Adventurers' Club News Nov 2009 - The Adventurers

Minutes – September 17 & 24, 2009and one has to be a certified diver to viewthem.Male sharks live about 12 years and femaleslive about 10. Gestation period is 18months and only one or two pups are theusual litter.Sharks are being harvested for productsincluding shark fin soup. The fin does notadd to taste but to texture. This demandhas greatly decimated the shark population.Sharks can detect sounds from milesaway. Closer in they detect scents and thenthey get visual contact. Only near the endof the approach can they sense electricalimpulses. This last sensitivity is what Richarduses on his electric shield to driveaway a hungry shark.September 24, 2009We had a large crowd tonight and firstvice president Vince Weatherby,treasurer Rick Flores and other boardmembers did a great job in insuring that allwent well.Anatoly Sagalevitch introduced hisguests from the oceanology institute inRussia. The institute currently has officesin Moscow, Lake Baikal, Vladivostok andMurmansk. Next year, tourist dives areplanned to the Bismarck and Titanic.Explorers’ Club president Lorie Karnathsaid that Anatoly would be presented theWilliam Beebe award for exploration by theExplorers’ Club.Guest Mark Weitz said that he had returnedfrom Malta and visited the temples,grottoes and walled cities.Dave Finnern returned from a dive tripto Bermuda. He visited the museum of theTitanic and saw the flag presented by RalphWhite.Bernie Harris and his wife Devera aregoing to Quito, Ecuador and the Galapagos.Bill Morse and his wife are leaving for aminimum of two years in Cambodia. Billwill be running the NGO for CambodianSelf Help Demining (www.landmine-relieffund.com)and Jill will be teaching. Theyare taking the dog.Bob Oberto and Andrea Donellan areplanning an adventure to Antarctica to recovera plane from the Byrd expedition.Andrea has seen the plane twice on herseven trips to the Continent. The kickoffbash will be October 10 th at the Proud BirdRestaurant with Robert Byrd Breyer,grandson of the admiral, and Dick Rutanin attendance.Mike Gwaltney, Jim Dorsey, AlanFeldstein and Pierre Odier are leavingin a couple of days for two weeks on thevoodoo trail in West Africa. They will visitTogo, Benin and Burkina Faso.A brief report was given on the distributionof the ashes of former president RalphWhite. Jay Foonberg took the ashesto Guam and Iwo Jima. Paul Isley tookthem to the Pyramid of Cheops in Egyptand to Lake Baikal in Russia. Paul and BillMorse took them to Mt. Everest basecamp. Rosaly Lopes carried them to Brazil,Halifax, Nova Scotia and Mt. Blanc.November, 20098ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS