SCUBA News 112

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 112 - August 2009
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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Welcome to the 112th SCUBA News: thanks for subscribing. I do hope you enjoy the newsletter, but should you wish to remove yourself from our mailing list you can do so at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html

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

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

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What's New at SCUBA Travel?
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100 Best Dives of the World

You've been voting for your favourite dive sites and so we have updated the Top 100 list at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/topdiveslong.html

Diving Dominica, West Indies

We now have more on the excellent diving in Dominica: dive sites, dive operators, accommodation...
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/dominica/

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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Bookshelf:
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Vertical Descent
Steve Turley
Checkpoint Press
412pp. £11.99
1-9066280-25

Vertical Descent is a diving adventure novel set in Corsica.

The story is set in south west Corsica and begins during the second world war with the sinking of a German U-Boat. It then switches to the present day where the action is set.

The plot includes the sunken U-Boat, which is full of gold, Nazis who stole the gold, a Corsican nationalist organisation with terrorist tendencies, murder, intrigue and a beautiful Swiss underwater archaeologist - you got it! It's one for the beach or between dives on a liveaboard.

The plot is well thought through, engaging and easy to read but runs to over 400 pages which in my view was on the long side.

I took the book on holiday to read on the beach between dives and on the whole enjoyed it. One criticism: I felt the frequent "lectures" on diving, technical diving, archaeology, history and Corsica somewhat irritating and as I said a few pages less would not have detracted from the plot.

Overall as a holiday novel - Great!

Review by Andrew Reay-Robinson

About the Author
Steve Turley is an experienced diving instructor, an extended range technical diver and a commercial yachtmaster. Now resident in the UK, he divides his time between working on a marine maintenance vessel, writing and helping his wife to raise their two children. Vertical Descent is his first novel.

The book is available with 5% off from Amazon.

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Creature of the Month: Oriental Sweetlips, Plectorhinchus orientalis
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Along with Grunts, Sweetlips are members of the Haemulidae family. They are named for their thick lips. You will find the Oriental Sweetlips between 2 and 25 m on coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific from East Africa to Samoa. They are usually solitary, but sometimes occur in groups as in our photos. Large for a sweetlips, the Oriental sweetlips grows to 86 cm.

The Oriental Sweetlips change colour as they grow: youngsters are dark brown with cream blotches progressing to the distinctive black and white stripes and yellow spotted tails of the adults. The fish often shelter under ledges by day and feed at night. They are predators, feeding on other fish and molluscs.

You can distinguish the Oriental Sweetlips from other sweetlips by the horizontal stripes which go right the way down its body. The stripes on a similar species stop halfway down the body.

More photos of Oriental Sweetlips are at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/maldives_Snappers_sweetlips_23_16b.html
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/maldives_Snappers_sweetlips_23_16a.html

Further Reading:
Coral Reef Fishes, Indo-Pacific and Caribbean, by Ewald Lieske and Robert Myers

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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.

Barrier Reef damage may put $38b hole in tourism

The bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef caused by climate change would not only destroy one of the world's greatest natural wonders but would cost Australia $37.7 billion over the next century and devastate tourism, a study has found.

Spreading Lionfish Invasion Threatens Bahamas

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew smashed an aquarium tank in Florida. About a half-dozen spiny, venomous lionfish washed into the Atlantic Ocean, spawning an invasion that could kill off local industry along with the native fish. Lionfish are native to the Indian and Pacific oceans. But in the past few years, they've spread up the Eastern seaboard and throughout the Caribbean. The Bahamas have been hit the hardest.

Healthiest Coral Reef in the US?

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is among the healthiest coral reef ecosystems in the US Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, according to a new NOAA report.

Warming Ocean Contributes to Global Warming

The warming artic ocean is already releasing methane gas: contributing to further global warming much sooner than expected.

Freak wave hot spots identified

Variations in ocean depth and strong currents increase the chances of freak waves occurring, a study shows.

Ocean coral offers pain therapy

A compound harvested from soft coral off the coast of Taiwan could provide a new treatment for pain from intractable nerve damage, experts say.

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