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SCUBA News 91~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to Novembers's SCUBA News. This month we're delighted to announce a competition with three copies of "Red Sea Wrecks Northern Egypt" as prizes. See our review below for more details. We also have a guest article on diving the Banda Sea and Spice Islands of Indonesia. I hope you enjoy the newsletter, but should you wish to cancel your subscription you may do so at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html Contents: __________________________________________________________ What's New at SCUBA Travel? Competition to win Dive Guide and Log Book
Travelling Diver have kindly given us three copies of their brand new "Red Sea Wrecks Northern Egypt", each worth £12.50. To win your copy just tell us which society officially recommends this new guide (tip: visit http://www.travellingdiver.com/ to find out.) To enter e-mail your answer, name and address to news@scubatravel.co.uk.
Many more descriptions of the dive sites of the Philippines are now on the SCUBA Travel site.
Visit our new page on the diving in the Galapagos, Ecuador.
__________________________________________________________ Review: Guide and Logbook of the Northern Red Sea Wrecks 
Red Sea Wrecks - Northern Egypt Ever found yourself re-writing the dive guide into your logbook or copying the maps and text of the dive centre’s books? If you have then you might consider buying the Travelling Diver’s Guide and Logbook. For £12.50 you get a guide-come-logbook for the Northern Red Sea Wrecks. The format is loose sheets designed to fit into a diving logbook binder. The pack covers 16 wreck sites, including the Thistlegorm and Rosalie Moller. It has 2 spare logbook sheets (4 dives). The sheets are standard 3-hole diving logbook size and contain a section for collecting dive data, a guide to the site including a 3D colour drawing, a detailed description of the wreck, its history, recommended dives and marine life. Finally there is a section for you to add your own notes on the dive. The data section is very detailed and covers: the usual dive data on duration time, air consumption, weight as well as gas mix, tank type, visibility, water temp, sea conditions. In my view more than enough information. The next section is on the dive site and includes a brief overview and 3D drawing as well as the recommended dives and detailed instructions on finding the location, including co-ordinates. Turning over onto the back there is a detailed site overview including wreck history, detailed dive guide and notes on the marine life to be found. The final section is for the diver to make their own notes. All in all it is a great little guide come logbook. The only criticism is that for me the section for your own notes is a little small and some blank notes sheets would have been useful. The pack does contains some blank sheets for you to record dives not covered by the guided sheets. These allow 1 side per dive and again I personally would have liked a little bit more room for my own notes. Overall a great idea and I like the idea of having a combined dive log and guide. Review by Andrew Reay-Robinson About the author Win a copy of Red Sea Wrecks of Northern Egypt If you are not lucky enough to win a copy you can purchase one from http://www.travellingdiver.com/ or from amazon.co.uk. __________________________________________________________ No Buts: Indonesia An article by Phil Tobin
The seeds of this dive trip started in the summer of 2005, when we met Shaun and Beth Tierney of SeaFocus. We were passengers on a live aboard in Belize and they were working on their latest book Diving The World. The four of us clicked and in the late fall of "06" we got an email asking us if we would like to join them in Indonesia. The ship was the Archipelago Adventure II that travels the Banda Sea and the Spice Islands. It took us about 20 seconds to say "yes". We all met in Bali and our flights had been arranged to Ambon. Four hours later, the group boarded large aluminum tenders in Ambon harbor for the five minutes shuttle over to the Archipelago Adventure II. We had a brief introduction and then were escorted to our rooms where our luggage was waiting. Our room was on the upper deck and had a huge picture window with twin beds in the most spacious live aboard room we had ever had. The shower was large enough for two, and the AC was controllable. There was more than enough space to spread out with extra drawers under the bed and with a power strip (110 and 220) on the desk area; it was easy to recharge my camera batteries in the room. The ship is a wooden ship created for divers 2 years ago in the traditional Indonesian sailing ship fashion. The top deck is for sunning (no shade) with padded chaise lounges, with the feeling of an 18th century sailing ship, including the skull and crossbones flag. One deck down is the dinning room and meeting area, 4 of the 10 cabins and the pilot house. The next deck down are the other 6 cabins, dive decks (10 spots on each side of the ship) and the TV room with camera / photo outlets and drying tables. The bottom deck is for the kitchen and crew. A dumbwaiter is used to get the food to you fast and hot. Because of the design of the ship, in rough seas it does rock and creak with wooden noises. If you are prone to sea sickness, get medication or try another ship. The Indonesians are world renown for their service with a smile and this ship was no exception. Any need or want was dealt with a genuine smile. Example: Just as I was to make a dive, the left lens of my glasses came out of the frame screw and all. By the time I returned to the ship to deal with this problem, I was handed my repaired glasses along with the original screw that was found on the dive deck. Anything needed was taken care of. The food was very good and plentiful. 4 meals per day. The breakfasts were a little weak, with eggs every day. We had a great assortment of drinks that you monitored yourself on the honour system. Australian wine or beer were available with dinner. The rooms were cleaned and fresh towels each day, along with a warm diving towel as you came out of the water. The corals on the walls were beyond description. Colors and size like nothing we have ever seen. The underwater topography was breath-taking. It was obvious that the volcanos had been active with huge boulders and black sands in certain areas near Ambon. Although muck diving was new to us, we quickly caught on and were spotting Mandarinfish (mating) pipefish, moray eels, robber crabs, seahorses, and even the allusive flambouyant cuddle fish. The night dives were a whole additional story. More critters than could be written on an underwater slate. Lobsters, eels, crabs, shrimps, cocooned parrot fish, sea snakes. you name it and it was there. The fish life both large and small was inconceivable. We saw more fish on the first check out dive than we did a whole week in the Bahamas one year earlier. Butterflyfish, angelfish, jacks, (better know on this ship as Yaks) needlefish, barracudas, tarpons, grunts, snappers, groupers, wrasses. Pipefish, trumpet fish, puffers, burrfish, rays..how about a Rhinopias eschmeyeri (a special hard to find Scorpionfish). If it lives in this part of the ocean, we saw it! We saw sharks, blacktips, whitetips and even an Indonesian version of a Manatee. When asked what the most exciting part of the trip was and what I will always remember, I would have to say that on one dive in the muck of Banda Neira, I was swimming along with our dive guide when he holds out his hand to stop me. He takes his pointer and slowly and carefully digs it a few inches into the sand. All of the sudden out of nowhere, this huge eel snake leaps out of the sand that has him completely covered, flies two feet up into the water, and within five seconds, has buried itself tail first back down into the mucky sand. It was a good thing our wetsuits were washed each dive. The dive operation was good. The guides were more than willing to point out critters that we might have missed: maybe even a bit over enthusiastic. One tender on each side of the ship was loaded with photographic divers and one tender with non-photographers on the other. Most of the dives everyone just did their own thing, following their own dive profiles. The briefings were short and direct. The dive deck was a little crowded when everyone was trying to get geared up, but it was manageable. The currents were ripping on 3 of the 37 dives we did. This was the first time we had ever used dive hooks during dives, although some divers were able to adjust without hooks. We went ashore in two different locations during the twelve night trip. On the largest of the Banda Islands, we went to a nutmeg plantation and we learned all about the development of the Spice Islands. We learned about how at one time the spices were more valuable than gold and how thousands had died over the control of the islands. The second shore excursion was to the city of Ambon one of the poorest places on earth. It has suffered since the fighting occurred between Christian and Muslim in 1999, and most of the downtown port area has never been rebuilt. Twelve nights was just not enough. Each dive we saw something new and exciting. Usually after a dive trip, Patricia and I discuss if we would like to go back to the same place and our usual answer is "Yes,... but there are other places to see first." This time it was an unequivocal yes with no buts. For more on diving in Indonesia see http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/indonesia/ __________________________________________________________ Diving News From Around the World If you would like to read the diving news as it happens, without waiting for this newsletter, then grab the SCUBA News feed from http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scuba.xml It's free and automatically updates you with the latest SCUBA news via your web site, e-mail or any news feed reader. Laser detects decompression sickness Decompression sickness, if not treated quickly, can cause lasting damage and may even be fatal. Instead of waiting for symptoms to appear, a University of Houston professor is developing a laser-based system that can diagnose decompression sickness in a matter of seconds. Your dive memories needed for global shark census A Canadian researcher is asking divers to contribute to a global shark census. "We believe that scuba divers and snorkellers possess valuable information about the critters they see in the ocean - especially about conspicuous species like sharks." Reports about the places where you don't see sharks (either today or 50 years ago) are just as important as places where you do see sharks. The British Sub-Aqua Club is looking for a new photograph for the BSAC membership card and would like to invite members to contribute. If you have an eye-catching, diving-related image that can be used in landscape and you are a member of BSAC, e-mail your photo to sandrac@bsac.com. Enter Underwater Photography and Video Competition Photographers can compete in seven still-image categories and two video categories, to win more than $50,000 in prizes including dive holidays and underwater photo, video and diving equipment. The competition includes a category for images that focus on conservation and the marine environment, and one specifically for entries taken by compact digital cameras. Deadline for submissions is 13 Jan 2008. Fish Vanishing From Southeast Asian Oceans Southeast Asia's oceans are fast running out of fish, putting the livelihoods of up to 100 million people at risk and increasing the need for governments to support the maintenance of fish stocks, an Australian expert said. Protection Rescinded for Threatened Sea Turtles The New England Fishery Management Council have voted to rescind protections for Loggerhead and other sea turtles, many of which are caught in scallop dredges in New England and mid-Atlantic waters. No sunglasses required for fish supper Just as fishermen wear Polaroid sunglasses to help improve contrast, fish have evolved to do the very same thing without the need of sunglasses. It's believed their polarisation vision improves visual contrast and can help an animal catch its prey more easily. Giant claw points to monster sea scorpion The fossilised remains of a giant claw that once belonged to a sea scorpion roughly 2.5 metres long have been found in Germany. Researchers say the monstrous creature is the largest arthropod ever known. Proposed global warming solution needs more scientific research A new method to combat global warming by dumping iron into the sea needs to be treated with caution, governments and scientists warn. __________________________________________________________ * Copyright SCUBA Travel - 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 web site, providing the above copyright notice is included and a link back to our web site is in place. Previous editions of SCUBA News 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. CONTACTING THE EDITOR Please send your letters or press releases to: The Editor SCUBA News The Cliff Upper Mayfield DE6 2HR UK ADVERTISING Should you wish to advertise in SCUBA News, please fill in the form at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/newsad.html PUBLISHER SCUBA Travel Ltd, 5 Loxford Court, Hulme, Manchester, M15 6AF, UK 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. 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