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SCUBA News...
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For news, articles and updates on scuba diving, travel and the marine environment.
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Update: Best Dive Spots in 97 Countries
SCUBA Travel have revamped their diving destination directory to make it easier to find what you are looking for. Now arranged by country, sea, ocean and continent.
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Europe Argues for bluefin tuna trade ban
The king of Japanese sushi and sashimi may disappear from menus after Europe joined the United States on Wednesday in arguing for a ban on trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna.
The 27 European Union (EU) nations agreed, despite opposition from Mediterranean island Malta, to urge a United Nations (UN) body that lists endangered species to vote for a ban when it meets in Qatar, starting on Saturday.
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Marble Ray is Creature of the Month
The giant Marble Ray is three metres long. It is not aggressive but watch out for the spines on its tail. You see the Marble Ray in the Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to southern Japan, Micronesia and tropical Australia; and in the Cocos and Galapagos islands in the Eastern Pacific.
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2010 El Nino Reduces Marine Life
The ongoing El Nino of 2010 is reducing the numbers of pelagic fish, according to scientists at NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
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Update: Diving Pakistan
SCUBA Travel guide now includes Charna Island, Pakistan. Diving window is end of September until March.
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Issue 118 of SCUBA News now On-Line
The latest issue of SCUBA News is now available at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scubanews118.html. This month: best dive spots in 97 countries, diving Mozambique, wreck photo gallery, 10 tips for underwater photographers and all the diving news from around the world.
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Barnacle Dinner in the Galapagos
The barnacle, a key thread in the marine food web, was thought to be missing along rocky coasts dominated by upwellings. Now a research team headed by Brown University marine ecologist Jon Witman has found the opposite to be true: Barnacle populations thrive in vertical upwelling zones in moderately deep waters in the Galapagos Islands.
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Massive Iceberg Threatens Ocean Currents
The calving of a massive iceberg off east Antarctica last week has prompted fears that the event could alter the salinity of the surrounding ocean, with damaging effects on marine life and global ocean currents.
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Census discovers 5000 marine species
A preview of the Census of Marine Life has revealed that the project has discovered over 5,000 new species. The final report from the decade-long census will be released in October 2010. A major aim of the census is to provide the scientific support for the establishment of a global network of marine protected areas to prevent damage from fishing and other human activity. Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, a marine biologist from the UK's University of Plymouth, said that delicate coral reefs were under threat from deep-sea trawling.
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Update: Diving Borneo
Read rave reviews of the diving around Sipadan and Sabah at the SCUBA Travel Malaysia directory.
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Free Guide to Underwater Photography
Underwater photography is the most challenging type of photography one can undertake. It is also one of the fastest growing segments, due to the rapid drop in the price of underwater camera housings over the last 10 years. UWPhotographyGuide.com is the first free comprehensive online guide to underwater photography to assist divers and photographers in learning this difficult art.
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Sea of Cortez Marine Life Declines Dramatically
In just ten years life in the Sea of Cortez (Mexico) has declined at a shocking rate. The cause is highly destructive new fishing methods. Traditional hook-and-line fisherman have been put out of business by vastly more damaging gill net fishing and hookah diving. Hookah fishermen use surface-supplied air through piping that allows them to walk along the seafloor for long periods of time.
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Warmer seas may rob corals and rainforests of clouds
Rising ocean temperatures might leave coral reefs in seriously hot water - without clouds for protection.
Five years ago Graham Jones and his team at Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, demonstrated that algae living in coral tissue produce a gas called dimethyl sulphide (DMS). When released into the atmosphere, DMS helps clouds form over coral reefs. Jones says that the clouds block sunlight and cool the sea.
His team have now discovered that a rise in ocean temperature of only 2 degrees C causes some algae to stop producing DMS. As a result, fewer clouds will form over the coral, thinks Jones, allowing more sunlight to shine on the water, warming it still more.
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Update: Underwater wreck photos
SCUBA Travel have added many new images to their wreck diving photo gallery, including those of the Carnatic in the Red Sea.
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Evidence of Rapid Sea Rise Found in Coastal Cave in Mediterranean
An examination of mineral deposits in a coastal cave on the Spanish island of Mallorca shows evidence of rapid rises and declines in sea level as the planet warmed and cooled.
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Lost leviathans: Hunting the world's missing whales
New science is confirming old whalers' tales of seas teeming with the beasts - and undermining claims that it's time to reload the harpoons. Old chronicles tell of populations of whales hundreds of times greater than today. Such tales have long been dismissed as exaggerations, but could they be true? Have humans killed such a staggering number of whales? New genetic techniques for analysing whale populations, alongside a growing archive of fresh historical analysis, suggest so. Taken together, they indicate that we have got our ideas about marine ecology completely upside down: whales may once have been the dominant species in the world's oceans.
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Creature of the month: cornetfish
Trumpetfish, Cornetfish or Flutemouth? Whatever you call it, Fistularia commersonii is the SCUBA Travel creature of the month. The long, tubular fish you see hovering in the waters of the Red Sea, Sea of Cortez, Indian and Pacific Oceans, waiting to ambush prey like the lionfish.
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Cites backs ban on bluefin tuna
The United Nations (UN)-backed wildlife trade agency said Friday it supported a proposed ban on the international trade in bluefin tuna, a delicacy in Asia, which is due to be examined by 175 countries next month. Japan has opposed the ban proposed by Monaco, which would classify the fish as a species threatened with extinction, CITES officials said.
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Predatory jumbo squid invade California waters
More than 1000 jumbo flying squid, or Humboldt squid, have been landed the shores of California since Thursday night last week, prompting concerns that this season's rising ocean temperatures due to the El Nino effect could lead to a squid invasion unparalleled for nearly a decade.
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Update: Diving Thailand
SCUBA Travel have added more on diving the Gulf of Thailand to their Thailand dive directory.
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Shark virgin birth pup survives more than 5 years
Shark pups born to virgin mothers can survive over the long-term, according to new research published today in the Journal of Heredity. The study shows for the first time that some virgin births can result in viable offspring.
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Scuba Reference Book Updated
Completely revised edition of "Scuba Diving" is now available. A reference book explaining the techniques of diving: bouyancy, diving physiology, dive tables, dive planning, etc.
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Red Grouper create home for many animals
Researchers have found that Red Grouper dig out and maintain complex structures at the bottom of the sea. They remove sand, exposing hard rocks that are crucial to corals and sponges and the animals that rely on them. The work demonstrates that Red Groupers modify their environment, much as beavers do, creating habitat for many other animals including lobster and commercially important fish.
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Creature of the Month: Burrowing Anemone
A pretty tube anemone, the burrowing anemone is sometimes confused with tube worms. Like the worms they have attractive tentacles with which they capture prey, and when disturbed they shoot back into their tubes.
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"Minke Whales Should Not be Culled" say Scientists
A new genetic analysis of Antarctic minke whales concludes that population of these smaller baleen whales have not increased as a result of the intensive hunting of other larger whales - countering arguments by advocates of commercial whaling who want to cull minke whales.
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Update: Diving Tenerife
Discover more about the diving and dive operators in Tenerife and elsewhere in Spain, at SCUBA Travel's newly updated site.
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New Underwater Photo Gallery
Big Brother is a tiny island in the middle of the Egyptian Red Sea. It is a world class dive site deserving of the new dedicated photo gallery at the SCUBA Travel site.
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Acoustic tools help Whales
New acoustic sensors are being used in research and conservation projects around the world, with some very important practical results. Among them is improved monitoring of endangered North Atlantic right whales in an effort to reduce ship strikes, a leading cause of their deaths.
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Update: Diving Norway
Norway has some beautiful dives and SCUBA Travel have added to their list of Norwegian dive operators.
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IUCN warns of acid oceans and mass extinctions
Increased release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is making seawater more acidic and is threatening ecosystems and species. It is also reducing the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide and regulate climate. According to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), deep and immediate cuts in emissions are needed to stall the acidification of oceans and prevent mass extinction of marine species.
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Just Released: Sharks of the World
This is billed as the first field guide to all known species of shark. Colour plates illustrate all the sharks and there are helpful tips for differentiating between species.
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Shark fin traders admit selling endangered species
Hong Kong shark fin merchants have reacted angrily to a US study that said meat from endangered species was being sold in the city's markets to make a popular soup. In the new study for the journal Endangered Species Research, US scientists said they had used DNA testing to trace the geographic origin of shark fins on sale in Hong Kong. They found 21 per cent of the fins came from endangered scalloped hammerhead shark stocks in the western Atlantic. But the Hong Kong Shark Fin Trade Merchant's Association said its members had not done anything illegal. "The study is exaggerated," a spokesman for the association told AFP. "We are not doing anything against the law. The sale of endangered scalloped hammerhead shark fins has not been made illegal here."
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Update: Diving Brazil
SCUBA Travel have extended their diving in Brazil section and included more Brazilian diving operators.
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'Shocking' 95% Decline of Fish Populations
Populations of numerous migratory fish species - those that move between freshwater and saltwater during the course of their lives - have declined by a shocking 95 percent. The analysis showed that the once-abundant allis shad, a member of the herring family that lives most of its life in coastal waters but migrates into rivers to spawn, plummeted by 99.9 percent in the Rhine River in the Netherlands between 1886 and 1933; the same species dropped by 99.4 percent in the Minho River in Portugal between 1925 and 1988. The European eel's population plunged 95.4 percent in the Ems River, which flows through the Netherlands and Germany, and in the Vida River in Denmark between 1960 and 1997; it decreased by 99.5 percent in the Yser River in Belgium between 1974 and 2004
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Recreational Trimix Diving
New book explains the techniques, tips and equipment needed to safely dive with Trimix.
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New photos of Rosalie Moeller shipwreck
The wreck of the Rosalie Moeller lies in the Red Sea at 46 m. She is almost totally intact with many fish: a very scenic dive site. New underwater photos of her are now up on the SCUBA Travel site at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/photorosalie.html
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Diving the World: Footprint release new edition
Back for a 2nd editon, Footprint's best-selling Diving the World includes many of the world's top warm water dives. Nothing for the cold water enthusiasts though.
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Scientists discover new deep sea species
Census of Marine Life scientists have inventoried an astonishing abundance, diversity and distribution of deep sea species that live down to 5000 meters (around 3 miles) below the ocean waves.
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Update: Diving in France
Planning to dive in the south of France? More dive operators are now listed on the SCUBA Travel France section.
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Underwater Pic of the Day
SCUBA Travel have launched a "pic of the day" feature where to showcase their best underwater photos. You can find this on Twitter (http://twitter.com/SCUBANews) and on their brand new Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/SCUBA-Travel/211507355743).
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New Edition of Dive Atlas of the World
Jack Jackson's Dive Atlas of the World has been at the top of the SCUBA Travel best-seller list for the last 5 years. A new, revised edition has just been published and is currently available with 50% off from Amazon. Just in time for you to add it to your Christmas list.
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Diving the Red Sea at Aqaba, Jordan
There is some terrific coral in Jordan's Red Sea. For details of the dive sites there visit SCUBA Travel's newly updated guide.
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World Adventure Dives
The latest offering from bestselling author Jack Jackson is published this month, World Adventure Dives is a photographic guide to 35 "fascinating diving experiences".
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Swarms of ocean robots to monitor oil spills
Swarms of miniature robotic ocean explorers could one day help predict where ocean currents will carry oil spills. The robot swarms could also aid in development of marine protected areas by following currents for determining critical nursery habitats and for tracking harmful blooms of algae.
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SCUBA Diving Books Reviewed
More reviews of SCUBA diving books are now on the SCUBA Travel site at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/interview.html
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Ultimate Diving Adventures: 100 Extraordinary Experiences Under Water
Just released and beautifully illustrated, describes exceptional dive sites around the world.
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Tags reveal Great White Sharks' Beat
A tracking study of white sharks in the northeastern Pacific Ocean shows they follow a rigid migration route across the sea, returning to precisely the same spot on California coast. Over tens of thousands of years, this behavior has made the population in the northeastern Pacific genetically distinct from other white shark populations.
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Update: Underwater Photos from the British Isles
More great photographs of the underwater life around Britain are now on the SCUBA Travel site at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/photouk.html
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Diving Bestsellers
SCUBA Travel are pleased to release their list of best selling diving books and DVDs of the last quarter. The list has remained remarkably static, with the top 3 books retaining their places. Perennially popular, the Blue Planet makes a re-entry.
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Ocean observatories give new marine view
Ocean observatories will give people a never-before-seen view of the world's oceans.
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