SCUBA News 118

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 118 - February 2010
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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Welcome to February's SCUBA News. I hope you enjoy it, 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
- 10 Tips for Underwater Photographers
- Creature of the Month: Marble Ray
- Diving News from Around the World

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What's New at SCUBA Travel?
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Wreck Diving Photo Gallery

Underwater images of the wrecks of the Carnatic, James Barrie, Fenella Ann and Tabarka are now featured in our wreck photo gallery.
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/photo4.html

Diving Mozambique

We've added a page on diving Mozambique to the site, with new reviews and comments.
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/africa/mozambique.html

Best Dive Spots in 97 Countries

We've revamped our destination directory to make it even easier for you to find what you are looking for. Now arranged by country, sea, ocean and continent.
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scuba.html

:ADVERT__________________________________________________

Borneo Dream - Offering the best range of high quality, safe and fun scuba diving trips and courses along the west coast of Sabah. From try dives through to technical diving and rebreathers - PADI, SDI, TDI, IANTD. Come dive with us! http://www.borneodream.com/

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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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I subscribe to your newsletter.

I think that the focus of many of your articles is fairly biased (not deliberately) towards the better known diving spots of the world.

I have dived in some quite a number of Indian Ocean sites, mostly in Mozambique and the north eastern coast of South Africa, and I can tell you that Mozambique diving is mostly better than anything in Mauritius, the Seychelles etc. It is an undiscovered jewel.

But what brought me to write this letter, is that in a story about flutemouths or trumpet fish in your last letter, it is stated that these fish are found in [...the Red Sea, Sea of Cortez and Indo-Pacific...], without mentioning that they are also found (I have seen them personally) in several Indian Ocean dive sites, which suggests they are found worldwide.

It's annoying to see some of the best diving in the world ignored by sites that are so influential, and it makes me really wonder sometimes about the editorial policies and training of the people who work for sites such as yours. Some real journalism would be great.

There is a great imbalance between the "north" and the "south", just as there is between the "West" and the "Orient". Fortunately, we from the south are beginning to correct these terrible imperceptions, and we hope that you people from the "north" are big enough to accept them.

All the best

David

Editor's note. Taking David's point we will be including more on the southern hemisphere diving: so please send us your dive reports and recommendations.

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Red Sea

Is the gas cartridge that deploys the DSMD, available in Sharm El Sheikh? Our Dive team are out in March and will need to purchase them. Thank you
Linda
Diving Board or e-mail news@scubatravel.co.uk.

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10 Underwater Photography Tips
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by Scott Gietler
Editor, Underwater Photography Guide
http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/

These are the basic underwater photography tips that everyone should know.

1. Get close to your subject - preferably within 12 inches. Water reduces color, contrast, and sharpness.

2. For best composition - get low, shoot at an upwards angle, don't centre the subject and try to fill your frame with the subject.

3. Make sure the subject's eyes are in focus.

4. Make sure your camera flash is turned on, preferable in "forced flash mode".

5. To minimise backscatter, buy an external strobe or flash and position it away from your underwater camera housing.

6. Use auto white-balance when using a flash or strobe, and custom white balance or underwater mode when not using a flash.

7. To begin with, set your camera to the highest resolution and the lowest ISO.

8. Learn how to use manual mode or aperture priority mode if your camera offers it, so you control the balance between the natural light and the light from your flash.

9. For quickest focus, use spot focus mode. Learn how to focus on an area without taking a photo (pressing the shutter button halfway) and recomposing.

10. If your underwater photos don't look sharp, check to see which shutter speed was used. It should be 1/30th for still objects, 1/60th for slow moving objects and 1/125th for faster moving fish.

The Underwater Photography Guide is website dedicated to helping underwater photographers and scuba divers learn and improve their underwater photography. For more information, visit http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/.

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Creature of the Month: Marble Ray, Taeniura meyeni
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The Marble Ray has many names, including two scientific ones: Taeniura meyeni and T. melanospilos. Its common names include Black-spotted stingray, Giant reef ray, Marbled ray, Blotched fantail ray and Round ribbontail ray.

The first thing you notice about the Marble Ray is its great size. It can be 3 m (10 ft) in length and 1.7 m (6 ft) wide. Round in shape it is covered with a dense pattern of black spots. It is not aggressive but you need to be careful of the spines on the tail.

You see the Marble Ray in the Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to southern Japan, Micronesia and tropical Australia; and in the Cocos and Galapagos islands in the Eastern Pacific. It occurs in a wide range of habitats, from shallow lagoons to outer reef slopes, and usually has other fish like jacks swimming near them. Carnivorous, the Marble Ray eats bottom fish and crustaceans.

The female bears live young: the eggs are kept in the body of the female where the embryo develops. Up to seven pups hatch from the egg capsules and are born soon afterwards.

The ray is classified as "vulnerable" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This means that it is at high risk of endangerment in the wild.

Although Australia and the Maldives protect the ray through marine parks and prohibiting the export of rays and ray products, elsewhere the species is caught by line gear and trawl throughout its range. For example, in Indonesia Taeniura meyeni is regularly taken in low numbers by tangle netters operating out of Jakarta (Java), Bali and Merauke (West Papua), while demersal longliners that operate out of Lombok and large pair trawlers operating out of Merauke irregularly take adults. The latter fishery comprises some 650 vessels and pressure is intense where the vessels operate in the Arafura Sea. Low numbers of juveniles are also taken by prawn and fish trawlers around Indonesia, particularly in the Java Sea.

Overall, fishing pressure is significant over most of the species' range throughout Asia and across its Indian Ocean range (India, East Africa etc). Additional pressure exists on its habitat in that region due to destructive fishing practices (dynamite fishing) and run-off impacting coral reef systems, the main habitat of the species.

Further Reading:
Coral Reef Fishes Indo-Pacific and Caribbean, Lieske and Myers
Kyne, P.M. & White, W.T. 2006. Taeniura meyeni. In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. .

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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. It's free and automatically updates your web page with the latest diving news.

Sea of Cortez Marine Life Declines Dramatically

In just ten years life in the Sea of Cortez (Mexico) has declined at a shocking rate. The cause is highly destructive new fishing methods. Traditional hook-and-line fisherman have been put out of business by vastly more damaging gill net fishing and hookah diving. Hookah fishermen use surface-supplied air through piping that allows them to walk along the seafloor for long periods of time.

New Free Guide to Underwater Photography

Underwater photography is the most challenging type of photography one can undertake. It is also one of the fastest growing segments, due to the rapid drop in the price of underwater camera housings over the last 10 years. UWPhotographyGuide.com is the first free comprehensive online guide to underwater photography to assist divers and photographers in learning this difficult art.

Shark virgin birth pup survives more than 5 years

Shark pups born to virgin mothers can survive over the long-term, according to new research published in the Journal of Heredity. The study shows for the first time that some virgin births can result in viable offspring.

Lost leviathans: Hunting the world's missing whales

New science is confirming old whalers' tales of seas teeming with the beasts - and undermining claims that it's time to reload the harpoons. Old chronicles tell of populations of whales hundreds of times greater than today. Such tales have long been dismissed as exaggerations, but could they be true? Have humans killed such a staggering number of whales? New genetic techniques for analysing whale populations, alongside a growing archive of fresh historical analysis, suggest so. Taken together, they indicate that we have got our ideas about marine ecology completely upside down: whales may once have been the dominant species in the world's oceans.

Scuba Diving Reference Updated

Completely revised edition of "Scuba Diving" is now available. A reference book explaining the techniques of diving: buoyancy, diving physiology, dive tables, dive planning, etc.

Help needed to care for thousands of cold-stunned sea turtles

Thousands of sea turtles have been rescued from the unusually cold weather in the southeastern US. These turtles are being cared for by organisations from North Carolina to Texas. The unprecedented number of stranded sea turtles has left these organisation scrambling for resources and forced them to spend funds typically budgeted for an entire year. Seaturtle.org is asking you to help these organisations care for and return the rescued sea turtles to the wild by making a donation of money, time or materials.

Cites backs ban on bluefin tuna

Cites, the wildlife trade agency, supports a proposed ban on the international trade in bluefin tuna, a delicacy in Asia, which is due to be examined by 175 countries next month. Japan has opposed the ban proposed by Monaco, which would classify the fish as a species threatened with extinction.

Predatory jumbo squid invade California waters

More than 1000 jumbo flying squid, or Humboldt squid, have been landed the shores of California since Thursday night last week, prompting concerns that this season's rising ocean temperatures due to the El Nino effect could lead to a squid invasion unparalleled for nearly a decade.

Fishy sensors could keep submersibles out of trouble

A pressure sensor that mimics the way a fish's lateral line works could help submersible craft navigate. The technology could improve underwater robots' ability to detect hazards, such as deep sea vents and shipwrecks, when the water is too murky for a camera to work effectively, or the object is too close for sonar, says Douglas Jones at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Evidence of Rapid Sea Rise Found in Coastal Cave in Mediterranean

An examination of mineral deposits in a coastal cave on the Spanish island of Mallorca shows evidence of rapid rises and declines in sea level as the planet warmed and cooled.

Deep-sea snail shell could inspire next-gen armour

The layered shell, rich in iron-based nanoparticles, that protects snails living on deep-sea vents could inspire new types of body armour for humans.

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