Archive for January, 2008

Thailand’s reefs to get protection from starfish and tourists

Programs will be established in Thailand’s southern
and eastern provinces this year to promote public awareness of the need
to protect the region’s amazing coral reef ecosystems. Damage from
tourism is a significant challenge being faced by reefs in th…

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SCUBA News #91 is now Online

Latest issue of SCUBA News includes competition to win a dive guide to the Red Sea wrecks, an article on diving the Banda Sea and Spice Islands of Indonesia and all the diving news from around the world.

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Remote controlled manta ray

A remote-controlled ‘fish’, whose form is modelled on the movement of the manta ray, has been developed by a German pneumatic drive specialist. The ‘Aqua ray’ provides a manoeuvrable, remote sensing platform with potential applications in the inspection of undersea pipelines and cables.

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Red Sea mega-dam would be irresponsible

A plan to build a gigantic dam across the mouth of the Red Sea that could generate huge amounts of clean, renewable energy has been condemned by experts who say it would wreak untold ecological ruin.

The scheme would literally part the Red Sea with a massive wall more than 150 metres high, one kilometre thick and 100 km long, stretching between Yemen in the north and either Eritrea or Djibouti in the south.

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Whale’s diet revealed in its doo-doo

Want to find out what whales eat? There’s no need to cut them open, just wait until they relieve themselves.

One of the reasons given by the Japanese government for its “scientific” whaling programme is to learn more about the animals’ diet. Now Stacy DeRuiter at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and her team have developed a way of investigating diet by identifying mitochondrial DNA from the remains of the prey in a whale’s faeces.

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Overfishing is creating a jellyfish plague

Global warming is starting to sting – literally. Last week millions of baby mauve stinger jellyfish, in a swarm 26 square kilometres in area and 10 metres deep, drifted into a salmon farm in the Irish Sea, killing all 100,000 fish.

More swarms have been spotted along British coastlines as far north as Shetland. The mauve stinger, a Mediterranean species, has been increasingly turning up in UK waters in recent years, but this autumn’s numbers are unprecedented. What’s more, this isn’t supposed to be the season for babies.

It is now. Warmer seawater is boosting mauve stinger numbers in the Med by increasing winter survival.

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Win a copy of Red Sea Wrecks of Northern Egypt

SCUBA Travel are giving away three copies of the Red Sea Wrecks of Northern Egypt – a combined dive guide and log book. The guide covers 16 wreck sites, including the Thistlegorm and Rosalie Moller.

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Diving Ecotourism benefits nature and reduces poverty

Ecotourism, sometimes criticised as the voyeuristic indulgence of rich first-worlders, really does benefit the environment and the people who live in protected areas. A review of four marine conservation initiatives shows that they have helped reduce poverty and created tourism-based jobs. The report, Nature’s Investment Bank, is based on interviews with more than 1000 people in four recently protected marine zones in Fiji, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. In every case, the conservation schemes had boosted fish catches and helped create new jobs.

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Endangered Turtle Makes Epic 647-Day Journey

National Geographic News reports of an intrepid endangered species of leatherback turtle having completed an incredible journey of the the longest recorded migration of any sea vertebrate: 12,774 miles (20,558 kilometers) across the Pacific Ocean. The jo…

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British Underwater Image Festival 2008 entries deadline

January 31, 2008 is the deadline for entries to be received for the 2008 British Underwater Image Festival. The festival has Open, Young Photographer (under-30), Digital Compact, and Portfolio categories for still photography, and Documentary-style and…

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The Navy vs. Whales

It seems like whales can’t get a fair break these days. Not only do they have to deal with the constant attention of Japanese whaling fleets (all in the name…

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Choosing an Underwater Strobe for Point & Shoot Cameras

Jack, I have a Fuji E900 and Ikelite housing. What strobe would you suggest for this set-up and what price range am I looking at? I would appreciate your help. Thanks, Laurel The E900 is a great little camera, I shot mine for 1.5 years with good results. I get asked this same question by many underwater photographers looking for an external strobe to use with various cameras. The below information is derived from my experience and pertains to most point & shoot cameras and housings. An external strobe is a way for photographers to add more light to bring out colors and detail that would otherwise be lost and creatively light their subjects, to emphasize, or de-emphasize subject matter. Also by angling the light away from the subject directly, you can you can reduce backscatter; particles in the water that reflect light directly into the camera lens. When buying a strobe, you pretty much get what you pay for in terms of features, power, coverage and speed. It’s important to consider what subject matter and shooting conditions you will be diving in. Wide angle photography requires much more powerful strobes, really 2 strobes, for success. You have to light a wide swath of reef or larger subjects. For macro and fish portraits, you can get by with much less. In turbid conditions the same applies. I’m making some generalizations; it is quite possible to do close-focus wide angle photography and use only one strobe. It’s good to also consider your long-range photography goals as well, do you eventually want to upgrade to a DSLR for instance. There’s lots of manufactures and options for strobes. Remember that you will also need a tray, handles, arms and sync cord to use it. Here’s a few that I’m familiar with. I’ve used a variety of Inon strobes, they are very good, physically small, but sort of expensive. They also tend to be a bit negatively weighted in the water. The Inon z240 & 2000 has S-TTL and an external auto mode (works ok for close-up stuff), as well as 13 steps of manual control. The S-TTL mode will work with most any camera, measuring the light output automatically, but as it makes the camera do a full dump of light (instead of what’s necessary for exposure), it can be slow to use, around 11 secs between shots on the E900! I’ve used an Ikelite DS-50 with an external manual controller as well (the auto TTL controller is not compatible with the E900). Again, its very slow to work with that camera, due to making it do a full dump. It was better with the Fuji F810. I had problems with the manual controller flooding and it’s another piece of gear to mount and swim with, although a fairly powerful little strobe. I think overall the setup is bulky and not as full featured, when compared to other strobes on the market at a similar price point. I now sell the Fantasea NanoFlash ($99), the best-selling Sea & Sea YS-27 ($350) and the Sea & Sea YS-110a ($634). If you want a huge reef-lighter the Sea & Sea YS-250Pro is also available at $1069. New to the line up – and a great starter strobe – is the Ultramax UltraPower UDXL strobe that comes with a sync cord for only $148. It is a significant step up from the Na…

DUI make diving a dream

 Diving Unlimited International, Incorporated (DUI) was founded in 1963. It is a diving equipment manufacturing company specialising in diver thermal protection. DUI is known as one of the world’s leaders in drysuits, and they have announce…

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Amazing New Wreck in Key West

Good news for wreck diving fans – a new wreck will soon be sunk off the coasts of Key West, Florida. The wreck of a US Air Force missile tracking…

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