Archive - Davy Jones Diving News Blog before 2009We use our informal News Blog to keep you updated on the day-to-day events at Davy Jones Diving Centre in Gran Canaria. This page hold entries from before 1st January 2009
One thing about diving in the Canaries is that you never
know what will happen from one day to the next. This week
we have highs and lows... Monday started with an
unforgetable dive when I got bumped (again) by an Angel
Shark .. and this times Hans got it on Video. Tuesday and
Wednesday were marred by a storm but the conditions
improved dramatically and yesterday highligh of the week
was to see our first ever Bull Ray on Punta de la Sal. It
was HUGE! It must be the biggest animal we have ever seen
here in the Marine Reserve. Then on the night dive last
night we saw rays, angelsharks and all sorts of creepie
crawlies including a spotted bumblebee shrimp! Roll on
February and some more settled weather as there is lots
of life about at present.
Brian
The Photo Album is back! In December an unscrupulous
hacker decided to use an undocumented vulnerability in
our photo system to attempt to send out masses of spam
with our return address. We were only able to stop them
by removing the photo gallery from the site. We have
therefore now implemented a completely new photo gallery
(using Coppermine - a more secure package). This has all
the features of the old one, plus you can rate the photos
as well. We have even been able to put latin and spanish
and german names for the marine life against many of the
pictures as well. Let us know what you think of the new
gallery - I think it is better but only you can tell
me!
Brian
Today I did the dive I have been waiting six years to
complete .. to the only 'wreck' in the marine reserve ..
the Cannon. This is not an easy dive so before you ask us
to take you, check it out and understand the reasons why
it is not dived very much by reading my personaldiving
blog to find out more about it.
Brian
Congratulations to Ed! A Happy 50th Birthday! Yes Ed has
joined the ranks of the 'older people'. We were thinking
of giving him a walking stick.....
Apolpgies on the other hand to those of you who like to browse our photo-gallery. It was hacked by some spammers and we have had to take it off-line for the moment.
Brian
We have just completed an unusual day - organising a
special snorkelling expedition for 40 members of
'ClassAfloat', who sailed into Las Palmas this week as
part of their year-long trip on board a tall ship. We had
agreat morning discovering the wealth of marine life on
Las Cantoneras Beach in Las Palmas which was well
protected from the strong swell of the last few days. The
Classafloat moves on to Africa in the next few days and
we move back to planning for a busy christmas
period.
Brian 
Over the past few years, we know that some of you have
had difficulty finding our dive centre in Arinaga, as it
is neither on the main street or by the sea. Hopefully
this will become a thing of the past as we have now
installed some signs on the main road coming into arinaga
to make it obvious where our centre is. And after several
openings and closures we remain the only professional and
licenced diving centre in Arinaga, as La Galena Verde (A
Spanish diving shop) has now moved to Vecindario.
Brian
Wow, what a dive we have just had. The marine reserve in
Arinaga always gives you something special but today's
dive was top drawer. Imagine going for your first ever
dive in the sea and coming across a mother stingray with
five baby stingrays buzzing around her. The youngsters
were not as timid as some older stingrays and flew around
our group of beginners a couple of times, and then back
to the mother. Then we found an Angel Shark sleeping in
the sand as well! Yes, and all this was in water just 5m
deep and well within range for all the beginners today.
Cracking dive!
Brian 
They're back! As usual Angelsharks have returned to the
reserve in mid-November. We normally encounter them
towards the end of the month but with slightly colder
weather than normal this year they have arrived about 10
days earlier than last year. This is exactly what we
predicted from the survey we have been carring out with
the University of Las Palmas (see our Shark Survey Page).
At the same time, the smaller pygmy filefish on which our
logo is based, have started to return to the bay for
winter.
Brian
Spectacular September! This september we have had some
excellent conditions for diving. The winds dropped down
in the second week and the conditions have been calm with
great visibility. Autumn is always the best time to dive
in the Marine Reserve and this autumn has started with a
wonderful calm period.
Brian 
BBC News in the UK have been reporting the return of two turtles to Gran Canaria.
They were among an unusual number of loggerhead turtles
that were washed up in the UK during the winter of 2008,
and were returned to the Canaries and released next to
the statue of Triton on the beach at Melenara
recently.
Brian
When one of the world's top Shark photographers, Andy
Murch, wanted to photograph the critically endangered
angel shark, where better to come than to the El Cabron
Marine Reserve in Gran Canaria and Davy Jones Diving.
This week we entertained him with some great dives,
during which he got plenty of photos of angel sharks, as
well as a good selection of Marbled Electric Rays, and a
few other ray shots. We saw 4 types of ray during the
week, but the one that eluded us was the butterfly ray...
so guess what we saw the day after he left! Andy was
delighted with the diving, and the clarity of the water
to allow him to get some great shots. You can visit his
website and browse through his collection of shark photographs.
Finally this week, we were just about to close the shop when the local police turned up. As part of the new regulations for dive centres they have now started a series of visits and inspections which aim to shut down any dive centre in Gran Canaria which does not comply with the new laws on diving centres in the Canaries. Fortunately all our paperwork was fine and we had a good chat with the officers, who said that all the un-licensed centres should be expecting a knock on their door in the next few weeks, and if they have not got their papers, the illegal centres will be shut down.
Brian 
We are celebrating again! This time it is the tenth
birthday of Davy Jones Diving being based in Arinaga! To
celebrate we have a special Birthday offer for pre-booked
divers in June - Dive at 1998 prices! Use our
contact form to find out what that means to you, but
remember.. it only applies to June!
Brian 
As with previous years, the middle of May has proved to
give some of the best conditions of the year. This week
has been really calm and we have been rewarded with
almost daily sightings of angel sharks, normally so
docile and afraid of us that we can get really close.
Until yesterday when one was unusually spooked, and
became far more aggressive than normal, before turning
back and giving me a warning 'bump' on the leg! I think
this is the first actual 'contact' that we have had in
the ten years that the diving school has been open in
Arinaga! I was a bit concerned for my student when the
angel shark gave up on me and circled him before swimming
away, but he loved it (not bad for a second open water
dive he said!). We can't provide this level of
entertainment ever day but we do say that the marine
reserve is always full of surprises, which keeps it's
reputation up as the best diving site in Gran
Canaria!
Brian
We are starting a long term process to update our web
pages to a new, cleaner, look, with better navigation and
improved photos. While we do this you may find a variety
of page styles, and some minor errors in displays. We
have also tested most pages in Internet Explorer 7, but
older versions, and users of Firefox may get some minor
errors with the loading of pages. Please bear with us,
let us know if you find any sentances that suddenly end,
or links that don't work, and we'll get all the little
niggles sorted out as soon as we can.
Brian
This week should have been one for celebration, as we
finally recived our written authorisation as an
authorised diving centre from the Gobierno de Canarias
(Canarian Government). Sadly the loss of a close relative
has meant that our thoughts and activities have been
directed elsewhere. However looking forward our customers
can expect to experience the high safety standards
required by this new law, and enjoy some of the best
diving in Gran Canaria whenever they choose to dive with
us in Arinaga.
Brian
Well, we finally had our dive centre inspection by the
Canarian Authorities this week to finally confirm our
status as a legal dive centre. This process has now taken
nearly 2 years (we have been waiting for 14 months for
the inspector to come!) but now that they have inspected
us (and about 10 other professional dive centres in Gran
Canaria) they are going to start closing down some of the
'pirates' and un-registered dive centres across the whole
of the Canaries. If you find a dive centre offering
really cheap prices now, it means they are failing to
invest in customer safety and security, or operating
without a proper legal dive centre as a base. Our tip is
ask them to confirm the status of their recent inspection
- If it was not 'favourable' then forget them, or dive
with them at your own risk.
Brian
Wow, Five Angelsharks today! This week we have seen them
every day, and the special bonus of a scrawled filefish
hanging about. This February has been the best for
several years for diving: Water temperatures are slightly
up on the last two years, and the air temperatures have
been a lot warmer, with less wind, so you feel less
chilled after your dive. Glad to see Dive Magazine rating
Gran Canaria as a great place for Winter Diving in their
latest edition.
Brian
We are now on SKYPE! If you have SKYPE then you can call
us now free of charge to discuss and plan your diving,
completely free of charge! We have set the system up to
divert to home out of office hours as well, so don't
hesitate to call us (free) and discuss your diving
options. Our User id is 'davyjonesdiving' and we will
shortly add a link to all the contact blocks and
pages.
Brian
We had a great day today, first day of diving in 2008.
Conditions here are really great, and to start the year
we found a Harlequin Crab! Eduardo has been diving here
for years and it was his first sighting in 5000 dives.
Last year we had two reported sightings (one with a
picture) which we followed up by finding two empty
carapaces, but they are small, mainly nocturnal, and
highly camouflaged so easy to overlook. We have also seen
an angelshark again today and visibility is
excellent.
Brian
Simon's article and photos have now been published in the
January 2007 edition of BSAC Dive.. and they show the
variety and scale of diving now here in Gran Canaria.
From the picture on the front of a shoal of grunts,
through the stunning shots of the Arona and Kalais, to
the detailed shots in El Cabrón and Sardina, Simon shows
that Gran Canaria really does have world class
diving.
Brian
For the last ten days we have been hosting Simon
Rogerson, the editor of BSAC Dive magazine, and showing
him just how good diving in Gran Canaria can be. He has
photographed and dived all the top sites including the
marine Reserve in Arinaga, the wrecks of Las Palmas, la
Catedral, Sardina del Norte and the South West of the
Island. Look out for his review in the January edition of
BSAC Dive, and see some of the amazing photos he
has taken. When I get over my photo jealosy (well he did
have a big Nikon D200 in a pro housing) I will create a
new album in the photo gallery for you to enjoy the
shots.
Brian
This Autumn we are celebrating five years since we took
over Davy Jones Diving. We have made a lot of changes in
that time, but the diving still remains excellent. This
autumn we have been rewarded with nearly six weeks of
excellent conditions. Sadly for us all however, Annette
has decided that she wants to take her career in a
different direction, and so has moved back to the
UK.
Brian
September has so far been an excellent month for diving
here .. the water is up to 23C, the conditions have been
nice and calm, and we have been seeing lots of rays ..
three today, and once again a small turtle was spotted,
although this time it immediately took flight. Last week
at Sardina del Norte we saw six manta rays, and are
planning more excursions around the island in the next
few weeks.
Brian
It's Fiesta time in Arinaga, and tonight is the big
parade along the promenade. The town is already packed
and everyone is wearing the traditional dress - White
shirt or top, blue jeans to the knee. They are
barbecueing fresh sardines all along the beach and by
midnight when they start the fireworks you won't be able
to move on the prom! No night dives tonight (well, you
have to party when you can ...)
Brian
Our new daily feed has gone live! We now have a unique,
daily report on conditions for diving in the Arinaga
Marine Reserve. On the left of the English homepage you
will find the report and thumbnail, with more details on
the
weather page.
Brian
We have just received our first copy of the new
book,"Descubre Gran Canaria bajo el Mar" (Discover Gran
Canaria beneath the sea) and it is excellent. You can see
our review on the 'Books' page in the 'El Cabrón'
section.
Brian
We have waited two years to find them then two come along
at once. Yes we have discovered two Seahorses within the
space of a week! We have now seen both twice and hope to
show suitably qualified divers these little gems over the
coming months on a regular basis. Latest photo will be
added to the recent photos file.
Brian
Our reputation as the most knowledgeable dive centre in
the Arinaga area has taken another step up. The Spanish
diving magazine, Buceo XXI came to us when they wanted to
write an article on the El Cabrón marine reserve, and
ended up using our photos and our website material,
translated into Spanish, for their article. The resulting
page can be seen in the July edition of Buceo XXI.
Brian
Many of you will have seen the news footage about the
terrible forest fires raging in Gran Canaria and Tenerife
at present. We wanted all our friends to know that we are
all perfectly safe here, about 40km from the fires, which
are in the mountains in the centre. A few 'rural'
tourists have been evacuated, but all of the big tourist
resorts (Playa del Ingles, Maspalomas, Puerto Rico and
Arguineguin) are unaffected and there are no restrictions
on either our diving, or most other tourist activities.
They are now getting the fire under control so hopefully
everything else will be back to normal in the next
week.
Brian
We found the turtle again! This time with a camera so we
can see from the photos it appears to be a fairly old
Green Turtle. Look in the 'recent photos' section of the
photo gallery on the left!
Brian
We went to Sardina del Norte for a change today. It´s an
hour by car from here but we were rewarded by finding a
Seahorse, and five Angelsharks! At this time of year
Sardina seems to become a mecca for Angelsharks, and
other divers have recently reported up to 40 on one dive!
The Universtity is carrying out research into this
behaviour, and we continue to contribute our sightings
here in El Cabrón.
Brian
Wow -what a great day's diving. The weather forecast was
not so good today so we were almost alone diving here ..
and we found our first ever Turtle on the Table Top ..
followed by the biggest Eagle Ray we have ever seen ..
while up at Punta de la Sal we saw Dusky Grouper, Tuna,
another smaller eagle ray, and came to one area with
visibility of betwwen 20 and 30 metres. In the afternoon
we also saw Triggerfish, Barracuda, and a tiny baby ray
in the bay. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and
had plenty to talk about..
Brian
We have a new minibus! Yes, a brand new, air-conditioned,
spacious mini-bus to improve your comfort when we pick
you up to come diving in the Arinaga marine reserve.
While we have never had any safety issues with our
current vehicles this is engineered to higher (current)
safety standards and includes three-point seat belts for
all passengers among other improvements. So now we not
only offer you the best diving on Gran Canaria, but we
also have one of the best pick-up and transfer services
to our dive centre as well.
Brian
Conditions are spectacular this week! Visibility is above
average, very low currents, temperatures 20-21 and being
spring, lots of life about. Huge shoals of sprats,
sardines and tiny spawn; Stingrays have been seen several
times and the odd angelshark can still be seen.
Brian
Spring is definitely here. There are millions of sardines
and bogas in the reserve, flashing in the sunlight and
attracting various predators. After a month's absence
angelsharks have reappeared in both deep and shallow
water, and we saw a Trachinus radiatus (Giant weeverfish)
in shallow water yesterday. It is also getting warmer ..
21ºC now!
Brian
It's Butterfly week! On Tuesday we saw two butterfly rays
and yesterday another one in a different area. We have
also seen several angelsharks. The weather is really hot
(up to 38ºC on the land) as we have a Kalima blowing in
from Africa; so get in the water now, chill out and
enjoy! Also this week, our cumulative website pageloads
crept over a quarter of a million!
Brian
We have had some excellent dives over Easter! The weather
has been really calm, so the visibility is really good,
and the Triggerfish have been spotted several times.
Unfortunately after a storm we have only seen one
angelshark. Water temperatures are climbing over 20C and
the marine reserve here is certainly the best place to
dive on the island at present.
Brian
Ed showed his talents as a shark wrangler last week by
rescuing no less than three angelsharks and one ray from
some illegal fishing nets in the reserve. The net had
been left in the bay in an area we do not normally dive,
and had ensnared a total of three sharks, and one
anomalous ray, possibly a rare deep water type.
Fortunately Ed was able to release them all without
serious injury to either them or him.
Brian
We have just got back from a holiday in the Red Sea and
Ed and Annette tell us that while we were away they saw a
really friendly Butterfly Ray, a manta ray at Sardina del
Norte and Dolphins frolicking in the Bay! We have a
Kalima here so temperatures in Gran Canaria are even 2C
warmer then in Egypt! Still we had a nice break and have
returned refreshed.
Brian
Diving conditions have remained great this week, water
temperature about 1-2C warmer than this time last year,
and having found a Spiny Pufferfish last week we have
been surprised with a beautiful Harlequin Crab this
week.
Brian
We have had some really nice diving over Christmas, and
conditions have remained calm into January. Unfortunately
a storm in early December took away the Christmas tree,
but there is a lot about at the moment -we have seen
Angelsharks every day since new year in several different
areas; A cape lobster last week and today a spiny
pufferfish right in the middle of the Reserve. It´s nice
and quiet now, in winter we have small groups but we also
have some
special offers to fill up our quiet days a
little.
Brian
Christmas is here .. The annual return of the Christmas
Tree to the reserve took place yesterday, so it's time
for us to put on silly Santa hats when we dive! We will
put our own Nativity Scene in place over the next few
days as well.
Brian
November was a funny month here. Temperatures above and
below the surface have been above average .. air about
30C and water 22C... but early in the month visibility
was down after a big thunderstorm. Still conditions have
cleared again and with the clearer water both Angelshark
and Pygmy filefish have returned as normal for winter. We
did one dive last week and saw 7 stingrays, so the
prospects for Xmas are excellent.
Brian
Finally .. after months of delays .. our new compressor
is online! The 3-phase was finally connected, and the new
system is all plumbed in and running. It may be the end
of one season but come Christmas and Easter and it will
help us turn around tanks much faster and more
effectively.
Brian
Our family of Triggerfish seem to have dispersed from
Punta de la Sal and over the last few weeks have been
seen singly in various places. One seems to have moved to
the Bay where we have seen him several times at between 6
and 15m. He is a great new addition to our 'daycourse
route' as he is inquisitive enough to come and inspect
all the divers in his area.
Brian
Wow, great diving conditions at present, calm seas, good
viz, lots of life. Last week other divers saw both a
Manta Ray and a Frogfish in the reserve, we had an
excellent night dive and saw squid, stingray, forkbeard,
octopus, morays and lots more. In the dive centre we
nearly got 3-phase last week, but the man only had the
papers to put the new supply in, not to remove the old
single-phase supply. More papers, another delay... good
job our old trusty Bauer keeps on running and compressing
the air for us.
Brian
It must be Stingray week! Over the last few days we have
seen lots .. two eagle rays swimming together in Punta de
la Sal, A rare sighting of a rough-tailed ray, and on
Sunday on a 'private' dive Ed and I saw an enormous
common ray .. very old and big, plus several 'normal'
round rays and eagle rays, and an Angelshark. We also
found the mythical 'campo de Gorgonias' which includes
many more examples of Gerardia Savaglia than the single
specimen normally seen and photographed on Punta de la
Sal. There is unfortunately no easy way to get to this
zone so it will remain an 'extreme dive' and you'll just
have to enjoy the pictures.
Brian
Phew! it's the start of October and the temperature has
shot up! 40C in Playa del Ingles today and about 33 here
in Arinaga. It is due to last a few days... jump in the
water its real cool there.Nice to see several divers from
HMS Albion this weekend, here in Las Palmas for a few
days for a planned visit.
Brian
This week should have been when we got the 3-phase
connected.. but we are waiting still and our new
compressors sits again idle on the floor... On Tuesday we
submitted our Emergency Plans to the local government as
part of our registration papers, only to test it in
earnest on wednesday when a diver slipped in the dive
centre and dislocated his shoulder (ouch!). Our new
medical partner worked perfectly, and within 90 minutes
he had been taken to hospital by ambulance, examined by
an english speaking doctor, strapped up and released.
Please.. no more bare feet on our slippy floors!
Brian
Wow, diving conditions today are great! After a couple of
days with strong waves it has dropped flat calm. We swam
all around the Table Top from the Hole in the Wall, and
it was wall to wall fish. We started with a cuttlefish in
0.5m of water, and saw stingray, morays, barracuda,
trumpetfish, octopus, a stargazer, and thousands of
smaller stuff. Loads of sardines/bogas about, the shoal
of grunts was huge and plenty of damselfish, wrassse and
bream. A lovely glide through the reserve for a Sunday
morning dive.
Brian
We have just been for a nice dive in the bay and found a
Unicornfish! We have only seen two this year and there it
was in 14m just outside the second cave! To cap it a big
barracuda and a couple of Medregel swam past as well.
Great second dive.
Brian |
NEWS!
