SCUBA News 110

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 110 - June 2009
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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Welcome to June's SCUBA News: thanks for subscribing. If you can't see the pictures in this newsletter, and would like to in future issues, then change your preferences from text to HTML at this link.

SCUBA News is published by SCUBA Travel, the independent guide to diving around the world.

Contents:
- What's new at SCUBA Travel?
- Letters
- Creature of the Month: Dragonet
- Diving News from Around the World

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What's New at SCUBA Travel?
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Diving Dahab, Red Sea

If you like driving around the desert in 4x4's and jumping in the water from the shore to find a complete contrast between the desert above and thriving life below then go to Dahab on the Egyptian Red Sea. To help you we've updated our directory of dive centres in Dahab at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/redsea/dahabdive.html#Dahab-dive

Diving Thailand

You've been recommending more dive centres in Thailand. Find out which have been given the five fish rating at:
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/thailand/thailand-dive-centres.html

More...

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

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Letters
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Cave Diving in France

Do you know some instructors who teach cave diving in France? Starting from level 1.
Regards
Waldemar from Sweden

From the Diving Board...

Barcelona

Hi, and hope someone can point me in the right direction. I will be travelling to Barcelona shortly for a course on some computer systems. I will get a little "free" time and would like some recommendations in terms of dive sites off Barcelona and any good dive shops I could be referred to in Barcelona.
Regards
Nigel Versfeld, PADI DM 646254, South Africa
I am planning for a dive trip in Zanzibar next November, can anyone give me advice for diving in this place? what is the best places, liveaboards, etc...
pinklife
I am looking for good diving spots accessible from France. I already had been to Egypt, and I definitely enjoyed underwater there and it was really beautiful and I'd want to go back, however not this time. I'd like to go to somewhere new. I was thinking about the Seychelles, but I am not sure because I am a budget backpacker and I guess there might be nearer places than the Seychelles, so, I wonder where should I go? I also knew that there are some very nice diving spots in Sudan, but I think it's hard to get Khartoum, so, now basically I have no idea where should I go.
Please help me!
Manar
Diving Board or contact SCUBA News.

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Creature of the Month: Dragonet, Callionymus lyra
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One hundred and eighty-six species of the "Little Dragon" fish live from Iceland in the North to the Indo-Pacific oceans in the South. You will find the species we are concentrating on today, Callionymus lyra, from Norway to Senegal in the Eastern Atlantic, North, Irish, Mediterranean, Black, Baltic and Aegean Seas.

Dragonets spend most of their lives on sandy or rocky bottoms. They live from the shallows down to 100 m. They are sometimes confused with gobies but have a much broader triangular, head and a long dorsal ray on their backs. If you see slender fish meeting this description darting away from you on the bottom it is probably a dragonet.

The adult male C. lyra is colourfully patterned in orange and blue. The females are smaller and a mottled brown. They have an interesting courtship ritual. The male performs an elaborate display, darting around the female, spreading his brightly coloured fins and pulling faces! If the female is impressed the pair then swim side-by-side, almost vertically up to the surface. There they release the eggs and sperm into the water, spawning at dusk. Dragonet males are thought to mate only once in a lifetime.

More photos of Dragonets are at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/photouk.html

Further Reading:
Great British Marine Animals, by Paul Naylor, Deltor (2003)

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Diving News From Around the World
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If you would like display this news on your web site then go to http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/newsfeed.html to find out how. It's free and automatically updates your web page with the latest diving news.

Snorkeller killed by shark in Red Sea

A female French diver was attacked and killed by a shark whilst snorkelling at the Saint John's reefs in the Red Sea: the first fatal shark attack in Egypt for five years.

Poseidon Recall BCDs

Poseidon are recalling their Besea W50 Diving Wings (also known as a BCD or stab jacket). The inner bladder inside the diving wing can break, causing the wing to fail as a buoyancy device.

Captain's Guide to Wrecks and Reefs

New book includes detailed descriptions and information on over 1000 diving locations along the Florida coast and the Bahamas. Filled with detailed wreck drawings and underwater photography, it also contains articles on how to locate a wreck, anchoring, safe diving procedures and tips on underwater photography.

Third of Ocean-Going Sharks Threatened with Extinction

The first study to determine the global conservation status of 64 species of open ocean (pelagic) sharks and rays reveals that 32 percent are threatened with extinction, primarily due to overfishing, according to the IUCN Shark Specialist Group.

Spain acts to protect Swordfish and Sharks

Spain will now regulate the targeting of swordfish and pelagic sharks in an effort to reduce their mortality and promote the sustainable fishing of these species.

Robot sub reaches the world's deepest abyss

A robotic submarine named Nereus has become the third craft in history to reach the deepest part of the world's oceans, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.

Sonic alarm may save marine mammals from ship strike

A new sonic alarm could warn off whales and manatees threatened by approaching ships. Endangered North Atlantic right whales are especially at risk from collisions - only about 350 remain, and at least a third of all right whale deaths over the last decade were due to ship strikes.

EU seeks to catch up with Asia on fish farming, despite critics

EU fisheries ministers on Tuesday backed a plan to develop aquaculture in Europe's waters, despite opposition from ecologists who argue that fish farming creates more problems than it solves.

Babysitting whales give mums time for a snack

Only adult sperm whales are able dive into deep waters to hunt for squid, so who looks after the kids? Babysitting mums, that's who. The mothers form a babysitting circle, taking it in turns to watch over other calves and go hunting themselves. The babysitters even allowed the other mums' calves to nurse if they were hungry.

Illegal Indonesian Fishing Targeted by EU

From January 2010 the European Union requires all fishery imports from Indonesia to be certificated as part of its sustainable fisheries policy to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

Starfish defy climate change gloom

A species of starfish has confounded climate change doom-mongers by thriving as sea temperatures and acidity increase - a scenario that is likely as the world gets warmer.

Scientists predict Large Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

University of Michigan scientists say this year's Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" could be one of the largest on record, continuing a decades-long trend. The Gulf dead zone forms each spring and summer off the Louisiana and Texas coast when oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in bottom and near-bottom waters. Farmland runoff containing fertilizers and livestock waste-some of it from as far away as the Corn Belt-is the main source of the nitrogen and phosphorus that cause the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.

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PUBLISHER: SCUBA Travel, 5 Loxford Court, Hulme, Manchester, M15 6AF, UK
EDITOR: Jill Studholme