In Episode 23 of The Surface Interval Show, Ag and Des talk with maritime archaeologist Ross Anderson of the Western Australian Museum - Maritime and President of the Australasian Institute of Maritime Archaeology.

We thought it'd be great to talk to a maritime archaeologist as many divers (us included) are fascinated with wreck diving, and also due to recent discussions about possible changes to the current Commonwealth Historical Shipwrecks Act (in Australia), aligning it with the 2001 UNESCO Convention on underwater cultural heritage.

Its clear from our discussion that Ross is deeply committed to wrecks, and sees that responsible access of wrecks by divers is important and desirable.

Listen in as we discuss:

1. Ross' work at the WA Museum - Maritime
2. Significant milestones in Ross' career
3. AIMA
4. Shipwreck protection legislation - current and future
5. The UNESCO Convention on UW Cultural Heritage
6. Impact on divers

The Surface Interval Show is by divers and for divers. Please feel free to comment on this episode at our blog at www.thesurfaceinterval.net. You can also become a fan of The Surface Interval Show on our Facebook page, and you can follow The Surface Interval Show on Twitter!

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The Surface Interval Show Episode 23 (mp3 - 22MB - 63 min)

Welcome to The Surface Interval Show, version 2.0! We're at a new home and are re-launching our small contribution to the diving conversation!

For a variety of reasons, we're no longer part of The Podcast Network, and we want to say thanks to Cameron and all at TPN for hosting us since the first episode of The Surface Interval Show.

So we're now on our own, and you'll be able to find us at www.thesurfaceinterval.net. Our web feed (RSS) can be found at feeds.feedburner.com/SurfaceInterval.

Keep up to date with us on Twitter at twitter.com/surfaceinterval.

In Episode 22 of The Surface Interval Show, we start out by introducing our new co-host, Agnes Milowka. Ag joins Bear and Des, and brings a wealth of cave/technical diving experience to the conversation. She's done some amazing dives, and the recent video of her Sidemount Diving in Rock Bluff shows an amazing cave dive in Florida.

We did a bit of a debrief of the recent OZTeK'09 Diving Technologies Conference & Exhibition in Sydney. Ag was a presenter, Des was the MC, and Bear participated in quite a few of the presentations. We all agreed that this was an amazing conference, and send our congratulations and thanks to David Strike and his hard working team for a great show. We look forward to OzTek'11 in 2 years time. Hopefully we can get Strikey onto the show to discuss this shortly.

We also had a chat about the upcoming sinking of the ex-HMAS Canberra in Melbourne, and a recent wreck find in Victoria. Keep tuned on information on a Surface Interval dive on the ex-HMAS Canberra later this year.

We're excited to be back, and would appreciate any feedback on this show as well as suggestions for future topics.

Welcome to the awesomely exciting relaunch of The Surface Interval Show podcast.

Des and Bear kick catch up on whats been happening with them, and some stuff in the diving world, including:

• Des has been busy becoming a PADI Course Director, and is now teaching PADI Instructor Courses at United Divers in Wollongong
• Des discussed the PADI Course Director Training Course he attended in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
• Bear hasn’t been too wet lately, but has been working on getting a lot fitter.  He’s going to have to get his dry suit taken in before he wears it again, as he’s dropped more than 15kg!  (way to go Bear)
• Oceanic Australia has taken a big initiative to talk with its customers, having setup a relationship with DiveOz (close friends of the show), and hosting three bulletin boards there.  Russell Kitt, MD of Oceanic Australia, personally gets into the conversation
• Mike Ball Dive Expeditions is getting rebreather friendly
• The ex-HMAS Canberra has now been handed over to the Victorian group who are preparing it for its sinking as a dive site.  Check out the splendid website at www.hmascanberra.com.au
• Friend of the show, Dave Harasti, has co-authored with Mark Blaine an amazing book called The Marine Life of Bootless Bay.  Its a wonderfully illustrated work on the life found around Port Moresby in PNG.  Purchase the book through Dave’s website.

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