Diver Magazine...

DEE SCARR:

GRAND DAME OF BONAIRE DIVING

Dee Scarr is the diving goddess of Bonaire. Her dives and life provide an inside look at underwater life rarely experienced certified divers. When you go to Bonaire, a dive with Dee should be mandatory.

With more than fifteen years of professional diving, Dee is an experienced naturalist whose goal is to help others gain a better understanding of marine creatures. She accomplishes this through her "Touch the Sea" dives, her writing, and her popular slide presentations.

Dee holds MA and BA degrees in English and public speaking and taught high school in Florida for six years. She was permanently lured to the sea in 1977, working as a dive guide in the Bahamas and Bonaire.

Dee's "Touch the Sea" dive programs present sea life in a way that amazes veteran and novice divers alike. Participants are likely to feed anemones, tickle fish, meet moray eels, play with octopuses, get grabbed by crinoids, and have a nice manicure performed by cleaner shrimp. "Touch the Sea" divers leave the water changed people. Dee's love and understanding of undersea life is definitely contagious.

Dee has also published three successful and interesting books: Touch the Sea, Coral's Reef, and The Gentle Sea. Along with her legendary dives, Dee's books provide a perfect introduction to Dee Scarr's world. In her first work, Touch the Sea, Dee shares her interaction with marine friends, including moray eels, peacock flounder, and sharks. Coral Reef is a story written to help children learn about the gentle world beneath the sea. Her most recent book, The Gentle Sea, uses Dee's infamous humor and personal experiences to help divers and snorkelers explore and understand the behaviors of the marine creatures they watch.

Her creative articles and photos have appreared in such magazines as Skin Diver, Dive Training, Sea Frontiers, Scupapro Diving and Snorkeling, and many others. She was recently profiled in Self magazine.

If that isn't enough, Dee also does slide shows. Her events draw large crowds in Bonaire and she also does many presentations at dive shops, clubs, and symposiums throughout the world.

All of Dee's activities combine to give divers from throughout the world a greater appreciation of the undersea environment. She is quite active with conservation. Her main diving domain, the Bonaire Marine Park (established with financial support from the World Wildlife Fund), is a perfect example of how reef control and rules can save the undersea environment. Diving and the environment are serious, but Dee also has fun. She says, "The symbol of sexuality for the 90s, at least for me, is the octopus. On a rare day that I did two Touch the Sea dives I saw octopuses mating at 11:30am, then at 3:30pm, and also at 4:30pm. They may have begun before I arrived in the morning and they weren't finished when I left in the afternoon. That's quite a day."

For more information about Dee and her dives, books, and shows, contact Touch the Sea at 3717 Lankenau Road, Philadelphia, PA 19131.