Hard to believe the month's already half over . . .

AIR TRAVEL WOES - Thank goodness this wasn't a dive trip. But it's indicative of some of the travel woes we need to endure these days. I flew to Virginia on Wednesday to spend Valentine's Day with Laurie Powers. It's generally a fairly easy flight: LAX-Dulles non-stop, short layover, then Dulles-Charlottesville is a 21-minute flight.

The LAX-IAD flight left about 30 minutes late. Normally that wouldn't be an issue except that I only had 45-minutes to catch the IAD-CHO flight. Fortunately, I'd be upgraded to Business so was able to be the first one out the door at 6:15PM. But the next flight was in different terminal than where we landed. Also fortunately, the bus to the terminal was maybe 200 feet away from our gate. But as I walked to it, a little sign sign "LEAVING IN 10:00 MINUTES." Not good. I told the guy at the door I need to make the Charlottesville flight and only had about 10 minutes. He said, "Let me get the driver" who then agreed to leave early so I could get across to the other terminal (which was also fortunately close). Got off the shuttle, thanked the driver profusely, walked to the gate to hear one of the gate agents say, "The L.A. flight just got in," and I said "That's me!!!" She said, "Let's go then," scanned my boarding passes and I walked out to the Embraer145 commuter jet, got on board. A few minutes later, at 6:30 sharp, they closed the door to the aircraft. That's the good part.

Then we sat at the gate for 15 minutes. When we pushed back, we sat another 10 minutes or so. We finally started moving but the pilot said something about we needed to provide spacing for the jets in front of us. Then he came on said we needed to wait while two planes ahead of us were de-iced. Then he seemed to turn away from the runway and came on to announce that they had a warning light on in the cockpit and he was going to run through some tests. About 10 minutes later he said the tests were no good, the light was still on, they were going to talk to maintenance and if they couldn't get the light to go off, we'd have to go back to the gate. Five minutes or so later, he came on and said we were heading back to the gate, which was about 10 minutes away. Maintenance came on board. No good. Pilot said we were all going to have to de-plane and they'd bring in another aircraft. So around 8PM, we all got off. They said new departure time was 9:00PM which was pushed back to 9:15. Around 9:30, we actually started to board which went quickly. But once on board, the pilot told us it was would a few more minutes while they loaded baggage. Seems they gave us a second plane and had moved the bags to that plane but when the pilot did his pre-flight check he found problems and rejected THAT plane as well. So we were actually on aircraft #3. Finally took off around 10:00PM, touched down in Charlottesville at 10:21PM. Who'd have thought a 21-minute flight could be three hours late??? Thanks goodness it wasn't a dive trip where we're trying to make another connection. Flying home Monday night with hopes that the return leg will be less eventful.

AVALON CLEANUP THIS SATURDAY - Weather looks like it'll be spectacular. Forecast calls for a sunny day and a high of 71. There's still time to sign up by going to this website: https://www.avalonharborcleanup.org/ . Looks like there's plenty of room on the 6:00AM Express out of Long Beach. The 3:55PM return is almost full but the other returns have loads of spots. Hope to see you there.

MPAs MAKE A DIFFERENCE - I was quite honored to have served for about 10 years on a number of iterations of an advisory committee to help create the California network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as mandated by the Marine Life Protection Act of 1999. One of the questions we always asked (and were asked ourselves) was, will this all work to achieve the stated goals? Now there's a study out that gives a resounding YES to that question. An international team of researchers offers this conclusion: "The study confirmed many benefits an MPA can confer to sea life, especially those targeted by fisheries. The authors found that older MPAs, and those with a greater diversity of habitats, showed the highest amount of fish biomass, especially in targeted species, like rockfishes. Stronger protections also correlated with more pronounced results." The California MPAs cover about 17% of state-controlled waters. You can read in-depth about the findings by using this link: MPA STUDY RESULTS.

MANTA MIGRATION PATTERNS - We know mantas move around. We just don't necessarily know where to or how often. A study's been released showing migration patterns of Mexican mantas moving between the Sea of Cortez, western mainland Mexico, and the Revillagigedo Archipelago (Socorro Islands) as well as within those islands over the last 21 years. So there's a good chance that we've seen one or more of these mantas during our trips down there. They ID'd 1763 individual mantas and put acoustic tags on 139 of them. You can read more about the specifics here: MANTA MOVEMENT STUDY.

ROATAN AGAIN - We signed up a couple of more people last week for the late June Roatna trip. We still have room for a few more folks. We'll be an Anthony's Key which is all-inclusive. The $3,195 fee you'll pay to Reef Seekers includes a double-occupancy room (single-supplemnt available for +$275), three dives each day plus two night dives, breakfast/lunch/dinner daily, crew tip, airport transfers, and we've even included the 19% government tax. If you want to join us - and why wouldn't you? - give us a call at 310/652-4990 or send an e-mail to this address.

UNPROVOKED SHARK ATTACKS DOWN IN 2024 - Despite what many people think, sharks are not the most dangerous animal in the world. In 2024, mosquitoes accounted for over a million deaths. Sharks were responsible for . . . 4. The Florida Museum of Natural History maintains the International Shark Attack File and last year saw 47 "attacks," down from 69 in 2023. You can read more about all of this here: SHARK INCIDENTS 2024.

And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving together in 2025!!!

- Ken