Maldives:  Divers at Kuredu are more used to watching the marine life than handling it but divers stepping in to help a turtle who had got tangled in a net.  Well done to the team who gently freed the turtle on board the boat before releasing him back into the water to swim happily away.   Down around Male the manta sightings continue to come in thick and fast on Orion which what seems a manta dive every day!

Socorro:  Sail out Revillagigedos and  you never know what you might just run into.  And it was a day for big encounters at Socorro island this week! Divers on Solmar V had great giant manta encounters on every dive, found a big tiger shark towards the end of dive two and watched as a whale shark circled from above on dive 3! To top it off, during the surface interval they watched humpback whales gently swim past the boat!

Want your own piece of diving magic? Check out our special offers

Maldives: This week was the start of our new Southern Atolls itinerary in the Maldives on Aquarius and what a start to the season they have enjoyed!  Sharks are what we were expecting and sharks are what they have got!  Around 50 baby reef sharks were found at Huvadhoo, 2 turtles, an eagle ray, 2 octopuses and few Napoleons.

Galapagos:  Diving legend Peter Hughes himself let us know how the diving has been in the Galapagos last week as he enjoyed his time on Galapagos Sky.  As well as the “usual” hammerheads in their hundreds and seemingly thousands, there was a rare sighting of a tiger shark at Darwin Arch.  And a late season whaleshark to round off the big fish tally.

Does your logbook need an injection of big fish sightings?

Once you arrive in Male, the capital of the Maldives you will be whisked down to Addu atoll (Gaan) by plane to join your liveaboard home for the week. Once the check dive is over, the pelagic action begins in earnest. Kuda Kandu is ideal for watching reef sharks as well as eagle rays. Mulikolhu Fara is otherwise known as Manta Point – they are simply huge here – prepare to be amazed! Adduu is also home to one of the few wreck dives in the Maldives, the British Loyalty which was torpedoed in the Second World War. Lying on her starboard side, the Loyalty is the ideal recreational wreck with a max depth of 33m with magnificent coral growth. From Addu your next stop off point is Foammulah. Prepare to come face to face with tiger sharks and silver tip sharks. These incredible fish patrol the deep walls that surround Foamulah north and South. Your final atoll is Huvadhoo as the boat continues her journey north. The lagoon inside Huvadhoo is one of the deepest in the Maldives and the shifting currents are ideal for yet more shark sightings, including occasional whalesharks.

The Sharks of the South itinerary will suit any diver that has explored the north and central Maldives but not yet ventured this far south. Few divers travel this way and you are certain of week far from the madding crowd. Due to the remote nature of the dive sites, Sharks of the South is more suitable for experienced divers and there is a good focus on drift diving. 17 dives are on offer over a nerve tingling week that will stand out for all the right reasons. Think you have dived the Maldives? Think again! 5th February save £445 now only £1750 Aquarius in the Maldives… Keep up to date with this weeks latest diving news!

Shark Guardian of the Year!		Express Speedboat Diving
Scuba Travel would like to congratulate Royal evolution for becoming the Shark Guardian of the year 2012. Playing an essential role in the catching of 4 Yemeni fishing boats and removing over 11km of lone lines releasing sharks as they did so. This required alot of courage bravery and skills. Well done guys! The Shark Guardian award is given by the Shark Project International		Divers can now reach the world-famous coral reefs of the Straits of Tiran in Sharm El Sheikh in less than 20 minutes with Camel Dive Club’s new express speedboat service. Camel runs up to three dive trips and three separate snorkelling excursions every day by speedboat. The ‘early bird’ dive trip at 7am provides an ideal opportunity to explore the famous Tiran reefs, and a chance to spot the schooling hammerhead sharks near Jackson Reef at a time when most other divers will still be having breakfast. Camel also plans late afternoon dives during the summer months.
Scuba Diving is good for your waistline! “Scuba diving provides a full body workout that combines cardio and strength training to burn calories, tone muscles and even improve breathing” says Theresa Kaplan, director of communications for The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI). “Although your body is buoyant underwater and you feel virtually weightless while scuba diving, maneuvering through water requires constant motion by your entire body, thus toning and strengthening muscles in your thighs, shoulders and your core.”In fact, just 30 minutes of scuba diving can burn up to 400 calories for the average woman. Most diving excursions last about 30 to 45 minutes, so depending on the diver’s experience level and the type of dive, it’s not uncommon to burn 500+ calories during one workout.

Check out our latest holiday offers not to be missed

Camel-Red Sea		Mistral-Red Sea		Orion-Maldives		Galapagos
Stay at one of the friendliest hotels in the heart of Sharm el Sheikh. With a dive centre known for its excellence you can’t go wrong!		A luxury little ship dedicated to making your diving holiday first class. A perfect choice for new, seasoned, photographers or even technical divers!		Awe inspiring encounters on a liveaboard that delivers hotel standards across the board. On Orion you are always in the safe hands of experts!		Adrenaline charged heart pounding dives that you will remember for the rest of your life. Tick the Galpagos off your list with this amazing offer!
From only £445!		From only £695!		Save £450!		Save £1000!

©2012 Scuba Travel Worldwide Holidays ATOL Protected

0800 072 8221

Scuba Travel have teamed up exclusively with Royal Evolution making your liveaboard holiday to Sudan a truly memorable experience. Don’t fancy unnecessary overnights in Cairo? Wary of Sudanese airlines and bureaucracy? Let Scuba Travel fly you direct into Marsa Alam to join Royal Evolution on an unrivaled voyage of discovery of the incredible waters of Sudan and the deep southern Red Sea.

Royal Evolution’s experienced team will deal with all visa requirements too. So all you have to do is splash into the seldom dived water and wait for the sharks to pass. At Scuba Travel, we think diving Sudan should always be this simple!

A two week holiday from Port Galib to Sudan on the outstanding Royal Evolution starts from as little as £2245 including direct flights from Gatwick to Marsa Alam

Royal Evolution’s design makes light work of the distances between Port Ghalib and Sudan. Taking in the spectacles of Fury Shoal and St Johns on the way, divers reach the reefs of Sanganeb, Angarosh and Sha’ab Rumi feeling relaxed and raring to go. Sharks, manta and wrecks, Egypt and Sudan – this tour has it all.

Photography in Indonesia

Are you a budding photographer? Want somewhere extra special for your 2012 diving holiday? Well it is hard to beat North Sulawesi, widely recognised by underwater photographers as THE place to take your camera. But if you don’t want to risk a trip to Indonesia and be disappointed with your pics, then why not brush up your camera skills with our dedicated photography expedition. Paul “Duxy” Duxfield of the brilliant Ocean Leisure Cameras team will be leading a trip to both Bunaken and Lembeh in September 2012. There will be 1:1 sessions, presentations and workshops along with a host of world class dives, all planned to help you get more out of your camera. And of course, a lot of laughs along the way too!

So what is it that makes this such a special destination for photographers? Well for starters the variety of photo opps in North Sulawesi is impressive. Lembeh is the undisputed critter capital of the diving world. The black sands, crazy macro life and calm sees make Lembeh a must see stop off. Get your macro lens working in overdrive in shallow waters. The list of unusual sightings in Sulawesi seems never ending. You can find seahorses and nudibranchs are in abundance. Then there are the Inimicus devilfish, dwarf lionfish, scorpionfish, pufferfish, mimic octopus, pegasus sea moths, frogfish, ribbon eels and flying gurnards. And this is just the tip of the critter iceberg! Move over to the Bunaken national park and swap to your wide angle for some classic wall shots as you drift along in endlessly good viz. On the wall dives turtles, eagle rays and napoleons are all common.

Go tek in Sri Lanka

Tek wreck diving has never been a hotter topic and it is at the forefront of diving exploration, constantly pushing the limits of our knowledge and endurance. But it is also a great excuse to travel to diving destinations few divers have ever seen. And this could not be truer than with our Ceylon Get Wrecked  itinerary in Sri Lanka. Visit this virgin wreck diving destination in true Scuba Travel comfort on board the liveaboard Aquarius and with our tek guru Mark Powell this June.

Now that peace has come to the country, the North East of Sri Lanka has opened up… giving tek divers access to the remarkable HMS Hermes to name just one of the newly discovered wrecks. The Hermes was the a pioneering aircraft carrier which met her watery end in 1942. Now she sits upright at 53m – perfect for exploration. This is a massive vessel and well worth several dives through the decks and superstructure (30-40m). Tek wiz Mark will be running courses during the whole week so you can improve your skills to get even more out of your dives.

Some of the sights surfaceside

Fancy diving Indonesia in 2012 but not sure where to go?  Then check out our exciting new Best of Indonesia tour, departing November 2012.

This remarkable dive tour takes in the absolute best dive sites in a part of the world that is recognised as one of the world’s all time greatest dive destinations. Now you have the option to dive not only Bunaken national park and Lembeh but also Raja Ampat in one inspirational tour.

Colourful critters await

Pristine reefs, giant manta, rare critters and big fish all make an appearance.  Each section of the tour has it’s own special highlight.  Endlessly deep walls to drift along, drenched in soft corals await at Bunaken.  The world’s smallest, rarest and strangest critters are found in Lembeh.  And Raja Ampat?  Well where to start.  This is the pelagic capital but the reef diving will surpass all expectations too.

Fully escorted by the friendly and wonderful team at Dive Safaris Asia, the team take all the hassle out of moving about in Indonesia.  Mix up the phenomenal diving with land based excursions (who fancies checking out a live volcano or seeing the unique birds of paradise?) to really give you a flavour of just how incredible Indonesia can be. The group is kept intentionally small at a max of 14 people and the resorts carefully chosen for their superb service and fast access to prime diving locations.

Call today for more information or to book your space!

Fancy getting away from it all?

Tempted by the Maldives this winter? Not only do we have incredible savings with hundreds of pounds, but there has never been a better time of year to dive the Maldives than right now. The weather is flat, the water an inviting 27 degrees and there are regular weekly departures on liveaboards that ooze quality.  All trips are loving wrapped up with Scuba Travel’s award winning service.  What’s not to love! The diving is off the charts and regularly ranks as one of the top dive destinations in the world.

A night dive to remember

Try out our Best of the Maldives itinerary for the ultimate dive rush. This itinerary will get you up close to massive mantas – watch in awe as huge rays swoop in to be cleaned. Reef sharks, greys and even whalesharks await. Feel the thrill as you drift through channel dives. Enjoy the show on Orion as schools of snapper and bait fish chase around the reef. You can even watch reef sharks and morays feast on a phenomenal night dive at Maya thila.

Want to get off the beaten track? Then head to the remote Southern Atolls where the big fish sightings come in thick and fast. This is an advanced itinerary on Aquarius which will wow anyone who wants that something extra special…. and shark sightings you can really boast about.

Rays of all shapes and sizes!

Never been to the Maldives before?  Then why not take a trip on Monsoon?  The remote northern Atolls are heady mix of dives.  Here you can drift along classic wall dives, go exploring on shallow thilllas, watch baby sharks at Orimas or be surrounded by turtles at Kuredu Caves.  With night dives every night, no one does more diving than Monsoon

For more info on our Maldives Special offers check out our website

Or call the travel team on 0800 072 8221 for first hand experience

All of team have dived these itineraries

The 24th of September 1944 was another bad day for the Japanese Imperial Navy. Having suffered persistent air attacks in Manilla harbour the remaining Japanese shipping was ordered to take up safer anchorage in the Calamian Islands, North Palawan. Resting in the shelter of Coron Bay, the Japanese ships must have considered they were safe, over three hundred miles away from the US carrier fleet East of Leyte. However the Japanese ship movements had been detected by the US Pacific Fleet and Task Force 38, launched from US carriers, descended on them that morning in a surprise attack. The Japanese anti aircraft defences were no match for the US Helldiver dive bombers and by the end of the morning eleven ships were sunk or severely disabled in Coron Bay and surrounding area.

The final moments before the raid!

Head honcho Andy relaxing at the end of a day's work

A bad day for the Japanese Imperial Navy but a good day for Andrew Pownall!  Andrew originally hails from the UK and has inherited his love of diving from his father, who was a professional dive salvage operator. He came to this part of the Philippines in 1986 as part of a research team surveying and excavating ancient Chinese Junks sunk centuries before. He fell in love with this enchanting part of North Palawan and in 1992 bought Sangat Island, opening the resort 2 years later. Sangat resort is within easy reach of eight of the Japanese wrecks!

The wrecks were just the reason I had come to the exotic and remote part of the Philippines at the end of November. This special wreck trip was to be escorted by our wreck guru Mike Ward, but when he had to withdraw at the last minute I “volunteered” to take his place. This required travelling to Yorkshire for a familiarisation of the excellent materials Mike had prepared, followed by intensive reading of two “tomes” on The War in the Pacific. My Wartime History and Pacific Geography considerably improved, I couldn’t wait to get down to some serious wreck exploration.

The journey to Sangat was easy enough, after a night in Manilla we took the short flight to Busuanga airport and then mini bus transfer to Coron town, where we boarded a Banca for the 40 minute trip to Sangat Resort. By this time I had hooked up with the rest of the party, a really nice bunch. Six of the party were from Selsey Bil. BSAC. (Carol, Malcolm,Tony,Keith, Graham and Sue). Turns out they had been travelling with us for many years and had dived on Angelina II back in the early 90′s. Graham still had one of the first Tornado Marine T shirts from way back when. Also along was Steve and Kerry, again experienced divers with some good stories, and Owen, who I had enjoyed diving with in Sumatra. On the boat trip from Coron to Sangat we really began to soak up the the tropical atmosphere, slipping along the glassy smooth sea weaving among steep jungle clad islands before arriving to a warm welcome Philippine style and a slap up lunch. We soon felt really at home in our tropical paradise, warm smiles and the ‘nothing is too much trouble’ attitude was the hallmark of Sangat Resort. By the first evening all the staff seem to know our names and would call a friendly greeting every time we met. The resort is built along a strip of beach on what is otherwise a steep mountainous jungle clad island, no other inhabitants except the troupe of Macaque Monkeys that come to visit at breakfast time.

The perfect Robinson Crusoe island resort awaits

The next day we were introduced to the diving operation, headed up by Jojo. Jojo, a German with a sense of humour, is also settled in the Philippines and has been diving in this area for 15 years. As I found out later, his knowledge of the wrecks was invaluable when making complex tours of the historic ships. Apart from the proximity to the wreck sites another huge plus was the excellent dive boats. As we were all expecting to dive from the traditional Banca, it came as a nice surprise to find that the dive operation had a whole range of fast outboard skiffs and larger purpose build dive boats. Our group was allocated an excellent trimaran ‘Trident’ with loads of room, easy access in and out of the water and even a loo.

And so to the wrecks. Apart from the rather warmer water (around 30 degrees C), the way of diving the wrecks was similar to in the UK. The wrecks are buoyed and it’s a descent down the line, sometimes in current, and often in 10 – 15 meters visibility. The first thing that we found remarkable was the amount of growth and life on the wrecks. We all know that wrecks form artificial reefs but the abundance of life was quite incredible. Every inch of the outside of the ships was a veritable forest of hard corals teeming with animals that you would expect to find on a vibrant reef. Once inside the wreck the need for an experienced local guide became apparent. Every dive presented an intriguing maize of corridors and passages, engine rooms, boilers, control rooms, munitions, pumps and machinery. You can even swim down the prop shaft of one of the wrecks and come out by the rudder. There are lots of everyday items as well, galleys still full of rice pans, a sewing machine and even a bicycle resting where it was stowed all those years ago.

As the trip went on I became better at identifying the various artefacts and got the hang of taking photos without kicking up too much silt. Day by day we discovered more of the interiors of these time capsules, and also to became familiar with their names, The Akitushima with it’s huge crane, The Kogya Maru with it’s bulldozer, The Irako with it’s galley complete with pots and pans, and so on. Every dive was an adventure.

Although the wrecks are the big attraction here there was no shortage of variety of other dives. The house reef provided excellent shore and night dives, a small colony of sea horses reside just off the beach in a couple of meters of water. Ever enthusiastic Owen went night diving every evening and came back with reports of a huge variety of creatures, ghost pipe fish, sleeping bamboo sharks, and spanish dancers to name but a few. We enjoyed a day trip to Black island where there is yet another wreck in blue water on the edge of the South China Sea. The boat crew conjured up an excellent 3 course lunch out of no-where and took us ashore to visit a huge cave.

Another nice interlude was a visit to the warm water springs in the Mangroves on the West of the island where you can relax in deliciously warm water with an after-dive beer. The Sangat Gunboat provided a rewarding third dive, and if you really want a different diving experience how about Barracuda Lake on Coron island. Jojo took a few of us there on the last day and it was certainly a unique experience. No suit needed we were told, and we could see why when we descended into water that was 34 degrees. What was really remarkable was as you went deeper the water became a cooking 38 degrees! In places you could clearly see the halocline.

The days seemed to fly by and the evenings were filled up with wonderful meals and wreck stories around the bar. All too soon it was time to leave our paradise island and head back home. As Sue commented after the trip:

“Wrecks, hot springs, wild monkeys, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, enough food to make you really fat, delicious cocktails, a beach that was like silk to walk on and only the sound of the sea. Aaaaahhhhhh.”

Take a look at Tony’s pics from the trip:

Tony in the Philippines
By Scuba Travel  |  View on Facebook

Who are they?

Tank Bangers started off life as a group of dive instructors in Egypt who had some time to kill.  They made a spoof underwater music video to the Queen fave Bohemian Rhapsody to pass the time and it was met with an enthusiastic response.  Given this sucess, the team then decided to get more serious and this time to write their own song and shoot a video with the purpose of sharing their love of the water and hopefully encouraging others to protect it!

“The Tank Bangers aim to unite marine focused conservation groups and research initiatives around the world. Together we can shout a louder message that warns against the continued mistreatment of our world.”

The finished product

The finished video is 7 minutes long and has not only some stunning footage but it is a rather catchy ditty too!  Behind the scenes the team have logged literally hundreds of dives and thousands of takes over 10 months to get to the final cut.  But worth every moment – we hope you agree

How can you help?

It is simple to show your support for the Tank Bangers – donate!  Share the video with your friends!  Sing the song!  Enjoy