SCUBA News 102

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 102 - October 2008
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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Welcome to October's SCUBA News. 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
- SCUBA Bestsellers of the Last Quarter - Creature of the Month
- Diving News from Around the World

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What's New at SCUBA Travel?
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Diving the Maldives

We've listed more dive sites and dive companies in the Maldives at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/pacific.html#Maldives

Diving Thailand

We've added more diving centres to our Thailand section. Find which are recommended and which to avoid at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/thailand/thailand-dive-centres.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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We had some very informative, but on the surface contradictary, replies to last month's letter asking about the diving in Samoa and the Cook Islands. We have posted these on the Diving Board for you to share - http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/

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I want to dive in Thailand with my certified children who are 13 and 10. They can only dive to 13 meters. Where is the best place to go? What about Koh Samui?

Page Walter

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Any answers either post on the Diving Board at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/ or e-mail news@scubatravel.co.uk

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SCUBA Bestsellers of the Last Quarter
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SCUBA Travel have just released their list of best selling diving books and DVDs of the last quarter. (Previous position is shown in brackets.)

1. Dive Atlas of the World: An Illustrated Reference to the Best Sites by Jack Jackson
   300 pages detailing some of the world's best dive sites. (1)
   
   
2. Thailand (Lonely Planet Diving & Snorkeling Guides) by Tim Rock
   Dive sites of Thailand. Includes city guide to Bangkok. (--)
   
   
3. Dive in Style by Tim Simond
   Luxury diving around the world.(3)
   
   
4. Sardinia (Eyewitness Travel Guide) by Fabrizio Arditio
   Guide to exploring Sardinai. (--)
   
   
5. The Blue Planet DVD
   The BBC television series on DVD - action shots of the intriguing behaviour of the underwater world with commentary by David Attenborough. (--)
   
   
6. Coral Reef Fishes: Indo-Pacific and Caribbean by Ewald Lieske, Robert Myers
   A compact, guide to over 2000 species of fish you might see whilst diving on coral reefs. (2)
   
   
7. Diving the World by Beth and Shaun Tierney
   Reviews 200 dive sites (7)
   
   
8. Raising the Dead: A True Story of Death and Survival by Phillip Finch
   A true story of death and survival whilst cave diving in the Kalahari Desert (--)
   
   
9. Sardinia Diving Guide by Egidio Trainito
   Guide to the dive sites of the Italian island of Sardinia (--)
   
   
10. The Rough Guide to Thailand's Beaches and Islands (Rough Guide Travel Guides) by Paul Gray
    Includes notes on diving the islands of Thailand (--)
    

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Creature of the Month: False Black Coral, Gerardia savaglia
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Along with sea anemones and hard corals, the False Black Coral is a member of the Zoantharia subclass. Although capable of forming its own skeleton, into which it incorporates sand and other small pieces of material, this species instead usually lives on the surface of a Gorgonian or other invertebrate. The invasion takes place on both living and dead colonies, which are progressively destroyed by the Gerardia.

Although named False Black Coral, Gerardia savaglia appears not black but bright yellow. A true black coral is a member of the Antipatharia order and is gorgonian-like with a black skeleton.

You can find the False Black Coral between 50 and 80 m in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and Madeira.

Colonies of G. savaglia are extremely long-lived. It is believed that some formations in the Mediterranean might be more than one thousand years old.

The jewellery industry has exploited the false black coral: large colonies have been extracted and used to make costume jewellery.

Gerardia savaglia is named as a "Strictly Protected Fauna Species" in the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.

Further Reading
SCUBA Travel
Profondo Blu
Corals of the Mediterranean, Oceania
Invertebrate Zoology

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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.

Fifty Places to Dive Before You Die

New book features the favourite dive sites of a collection of "diving experts". All the world's oceans are represented.

Natural colour underwater photographs

Taking good photos underwater requires a good white light source such as a flash or spotlight. But some wavelengths of light penetrate water more easily than others, and the result is a heavy blue cast. The tint gets progressively deeper as subjects get further from the camera, meaning that corrective filters only work for a narrow range of distances from the lens. A new patent application suggests the solution is to use a camera with a battery of different flashes. Each produces a different wavelength of light, which penetrates water to different extents.

27% Off Dive Magazine

DIVE magazine is the UK's most popular scuba diving publication and is now being offered with 27% off for 12 issues. It contains the latest news, equipment reviews, photography, features on where to dive and tips to improve your skills. Delivered world-wide but discount only available in the UK.

Life in the abyss is no protection from bad weather

It's a long way from atmospheric clouds to the floor of the Pacific Ocean, but the two are intrinsically linked. In fact, the climate controls the fate of animals dwelling at the bottom of the abyss, 4 kilometres beneath the surface, new research reveals.

Stark new assessment warns of mass extinctions and the "rise of slime"

To Jeremy Jackson, ocean ecosystems around the globehave been degraded to the point that they should be considered "endangered." The effects of habitat destruction, overfishing, ocean warming, increased acidification, and massive nutrient runoff are culprits in a grand transformation of once-complex ocean ecosystems. Areas that had featured intricate marine food webs with large animals are being converted into simplistic ecosystems dominated by microbes, toxic algal blooms, jellyfish, and disease. Jackson has labelled the ongoing transformation "the rise of slime".

Strategy to Reduce Ship Strikes to North Atlantic Right Whales

NOAA officials have issued a regulation that will implement new measures to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. The regulation will, for the first time, require large ships to reduce speeds to ten knots in areas where the whales feed and reproduce, as well as along migratory routes in between. The goal of the regulation is to reduce the risk of ship collisions with the whales.

Europe should spend now to avoid climate catastrophes

Europe is warming faster than the world average, creating conditions that are making the Mediterranean region dryer and the north wetter, according to a report studying the impact of global warming on Europe.

Marine 'dead zones' leave crabs gasping

It's not easy being a fish these days, but it could be even harder being a crab. Research into marine "dead zones" around the world suggests that crustaceans are the first to gasp for air when oxygen levels get low.

Film of fishermen dumping catch causes uproar

British trawler has sparked an international incident after being filmed taking a boatload of endangered fish caught in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea and then dumping the majority overboard in UK waters. It is illegal to discard fish in Norwegian waters, but boats are forced to do so in European Union waters if they have caught the wrong species of fish or fish that are too small. Last year the EU estimated that between 40% and 60% of all fish caught by trawlers in the North sea is discarded. The practice of dumping is widely recognised as unsustainable but inevitable given the present EU quota system.

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.

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