Underwater

Underwater bay grasses had a banner year in the upper Chesapeake Bay in 2004, with the largest increases in and around the Susquehanna River. The multistate Chesapeake Bay Program released results of its annual bay grass survey yesterday, and the findings confirmed what scientists have seen on boat trips along Cecil, Harford and Baltimore county rivers: Multiple species of dense grasses have returned to areas that had been barren for many years....

Darlene D. McCullough, a Baltimore photographer and scuba diver whose underwater photography received national attention, died of cancer May 11 at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. She was 48 and a longtime resident of White Hall in Baltimore County. The former Darlene Dawson was born in Baltimore and raised in Cockeysville and White Hall. She was a 1974 graduate of Hereford High School and earned a bachelor's degree in theater arts in 1978 from what is now Frostburg State University. She became a stage manager at Kings Dominion amusement park in Virginia, and later at the Baltimore Opera Co. and Cockpit in Court Theater.

While other middle school pupils read about what an astronaut experiences in space, Perry Hall seventh-graders Mike Camiolo, Brendan Meredith and George Chrissomalis lived a simulated version of it at Goucher College's Aquatic Center yesterday. Mike, Brendan, George and more than 20 other pupils participated in a simulation that is a small part of Perry Hall Middle School's curriculum. Teachers Michael Doddo and Andrea Lake shied away from conventional means of teaching about astronauts and space and decided to let pupils simulate it for themselves.

The beauty of the underwater world, from the vibrant color of fish to their swift glide through the water, can now be experienced without seeing a thing. The first large group of visually impaired children took an audio tour of the National Aquarium in Baltimore yesterday designed specifically for them - an effort to open the popular tourist attraction to those without sight. "Through accessible programs like this, it really opens up museums to other people," said Dale Otto, president of Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind and a blind man who after nine years in Baltimore had never visited the aquarium.

On deck Miami-area Krispy Kremes could give out 197,694 free doughnuts today because the Marlins got 12 hits. He said it "He is hitting off a tee and running in a swimming pool, so as soon as we get a game that we play underwater, we might be able to put him in play." Clint Hurdle, Rockies manager, on outfielder Preston Wilson

Members of the Baltimore County Police Department's dive squad will be honored tomorrow for their efforts to rescue residents during Hurricane Isabel last year, officials said today. Baltimore County police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan will bestow the Medal of Honor to members of the Special Services Section Underwater Recovery Squad at 11 a.m. during a special ceremony at the Public Safety Building in Towson. During the rescue missions, divers carried elderly victims to inflatable boats, and the team members regularly held on to the sides of their boats after they were filled to capacity to allow more victims to be carried.

Ginny Chadwick has the perfect retort for anyone who mocks her sport, synchronized swimming, calling it, oh, things such as theater or show business, but not a real sport. "Come join us in the pool," is what the resident of Oakland Mills village in Columbia says. Because Chadwick knows something her sport's knee-jerk critics don't get: It's flippin' hard to hold your breath for as much as 30 seconds while twisting and turning, keeping time to the music, and looking good in water way deeper than you are tall.

The days of planting bay grass by hand may be coming to an end. In a strange contest of machine vs. man, scientists are pitting a Florida farmer's experimental planting boat against a team of experienced divers in a race to restore underwater vegetation in tributaries in Baltimore and Harford counties. But bay advocates are hoping this competition will have a slightly different outcome than the legendary tale of John Henry, who defeated a steam engine in a man vs. machine race to lay railroad track, then died in his moment of victory.

EVERY NOW AND THEN, you stumble across a story that is so wonderful you say to yourself: "If this story were made into a movie, Roger Ebert would deliberately expose himself to mutating radiation so he could grow additional thumbs and point them up." Today I want to tell you such a story. It was brought to my attention by alert reader C. Erik Enockson, and it has what Aristotle called the Four Essential Elements of Drama: (1) despair, (2) intrigue, (3) Canadians and (4) snorkeling. When you read this story, you're going to think I made it up. But I ask you: Have I ever lied to you?

I've heard about an unusual new fitness class called HydroRide. Is it a joke? Amazingly, no. As if chlorine hair or a numb derriere weren't bad enough alone, someone has taken spinning and moved it underwater. And there you have HydroRide, one of the newest trends in group fitness. OK, so you may not be entirely submerged -- just enough to increase the resistance on your legs by about 10 times. The pool is about 5 feet deep, and the bikes are specially designed for underwater use. The folks at Crunch Fitness, based in Los Angeles, concocted this concept.