However, there is no real substitute for having a clear, present and direct threat against current human well-being to really effect political change.  In China and Bangladesh, such a threat has arisen and the use of thin (<0.025mm thickness) plastic bags has been prohibited at the highest level.  A proliferation of small bags is blocking watercourses and sewers in these two nations, greatly exacerbating flooding, especially during the monsoon season.  As a result, Asia has quickly become a world leader in terms of outright plastic bag bans.  Unfortunately, legislation is proving both difficult to enforce and controversial.  In Bangladesh, the use of flimsy bags is still widespread, six years after a ban was first introduced.  While in China, where the ban became law at the start of 2008, bag manufacturer Suiping Huaqiang Plastic, which employs 20,000 people, has already gone into liquidation.  

More ‘battles of the bag’ can be expected in the future, especially given that some alternatives – including greater use of giveaway paper bags, linen bags and the like – are not uncontroversial themselves, given that carbon is still emitted through their manufacture.  Cynics will also worry that plastic bag bans cast far too comfortable an illusion of sustainable living.  Many families, it seems, abandon the use of disposable plastic bags the same week that they buy a big plasma screen telly (perhaps in celebration of their imagined carbon neutrality).  But only the most curmudgeonly of cynics would deny that plastic bag bans are, at least, a step in the right direction.

The village of Allihes was the location for the Cork SAC August week long diving holiday. The coastal village is overlooked by eroded hills and a worked out copper mine (top right). The houses are brightly painted. Strangely for a village with three pubs and and only one shop, there is also a disused methodist chapel that was used by the miners from 1812 to 1884 (bottom left). Abstinence has not been an enduring success here, least of all for the members of Cork SAC.

The weather could best be described as variable. Those who made it down on Saturday morning had a boat dive between Garnish Pier and Allihes. A few went for shore dives in the afternoon. Sunday was a washout, a day for swimming, or walking ,or watching hurling in the pub.
Monday we went back to the area between Garnish Pier and Allihes. Good samaritan Rory had a tube on his boat punctured helping a fisherman retrieve a crate, then damaged the prop towing an upturned dingy ashore proving that no good deed goes unpunished.

Then on Tuesday the boats were brought around to Dursey sound and we dived Crow head, leaving from the pier by the sound. The first group to leave that morning were watched by dolphins as they dived. The pier is a sun trap and there were some sunburned faces that evening.

Wednesday was the best day with two dives at the Cow Rock and a sunfish too. The cow is one of three offshore sea stacks the others being the larger "Bull" about half a mile to the north, and the smaller "Calf" to the south. The Cow encloses a narrow rectangular 35 meter deep lagoon, open to the west, and with an entrance through a sea arch to the east. It is a beautiful natural setting above the waves and there is great diving below. We had two dives, one inside the lagoon and the other to the north of The Cow.

Thursday and Friday we dived between Garnish Pier and Dursey Sound 'around the corner and up a bit'. Dave and Brian went for a night dive Thursday, with half-full bottles, at Garnish Pier, just because Brian needed to log one for his leading diver. We regretted not bringing more air because the fish life was excellent, and a longer dive would have been great. The unnamed cove that we call "around the corner and up a bit" between Garnish Pier and Dursey Sound is a beautiful dive site below the waves, even if it doesn't look like much above water. The best thing is to drop into about 20-25 meters at the west side of the cove, then work north for depth if you want it before doubling back south east to finish amongst some lovely pinnacles and gullies full of wrasse. Some of our white water divers make for the caves and surf and that good old washing machine effect. Others send up a SMB in that spot to frighten the Coxn then fin out a bit before surfacing.

Saturday some headed back to Cork and others went to Caherdaniel to dive lamb's head as part of the regional weekend Saturday and Sunday.

 

NY Times ran an article this morning, Styrofoam, Food and Public Schools.  

They have a fantastic short video about the story on the NY Times site. The reporter interviewed children as well as parents. It includes a fantastic shot of grade-school age children on the steps of City Hall with posters, flyers and stacks of old Styrofoam food trays exercising their right to free speech. The protest was organized by Councilman Bill de Blasio, a Brooklyn Democrat. The real credit should go to the concerned parents that spoke up and decided to shed light on the issue. One parent was so concerned about the waste she, along with other parents, began collecting and washing trays to use for demonstrational purposes. The amount of trays she had collected in just one day was staggering, filling an entire large trash can. A whopping 4 million Styrofoam trays go from the New York City public school lunchrooms to the landfill each month.  

Polystyrene Foam, or Styrofoam (its trade name), is a petroleum based product that has already been banned from nearly 100 American cities. It takes hundreds of years to decompose and is a large component of marine debris (a nice way of saying a large part of the garbage we pull out of the ocean is Styrofoam). It has also been linked to starvation in marine wildlife and birds.

I’m so glad to see the next generation is being taught to one, take care of the environment and two, be civically engaged.  The children of the New York City School System are getting a great education in social responsibility.   

Public school parents in Brooklyn have started a movement to remove Styrofoam tableware in 1,400 city schools. These trays are bad for the environment and waste school budget money.   

I am inspired and I hope you have been too. Does your local takeout or restaurant use Styrofoam to-go containers? Take your own small container next time, split your meal with a friend so you’ll be less likely to have leftovers, go somewhere else, or eat-in more often (gasp) by having rotating dinner parties with friends. Take your own travel mug to your local coffee house. Some places will even give you a small discount. Who knows, you might find these compostable food containers at a take-out joint near you.

Hammerhead

Seven Members of Cork SAC: Denis, Jim, Diarmuid, Helen, Anthony, Fiona and Dave made a trip to the Brothers Islands and Hurghada Egypt. to sample the diving there. We were joined by ten divers from the UK and one from South Africa.
We spent six days on the liveaboard: "Hurricane" and one day ashore. After a first day spent diving near Hurghada at the coral reef: Erg Abu Ramada, and it's nearby pinnacle Gota Abu Ramada, we sailed overnight for the Brothers Islands. The two Brothers Islands are about half a mile from each other about nine hours boat trip south east from Hurghada. They both have spactular fringing reefs. The dives on both the Brothers Islands were very challenging, with strong currents and some choppy seas, but they were also very rewarding. On at least half the dives we saw sharks, mainly Hammerheads and Grey Reef Sharks, although the UK diver pictured going head to head with the hammerhead opposite, Kris, also saw a thresher shark.

Denis Numibia

Numibia Fish

Moray

Jim and Denis at Lighthouse

Anthony Fiona

Grey Reef Shark Helen

Though the egyptian authorities have thoughtfully provided Big Brother Island with a lighthouse, two ships have nevertheless managed to crash into it. The Numibia had no excuse.
The Aida was a lighthouse resupply ship so it did have some reason to be there. The Aida had earlier in her career been bombed by the same plane that sank the famous Thistlegorm; she sank, was refloated and sank again a few years later on Big Brother.
The Numibia is a spectacular dive, with good coral and great fish life, lying almost veritical at the narrow western end of the island's fringing reef. She starts at about 10 meters and continues down to below 40 meters. The detached stern section ,we were told, lies at about 80 meters.
Though it is possible to visit both wrecks on the same dive, sadly the shallowest part of the Aida lies much deeper than remaining NDL would allow, but in water of that clarity, we had a great view of the second wreck below us as we drifted back to the boat.
The south and west sides of Big Brother island had the wrecks, but the north side had the shark action. The shark that came closest was a particular Hammerhead, identifiable by the remains of a fishing line hanging from it's mouth, which came by several times to check us out.
After two days at Big Brother island, and after a visit ashore to the lighthouse for tea, a chance to buy a T shirt, and a smoke, we moved across to it's little sibling. Here the diving was even more challenging especially at the cleaning station (where sharks come to have their parasites removed by cleaner wrasse). On Little Brother Island we saw sharks on every dive except one. Both Hammerheads and Grey Reef Sharks were about, and sometimes both species swimming together. Sharks are more likely to be at the station early in the morning, so we elected to get up the first morning at 5AM to catch them out, ironically that was the dive when we didn't see any shark. We traveled to the cleaning station by small zodiac ribs, and the trick was to backward roll negatively buoyant off the rib and descend as quickly as possible with your buddy to the reef before being swept away. The cleaning station is below thirty meters. Some people found this to be a problem and had ear problems from trying to descend so quickly. Others found that they were low on air after such vigorous finning to get down and stay on the reef. Exciting stuff.
The last dive of the day was generally a more gentle drift with the current along one of the walls of fringing coral.
After four days at the Brothers Islands we headed back to Hurghada with some easy dives on Panorama Reef and Ras Dhimi reef. No sharks but moray, octopuses, barracuda and nudibranchs were there to be seen, and we were glad of the more easygoing pace.
In Hurghada, after a pleasant night on the town, and a morning by the pool, we had a ruinously expensive, white knuckle taxi ride back from lunch. The real sharks are the Hurghada taxi drivers.