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SCUBA News 51~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) Issue 51 - July 2004 http://www.scubatravel.co.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to SCUBA News: we hope you enjoy it. If you have any suggestions for the newsletter, or want to tell us about a diving destination or dive centre, then please either e-mail news@scubatravel.co.uk or fill in the form at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/recommend.html Should you wish to cancel your subscription you can do so at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html Contents: - What's new at SCUBA Travel? - Letters - Diving Dahab: Desert Diving in the Red Sea - Creature of the Month: Batfish - Diving News from Around the World __________________________________________________________ What's New at SCUBA Travel? =========================== Live SCUBA Diving News You no longer have to wait for this newsletter to read the latest diving news. You can read it as it happens at our web site. Alternatively you could display the news in your own web pages, absolutely free! http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/newsfeed.html Diving Brunei Thinking of diving Brunei? Don't bother is the latest message at the SCUBA Travel site. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scuba.html#Brunei Diving in Belize Half Moon Wall in Belize is one of the best dives in the world, according to one of our readers. It has excellent visibility, coral of vibrant colors and many fish - located just off Half Moon Caye. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scuba.html#Belize Top 10 Dives in the World The list of the top ten dives in the world has changed again. The Yongala is still number one though, closely followed by Blue Corner Wall, Palau. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/topdives.html Sipadan: Good Diving, but not as Good as the Brochures say! Sipadan has been built up to be one of the best dive resorts in the World, but did not live up to one reader's expectations. There is apparently much damaged coral and many of the larger fish are not as evident. Shark tip alley and Staghorn crescent are no longer worth visiting. South and Barracuda Point are your best bets to see the big fish and barracuda swirl. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/malaysia/malaydive.html 5 Star Diving in Thailand Sea Dragon Dive Center, Coral Grand Divers and Sea Bees Kata all received 5 star reader recommendations! http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/thailand/thaiop.html SCUBA Bestsellers Discover the best selling SCUBA diving books, videos and DVDs. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/bestsellers.html New Diving Magazines now Available from Amazon.com Money off diving magazines from America, Britain, Singapore and Australia. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/presents2.html#Magazines Photo Gallery Reorganisation The most popular photos in our underwater photo gallery are now gathered together in Room 1. Go and have a look. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/photo.html :ADV_____________________________________________________ Teach your baby to swim underwater...more details at http://www.studholme.net/child/ (Derbyshire and Staffordshire, UK.) ______________________________________________________ADV: __________________________________________________________ Your Letters ============ We just returned home from a two week holiday in Victoria, BC Canada. We spent four days diving: it was awesome! We went with The Great Underwater Adventure Company (dive@undertheocean.com) who arranged every thing from the fantastic diving (as good as anywhere) to baby sitting our four and seven year olds. They had a great time too, a lot of their adventures included diving related activities, such as a trip to Undersea Gardens and "The Breakwater" a cool dive site with lots to see. Everything was included and the kids were waiting for us at the dock at the end of our dives. It was a very pleasurable experience and we would recommend the company to everyone. Robb and Sherri __________________________________________________________ Diving Dahab: Desert Diving in the Red Sea ============================================ Dahab means "Gold". It was named by the Bedouin for its golden sands that jut out into the sea. On the Sinai coast, it overlooks the Gulf of Aqaba. You can reach Dahab overland either from Sharm el-Sheikh or Eilat. Most British divers consider Dahab to be a bit out of the way but is very popular with Russian, German, French and Italian divers. If you like driving around the desert in 4x4's and jumping in the water from the shore to find a complete contrast between the desert above and thriving life below, then Dahab is well worth a visit. We stayed at the Nesima Hotel, which has a well equipped and efficiently run dive centre on site. If you want to organise your own diving, there are more than 50 dive centres already in Dahab and many more half built around the town. As a checkout dive we dived first on the Lighthouse reef at the northern edge of the town. It is now a very touristy area with lots of dive schools using it for early course dives. Afterwards we dived the Eel Garden which is a worthwhile dive for anyone. One of the renowned dives of Dahab is the Canyon which starts at a round coral bowl with lots of glass fish - the fish bowl - and descends as a tube down to around 50 m. The tube has openings in the top at which provide access and escape at various depths. The other well-known dive of Dahab is the Blue Hole. This is a bowl just off shore which drops to 80 m. We entered the water at the Bells, which is just off the northern edge of the car park and Bedouin cafes area. The entry is a gully and tube that drops straight from the shore via an arch to a depth of 200 m. We exited at 30m and turned south along the reef back to the Blue Hole. We traversed around the side of the hole back to shore. I had previously dived at the Blue Hole in 1990 and was somewhat taken aback by the change to the on-shore environment. When we visited then, we were the only divers there, and it was at the end of a track which went for miles through unpopulated desert and felt like it was at the end of the world. Now there were about 50 vehicles there (in summer the number rises to over 200), and either side of what is still a track are Bedouin tents acting as cafes and rest areas for the divers. The Canyon too seems overdived to me; worth doing, but probably best as a privately organised dive either before or after the commercially organised groups fill it up. We did a night dive at the house reef just off from the Nesima Hotel, which because it is no longer used for diver training was well populated by a wide variety of fish and corals. The Three Pools, south of Dahab is a worthwhile dive. At Umm Sid also south of Dahab, there is a huge Moray Eel, and also a small Garden Eel group north of the entry point. Our last dive was at the Islands which are just south of the town, which are formed by a coral table criss-crossed by gullies producing a very confused topography, and ideal for a shallow dive (17-18 m). A turtle and two dolphins passing very close made it an especially memorable dive. The dolphins come close to shore and transit up and down the coast for week or two each year when the temperature drops in the winter. So for us, the first week in December turned out to be a perfect time to go to Dahab. by Graham Collins Further Reading: Diving and Snorkelling Guide to the Red Sea, Lonely Planet, 2001 Available with 30% off from Amazon.co.uk at http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1864502053/1286 and from Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1864502053/mussoutdoorpursu On the SCUBA Travel Site http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/redsea/dahabdive.html http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/redsea/dahabop.html __________________________________________________________ Creature of the Month: Batfish, Platax species ================================================ These slow moving fish are not at all intimidated by divers, and often come to "greet" you on your dive. There are four species that you will see in warm waters throughout the Indo-Pacific, although not all species are represented in all areas. In the Red Sea, for example, you will see just two species: Platax teira and P. orbicularis. All the batfish have thin, deep bodies - hence their other name of spadefish. Other features they have in common are their greyish colouring and the two black or grey stripes going vertically down their bodies, one through the eye and the other at the back of the head. Young batfish look different to the mature fish. They have short bodies (nose to tail) compared to the size of their large dorsal and ventral fins. The brown juveniles of the circular batfish, P. orbicularis, float sideways in the water and look very like drifting dead leaves. Those of P. pinnatus, on the other hand, are said to look like toxic flatworms. All the juveniles prefer shallow, sheltered water: in lagoons and among mangroves for example. You find the adults in deeper water on reefs and wrecks down to 20 or 30 m. Batfish grow to between 45 and 60 cm long. With small mouths and teeth they specialise in eating algae and small invertebrates. For photographs see... http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/batfish.html http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/batfish1.html http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/batfish2.html http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/batfish3.html Further Reading: Coral Reef Fishes (Collins Pocket Guides), Ewald Lieske and Robert Myers http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/fishbook.html __________________________________________________________ Diving News From Around the World ================================= Heart Defect Poses Scuba Diving Risk A PFO (patent foramen ovale) is a tiny opening between the heart's two upper chambers that is believed to affect up to 30 percent of the population. Recent research found that divers with PFO were around five times more likely to experience a major bout of decompression sickness than those without the heart defect, and the risk increased with the size of the hole. Non of the divers in the study had previously realised they had the heart defect. http://www.escardiocontent.org/periodicals/yeuhj/article/ Diving Headaches may be Serious Headaches occasionally occur during or after SCUBA diving. Although mostly benign, headache may signal a serious neurological disorder, says a recent report. Focal neurologic symptoms, even in a person prone to migraine, should not be ignored, but rather treated with 100% oxygen and referred without delay to a recompression chamber http://highwire.stanford.edu/cgi/medline/pmid;15228893 Israel's Eilat Corals Face Extinction Corals along the shores of Eilat used to be a hot spot for divers. Today Eilat's corals are facing extinction to a lucrative fish-farm industry operating without permits. Several reefs in Eilat kept off-limits to scuba divers are also in deep decline, so the problem is not tourism, said a ranger at Eilat's underwater reserve. The government has not acted because of pressure from the powerful agriculture lobby. http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm Diving Groups attacked on Pemba Island, Tanzania A British diver, robbed on an "island paradise" in Africa, has warned of the dangers of bandits, after another diving group was also attacked. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3864415.stm Whitetip Sharks Disappear from Gulf of Mexico A new study reports that 50 years ago whitetip sharks may have outnumbered all the other big fish in the Gulf of Mexico. Now they have all but disappeared. http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3223013 Dolphin Ambulance Unveiled An ambulance designed to save dolphins and whales has been unveiled in Scotland. The Land Rover Defender will carry veterinary equipment, a winch, searchlights, stretchers, harnesses, an air mattress and flotation pontoons. The ambulance will be able to locate, treat and refloat stranded marine mammals and also benefit research projects. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3877429.stm :ADV_____________________________________________________ Save money on a vast selection of posters and prints: whales, sharks, dolphins, seascapes... Browse the offers at www.allposters.com Subscribe To SCUBA NewsOur newsletter, SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011), is absolutely free. It is a monthly publication, delivered by e-mail. To receive your copy fill in your details below. We will never pass your e-mail address to any third parties, or send you unsolicited e-mail. You will receive an e-mail confirming your subscription. If you don't receive this you have probably entered your e-mail address incorrectly - revisit this page and re-subscribe. Send us your Press Releases
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Britons Urged to Count Jellyfish
Mass jellyfish strandings and huge numbers at sea are
being spotted around Britain's coast. The Marine
Conservation Society wants people to report their
jellyfish encounters. Research results will be used by
marine biologists studying the leatherback turtle -
which eats the creatures. This critically endangered
giant visits UK waters to feed on its favourite
jellyfish prey.