Taiwan is a group of Pacific islands surrounded by warm tropical seas. It is easy to get to and get around, and it is also a first-world society with outgoing, friendly, laid-back people. Simon Pridmore gives us a glimpse into the beautiful dive sites and unique marine life that can be found here.
Very often, you will come across examples in scuba education where what is taught does not match up with what divers do in real life. Mark Powell provides insights for new divers and tips for dive instructors.
Many people suffer from ear problems during and after diving. Technical rebreather diver and underwater photographer Dr. Michael Rothschild is an ear, nose and throat specialist in New York City. In this series, he walks us through some of the common causes of dive-related ear problems, and how to treat and prevent them.
Bula! Fiji is open, and some of the friendliest people in the South Pacific are eager to welcome you back to their tropical oasis. Matthew Meier has the story.
Up until the ‘60s, the major advances in diving technology were driven by big-budget military programmes. Extending the depth limits to which divers might safely go—and still be capable of performing meaningful work when they got there—had a practical purpose. David Strike has the story, as told by George Wookey.
Kate Jonker is an award-winning underwater photographer and coach, internationally published writer and public speaker, dive boat captain and dive guide based in South Africa. Pushing the boundaries of underwater photography, she creates sublime art photos like paintings, featuring the unique and diverse marine life found not just in the local waters around Cape Town, but also exotic locations around the world, from Southeast Asia to the Red Sea, among others.
We asked our contributors what their favorite underwater photos were of the legs, arms or tentacles of critters underwater. And they came back with a variety of subjects from curious crustaceans and cephalopods to jellyfish, sea stars, feather stars, frogfish and even people underwater.
Kimbe Bay, located in the West New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, is open to visitors again after two years of pandemic restrictions. What awaits are beautiful dive sites, diverse marine life and coral reefs with great fish action. Pierre Constant shares his adventure there.
The US eastern seaboard, along the New York and New Jersey coasts, is littered with ships that sank due to collision. Larry Cohen and Olga Torrey present several of these wreck sites, which wreck divers enjoy diving.
There is still a lot of confusion around nitrox these days. Simon Pridmore talks about what it does and does not do, the benefits of diving with nitrox, and why a nitrox course is a good idea.
We take photographs for different reasons: to identify the sea life we find, for the sheer pleasure of making images, or perhaps as a method of personal expression. It is the latter, personal expression, that leads us to the creation of art. John A. Ares discusses the creative use of compositing in postproduction.
The wolffish is known by many names, including loup de mer, ocean catfish, sea catfish or Atlantic catfish, striped wolffish, seawolf or seacat. All wolffish species are in the order of Cottiformes (which includes sculpins and relatives) and are in the family Anarhichadidae (wolffish). Lawson Wood gives us an insight into this intriguing creature.
In addition to gulping down enormous mouthfuls of krill (tiny shrimplike crustaceans), whale sharks also swallow huge helpings of seaweed.
Gozo, Malta's smaller sister island, has got a new dive site. On 26 Aug the former tanker was scuttled to become the latest addition to the islands' growing collection of artificial reefs.
Male bottleneck dolphins have been observed working together to boost their chances of finding mates.
According to Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations, it is illegal to swim, dive or interact with marine mammals.
British divers have found the USS Jacob Jones, a US shipwreck from the First World War which has been missing since it was sunk in 1917, 40 miles off the coast of the Isles of Scilly.
Kelp forest ecosystems are declining around the world. In response, marine managers are working to restore and counteract these declines.
Rare piece of good news: The northern and central Great Barrier Reef have recorded their highest amount of coral cover since the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) began monitoring 36 years ago.
An expedition, led by Allen Exploration, has recovered a trove of priceless artefacts from a shipwreck over 350 years old in the Bahamas. The artefacts, which include jewel-encrusted pendants and gold chains, will be on display at the new Bahamas Maritime Museum.
The remains of a medieval ship and its cargo dating back to the 13th century have been uncovered off the coast of Dorset by maritime archaeologists from Bournemouth University.
Researchers have discovered new deep-sea species, from starfish and segmented worms to sea cucumbers and coral, at the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the central Pacific.
A Greenland shark, or a hybrid between the Greenland shark and Pacific sleeper shark, was captured over the insular slope at Glover’s Reef, a coral atoll in Belize.
While conducting a routine measurement in the Trave river in Northern Germany, the local waterways authority discovered a nearly 400-year-old ship from the Hanseatic period with 150 barrels on board - a unique find in the western Baltic region.
We now have a confirmed live sighting of the Sato's beaked whale species, several years after a paper describing the species was published.
Compiled by an international network of top dive editors and world-class underwater photographers, X-RAY MAG is the planet's only truly global premier dive lifestyle magazine. Subscription and downloads are free. Published since 2003.
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A closer look below the surface.
