United States

The North American-based, not-for-profit professional honour society advised that the grant was made possible, thanks to a US$5,000 donation from the Netherlands fashion brand 'Scotch & Soda'. 

Scotch & Soda

Scotch & Soda states "we give the same love and attention to the sustainable production of our garments, as we do to their design."

We strive to make issues surrounding the environment, animal welfare and safe working conditions a priority. Scotch & Soda

Operators are required to use best efforts to make sure that any person on the vessel wears a mask when getting on, getting off and during travel. Best efforts include:

The following individuals will serve three terms.

A1: Manufacturing

Jenna Meistrell, Body Glove (elected 2021)

A2: Diver Certification and Training Agencies

Tom Leaird, SEI Scuba
Jeff Mondle, PADI Americas (elected 2021)

A3: Dive Publishing, Media, Consulting and Non-Retail Service Providers

William Cline, Cline Group Advertising
Dan Orr, Dan Orr Consulting (elected 2021)

A4: Retailers

On Friday 29 Jan and only a few hours apart, we received similar updates from the organisers of the New Jersey-based Beneath the Seas dive show and the Swedish Dive Show, Dykmässen, which in recent years have been taken place in Gothenburg in the Swedish West coast. Both announced that they will be postponing their respective events until next year due to the restrictions being imposed because of the pandemic.

Beneath the Seas writes:

Press Release

Message from the organisers:

TEKDiveUSA has been monitoring the evolving situation on coronavirus both in the U.S. and around the globe. Due to the public health emergency, we are currently facing, we believe that it is not possible to move forward with TEKDiveUSA.2020 as planned.

In 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) undertook a closer examination of the wrecks of the German U-boat U-576 and the Nicaraguan freighter SS Bluefields, using glass-domed submersibles. The two historically significant and deep (200m) shipwrecks sank near one another on the continental shelf of North Carolina, USA, during World War II.

In September 2019, off the coast of California, a fire aboard the MV Conception, a 23-meter (75-foot) scuba diving liveaboard, broke out during the night, killing 33 passengers and one crew member. The captain and four crew members barely escaped. After more than a year of speculations and rumors, the NTSB (the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board) published the results of its investigation and the U.S. Coast Guard issued a new policy on a few topics, including the charging of lithium-ion batteries aboard small vessels and liveaboards.