SCUBA News 136

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 136 - September 2011
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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Hello and welcome to SCUBA News. This month we have an article on the diving at the World Heritage site of the Daymaniyat Islands, in the Sultanate of Oman. We are also pleased to celebrate our 2000th Twitter follower: @fish_marine. If you would like to join us we are at http://twitter.com/SCUBANews

I hope you enjoy this issue, 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 the Daymaniyat Islands in the Sultanate of Oman
- Creature of the Month: Pygmy Sweeper
- Diving News from Around the World

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What's New at SCUBA Travel?
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Diving Koh Tao

You've sent us more recommendations for dive operators in Koh Tao, Thailand. These are at
Diving Maldives

More dive sites and dive operators in the ever-popular Maldives are now at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/pacific/maldives-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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Diving the Daymaniyat Islands in the Sultanate of Oman
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Getting There:

Al Sawadi Beach Resort:

The Diving:

By Graham Collins

You can watch an excellent video of the diving in Oman at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuJjwrYgDXA. This was shot by David Collins of Bright Rain Photographics.

Maps of the dive sites are at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/oman_mapw.html
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/oman_mapc.html
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/oman_mape.html

More photos are at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/photooman.html

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Creature of the Month: Pygmy Sweepers, Parapriacanthus ransonneti
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Also known as glass fish and golden sweepers, you find dense schools of these small fish throughout the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to Australia. They like shady places during the day: wrecks, overhangs and caves. At night they venture out to feed on zooplankton.

Sweepers have large eyes and a single fin on their backs.. They are 10 cm long with yellow heads, peach-coloured bodies and a distinct lateral line running from head to forked-tail.

The pygmy sweepers have light-emitting compounds in their guts, presumably gained from food they have eaten.

Pygmy sweepers living in the Red Sea used to be known as Parapriacanthus guentheri, but it is now thought that there is just one species and Parapriacanthus guentheri is an obsolete name.

The photos were taken on the wreck of the Ulysses in the Red Sea - http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/photoulysses.html

Further Reading:
Coral Reef Guide Red Sea by Ewald Lieske and Robert F. Myers
Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Seafs by John E. Randall , Gerald R. Allen and Roger C. Steene

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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. You can also read it on our Twitter and Facebook pages
http://www.facebook.com/SCUBANews

A shot in the dark: same-sex sexual behaviour in a deep-sea squid

In a study published in Biology Letters, male squid were found to routinely and indiscriminately mate with both males and females.

PFO Closure reduces chance of Bends

A PFO is a defect in the wall between 2 chambers of the heart. New study indicates that surgically closing a PFO in divers reduces the chance of decompression illness.

New species of dolphin discovered

Researchers have determined that dolphins found in southeastern Australia represent a previously unknown species.

Baja California boasts World's Most Robust Marine Reserve

A thriving undersea wildlife park tucked away near the southern tip of Mexico's Baja peninsula has proven to be the most robust marine reserve in the world, according to a new study led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

U.S. Navy Diving Manual Now available Digitally

The US Navy Diving Manual is now available in Kindle edition, saving 127 pounds on the print edition.

Ocean Art Photo Competition 2011

Underwater Photography Guide is pleased to announce that the prestigious Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition 2011 will be accepting images between August 9 and November 20, 2011. Winners choose their own prizes. Judges include world-renowned underwater photographers Martin Edge, Marty Snyderman, Tony Wu and Bonnie Pelnar. New Category for 2011 - Cold/ Temperate Water.

Scientists call for end to Deep Sea Fishing

Tax payers are subsidising deep sea fishing which is causing profound, lasting damage to fishes and life on the seafloor. Many deep-sea fish populaters around the world are collapsing, including sharks.

Coral Reefs likely to disappear by the end of the century

Coral reefs will be gone by the end of the century, according to a top UN Scientist. This would give coral reefs the dubious accolade of being the first entire ecosystem to have been destroyed by human activity.

Warming seas could smother seafood

Seafood could be going off a lot of menus as the world warms. More than half of a group of fish crucial for the marine food web might die if, as predicted, global warming reduces the amount of oxygen dissolved in some critical areas of the ocean - including some of our richest fisheries.

Soft coral builds strong reefs

Scientists have long believed soft corals, one of the many endangered elements of marine life, are only minor contributors to the structure of coral reefs. But that's not true, says new research - and the preservation of soft corals is essential to the health of our seas.

Aussie tuna companies lag behind UK in sustainable fishing

Greenpeace says says that nearly every Australian tuna brand refuses to rule out destructive fishing methods, which are responsible for the widespread destruction of marine life, such as endangered sharks and turtles, as well as juvenile tuna. In contrast, every major tuna player in the UK (apart from John West) has swapped destructive fishing methods for sustainable ones, following consumer pressure.

Preserving just 4 percent of the ocean could protect most marine mammal species

Preserving just 4 percent of the ocean could protect crucial habitat for the vast majority of marine mammal species, from sea otters to blue whales, according to researchers at Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Of the 129 species of marine mammals on Earth, including seals, dolphins and polar bears, approximately one-quarter are facing extinction, the study said.

Worldwide Map Identifies Coral Reefs Exposed to Stress

Marine researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups have created a map of the world's corals and their exposure to stress factors, including high temperatures, ultra-violet radiation, weather systems, sedimentation, as well as stress-reducing factors such as temperature variability and tidal dynamics. The study, say the authors, will help to conserve some of the world's most important coral reefs by identifying reef systems where biodiversity is high and stress is low, ecosystems where management has the best chance of success.

22 pallets of confiscated corals

Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center recently received hundreds of seized coral skeletons, illegally poached in the Solomon Islands, from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Scientists will be examining 22 pallets of confiscated corals for research, educational and outreach purposes.

Mapping Coral Disease Clusters in the Caribbean

In the last 30 years, more than 90 percent of the reef-building coral in the Caribbean has disappeared because of a disease of unknown origin. Now, scientists from the University of Florida have used a GIS (geographic information system) to show the whereabouts of the clusters of diseased coral. Their findings may help determine what contributes to coral disintegration.

Atlantic fish species already shifting due to warming waters

Fish stocks in the northeast Atlantic Ocean are already shifting due to warming waters. The shallower waters of the North Sea, between the UK and Denmark, have experienced the greatest change thus far. A massive 72 per cent of common fish species have undergone a change in abundance related to rising sea temperatures. Catches of species that prefer cold waters, such as haddock and cod, have dropped by half in the past three decades, while landings of warm-loving and exotic species, including red mullet, hake and sole, have more than doubled.

Activists push for ban of shark fin sales in California

Almost 25,000 people in California have signed an online petition to ban the sale of shark fins. The campaign aims to pressure Governor Jerry Brown to pass AB 376, which passed the Assembly in May and passed in the Senate this month. All that needs to happen now for shark fin sales to be banned is for Brown to sign the bill into law.

Shark Bay Dolphins add conching to their repertoire

Unlike some animals that have similar foraging techniques within the same population, bottlenose dolphins of Shark Bay use a wide range of foraging techniques to catch their prey, including 'Conching' where a dolphin picks up a conch shell that has a fish inside, brings it to the surface and shakes it until it's free of water - until the fish falls out into the dolphin's mouth.

Dangerous dining for North Atlantic right whales

North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered and, despite international protection from whaling, significant numbers die from collisions with ships. Large groups of right whales migrate to the coastal waters of New England during the late winter and early spring to feed in an area with large numbers of vessels. North Atlantic right whales have the largest per capita record of vessel strikes of any large whale population in the world. Right whale feeding behaviour probably contributes to risk of collisions with ships. New study finds spend the majority of their time just below the water's surface where they cannot be seen but are shallow enough to be vulnerable to ship strike. Remote acoustic detection of prey aggregations may be a useful supplement to the management and conservation of right whales.

UK discards 1 billion in cod

New research from independent think-tank nef reveals that the UK has, from just one cod stock, thrown away enough fish to support 711 jobs for 46 years. The results show how more selective fishing could halt this waste and result in more fish, revenues and jobs for all.

Giant crabs move in on Antarctica

Huge crabs more than a metre across have invaded the Antarctic abyss, wiped out the local wildlife and now threaten to ruin ecosystems that have evolved over 14 million years.

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