I saw Jenny's photo a few days ago and my eyes lingered on it. The caption for "Wish..." reads "Thanks for living in this wonderful world..." and I can't agree more.
If anything could summarize my love of the ocean and diving it would be this one photo. This alien creature flies through the water not like a fish, but a bird, a reminder that the ocean is like nowhere else on Earth.
This is why I dive.
Divester may be retiring but the Divester Flickr Pool will live on. Don't be shy.
REEF recently announced their field survey schedule for 2007. If you haven't ever taken one of these trips, maybe now's the time to consider it. Not only are they fun, educational, and conservation-minded, they're tax deductible! Who ever heard of taking a tax-deductible dive trip?! Thanks, REEF! Upcoming trips include:
Grand Turk, February 17-24 -- 7 nights/8 days - $990
Tortola, British Virgin Islands, April 14-21 -- 7 nights/8 days - $974
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, May 22-27 -- 5 nights/6 days - $TBA
St. Vincent, June 9-16 -- 8 days/7 nights - $1,050
San Juan Islands, Washington, July 23-26 -- 4 days/3 nights - $818
Kona, Hawaii, August 4-11 -- 7 nights/8 days - $1,485
Woods Hole, Cape Cod, September 11-16 -- 6 nights/5 days - $509
Bonaire*, September 22-29 -- 7 nights/8 days - $1,063
Utila*, October 20-27 -- 8 days/7 nights - $1,110
Anguilla, November 10-17 -- 8 days/7 nights - $975
Cozumel, December 1-8 -- 8 Days/7 Nights - $544
All prices quoted are per person, based on double occupancy. An additional $300 REEF fee will be added to each trip to cover the cost of the group leader, seminars, survey materials, and data management. For more details, you know where to go. *Trip led by Paul Humann, recent inductee into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame.
The Georgia Aquarium got top billing as the only aquarium in the U.S. to display a whale shark. Not just one, but four. This month the attention got hotter when Ralph, a whale shark, and Gasper, a Beluga whale, died in captivity.
Organizations like the Captive Animals' Protection Society and the Georgia Animal Rights and Protection have cited this as reasons why aquariums should be shut down. Individuals have written letters, sent e-mail, even held a candle-light vigil to protest animal captivity.
Aquarium supporters have fired back, insisting their purpose is to research marine life and educate the public about them. They feel raising awareness of certain animals, like the beluga and whale shark, will help their long-term survival.
With concerns about global warming, pollution, extinction, and overfishing, the only place we may see animals like the whale shark are at the aquarium. Most of the public never gets underwater to realize how much sea life needs protection, and if it weren't for aquariums would they ever know? More marine life is killed as by-catch than will die in captivity.
Aquariums should be held to strict standards and be wholly accountable for their actions, but shutting them down would be the greatest disservice to the very creatures they serve to protect.
If you're a diver who's looking to get involved in some conservation efforts on your next dive trip, consider heading to the Komodo National Park. The Park's Conservation Fund has teamed up with a marine biologist to install throughout the Park environmentally-friendly "Manta Ray mooring balls," which are drilled into sand patches or rubble areas. There are already 14 mooring balls in this Park; the newly-formed alliance wants to install up to 30 balls, which will protect the reef system from anchor damage by local fishermen, big liveaboard dive boats, and visiting yachts.
The Park is seeking qualified divers -- in other words, Nitrox-certified and capable of working at 100 feet -- to assist with the installation. Participants will learn multiple skills, ranging from rope splicing to operating an underwater jack hammer. Although the trip is work-oriented, there will be time "for the occasional leisure dive." Interestingly, the organizers hope to film the project for use in other conservation projects and awareness campaigns. You'll be a movie star!
The trip is from February 18-26. Only 4 spaces remain. The cost of the trip -- which includes shared accommodation in air-conditioned cabins, meals, diving, tanks, weights, and presentations -- is $800. For more details, check out the National Park's website or the Coral Reef Alliance.
This new CD, for sale through the British Library's Online Shop, features seals, whales, dolphins, and other marine animals making sounds...in the deep. While some of the sounds may be familiar to you, I'm guessing not many people have heard the mating call of the North Sea haddock. Think of their rumbling call as somewhere between a motorcycle and Barry White. You can hear a short sample of their call on the BBC.
I may be going out on a limb here, but I don't *think* your significant other is going to be swept away when you throw this disc on the CD player. Even the British Library's sound archive's wildlife curator, Cheryl Tipp, could only muster this, um, half-hearted accolade: "It really is quite a novel sound, it's fascinating."
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- comprised of 2500 experts from 130 countries -- the Great Barrier Reef could become "functionally extinct" within a few decades. According to the Panel's leaked report -- the final, official draft of which should be available this Friday -- the reef will (might?) die from bleaching, which occurs when water temperatures grow too high, and which involves a breakdown of the symbiotic relationship between corals and their color-giving zooxanthellae. Interestingly, the cooling waters associated with last year's Cyclone Larry preempted the potentially catastrophic bleaching event that scientists had predicted for 2006. However, the thought is that by 2030, the GBR will likely begin suffering from routine bleaching events and quickly perish.
What's most disturbing to me about this news is that the GBR is the largest living organism on the planet. Able to be seen from space, a dead GBR would be a permanent, hideous scar -- a constant reminder of beauty and life wasted.
Don't be sad, little guy. We'll come diving and visit you again real soon. Sven de Vos managed to capture this cute but sad fish photo off the coast of Algeria just before his housing flooded. Maybe the fish noticed the leak, and that's why he's frowning. Then again, maybe the fish sees a big shark right behind Sven, and this is his "Holy Cow! Look out!" face. Who's to say? In any event, I love the fish's expressive mug, although I'm sure I'm guilty of just a little anthropomorphism by suggesting its doleful appearance has anything whatsoever to do with de Vos or his presence.
Do you have any sad fish photos? Bring them on over to Divester's Flickr pool and maybe we can cheer them up!
Recently, Divester and Wetpixel readers lent support to the Shark Trust and adopted Cut-Tail, an adult great white who's lost the tip of his caudal fin in an accident. This weekend, we received Cut-Tail's adoption papers, making the adoption official. Break out the cigars! Although the Shark Trust didn't provide an update on Cut-Tail's status, we still thought we'd share the news with you. We're such proud parents.
Last week a creature from the depths washed up on a north Oregon beach. Not a frill shark or giant squid, but a Longnose Skate. Skates and rays aren't an uncommon sight while diving, but most of us won't see a Longnose because they dwell up to 2,000 feet below the surface.
A benthic fish, this deep dweller spent considerable time on the dry sand before being rescued by the Seaside Aquarium. Nearby beach goers (actually a group of people observing a bird for possible rescue), dug a hole in the sand and filled it with water until the aquarium staff arrived. "He's in pretty bad shape because of being in the air so long, so it's hard to say if he's going to make it," according to Keith Chandler of the aquarium staff.
The rescued skate measures 32 inches in length and has two eyespots (fake eyes) to distract predators. Little is known about the Longnose although they can be found between the Bering Sea and Baja California.
Last week, I showed you an image of a shark's jaws and asked you to guess whether you thought it was real or not. Nearly 70% of you thought it was real. For those of you who thought it was real, you're right: it's a picture of a real lemon shark. Captured by remainingoceansart, the image was taken in the Bahamas. It's one of the best shots I've seen in a while, for several reasons. It's crisp. It clearly demonstrates behavior. You can see each row of this giant animal's teeth. I love that when the shark breaks the surface, he makes virtually no splash. It's terrifying and beautiful at the same time. It's such a great shot. Check out the other great shots remainingoceansart has on his Flickr photostream, and I think you'll be impressed.
Oops, I meant to write the largest "fossilized" coral reef has been found in the arid mountain range near Dadu, about 100 miles north of Karachi, Pakistan. Yes, Pakistan.
In fact, researchers haven't just discovered fossilized reefs, they've also found fossilized fish, plants, snails, sponges, and "other organisms" in the area's mountain ranges, which, naturally, were once underwater.
Anybody who knows anything about the ocean knows there are countless predators down there. While they may not be predator-ing on humans, they're certainly going after other marine organisms, many of which are sedentary. These sedentary animals, like anemones for instance, rely on powerful toxins for defense. In recent years, research has shown that in addition to defeating hungry sea creatures, potent chemicals extracted from undersea organisms may be used to help humans defeat disease. Over the years, one such researcher, William Fenical, has been very successful at bioprospecting, or looking for chemicals underwater. For example, he's found:
Pseudopterosin, an anti-inflammatory chemical found in the sea-whip Pseudopterogoria elisabethae. Interestingly, when these sea-whips are "pruned" and harvested, the whip actually grows back stronger and healthier than before, meaning this endeavor is not only good for the organisms, it provides sustainable employment for low-income coastal residents.
A small, yellow coral in Australia that yields eleutherobin, which prevents cancer cell division.
Two other compounds that may work against cancer, and one compound that may help patients fight Herpes simplex.
In case anybody needed further proof that we need to protect our oceans.
About a year ago, researchers discovered that two kinds of octopuses were able to use two of their arms to walk around the sea floor. One of the species, Abdopus aculeatus, is shown walking over rugged terrain in today's Dive Video of the Day. It's very cool -- and only 8 seconds long, so watch carefully!
Last summer, Japan was accused of using "checkbook diplomacy" to foster a paradigm shift in the International Whaling Commission. Japan's new allies in the Commission -- Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, Tuvalu, Nauru, and Kiribati, all of which received millions in Japanese aid the prior year -- voted against the ban on commercial whaling, giving anti-whaling countries on the IWC a one-vote majority. In anticipation's of this year's meetings, the UK is stepping up attempts to secure an anti-whaling majority on the Commission.
To support these efforts, the British government is publishing a brochure to encourage nations that oppose whaling to join the Commission. Claiming whales are "sensitive, social creatures" with some species risking extinction, the UK's recruitment drive will launch officially this week. New EU members -- like Slovenia and Croatia -- and those seeking membership, will be among the first recipients of the brochures. It's tough to predict whether a brochure will do the trick, but I can see potential EU-recruits agreeing to anti-whaling simply to be allowed in the EU's front door.
While cruising down the beach looking at the man of wars, we noticed a seagull on the beach that seemed unable to fly. Noting that it had something reflective on its flank, we decided to approach it and see if we could help. We were shocked to see a giant fishing lure attached to the poor bird. The lure had three barbed hooks on it. Two of the hooks had lodged in the right wing of the gull, and apparently, as it had tried to remove the lure, a third hook had caught on the bird's nares, literally joining its wing to its beak.
As the gull tried to run away from us, it ran into the surf. That was a stroke of luck for us and the bird, because it was helpless in the waves, which gave us the few seconds necessary to capture it. We grabbed the bird, and worked very carefully for about 15 minutes to remove the two hooks that had lodged in its wing. Not wanting to shred the bird's flesh or break the fragile bones in its wing, I worked very carefully to back the barbed hook out through the hole it had made. After removing the hooks from the wing, I then slowly backed the hook out through its nostrils. I was afraid the bird's wing was broken or that it's beak was damaged, but as soon as we removed all the hooks, the bird squawked and flew away. We felt very proud of ourselves.
Note the small tuft of feather and flesh on the middle hook of the lure. I understand that fishermen have a right to fish the waters off the coast of Florida. However, I wish there were some way we could make it safer for the rest of the animals in the area. If we hadn't been able to catch and save the bird, it surely would've died. Moreover, if I'd stepped on this massive lure, I would've been in great pain.
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