| DIVE show 2004 30/31 OCTOBER, NEC, Birmingham This year’s ‘divefest’ at the NEC will house over 300 suppliers of the very latest diving equipment, dive and leisure wear, training organisations, holiday resorts, destinations plus much more. Packed full of ideas and inspiration, the show will give seasoned and wannabe divers the chance to see what’s hot, what’s on the cards for next year and where to go for the best dive thrills. The popular Try Dive pool will again provide the opportunity for visitors to get hands-on experience, and for divers who can’t get enough of the underwater world there will be one of the largest, stand-alone aquariums in the UK full of fish and marine life. More intrepid visitors will be able to hear first-hand about diving wrecks such as the Scilla and the Britannic, and for those who want to learn how to bring back images of what they see underwater, there will be photographic and film presentations on the free seminar programme. Tickets to the show cost £7.00 each if booked in advance (£9.50 on the door) and £2.00 for children under 12. Visit www.diveshows.co.uk to buy tickets online or call the advance booking line 020 8977 9878.
Great prices from the companies present
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Big crowds expected again
Why not try a dive at the show?
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| Project AWARE divers and snorkelers support clean waters Project AWARE Foundation continues to support International Cleanup Day in September. What inspires you? International Cleanup Day is the world's largest, one-day volunteer effort to clean the aquatic environment. Every year, thousands of divers, snorkelers and shoreline volunteers inspire communities with their commitment to clean waterways. Saturday, 18 September 2004, Project AWARE Foundation in cooperation with the Ocean Conservancy, will organize the underwater portion of global cleanup events. With a unique view beneath the surface, divers see first-hand the effects of harmful debris. Without dive volunteers thousands of pounds of trash would remain "out of sight, out of mind." Participating in International Cleanup Day is a great way for divers to give back to the dive site they enjoy. In 2003, more than 90 tons of underwater debris was removed including fishing line, cigarettes and beverage containers. Project AWARE Foundation is the dive industry's leading nonprofit organization conserving underwater environments through education, advocacy and action. For more information on Project AWARE's environmental initiatives email information@projectaware.org or visit their website at www.projectaware.org.
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Can technology help the world's coral reefs recover? At the recent Coral Reef Symposium in Bali, Indonesia, scientists concluded that much of the world’s reefs have been killed or severely damaged with the remainder in certain jeopardy. Disastrous reverses in reef health threaten marine bio diversity, tourism, fisheries and shore protection worldwide. Reefs die for many reasons: rising water temperatures, sewage flows, eutrophication, disease, and negligence. A reef ecosystem that took hundreds of years to grow can be destroyed in a single afternoon by dredging, dynamite or cyanide fishing. But there is a solution. In pilot installations in Mexico, Panama, Indonesia, Maldives, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea, artificial reefs have been built where corals grow rapidly even in stressed environments. Applying a low voltage electrical current (completely safe for swimmers and marine life) to a submerged conductive structure causes dissolved mineral crystals in seawater to precipitate and adhere to that structure. Surviving coral fragments are mechanically attached, and end up doing very well indeed. During the 1998 warming, fewer than 5% of the natural reef corals survived. But on the artificial reefs, 80% of corals not only survived, they flourished. Corals from these reefs are now re colonizing the surrounding natural habitats." Visit this site form more information. http://globalcoral.org |
| Coral may survive global warming, but not CO2 increase
The good news is that corals may be able to adapt and survive the predicted rise in ocean temperatures caused by global warming. Researchers studying the impact of temperature changes on Pacific corals before, during and after El Ninó, have found that some are able to adapt by forming a symbiotic relationship with heat-resistant algae. For example parts of the Maldives now are seeing recovery after the widespread damage of El Ninó. Corals which are unable to adapt will be wiped out, so reefs will change dramatically, according to the studies, reported in New Scientist magazine. The not-so-good news is that the increased levels of 'greenhouse gas' carbon dioxide (CO2) will alter the acidity of the oceans. Researchers at the Royal Society are currently investigating the implications of excess CO2 being absorbed into the oceans and forming carbonic acid. Over time, this process is anticipated to raise the overall acidity of the oceans. The consequences for marine life are unknown, but scientists fear that the outcome will prove disastrous. The skeletal structure of hard corals is calcium carbonate, and increased acidity appears to reduce the amount of calcium carbonate available in seawater. |
Diver reports sighting great white shark off Cornish coast
The divers, both believed to be Royal Navy marines, were diving in poor visibility at Pendennis Point at 8pm on Tuesday 17 August. During their ascent, at a depth of 5m, Southgate saw what he at first thought was a boat coming towards them, but it turned out to be a shark. The shark is described as white in colour, 3 metres in length, and both divers are adamant that it was not a basking shark - commonly sighted around the Cornish coast. Both divers surfaced immediately, in a state of shock, and reported what they had seen to their dive marshall. The Coastguard passed information about the sighting on to the Cornish Wildlife Trust. A spokesman for Falmouth Coastguard said that no other sightings of the shark had been reported. There have only been 3 reported shark attacks on divers in UK waters, none fatal. There have been no attacks by great white sharks in UK waters; sightings are extremely rare and reports are usually unconfirmed. |
| GET TOTALLY WRECKED AT THE DIVE SHOW 2004! Wrecks and wreck diving are most definitely the order of the day at October’s Dive Show. The free presentation programme will feature some of the world’s top wreck explorers such as Innes McCartney, Leigh Bishop, Teresa Tellus, Monty Halls and John Chatterton. The UK’s very own man-made reef ‘The HMS Scylla’ will also be a highlight of this year’s programme. Over 2 million people watched the Channel 4 documentaries on the Battle of Jutland and the Padstow U-boat filmed by Innes McCartney. Innes will be at the Dive Show revealing new material on these wrecks which has just come to light. Leigh Bishop and Teresa Tellus will be repeating their talk on the Britannic that attracted huge audiences at London Dive Show this year. As well as revealing the real reason why the sister ship of the Titanic met such a similar fate, the talk will explain the technical aspects of this fascinating dive. Getting totally wrecked will be ‘Superhuman’ Monty Halls, who has recently returned from diving the top ten wrecks around the world. Scapa Flow, The Zenobia, Truk Lagoon, The Thistlegorm, The Rainbow Warrior, The Lermentov and The Coolidge are just some of the wrecks and wreck sites he will be talking about. John Chatterton has spent more than 20 years working as a commercial diver and boat captain. His passion, however, has been researching and diving the deep shipwrecks of the world. In 1991 his discovery and then subsequent identification of the German submarine U-869 off the coast of New Jersey has been the subject of several TV documentaries and a book by Rob Kurson called ‘Shadow Divers’. John, who currently hosts the US TV programme ‘Deep Sea Detectives’ on The History Channel, will be one of the highlights of this year’s speaker programme. The progress and infestation of the UK’s first ‘purpose-built’ reef The Scylla will also be a crowd-puller, with many visitors keen to find out what awaits them when they make their way to Cornwall to dive this shipwreck. Claire Hopkinson from the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth will be showing film footage and giving the very latest information about diving the wreck in her presentation. Ocean Weirdo’s is the intriguing title of the film that will be making its world premiere at Dive 2004. The film is a collaboration between John Boyle and John McIntyre and features some of the strangest creatures in the ocean from the deepest abyss to the shallows. It will show the longest creature in the world – which is a jellyfish, not a whale – and also some fascinating footage of a monkfish catching a cod.
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Other high-profile speakers will be confirmed in the near future and will complete the line-up for what is sure to be the biggest and most exciting Dive Show ever. On the exhibition floor over 300 companies will be showing the very latest diving equipment, dive and leisurewear, holiday resorts and destinations plus much more. There will also be a British Marine Life Aquarium at the heart of the show, Try Dive and Rebreather pools, the PADI Village, the popular Caribbean Village and, for the first time, a South-East Asia Pavilion. The main holiday prize draw for two people is courtesy of the Cayman Islands Tourist Board. Tickets to the show cost £7.00 each if booked in advance (£9.50 on the door) and £2.00 for children under 12. Visit www.diveshows.co.uk to buy tickets online or call the advance booking line 020 8977 9878. |
| Whale Sharks the largest fish in our oceans. www.deepblueutila.com and www.sharkdiver.com have teamed up for a period of 5 years to do extensive research on these amazing creatures. Absolute Adventures (www.sharkdiver.com) are booking the Deep Blue Divers resort in Utila, a small island off the coast of Honduras for a month every year for the next 5 years in the prime Whale Shark period mid March till mid April. During that time they will be satellite tagging Whale Sharks and giving talks to customers who wish to join them on this adventure, all the customers will be asked to help. When they get in the water they will be asked to try and spot specific characteristics of the shark so that over a period of time they wish to build up a complete portfolio of Whale Sharks in the area. They will also be taking samples for DNA testing which will give much more detailed information than has ever been done before on the Island of Utila one of the last places in the world you can see these wonderful creatures. This will be the most intensive survey done on Utila to find out more about these awesome creatures. To ensure that all possible resources are being used, to gain as much information as possible, the team will even be bringing in their own spotter microlite. Shark specialists, journalists, photographers and videographers will all be coming to record the proceedings. Between these two small companies they could change the way the world understands and looks at Whale Sharks by finding out information that has never been gathered before. Talks will be given to share the findings from this exciting venture, not only to customers but also to locals and people staying on the island in general.
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Mystery
of Welsh turtle 'solved' The 2.75m-long (9ft) creature was found near Harlech, more than 7,500km (4,700 miles) from its birthplace in the West Indies. BBC Wildlife magazine reports a new study that suggests leatherbacks should be viewed as a UK/Irish species which simply visits the Caribbean to breed. Five of the world's seven turtle species, many of whose numbers are in decline, can be seen off the UK coast. The Harlech leatherback has been put on display at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales in Cardiff. The animal weighed more than 900kg (2,000lbs) and, at 100 years old, it was the oldest recorded turtle as well as the largest. Sadly, it was found dead in 1988 after it drowned whilst trapped by fishing lines. More and more leatherbacks are being spotted around the coast of Britain and Ireland, suggesting the turtles are trawling our waters for their favourite food - jellyfish. Following the Welsh discovery, marine ecologists at Swansea University and University College Cork used satellite-tracking systems to follow 10 leatherbacks from their nesting sites in the tropics. Contrary to expectations, the tracking showed the turtles did not stay long in the Caribbean, but spent most of their time in food-rich northern waters, including those around the British Isles. More work on the study is now underway in the Irish Sea but Peter Richardson, of the Marine Conservation Society, hopes it will lead to leatherbacks being re-classified as British/Irish - so improving the species' chances of survival. Turtle numbers have been in serious decline worldwide because of coastal redevelopment, egg-snatching, pollution and fishing. Long-line fishing alone is believed to kill about 50,000 leatherbacks a year when they become accidentally caught on hooks.
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News archives :News
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