Welcome to the 2011 edition of the Blue Water Divers Newsletter.  In this issue:

• Moorings in the Columbus National Marine Park
• More Airlines Now Servicing Provo
• TC Reef Fund
• Turtle Talk
• Holiday Gifts, New Year's Resolutions and Big Savings
• Welcome New Staff
• A Farewell (for now)
  
• Blue Water Divers on Facebook
• Conclusion

Moorings in the Columbus National Marine Park

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More Airlines Now Servicing Provo!

We are pleased to let our guests and friends know that Jet Blue and United Airlines now have flight service from gateway cities in the US to Providenciales (aka Provo). This makes nine airlines servicing Provo: five direct from the U.S., two direct from Canada, one from the UK and one from the Bahamas.  This is good news for Provo, and in turn may help of few of you intrepid Grand Turk travelers find it both easier and less expensive to reach us. You still get the wonderful experience of a small craft flight over water on your way to Grand Turk, but we are pleased to welcome these airlines who will provide more flight options to reach the Turks and Caicos Islands.

TC Reef Fund

We are pleased to inform our readers about the Turks and Caicos Reef Fund (TC Reef Fund), a non-profit recently formed here in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI).  The TC Reef Fund was established to help preserve and protect the marine environment of the "Beautiful by Nature" Turks and Caicos Islands - an environment that draws so many visitors to these islands and is critical to the survival of the islands themselves. Their goal is to dedicate 85+% of all funds raised through this organization to marine conservation projects in the TCI each year.  You can read more about this NGO on their website at: http://tcreef.org/.   

One fundraising mechanism implemented by the TC Reef Fund is to issue VOLUNTARY BC tags ($10) and wrist bands ($5) for the Marine Park.  These will be available to divers, snorkelers, fishermen, boaters, beachcombers and anyone else wishing to help in preserving our beautiful marine ecosystem.  Dive operators working with the TC Reef Fund welcome the generosity of visiting park users and supporters to combine with their own marine conservation efforts.  We now have these tags and wrist bands in stock at Blue Water Divers.

I am very excited about this opportunity for our visitors.  I have been asked many times over the years about why we don’t offer a similar program as to what they have in Bonaire.  At last we will have an equivalent organization in the TCI, and since it is an independent NGO, we can be comfortable about spending and accountability.  It is also strictly optional. There will be no built in fee, or added tax, but you can now purchase a badge (very similar to the type offered in Bonaire) or wristband which can easily be attached to a BCD (or an arm).  Come visit us, pick up a dive tag and/or wrist band, and lend your support to this important cause!

Turtle Talk

Have you heard about the Turks and Caicos Islands Turtle Project? They have been doing amazing work! Here is an update provided by TCI Turtle Project Officer Amdeep Sanghera. 

During the first two years of the Project, Amdeep and colleagues attached satellite tags to two adult green turtles and four adult hawksbill turtles. The Project team tracks their journeys online using SEATURTLE.ORG's ground-breaking programme, which communicates with a satellite system to map the turtles' movements each day, viewable at http://www.mcsuk.org/conservation_in_action/Marine+turtles/Tracking+turtles/Tracking+turtles. 

Suzie, an adult female green turtle and the first turtle tagged by the Project, surprised everyone in 2009 and 2010 with her 3,700 mile round trip (yes, that IS 3,700 miles. That is NOT a typo.) around the Caribbean. Last year the other tagged green turtle, Shyvonne (pictured at left), migrated 466 miles to her feeding grounds off St Croix in the US Virgin Islands. Three additional satellite tags were placed on sub-adult green turtles (named David, Gilbert and Taino) during Aug. & Sept. 2011.

Tracking sub-adult turtles is critical, as they're one developmental stage away from becoming mature adults, which are important to the TCI turtle population. Satellite tracking has traditionally focused on nesting females because they conveniently crawl ashore on sandy beaches where they are easily captured. With the Project’s unique relationship with fishers, in the TCI we have an excellent opportunity to access the younger turtles who have not been studied so much because they spend all their time at sea. We are hoping to learn what these sub-adults get up to in the Caicos Banks by using the data we obtain from satellite tracking.

The Project is an on-going collaborative research project that is seeking further funding to deploy more satellite tags, so if any of you would like to get involved contact Dr. Peter Richardson, the project manager at peter.richardson@mcsuk.org or go to their donation page at http://www.mcsuk.org/supporttciturtles. If you really want to help out and support the purchase and deployment of a tag (£4500) and name a turtle, where practical and with plenty of advance notice, there may be opportunities for the project to arrange your participation in the capture and tagging procedure!

Amdeep has conducted extensive community discussions and together with project partners the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR), the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and the University of Exeter in the UK, has drafted new measures to improve the management of the TCIs’ traditional turtle fishery. The proposed management measures have been designed using the information collected by Amdeep and colleagues, including biological data about TCI turtles, social information about the use of turtles and their importance to Islanders, and the opinions of fishermen and community members across the TCI on the future management of the TCI turtle fishery. If all goes well, a final turtle fishery management plan and proposed regulations will be presented by the DECR to the Advisory Council for approval later this year.

Holiday Gifts, New Year's Resolutions and Big Savings

What better way to celebrate a holiday than with a gift of a vacation to a lovely tropical island?  (You can give this gift to a loved one or even give this as a gift to yourself!)  What better way to ring in a new year than with a resolution to make time in 2012 for a vacation to a lovely tropical island?  We can help you make arrangements for any or all of these!  Just drop us an e-mail at: info@grandturkscuba.com and let us know how we can assist with your trip planning.

Also Mitch's Songs from the Beach CD is a wonderful gift to give anytime!  Available as a digital download (album or singles) via MP3 at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mitchrolling.

As an added incentive, if you make your 2012 reservations with us before 15 December 2011, we will guarantee our 2011 rate structure.  Our 2012 rates will be published in December.  Make your reservations early and SAVE!
 

Welcome New Staff

Nathaniel Taylor is from England, but spent many of his early school years in Uganda.  He became a PADI Instructor in Egypt, then came to Grand Turk to join Blue Water Divers in 2010.  During his time here he has become quite familiar with our local dive sites, and also takes pride in sharing the sites with our visiting divers. Like Daniel and Eirik, Nat teaches a variety of PADI courses, often with just one or two students at a time.  It really is a win-win deal!  Nat has also brought in an excellent underwater camera system and is already getting many favorable reviews on his growing photography portfolio.

Eirik Veie joined the Blue Water Divers team at the beginning of 2011.  Eirik is from Norway, where he worked as a PADI instructor. Eirik decided to spend some time in our warmer (!) waters and has quickly become a valuable member of our staff.  He enjoys leading our small groups of divers, as well as teaching PADI courses, many times in a one on one situation. Eirik is always ready to help with a smile, and organized our participation in Diversnight 2011!

We are proud to now have 617 people who “like” Blue Water Divers on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bluewaterdiversgrandturk.  We also have 511 members of the Diving Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands interest group on Facebook.  Thank you for your support!

In an effort to get information in a timely manner to our customers without bombarding you with email, going forward Blue Water Divers will use our Facebook business page as a key customer communications vehicle: www.facebook.com\bluewaterdiversgrandturk.

We love reading your reviews!  Since Facebook business pages no longer have a "reviews" function, if you would like to post a review of Blue Water Divers, please go to your favorite travel and/or scuba website such as TripAdvisor.  

We’d also like to get your feedback on content that you would like to see on these pages, so that we can make it a useful resource for you.  Please send us your ideas!

Newsletter #1-10

Newsletter #2-10

And in conclusion…

I know we have received a couple of emails from friends who thought they were removed from our mailing list because it has been so long since they received a newsletter from us.  No - you were not removed from any list - I have just not managed to get my act together enough to get one prepared and sent.  And although I know things are still very challenging both here and globally, I am happy to say that Blue Water Divers has had a very good year.  As mentioned in previous editions of this newsletter, we upgraded our rental gear with new BC's and regs.  We also brought two new trucks, and all three of our boats have had full makeovers as we get ready for the winter season.  

I am grateful to my staff for all that they do.  Jesse left us this year after 2 great seasons, and that leaves Audrey and Dan, who will both be starting their third year, as well as the pleasant addition of Nat and Eirik (see above).  They are a  great team who work incredibly hard, and manage to do it all with a smile.     

I owe a great deal of thanks to Audrey, Jesse, Dan, Nat, and Eirik , who are the ones who really have been making it all happen every day.  And of course last, but by no means least, many thanks to all of YOU…my diving friends who have come down over the years to visit.  Of course that is what really allows us to enjoy what we do for a living... so THANK YOU to all!

We hope to SEE YOU SOON!

Mitch

p.s. If there are any topics you would like to see explored in our newsletter and/or our Facebook group and Facebook page, we'd love to hear to your thoughts and comments. 

Your input always helps me to provide better service - SO KEEP THOSE CARDS AND LETTERS COMING!  :-)

Blue Water Divers
PO Box 124,Grand Turk
Turks and Caicos Islands
info@grandturkscuba.com
+1-649-946-2432