This will be a busy, and hopefully fun, meeting with discussions about our entry in the St Patrick’s Day parade, our lionfish awareness tee shirts designed for the parade, and upcoming CRABBS club dive to Vertigo and Hamms Bluff.

Robert Georgopul will be showing pictures from his many dives on St Croix reefs and the Frederiksted pier. Sarah Barnhill will show a short video or her diving in the Atlanta aquarium.

Everyone at CRABBS would like to welcome new members Jeff Soshnick, Bill Scott and Rob Monk.

We are diving the West Wall of Salt River and Twin Anchor. If you are interested, please call S.C.U.B.A. @ 773-5994. Cost is $20/CRABBS member.  This dive will be open to the public on February 17th if space is still available.

We have a rare treat in store for our February meeting! Award winning underwater photographers Cor Bosman and Julie Edwards are going to show us images from their past year of diving in numerous exotic locations including Lembeh, Raja Ampat, Halmahera, Ambon, Banda, Papua New Guinea as well as in Dominica.  Cor and Julia just returned to St. Croix from having spent a week photographing groups of Sperm whales socializing off the coasts of Dominica. These are some fantastic shots we will be some of the first people to see these rare underwater images. 

The February meeting happens 2/9/2010 at 6:30 PM at the Nature Conservancy (great House) in Estate Little Princesse.  Event is open to CRABBS members as well any non-members who are just curious about checking out the club.

To see more of Cor and Julia’s work, check out their website http://underwa.ter.net

Join us on February 9th at 6:30pm at The Nature Conservancy. Our guest speakers this month are Cor Bosman and Julie Edwards. They will be showing pictures from their trip to Indonesia and possibly their recent trip to Dominica filming Sperm Whales.

We are diving with SCUBA on January 30th. The first dive will be West Wall at Salt River. The second dive will be Twin Anchor, just East of Salt River.

Sign up by calling SCUBA at 773-5994 before January 27th. After that, the dive will be open to the public.

• CRABBS Dive club meeting tonight at 6:30 pm! Come meet all your new and old buddies , hear about exciting plans!… http://bit.ly/8BRfcU #
• Michelle found a lionfish during one of her dives! William Coles brought it up together with with Glenn Marshino,… http://bit.ly/77KnKl #

At the January meeting, several members had questions concerning club points and how they are accumulated. The following is a list of point totals and how they are awarded.

2 points for attending club meetings, 2 points for attending club dive activities, 5 points for referring a new member, 5 points for attending a new dive training class, 5 points if you are the guest speaker at one of our club meetings or arrange for a guest speaker, 1 point for bringing a guest to one of our club meetings.

At the end of the year the person with the most points is awarded a prize at the CRABBS Christmas party.

The entire CRABBS dive club would like to welcome Mark Kevern, Bernie and Jennifer Hautman, Paul Horak,Zach and Morgan Smith and Marija Micuda to the club!

Michelle Pugh’s (dive Experience) dive class dive class spotted a  juvenile Pacific lionfish on Sunday at 117 feet at Salt River West Wall and the instructor. Michelle Notified Dr. Coles, who retrieved the fish monday morning together with Glenn Marshino,  Sean Corsaut and Bob Jensen of Anchor Dive Center .

Daily news reports on the event here.

Pictured here is an adult Pacific lionfish that was photographed in Pacific waters.