Letter from the Directors

Happy New Year to all Blue Season Bali guests, past, present and future, we hope that the new year will be blessed with spectacular diving with an abundance of reef sharks, sunfish, turtles, manta rays, frog fish, box fish and whatever else makes your diving special!

2012 has literally started in a big way in Bali with a whale shark spotted in Tulamben and Mola Mola sighted off Nusa Penida (they obviously love Bali as the official sunfish season finished a couple of months ago!)

As many of you may have already realised, Blue Season Bali loves to keep moving forward with new innovative ideas; last year brought you The Menjangan, Blue Season Bali?s new base in the north west of Bali with prime access to the beautiful reefs of Menjangan Marine National Park and a house reef buzzing with mandarin fish.

This year we are very excited to announce the launch of two brand new programs, the BSB Eco Internship and BSB Free Diving. The Eco Internship will give you the opportunity to join Niels and the Go Eco team to do your part for the environment; marine conservation is becoming increasingly important and it is vital that we contribute to preserving Bali?s waters. And those of you want to try something different can join Oli and his Free Diving team.

This year is going to be an exciting one at Blue Season Bali, in addition to the two new programs offered we also have eleven IDC?s scheduled ? Jon, Tom and Bazz will be very busy! Don?t forget to check out our special promotions for this month and we look forward to diving, free diving or snorkeling with you very soon.

Mark Giles
Managing Director
Blue Season Bali

Critter of the Month: Sea Snake

Sea snakes are venomous reptiles that live most or all of their lives in the sea. They're so adapted to life in the ocean that few species can crawl on land. They swim like eels with their paddle-like tail and flattened body.They grow up to 2 metres in length.

Like marine mammals, sea snakes do not have gills and must sometimes surface. This is when we often see them as they make their way up for the oxygen that they need and usually startle a few divers on the way.

Common in Bali dive sites are the blue and black banded sea snakes which make good photo?s and videos as they wind their way around coral pinnacles and along reef edges.

Sea snake venom is one of the most potent snake venoms, yet sea snakes rarely inject enough venom to significantly harm a person. In fact, very few human deaths from sea snakes have ever been reported. They prey mainly on fish and other sea creatures.

The main food sources of the sea snakes include small fish, squid, octopus and shell fish. Banded sea snakes like to hunt their prey in crevices of the reefs because they are slow swimmers. Due to their slow speed, they are unable to chase the fish.

Most sea snakes give birth to their young alive. Some sea snake such as the black and white sea krait will come to the shore to lay eggs during the breeding season.

Internship Programmes - Spotlight ECO!

In 2012 Blue Season Bali is starting a new ECO Internship. During the internship we will focus on two important aspects: the scientific background of coral reefs and actual coral reef research.
During the lectures we will discuss four main topics: basic coral biology, other important reef inhabitants, coral reef ecology and the threats and protection of coral reefs. In the first lecture, students will be given a basic understanding of what a coral actually is, how it grows, feeds and reproduces. The next week, other important reef inhabitants will be addressed.

Always wanted to know how anemone fish can live inside the stinging and venomous tentacles of a sea anemone? Never seen an octopus mimicking a flounder, sea snake and a lionfish? In this lecture you will get to know all about the amazing creatures inhabiting the reef. During the coral reef ecology lecture we will discuss coral reef formation, different zones on the reef and what animals are able to survive there. Also we will have look at different types of symbioses, which play an extremely important part in the survival of many species on the reef. In the last week, we will focus on the many natural as well as anthropogenic factors threatening the existence of coral reefs. 

However, don?t expect to be in the classroom most of the time. On the contrary, most of the time will be spend in the water. You will get a PADI course included in your ECO Internship package. For example, if you are a PADI Open Water Diver you will be given the PADI Advanced Open Water already in the first week of the internship. Also you will get five PADI Specialities: Project AWARE, AWARE Coral Reef Conservation, Fish Identification, Naturalist, and Shark Conservation. Once you will get certified as a PADI Rescue Diver, you can apply for the PADI Master Scuba Diver rating. This is the highest level of non-professional dive education in the PADI system. 

Finally, one of the most important parts of your internship will be the research itself. Using CoralWatch scientifically approved methods, we will survey different reefs around Bali. You will get to learn the basics of scientific diving and within a few weeks you will be able to determine how healthy the reefs actually are. 

You might wonder if the internship is still fun to do with so much science involved. Definitely, you will have an amazing time here. On the first Sunday, we will organize a barbecue at the dive shop. Afterwards, don?t be surprised to found your colleague students in one of the many local bars cathing up with a beer or two. Also, you will have the option to sign up for an extra weekend trip to the magnificent dive sites of Biorock and Menjangan Island, in North Bali. Not as crowdy as in south Bali, but for sure worth a visit as here you will find some of the best wall dives in Indonesia. In short, this new ECO internship will give you 4 amazing weeks. If you'd like to have more information, please visit our ECO Internship website:
http://www.eco-internships.com

PADI Instructor Development

The IDC schedule for 2012 is off to a roaring start as we welcome candidates from Japan, France, Canada, Australia and the UK. It's also great to have Diana and Jeanne, from Canada and China respectively, to join us for their IDC Staff Instructor training.

As always, the Blue Season Bali IDC kicks off as the first program on the island each year. Candidates are now running through valuable preparation programs which will get them ready for the core IDC curriculum next week. These programs include equipment and compressor workshops, our exclusive "teaching open water" workshop and a variety of other valuable programs designed to make our candidates stand out when it comes time to get that all-important first job in the dive industry.

Multi-award winning PADI Platinum Course Director Jonathan Cross is leading the charge with this month's IDC candidates after a much deserved vacation over the holiday period. Welcome back, Jon, we are looking forward to another year of magic!

Technically speaking

January has been a busy month so far for our technical diving team here at Blue Season Bali. Technical diving instructor trainers Tom West and Thomas Barrett have been busy with Trimix and Sidemount courses, keeping Blue Season Bali's reputation as the island's leading techncial dive center firmly in hand.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to dive down to 10 atmospheres and not experience any noticeable nitrogen narcosis? With the right training and experience, you can. With the advent of mainstream helium-based diving mixtures throught the past two decades, more and more divers are becoming familiar with the only readily-available safe way to go deep- on Trimix. "Tri" "mix" is just what it sounds like, a mixture of three gases- in this case, helium, nitrogen and oxygen.

As most divers learn in their Open Water course, nitrogen causes narcotic effects at depths in excess of approximately 30m. Furthre in your diving career, you learn during the Nitrox course that oxygen can be toxic at high partial pressures. What's all this mean? Well, it basically means that diving with nitrogen-oxygen mixes (air and nitrox) past acceptable limits is at best negligent and at worst downright dangerous.

Helium is a non-narcotic, non-toxic, largelyinert gas which interacts very little with human body systems from a bio-chemical standpoint. Sure, there are the usual intert gas decompression considerations, but the dangers of toxicity and narcosis are largely mitigated.

Taking trimix training is the only safe way to explore deep diving sites and we are proud to be out there leading the exploration of Bali's deep diving sites. If you are interested in pushing the limits of your diving experiences, contact us today to find out more about our technical diving programs.