With green issues more prevalent than ever, the website junkk.com provides details of 100s of ways you can

reuse rather than waste

everyday household items by converting them from something you want to throw out, into something more practical.

Many of them provide excellent min-projects for your kids!

Proving that

One person’s rubbish is another’s treasure

the website freecycle.org is a forum where two local people can contact one another to swap what they don’t want for something they do.

It really is that simple!

Web auction sites like eBay are a great way to get rid of your unwanted items.

Make Money and Reduce Landfill

at the same time!

It’s amazing what other people will buy – you may even pick up a little bargain or two yourself ;-)

The photo shows an underwater frame, which is one technique of surveying all or part of a dive site. The other technique we used…

… involves taking relative measurements from one or more fixed line/s (datum) that are set-up on the dive site.

Doing this type of thing was great fun, but also highlighted what you take for granted on ‘dry land’.

Underwater, you aren’t able to talk to your buddy other than through primative sign language, writing on a slate is harder, and you need to remember to breathe ;-)

Overall a very busy and interesting one-day course.

We all plan to do the next level course later in the year, so watch this space for a review of that.

Related Articles

For more posts about this course checkout:

• The previous article on this course

As part of these plans, five dive club members attended an Introductory course delivered by the Nautical Archaeological Society (NAS) on 28th April, at the NAS headquarters in Portsmouth.

The course was split into three parts:

• Firstly some classroom lectures about the scope of marine archaeology and the legal and social requirements;
• Secondly there was a practical exercise of surveying a mock dive site on dry land;
• Finally, the surveying exercise was transferred to a local swimming pool, and we had to try to repeat the measuring whilst remembering to breath ;-)

The first two parts of the day were very informative, and the two course presenters managed to get across the finer points of what could easily have been a very dry (no pun intended) course with a great deal of enthusiasm and fun.

The underwater part of the course will be covered in a future post.

Related Articles

For more posts about this course checkout:

• The next article on this course

Paul Stratford, club member and licensee of the recently discovered wreck in Normans Bay(believed to be the British warship Resolution built in 1665) invited Ian Barefoot from the Nautical Archaeological Society (NAS) to discuss the role that this voluntary organistion has in educating, recording and interpreting British Maritime History.

Whilst awareness of Archaeology has increased since Tony Robinson (who’s an avid scuba diver by the way) appeared on our TVs, most people’s perception is sitting in a muddy hole with a toothbrush.

In fact, the physical collection of artifacts is only the tip of the iceberg, and the majority of archaeology is using the physical information to better understand the technological, social, and economic conditions at the time.

It was also suprising to discover that the majority of marine archaeology is in fact out of the water. It’s a very rare and exciting occasion to be involved on a Mary Rose, or indeed in our local case, an HMS Resolution.

NAS runs a series of courses to help educate divers into the specific challenges of working underwater to survey and record details of wrecks and other items of interest without damaging the wreck.

I’m looking forward to doing my basic training so that I can join Paul and other club members as we can put our newly acquired skills to good use.

Wishing you health, success and happiness in everything you do,

Jon

Seasearch is a national project that encourages divers to help build an accurate picture of the marine life encountered on their dives.

The information collected is entered into a central database that is used by marine biologists and conservationalists to help monitor and protect marine species all around the UK.

Seasearch Sussex branch started in Chichester Harbour and has gradually extended it’s scope so it covers the entire Sussex coastline.

To participate in this programme, Seasearch provides an initial one-day ‘Observer’ course, to teach the basics about identifying and recording marine life data.

The next level is a two-day ‘Surveyor’ course which trains participants to record information to a greater level of detail.

More information on seasearch can be obtained by visiting their website at http://www.seasearch.org.uk

The Sussex branch is based at County Hall in Lewes and their website is listed in the sidebar under the heading ‘Related Links’ (http://www.sussexseasearch.org.uk).

Readers of this blog can keep up to date with my progress through these courses and see the future results of the local dives I make and share some of the many and varied sea creatures that I encounter.

 Wishing you health, success and happiness in everything you do,

Jon