Artists 'Create' Ocean Awareness. A powerful work of art wins hearts and minds. Understanding this, some high profile marine artists have formed the Ocean Artist Society to foster ongoing awareness of ocean issues and to celebrate the sea as inspiration for creative expression.

Among those invited to become founding members of the California-based group are BC sculptor Simon Morris and fellow Canadian Dave Fleetham, a B.C. diver and underwater photographer now in Hawaii. Their work has earned international attention, in part through the pages of Diver Magazine.

From his Saltspring Island home Morris said he was "flattered and surprised" to be asked to join such an august group of artists: "I told my wife, I'm the only person on the list I've never heard of."

Among others of the 31 founding members are marine life painter Wyland; filmmakers Al Giddings and Howard and Michelle Hall; and still photographers Stephen Frink and Cathy Church. Membership is by nomination and vote only.

A website is planned and meanwhile a Society-inspired Art Innovation Centre will be featured at the world's largest sport diving trade show in Miami Beach October 8-11.

'Lost' Sub Surfaces for Historic Mission Reunion. History was made July 20, 1969, when man first landed on an alien planet. As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, a team of inner space pioneers was also making history, hundreds of metres deep in the Gulf Stream aboard a very different space ship, the submersible Ben Franklin (PX-15). For an unparalleled 30 days, seven submariners, including famed Swiss scientist and mission commander, Dr. Jacques Piccard, travelled 3000 kilometres from the tip of Florida to a point off Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

During their extended dive along this deep sea super highway the crew observed shoals of tuna and other oceanic speedsters like swordfish, that repeatedly attacked the sub: under that kind of pressure road rage is more understandable! The mesoscaph also descended to depths as great as 600 metres and when it did finally surface, it was to a world caught up in the euphoria of Apollo 11's moon landing. In the years that followed, space travel was in, and ocean exploration was out.

No research submersible before or since has accomplished such a feat. And while the achievements of this mission went largely unnoticed by the public, they were of great value to NASA, which had played a key role by placing an observer and equipment aboard (many of the parts and systems are similar to an Apollo spacecraft) to learn more of human response and reaction to prolonged voyages in an enclosed capsule. To this day, the lessons of the Ben Franklin's 1969 mission are used as NASA plays an integral role building the International Space Station and plans for manned missions to Mars.

By a twist of fate that has favoured British Columbia, the Ben Franklin was acquired in 1970 by Canadian businessman John Horton whose plans to use her commercially off the west coast, were not realized. 'Lost' for 30 years, the PX-15 languished, disassembled and slowly rusting, in a shipyard. Recently donated to the Vancouver Maritime Museum, the sub is now externally restored and soon will be telling the world her remarkable story thanks to Museum Executive Director, James Delgado, a team of dedicated volunteers and financial support from local businesses. Guided tours are expected to begin soon. The Vancouver Film School has created a website and virtual tour of the sub, also to be accessible soon.

As a part of Ben Franklin's rebirth Delgado spearheaded a reunion of the sub's crew, designers and operational staff, set for Vancouver September 28 through October 1.

Scheduled to participate was Dr. Bertrand Piccard, son of Jacques (unable to travel due to ill-health; sub pilot Erwin Aebersold; and the ship's captain, Don Kazimir. Piccard was to give a public talk (proceeds to restore PX-15) entitled Exploration is a State of Mind chronicling the historic accomplishments of three generations of the Piccard family.

Grandfather Auguste paved the way for modern aviation and the conquest of space by inventing the principle of the pressurized cockpit and the stratospheric balloon. In making the first exploration of the stratosphere at 16,000 metres in 1931, he studied cosmic rays and became the first man to see the curvature of the earth's surface with his own eyes. Applying the principle of his stratospheric balloon to oceanographic research, he invented and constructed the bathyscaph which made him the man of extremes-having flown higher and dived deeper than anyone ever before.

Father Jacques continued the work of Auguste with whom he dived several times before executing the world's deepest dive (10,916 metres in the Marianas Trench, the greatest known ocean depth) in the Trieste, a bathyscaph of their design. He then invented submersible mesoscaphs for descending to average depths, built the world's first submarine for tourists and explored 3,000 kilometres of the Gulf Stream during the month long Gulf Stream Drift Mission.

Dr Bertrand Piccard combines science and adventure to explore the human soul as a psychiatric specialist and aeronaut. Considered the last great adventure of the 20th century, Bertrand Piccard, along with co-pilot Brian Jones, completed the first non-stop around-the-world balloon flight, achieving the longest flight in terms of both duration and distance in the history of aviation (45,755 kilometres in 19 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes). More about Dr Bertrand Piccard is available at www.bertrandpiccard.com

Divers Explore Seamount in Offshore Adventure. A band of subsea adventurers recently returned from remote Bowie Seamount, 180 kilometres out from the Queen Charlotte Islands, laden with biological data, samples, video and photographic records that will significantly increase the knowledge base of the only marine mountain peak in Canadian offshore waters reachable on conventional scuba.

And they had a blast. "It's a truly wild place," said expedition co-ordinator, Neil McDaniel, a marine biologist and underwater film producer. "We were keenly aware our presence was unusual." Indeed, the five divers are among very few to have descended the 25 to 45 metres onto and down the twin peaks, now a Fisheries and Oceans 'Pilot Marine Protected Area'. With McDaniel was fellow biologist Doug Swanston, videographer Randy Haight, photographer Donnie Reid and commercial diver Gary Grant.

Known to be a highly productive ecosystem, Bowie Seamount did not disappoint. "Marine life was extremely abundant, although not diverse," McDaniel said. "I saw a couple of fish I've never laid eyes on before in the water." One was elongated, called a ronquil. Another was similarly elongated with blunt head, big eyes and a paddle-like tail, called a prow fish. "They were super friendly, completely unafraid of us, swimming out to us in the open water and even all the way to the surface," he said.

The jagged, volcanic peaks, wildly covered in multi-hued species of seaweed, offered up many other noteworthy sights, no less entertaining, however, than the big, black-footed albatross anxious to be a part of all the excitement and utterly nonplussed by the divers.

"We were obviously a novelty to them. They'd swim right up to us in the water peering through our masks." McDaniel said these formidable oceanic birds with a wingspan in excess of eight feet, were hilarious to watch come in for landings. Watch for the video.

To get out to this distant marine playground the divers journeyed 20 hours offshore from the Queen Charlottes aboard the Danny & David, Grant's 18-metre packer, a stable craft navigated with laptop and GPS. "The boat was dynamite; without Gary's help, none of this would have happened," McDaniel said. 600 metres higher than well-known Whistler ski mountain, Bowie rises 3,100 metres above the seafloor to within 24 metres of the surface. "Still, it's a needle in a haystack to locate and it's a tribute to technology that we zeroed in on her in less than 10 minutes," added McDaniel.

"Out there the water's incredibly blue, the prettiest aquamarine, not at all like the green inshore," McDaniel observed, adding that the ambient light 45 metres deep was "amazing. It's unlike any B.C. diving I've ever done before." Lateral visibility was 40 feet plus, vertical closer to 80 feet and water temperature was a balmy 15 degrees Celsius!

While marine life observed underwater was not overly large, from the boat deck divers enjoyed sightings of humpback and minke whales, blue sharks, Pacific white-sided dolphins riding the bow wave and on one occasion a white blob turned out to be an ocean sunfish (mola mola) the size of a dining room table.

Collectively, the team logged 25 dives and some nine hours bottom time during three days on site. They kept it simple and safe. No deco chambers nearby! Divers wore twin tanks each rigged with separate regulator, breathed air and decompressed on 40 per cent Nitrox. Each man wore two dive computers. The team had hoped for up to six days of diving but in an area notorious for stormy seas, they were gratified with the rich haul of specimens, still and video images and unforgettable experiences they accumulated. Said McDaniel: "I've wanted to do this for years; each guy on the team has wanted the same. It had to happen!"

Bowie Seamount was designated a Pilot Marine Protected Area to encourage more science to understand its natural ecosystem, its vulnerabilities and assets. A report detailing the team's observations will help serve this need and the video footage will be used to produce a documentary film to be produced for Canada-wide broadcast.

For further information e-mail Neil McDaniel at neilmc@pro.net or phone (604)-263-9842.