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Update: Best Dive Spots in 97 Countries

SCUBA Travel have revamped their diving destination directory to make it easier to find what you are looking for. Now arranged by country, sea, ocean and continent.

Europe Argues for bluefin tuna trade ban

The king of Japanese sushi and sashimi may disappear from menus after Europe joined the United States on Wednesday in arguing for a ban on trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna. The 27 European Union (EU) nations agreed, despite opposition from Mediterranean island Malta, to urge a United Nations (UN) body that lists endangered species to vote for a ban when it meets in Qatar, starting on Saturday.

Marble Ray is Creature of the Month

The giant Marble Ray is three metres long. It is not aggressive but watch out for the spines on its tail. You see the Marble Ray in the Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to southern Japan, Micronesia and tropical Australia; and in the Cocos and Galapagos islands in the Eastern Pacific.

2010 El Nino Reduces Marine Life

The ongoing El Nino of 2010 is reducing the numbers of pelagic fish, according to scientists at NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Update: Diving Pakistan

SCUBA Travel guide now includes Charna Island, Pakistan. Diving window is end of September until March.

Issue 118 of SCUBA News now On-Line

The latest issue of SCUBA News is now available at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scubanews118.html. This month: best dive spots in 97 countries, diving Mozambique, wreck photo gallery, 10 tips for underwater photographers and all the diving news from around the world.

Barnacle Dinner in the Galapagos

The barnacle, a key thread in the marine food web, was thought to be missing along rocky coasts dominated by upwellings. Now a research team headed by Brown University marine ecologist Jon Witman has found the opposite to be true: Barnacle populations thrive in vertical upwelling zones in moderately deep waters in the Galapagos Islands.

Massive Iceberg Threatens Ocean Currents

The calving of a massive iceberg off east Antarctica last week has prompted fears that the event could alter the salinity of the surrounding ocean, with damaging effects on marine life and global ocean currents.

Census discovers 5000 marine species

A preview of the Census of Marine Life has revealed that the project has discovered over 5,000 new species. The final report from the decade-long census will be released in October 2010. A major aim of the census is to provide the scientific support for the establishment of a global network of marine protected areas to prevent damage from fishing and other human activity. Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, a marine biologist from the UK's University of Plymouth, said that delicate coral reefs were under threat from deep-sea trawling.

Update: Diving Borneo

Read rave reviews of the diving around Sipadan and Sabah at the SCUBA Travel Malaysia directory.

Free Guide to Underwater Photography

Underwater photography is the most challenging type of photography one can undertake. It is also one of the fastest growing segments, due to the rapid drop in the price of underwater camera housings over the last 10 years. UWPhotographyGuide.com is the first free comprehensive online guide to underwater photography to assist divers and photographers in learning this difficult art.

Sea of Cortez Marine Life Declines Dramatically

In just ten years life in the Sea of Cortez (Mexico) has declined at a shocking rate. The cause is highly destructive new fishing methods. Traditional hook-and-line fisherman have been put out of business by vastly more damaging gill net fishing and hookah diving. Hookah fishermen use surface-supplied air through piping that allows them to walk along the seafloor for long periods of time.

Warmer seas may rob corals and rainforests of clouds

Rising ocean temperatures might leave coral reefs in seriously hot water - without clouds for protection. Five years ago Graham Jones and his team at Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, demonstrated that algae living in coral tissue produce a gas called dimethyl sulphide (DMS). When released into the atmosphere, DMS helps clouds form over coral reefs. Jones says that the clouds block sunlight and cool the sea. His team have now discovered that a rise in ocean temperature of only 2 degrees C causes some algae to stop producing DMS. As a result, fewer clouds will form over the coral, thinks Jones, allowing more sunlight to shine on the water, warming it still more.

Update: Underwater wreck photos

SCUBA Travel have added many new images to their wreck diving photo gallery, including those of the Carnatic in the Red Sea.

Evidence of Rapid Sea Rise Found in Coastal Cave in Mediterranean

An examination of mineral deposits in a coastal cave on the Spanish island of Mallorca shows evidence of rapid rises and declines in sea level as the planet warmed and cooled.

Lost leviathans: Hunting the world's missing whales

New science is confirming old whalers' tales of seas teeming with the beasts - and undermining claims that it's time to reload the harpoons. Old chronicles tell of populations of whales hundreds of times greater than today. Such tales have long been dismissed as exaggerations, but could they be true? Have humans killed such a staggering number of whales? New genetic techniques for analysing whale populations, alongside a growing archive of fresh historical analysis, suggest so. Taken together, they indicate that we have got our ideas about marine ecology completely upside down: whales may once have been the dominant species in the world's oceans.

Creature of the month: cornetfish

Trumpetfish, Cornetfish or Flutemouth? Whatever you call it, Fistularia commersonii is the SCUBA Travel creature of the month. The long, tubular fish you see hovering in the waters of the Red Sea, Sea of Cortez, Indian and Pacific Oceans, waiting to ambush prey like the lionfish.

Cites backs ban on bluefin tuna

The United Nations (UN)-backed wildlife trade agency said Friday it supported a proposed ban on the international trade in bluefin tuna, a delicacy in Asia, which is due to be examined by 175 countries next month. Japan has opposed the ban proposed by Monaco, which would classify the fish as a species threatened with extinction, CITES officials said.

Predatory jumbo squid invade California waters

More than 1000 jumbo flying squid, or Humboldt squid, have been landed the shores of California since Thursday night last week, prompting concerns that this season's rising ocean temperatures due to the El Nino effect could lead to a squid invasion unparalleled for nearly a decade.

Update: Diving Thailand

SCUBA Travel have added more on diving the Gulf of Thailand to their Thailand dive directory.

SCUBA news from around the world

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