California Diving News

Diving Movies & TV
Make sure you dive; dive as much as you can, but if you can’t, the entertainment industry is going dive crazy with at least three offerings to get you underwater in the late summer and early fall.

On TV you will find a new TV show scheduled for Monday nights on NBC called Surface. Ever wonder what life would be like if a new form of sea life began to appear in locales all over the earth? Naval officers in the South Antarctic Sea, a family in San Diego, the Oceanographic Institute in Monterey, and fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico are about to find out. The organisms are beautiful. But are these innocent creatures more than what they seem? Embark on this unfathomable journey to discover what might be lurking just below the surface. Cast: Lake Bell, Jay Ferguson, Rade Sherbedgia, Carter Jenkins, Leighton Meester.

Coming to theatres in the coming months are two movies for the underwater enthusiast.

Into the Blue is a high-stakes thriller set in the deep, shark-infested waters of the Bahamas. When young divers discover the wreckage of a cargo plane at the bottom of the sea, they believe their dream of buried treasure has come true. What they don’t realize is that millions of dollars of illegal goods are in that sunken plane and a group of dangerous criminals are already desperately searching for it. As tensions mount and the friends begin to fight about what to do with their find, others get closer to discovering their secret—and the treasure hunters quickly become the hunted.

The Cave, coming in late August, is set deep in the Romanian forest, where a team of scientists stumbles upon the ruins of a 13th century abbey. On further inspection, they make a startling discovery - the abbey is built over the entrance to a giant underground and underwater cave system. Local biologists believe the cave could be home to an undiscovered eco-system, so they hire a group of American underwater cave-explorers to help them investigate its depths.

Thrill-seeking professional cave explorers who run a team of the top divers in the world arrive in Romania with all the latest equipment, including a new type of rebreather allowing a diver to remain submerged for up to 24 hours. The crack unit immediately begin their exploration. But what they find deep inside the caves is not just a new eco-system, but an entirely new species altogether...

The film features dramatic and beautiful underwater cave footage by the renown cave diving expert and cameraman Wes Skiles.

Fish & Game Creates Regulations Hotline
The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is making it easier for underwater hunters to stay informed about current ocean fishing regulations with the introduction of a new hotline. Most of California’s ocean bottomfishing regulations are now just a phone call away. DFG has developed the Recreational Groundfish Fishing Regulations Hotline at (831) 649-2801. Using a touch-tone keypad, anglers can now get the latest groundfish regulations information over the phone, and with a cell phone, it’s possible to get this information while at sea. To use the hotline, anglers simply need to know where in the state they plan to fish, and the groundfish species or species groups they will be targeting or are likely to catch.

While the DFG provides information on its web site, at www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd, to help game-takers stay informed about regulation changes, those without computers and internet access have found it more difficult to get current information. The hotline does not present complete regulations information, and is not intended to take the place of the regulation booklet or supplement. It does present regulations that are the most likely to change during the season, including openings and closures, depth restrictions, and size and bag limits.