Diving Scotland's Scapa Flow with John and Jay Ganson


This program was first presented at the Naval War College in Newport and runs a little over 30 minutes.It aims to illustrate what one can learn on any dive trip, simply by looking at all the things beyond diving. As part family travelog it focuses on two divers as well as two non-divers on a family trip. The diving, together with the history of the wrecks from the First World War German Fleet is captivating. That experience together with their tourist exploits to venues like St. Magnus' Cathedral, (one of the largest in Great Britain), provided John's group with a more unified and complete sense of place. The underwater photography, shot mostly with available light and without flash strobes, similarly is meant to convey that dark ambiance to viewers.

Son Jay will co-present. He will expound on his experiences, particularly the training course in
extended-rang diving ( what we call deco). British training differs significantly. At the end of the presentation John and Jay will be happy to entertain technical questions on both the diving and how this DVD was created.

Updated: Monday, April 07, 2008, 2:39 PM by Rob Falk >>

March 27 - Bill Whiffen - Underwater Photography in California


Underwater photographer, Bill Whiffen gave a slide presentation on diving in California. He focused his talk on diving Catalina and the Eureka Oil Rig.

Updated: Saturday, March 15, 2008, 9:42 AM by Rob Falk >>

March 13, 2008 - Member Arnie Pettiglio - "My New England Dive Adventures"

At the meeting on March 13, Arnie Pettiglio will give a presentation on his "New England Diving Adventures" including anecdotes on his three decades of diving the wreck of the USS New Hampshire, and a show and tell on various assorted vintage dive gear.

On this 50th anniversary year we are happy to present members as guest speakers with lots of stories and years of experience to share with the club.

Arnie will display his wreck salvaging tools, in addition to artifacts, commercial diving equipment and specialty masks. He plans to show flyers with photos of the ship as well.

Updated: Wednesday, March 05, 2008, 12:30 PM by Mary Howard >>

February 7, 2008 - Peg Harrington - Conserve Our Ocean Legacy

NSFC hosted guest lecturer Peg Harrington of the National Environmental Trust's 'Conserve Our Ocean Legacy' (COOL) campaign,(www.oceanlegacy.org) She discussed her organization's efforts to promote responsible, sustainable fisheries here in New England, including their efforts aimed at the National Marine Fishery Service and the New England Fishery Management Council. She also included discussions regarding petitions on specific fishery issues, including the Magnuson Stevens Sustainable Fishing Act.

Please visit the Conserve Our Ocean Legacy to see how divers are making an important difference nationwide. According to this website, divers who join the campaign are taking the first step toward becoming active advocates for healthy oceans. Over 300 dive clubs, dive shops, dive organizations, and dive businesses have joined. They recognize the need for a unified, mobilized coalition of divers who are willing and inspired to speak up for the marine environment.

Updated: Sunday, February 10, 2008, 12:20 PM by Mary Howard >>

January 17, 2008 - Capt. Ray Bates - Shipwrecks North of Boston


Captain Raymond Bates, Jr. gave a retrospective on his year 2000 published book: "Shipwrecks North of Boston, Volume One: Salem Bay". His slide show concerned his ongoing research on wrecks north of Boston that include those north of Cape Ann and New Hampshire.

Captain Bates has been diving since 1968 and went into professional diving after attending the Commercial Diving Center (now the College of Oceaneering at Wilmington, California to study underwater welding, commercial diving, and underwater photography. He then attended a course in Cornwall, England to get Lloyd's of London certification in underwater inspections. He subsequently spent eleven years doing commercial hardhat diving work along the eastern seaboard. He now does contract diving and fishing when not logging numerous hours in libraries and museums such as the Peabody Essex Museum pursuing his passion for maritime history and wrecks.

Author and historian, Captain Bates who makes his home in Marblehead had copies of his book for sale and autographed them for interested members. It was an absorbing talk and fascinating evening.

Updated: Monday, December 17, 2007, 6:52 PM by Rob Falk >>

November 15, 2007 - Fred Calhoun


The North Shore Frogmen's Club presented the indefatigable Fred Calhoun as our featured guest speaker for November 2007. 

Something of a local legend in the dive arena here on the North Shore, Fred has been diving as far back as Mike Nelson (Lloyd Bridges) in Sea Hunt. He shared his unique take as an eye witness to the history of diving, dive equipment evolution as well as the politics and personalities within the commercial scuba diving industry going further back than most of us can remember and before many of us were even born.

Skipper of the dive charter boat 'Easy Diver' at Cape Ann Marina in Gloucester, Fred also presented two very brief videos:

"Going with the Flow" very short takes on diving in frigid conditions among the ice flows in winter and...

"Invasion" a 20 minute short that was Fred's contribution to Barbara Warren's Salem Sound Coast Watch initiative to make the public aware of the extent to which Invasive Species have colonized our local waters.

Updated: Tuesday, November 06, 2007, 7:53 AM by Rob Falk >>

October 18, 2007 - Club Members - Galapagos Islands


Several members of the club took a trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in July. They gave a presentation on their trip to the Islands of the Galapagos. Although they did not have a chance to DIVE, the trip was very interesting and the group came away with a lot of pictures of wildlife above and below the water.

Updated: Tuesday, October 02, 2007, 10:23 PM by Rob Falk >>

October 11, 2007 - Club Members - Ecuador


Several members of the club took a trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in July this year. They gave a presentation on October 11 on the mainland Ecuador part of their trip, from 14,500 ft elevation in the Andes to 1400 ft in the Amazon River watershed.

Updated: Saturday, September 29, 2007, 11:26 PM by Mary Howard >>

September 27, 2007 - Dr. Rob Moir - Challenges and Opportunities for Massachusetts Ocean Management


Rob Moir, Ph.D. director of the Ocean River Institute and Manager of the Mass Ocean Coalition spoke to members about the urgent need for better, more comprehensive ecosystem-based management of Massachusetts ocean waters, 1.6 million acres.

He noted the various assaults on our ocean including invasive species, nutrient loading, pollutants. On top of these assaults, our oceans are now challenged by unprecedented numbers of offshore development proposals including LNG terminals, sand/gravel mining, “clean energy” (wind, wave and tide). In response to troubled waters and in the interests of clean energy, citizens across the state are calling for comprehensive ecosystem-based management that is inclusive of the best science and local voices.

Rob told us that the Massachusetts Ocean Act will be first in the nation for a state to develop an ocean plan that balances commercial use, personal recreation and protection of underwater ocean habitat and marine life.

Updated: Friday, September 28, 2007, 6:55 PM by Rob Falk >>

September 20 - Faith Ortins - Diving Alaska

Faith led an expedition of 22 DUI owners on a 2-week trip to Southern Alaska this past July.

They toured fantastic sites above and below the water throughout SE Alaska.

As Faith says it: "This is an area not to be missed!"

Updated: Saturday, September 01, 2007, 8:52 PM by Rob Falk >>

August 30 - Dr. Sara Grady - Horseshoe Crabs


Dr. Sara P. Grady presented a lecture on the life history, population biology, and fisheries management of the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). Horseshoe crabs are over 500 million years old (one of the oldest species still in existence) and recently populations along the East coast seem to have declined, possibly due to overfishing. Sara will present information on the history of the horseshoe crab and man’s interactions with them, their unique biology, which includes a blood compound commonly used for detecting bacteria in IV drugs, and a population model that could be used to inform management decisions about the horseshoe crab fishery. Dr. Grady received her Ph.D. from the Boston University Marine Program in Woods Hole, MA. She currently works as the South Shore Regional Coordinator for the Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program and is based at the North and South Rivers Watershed Association in Norwell, MA.

Updated: 4:20 PM by Rob Falk >>

Barbara Warren of Salem Sound Coast Watch - June 14, 2007


Barbara Warren, Executive Director of Salem Sound Coast Watch, was our club’s guest speaker on June 14th. As mentioned in a previous month’s article on their fundraiser, Ms. Warren was recognized for having been awarded the prestigious EPA ‘Environmental Merit Award’ for her contributions to environmental advocacy. The objective of her presentation that included a fascinating PowerPoint presentation, followed by observing critters that she had collected in the field that day, aimed to help participants identify and quantify marine bioinvaders throughout the North Shore waters. Barbara focused her talk on how non-native species are transported around the world, why those of us in the diving community should be concerned and what governments and their agencies are doing, or in some cases, not doing. Additionally, she addressed the topic of what are the species of major concern. Examples included Green Fleece or Codium sp. in the case of a marine alga, the Chinese Mitten Crab, Eriocheir sinensis, so named for the dense patches of hairs on the claws of larger juveniles and adults in the case of an invertebrate animal, to say nothing of the varied and numerous tunicates. Finally, she spoke about what we as divers can do about this problem.
This presentation was well received with engaged Club members asking many questions regarding effective strategies for combating this growing problem as well as policy studies and implementation approaches for mitigating future occurrences.
Salem Sound Coast Watch, through their Marine Introduced Species Resource Center (http://www.salemsound.org/chimp.htm) is always seeking volunteers from the diving community to monitor the marine environment here on the North Shore. If you missed Barbara’s presentation, you can still participate by visiting the above website and joining.
Paul Sauvageau

Updated: Monday, July 02, 2007, 10:45 PM by Mary Howard >>

Faith Ortins of DUI - May 3, 2007


Faith Ortins gave a slide show presentation to the club on May 3 about her trip to the Galapagos Islands last year. She and Jeff had a wonderful time and took some fantastic pictures.

The Meet-the-Speaker Supper beforehand was a lot of fun and Dave provided a great meal.

Updated: Saturday, May 05, 2007, 6:34 PM by Mary Howard >>

Jack Munro & Paul Harling - Dive Helmets - April 19, 2007





















Jack Munro and Paul Harling gave a very interesting presentation to the club on DIVE HELMETS at the meeting on April 19th. They showed a US Army hard hat training movie from the 1950s which Jack said was very similar to his training program. There was also a video of Paul showing off his Dive Locker Museum.

Paul Harling is the owner of The Dive Locker Museum in Gloucester, which is next to the Visitors’ Center. As a former commercial diver he worked for New England Divers.

Jack Munro is a member of our club. He used to work as a commercial diver also, for Atlantic Diving in Gloucester and for Sea Tech International. He has some interesting stories about his former career! He still dives for the town of Rockport.
Pictures here are of Jack and Paul and some of Paul's great helmets (top), and of members Susan Copelas and Bill Frank trying out the Mark V. (Thanks to Paul Sauvageau for the photos!)

Updated: Wednesday, April 25, 2007, 10:13 AM by Rob Falk >>

Susan Copelas - FIJI - April 12, 2007

Updated: Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 8:12 PM by Mary Howard >>

Susan Copelas - Grand Turk - February 1, 2007:

Susan gave a great slide presentation about her recent dive trip to Grand Turk. She showed a lot of great underwater pictures, making us all wish we could have been with her in that warm dive location!

Updated: Tuesday, February 06, 2007, 6:34 PM by Mary Howard >>

Paul Blanchette - USS Spikefish - January 4, 2007

Paul Blanchette presented video from his expedition to the wreck of the submarine “USS Spikefish”.
On March 18, 1960, Spikefish became the first United States submarine to record 10,000 dives. She was subsequently sunk as a training target in August 1964 off Long Island, NY.

Updated: Thursday, January 04, 2007, 10:39 PM by Mary Howard >>

Andy Martinez - U/W Photgraphy - October 19, 2006

Andy Martinez, well known underwater photographer and author of Marine Life of the North Atlantic, was the featured speaker at the NSF meeting on October 19th. His slide show was of absolutely gorgeous pictures that he took in St. Vincent. His most recent trip was this past summer, and was the first trip that he used a digital camera. (I’m not sure if anyone asked him what camera he uses, but I didn’t hear what it is.) Some (most??) of the pictures he showed us were from this latest trip.

Andy dives with Bill Tewes’s Dive St. Vincent, which bills itself as the “Critter Capital of the Caribbean”. I think Andy would agree. He told us that every time he dives in St. Vincent he sees critters that are new to him, and he has been there a lot! Andy enjoys diving with Bill Tewes’s outfit a lot as the dive masters are exceptionally helpful at pointing out interesting subjects for his photos. This is a land-based outfit is run out of Calliaqua at the south end of St. Vincent.

A mini list of the more exotic underwater creatures Andy showed amazing pictures of includes: Golden Spotted Snake eel, Pipe Horsefish, Pipe Blenny, Long Armed Octopus, various colorful nudibranchs, Golden Coral Shrimp, Needle Shrimp, and Pipefish. And this is only a small bit of the show!

As you can see from the picture, some people present were interested in picking Andy's brain about his diving experiences!

Updated: Friday, October 20, 2006, 8:23 PM by Rob Falk >>

John Swallow - Hypothermia - September 14, 2006

John (Jay) Swallow spoke to club members present at the meeting on September 14th about hypothermia. John, a sergeant in the Manchester Police Department and Senior Paramedic for Lyons Ambulance Company, came armed with articles and information on immersion hypothermia and near drowning. He stated that hypothermia is defined as a core body temperature below 95°F, with 93°F to 95°F constituting mild hypothermia, and core temperatures of 91°F to 93°F being fatal for 50% of people. Heat loss in water, which is heat loss by conduction, is 25 times faster than in air.

Hypothermia causes changes in demeanor and loss of judgment, causing people to act “drunk”. Physical results of hypothermia include blood being shunted from extremities and from the brain to the body core. Signs of hypothermia include shivering, blue or pale skin, confusion, a drop in pulse rate and respiration rate, and rigidity of the muscles.

Jay gave us a CPR course back in April, at the meeting on the 13th, which was well attended and very interesting, with lots of questions answered.

Updated: Friday, September 15, 2006, 10:39 PM by Rob Falk >>

Roslyn Smith - Belize - June 29, 2006

On June 29th, our own Roslyn Smith gave a presentation about her trip to Belize in March of 2006. Not only did Roslyn get to spend a week SCUBA diving, but she also spent time in the interior of the country. Her presentation included photos from both parts of her trip, interesting birds and other land creatures, as well as wonderful underwater pictures.

Updated: Friday, June 30, 2006, 1:41 PM by Rob Falk >>

Officers Lees and Amanti - Environmental Police - June 15, 2006

We were lucky to have two Massachusetts Environmental Police officers present at our club meeting on June 15. Officers Matt Lees and Scott Amanti came to update those present at the meeting on the regulations on lobstering and fishing in Massachusetts waters. Both were very knowledgeable about the current laws and their application to divers. They welcomed our frequent and numerous questions and comments during the presentation.

Updated: Friday, June 16, 2006, 1:40 PM by Rob Falk >>

Steve Johnson - Vice Consul, Dominica - May 25, 2006

Steve Johnson, Vice Consul and Deputy Director of Tourism for Dominica, gave an interesting presentation about the “Nature Island” nation of Dominica. He showed us a lot of slides which make you REALLY want to go there and do and see everything they have to offer, from SCUBA diving to hiking to the boiling lake, from taking a ride on the rainforest aerial tram to going to the World Creole Music Festival. Can we make it a club trip soon?

Updated: Friday, May 26, 2006, 5:18 PM by Rob Falk >>

Jonathan Bird - British Columbia - May 11, 2006

Jonathan Bird was our featured speaker at the meeting on May 11th, when he gave a presentation on diving in British Columbia.

Jonathan has given a number of presentations at our club meetings over the past several years, and if you have ever been to one you know that he is a very interesting and entertaining speaker. He showed some great pictures that he took diving off the coast of British Columbia.

Jonathan brought copies of his books for purchase at the meetings, which he was happy to sign by request.

Updated: Friday, May 12, 2006, 1:39 PM by Rob Falk >>

Joe Wysocki - Optiquatics - May 4, 2006

Our guest speaker for May 4th was Joe Wysocki of Optiquatics, of Malibu, California. He was in the area traveling and supporting DUI Demo Days with Faith Ortins and company.

Joe talked about his company and the underwater photo expeditions they conduct from the Channel Islands to the Galapagos. His presentation also included a “hands on” approach to u/w photographic equipment. He brought a collection of camera equipment and housings to pass around to illustrate his philosophy about what is appropriate for one’s needs and goals.

Updated: Friday, May 05, 2006, 5:15 PM by Rob Falk >>

John Swallow - CPR Course - April 13, 2006

John Swallow, Sergeant in the Manchester Police Department and Senior Paramedic for the Lyons Ambulance Company, gave a CPR course to the club members present at the meeting on April 13. The course included a very lively question and answer period, as well as the usual practice with dummies for learning the sequence of breaths to compressions.

Updated: Sunday, April 16, 2006, 8:33 PM by Mary Howard >>

Bob Michelson - Invertebrate/Invasive Species ID Workshop - March 16, 2006

Bob Michelson, Fish/Invertebrate ID Coordinator for the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, visited our Club on March 16th. He presented his Invertebrate/Invasive Species ID Workshop to members and guests during the meeting that night. Bob gave us insight into the creatures we see diving every week, as well as into the concerns about the invasive species that are being seen in our New England waters. It was a very interesting and educational presentation that I hope will further our understanding of the ocean in which we enjoy diving.

Updated: Monday, March 20, 2006, 9:22 PM by Mary Howard >>

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