SCUBA News 133

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 133 - May 2011
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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Welcome to SCUBA News. I was recently trying to book a diving holiday which included childcare for my 9-year old daughter. This proved much more difficult than I had expected, so if anyone has recommendations for where to go diving with children let me know and I'll publish them in a future issue.

I hope you enjoy this issue of SCUBA News, but should you wish to cancel your subscription 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?
- Diving Bookshelf: Dive as Deep as you Dare
- Letters
- Creature of the Month: Common Whelk
- Diving News from Around the World

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What's New at SCUBA Travel?
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Diving South Africa

Stunning reefs with turtles, rays, mantas, whale sharks, dolphins, tiger sharks, ragged tooth sharks and more. We have a new page on the diving around South Africa at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/africa/diving-south-africa.html

The Dive Centres of Sharm El Sheikh

More of the dive centres in the legendary Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea are now rated and reviewed at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/redsea/sharm-diving.html

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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SCUBA Bookshelf: Dive as Deep as you Dare, by Dave Blackmore
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The book is an autobiographical account of Dave Blackmore's years as a BSAC diver from the 1970's to date. It is easy to read and runs to 197 pages in largish text, there are also a number of photos to bring the characters and places to life.

Dave is a lifelong BSAC member and diver, joining the club in 1982. The book describes his diving exploits from this date forward, a lot of the diving is along the south coast and Scapa Flow but there are some overseas episodes in the Red Sea, Malta and Florida's Blue Holes.

The early years were fascinating to me, as I was also a BSAC member in the early 80's. It was a grim reminder of what we used to do with very basic kit, a lot of enthusiasm and very high tolerance of cold water.

As the book unfolds and Dave becomes more experienced the dives get deeper and deeper, initially on air then mixed gas. The dives on HMS Hampshire were deep and at the time at the forefront of deep wreck diving.

The Scapa Flow trips are a great insight to the live aboard life in Scapa and endless drives up and down the UK.

The locations become a bit more exotic as the book progresses with trips to the Red Sea and the famous wrecks in the northern area.

I enjoyed the book and more so because Dave is a "BSAC diver" through and through with serious diving combined with the compulsory post dive visits to the pub and that unique "BSAC Diver" personality you will know what I mean when you get to a chapter called "DIY Underwater Torches".

Review by Andrew Reay-Robinson

Dive as Deep as you Dare is available from Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0956811507/scubanews-21 and also direct from Dave Blackmore: e-mail daveb.bristol@gmail.com.

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Letters
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From the Diving Board

I am looking at going to Mozambique for five days of diving.. Was wondering if anyone can give me some nice accommodation, beach, pool, variety with easy access to a good dive shop. I have read about all the great dive spot and I was also wondering how close all the dive site are around the south coast of Mozambique? I am interested in diving Barra reef, office, 2 mile, washing machine, manta ray reef, Bench mark, pinnacles, doodles, creche. How close are all these to each other? Are these sites possible to do if I am staying on the mainland in one location? Thanks

hartzydiver

Post any replies at __________________________________________________________
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Diving News From Around the World
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You can display this news, in real-time, on your web site. Just grab our news feed from http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scuba.xml. For more details see http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/newsfeed.html.

Talk with a dolphin via underwater translation machine

A diver carrying a computer that tries to recognise dolphin sounds and generate responses in real time will soon attempt to communicate with wild dolphins off the coast of Florida. If the bid is successful, it will be a big step towards two-way communication between humans and dolphins.

Greenhouse ocean study offers warning for future

The mass extinction of marine life in our oceans during prehistoric times is a warning that the Earth will see such an extinction again because of high levels of greenhouse gases, according to new research by geologists.

Squid go into space - for the sake of humanity

Some of our most intelligent invertebrates are blasting off on the next shuttle flight. Their mission: to reveal whether good bacteria go bad in space

Pollutants in Dolphins and Beluga Whales

Bottlenose dolphins and beluga whales, two marine species at or near the top of their respective food webs, accumulate more chemical pollutants in their bodies when they live and feed in waters near urbanized areas, according to scientists

Record number of whales in Antarctic Bay

Scientists have observed a huge group of more than 300 humpback whales gorging on the largest swarm of Antarctic krill seen in more than 20 years in bays along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.

Indonesia and China to Curb Illegal Fishing

Indonesia and China will collaborate to prevent illegal fishing by Chinese fishers in Indonesian waters by coordinating their patrols in the South China Sea.

EU fishing head wants crackdown on Libya tuna trade

Europe's fisheries chief has called for close monitoring of the trade in bluefin tuna caught in Libyan waters, fearing illegal catches could push the endangered fish closer to extinction amid the chaos of war.

Environmental organizations demand further protection of bluefin tuna

Several environmental organizations - Greenpeace, Oceana, Pew Environment Group and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – are calling for a strict control of bluefin tuna fishing, farming, export and import processes.

World's Largest Ocean Current Mapping System

A network of high-frequency radar systems designed for mapping ocean surface currents now provides detail of coastal ocean dynamics along the U.S. West Coast never before available.

"Fool's Gold" from The Deep is Fertilizer for Ocean Life

Similar to humans, the bacteria and tiny plants living in the ocean need iron for energy and growth. But their situation is quite different from ours--for one, they can't turn to natural iron sources like leafy greens or red meat for a pick-me-up. So, from where does their iron come? New research results published in the current issue of the journal Nature Geoscience point to a source on the seafloor: minute particles of pyrite, or fool's gold, from hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean

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

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