November – 2022 – Jetty Dive Debrief
Welcome to the November 2022 Jetty Dive Debrief! This is our newest addition to the blog – the “debrief”. Here we are going to let you know how the water has been, what the season showed us, any interesting or noteworthy details, and what we’ve achieved as a shop!
November marks one year since we achieved our Ecotourism Australia Advanced Ecotourism Certification, alongside Coffs Harbour being NSW’s first Ecotourism Certified Destination. Read more about what this certification means here, in our blog about our certificaton.
The 29th of November was also our 26th Anniversary in buisiness here! Celebrations all round.
Seasonal Marine Life Activity:
November showed us the normal sort of marine life for the months that begin to warm up. This is the month we can start to see Hammerhead Sharks but we only had one sighting during November! There were plenty of Grey Nurse Sharks, and lots of Marbled Rays on almost every dive of the month!
On the 19th of November we saw a blind shark at Split Solitary. On the 23rd of November Nathan spotted an exotic nudibranch the Tambja Spp, which he snapped a pic of in cleaner cave. On the 25th we spotted a sandbar shark, and a great hammerhead at depth – the first we have seen this season!
Certifications
PADI Open Water Divers
Congratulations to our newly certified PADI Open Water Divers:
Victoria, Lily, Charlotte, Wayne, Charlie, Trent, Elliot, Alisa, Jack, Eve, Lyarnah, Aisha.
– Good work, divers!
PADI Advanced Open Water Divers
Congratulations to our newly certified PADI Advanced Open Water Divers:
Jack, Abby, Euan.
– Congratulations!
More congrats also to Andrew for completing his Deep, and David for completing his Enriched Air Diver course.
Conditions
Visibility
The month started out with low visibility, with the 2nd being 10m, dropping to 8m on the 3rd, and 5m on the 4th. There was a nice increase to 10-12m for the weekend of the 5th and 6th. This improved again for the 11th of Nov, hitting 20m which stuck around until the 13th where it dropped to 10-12m.
Unfortunately, this dropped again to 3m-8m on the 19th of Nov. The 21st was much better at 18m-25m. On the 23rd the visibility was 10-20m, but dropped to 8m-15m on the 25th and 26th
Temperature
The temperature fluctuated from 19-21 throughout the month.
To start the month it was 19°C, increasing to 20°C on the 4th through 6th. This was consistent for the 11th and 12th, but dropped down to 19° on the 13th. On the 19th we were back to 20°, getting up to 21° on the 21st, consistently staying at 21°C fo thre rest of the month.
Sustainability and the environment
This section we are dedicating to showing what steps we are taking to reduce our environmental impact. It might include incentives we have implemented or tried through the month, or programs we have participated in. We intend to expand upon our conservation efforts page with everything we have implemented in store – as we are doing much more than this page shows!
With the announcement of Redcycle pausing it’s services “temporarily”, personally my focus has snapped right back to plastic reduction. It’s so easy to become complacent – living with the mindset of “I’m recycling it, so it’s fine” when really we should always be looking for ways to reduce the waste not just recycle it. As a society we need to find ways to “turn off the tap” of plastic, because clearly attempting to recycle it is a massive job that is maybe not pheasible.
I often write these aspects of the blog after the month closes, so I can give a full overview, but I write to you here on the 10th of November – just after the Redcycle announcement – because it is fresh and weighing on my mind. I hope that most come away from this with a similar mindset – a refresh of how important it is to reduce.
Bins!
We have upgraded our bins! We love to use items until they are broken at Jetty Dive, and rarely buy things just for the sake of something newer or better, but with the bins we have a reason! Our previous bins (on top of looking quite well worn) didn’t have the ability to label and put signs on them.
For a lot of us, recycling is second nature. It all makes sense, you know where things go. But we have a lot of non-local visitors, and every council LGA has different bin rules, nevermind across-state and intertnationally. Therefore, we find having signs helps ensure waste is going where it should.
I would often find myself fishing into our bins to retrieve items that belong in other bins. Not only do I not enjoy this, but it makes it clear to me that I would often miss things! Having clear signage should help avoid this!
Coffee Cup Update
As for the Coffee Cup Conundrum, I am in contact with a company that will send coffee cups for recycling. The company is Banish, and the recycling program is called BRAD. You can find out more here if you were interested – they recycle lots of household product not recycled in your yellow bins!
The conundrum here is funding this recycling. I’ve collected enough coffee cups to send off to recycle in only a few months, and so doing this frequently will become a bit costly. We are still investigating ways we can offset this cost so we can help play our part in coffee cup recycling.
If you have any ideas please send me an email! [email protected]
Photo of the Month
I really love this picture of Nathan’s! It’s so brightly lit, and framed really nicely. Good work, Nathan!
From the Blog!
2022 Fiji Beqa Lagoon Trip!
Finally, I’ve posted my recap of our Fiji trip (from June!). Take a peek if you’re interested in the next one. Read the blog.
The Month Ahead!
Ah, December! Warmer water dives and (maybe) Leopard Sharks?! And also Christmas! Remember to abide by Australia Post Christmas Cutoff Dates if shopping our online store, book in early for your dives, snorkels, or courses so you don’t miss out, and remember to take some time for yourself and your family over the seasonal period.
We only close on Christmas Day and New Years Day, but we are only human and can only do so much with the time we are here! So please make sure you get Gift Vouchers purchased in business hours, we can’t issue them at 10pm Christmas Eve!
Newsletter
We are starting a monthly newsletter with updates similar to this blog post. Some of our favorite customer pictures, new product releases or favorite products. If you want to hear from us (we wont spam you, I promise!) sign up here, and click “Newsletter”.
Also, our Newsletter subscribers got a little email about our Black Friday Sales and got some pretty nice bargains during Black Friday Weekend!
If you have anything you would like to hear about in this debrief, or in our newsletter, or even any suggestions for another name for this debrief, please contact us and let us know!
Thanks for reading the November 2022 Jetty Dive Debrief! We appreciate you 🙂
And have a very Merry Christmas!
About the Author
Tara is Jetty Dive’s Office Manager and IT Lady, Social Media Queen, Crazy-Fish-Lady, and as she likes to say – “Self-Appointed CEO”. You’ll find her sitting at her desk surrounded in pink, but happiest either on or under the water.
