A unanimous cry must be raised: “No to the globalisation of fish species in their natural environment!” And, to paraphrase a common Italian saying, “Fish and oxen, stay in your own country.” 

— “Moro num país tropical, abençoado por Deus e bonito por natureza …” (“I am born in a tropical country, blessed by God and beautiful by nature…”) So goes the famous song by the popular Brazilian musician Jorge Ben Jor.

In July 2019, I took a domestic flight from Sao Paulo to Campo Grande, where I hired a car at the airport. On the pleasant 300km drive to Bonito, I passed endless fields of transgenic corn and the green pastures of zebu cattle farms.

In Irkutsk, the nearest city to Lake Baikal, there are four dive centers and about 200 active divers. Having carefully studied the information about them, I learned that Dive Center Sval is one of the oldest in the city. In the first ten days of June, this dive center organizes a dive camp on the shores of Lake Baikal, which has become an annual tradition. The center’s slogan is: “Territory of serious diving.” Their motto intrigued me, so I decided to visit the dive center.

Grübl See

At a depth of 9m, the water is clear and remains so, as divers gently descend. Even from the surface, you can see many curious fish, which show up as soon as you begin your dive. They approach fearlessly and swim among your bubbles, while searching for food that is normally found along the shore. There is a ban on fishing but controlled feeding is allowed.

If ever there was a dive location worth mentioning, with a house reef in a lake far from the ocean, it would be the one found in Austria’s Salzkammergut region—more precisely, in the picturesque town of Traunkirchen, on the west shore of Traunsee (Lake Traun).

The Florida Springs are jewels. Overflowing with life, the springs offer refuge to a multitude of animals including reptiles, freshwater fish, migrating and resident populations of birds, and local Floridians. Filled with bright turquoise and gin-clear water, the basins of most springs are surrounded by thick vegetation and exceptionally tall trees, offering visitors a break from the concrete jungles located only a few hours away in cities like Orlando and Miami.

On many occasions I have joined friends and dive groups to check out some of the more popular Interior destinations, but I was amazed to find many more sites were also available. Most of the locations are listed on dozens of different websites, including a few informative You Tube videos. Some I knew nothing about. I have listed below several to wet your travel-hungry curiosity as well as included some advice from some active divers residing in the areas of mention.

For some reason, many people attach an unwarranted stigma to Africa. Whenever there is trouble somewhere, be it political strife or Ebola, many assume the entire continent is hazardous by geographic association. However, as African nations go, Malawi remains refreshingly innocuous. Celebrity adoptions aside, it does not make the news for the wrong reasons. Make no mistake, the country’s small size belies its multitude of attractions. Known as the warm heart of Africa for its friendly people, I quickly realized it could also be called the land of surprises.

 

The sudden fall of the Berlin Wall changed the idea of an expedition to Lake Baikal from just wishful thinking to a project that was actually realisable. It would take time, but now here I am at last, and it is with a feeling of the surreal that I now sink down through the cold, clear water.

Deep diving in Lake Baikal

Reaching 1,642 meters at its deepest point, Lake Baikal, located in southern Siberia in Russia, is the deepest and largest freshwater lake by volume in the world. A typical dive site on Baikal is a shallow shelf, 10-200m long, turning into a vertical wall. There are only six sheer walls reaching more than 100-120m into the deep.