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Weddell seal and her pup.
Weddell seal and her pup.

Fewer Weddell seals than previously thought

Led by researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the team of citizen scientists used hundreds of high-resolution satellite images of areas of the Antarctica to manually count the seals.

Publishing a paper on their findings in the Science Advances journal, the researchers concluded that there were about 202,000 sub-adult and adult female Weddell seals in Antarctica in November 2011. This number contrasts with previous estimates of female Weddell seals at about 800,000. 

Beware of the Corner Cutters

Beware of corner cutters. Underwater photo by Peter Symes
Know that cheaper prices always involve corner cutting of some sort. Sometimes you can see it and it just involves the level of comfort or service. Sometimes you cannot see it and it may be prejudicial to your safety.

There are thousands of dive centres, resorts and liveaboards all over the world. Some are very good and provide excellent, safe and highly professional service. Others are not so good and are best avoided.

Soft coral, cup coral, sponges and ascidians from Komodo National Park
Soft coral, cup coral, sponges and ascidians from Komodo National Park

Coral reef biodiversity predicted to shuffle, not decline

Rather than causing a collapse of biodiversity, the dual stressors of ocean warming and acidification could instead lead to significant changes in the relative abundance of species, resulting in a shuffling of coral reef community structure, according to a new study by researchers from University of Hawai'i.

Sprawling coral reefs are complex ecosystems that are teeming with life and most of this biodiversity consists of tiny organisms living deep within the three-dimensional reef matrix.

A short-snouted seahorse in the Red Sea.
A short-snouted seahorse in the Red Sea.

Seahorses—slow swimmers, swift hunters

Seahorses appear to be slow passive hunters as they use their tail to cling to coral or seaweed. However, this can be deceiving, as they are swift, efficient hunters. 

A recent study by Tel Aviv University, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, documents the speed at they hunt. 

Three species of seahorses with varying snout lengths were chosen for the study: Jayakar's seahorses, sea ponies and short-snouted seahorses. 

First ever Human Factors in Diving conference recordings are now available

Gareth Lock, The Human Diver

The event featured world-leading speakers speaking on how applying human factors can improve diving safety, incident reporting and team performance.

The first-ever event of its kind, the conference provided a unique opportunity to share the knowledge and skills to make diving safer, more effective, and more enjoyable, by allowing divers and instructors to take more informed risks and reduce uncertainty.

Scuba.Digital postponed to April 2022

In an e-mail to participants of the upcoming event, the team of organisers write that they "have come across businesses that cannot even afford the very low prices that we are charging and that are choosing instead (rightly) to focus on supporting their staff through this difficult time.

"We also believe that this will pass and that most places will be much more open to diving in 2022, and they will need to focus on marketing their products be that equipment, travel or training."

Hudson Plane Wreck: WWII Light Bomber in Sweden's Gullmarsfjord

Historical photo of the Lockheed Hudson Mark III aircraft, before conversion to carrier

There are not many wrecks in the fjord of Gullmarn. What wrecks there are here should, of course, be slightly inaccessible, at a depth of 64m. For a long time, our dive team had talked about going down to the Hudson plane hidden in the fjord. Now, the wait was finally over

Juvenile tiger shark
Juvenile tiger shark

Populations of tiger sharks in Atlantic and Indo-Pacific found to have evolved separately

Researchers have discovered that the tiger sharks in the Atlantic are genetically different from the ones in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, according to a study published in the Journal of Heredity on 10 August 2021.

According to co-author Professor Mahmood Shivji, director of the Save Our Seas' Shark Research Centre, the two populations had not intermingled to reproduce for a long time. “This long-term separation between Atlantic and Indo-Pacific tiger sharks has resulted in them developing into separate populations, each with its own unique genetic diversity.”

Bailout CCR Course standards outlined

Diver wearing a sidemounted bailout rebreather
Diver wearing a sidemounted bailout rebreather

Rebreathers are great pieces of kit that do away with the need to carry an excessive amount of dive cylinders on deeper dives. However, this advantage is offset by the need to also carry additional open circuit cylinders on which a diver can bail out in case of a rebreather malfunction. Using another rebreather could be a better solution and to that end, a bailout rebreather course has been developed.