User:Pbsouthwood

Peter Southwood

en	This user is a native speaker of English.

af-2	Hierdie persoon kan bydraes maak met gemiddelde Afrikaans.

27	This user has traveled to 27 countries.

User:Pbsouthwood no longer contributes to Wikitravel, but you can still contact me by email
• • • Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 02:08, 21 August 2012 (EDT)

User Pbsouthwood is identical with http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pbsouthwood, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Pbsouthwood, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pbsouthwood, http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Pbsouthwood, and http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pbsouthwood and can also be contacted via those sites.

• • • Peter (Southwood) ^Talk 02:32, 22 August 2012 (EDT)

I am surveying and mapping the dive sites of Cape Town as a long term project. Wikitravel was how I made this information available to the public on a constantly updated format.

Most of the surveys are done by towing a surface marker buoy on a tight tether along a chosen contour, then after the dive I download the GPS track and transfer it to Inkscape and trace around it to show the shape of the site. A similar process is used for the outlines of reefs and wrecks, and some details are simply measured and sketched on site. On rare occasions the visibility is good enough to use photos and video to provide details.

Since March 2011 I have had access to unpublished data from the SA Council for Geoscience which did a sidescan sonar survey and fascies interpretation of parts of False Bay and the Atlantic seaboard of the Cape Peninsula for a reef ecology monitoring project. This data lacks detail of depth and can be difficult to interpret with precision, but it is excellent for identifying roughly where all the rocky areas are. However it is limited to places where the sonar fish is not likely to hit rocks, so there is still plenty of reef that has to be identified and mapped in other ways in the close inshore zone, Also it does not give depth profiles. The main value is that it is possible to be reasonably sure that most reef has been identified in these zones.

Most of the boat access sites were mapped from Blue Flash charters boats, as Blue Flash caters largely for a fairly regular clientele of advanced local divers, and is more inclined towards exploring new areas and opening up new sites, and a moderate number from Dive and Adventure and Pisces Diving boats. The owners support this project by allowing me a special rate for boat dives. The shore dives were done under my own power, usually alone, but sometimes with a few buddies who are prepared to swim along with me while I survey.

I would welcome participation from other local divers, but so far I have been unable to persuade any of them to actually go out and survey.

[edit] Shortcuts

[edit] Other South African dive regions

[edit] External

[edit] User pages

[edit] Shortcuts to galleries

Images used on dive site articles uploaded to Wikitravel Commons

[edit] Wikitravel useful links

[edit] Location

Now: Somerset West

Resident of Somerset West, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.

[edit] Roles

Retired from Wikitravel

[edit] Projects

[edit] Star sites and articles

Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/Pinnacle has reached star status as of 3/12/2009. See archived discussions
Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/Partridge Point has reached star status as of 24/09/2010. See archived discussions
Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/Photographer's Reef has reached Star status as of 12/11/2010. See archived discussions
Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay has reached star status as of 28/11/2010. archived discussions
Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/Percy's Hole has reached star status as of 30/05/2010. See archived discussions
Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/MV Aster has reached star status as of 29/08/2011. See archived discussions

[edit] Templates

Template:Divesite

Template:DiveRegion

[edit] Other interests include

SURG [1](Southern Underwater Research Group) co-founder.
Engineering, particularly underwater and low-cost solutions
Underwater science, particularly marine invertebrates of my home waters.
Underwater diving, Scuba and Surface supplied, scientific and recreational/technical, since 1983.
Mapping dive sites
Recording biodiversity of the local temperate reefs. FIN and Reef Atlas Project.
Reef classification.
Design and development of special purpose equipment for diving and underwater projects (Modular Diving Systems by Southwood Marine, and SURGware)
Voluntary and contract work on scientific and commercial diving projects as diver and diving supervisor.
Education, particularly relating to scientific, commercial and recreational diving. (Commercial diving instructor, ex lecturer at University of Stellenbosch, retired recreational diving instructor)
Writing training material for commercial and recreational diver training.
Providing comments and advice on scientific and commercial diving legislation, codes of practice, operating procedures and training policy in South Africa.

[edit] Lists

Visited
South Africa United Kingdom Ireland France Belgium Netherlands Germany Denmark Sweden Norway Spain Italy Brazil St Vincent and the Grenadines St Lucia Netherlands Antilles Antigua St Barthelemy St Christopher and Nevis British Virgin Islands Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Turks and Caicos Bahamas United States of America Namibia Mozambique

Homes
Camp's Bay (Cape Town) Somerset West Stellenbosch Simon's Town (Cape Town) Durban Glasgow Observatory (Cape Town) Philipsburg (St Maarten) Harrismith Tamboerskloof (Cape Town) Somerset West