|
Diving Partners
headlines on your own web pages for free! Click here for details.
|
SCUBA News 98~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to June's SCUBA News. 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? 
More information on the dive sites and dive operators of Italy. :ADVERT__________________________________________________ Dive Belize in Exotic Luxury at St. George's Caye Resort. Seven miles from Belize City. Visit us at www.gooddiving.com or call 1-800-813-8498. Pamper yourself at our all inclusive island paradise! Valet Diving, snorkelling and gourmet food await your arrival. Find which Thai dive operators our readers have recommended this month, and which to avoid. __________________________________________________________ Red Sea Competition Results Congratulations to Nick Harrison and Cathy Wichers. They both entered our April competition and won a copy of the Guide and Logbook of Sharm El-Sheikh (Red Sea). __________________________________________________________ Letters From the Diving Board... Diving in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines I'm starting a trip from Kuala Lumpa (where I am now) to Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines with a main focus on diving (of course). I was wondering if anyone would have recommendation of places to go (and not to go), dive operators to use (or not to use) according to own experience or read somewhere. I'm trying to work out the best way to organise my trip, so have you any advice on recommended itineraries? Greg If you can advise Greg post on the Diving Board at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1456 Looking for Woody, Angie and Bizmarck Does anyone know a old buddy of mine called Woody Pridgeon? His wife's name is Angie. Woodie used to do a lot underwater photography in the Red sea when we all worked in Jeddah. I would like to get in touch with them and shoot the breeze as its been a few years. If anyone can get back to me with any leads it would be great. If anyone is not sure that they want to give out details - I can give you my details to pass on. Silverbullit Can you help? Visit http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1457 Where is the best place to dive during july august? I am ideally looking for a liveaboard. I have already dived in sharm (my first and only dive trip) and would preferebly like to try somewhere else. Bigbaddom Go to http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1452 with your suggestions. __________________________________________________________ Ocean Facts 
Around 97% of the water on Earth is contained within the three oceans - Atlantic, Pacific and Indian. These oceans are home to countless millions of organisms, amounting to over 90 percent of the world's living biomass. The oceans maintain Earth's habitable temperature by trapping heat from the Sun and distributing it around the globe via their network of currents - a circulation that takes centuries to complete. Fresh water evaporates from the surface of the oceans and falls on the land as rain. Microsocopic organisms, called phytoplankton, drift in the surface waters adding oxygen to our atmosphere in the same way as plants on land. Without the oceans, life on Earth would simply cease to exist. Water has a great capacity to store heat. In order to heat up water just a little, a substantial quantity of heat is required and likewise, as water cools, a lot of heat is lots. The oceans store heat from the sun's radiation during the daytime. They lose heat at night and during the winter. This process of heating and cooling is significantly slower for water than for land. As a result, oceans have an impact on neighbouring land, buffering the more extreme temperatuers that would otherwise occur daily and seasonally. That is why coasts experience a milder climate than inland areas. The slow heating and cooling also explains why in the Northern hemisphere on a hot May day the water is colder than on a cool September day. Further Reading: __________________________________________________________ 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. Barrier Reef 'no-take' zones see leap in fish numbers A controversial decision to halt commercial and recreational fishing across vast areas of the Great Barrier Reef has proven remarkably effective for reviving coral trout numbers. "Everyone is a little surprised," admits Garry Russ, a marine biologist at James Cook University in Townsville. "We've seen a consistent pattern of recovery of coral trout from just north of Cairns to as far south as Heron Island," he says. "It's an extraordinarily large area." Mediterranean Sharks Decline by 97% A new scientific study has concluded that sharks in the Mediterranean Sea have declined by more than 97 percent in abundance and "catch weight" over the last 200 years. The findings of the study published in the journal Conservation Biology, suggest several Mediterranean shark species are at risk of extinction, especially if current levels of fishing pressure continue. Sceintists are concerned that the declines in sharks may have implications for the broader Mediterranean marine ecosystem. Scientists Announce Top 10 New Species Scientists at the International Institute for Species Exploration have put together a list of the Top 10 New Species described in 2007. Number one on the list is a sleeper ray called Electrolux addisoni. It was thus named because the discovery of this brightly patterned electric ray "sheds light (Latin, lux) on the rich and poorly known fish diversity of the Western Indian Ocean. And the vigorous sucking action displayed on the videotape of the feeding ray may rival a well-known electrical device used to suck the detritus from carpets and furniture in modern homes". Archaeological Oceanography is the definitive book on the newly emerging field of deep-sea archaeology. Marine archaeologists have been finding and excavating underwater shipwrecks since at least the early 1950s, but until recently their explorations have been restricted to depths considered shallow by oceanographic standards. This new book describes the latest advances that enable researchers to probe the secrets of the deep ocean, and the vital contributions these advances offer to archaeology and fields like maritime history and anthropology. Robot fish may track whales or pollution In the world of underwater robots, new Robofish are a team of pioneers. While most ocean robots require periodic communication with scientist or satellite intermediaries to share information, these can work cooperatively communicating only with each other. In the future, ocean-going robots could cooperatively track moving targets underwater, such as groups of whales or spreading plumes of pollution, or explore dangerous environments where surfacing might not be possible. Marine life on 'junk food' diet - and we're to blame Overfishing and changes in the climate could be putting marine birds and mammals on a "junk food" diet. But unlike humans, marine animals eating junk food diet are losing weight. As predatory fish such as cod have been removed from the sea in large numbers, fish lower down in the food chain, such as sprat, have increased in numbers. But individually the sprats weigh less, and these leaner fish, biologists say, are effectively junk food. They are poor sources of energy for predatory birds and mammals, and as a result these animals are also losing weight. There have aslo been concerns on the East Coast of the US about the quality of prey for the bluefin tuna. Herring play a large part in the diet of tuna, but the herring too have increased in number whilst decreasing in weight. This has resulted in a corresponding decrease in the weight of the tuna. "La Nina" effect may be behind shark attacks Cooler than normal sea-surface temperatures due to the La Nina phenomenon may be partly responsible for a spate of fatal shark attacks off Mexico's Pacific coast, a U.S. shark expert has said. La Nina, which usually results in cooler than normal water in the Pacific, has moved the boundary between cold and warm water closer to the shore, and along with it, fish and their shark predators. EU bluefin tuna fishing ban for Mediterranean A ban on fishing for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic has been announced by the EU for large industrial vessels after widespread evidence of illegal fishing. Acidic 'champagne sea' nothing to celebrate for corals Lush, grassy, and populated by invasive algae and molluscs with paper-thin shells - that is what the acidic oceans of the future could look like. An exploration of natural "bubble streams" of carbon dioxide in shallow Mediterranean waters off the coast of Italy is the first to document the effects of ocean acidification in a real ocean setting. The notion that the oceans will become more acidic as CO2 concentrations rise is well understood. By the year 2100, ocean acidity is predicted to be 7.8 pH, compared to 8.2 pH in 1900. New Zealand moves to protect rare dolphins New Zealand plans to ban commercial fishing near its coast and set up marine reserves to protect the rare Hector's dolphins. The Royal Navy submarine implicated in dolphin 'suicides' With initial tests showing the 24 dolphins who died after becoming stranded were fit and healthy, with no obvious injuries, dolphin experts are becoming increasingly convinced the creatures fled to shallow water after a disturbance at sea.The Royal Navy has admitted testing sonar equipment on a nearby warship and having an submarine on exercise - but says it is 'extremely unlikely' it was to blame for the strandings. __________________________________________________________ * Copyright SCUBA Travel - http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/ 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 CONTACTING THE EDITOR ADVERTISING PUBLISHER 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
If you have a SCUBA related press release, or would like to write to SCUBA News, please fill in the form below.
|
|
|
