Watch this space where we will be letting our website visitors know the results of our in water product testing. 

This kit contains a reef underwater slate, underwater survey paper, reef scan forms and either a fish id card or the waterproof fish-in-a-pocket guide. 

The survey paper divides 128 of the most commonly sighted tropical western Atlantic fish into 25 family groups. Divers simply check off the species sighted during the dive and indicate the relative abundance of each. The backside of the paper has blanks for 32 species not listed and blank profiles to draw "mystery fish”.  The data can then be transformed onto a scan form and sent to reef where it becomes a part of a growing database. 

For decades bird watchers have provided a similar service. Their enjoyable pastime has been proven invaluable for the understanding and preservation of bird life. Unfortunately comparable data for marine life has until now been available even for coral reefs that are visited every year by 1000's of divers and snorkelers. The reef fish survey program is an opportunity for all divers and snorkelers to participate in a fun and educational program while actively contributing to the conservation of the marine environment. Even new fish watchers can make significant contributions. The database is made accessible through www.reef.org. A variety of reports are available including species distribution, abundance reports and summaries by geographical areas. You can even view your own life-list of fish sightings. Marine park managers and scientists from NOAA, the State of Florida, the Nature Conservancy, island governments and universities are already putting reef data to good use. 

Come and join the fun and help us insure healthy fish populations for future generations. 
 

Having now completed over 50 dives with the Smart Com I write this product review with mixed emotions.  First a little history... I've been diving since 1965 and have over 10,000 dives to my credit.  My diving career spans the time when there were no dive computers, through the first" bendomatic", the introduction of the Edge and to the present plethora of computers now on the market. 

I found the Smart Com easy to use and understand from day one.  The information is displayed with numbers large enough to read even with my ancient eyes.  During the dive, the dive time, current depth, temperature, safe time and maximum depth are displayed along with tank pressure and the amount of time that gas will last before the pressure reaches a preset value. 

There is also an icon to remind you when your tank pressure reaches1400psi.  This value can be changed when the computer is connected to a PC via an infrared interface.  My favorite symbol is a little set of lungs which appear to inform you of an increase in workload.  It is accompanied by a distinctive warning sound which reminds me of the "missile lock" tone from Top Gun.  Once again, the sensitivity can be changed via the infrared interface. 

Now for the mixed emotions part.  I found the decompression calculation model (ZH-L8 ADT) very sensible.  Since I routinely dive with clients that own dive computers I was fearful that the Smart Com would be too conservative.  This turned out to be a needless worry.  The safe times on the Smart Com has compared very well with every computer out there so far.  I have yet to set a more conservative microbubble level and when I do that will be the subject of a subsequent review. 

One of the more fascinating calculations the computer performs is to calculate the minimum and maximum air consumption.  When the computer is connect via the infrared interface a series of logbook pages allows one to fill in conditions, dive site, buddies, tank size, and any notes or photos you wish to include.  Simply fill in the data and hit ok to log the dive in your PC.  Call it up later and the program gives you a graphic representation of the dive and computes your air consumption.  I've included a sample profile.  Our staff breathing rates vary from more than a cubic foot a min (kicking hard at depth) to a low of .26 (puttering around on a shallow reef).  This is the part of the program that I enjoy the most and I find myself constantly badgering people to try the computer just to see their results. 

My biggest problem is with ascent rates.  I have not yet found a way to disable the alarm that signals too fast an ascent rate and no matter how hard I concentrate, the alarm goes off several times every dive.  On the graphic display these incursions show in bright red.  I have become much more aware of my ascents since I've started using the computer and I feel it has made me a better diver but it really bugs me when it goes off at 60 feet as I swim up and over a coral head. 

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After all is said and done, this is an awesome instrument and I highly recommend it for divers of all abilities.  Since I presently dive only air, many of the features of the computer were not covered in this review.  It has done more to help me analyze my diving than any other piece of equipment I have ever used.