SCUBA News 306
(ISSN 1476-8011)
January 2026

A little late but as this is our first issue of 2026: A Happy New Year. To start the year, some fabulous winning shots in the Ocean Art photo contest.

What's New at SCUBA Travel?

Cathedrals to Coral Gardens: Diving Mauritius From entrancing scenic dives to the "Shark Pit". Something for everyone. DIVE MAURITIUS Adriatic Underworld With 66 inhabited islands, plus 1000 mile mainland coastline, there's an abundance diving in Croatia READ MORE

Liveaboard Diving Offers: Dive for Less

Get up to 40% off at some of the best diving spots in the world. Plus, automatically get 5% off any subsequent trip.

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3. EcoPro Mariana, Maldives. SAVE 40% in 2026. Price from $1595 per trip per person. Accommodates just 16 divers for less busy dives.

   
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4. Nautilus Explorer, Socorro or Sea of Cortez. SAVE 31%. In Socorro see giant mantas, dolphins and 12 species of shark, including schooling silvertips (!) and schooling hammerheads.

   
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5. Narayana, Philippines, SAVE 20%. Dive expeditions to Tubbataha Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site open only from March to June.

   

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6. Solitude Gaia, Palau, SAVE 15% Caters to both divers and non-divers on 7 to 11-night itineraries. From the Ulong Channel to the exhilarating currents of the Blue Corner.

   

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7. Sea Bird, Seychelles. The boat welcomes 18 divers in 9 comfortable cabins. Diving is year-round but the best conditions for both the Inner and Outer Islands are during the calm periods:e April through May and October through November. SAVE 10%



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8. Oceana, Bismark Sea. Oceania is the newest boat operating in Papua New Guinea for uncrowded dive sites and dramatic reefscapes. SAVE 40%



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See more liveaboard deals to some of the best diving in the world - Micronesia, Philippines, Galapagos, Indonesia, Cocos Islands...

Winners announced for Ocean Art underwater photography contest: Blind man's photo takes 4th prize

Ocean Art, the world's leading underwater photography competition, yesterday awarded Best in Show to Steven Kovacs for his image "Tired Fish".

Kovacs spent nearly two weeks searching for a rarely documented larval goosefish, capturing a fleeting moment when the elusive subject opened its mouth toward the camera - offering a rare glimpse into deep-sea life few people ever see.

Blind Man wins Photo Prize

Bruce Hall's photo of of giant kelp, Macrocycstis pyrifera, only won 4th place but it was my favourite in the macro category. And even more astounding is that Hall has been been legally blind since birth. He can see shapes and colour and contrast, but no hard lines unless within 4 or 5 inches of the subject. Hall took this photo in the 1990s using a Nikonos V: film not digital.

Open to amateurs and professionals

The contest is not only open to professional underwater photographers, there are three categories for the rest of us with compact cameras: Compact Wide Angle, Compact Macro and Compact Behaviour.

Andrea Michelutti won first place in the Compact Macro category with his capture of tiny sea snail (Cystiscus minutissimus) on a ribbon of nudibranch eggs. It measures barely 2 millimeters, almost invisible to the naked eye. He used a Sony RX100 M7 with a Marelux housing.

Taken around the world

Most of the winning photos were taken in the southern hemisphere, notably Indonesia with 17 winners. This shot though, awarded second place in the Compact Wide Angle category, was taken in Marsa Alam in Egypt by Enrico Somogyi. He used a Sony RX100vi and a Raynox Circular Fisheye Lens to shoot this colourful Klunziger's wrasse.

The area with the most prize winning entries, with no less than seven awards, was Anilao in the Philippines.

In this photo, by Giancarlo Mazarese, a female Argonaut and her near-perfect reflection face each other on the water's surface. She is not alone: a crab larva (megalopa) shares her leafy raft. Observed during a shallow blackwater dive just at the surface of the water in Anilao.

All the winning photos

You can see all the winning photos at the competition organisers the Underwater Photography Guide, or on our news site.

Diving news from around the World

Top dive spots for 2026: where smart divers are heading this year This year the focus is on destinations that combine exceptional marine life, improving reef-health and meaningful conservation efforts. The top dive spots for 2026 reflect a balance between adventure, sustainability and unforgettable diving.

Drone sampling of whale breath reveals first evidence of potentially deadly virus in Arctic Drones have been used to successfully collect samples from the exhaled breath from wild humpback, sperm and fin whales in northern Norway, hailing a new era of non-invasive health monitoring for these marine giants.

Archaeologist divers unearth a massive medieval cargo ship: largest vessel of its kind ever found Spotted off the coast of Denmark, the 600-year-old discovery is exceptionally well-preserved

Silky shark tagging study reveals gaps in marine protected areas Galapagos Marine Reserve a haven for silky sharks, but overfishing still looms large

Young shark species more vulnerable to extinction Whether a species just freshly emerged, or it has been around for millions of years does not dictate its vulnerability.

Orcas team up with dolphins to hunt salmon Orcas and dolphins have been spotted for the first time working as a team to hunt salmon off the coast of British Columbia, according to a new study which suggests a cooperative relationship between the two predators.

Ocean set alarming new temperature record in 2025 Every calendar year since 2019, ocean temperatures have reached new record highs. 2025 was no exception

Tapping Into Whale Talk Say you want to listen in on a group of super-intelligent aliens whose language you don't understand, and whose spaceship only flies by Earth once an hour. It's not unlike what Harvard scientists and others are doing, except their target species, sperm whales, live here on Earth.

What really happens under a Wind Turbine? A look at new Marine Habitats Offshore windfarms are vital for producing clean energy, but also create new underwater habitats. Diving researchers found 86 species of reef fishes within 50 metres of the turbines, where previously there were none

Why does one Soft Coral Pulsate? If you've dived in the Red Sea or Indo-Pacific you will have seen pulsating soft coral repetitively "grabbing" at the water. They are so common that we take them for granted. But only one family of coral does this - the Xeniidae. But this is a very costly strategy, so why do they do it?

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SCUBA News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. This means we are happy for you to reuse our material for both commercial and non-commercial use as long as you: credit the name of the author, link back to the SCUBA Travel website and say if you have made any changes. Most photos though, are copyright the photographer. Please get in touch for details.

Photo credits: Tim Nicholson, Jill Studholme, CC BY 4.0, John A. Anderson, Carol Buchanan/DepositPhotos, Robinson/Bigstock, divebooker.com

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CONTACTING THE EDITOR
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Jill Studholme
SCUBA News
The Cliff

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)

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