Archive for January, 2008
Posted by DeeperBlue.net - News on
January 30, 2008
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...
Posted by SCUBA News... on
January 29, 2008
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.
Posted by SCUBA News... on
January 29, 2008
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.
Posted by SCUBA News... on
January 29, 2008
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.
Posted by SCUBA News... on
January 29, 2008
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.
Posted by SCUBA News... on
January 29, 2008
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.
Posted by SCUBA News... on
January 29, 2008
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.
Posted by SCUBA News... on
January 29, 2008
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.
Posted by DeeperBlue.net - News on
January 29, 2008
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...
Posted by DeeperBlue.net - News on
January 29, 2008
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...