Miscellaneous Blogs
The BiG Scuba Podcast… with Chris Jewell

Gemma and Ian chat to Chris Jewell. They are on location in Cheddar Gorge, a limestone valley in the UK recording on the Ford Custom Transit Nugget. Chris is a cave diver and cave explorer and as a member of the British Cave Rescue Council was one of the British cave divers who played a leading role in the 2018 Tham Luang Thailand cave rescue. Chris talks more about the documentary, The Rescue, as well as the recently released movie, Thirteen Lives, directed by Ron Howard.
Have a listen here:
Find out more here:
https://youtube.com/c/ChrisJewellCaveDiver
https://www.facebook.com/chris.jewell.9480
https://cavedivinggroup.org.uk/
https://www.caverescue.org.uk/
Find more podcast episodes and information at the new www.thebigscuba.com website and on most social platforms @thebigscuba
Blogs
Sharks, Shipwrecks, and Sea Turtles: My Boston Sea Rovers Adventure

by Mia DaPonte
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a conference called the Boston Sea Rovers Symposium, where I met many different people. I was astonished by the presentations and how we can help. Today, I’m going to explain more about the Boston Sea Rovers conference.
As I mentioned, I met many different people. I met Dan Dolan, who I’ll talk more about in my next blog. He told me he could take me to the New England Aquarium rehab center—which isn’t open to the public—to see the behind-the-scenes work. I also met Jenn Sellitti, who gave an amazing presentation at the film festival about discovering an old ship named Le Lyonnais. She wrote a cool book about the ship, The Adriatic Affair, which my mom is reading. She even offered to take me on a dive in New Jersey to recover an anchor! Jenn and her team love finding underwater boat parts and anchors.

Mia with Jenn Sellitti
I also got a picture with Cristian Dimitrius, who’s known for his photography and cinematography for National Geographic. And I met Greg Skomal, who is a marine biologist—just like I want to be! He’s a white shark expert, and I loved his presentation on Jaws: Fact vs. Fiction.

Mia with Cristian Dimitrius
We attended many different presentations at the conference, but I was especially inspired by the underwater terrariums. These H2O terrariums are designed for underwater farms, where plants grow and thrive under a bubble-like protection system. I was also fascinated by the coral restoration project. The presenter explained that millions of corals are getting sick and dying, but we can help by cleaning up the ocean and avoiding toxic waste. She shared that they’ve developed a medicine that sticks to corals, kind of like toothpaste, to help heal them. They’re also trying to save coral by removing young ones, growing them in labs, and reintroducing them to prevent disease. This technique is working, but there’s still a long way to go. We all can pitch in to help save coral reefs and our beautiful ocean.
My absolute favorite part of the conference was the film festival. Chris from Dive On It Scuba let my mom and me sit in the front row with all the Sea Rovers and interns. My favorite presentation was Jenn’s—she talked about the deep ocean and discovering all kinds of things. Cristian also presented at the festival, showing a National Geographic video he filmed about baby turtles hatching on the beach. The video followed their journey to the ocean, where they had to dodge not just birds but even crocodiles waiting in the water!
The Boston Sea Rovers was an amazing experience. I can’t wait to go back next year and share my new blog. Thanks for reading—until next time!
Blogs
Making a Splash: My Path to Becoming a Master Scuba Diver at 12

Meet Mia Daponte, New England’s youngest female Master Scuba Diver and Scubaverse.com’s latest blogger!
Hi, I’m Mia DaPonte, and this is my first blog! I am New England’s youngest female master scuba diver. I did my training in Jamestown Rhode Island and I’m 12 years old.
I’m also black belt in karate, and I also play soccer, basketball, and love to race my sailboat named “Beluga”. My journey to become a master diver was amazing, not all of it was easy but with the help of my friends and family they supported me so much.
When I turned ten years old, I wanted to scuba dive for my Birthday. After learning diving in the cold murky waters near my home, I wanted to start my training for this Master Diver certification. I met my instructor Seamus on my first day of diving. He was a very good influence on me and always supported me. He taught me everything I know about diving.
I also got to go to new tropical places and dive for fun. We went places like Puerto Rico, Punta Cana, Bermuda, and Bahamas. For the first time I could see far. I saw stingrays, lion fish, coral reefs, tropical fish, and lots of other animals. My favorite animal that I saw was an octopus.
Finally, it was time for my certification trip. The trip came so fast, and I eventually succeeded. In February, I went down to Cozumel Mexico and went diving at Blue Angel Resort. To get my certification, I had to do a deep dive of a max depth of 60ft, and I had to do rescue training. I also had to do an online e-learning test to qualify for this certification.
On the first day I only worked in the pool to practice and perfect rescue techniques for the next day. It was fun putting the online learning to reality. The first part felt harder than the second because I didn’t have as much room in the pool as the open ocean. On the second day, we did it in the ocean. It was hard for me to do the rescue breaths, and bring the adult diver from the bottom of the ocean to the surface. But I was able to do it after hard work.
Cozumel was a lot of fun. We made so many friends down there and hope to see them again. Diving down there was truly magical. I can’t wait to go back someday.
After hard work and dedication, I was able to achieve this accomplishment. It took me 2 years of studying and practicing, but in the end it all paid off. I can’t wait to share my next adventure with you.
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