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SCUBA News 52~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) Issue 52 - August 2004 http://www.scubatravel.co.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to SCUBA News. This month we've stories on the diving around Marsa Alam, in the Red Sea, and the dugongs which you can see there. We hope you enjoy the newsletter, but 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 with Dugongs: Marsa Alam, Red Sea - Creature of the Month: Dugong - Diving News from Around the World __________________________________________________________ What's New at SCUBA Travel? =========================== Diving with Sealions and Manta Rays: Baja California The Baja dive directory continues to grow, with more dives in the La Paz area. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/baja/bajadive.html Diving Centres in Sardinia and Thailand You've more diving centres to choose from in our Sardinia and Thailand dive shop lists. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/italy/sardop.html http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/thailand/thaiop.html :ADV_____________________________________________________ AO NANG DIVERS - Krabi/Thailand. Special Promotion until 31.10.2004 - Dive with us and get an unbelievable 60% discount on very comfortable accommodation - for divers, our bungalows are presently priced at Baht 400 per night and person/ABF, SC and VAT included! Download our free video under http://www.aonang-divers.com/video/index.html Contact: info@aonang-divers.com ______________________________________________________ADV: The World's Top Ten Dives Shark Reef and Yolanda has made it into the top ten of the world's dives. Disagree? Then cast your vote at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/topdives.html More titles in the Baja SCUBA Bookshop The diving bookshop now has diving guides, sealife guides, Baja guides and novels set in Baja California. http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/baja/bajabook.html SCUBA News Feed Last month we launched a SCUBA News feed, which let people display updating news headlines on their own web sites. If you have grabbed our headlines but would also like short descriptions of the news item, then this is now possible. To find out how go to http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/newsfeed.html __________________________________________________________ Your Letters ============ I'm planning a wedding and a honeymoon. Is there any diving in Argentina?!?! Alex -- I'm traveling to the Nice and Marseille areas in France and need advice on sites and dive shops. Open water certified, not deep dives. Thanks! Art -- If you've any advice for Alex and Art, let us know. __________________________________________________________ Diving with Dugongs: Marsa Alam, Red Sea ======================================== Around 10 years ago I stayed in a tent in the desert and dived every day up and down the coast. It was the most relaxing holiday I've ever taken. A mix of nationalities ate together each evening in the communal tent, and agreed that the Egyptian Cleopatra wine was just as bad as it had been the night before. The place was Marsa Alam and this year I went back. This time I flew into the recently built airport, was whisked to my hotel and air conditioned room. We drove past my original campsite but I didn't recognise it at first as an "eco village" had been built. The coast which we'd travelled up and down in a pickup truck, and that had been nothing more than desert, had been carved into hotels and resorts. But what about the diving? Marsa Alam is very close to Elphinstone Reef. This is a fantastic dive site, featuring deep pinnacles and a very deep archway concealing a sarcophagus-shaped rock. There is always the possibility of seeing sharks, dolphins and turtles. It has steep walls and shelving plateaus, including one at around 5 m so plenty to see at the end of the dive. If you are staying at Marsa Alam you take a day boat out and do 3 dives on Elphinstone. However, you may have a 30 m depth limit, which on this dive I consider a serious limitation. With Emperor Divers' day boat, the two first dives are very close together (1 hour surface interval). You've barely time to warm up after the first dive when it's time to start kitting up for the second. Also, the day boats wallow in the waves so the two hour journey can lead to sea-sickness. The other dive sites are closer inshore. They are generally pretty, with good vis and swim-throughs. Especially interesting is the nearbye Abu Dabab where dugongs may be seen. However, as many people swim with the dugongs - snorkellers as well as divers - it will probably not be long before the dugongs are driven away. If you would like a hotel-based holiday with uncrowded dive sites, Marsa Alam is the place for you. If you want to take your time diving some of the best sites in the Red Sea, then you would be better off taking a liveaboard. One which visited the Brothers, Elphinstone and Daedalus would be a good choice, or one going further south perhaps. Where to Stay ------------- For people with partners or children who don't dive the Kahramana hotel is a good choice. This is a sprawl of small buildings, each one comprising two or four rooms (a room being a large bedroom, bathroom and hallway). There is plenty to do: horse and camel riding, beach volleyball, tennis courts, two swimming pools, two beaches and a children's playground. As you will not be near a town, paying a little extra for a hotel with three restaurants plus bars and bar-snacks is definitely worth it. They've managed to convert the desert into a garden with a huge array of gardeners keeping the plants healthy. Palm trees have been planted on the beaches and the buildings are the same red and ochre as the desert sand. Further Reading: ---------------- Diving Elphinstone http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/redsea/elphdive.html __________________________________________________________ Creature of the Month: Dugong (Dugong dugon) ================================================ About 50 or 60 million years ago, a group of animals related to the elephant moved to the coast marshes. They spent more and more time in the sea until eventually they lived most or all of the time there. These were to become the present day sirenians - manatees and dugongs. Sightings of these were thought to have inspired the myths of mermaids. Also known as a sea cow, Dugong's feed in the seagrass beds of the Indo-Pacific. They are the only herbivorous, truly marine mammal. (The related manatee spending some of its life in fresh water.) You'll find dugongs in sheltered lagoons and bays rich in seagrass, in warm water such as are found in the Red Sea, East Africa, Japan, the Philippines and Australia. They have dense, massive bones, which help to keep them submerged. Their lungs lie along their back and act like floats, keeping them horizontal in the water. They can eat as much as 40 kg (88 lb) of seagrass a day, leaving distinctive troughs in seagrass meadows. Adult dugongs can grow to over 3.5 m (11 ft), and may weigh over 900 kg (2000 lb). They can travel several hundred miles in a few days, through the waters of many different countries. Male dugongs begin to grow tusks between the ages of 12 and 15 years. If food is plentiful, the habitat protected, and predation low, dugongs may live more than 70 years. Dugongs are thought to use the "lek system" whereby males establish and defend courtship territories in traditional areas where females come only to mate. Dugongs are natural prey for sharks, killer whales, and crocodiles, but they are most vulnerable to human activities. Hunting has drastically reduced dugong populations in some areas. Dugong habitat is under pressure from coastal development, pollution and other degradation. For photographs see... http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/dugong62.html http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/dugong63.html http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/dugong64.html http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/dugong66.html Further Reading: ---------------- The Blue Planet, by Alastair Fothergill, Martha Holmes, Sir David Attenborough, BBC Consumer Publishing, 2001, ISBN 056-33-8498-0 http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0563384980/1286 The Ocean World, Jacques Cousteau Abradale Press, http://www.amazon.com/ The Humane Society of the United States http://www.hsus.org/ace/18871 WWF http://www.panda.org/ :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. 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