The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has filed a Notice of Intent to Sue the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to end the popular swim-with programs by disallowing people to swim within 10 feet of the manatees. In addition, it recommends the expansion of no-human access areas and to designate the entire Kings Bay, Three Sisters Springs and Homosassa Springs as critical manatee habitats.

These proposals do not sit well with some people.

All nominations must be received by the Election Coordinator at NAUI HQ no later than 17:00 Eastern Standard Time on 17th August 2015.

This year NAUI is seeking individuals that have experience in the following areas:

Department Director Level at a university with extensive experience teaching NAUI Scuba programmes

Dive Industry leadership and participation as a member and representative at DEMA, RSTC and other dive industry organizations

In an article just published in the open-access science journal PloS One, the first appearance of lionfish off the Brazilian coast has been reported.

The invasion of the northwestern Atlantic by the Indo-Pacific lionfish has developed extraordinarily fast, and is expected to cause one of the most negative ecological impacts among all marine invasions. Despite the anticipation that lionfish would eventually extend their range throughout most of the eastern coast of South America, it had not been recorded in Brazil until now.