SCUBA News 15
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) Issue 15 - July 2001 www.scubatravel.co.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) #15. This month: - What's new at SCUBA Travel - Your letters: Photography in Middle East - Diving news from around the world If you have any diving news, or comments on this newsletter, we'd love to hear from you. Just fill in our Contact the Editor form. __________________________________________________________ What's New at the SCUBA Travel Web Site ======================================== The Top Ten Dives of the World list currently looks like this. 1. Yongala, Australia 2. Elphinstone Reef, Egyptian Red Sea 3. Blue Corner Wall, Palau, Micronesia 4. Thistlegorm, Egyptian Red Sea 5. Stingray City, Grand Cayman 6. The Brothers, Egyptian Red Sea 7. Booroo, Isle of Man 8. Darwin Arch, Galapagos 9. Sha'ab Rumi South, Sudan 10. Barra Reef, Mozambique What do you think? Want to add your favourites or disagree with some of the list? Fill in the form at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/topdives.html We've also updated our "Elsewhere" page with brief details of Mozambique, Britain, the Solomon Islands, Belize and French Polynesia Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this page. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scuba.html We've added identification and behaviour notes for the colourful Picasso Triggerfish to our Red Sea Life page. Other fish featured include clownfish, stingray, grouper and lionfish. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/redsea/redsealife.html Finally, our coverage of dive outfits in Baja California continues to grow http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/baja/ __________________________________________________________ Your Letters: Photography in the Middle East ============================================ Congratulations on such brilliant Photography and a wonderful Website. I was wondering if you know of any professional photographers or photography clubs in the Middle East? Kathy Johnston Unfortunately we couldn't answer Kathy's question, but perhaps you can? If you have any information on photographers or clubs in the Middle East please let us know and we'll pass the information on to Kathy. __________________________________________________________ \\ADVERT__________________________________________________ Download the free Windmill software to log data from GPS and sonar to your spreadsheet, database or mapping program. For diving, marine archaeology, salvage, coral reef conservation and deep-sea research. Visit http://www.windmill.co.uk/gps.html ___________________________________________________ADVERT\\ Diving News From Around the World ================================= Whales dominate our news, mostly due to last week's International Whaling Commission meeting. IWC call upon Norway to cease whaling activities At last week's International Whaling Commission meeting in London, the IWC called upon Norway to immediately halt all whaling activities. In 1985 the commission banned the hunting of 12 species of great whale. Norway, however, resumed hunting Minke whales in 1993. Britain recently banned Norwegian whale research ships from its territorial waters, in protest at Norway resuming export of Minke whale products to Japan. Bid for whale sanctuary fails Proposals for a whale sanctuary to protect threatened stocks in the South Pacific have been rejected by delegates at the International Whaling Commission meeting. The sanctuary was proposed by Australia and New Zealand with the backing of the majority of the Pacific Island nations. It would have covered about 20 million square kilometres and protected nine species of great whale in their winter breeding ground in the tropics. But leading pro-whaling nations along with a block of Caribbean countries, voted against the sanctuary. Caribbean nations have been accused of receiving aid from Japan in return for backing its position on whaling. Antigua has openly admitted receiving aid in return for IWC votes. A Brazilian proposal for a smaller sanctuary in the South Atlantic was also defeated. New Scientist Great whale species endangered. A new report from WWF, the conservation organisation, says that seven of the thirteen great whale species remain endangered or vulnerable. Alarm is now growing over hidden hazards that could put even more species on the endangered list. According to the report, whales are killed or maimed in collisions with ships, menaced by toxic contamination, entangled in fishing gear, lose their feeding grounds due to oil and gas exploration and damaged by industrial chemical run-off. WWF Blue Whales' food supply under threat Krill, the main food of Blue Whales, is in decline due to diminishing polar ice - linked to climate change. Sea ice provides a habitat for marine algae, which are released in summer when the ice melts and fed upon by krill. As temperature has increased in recent decades, sea ice has diminished and krill food supplies are scarce. A recent study published by the British Royal Society concluded that the biomass of krill was not sufficient to support predator demand - another threat to the survival of the Blue Whale. WWF Finally, good news for whales The Kyoto deal finally went through, all be it without the United States. This is good news for whales, and, according to two recent reports, good news for Japanese and European companies who will benefit economically and gain market share in new technologies as a result. WWF __________________________________________________________ * Copyright SCUBA Travel Ltd - http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/ * Reprinting welcomed with this footer included. We are happy for you to copy and distribute this newsletter, and even use parts of it on your own website, providing the above copyright notice is included, and a link back to our website is in place. Previous editions of SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) are archived at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html SUBSCRIBING AND UNSUBSCRIBING Visit http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html and add or remove your e-mail address.
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