SCUBA News 101

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 101 - September 2008
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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Thanks to all who requested to be entered into our free giveaway draw to celebrate 100 issues of SCUBA News, and especially those of you who also sent comments on the newsletter. We'll send the winners something this week. In this issue - is the best diving in the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Ustica?

I hope you enjoy the newsletter, but should you wish to cancel your subscription you may do so at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html

Contents:
- What's new at SCUBA Travel?
- Letters
- Ustica: The Best Diving in the Mediterranean?
- Marine Facts: How Fish "Hear"
- Diving News from Around the World

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What's New at SCUBA Travel?
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Diving Italy

You will now find much more information on the diving in Italy at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/italy/. Several new pages discuss the excellent diving around Ustica (Sicily). See also the article below. We've also extended the Sardinia section with more recommendations in the dive centre and dive site pages.
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/italy/

New Italian Photo Gallery

Keeping with the Italian theme, we've added another room to our photo gallery with underwater pictures of Mediterranean sea life and dive sites.
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/photoitaly.html

More...

For regular announcements of what's new at the site see the Diving Board at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=2

:ADVERT__________________________________________________

http://www.mantapoint-aonang.com/ - A professional PADI scuba diving centre under British management situated at Ao Nang Beach in the heart of Phang Nga Bay, Thailand
___________________________________________________ADVERT:

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Letters
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Hi

Does any one have the GPS for Ala's reef (Saudi Arabia)? No boats out of Jeddah know the spot.

Thanks

David Crook

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From the Diving Board...

Hello Everyone!

My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Oz and Nz. We get a choice to fly via the Cook Islands OR Western Samoa then onto Aukland. We are planning some beach time in either place but want to do some diving too.

We have checked dive operators in both locations and they exist! Just wondering if anyone has dived either the Cook Islands or Western Samoa. If so is one better than the other?

Any info appreciated.

Delster

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Ustica: The Best Diving in the Mediterranean?
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Until I visited Ustica I had never see large swirls of barracuda in the Mediterranean Sea. Add to this large grouper, Amberjacks, a wall to 40 m covered in life and a wreck, and my first dive there certainly impressed me.

Ustica is an island off the coast of Sicily (Italy). It has been a marine reserve since 1987, and it shows in the numerous and large fish. Ustica is small. The main road which goes right around the island is just 9 km long. You can dive there from May to October.

The diving is all boat diving. Depending on which dive centre you choose to dive with, you will be diving off an inflatable or a larger hardboat. We dived with Profondo

Blu (http://www.ustica-diving.it/) who dive very comfortably from their made-to-measure 12 meter fibreglass boat. For a list of all the dive centres on the island see http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/italy/ustica-diving.html

None of the dives around Ustica are far away. All the dive companies launch from the main harbour and the journey to the furthest dive site only takes around 20 minutes.

There is diving in Ustica to suit all abilities. For the experienced there are deep, decompression dives on offer. Sometimes in large, beautifully decorated caves, sometimes to see the rare false black coral. There are many shallower dives too, including one littered with amphora.

One of the best dives sites is the Secca della Colombara (Colombara Reef). This starts with a wall dive to a point where there are huge schools of fish: Barracuda and Amberjacks. Returning from the point there is the wreck of a freighter to wonder at before returning to the top of the reef for a safety stop. Another fantastic dive is the Scolio del Medico (the Doctor's Rock). This involves dropping in from the boat and a short descent to 8 m into a rift in the rock. A short cave leads into the most enormous cavern over 50 m long and 4-8 m high with a huge entrance in the distance. You move through the cavern and out through a narrow gully full of soft sponges. Here the gully opens onto vast shoals of Chromis (Damsel Fish) which remind you of the Red Sea and not the Mediterrenean. Moving round the point there are huge schools of Barracuda and usually several large Amberjacks - Top diving!

Getting to Ustica from Europe is relatively straightforward. Take a flight to Palermo in Sicily and then a ferry to Ustica. The budget airlines fly to Palermo, but they are very stingy in the amount of luggage you can take. You can hire gear on the island though. The ferries run several times a day. You could also get a ferry from Naples.

Accommodation is plentiful in Ustica and your dive centre will generally pick you up from your apartment or hotel. Some of the dive centres provide their own accommodation. For some suggestions of where to stay see http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/italy/usticaacc.html

Outside Italy, Ustica is a little known diving destination. It offers some of the best diving in the Med, and, even in August, the dive sites are uncrowded. The people of Ustica are very friendly; the food and wine excellent. This is unspoilt, high quality, diving.

More Information:

We stayed and dived with Paulo and Ann of Profondo Blu and can highly recommend them. They were very friendly and relaxed. If you wished you could eat with them and the food was extremely good. Paulo cares almost as much about his food and wine as he does his diving.

A typical day comprised a light breakfast of freshly baked cakes, bread and jam. At 9 am we set out for the port in the resort minibus, it only takes 10 minutes to reach the boat. All your equipment is loaded for you and off you go for the first dive. After the first dive we returned to the resort for a lunch of antipasto, a pasta dish and fruit. If you wan to dive in the afternoon the minibus leaves at 3 pm after the siesta. After the second dive we generally enjoyed the late afternoon on the boat before returnng to port. Evening meals are a serious business with a Prosecco and nibbly aperitif followed by a 3 course meal, fruit and coffee. All the food is locally sourced and of the highest standard. Maria the cook is fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed approach, quality accommodation and gourmet food. For more details visit their website at http://www.ustica-diving.it/.

For more on the dive sites see http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/italy/usticadive.html, for dive companies see http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/italy/ustica-diving.html, for accommodation see http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/italy/usticaacc.html, and for general information see http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/italy/usticago.html.

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Marine Facts: How Fish "Hear"
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In terms of sensory organs, fishes are similar to us in many ways. Fishes have eyes to see (although the kind of images they see may differ from those seen by us), nostrils (or nares) to smell and a mouth to taste and eat. The fish equivalent of the human ear is more peculiar however. Rather than hearing sounds, fish "feel" sound. They possess two techniques that allow them to do this: the lateral line and the inner ear.

The lateral line is a series of sensory pores located along both sides of a fish's body. Each sensory pore contains a neuromast cell, which senses differences in water pressure caused by changes in depth, currents and the movement of approaching objects - like predators or prey. Basically fish hearing is more akin to touch.

The inner ear contains small calcium carbonate plates known as otoliths, connected to rows of tiny sensory hairs that allow fishes to detect movements in the water.

Otoliths can be used to estimate the age of a fish. Otoliths grow in stages and with the correct equipment can be read like the growth rings on a tree stump.

From the Beautiful Oceans Science Diver Program: Coral Reef Ecosystem & Food Web. For more from Beautiful Oceans

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Diving News From Around the World
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If you would like to read the diving news as it happens, without waiting for this newsletter, then grab the SCUBA News feed from http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scuba.xml It's free and automatically updates you with the latest SCUBA news via your web site, e-mail or any news feed reader.

New Book: Sea Fishes and Invertebrates of the North Sea

Visitors to the North Sea are astonished at the profusion of marine life that exists in this relatively small, box-shaped sea that is bounded by Britain to the west and the shores of northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and the far south-west of Sweden in the east. This new book describes the formation of the North Sea, the habitats and types of animal found there. The core of the book is the field guide section. This contains fascinating species accounts accompanied by identification photographs of nearly 300 species.

Aqua Lung Recalls Scuba Regulators and Adaptors

Aqua Lung USA are recalling Titan DIN 1st Stage Scuba Regulators and Titan/Conshelf DIN Scuba Adaptors. All owners of TITAN DIN regulators whose serial number is lower than 6062501 or TITAN/CONSHELF DIN adaptors that are marked 300 BAR MAX should return their regulator to their Aqua Lung retailer for an upgrade.

Mediterranean tuna management an "international disgrace"

An independent review panel of international fisheries experts has branded the management of the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery an "international disgrace".

New giant clam species discovered

A new species of giant clam has been discovered in the Red Sea. Fossils suggest that, about 125,000 years ago, the species Tridacna costata accounted for more than 80% of the area's giant clams. The species may now be critically endangered, researchers report in Current Biology journal.

Chuuk Lagoon threatened by wrecked WWII oil tanker

Sixty years on and the impacts of the second world war are still being felt. A sunken oil tanker, one of dozens on the bottom of Micronesia's Chuuk Lagoon, is releasing streams of purple diesel bubbles. Corrosion experts say the 52 wrecks in Chuuk Lagoon could collapse in a few years, yet no-one knows how much fuel was inside the vessels when they sank. The problem could take on astonishing proportions: more than 380 other tankers lie at the bottom of the Pacific.

Solar Powered Ship Reduces CO2 Emissions

As part of corporate efforts to reduce CO2 emissions from ocean-going vessels, Nippon Yusen KK and Nippon Oil are developing a system to partially use solar power to propel ships. This full-scale installation of a solar power generator is a world-first, and will produce as much as 40 kilowatts of power (gross), which is expected to supplement existing power production on large vessels.

Acidifying oceans are brewing up an underwater din

The ocean is getting noisier. Sound can now travel further than it did a century ago, thanks to carbon emissions that have made the oceans more acidic. Researchers have known for some time that acidity can influence how far sound travels in seawater. Oceans are becoming more acidic because of rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, which dissolves in seawater to form carbonic acid.

Cut greenhouse gases to save coral reefs

To keep coral reefs from being eaten away by increasingly acidic oceans, humans need to limit the amount of climate-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a panel of marine scientists have said.

Reef Search Finds Hundreds of New Species

Hundreds of new kinds of animal species surprised international researchers systematically exploring waters off two islands on the Great Barrier Reef and a reef off northwestern Australia - waters long familiar to divers. The discoveries were made at Lizard and Heron Islands (part of the Great Barrier Reef), and Ningaloo Reef in northwestern Australia. The found about 300 soft coral species, up to half of them thought to be new to science.

Greenland seeks whaling breakaway

Greenland is attempting to remove its whale hunt from the jurisdiction of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Its whalers are angry that the IWC has twice declined to permit the addition of humpback whales to its annual quota. The move could make Greenland the only state outside the IWC to systematically hunt the "great whales".

Humpback whale on road to recovery

Some large whale species, including the humpback, are now less threatened with extinction, according to the cetacean update of the 2008 IUCN Red List. Most small coastal and freshwater cetaceans, however, are moving closer to extinction.

Shipwreck fuels invasion of unwanted species

Aggressive invaders are spreading through a coral reef in Hawaii thanks to a shipwreck that ran aground in the remote Palmyra Atoll in 1991. Researchers believe that iron leaching from the ship is fuelling the invasion. And now they are calling for shipwrecks to be removed from sensitive ecosystems elsewhere.

Seals help unlock ocean secrets

Sensors developed by the University of St Andrews have been employed by Antarctic researchers to collect otherwise inaccessible information about the climate. The small data logging transmitters have been attached to the heads of elephant seals. Scientists usually collect data to characterise the ocean using satellite s ensing, buoyant floats, and ship expeditions, but winter sea ice renders the Southern Ocean virtually impermeable to all three.

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