We will take them in chronological order. Diving Talks, held in late October, has quietly become one of my top favourites. This year’s event was the fourth in a row, and since I have reported extensively on the previous editions here in the magazine, which you can easily go back in the archive and fish out this time, I will limit myself to an update and not repeat all the premises and characteristics of this unique event.
In the waters of the Strait of Messina and the Grecanica Area in Calabria, Italy, there are many shipwrecks and submerged artefacts dating from ancient to modern times, with more still to be found. Andrea Murdock Alpini takes us on a journey of discovery to several wreck sites in the area and their history, as well as a beautiful underwater cave.
Climate change, ocean warming, impacts on marine biodiversity and the importance of marine protected areas (MPAs) prompted Greenpeace Italy to embark on an expedition to Liguria in late June 2024. Valentina Di Miccoli, a marine biologist on the expedition, tells the story.
Porto Santo Island, the northernmost island of the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean, is known as a golden oasis with turquoise waters. There is a variety of diving to be enjoyed, from wrecks to rocky reefs with diverse marine life, as well as great food and a relaxed atmosphere. Brandi Mueller shares her adventure there.
Along the coast of Portugal, just south of Lisbon, is the Arrábida National Park, founded in 1976. It protects an area on the southern part of the Setúbal Peninsula that covers 175.41 sq km (68.11 sq mi) of land and sea. Brandi Mueller shares her adventure in Sesimbra, which borders the marine preserve that hosts a plethora of marine species.
“An agreement is being finalized with France, Spain and Cyprus for a large protected area in the extra-territorial waters of the Mediterranean, which is a great contribution to the 30×30 goal,” said Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, the Italian environment and energy security minister at the Valore Natura conference in January 2023.
For over a year, I had been looking forward to a very special expedition that was planned for May 2014. But as you know, life does not always go the way you plan. The expedition was postponed, and once again, I had to find an alternative, at relatively short notice.
In the far corner of Europe, in the Levant and almost wedged in-between Asia Minor, the Middle East and Northern Africa and at the crossroads of the same, Cyprus offers a nourishing mix of varied diving, culture and cuisine. Lelle Malmström and Peter Symes went to check it out.
As my plane touched down in Athens on a warm and sunny October afternoon, it did not seem that long ago since the country experienced deep economic woes, during which a prolonged spat between the Greek Prime Minister Tsipras and then Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the EU bailout dominated the news for weeks on end, painting at times a bleak picture of a nation on the very brink of collapse and si
The battleship España has a very important place in the history of the Basque Country of northern Spain and is now a protected monument at the bottom of the sea.
