X-Ray Mag #142

Mexico has every right to prevent illegal imports. Penalising visiting divers and underwater photographers for bringing their own equipment into the country, however, is a remarkably counterproductive way of going about it.

A disputed charge involving a renowned underwater filmmaker and YouTuber has brought renewed attention to a long-running problem for visiting photographers—and this time Mexico's dive industry and authorities are responding.

Surveys have revealed thriving mesophotic coral gardens where historical studies had reported what were thought to be dead reef structures.

New research overturns the assumption that male bonnetheads develop pointed heads at maturity, implying instead that both sexes start out pointed and become rounder as they grow.

A decade of genetic research in Fiji has uncovered extensive bull shark family networks—and evidence that some males and females repeatedly reproduce together over many years.

Coral cover is rebounding across parts of the Great Barrier Reef, although scientists warn that repeated marine heatwaves continue to threaten its recovery.

An ancient Roman shipwreck carrying hundreds of amphorae has been identified off the coast of Mazara del Vallo in Sicily. The site, located at a depth of 46 metres, is provisionally dated to between the second and first centuries BC.

A four-year investigation combining archival research, sonar and technical diving has identified the long-lost Royal Navy destroyer south of the Isle of Wight.

A study spanning 3,000km of East African coastline finds that seagrass meadows support disproportionately high numbers of important food fish and may play an overlooked role in coastal nutrition and food security.

New research suggests sperm whales deliberately release air to fine-tune their buoyancy, helping them remain suspended vertically beneath the surface during their unusual resting periods.

Sealed Guinness bottles discovered on a shipwreck in the English Channel could provide researchers with a rare insight into nineteenth-century brewing. Scientists are now preparing to analyse the contents, in the hope of learning more about historic brewing techniques and the ingredients used more than 160 years ago.

Among the many mysteries hidden beneath the waves, few creatures are stranger than the hagfish. Looking more like an eel than a fish, this ancient survivor has puzzled scientists for centuries. How could such a slow, apparently defenceless animal persist in oceans filled with swift and powerful predators? The answer, it turns out, is one of the most astonishing defensive strategies in the animal kingdom—a weapon made almost entirely of seawater.

Delicate crowns spread outward in brilliant spirals and feathery plumes. Red, yellow, blue, white and purple forms sway gently in the current, resembling a garden of exotic underwater flowers. They seem more like plants than animals, but this impression is an illusion. For these beautiful “flowers” are actually worms. And behind their graceful appearance lies one of the ocean’s most surprising transformations.

When we think of the ocean, we imagine its vast blue waters—waves, coral gardens, rocky coasts and the deep abyss. But beneath that abyssal seafloor lies another world that remains mysterious. Hidden within cracks, pores and layers of rock is a vast reservoir of water slowly moving through the Earth’s crust. This hidden realm is sometimes called the subseafloor ocean, another ocean beneath the one we know. And it may contain one of the largest ecosystems on Earth.

Each evening, as night moves across the sea, something extraordinary begins. From the depths of the twilight zone, countless creatures start to rise.