We’ve heard how man-made noise pollution from ship propellers and sonar disturbs the lives of whales and damages their famous whale song communications. It seems that underwater distractions and interruptions are now destined to affect humans as well…

I saw this while flipping pages in the ubiquitous SkyMall magazine on a plane: an ad for a NEW! Underwater cellular phone system. It leads with the question “Have you ever wanted to make or receive a phone call underwater?” Why, of course! Happens to all of us, all the time! What the ad  doesn’t ask, perhaps because it assumes this is a non-issue for the ordinary citizen, is “Would you pay $1790 to solve this nonexistent problem?”

Note that they aren’t targeting James Bond type spies with special needs and budgets to match. This is for the man in the street, as evidenced by the statement that this is useful not only at a tropical reef, but also “in your pool”. Which would save you all the hassle of popping your head out of the water and picking up your cellphone where you left it on your poolside chair.

From an Information Overload standpoint, the tragedy is that you ought not to even take your cellphone when going on vacation in the tropics, much less be willing to answer it while observing the wonders of marine life. But then, if you did that how could your wife call you to ask that you pick up some calamari on your way up out of the depths?

Happy 2010, folks!