In his introduction, William Cline writes:

We, as an industry, are experiencing tremendous change that started well before this current global pandemic. We are seeing shifts in training, dive vacation habits and dive equipment purchasing patterns that all point to seismic shifts in our dive consumer base. This survey seeks the industry’s assessment of where we are going by sector and what we can do to change or respond to some of the emerging trends.

It’s been a quiet summer in the waters of Alaska.

With zero cruise ships carrying whale-watchers and glacier gazers—a situation which temporarily boosts the state’s population of 730,000 by 1.4m individuals—the humpback whales in the vicinity have grown much more talkative.

This is the impression that delighted researchers are getting.

Why does it seem we need a horrendous accident for common sense safety changes to be made? Looking back in history, two tragedies come to mind, which resulted in significant changes to safety protocols. One was the sinking of the Titanic and another, more recently in 2010, the “Station” nightclub fire in the US state of Rhode Island. It took the loss of 100 souls for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to re-write policies, and issue new code provisions in 2006 for fire sprinklers and crowd management in nightclub-type venues.