X-RAY Mag #26

New discoveries. Did you know that reef fish are flourencent and that CO2 makes oceans noisier? Cedric Verdier dives HMS Victoria off Lebanon. Mathias Carvalho reports on shipwrecks and other finds. French sea-architect and visionary Jacques Rougerie gets prestigeous award. Seaweeds stunt coral growth. Explorers find hundreds of undescribed species on Australian reefs.

It’s not by chance that the producers of the Pirates of the Caribbean series of Hollywood movies chose St Vincent and Dominica as locations. They both offer the rustic charm and unspoiled richness of environment that can, with little effort, take you back hundreds of years. Add in a third island, St Lucia, which lies between the two, and you have destinations that provide three very different experiences for the tourist and diver. St Lucia is a maturing package tourist destination, with well established dive schools offering multi-lingual instruction and guidance for both beginner and experienced divers; Dominica is a nature tourist’s idyllic location offering more adventurous dives and above water scenery that is equally as spectacular as that below water; St Vincent, on the other hand, has become known as the “muck diving critter capital of the Caribbean”—a photographer’s dream offering a diversity of species that rivals Lembeh Straights in Indonesia, but with one difference: these are Caribbean species, and many cannot be found in the Indo Pacific.

GirlDiver: Girls On Speed, Scooter Dive - by Cindy Ross. New Equipment: Want a new minisub? Charles Stirling reviews Bangaram Island, India Pay & Play: The ocean has been regarded as a global commons whose resources are inexhaustible and therefore free for the taking. The need to manage and protect the few valuable resources left in the ocean is requiring an ever increasing financial participation from governments, businesses and the general public.

Thetis Island, British Columba - by Barb Roy Shark Tales: Bits & Bites is edited by Peter Symes while Fiona Ayerst report on Slide Finning. Arnold Weisz and Mathias Carvalho reports on how a Green sea turtle gets another chance at life

Deconstructing a 300m, World Record Dive - by Pascal Bernabé. UW Photo & Video: Night Photography - by Kurt Amsler. Photo news is edited by Scott Bennett. Portfolio: Stéphane Braud shares his paintings of luminous blue underwater scenes.