Christian Skauge

Gran Canaria: Angelsharks & Huge Schools of Fish

May 21, 2019 - 16:29
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on page 43

Gran Canaria is one of the most visited destinations in Europe, but far too many leave their dive gear at home! You should definitely bring it, because the island offers great diving with huge schools of fish, angelsharks, stingrays and great volcanic seascapes.

Most divers, and especially underwater photographers, seem to think it is necessary to fly halfway around the globe to get a good dive or some great underwater images. Not so! Great diving is much closer to home, at least if you are based in Europe, or plan a stop-over in Madrid.

Shipworm: The Scourge of Wooden Wrecks is Really a Mussel

April 14, 2019 - 16:02
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Have you ever wondered why some bodies of water, such as the Baltic, have so many wooden wrecks in great condition while other areas have almost no wooden wrecks at all? It has something to do with salinity; however, it is not the salt in seawater that consumes the wrecks but a mussel, which somewhat confusingly is called a worm—and it only lives in saltwater.

In fact, shipworms are not worms at all, but rather a group of unusual saltwater clams with long, soft, naked bodies.

Diving Lofoten in Norway

February 12, 2017 - 19:15
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on page 30

Lofoten in northern Norway is renowned for spectacular scenery and stunning natural beauty—and it doesn’t stop at the surface! Clear water, huge kelp forests with lots of marine life, great wreck diving and anemone-covered walls which rival any tropical coral reef… What more could you ask for?

Lofoten is one of those annoying places where you can get in the water pretty much anywhere and still have a good dive. This makes it more important than ever to have good, local support, because good isn’t good enough up here—you want to get to the really amazing and spectacular dive spots!

The Nudibranch Safari 
at Gulen Dive Resort, Norway, March 2015

March 03, 2015 - 12:30
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The event is led by award-winning underwater photographer Christian Skauge and some of the top nudibranch experts in the world:

• Bernard Picton, author of “A Field Guide to the Nudibranchs of the British Isles”

• Erling Svensen, photographer of the book “Marine fish & invertebrates of Northern Europe”

• Dr. Jussi Evertsen, head of a nudibranch distribution/diversity project at the Univ. in Trondheim.

Participants can fly in to Bergen from over 50 European cities and transfer to Gulen Dive Resort by bus or speed ferry.

Frankenwald - A World-Class Wreck Dive

January 02, 2014 - 15:15
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on page 8

On 6 January 1940, the German freighter Frankenwald was caught in a treacherous current on the Norwegian west coast. With a deafening noise, German steel met Norwegian rock, and ship and cargo was lost. All that's left now is a world-class wreck dive.

Perhaps the captain takes a moment to think about his homeland, which just a few months earlier was plunged into war. He is safe here inside the Norwegian fjords; but, in international waters just off the coast, the Royal Navy is looming.

Gulen, Norway

March 30, 2013 - 12:27
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on page 49

Cold water diving will never be the same after a visit to Gulen situated north of Bergen on the Norwegian west coast. Here, history meets present day, the deep ocean meets kelp forest and the gargantuan meets the miniscule.

The area at the mouth of the Sognefjord is as rich in marine splendour as it is beautiful above the surface. The world’s longest fjord, it cuts some 220 kilometres into the Norwegian west coast and an area of great strategic importance during World War II.

Nudibranch Safari

October 13, 2011 - 23:36
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on page 96

The 2012 Nudibranch Safari at Gulen Dive Resort was a phenomenal success. A staggering 49 species of nudibranchs and seven other ophistobranchs were identified during the weekend—on one divespot.

Expectations ran high as 16 participants from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Faroe Islands gathered at Gulen Dive Resort north of Bergen in Norway to look for nudibranchs the last weekend in March.

Beforehand, the organizers doubted whether it would be possible to find more species than last year, when participants identified what was at the time thought to be an almost unbeatable number of species: 36 nudibranchs and 4 other ophistobranchs.

Periphylla —Aliens of the Deep

October 13, 2011 - 23:36
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on page 47

The jet-black rubber RIB was running flat out in the February night. We were sweeping past the Mongstad oil refinery at the Norwegian west-coast, just south of Gulen Dive Resort, and the clock was approaching midnight. Apart from the lights in the distance, the visibility was zero, and we were navigating solely on GPS, chart plotter and radar.

The crown jellies, Coronatae, belong to the Scyphozoans, a class of jellyfish counting some 200 species, many of them stunningly beautiful.