Tabla de contenidos para 1/2017 en Scuba Diver/Asian Diver

DIVERS’ DAILY DIGEST With groundbreaking news coverage, never-before-seen footage and diving advice, underwater360 is the platform that offers the serious diver everything that they want and need. TRENDING ARTICLES Underwater Photographer Of The Week: Lia Barrett January 20, 2017 Photo & Video 8 Untold Legends Of The Dolphin February 4, 2016 Dive History 21 Reasons Why You Need To Be At The Asia Dive Expo (ADEX) 2016 January 6, 2016 News Underwater Photographer Of The Week: Daniel Norwood December 17, 2016 Photo & Video 6 Foods To Eat Before You Dive February 21, 2016 Dive Training & Safety Destinations 10 Incredible Freshwater Dives DIVE TRAINING & SAFETY What Happens When You Scuba Dive in a Tsunami UW360 NEWS Deep-Sea Volcanoes Full of Absurd Life and Obscure Coral DESTINATIONS 6 Tips…

Gender-related topics almost invariably come up when I talk about my work as a scientist. Conversations that start about my work with manta rays always seem to circle around to probing questions about the challenges of being a female researcher. I find people’s interest in this subject perplexing. Sure, being a field researcher is hard… but what does being a woman have to do with that? I fight the same defensive feeling when I see eyebrows raise upon learning that I am the CEO of an international conservation organisation... like for a moment they find this fact hard to believe. Have we seriously not moved past this? While this line of questioning can sometimes get a bit tedious, I have started to reconcile myself to the fact that this issue…

THE DIVER A 52-year-old woman who began diving at age 48. Advanced Open Water Diver with a Computer Nitrox Diver certification. The diver is in good overall health, although infrequently suffers from migraines. THE DIVER’S EXPERIENCE The diver had logged 130 dives both at home in Sydney, Australia and whilst overseas. Prior to this trip, the deepest dive the diver had completed was to 35m. THE TRIP A trip to Vanuatu organised through the diver’s local dive club to dive the SS President Coolidge. THE DIVES • The diver completed two dives per day for two days (safety stops were completed on all dives), at which point symptoms developed and the diver ceased diving. DIVE PROFILES ONSET OF SYMPTOMS After the second dive on day two the diver developed an…

CORAL BRIDGE For: Vast coral gardens and a huge amphitheatre rich in reef-top pipefish, box cleaner fish and trumpetfish Conditions: Calm waters, suitable for more experienced divers because good buoyancy skills are a must When: Year round HANAGOI REEF For: Dark labyrinths of coral that rise from the seabed. With a maximum depth of around 20m, hanagoi (anthias fish), mantis shrimps, blennies, gobies, pipefish and cuttlefish can all be spotted Conditions: Warm water and good visibility When: Year round but slightly cold in January MANTA SCRAMBLE For: Ishigaki’s most famous site, where divers gather to see manta rays. Hold on to one of the rocks and watch as the mantas perform their graceful somersaults and glide majestically through the water Conditions: Calm to moderate currents When: Year round diving but…

FOREVER FAMOUS FOR being part of the pioneering husband-and-wife team that were the first people to film great white sharks underwater without a cage, and for capturing the live scenes from the infamous movie, Jaws, Valerie Taylor’s influence and impact extends far further than the realm of underwater filmmaking; she is one of the world’s most avid and successful marine conservationists. VALERIE TAYOR’S LOVE affair with the ocean started with freediving and spearfishing in the waters of her native Australia. In 1963, Valerie, née Heighes, married Ron Taylor, forming an inimitable partnership that lasted for the next 52 years. They soon switched from spearfishing to hunting marine life with cameras. In 1973 Valerie was featured on the cover of National Geographic holding the camera setup that Ron had designed and…

SPERM WHALES: CULTURAL NOMADS Researchers have found that sperm whales are culturally nomadic, with distinctive clans moving vast distances in response to changes in habitat. This cultural constancy has so far been seen to be unusual in the marine environment, with most animals preferring to remain in their habitats through periods of environmental fluctuation, and adapting their cultures accordingly. These findings come from a study in the Galápagos, where the waters were dominated by two specific clans of sperm whales until they left in the 1990s, but now host two entirely different populations that have moved in from across the Pacific basin, thousands of kilometres away. The distinct populations can be determined by their “codas”, or vocal dialects, that are specific to certain clans. Co-author of the study Dr Shane…

POLAR BEAR BASICS 1 Their latin name, Ursus maritimus, means “sea bear” 2 Polar bears are the largest land-based carnivores in the world. Adults can grow to over 2.5 metres long and weigh almost 700 kilos! 3 Most of their life is spent on sea ice and in the water. They are easily able to swim at speeds of around 10 kilometres an hour 4 Polar bears have been spotted swimming more than 100 kilometres from land 5 They have incredible adaptations to their environment, including huge, webbed paws, a streamlined skull and long neck for swimming, and thick blubber for insulation and buoyancy 6 Their diet consists mainly of seals, which they hunt from the sea ice, ambushing breathing holes. They also feed on walruses, beluga whales, whale carcasses,…

“In roughly one hour, they counted more than 104 species in the turbulent cloud of fishes” We last dived in Triton Bay nine years ago, when only a couple of commercial liveaboards had ventured to this southern area of the Bird’s Head Peninsula in West Papua, Indonesia. Our cruise director in 2007, the late Larry Smith, had visited Triton Bay earlier that year with his friends Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock. Dives were made up of a potpourri of sites that they had found, coupled with a few explored by a preliminary Conservation International expedition in 2006. Primarily it was a hit-or-miss affair. Fortunately, we hit the mark more often than not, and, oh, what fish and critters! When we left, we knew we would return. We didn’t realise was…

 Natural history filmmaking is more than just a job. It defines your goals, characterises your ambitions, becomes your way of life. I’m often asked how I got into this business. It’s a career no one (especially me!) would have imagined, much less predicted, for my future. “I’d fallen in love. First with the ocean and its inhabitants, and later with my instructor,Howard Hall” I grew up a city girl, born to city folks. My idea of an outdoor adventure was a Sunday walk in a city park or sunbathing at a hotel swimming pool. As a child, we didn’t visit national parks and only once did I travel outside the continental US, on a short trip to the Bahamas. Being a registered nurse was the only job I ever wanted.…

IT’S DISTRESSING WATCHING anyone in a state of panic. Would you know how to recognise panic in another diver? Do you have the skills to help a buddy panicking at depth? Panic is a sudden overwhelming fear, with or without cause, that produces hysterical or irrational behaviour. Panic can be active, where the diver becomes aggressive and task focused, or passive, where the diver freezes and becomes totally inactive. At depth, without intervention, these irrational behaviours can be dangerous and sometimes fatal. The triggers of panic can be physical, such as seasickness or a leaking mask, or psychological. RECOGNISING PANIC Quite often, the early signs are easy to miss. By the time a buddy recognises there is an issue, it has gone too far to prevent. Panic underwater often starts…

 When it comes to fitness for diving, the recommendations for male and female divers are largely the same: good exercise tolerance, a healthy weight and awareness of possible concerns related to medical conditions and medications. Regardless of sex, all divers should use appropriate thermal protection, remain hydrated, understand the diving environment and dive conservatively. “Men and women are physically and physiologically different – it is important to consider the specific health concerns that female divers face” Men and women, however, are physically and physiologically different. With women representing about a third of the recreational diving population – in 2013 the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) reported its population of certified divers as 66 percent male and 34 percent female, and males represent 64 percent of insured DAN members 1…

You won’t find fish or aquatic plants living in the seemingly-aptly-named Dead Sea, one of the saltiest places on our fair planet. However, despite appearances, this sea is not as dead as you might think – it is home to quite a surprising quantity of bacteria and microbial fungi. It has long been known that the hypersaline sea hosted microorganisms, far fewer than other bodies of water, but a respectable amount nonetheless. Under certain conditions, huge blooms of Dunaliella algae have caused the sea to turn red, indicating that simple lifeforms are present in significant numbers. Then, in 2011, scientists discovered craters in the seabed, some around 10 metres across, through which fresh and brackish water enter the Dead Sea. These vents were surrounded by “biofilms” of diverse species of…

Jill Heinerth Canada In 1998, Jill was part of the team that made the first 3D map of an underwater cave and she became the first person to dive the ice caves of Antarctica, penetrating further into an underwater cave system than any woman before her. Gemma Smith UK Gemma is the first woman to dive at the famous Antikythera Shipwreck, as a team diver and team medic working on joint projects between Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) and the Greek Ephorate of Antiquities. Gemma is an IANTD Cave Instructor for both Open and Closed Circuit, and has racked up over 2,000 dives in caves and open water using both open and closed circuit equipment. As an educator, she has trained, supervised and guided divers from groups such as WHOI…

Gulf of St. Lawrence, Quebec, Canada FACING CLIMATE CHANGE By Jennifer Hayes A harp seal pup seeks shelter from the relentless winds that scour the Canadian sea ice. The harp seals face extremely high mortality due to weak ice and early break up – for me, these creatures have become the face of climate change. Southern Channel Islands, California, USA BEAMS OF KELP By Allison Vitsky On a recent trip to the Southern Channel Islands, I contracted a terrible cold – so awful that I couldn’t descend below one metre; I really should have stayed on the boat! But after multiple recent warm-water events that devastated much of the kelp in Southern California, I was so overjoyed to see the regeneration of this kelp bed that I couldn’t keep from…

1 You’re famously hopeful and inspiring. But in the face of things like the worst El Niño we have ever faced, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere having passed 400ppm some time ago, how do you maintain your optimism? Where do you get this reservoir of hope from? The greatest reason for hope is knowing what the problems are. As never before, we have insight into knowing that the oceans are in trouble and therefore so are we. Imagine if we didn’t know? We would continue doing the same stupid things, or things that we did in ignorance that now look stupid in retrospect; nobody really understood that we could extract 90 percent of the tuna, swordfish, sharks and so on, or that even if we did all these things, it…

I was 14 when the world turned its back on me. I grew up around sharks – diving, sailing, I was part of an ocean-obsessed family, and I made my home amongst the reefs. I began to gravitate towards sharks before I can remember; I related to them, I fitted in with them, the fact that I swam with them separated me from other people. Then, at 14 years old, the shark populations I had loved as a child began to disappear. I found myself in a state of panic, returning to spots I had always associated with sharks, only to be confronted with an empty reef. I can assure you, and ocean with sharks may be scary, but true fear is an ocean without them. I later learnt that…

We were in the Maldives for a seven-day liveaboard. Almost all the dives we did were deep, the currents were running, and often we found ourselves finning into them as we followed the guides, on the lookout for the sharks and rays this remarkable atoll is famous for. The trip was taking place during the rainy season, and we had already surfaced a few times in heavy downpours, with visibility on the surface reduced to a few metres. SWIMMING FOR SAFETY On the fifth day, we did two dives, and by about 4pm we were ready to jump in for number three. The water was soupy, green. Bottoming out at around 38 metres, we swam along the outer reef towards the entrance to the channel, which we approached from below…

“Herbivores remove the algae that is in constant competition with corals” Parrotfish are more than just pretty faces – they may be vital for healthy coral reefs. These “beaked” and brightly coloured fish delight divers, but there is much more to them than their visible characteristics. For example, the colours, patterns, shape and even sex of an individual parrotfish can vary as it moves through multiple life phases. Parrotfish are hermaphroditic, and many parrotfish species begin life as females with the ultimate goal of becoming “super males”. Another interesting parrotfish fact is that at night some species cover themselves in a mucous cocoon that they secrete from an organ on their head. The fish remain motionless inside the cocoon, which is thought to protect them from predators and/or parasites.1 Parrotfish…

A born creative, Erin Quigley was always meant to be in the spotlight. Long before becoming an underwater photographer, Erin began her career as a Tony-nominated costume designer working on Broadway and in Hollywood. Her attention to detail designing costumes transitioned seamlessly into her career as a photographer and image-editing guru: Where other photographers might skim over a small flaw in an image, Erin makes sure every picture is presented perfectly. It’s that dedication that has helped create her success while competing for Tony and underwater photography awards alike. Let her immaculate images draw you into the drama of the wilderness below the waves… MOBBED In the eddy of a strong current, I was suddenly surrounded by a big school of freaked out baitfish. The next moment they scattered for…