Latest

This blue whale was encountered near the Channel Islands of California.
This blue whale was encountered near the Channel Islands of California.

Sustainable shipping program protects endangered whales

Ship strikes are a major threat to whales globally and to the recovery of endangered blue, fin, and humpback whales in California waters. From 2007-2022, observed and documented deaths totalled 52 endangered whales, likely representing a small fraction of the annual total number of ship strikes.

Program

The voluntary incentive program ran from May 1, 2022 through December 15, 2022, with twenty-three shipping companies participating. The 10-knot target allowed ships to travel at an efficient operating load using less fuel and producing less pollution.

Taiwan's Green Island

Taiwan's Green Island lives up to its name.
Taiwan's Green Island lives up to its name.

Green Island is considered Taiwan’s diving heartland by local divers, and hence, it is an essential rite of passage to do a dive trip there. Now, divers from abroad are discovering the joys of its beautiful underwater realm. Simon Pridmore gives us an inside look.

Re-Introducing the Humboldt Explorer

Diving on Humboldt Explorer is already a five-star experience, but now the liveaboard has even better accommodations. It also features a more contemporary salon and sun deck, upgraded dive deck, and fresh plumbing.

Humboldt Explorer received the Fleet’s largest overhaul to date. Short of building a new boat, the liveaboard is brand new.  

Titanic shipwreck recreated in detailed 3D visualisation

An ambitious digital imaging project has produced what researchers describe as a “digital twin” of the R.M.S. Titanic, showing the wreckage of the doomed ocean liner as if the water has been drained away.

The model was created with data using deep-sea mapping gathered by two submersibles—named Romeo and Juliet—during a six-week expedition to the North Atlantic wreck site in the summer of 2022, to map “every millimetre” of the wreckage as well as the entire three-mile debris field.

DAN Safety Services Has Your Back

Check out our new video to learn how DAN Safety Services can help your dive business operate as safely as possible.

DAN Safety Services works to help dive professionals mitigate risks, prevent accidents, and manage dive-related injuries through a variety of programs and channels, including publications, e-learning courses, free phone consultations, online tools, safety products, and first aid training.

Phil Nyutten has died

Dr Nuytten is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the modern commercial diving industry and a significant force in the creation of new technology.

He has created equipment and diving techniques for deep-water diving and technical diving for both the commercial, scientific, and military industries.

The coastal freighter MV Blythe Star capsized off the coast of south-west Tasmania in October 1973.
The coastal freighter MV Blythe Star capsized off the coast of south-west Tasmania in October 1973.

Blythe Star shipwreck found off Tasmanian coast, ending 50-year mystery

The 44-metre motor vessel (MV) Blythe Star was a coastal freighter that disappeared off Tasmania nearly 50 years ago. On the 13 October 1973 while making a routine trip from Hobart to King Island, the ship began developing a list to the starboard before taking on water and capsizing.

Professor achieves an underwater first – ‘camping’

Underwater habitat
Diver Brandon Carr interfaces with an underwater robot outside of Ocean Space Habitat. Photo courtesy Jona Silvertein.

A May 2023 diving science and technology exercise successfully demonstrated the concept of an ‘underwater camping trip’.

The project took place within the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 facility, which is best known for its enclosed environments for earth science research, as well as studying human performance within such environments. The Biosphere 2 recently celebrated the recent accomplishment of enabling terrestrial Mars simulations at the Biosphere.

The new species of catshark has shiny white irises, which is unusual of a deep-sea species
The new species of catshark has shiny white irises, which is unusual of a deep-sea species

New shark species discovered off Australia

Most sharks give birth to live young, but a few species, known as oviparous sharks, lay eggs. The new species could be identified because researchers noticed something interesting about its egg cases, pouches that attach to a surface in the ocean and hold onto a fertilized shark eggs as it develops.

MIDE
Malaysia International Dive Expo

17th Malaysia International Dive Expo to take place 26-28 May in Kuala Lumpur

The expo, now in its 17th consecutive year, is organized by AsiaEvents Exsic Sdn Bhd. In its new venue at MITEC, the show will occupy Hall 6 on Level 2. According to the organizers of MIDE, the event will be bigger than previous years, and the space will comfortably feature the latest products and services of local and international exhibitors from 14 countries.