Word: waterous
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...fancy a little underwater exploration without the hassle of learning to scuba dive, you'll love the sub-scooter. It's a battery-powered moped that propels you through water at a depth of 10 ft. (3 m), while compressed air is pumped into a tiny glass cockpit from a boat on the surface - the resulting air pressure keeping water out of the hood. Pelagic treasures can be seen without even getting your hair...
...nothing to bump into apart from other sub-scooters (although there's little chance of that with scuba-diving guides pointing the way). Sure, the sub-scooter is too sedate for James Bond and probably rather restrictive for experienced divers, but it's still a thrilling experience for visiting water babies. A two-hour excursion, including 30 minutes on a sub-scooter, costs about $160 for two people. Visit www.blue-safari.com for details...
Bruno Piccinelli, head of UCIS, Italy's association of rescue-dog trainers, says the breeds, which are innately strong in the water, are trained from puppyhood until they are at least two years old to make water rescues. Dogs have long been taught to respond to specific types of water accidents and other emergencies as well as to use their keen hearing and sense of smell to assist in search-and-rescue missions - canines were used to help find survivors in the rubble of the recent earthquake in L'Aquila, for example. But now some 70 pooches have been authorized...
Piccinelli, who notes that Scandinavian countries also use rescue dogs in places where lots of people gather near water, describes how the four-legged lifeguards operate: sitting up alongside their human counterparts, the dogs are trained to recognize signs of drowning. When they see someone in trouble, they paddle out to the swimmer, ideally together with their human partners, though they can also go it alone. The distressed swimmer can grab hold of the dog, which will then paddle back to safety with the rescued swimmer in tow, or the dog will drag the person in with its teeth, tugging...
...drowning 47-year-old bather near the east-coast city of Foggia, while Massi, a Newfoundland, and Labrador Romeo were patrolling the super-chic Amalfi coast aboard a motorized, rubber coast-guard raft when they helped two would-be victims. Other four-legged studs have offered staged demonstrations of water safety for vacationers near Venice...