In the province of Zeeland, in the southwest of the Netherlands, lies the National Park Oosterschelde. The Oosterschelde (Eastern Scheldt) is a popular diving area, but it has a turbulent history. In 1953, a large part of Zeeland was flooded during the North Sea flood disaster. Many people lost their homes, and some villages almost completely disappeared. 

The mission to Liguria included several dives in various areas along the coast. We did not have many days, so we needed to stay focused, as there were many things to do, people to meet and interviews to conduct. In Savona, I met up with Lorenzo Moscia, the photographer for the mission. He had been there for a few days documenting the biodiversity of Bergeggi Island, an MPA established in 2007.

The dive equipment was packed, and I would soon head to Gothenburg-Landvetter Airport to catch my flight to Helsinki in Finland. It was time for another wonderful weekend of diving in the spirit of history, under the leadership of Project Baltacar.

Arriving in Helsinki, I picked up my fully packed dive bag. It weighed 22.5kg, and the maximum weight allowed by Finnair was 23kg. At the car rental company, I met my dive friends from Stockholm and England. The plan for the afternoon was to drive from Helsinki to Hanko, which takes about two hours.

Lelle and I surely got our fair share of all the above in an action-filled week in the sunny island country of Cyprus, which saw us dive and explore different ends of the South Coast. Aside from some good dives, we also had some lovely land excursions, including a day spent up in the hilly, green wine country, wandering ancient streets while sampling the local cuisine in style.

“It takes years to get to know the German shipwrecks properly, to become familiar with these amazing shipwrecks, and to understand the sense of history that still pervades Scapa Flow both beneath and above the waves.”

Rod Macdonald, author of Dive Scapa Flow (Whittles Publishing)

For over 15 years, I have been a dive buddy to an underwater photographer. I have seen how the technology has developed, how the images have become more creative, and how more divers are getting underwater cameras. Nowadays, it is almost unusual if there are not several cameras on a dive boat or at a dive site, alongside all the other dive equipment.

Competing in underwater photography is fantastic and fun but it can also be extremely frustrating. It is an adjudicated sport, and there are probably as many opinions about the photo entries as there are people judging them.

Historically, in southern Belgium, especially in the 19th century, the extraction of various types of rock from the subsurface was an important industry. In particular, marble and slate were brought to the surface by thousands of workers from numerous mines. It was a flourishing industry, which provided work for entire villages. The slate was used for various purposes but mainly for roofing. It was hard labour bringing the stones to the surface, sometimes from over 100m deep, and there were often accidents.