UAS 64th Anniversary Dinner

Kamau Sadiki is a board member and lead instructor with Diving With a Purpose (DWP), an international organization dedicated to the conservation and protection of submerged heritage resources. DWP provides education, training, certification, and field experience to adults and youth in the fields of maritime archaeology and ocean conservation. The organization’s special focus is the protection, documentation, and interpretation of African slave trade shipwrecks and the maritime history and culture of African-Americans who formed a core of labor and expertise for America’s maritime enterprises.

Sadiki is featured in the Netflix documentary “Descendant,” which follows the descendants of the slave ship Clotilda, the last slave ship to smuggle African captives into the U.S. more than 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was abolished, as they try to figure out how to best honor their ancestors. Sadiki participated on the field mission that confirmed Clotilda’s discovery in the Mobile River in Alabama. He has participated in the archeological search, survey, and documentation of five known slave ships: Guerrero in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo, Florida; Sao Jose Paquete de Africa off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, Fredericus Quantus and Christianus Quintus in Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica, and Clotilda.

He has also worked on multiple shipwreck sites around Mozambique Island, Mozambique; St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands; Biscayne National Park in South Florida; and in NOAA’s Thunder Bay and Florida Keys national marine sanctuaries.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You can continue reading the article here.

A member form called “UAS Member Profile” (https://forms.gle/mfKwhnQCS2X1xgKa9).  We are asking UAS members to voluntarily fill out this form, so club leadership can have readily available data on yourself.  This information will be maintained electronically in our Google files and can be updated at any time.

Data stored here will help create talking points or a narrative on individuals diving history, accomplishments, dive community involvement/contributions, volunteer service, dive training, travels, awards, etc.  If there is a need to recognize someone, we have a source to gather some facts for the occasion.  This is information you as members would want to be shared.

Again, you can respond to all, some, or none of the line items in the form.  There is an “additional comments” area as well if you want to share other information.

Link => Black Professional Scuba Divers Talk Up Ocean Careers

Little Understood STEM Profession Opens Doors to Exciting Work

Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology (ACUC) 

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DWP: INTO THE DEPTHS Podcast Recap and Conversation

Wednesdays  8pm EST

Description: When National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts meets Ken Stewart, the co-founder of Diving With a Purpose (DWP), she’s moved by his nearly 20-year mission to find the Spanish pirate ship Guerrero, which wrecked off the coast of Florida in 1827. Tara decides to train with DWP, learning how to find and map a shipwreck. With the help of poet and fellow Explorer Alyea Pierce, Tara tries to imagine the journey of the captive Africans on the Guerrero and how their spirits might have flown home after they perished at sea.

Featured Guest: UAS Member Jay Haigler

—Join UAS Member Jay V. Haigler, retired electrical engineer, founding board member, and lead instructor at Diving With a Purpose along with Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen, co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists, and as they dive in search for the sunken Spanish slave ship Guerrero. “Searching for a Slave Ship,” natgeoed.org/ intothedepths

—Maritime archaeologists and advocates learn special techniques for how to conduct their work underwater. To see how they assess and document a sunken slave ship, view the photo set, “How Divers Document Sunken Slave Ships,” found here: natgeoed.org/intothedepths

LINK TO LISTEN TO EPISODE 2 HERE:

Join UAS Member Kamau Sadiki at the History of Diving Museum for his virtual presentation of

‘The Hunt for Sunken Slave Ships’,

February 16th at 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

Pre-registration is required (there is a 100 person limit).

You can pre-registration at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtceGgrzgoH9YEh5Yh6-bostnXH8zrfJjl

National Geographic Podcast Featuring:

Dr. Jones and DWP

The wait is over….National Geographic’s Podcast ‘Into The Depths’ is now available!   Enjoy!

EPISODE 1: Trusting

National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts upends her life—including leaving her job—to join a group of Black scuba divers searching for the wrecks of ships that carried captive Africans to the Americas. The journey will require an uncomfortable reckoning with the traumatic history of the slave trade. Then she learns about legendary diver Dr. Albert José Jones and the underwater memorial he placed at the wreck site of the British ship Henrietta Marie in honor of the Africans who had been trafficked to the West Indies from its cargo hold. As fellow National Geographic Explorer and poet Alyea Pierce gives the captive Africans a voice and speaks their names, Tara realizes there is far more to this history than pain and trauma.

LINK TO LISTEN: http://natgeo.com/intothedepths

Dutch Springs to Remain Open for Scuba Diving

Divers will need to be supervised by an insured dive professional and reservations will be required.

By Melissa Smith January 14, 2022

A diver sticks their head out of the water at Dutch Springs. Olga Torrey

Following public outcry over Trammell Crow Co’s plan to shut the popular Pennsylvania dive destination Dutch Springs, the development company has revised its warehouse development proposal to allow the site’s 50-acre quarry to remain open.

The original proposal only included Trammel’s 600,000 square feet of warehouse spaces. The new proposal, approved by both the Lower Nazareth and Bethlehem township zoning boards late last year, separates the 50-acre quarry lake from the rest of its project. (Due to the site location, one warehouse will be built in Bethlehem Township, and the other will be in Lower Nazareth Township.) The aqua and adventure park within Dutch Springs’s roughly 100 acres are permanently closed for the warehouse development.

Jim Folk of Bethlehem Township’s Atlantis Aquatics scuba shop will run the diving operation in Dutch Springs. Leigh Valley Live reports Folk spoke to the zoning board at the Bethlehem zoning meeting, explaining the benefits the quarry offers divers, like high visibility and training opportunities.

“We just don’t have that in any other lakes around here,” Folk said. “People that come here and train here are very familiar with this lake, which can be very important for training.”

Under the new proposal, training dives still seem possible, but recreational divers who aren’t supported by insured pros may not be able to access the site: Divers must be under the supervision of an insured dive pro. It’s unclear at this time whether the site would require in-water supervision or if surface supervision (which Dutch Springs has historically had) will suffice. Reservations will also be required.

Dutch Springs has been a bedrock of Northeast diving for over 40 years, but owners Stuart and Jane Wells Schooley put the property up for sale in preparation for retirement. The dive community immediately raised concerns upon the August 2021 announcement Trammell Crow had an agreement to purchase the property.

“Terrible news for the future of diving in this area. Gonna be tough for shops to survive and for new divers to be certified,” one diver posted on a ScubaBoard.com message board. Another wrote: “There really isn’t any comparable onshore alternative for quite a distance… It is going to be a real problem for training.”

For many long-time Dutch Springs divers, using the site mainly for training purposes takes away a crucial aspect of visiting: the camaraderie.

“Dutch was a magical place not because of the water or the attractions or the facilities. It was magical because of the community,” a diver with the username doctormike posted on ScubaBoard.com after the December zone board meeting. “You could just randomly drive there (often on a blowout day) and spend the day running into old friends and finding new ones… It was like a local pub.”

Calling all Lionfish Hunters!!!

Divers,

Underwater Adventure Seeker member Kamau Sadiki will be prominently featured in a documentary film entitled, “Descendant”. The film will premiere at the world renowned ‘Sundance Film Festival’ on this Saturday, January 22^nd at 1:30pm EST. This year the festival will be virtual.

The film, produced by Emmy nominated director, Margaret Brown, focuses on the last slave ship, Clotilda’s descendant community in Africatown, Alabama.  Kamau is featured for his work around the community outreach in Africatown and the archaeology survey documentation on shipwreck.

You can purchase tickets to the premier viewing at the following link: https://festival.sundance.org/tickets/#

Go to the ‘Select a Screening’ and click. Type in ‘Descendent’ and purchase your ticket. There will be a second viewing on January 24^th.

For a full description of the film click the following link:  https://festival.sundance.org/program/#film-info/61ae07d96c1de5317cc80d98