Why not check out some UK diving?

With the sea temperatures now rising, the popular Breakwater Diving Centre based in Portland is opening its doors to midweek summer divers with a Scuba Special. For those of you who have never experienced the delights of Dorset, will discover a County that boasts over 100 miles of coastline with extensive beaches, rocks, wrecks, reefs and colourful kelp forests, making it an underwater paradise for all levels.

Fans of the South Coast will be pleased to hear that from now until 29th October 2004, special midweek three and five day dive packs are up for grabs for parties of four divers and above. Prices start from £149 (three day dive pack), which includes two hard boat dives per day, and accommodation in either the bunk rooms or the cabins at the Aqua Hotel, with en-suite upgrades also available. Instructors have not been forgotten, with the Breakwater Diving Centre offering easy access to classrooms and economical equipment hire.

Dorset marine life

"Portland is a Mecca for divers, whether you are learning to dive, or are into mixed gas, we can offer something for everyone, whatever your budget. If this lovely weather holds I can think of no better place to enjoy the summer, the rust and the reefs", stated BCD Director, Budgie.

For further information, check out www.divedorset.com or call the Breakwater Diving Centre on 01305 860 269.

British Snorkeler Killed By Dive Boat in Malaysia.

On July 25, A young British woman on family holiday in Malaysia was killed in what was a fatal snorkelling accident.

Joanna Stillwell, 23, died when she was hit by a dive boat as she swam with her brother, Nicholas, 18, who was uninjured. The fatality occurred off the island of Redang, Malaysia. According to local sources, Miss Stillwell had ventured out of the snorkelling area at the resort and into a channel used by boats.

The speedboat was used for diving and snorkeling trips by the Redang Bay beach resort, where the family was staying. Local law enforcement have arrested the boat operator and are deciding whether to formally charge him with "Killing Without Intent".

Divers to help save world's oceans and seas under UN-backed project.

Snorkelers and scuba divers across the globe are being enlisted to help preserve the health and diversity of the world's oceans and seas under a new initiative supported by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Divers log observations on a website for Earthdive, backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).

Observations of illegal trade in endangered species are also recorded and then passed on to a wildlife trade monitoring network.

In addition, members sign an international petition demanding action to protect the oceans while half of all membership fees are donated directly to marine conservation projects.

Mr Long, himself a keen diver, said: "Earthdive wants people with an interest in diving to understand that what they see in the oceans is not just beautiful, it also sustains human life, and they can help to preserve it by simply recording what they see."

Divers can built a global snapshot by estimating species numbers
Earthdive director, Angela Bawtree, explained: "The divers or snorkellers will note down numbers on an underwater slate.

"There is an abundance scale that allows divers to estimate rather than provide an exact number for each species.

"For the UK, which is in the European region, for example, divers will look for all types of lobsters, John Dory, marine mussels and plaice.

"It will build a global snapshot of where species are abundant and where they are not, where they are increasing in number or decreasing over time.

"The website will also provide a good resource for divers and snorkellers, where they can look up dive sites and access other divers' logs."

In order to fully access the website, people will be asked to pay £10, £5 of which will go to selected marine conservation organisations.

Peter Raines MBE, founder of Coral Cay Conservation, another of Earthdive's partners, said: "Recreational diving is a fast-growing sport, with more than 1.5 million new divers being certified each year.

The Earthdive website is at www.earthdive.com

Open water movie tries to capture realism.

The new release from Lions Gate Films, Open Water, is based on a true story which occurred in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef. This film has caused uproar among the diving community in Australia because it is portraying their dive operations as being incompetent.

Is this a fair reflection on the film however? The film is also created with an eye for authenticity and a commitment to creating images that are as true to life as possible.

According to Director Chris Kentis and Producer Laura Lau, the desire was to create a film that would "take" the audience into the water. "We made this film because we found the actual incidents upon which the movie is based to be important and moving stories," Kentis says. "Like most great stories, this one is based on a rare occurrence - that's one of the reasons it's so shocking and special."

"Open Water" is based on a real event and follows a vacationing couple scuba diving in tropical waters who are mistakenly abandoned in the middle of the ocean. The couple were never found and no one actually knows what happened so the film produces a story based on what might have happened.

Unlike previous movies that involved sharks such as "Jaws" and "Deep Blue Sea", "Open Water" does not use special effects or computer generated images. Instead, actors Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis spent over 120 hours in the water amid a variety of sea life, including real-life sharks, which give the film its chilling authenticity. Every scene in "Open Water" with a shark was shot on location in Nassau, Bahamas.

"Open Water" premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and will debut in limited release on August 6, 2004 with a wide release in the United States on August 20th.

For more details on the film, please go to www.openwatermovie.com.

PADI Designates Over 50 Facilities as National Geographic Dive Centers.

PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) has selected more than 50 PADI training facilities as National Geographic Dive Centers. PADI launched the National Geographic Diver program June 28th in the Americas territories and plans a worldwide launch later this Autumn.

The National Geographic Dive Center designation is available to PADI Five Star Dive Centers and Gold Palm Resorts. Any PADI Dive Center is invited to upgrade to Five star or Gold Palm status and then apply for the National Geographic Dive Center designation.

The National Geographic Diver program goes beyond the PADI Open Water Diver course by fine tuning a diver's skills in buoyancy control, exploration and, navigation. For more information on this exciting new program or to obtain a current list of National Geographic Dive centers visit padi.com.

Maldives threatened by global warming.

The Maldives is as we know a beautiful travel destination blessed with white beaches and turquoise sea and great diving. However there is mounting evidence that the country is living on borrowed time. Due to the global temperature rising, the sea level around the coasts of the Maldives is rising up to 0.9cm a year.

To other countries this might not seem catastrophic but in the Maldives the highest part of the country is only 2 metres above sea level.

This explains why it was first to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets for cuts in industrialized countries' greenhouse gas emissions.

Male, the capital, is surrounded by a 3m-high (9.8ft) wall, which took 14 years to construct at a cost of $63m. Unable to foot the bill themselves, the government happily accepted aid from Japan, which paid for 99% of the cost.

But the wall offers protection for just one of the Maldives' 200 inhabited islands - and then only against tidal surges rather than the rising sea level, the longer-term threat.

In Kandholhudhoo, a densely-populated island in the north of the Maldives, 60% of residents have volunteered to evacuate over the next 15 years - those remaining behind will eventually be compelled to do the same. Tidal surges flood their homes every fortnight, and recently hammered a 3m (9.8ft) hole in their concrete flood defences.

Environmental science is taught in every school, and given the same importance as writing and arithmetic. All new resorts are subject to a rigorous environmental impact study and developers are allowed to build on only 20% of the islands.

Click here for our Maldives travel guide.

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News July 2004.
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