Taking the Plunge!

Okay. Well, here goes. My first blog.
I've agonised about how I would kick start this blog for so long, that I didn't think I'd ever get started.
I was looking for a sparkling, award-winning start to my blogging career, but in the end I've just decided to go with it now and wait for the scintillating prose (oh I do hope so) to come some other time.
So who am I? My name is Mark. I'm in my mid-30s and live in the most landlocked place in the UK. which is unfortunate as I have a deep love for the oceans borne out of my passion for scuba diving, one so strong I'd dive in a puddle if it were deep enough.
I started my diving career five years ago and I'm now PADI Divemaster helping to teach people how to dive - although not in puddles.
In my day job I'm a journalist (my other great love) covering the crime beat for three major newspapers. I know the two couldn't be further apart, but I'd already got the credit card and mortgage by the time I realised I wanted to be an ocean-going explorer and adventurer (or beach bum, whichever came first).
So, back to this blog. This is a way for me to unite my two passions and write about a subject I truly love.
In the end, it's going to be a mixed bag of things.
Hopefully it will become a place to share stories about our diving adventures, discuss the best places to dive, and the ones to avoid, look at dive gear (grrrrrrrr), have a laugh at some of our underwater exploits, and feature the discoveries being made beneath the waves.
Perhaps more importantly though, it will be a place to discuss marine conservation and focus on the pressing ecological issues affecting the undersea world.
By looking at research being done by marine biologists around the globe we can further our own understanding and also, as an online community, campaign for government and industry to change the practices the threaten the very future of our seas and the life in them.

Phew! There you go. It wasn't so hard after all.

I know it's a kind of mission statement, but I hope it appeals. As I stated at the beginning, nothing sparkling I know, but I hope you stick around to see what comes up in the next few weeks and months.

I'm thick-skinned (the day job taught me that) so please fell free to comment, criticise, poke fun at, whatever you like because only by participating can we all have a good time on those afternoons when we're stuck behind a desk desperately wanting to be beneath the waves.