Healthy coral reefs provide food and a home to about 25% of all the world’s marine creatures, sustain an estimated 6 million fishermen, provide coastal protection by reducing the impact of waves and support local tourist economies. But corals worldwide are under threat. Mass bleaching is rapidly threatening the world’s coral reefs, with an estimated 50% already lost and 90% projected by mid-century.
If you are a certified rebreather diver and you have experienced a caustic cocktail, or have dived with someone who has experienced a caustic cocktail, please participate. You can find the link to the survey in the 'Sources and References' box at the end of this article.
Statnett, the Norwegian state-owned power grid operator, made the astounding discovery of the lost Karlsruhe cruiser around 488 meters (1,600 feet) below sea level off the Southern coast of Norway, some 13 nautical miles from the port of Kristiansand. Signs of wreckage were first detected three years ago during inspection work when sonar detected a shipwreck only 15 meters from an undersea power cable between Norway and Denmark.
In September 2014, Egyptian national and technical diver Ahmed Gabr performed a deep dive off Dahab in the Egyptian Red Sea under the auspices and observation of adjudicators from The Guinness Book of Records. After the dive, Gabr was acknowledged for having reached the record depth of 332m, surpassing South African Nuno Gomes who made it to 318m in 2005, also off Dahab.
Outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) are bad news for coral reefs, so it is essential that they are detected and dealt with as soon as possible.
But detecting an outbreak in its early stages is not easy. What’s more, they sometimes hide under coral plates, while the younger ones can be as small as just a few millimetres.
To counter this, the researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) developed a new test to detect the presence of the starfish on coral reefs.
In the future, sea turtles in the US will find it harder to find suitable nesting habitat, due to climate change, rising sea levels and coastal development.
A team led by Florida State University came to this conclusion after their research which modelled the suitability of coastal habitats in the eastern United States by 2050 for sea turtle nesting, after considering predicted sea-level rise and future climates.
Their findings were recently published in the Regional Environmental Change journal.
SeaLife has introduced a new close-up lens for its new Micro 3.0 cameras, including the new ReefMaster RM-4K and its previous generations.
Typically, coral reef environments are low in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous compounds. However, such conditions are not set in stone as sometimes, passing ocean currents can bring in nutrients from elsewhere. In addition, man-made fertilisers and stormwater runoff from adjacent coastlines can also contribute to the nutrient levels.
And, high levels of nutrients are bad news for corals.
The FUJIFILM FinePix XP140 is a rugged digital camera, which is waterproofed to 25m (82ft).
The beginnings of cave diving can be traced to the Wookey Hole Caves in England. And 85 years later, divers like Matt Jevon are still doing their part to discover this cavern’s full potential.
Based on a recent study, researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory have found that the flamboyant cuttlefish doesn't spend the day flashing its vibrant colours for our cameras.
Rather, it spends almost all its time camouflaged, in dull, subdued (safe!) colouration.
The Northeast US dive season usually starts with divers dusting off the cobwebs at Dutch Springs in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This year, the season started in the middle of a pandemic. Dutch Springs did not open in April, as it does most years. If you are a technical diver that is drying out, what is one to do? In our case, we took our drysuits, rebreathers, camera housings and sidemount rigs to our friend Gregory Borodiansky’s pool.
