Zebra-Lionfish
Lawson Wood
Sea Fishes and Invertebrates of the North Sea reveals the profusion of marine life that exists in this diverse but little-documented region.
Wolfgang Pölzer and Barbara Lackner
The best diving waters in Austria 3rd updated and expanded edition

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24 Sep 2010 - 25 Sep 2010
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16 Oct 2010 - 17 Oct 2010
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27 Oct 2010 - 31 Oct 2010
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30 Oct 2010 - 31 Oct 2010
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8 Nov 2010 - 13 Nov 2010
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17 Nov 2010 - 24 Nov 2010

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2 Sep 2010 - 13 Sep 2010
Tony White, one of the UK's leading underwater photographers, will be hosting an underwater photographic workshop in collaboration with Aquamarine Diving Bali Indonesia.
20 Nov 2010 - 4 Dec 2010
Dive into the crystal clear sacred waters of the Mayas! The extensive cave system lying under the Yucatan Peninsula is like a Swiss cheese, full of holes! And after 180 degree turn you go from fresh to salt water!
20 Nov 2010 - 2 Dec 2010
Come dive the famed reefs of Raja Ampat with Wetpixel! Raja Ampat, Indonesia, is generally considered to be the center of tropical marine biodiversity. Lush, colorful coral reefs are a backdrop for exceptional fish and invertebrate life.
Join Eric Cheng and Alex Mustard in an underwater photography expedition to Alaska in June 11-23, 2011. We'll be aboard the liveaboard dive vessel, the Nautilus Explorer, for 13 days of exploration between Sitka and Ketchikan.
2 Apr 2011 - 8 Apr 2011
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Researchers trace octopuses’ family tree

Many of the world’s deep-sea octopuses evolved from species that lived in the Southern Ocean, according to new molecular evidence reported by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast.
 
Megaledledone setebos, the common ancestor's closest living relative
Octopuses started migrating to new ocean basins more than 30 million years ago as Antarctica cooled and large ice-sheets grew.

These huge climatic events created a ‘thermohaline expressway’ - a northbound flow of deep cold water, providing new habitat for the animals previously confined to the sea floor around Antarctica.

Isolated in new habitat conditions, many different species evolved. Some octopuses lost their defensive ink sacs because there was no need for the defence mechanisms in the pitch black waters more than two kilometres below the surface.

Dr Allcock, who was assisted on the study by Dr Jan Strugnell and Dr Paulo Prodöhl from Queen’s, said: “It is clear from our research that climate change can have profound effects on biodiversity, with impacts even extending into habitats such as the deep oceans which you might expect would be partially protected from it.

“If octopuses radiated in this way, it’s likely that other fauna did so also, so we have helped explain where some of the deep-sea biodiversity comes from.”

This revelation into the global distribution and diversity of deep-sea fauna, to be reported this week in the respected scientific journal Cladistics, was made possible by intensive sampling during International Polar Year expeditions.

The findings form part of the first Census of Marine Life (CoML), set to be completed in late 2010. It aims to assess and explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life in the oceans, past, present and future.

The findings of a study funded by the National Environment Research Council and led by Dr Louise Allcock at Queen’s School of Biological Sciences and colleagues from Cambridge University and British Antarctic Survey were reported at a conference in Spain this week.

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