Rising out of the depths, a shape emerges from the shadows, methodically swimming in a wide arc. The outline is unmistakable, as it continues to climb and inch closer at every turn. With one last pass, seemingly in slow motion, I am struck by the sheer enormity of the creature in front of me.
The goal is to help preserve the state's shipwrecks by giving divers another option besides hooking a line directly onto the wreck, as is customary now.
"Putting a mooring buoy on a shipwreck is absolutely, hands-down, the best form of physical protection you can do for a wreck," Wayne Lusardi, a state maritime archaeologist at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, told Mlive.com
The meeting was first proposed by the National Park Service (NPS), then quickly supported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Divers Alert Network (DAN), and the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS).
A number of key experts were involved in the Catalina Island event including Jeff Bozanic, Simon Mitchell and Richard Pyle.
Over the course of four days standards relating to practice, physiology, incidents and equipment evolution relevant to scientific diving with rebreathers were reviewed.
The giant Australian cuttlefish (Sepia apama) is the largest cuttlefish in the world, reaching up to half a metre in total length and weighing in at around 11kg. Solitary animals, they are found all along the coastline of the southern half of Australia—from Central Queensland on the eastern coast, right around the bottom of the continent and up to Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia.
While studying reef sharks in Tahiti, I became fascinated by the behavior of the remoras accompanying them. They were fish of the <i>Echeneidae</i> family, and ranged in size from a few centimeters to about 50cm long. They were pretty silver fish with widened heads, and often a black racing stripe.
The newly protected wrecks are HMT Arfon, Submarine U-8 and HM Submarine A3.
Researchers from the Smithsonian’s Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) have discovered a new scorpionfish species off the Caribbean island of Curaçao. Inhabiting depths between 95 m and 160 metres, it is the deepest-living member of its genus found in the western Atlantic Ocean. “The 50-300 m tropical ocean zone is poorly studied -- too deep for conventional SCUBA and too shallow to be of much interest to really deep-diving submersibles,” said DROP lead scientist Dr. Carole C. Baldwin.
Modobag billed as world’s only motorized luggage.
The Mexican government has now permanently banned gillnets and night fishing in the upper Gulf of California, which is the only place in the world where the critically endangered porpoise is found.
A study by researchers from University of Milano-Bicocca describes observations of adults carrying dead calves and juveniles in 7 toothed cetaceans (odontocetes). The observation was based on 14 events from 3 oceans. The seven species studied were Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, Australian humpback dolphins, sperm whales, Risso’s dolphins, short-finned pilot whales, and spinner dolphins.
Reed New Holland are publishing a new book in August entitled "World's Best Wildlife Dive Sites". This hardback coffee table book covers 32 underwater wildlife experiences from around the world and has been authored by a Brit husband and wife team.
Underwater photographers - Nick and Caroline Robertson-Brown - have degrees in biology. Handy knowledge when it comes to shooting marine life.
Be it equipment, technique, physiology, photography or biology, divers have the ability to study to their personal level and interest. One aspect that is often overlooked by most divers is the history of diving.
The UK has a rich resource when it comes to this subject. Indeed the Historical Diving Society (HDS) was formed in the UK in 1990, and has subsequently grown into an international organisation with members and offshoot societies around the world.
