Scuba Diving Blog | The Sub2o by DiveAdvisor.com

The Unique Diving of Guam

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Often overlooked, the island of Guam is surrounded by fantastic diving. White sand beaches and calm, clear waters invite divers to explore the ocean and see the healthy coral and plentiful fish populations below. Guam has over 1000 species of reef fish and 375 species of corals.

Located in the Marianas Archipelago, Guam is the largest island in Micronesia. Guam is a territory of the United States and its official languages are English and Chamorro. And because it is a popular destination for Japanese visitors, Japanese is also widely spoken.

Great diving can be found around the entire island, depending on wind and other weather conditions – some areas are seasonal. Guam played a role in both WWI and WWII, leaving behind wrecks from both wars, which are in recreational dive limits and great dives. The best probably being the SMS Cormoran and the Tokai Maru, the only dive site in the world where a WWI and WWII wreck touch underwater.

Located in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean, Guam is isolated. Guam is an eight-hour flight from Hawaii and four hours from Japan. The island has a good road system and renting cars is usually affordable and easy. The island is only 30 miles (48k) long and 12 miles (19k) wide.

Without proper diving resorts, the dive shops on Guam cater to divers with boat charters that dive around the island and by providing information for shore diving and tank rentals. Guam has more than 60 dive sites and most individual dive shops will dive many different sites around the entire island, making it easy for a diver to see all the best dive sites with one shop.

There is no liveaboard in Guam. Sometimes boat charters go to the same sites that can be accessed by shore. The shore diving should not be underestimated, as it is all easy entries and great dives.

Guam has a tropical climate with hot and humid weather year-round. Air temperatures average 80F (26C), the water is warm (28C/84F), and conditions are usually calm. The rainy season is from September to December but is usually mild, while December to April can be windy. Diving occurs year round. Summer has the calmest conditions, but also the hottest.

Dive Sites & Marine Life

Located just above the equator in the North Pacific Ocean, Guam has warm waters all year round and plenty of biodiversity underwater to keep any diver happy. Dive sites include beautiful coral reefs, stunning walls and wreck dives.

Diving occurs around the entire island, although conditions are better in different areas during different times of the year due to wind and weather. Many sites can be dived from shore and easily accessed via beach entries.

Boat diving is also common for sites further away or for harbor dives where boat traffic can be hazardous. Water temps of 28C (84F) all year usually require only a rash guard or a 1mm wetsuit.

Gun Beach is a fantastic shore dive located at the end of Tumon, the most popular tourist area where most of the major hotels are. Divers walk in off the pristine white sand beach to a carpet of healthy hard corals that cover the site. Many colorful reef fish are found here and turtles and rays are also often seen.

Two other popular dive sites are Gab Gab 1 and Gab Gab 2, which can be accessed by shore or boat. Shore entry is on the military base so only authorized persons can enter the area, but anyone can access by boat and most dive shops dive these sites.

Gab Gab 1 runs along the shoreline and is home to many green sea turtles often found sleeping in crevasses. Getting further from shore, numerous anemones drape over the coral with many resident anemone fish. Gab Gab 2 is further offshore, and where Guam’s Atlantis Submarine visits several times a day. This site reliably has white tip sharks, giant trevallies, schools of batfish, and grouper.

Fish Eye is another popular shore dive to the Fish Eye Marine Park, which has a built semi-submerged observatory with windows for people to view fish and other marine life in the ocean without diving. Divers can dive around this structure and wave in to the non-divers inside. This site also has healthy coral and many reef fish species.

Guam is the only place in the world where a WWI and WWII wreck have sank side by side and can be dived in one dive. The SMS Cormoran was a German merchant ship from WWI, and the Tokai Maru was a Japanese freighter. There is a point where the two ships touch, and a diver can touch both at the same time. Also in the harbor is a Japanese Val bomber and the Kitsugawa Maru.

Just off the southern tip of Guam is Cocos Island, a small island with a barrier reef surrounding it, making for excellent drift dives along the deep walls around the island. Currents often bring pelagics including hammerheads and other sharks, turtles, and rays.

Dive Shops & Logistics

Unfortunately, Guam is a long flight from just about everywhere. The Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport (GUM) receives flights daily from Honolulu and Los Angeles in the USA, as well as Australia, Japan, and other Asian destinations.

Guam is also a connection point to many of Micronesia’s best diving locations including Palau and Chuuk, so a stopover in Guam for divers going to those locations is easy and definitely recommended. As a United States territory, visas are required to those who would need a visa to enter the United States.

Guam has several dive shops and most cater to both English and Japanese speaking divers. Shops such as Micronesian Diver’s Association (MDA) have several locations, multiple boats, and depart from multiple harbors, allowing a diver to dive all around the island with the same shop. MDA has been in business for over 30 years and is reputable in its PADI training as one of the largest PADI training centers in the United States.

They also have a large retail section with a wide variety of brands and gear. MDA’s boats reach more than 60 dive sites around the island including the popular wreck dives and Cocos Island. They run multiple daily boat charters including special charters such as all day wreck charters.

Another reputable and popular dive shop is Guam Tropical Dive Station, which also offers training and daily boat dives, and is multilingual. They also specialize in combo tours that include diving and snorkeling so non-divers can go on the trip too.

Sugary white sand and easy beach entries make shore diving on Guam popular. MDA can rent tanks and gear to certified divers and give divers briefings, suggesting where to dive and what can be seen. Shore diving maps are also available.

MDA has nitrox to rent to nitrox-certified divers, although not usually necessary for the shore diving. Wreck divers will appreciate the extra bottom time on sites such as the Tokai Maru and SMS Cormoran. Guam does not have proper diving resorts, but shops such as MDA can also help organize hotels and rental cars as needed.

Often overlooked by dive travelers, most will find few tourists diving in Guam, but there is a healthy population of local divers eager to share their diving. American military bases on Guam bring in many Americans who learn to dive and continue to dive while they are stationed in Guam.

Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Papua New Guinea isn't easy to get to, but the diving in Milne Bay is worth the long journey. Often said to be one of the world’s best dive destinations, Papua New Guinea is known for both its great reef diving and its muck diving. I had the opportunity to spend a week on a liveaboard exploring the 600+ islands of Milne Bay, and it did not disappoint.

Off the Beaten Path

Off the beaten path is an understatement. The Milne Bay region is found at the far southeastern corner of New Guinea. The region's capital is Alotau, a small town accessed only by plane or boat.

One bumpy road runs through Alotau, continuing about 15km in one direction and 90km in the other, both terminating at the jungle and ocean. Papua New Guinea in itself is one of the most remote places in the world, and Milne Bay is remote within Papua New Guinea.

What does that mean for divers? Well, for one, you won’t find many other divers. We didn’t see another dive boat or liveaboard our whole trip. It was like having the ocean all to ourselves.

Healthy Marine Ecosystem

Milne Bay has a small population and only about 160 of the 600 islands are inhabited. With such little human interference from development or pollution (both in the form of runoff and garbage) there has been little damage to the underwater environment in the area.

People fish for food, but they use small dugout canoes and hand-lines, so they don’t overfish the area the way large commercial fishing boats do.

Diversity

Location is everything. Located on the east corner of the coral triangle between the Coral Sea and the Solomon Sea, the waters around Papua New Guinea are some of the most bio diverse in the world. Not only is the marine life diverse, there are a variety of types of diving too.

Everything about the reef diving is “big,” with huge barrel sponges, sea fans, and fish. Offshore coral bommies have sheer walls covered in life descending hundreds of feet. Sharks and rays can be seen darting past the bommies. For macro-lovers, the muck diving is out of this world- and Milne Bay was also where muck diving was discovered.

To make it even better, the visibility is significantly better than some of the other popular muck diving locals. There is also far less garbage, so the creatures live in their natural homes and not discarded bottles and old shoes.

The Diving

We started our trip off at Gona Bara Bara, a manta cleaning station, where we sat in the sand around a large coral head and five mantas with wingspans of12ft came in and hovered above us while small reef fish cleaned them. While swimming back to the boat from the cleaning station, we found sapphire flatworms and several nudibranchs in the patchy seagrass.

Close to the manta cleaning station was the dock of Samarai Island. Diving below the Samarai Warf, the wooden pillars supported corals and sea fans. Schools of batfish and barracuda live under the warf, and near dusk the light filters through the pillars. There were also several large cuttlefish hanging around the bottom, blending in with their surroundings, making them almost invisible.

In the deep-water channels between islands, coral bommies rose up from hundreds of feet that made oases for marine life. With little disturbance, the corals and sponges have grown to be unexpectedly large and purple, and pink anthias seemed to buzz like bees over the coral. Out in the blue, we saw gray reef sharks, hammerheads, and turtles.

Several of the islands had black sand beaches, and just below the surface was a muck diver’s dream. Careful eyes could find hundreds of species of nudibranchs, seahorses, frogfish, ghost pipefish, and all the weird and wonderful critters of the muck. The rare rhinopia is a common site in Milne Bay as well as stonefish, pygmy seahorses, stargazers, and other scorpion fish.

Curious children and local fisherman paddled out to our boat and watched in awe as we put on our dive gear and disappeared into the water. On several dives we had to be careful, especially when surfacing, as to not hit our heads on a canoe. Always friendly, the islanders showed us their carvings, shells, and beaded jewelry for sale.

The exceptional diving of Papua New Guinea is enough to please even the most spoiled diver, with the best of both the big, the little, and the weird of the ocean.

Sharks of the Bahamas

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Diving with Sharks in the Bahamas has come a long way since the 70’s James Bond movies. Today the Bahamas host a very long list of tourist attractions catering to the daily cruise-ship crowds descending on the islands for a short stay and travelers from near and far seeking its sunny white sand beaches.

Diving in the Bahamas offers exceptional rewards by way of comfortable weather, sunny skies, crystal clear waters and relatively healthy reefs. Considering the annual hurricane season, barrage of cruise ships docking daily at each of its ports and the tourism driven commercialism, the Bahamas are faring well.

Geography

A short hop from the east coast of the US, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas consists of over 700 islands and cays stretching between southern part of Florida to the north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti). Only 30-40 of its islands are inhabited with New Providence (home to capital city of Nassua), Grand Bahama and Great Inagua being among the largest and most developed islands.

The climate in the archipelago is subtropical, consisting of two seasons, with average high temperatures ranging between 77-89F and average low temperatures rarely falling below 62F.

The Bahamas are well within the Hurricane belt - officially lasting from June to November. Most hurricanes in the Bahamas occur between July and October. It’s worth mentioning that the highest point in the Bahamas (Mount Alvernia on Cat Island) is only 63m above sea level.

Access

The islands can be reached by numerous daily flights from several major airports on the east coast, Florida being the dominant. Visa on arrival can be arranged at Nassau’s international airport for short stays. Other Islands within the archipelago can be reached internationally or through domestic airlines.

As the islands “developed”, to cater to tourists and maximize their potential, dive shops evolved to well oiled operations with air conditioned storefronts, fleet of dive boats, and in some cases even individual submarine-enabling submersion without the use of SCUBA gear. Some dive shops are geared to serve divers from cruise ships timing the dives to match their schedule.

Anatomy of a shark dive

Shark dives evolved as one of the main attraction on these islands since encounters were abundant and almost unavoidable. To improve probability of encounters and increase excitement levels, operators moved to guided shark feeding dives.

Similar to many other shark dives across the globe, these dives are well scripted and rely heavily on behavioral conditioning of the sharks, taking place at designated times and locations.

Typically the boat leaves the dive shop equipped for a two-tank dive. Both dives are typically conducted in the same area. The first dive leads the divers to a nearby attraction, such as a wreck or reef where sharks can be observed casually while passing by.

This dive allows the operators to measure each diver’s experience level and ensure that they can handle the encounters. Second dive is the real deal.

During the surface interval between the two dives, the team, led by the wranglers, will provide a brief that covers the topography of the dive site, diver arrangement in the arena, the importance of extra weights (to ensure comfortable sitting at the bottom, especially after inhaling half of your tank’s air w/o exhaling), and dos and don’ts and emergency scenarios.

U/W photographers receive some additional attention to ensure they understand the potential risks associated with abandoning their assigned posts and most importantly, how operating their gear can be interpreted by the sharks as snack offerings.

After reaching the bottom, the dive guides position each diver in a designated area. In the Bahamas it usually means sitting on the withe sand bottom in a circle roughly 30-40ft in diameter.

The wrangler, wearing a still mesh suit and helmet, is positioned at the center of the ring, usually with a small chum bucket, and before you know it, the 10-20 sharks that were going in and out of view a few minutes ago all rush toward the center of the arena waiting for their treats.

Words cannot do justice to the ensuing frenzy. The commotion created by divers’ air bubbles draws the sharks circling above closer and they gradually become more excited. As tension builds up, their movements become faster and more erratic, and soon what looked like vultures circling above in slow motion turns into missiles shooting in and out of the circle. At this point collisions are unavoidable.

Drawn by pieces of chum and seeking the fastest way to it, sharks pay little to no attention to the divers and occasionally hit them in an attempt to outswim others. Smells of floating chum and the overall commotion draws several other species of large fish.

The show goes on for about 15-25min depending on depth. Once the chum bucket is nearly emptied out, things slow down a bit and it is at this point that the wrangler might choose to display an act of “dare-devil-ness” attempting to put one of the sharks in a catatonic state by turning it on its back and offering some divers to get closer.

Ethical and environmental implications of shark feeding are subject to individual values. Shark dives may attract divers seeking the opportunity of facing sharks or force them to choose a more environmentally conscious dive shop. In either case, safety and awareness are key, and should not be taken lightly.

Jurassic Encounters at Komodo Island National Park

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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For many warm water divers, Indonesia, the largest archipelago on the planet, is the holy grail of dive destinations, as the most diverse waters in the world. Laying between the Pacific and Indian oceans, Indonesia encompasses 10-15% of the world’s coral reefs and is home to over 3000 different species – over 25% of the planet’s fish species.

Even the most novice divers are familiar with at least one of Indonesia’s many world-class destinations - the resort studded white sand beaches of Bali and Lombok, the unparalleled bio-diversity of Raja-Ampat, Sulawesi’s endless shoreline, the thrilling current of Alor, and the mysterious Island of West Papua.

Perhaps the most prevailing truth about Indonesia, stemming from its vastness, is the improbability of true knowledge of its underwater secrets.

Geography

Spanning over 3000 miles east to west and 1000 miles north to south, only 6000 of Indonesia’s 17000 islands are inhabited. Due to its location, disperse geography and the state of transportation infrastructure, travel to and diving in Indonesia requires time and planning.

To reach most dive destinations, short of Bali, one needs to enter the country through its few international airports (Serviced by a wide range of airlines) and use domestic budget airlines to reach the destination region. From there, additional air, car, and boat transports are to be arranged to reach the final destination. All of the above lead to the popularity and in some cases the practicality of liveaboards in Indonesia.

Komodo National Park, located between East and West Nusa Tenggara provinces is probably known most as the last stronghold of the Komodo dragon – world’s largest lizard.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site the park includes 3 larger islands (Komodo, Padar and Rinca) along with several smaller Islands. The national park and the dragons are subject for another entry; it suffices to say that no visit to the region is complete w/o seeing these Jurassic creatures in their natural habitat.

How to get there

My first visit to Komodo was unplanned; I was unable to follow my original itinerary in Bali/Lombok, and based on advice from several local divers, I decided to take my chances and head to Labuan Bajo – the main gateway to Komodo Islands.

Air transfers to Labuan Bajo can be arranged domestic budget airlines (Lion air, IAT, Merpati Air) from Bali (Denpasar) and Jakarta as well as some less known airports. Due to the size of crafts servicing this area, travelers should be aware of strict weight and size restrictions imposed by the airlines.

A boat ride from Bali or Lombok to Labuan Bajo will take 4 days and three nights, during which you’ll sleep on the deck exposed to the elements. Less than 2 miles away from the airport, the town is a short taxi ride away. Accommodations on the island can suit any need and budget ranging from basic shared rooms and huts to 5-star eco-friendly resorts just outside of town.

Labuan Bajo has a handful of dive shops, operating daily boat trips, as well as several liveaboard operators. It is worth noting that services and appearances in Indonesia in general and Labuan Bajo in particular are not in par with many other countries.

Neon signs and air-conditioned storefronts are rare; many of the dive operators have limited access to the Internet and even more limited access to international phones, making booking and educated consumerism harder.

As said, I arrived to Labuan Bajo w/o any preparations; however, in a span of one afternoon I managed to rent a bike, visit most of the dive shops, inspect the quality of their rental equipment, talk to the dive masters to get a feel for their friendliness/experience and secure accommodations.

Conditions

Moderate to strong currents are common all across Indonesia. Komodo’s geography amplifies this fact even more. Studded with endless narrow channels running between the islands, tides move in and out very quickly. Proper knowledge of the tide tables, slack times and travel time to each destination are crucial for safety as well as extended button time.

Water and surface temperatures in the region are sub tropic year round and a 5-7mm wetsuit is sufficient for most divers. In respect to proficiency, many of the dive sites require AOW certification due to depth. Divers should be comfortable with back roll or giant stride entry and confident in moderate to strong current drift dives – Reef hooks are recommended.

Practically all dive sites in the park can be reached with daily boat rides out of Labuan Bajo. Departure time is typically around 07:30, leading to the first dive around 09:30, and return to Labuan Bajo after a 3 tank dive in the late afternoon or early evening. Meals are prepared and served onboard.

Surface time before and after each dive is the perfect opportunity to enjoy the spectacular vistas and occasional unexpected encounters with turtles, dolphins or mantas near the surface.

Dive Sites

Once submerged, Komodo reveals its true wild and lively nature. The converging currents ensure that the water is always full of nutrients leading to a spectacular display of color and diversity. Coral gardens stretching far beyond the 20-30m visibility, swaying in the surge, countless schools of fish, cleaning stations crowded with mantas.

Komodo also excels and surpasses all expectations when it comes to small creatures. Amid the strong currents and large species, there is an abundance of Macro opportunities, ranging from Anemone shrimps to Pigmy seahorses, nudibranches etc.

For underwater photographers, this diversity means choosing between W/A and Macro setup but in either case each dive is promised to present amazing opportunities.

The Bizarre and Amazing Creatures of Lembeh

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Described by many as the muck diving capital of the world, Lembeh strait is also a heaven for UW photographers. Its dark waters are home to a magical and mysterious show of adaptation and beauty.

Nestled among towering volcanic peaks this narrow strait at the northern tip of Sulawesi is guaranteed to set a new standard for number and quality of unique and unforgettable encounters.

Geography

Sulawesi, world’s eleventh largest island, is located at the center of the Indonesian archipelago. Remote and isolated, the island consists of 5 peninsulas physically separated by high volcanic peaks, stretching from its center to the deep seas surrounding it.

The central part of the island is rugged and mountainous; to the extent the 5 peninsulas have been isolated from each other. Access to adjacent points in the island is typically made by sea rather than land.

Lembeh strait is a narrow water corridor flanked from west by Bitung, a harbor city at the Northern tip of Sulawesi, and Lembeh Island from east.

Access

Manado, the provincial capital, acts as the main gateway to N. Sulawesi. Its international airport provides regular flights from various destinations within Indonesia as well as Singapore and Davao by SilkAir. Visa on Arrival can be obtained for many passport holders (including US) for a $25 fee. Overstays are subject to fines and prison terms!

Most visitors to Lembeh arrive in Manado with pre-arranged transport service through the dive shop/resort from Manado to Bitung. It’s a 2-3 hour car ride, averaging $60 per passenger, followed by a short 10 min boat ride to cross the strait. This is a highly recommended option due to relative remoteness of the sites, limited communication abilities of local drivers and potential for delays.

Dive conditions and attractions

Lembeh Strait is well known among divers in general and underwater photographers in particular as the best muck diving destination on the planet. Thus far, it managed to escape big tourist developments and the existing resorts and dive shops cater to dedicated divers from all corners of the world.

Arriving at Bitung’s busy and littered harbor, after a 3-hour car ride from Bunaken’s international airport, you’ll witness a bizarre sight – numerous abandoned and rusty ships, floating litter, volcanic mountain tops peaking above low-hanging clouds, and Lembeh’s most distinctive characteristic: its dark volcanic sand.

Dive operations and resorts of varying quality and size can be found on the steep water front hills on both sides of the strait – Bitung and Lembeh Island. All 50+ dive sites of the strait can be reached from any resort on a 10-20 min ride with a small boat - with the exception of the coral gardens on the ocean facing side of Lembeh Island.

Dive boats are typically small and carry no more than a handful of divers. Being a popular underwater photography destination with very limited visibility and “Macro” subjects, most operators average about 2 divers per dive guide!

Lembeh is a year round dive destination. Water temperatures range between 27-29C with July-August being the coldest months when water temperatures drop to 26C. Thermoclines are common year round and can be expected in most dives.

A 5mm full suit is highly recommended, particularly for photographers. Currents in the strait are very minimal and gentle compared to other Indonesian destinations. However, even these gentle currents present a challenge when dealing with minuscule macro subjects and the “temperamental” sandy bottom.

Rain is a daily occurrence in the area and lasts between 5-30 min. However, it has very limited impact on visibility, causes no temperature swings, and in many cases is helpful – more creatures are visible.

Perhaps now is a good time to talk about the volcanic sand. Unlike many of the tropical paradises destination divers frequent, Lembeh has a unique feature- its volcanic dark (almost black) sandy bottom. Although particularly attractive to underwater photographers as a perfect isolating background with minimal reflective quality, it presents a challenge as it can be very easily stirred and demands a unique etiquette.

As a matter of fact, all reputable dive operations in the area will request upon arrival that you watch an orientation video. This invaluable presentation will demonstrate how to avoid stirring the bottom, remaining respectful to your fellow divers and most importantly being aware of the environment and protecting the creatures.

In Lembeh, you’ll come face to face with some of nature’s best camouflaged creatures! Furthermore, Lembeh is home to some of the smallest and most poisonous UW creatures, such as the Blue Ring Octopus and Flamboyant Cuttlefish.

IMO, the best preparation one can have before visiting Lembeh is to brush up on Buoyancy control and read as many trip reports from this area as possible. I’m particularly partial to Underwater Photographers’ reports as they concentrate on creatures, behaviors, risks, and peak buoyancy.

To discuss the various creatures and behaviors to be expected in Lembeh, even to simply list them, is far beyond the scope of this short blog post.

While it’s typically touted as a muck destination, encounters with much larger fish ranging from Crocodile fish to even whale sharks are common. This very long list of unique and rare encounters doubles in length during night dives – an absolute must in Lembeh.

Diving in Lembeh is the ultimate Jurassic underwater experience belonging on any diver’s bucket list.

The SS Thistlegorm

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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I’m a dive snob. I like to dive in small groups, preferably with no other boats in sight. But sometimes the crowd makes for a phenomenal dive. One of the most dived wrecks in the world is the SS Thistlegorm, a World War II British supply ship that sank in 1941.

The wreck is easily accessed from Sharm el-Sheikh, making it a common day boat trip and, due to its unique cargo, a stop on almost every Red Sea liveaboard itinerary. Our liveaboard pulled up to the dive site early in the morning (to beat the crowds) and already two other liveaboards and one smaller boat had beaten us to it. Luckily there is plenty of room underwater for lots of divers along the 400ft ship, and the dive is definitely worth sharing.

History

The SS Thistlegorm was launched in 1940 and had been making its way around the Atlantic: to the United States to bring back steel rails and aircraft parts, to Argentina for grain, and to the West Indies for sugar and rum. Its fourth and final voyage left Glasgow for Alexandria via South Africa.

It was carrying war supplies including Bedford trucks, BSA motorcycles, armored vehicles, Wellington rubber boots, aircraft parts, rifles, land mines, ammunition, and other weaponry. On the deck were two LMS Stanier Class 8F steam locomotives for Egyptian Railways, among other miscellaneous goods.

The ship was at anchor waiting for clearance to enter the Suez Canal on the night of October 6^th, 1941, when the Germans from Crete deployed two Heinkel He 111 airplanes on a seek-and-destroy mission. The Thistlegorm was not their target, but having failed to find what they were looking for, they headed back towards Crete.

The moonlight revealed the Thistlegorm at anchor and the planes released two bombs that hit the ship. One hit contained ammunition, which caused a huge explosion; essentially ripping the ship in two before it quickly sank. A nearby British vessel was able to rescue all but nine of its crew.

Diving the Thistlegorm

The ship sank, taking its extensive cargo with it, and was not found underwater until 1955 when Jacques Cousteau used the help of local fisherman to locate it. He visited the wreck and brought home several souvenirs including a motorcycle and the ship’s bell. No one thought of the wreck again until the 1990s when a local dive shop relocated it.

Now the ship is often found buzzing with divers and also with life. Over seventy years have left the ship covered in coral, sponges, and fish life. Upon descending it is common to see crocodile fish on the top deck and brightly colored anthias around the ship’s mechanical gear. On the stern, two guns are still intact: an anti-aircraft gun and a heavy caliber machine-gun which both point down towards the ocean floor. With a maximum depth around 100ft, this is a great wreck for all levels of divers.

More advanced divers can take tours inside the wreck. Holds #1 and #2 are the most popular, and their easy swim-throughs reveal numerous Bedford trucks with their motorcycle cargo in their truck beds. Piles of tires are seen in every spare space, as are boxes of rifles, ammunition, and other weaponry. The ship was also carrying many pairs of Wellington rubber boots that still look brand new, even after so many years underwater.

Dive boats moor directly to buoys on the ship or to other boats when the moorings are full. There is sometimes a mild current, but the mooring lines make it easy to pull yourself down the line and onto the wreck. Several dives are needed to explore the entire ship. Swimming around the exterior is a great way to see the stern guns and one of the locomotives just off the ship in the sand. Upside down tanks and car chassis are also scattered around the outside of the ship.

Keeping it Pristine

Divers have removed many of the ships treasures as keepsakes, which is sad given this ship’s importance as a World War II memorial. Currently divers are not allowed to remove anything from the wreck so that future divers will also be able to see the ship’s riches.

Its popularity has also led to the problem of overuse. As many as 20 boats have been seen moored to or near the ship at one time which puts unnecessary stress on the ship. No one wants to be diving one ship with that many other people! And as the ship ages it will continue to disintegrate.

The SS Thistlegorm is a fantastic wreck dive and one of my all-time favorites. Exploring the wreck both inside and out takes many dives and there are always new artefacts to find. Even with all the other divers there is plenty to see, and they might even point out some items you haven't seen. I guess it’s not so bad to come across other excited divers while exploring a 70-year-old World War II wreck.

Humpbacks of the Silver Bank

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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The North Atlantic humpback whale population makes a yearly journey south from their summer feeding waters of New England, Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland. They swim over 2500 miles to the Silver Bank, 90 miles from the Dominican Republic, to mate, give birth, and raise their offspring. In these shallow waters they spend their winter, and several liveaboards, including Aggressor Fleet’s Turks and Caicos Aggressor II, offer week-long trips to snorkel with the humpbacks of the Silver Bank.

Where and How

The Dominican Republic is the only country in the world that issues a limited number of permits to snorkel with humpbacks. After many years of visiting the Silver Bank, the captains, crews, and researchers have come up with methods to protect the whales and provide the best experiences for both the whales and those of us who want to swim with them. Weeklong charters to the Silver Bank Sanctuary provide excellent chances to see the humpbacks both above and in the water.

Scuba diving is not allowed in the Silver Bank because the whales seem to be disturbed by bubbles, as well as fast movements such as free diving. The whales are also constantly moving and it takes longer to get divers and their gear in and out of the water, which could delay an encounter.

In the Water

Most in-water encounters take place with females and their calves. Adult humpbacks breathe about every 20 minutes, but newborns need to breath as often as every three minutes. Usually the mother will stay in one spot, with her calf resting below her peck fin, and the baby will come to the surface for several breaths before she does. This makes it easy to see where the mother and calf are, and to stay with them.

By being calm and still in the water (as little splashing as possible) snorkelers often won’t disturb the whales and if the mother stays comfortable, encounters can sometimes last for hours. The calf will come up every few minutes and check out the snorkelers, then go back down to mom.

Often the baby will come right up to the line of snorkelers and swim by, checking out every single person before going back down. Curious calves may hang out on the surface longer than normal, playing around the snorkelers and sometimes giving them a show of peck slaps and even breaches.

Some encounters occur with a mother, calf, and male escort who marks his territory to mate with the female. Other common in-water encounters often happen with sleeping whales. They don’t move very far, usually hovering in one place, ascending to take a breath around 20 minutes, and then descend back down to the same spot.

Male humpback whales sing and their song can carry from miles away. By just by putting your head in the water at the Silver Bank, many different voices of whale singers can be often be heard. Occasionally a male singer is found and in-water encounters can happen. Singers are usually vertical in the water with their heads down. If you are close, the sounds can be so loud that they seem to vibrate through your body.

On the Surface

Topside activity in the Silver Bank is also worth the visit. Surface behaviors include peck slaps, where the whales slap their peck fins (thick arms) on the surface repeatedly, probably as a means of communication. When a whale dives deep it sometimes does a fluke dive and displays its whole tail.

Spy hops occur when the whale sticks its head fully out of the water, which is thought to be a means of looking around at the surface. And of course, there is the famous breach, when a whale launches its whole body out of the water and twists, landing on its side and creating a huge splash.

Mating occurs at the Silver Bank and competition for females is common. Most females have an escort male with her, who will not leave unless another or group of males challenges him. Several males can be competing for a female, and there can be vicious fights with breaching on top of each other and fin or peck slapping one another in very exciting and sometimes bloody battles.

Small boats allow guests to get very close to this action for fantastic photo opportunities. However, there are no in-water encounters during these activities, as it could be dangerous to snorkelers, and the males usually move too quickly to keep up with in the water.

My favorite topside behavior is when a mother is teaching her calf new skills. The mother will demonstrate a breach or tail slap and the baby responds by trying to do what mom did. This can happen over and over again, with a baby trying to breach dozens of times, usually while getting visibly tired and with breaches becoming less powerful as time goes on.

Seeing humpback whales is an amazing experience. Each encounter is different and you never know what will happen, how long it will last, or where it’s going to be. Whales are wild animals, and even if they are supposed to be at a certain place at a certain time, it's never guaranteed what you’ll see. A bit of luck is always involved in having amazing ocean encounters.

On Seahorse Love

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Everybody loves seahorses. Who can resist their pretty horse-like heads, multicolors, and long, curling tails? Mythological stories of mermaids riding these half-fish/half-horse creatures abound. Artistic renditions of seahorses are common in ancient Greek and Roman history, as a water God could only be carried by a horse of the sea. Like a unicorn, seahorses are loved for their seemingly imaginary qualities- except that they are real.

To make these seemingly make-believe creatures even more interesting and alluring, seahorses are thought to mate for life- not to mention their unique reproduction methods. Female seahorses are the envy of the rest of the Earth’s females. They have somehow passed over pregnancy to the males. That’s right, male seahorses give birth. What’s more mythical than that?

On Life

Researchers estimate there are around 50 species of seahorses through the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. All are members of the genus Hippocampus, or “horse sea monster” in ancient Greek. Most species prefer tropical and temperate waters close to shore including seagrass beds, mangroves, and coral reefs. Although there is at least one species of pelagic seahorse (Hippocampus fisheri) that is found free-swimming where the ocean is thousands of feet deep.

Seahorses come in many sizes and colors, the smallest being the adorable pygmy seahorse, which is about the size of a pinky fingernail (15mm). These tiny creatures were only discovered a few years ago when they fell off a sea fan that researchers were bringing up.

They blend in so well within their homes that at least six species of pygmies have been found on several types of fan corals, gorgonians, and seagrass. On the other end of the spectrum, one of the largest seahorse species is Hippocampus abdominalis, which can grow up to 35cm.

Seahorses are bony fish without scales. Instead they have a series of ring shaped bony plates with thin skin stretched over them. Much of their movement is propelled by small pectoral fins located behind their eyes, and they have a dorsal fin on their back. They don’t move very fast and often use their prehensile tails to hold onto things like seagrass, coral, or debris underwater. Most species have been found to be territorial and the males stay quite close to home.

On Monogamy

For the most part, seahorses are thought to mate for life. The same pair will stay together throughout a breeding season, and the same pair is usually found year after year. After courtship, once the male is pregnant, the female returns to him at least once each day.

Seahorses are known for their elaborate courtships before breeding. The seahorse couple will swim along next to each other, holding tails- I like to think the females make the first move. They change color for each other and sometimes ‘dance’ together in circles. Just before mating, the couple rises above the seafloor and the female deposits her eggs into the male’s pouch. Some days later the male will give birth.

On Male Pregnancy

Continuing with the mythical theme, seahorse males get pregnant (so do their pipefish and sea dragon male cousins). Depending on the species, the eggs take 9-45 days to hatch. It’s usually quite easy to tell the difference between a female and a pregnant male, as his pouch gets very large and shows quite the baby bump.

While giving birth, the male seahorse has muscular contractions and fully developed (but tiny) baby seahorses come out of the pouch and float away on the current. Some species give birth to as many as 200 babies at one time!

On Threats to Seahorses

Like so many creatures in the ocean, seahorses are also threatened. One of their biggest issues is that seahorses are being loved to death. The aquaria and souvenir trades take millions of seahorses out of the ocean yearly, for fish tanks and to be dried and sold in the same way shells.

Seahorses are also a popular traditional Asian medicine. Most of the time they are ground up and used in pills or powder form, which is thought to help with kidney health, invigorating the blood and promoting labor. There is medical or scientific support to these ideas.

Seahorse habitat is also at risk in the same ways the entire ocean is threatened: destruction of coral reefs, too much development, climate change etc. which devastates their homes.

There is hope for seahorses, as captive breeding programs have taken off in recent years. Seahorse farms are becoming popular, and it’s easy (and often cheaper) to buy seahorse pairs for aquariums that were born and raised in captivity. Farmed seahorses also live longer in tanks than those taken from the wild.

These fish farms could alleviate some of the pressure of removing seahorses from the ocean and supporting the aquaria, souvenir, and even the Asian traditional medical trade.

Beqa Island’s Shark Adventures

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Sharks play a very unique role in our psyche, a role reserved for only a selected few species. Despite their prevalence and evolutionary resiliency, sharks have been subject to gross misconceptions and are facing their biggest survival challenge yet.

Shark dives and feedings are abound globally; from the eastern seaboard and Caribbean to the west coast, mid Pacific, Australia’s shores and south Africa.

Fiji’s Beqa Island, off the Southeastern tip of Viti Levu and across Suva’s busy harbor, is a great example not only of a very healthy reef system and shark population but also of a sustainable and cooperative effort by locals and visitors to share the bounty while raising awareness.

The anatomy of these dives is similar to many other shark feedings; however, what sets this apart from all other shark experiences are the sheer numbers and magnitude of the frenzy. True to the raw and wild nature of Fiji, this high-octane encounter takes place at depth of 60ft.

Shortly after the chum buckets are cracked open, the visibility falls drastically and within minutes countless fish descend over us, blocking the remaining sunlight. One can truly hear the commotion, as reef sharks narrow their circles and draw closer to the wrangler for a tuna tail.

The climax of the dives are reached some 20 min into the dive, once a column of fish 40-60ft in diameter hover overhead like a black tornado, and the enormous shadow of a Bull or Tiger shark slowly takes form, as it confidently, yet cautiously, comes to claim its share.

There are two reputable dive shops on the island offering cage free shark dives. Both outfits are manned by locals, who instead of fishing these waters are now acting as shark wranglers. Through profit sharing, the dive operations now offer the locals an alternative to fishing.

Preserving the reef and fish population supports a healthy shark population and ample opportunities to come face to face with countless reef sharks, lemons, bull and tiger sharks.

Mandarinfish-The Courtship Dance

Fri, 28 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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On the reefs of the Pacific, twilight marks the beginning of the mandarinfish courtship dance. A male begins dancing, and if he’s desirable, an interested female will join. Just before the sun sets, the two fish will rise up out of the reef together to mate, cheek-to-cheek.

Mandarinfish (Synchirophus splendidus) are one of the ocean’s most colorful fish.

Named after the brightly colored robes of the Imperial Chinese Mandarin, these fish are a mazy pattern of vivid blue, green, pink and yellow. Mandarins are one of 182 species of dragonets, but are by far the most colorful.

Mandarins are found in the western Pacific as far north as the Japanese Ryukyu Islands to Australia, and live in protected, often shallow, inshore reefs. Popular places for divers to see them include Palau, Yap, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The tiny fish are usually only 2-3 inches long and are active all day in the reef, foraging for tiny crustaceans and other invertebrates living in the coral.

Usually daytime feeding takes place far inside the coral reefs, so only a flit of blue or green can be seen. But at night, everything changes.

Mandarinfish Mating

An hour before sunset, mandarin activity increases and you can spot them out in the open on the reef. The larger males, identified by their long, pointed dorsal fin, will attempt to court smaller females. Mandarins flit about the reef, rapidly pulsating their fins almost like hummingbirds- which are just as pretty and as difficult to photograph- and crawling on small bits of reef with their hand-like forward pectoral fins.

Activity increases as sunset approaches, and males can be seen slightly chasing a female, which obliges him by letting him chase her for a bit, stopping briefly to watch him, and then letting him chase her again. If all goes well, just as the sun sets, the female will rest on the male’s pelvic fin and the two will rise up above the reef a few feet, cheek-to-cheek. This can happen a few times, rising up and then returning to the reef for a chase, and then rising up again. Eventually, if all goes well, the two will rise up and simultaneously release their eggs and sperm, which fertilize in the water column and drift down into the reef to eventually hatch the next generation.

How to See Them

To see mandarinfish mate, divers have to be in the right place at the right time, and -as always- have a little luck.

The first step is to show up about an hour before sunset to a coral head known to have mandarins. Find a female (the smaller fish without the long, pointed dorsal fin) and watch it. As the sun starts to set, hopefully a larger male will come out and start the courtship dance.

It’s vital to keep your eyes on the pair, as they will dart in and out of the reef. When it gets too dark to see without a flashlight, the two will rise a few feet out of the reef to release their eggs and sperm.

Mandarins are very shy.

They get scared and stop courting if there is excessive movement, lots of bubbles, or lots of light. Some dive shops require all flashlights to be covered in red plastic, as they seem to be less bothered by red light than bright, white light.

It is best to try and hold as still as possible, and sit and watch. Beware of scorpionfish, one of the only known predators of mandarins, as they like to sit and wait for them to mate and then eat them as they rise out of the reef!

Other Cool Mandarin Facts

Mandarinfish are one of very few ocean fish that lack scales. Instead, they have a slimy skin that is coated in mucus and smells terrible. This protects them from skin parasites and also makes them taste terrible, further protecting them from predators. Their bright coloration also signifies to predators that they don’t taste good.

Their blue color is also unique in the vertebrate world, as they are one of only two species (the other is another dragonet) that have the blue colored chromatophores called cyanophores. Chromatophores are organelles in cells that contain color pigments and reflect light. Blue is a rare color overall, but all other cases of blue coloring are due to thin-film interference of light, which makes the animal appear blue, but it isn’t actually blue.

Threats

Mandarinfish are threatened due to their beauty. They are a popular aquarium fish, and there are a few cases of mandarins breeding in captivity, therefore almost every mandarin in a tank was taken from the wild. They are also very hard to care for, and many end up dying soon after being introduced to tank life.

Like all the fish in the ocean, they are also threatened by reef destruction, climate change, and pollution. Their shallow, in-shore habitats are often the first to be dredged for coastal development or lost through dynamite fishing in certain countries of Asia.

The mandarinfish is an exciting fish for any diver to see, and is definitely worth a twilight dive to spot their vibrant colors and hopefully a glimpse of a pair mating.

Have you ever seen the Mandarin Fish?

Grenada Diving

Fri, 21 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Above water, Grenada is famed for being the 'Spice Isle' - lush rain forests with great hiking, rare flora and tropical fauna. Below water, the island is renowned as the 'Shipwreck Capital of the Caribbean', distinguished by amazing wrecks and the world-famous Sculpture Park. With so much to offer, both onshore and underwater, it is the perfect destination to visit on your dream vacation.

Grenada is the largest of the three sister islands; diving is predominantly along the west and south coast, where the Caribbean Sea meets with the Atlantic Ocean. The smaller sister island of Carriacou is home to wrecks, pretty coral reefs and wall dives. Divers can opt to spend a couple of days relaxing on quiet Carriacou, after experiencing the spicy delights of Grenada's seascape.

Petite Martinique offers land visitors a tranquil and unique experience, infused with island culture and tradition. Only 800 people live on this tiny island, that is accessed solely by boat. On the 17th - 20th May, the island comes alive with the Whitsuntide Sailing Regatta - a competitive highlight!

Divers often choose to stay at one of Grenada's resorts that has a dive center on site, such as ScubaTech Dive Center at the Calabash Hotel. The option to charter a sailing yacht is also popular, as there are many bays and anchorages to explore. Hire vehicles or land tours can be organized to explore the interior of the island. Cruise ships dock at the terminal in the capital town of St George's, and dive centers can collect visitors when pre-arranged.

As a year-round destination, the average water temperature is similar to the air temperature, ranging between 75F to 85F (24C to 30C). The lowest temperatures are between November and February, when the cool trade winds occur. The dry season extends from January to May, although the months through to August are suitable for scuba diving, as tropical rain showers tend to last no longer than an hour. Diving conditions are great during the off-peak months of August to October, however, there is a chance of tropical storms. A full 3mm wetsuit is suitable for most dives, but some people do prefer a 5mm on longer or deeper dives.

Dive Sites & Marine Life

With over 40 boat diving sites to explore, mainland Grenada offers a full selection of exciting wrecks and relaxing reefs. Varying from plateau patch reef to sloping coral gardens, the marine life is abundant, and divers can expect to see all the common Caribbean reef fish. Eels, turtles, nurse sharks, and rays are frequent visitors to both wrecks and reef. More unusual critter life is found at the shallower sites such as frogfish, blennies, and nudibranchs.

The famous site of the "Titanic of the Caribbean", the Bianca C, is on every diver's bucket list and is a must-do for advanced scuba divers. The Bianca C sank in 1962, after a fatal explosion onboard and she was towed out of the harbour to her final resting place. Exposed to strong currents, her shallowest point is now at a depth of 37m; she makes a thrilling wreck dive for both recreational and technical divers. Whibbles Reef runs parallel to the wreck, allowing a pleasant drift at the end of the dive.

The MV Shakem, a cement-carrying cargo ship, lies upright on the seabed at 32m. Competent divers can explore the interior of the bridge and captain's quarters, where you can find floating light bulbs and the head. Sea horses, green moray, and lobster are found among the pretty white telestro that decorates the ship. Solidified cement bags line the hold, overshadowed by a huge crane.

Three miles off the Atlantic coast is the MV Hema I, a coastal freighter from Trinidad that sits at 30m. Currents make this an advanced dive; but divers are rewarded with sightings of nurse sharks, and frequent squadrons of eagle rays.

The second world-class Atlantic wreck is the large minesweeper, King Mitch. She sank on her side, six miles offshore at a depth of 37m. She is also challenging to dive, as another advanced dive due to strong currents. Divers are highly rewarded, with large marine life encounters such as turtles, southern stingrays and reef sharks.

To contrast the dramatic deep wrecks, Grenada boasts many shallow wrecks too. The Veronica L, a small freighter, sits upright in 15m outside the mouth of St. George's Harbour. It’s a great night dive, with the opportunity to see many critters such as black brotula, shrimps and an array of crabs.

The Grenada Marine Park (MPA) is home to many shallow reefs, small wrecks, and the stunning Sculpture Park. Founded in 2006, by sculptor Jason DeCaires Taylor and the Grenadian Ministry of Tourism & Culture, the park promotes ecological regeneration and sustainability. Frogfish, hawksbill turtles and a variety of eels are common, with large amounts of schooling fish. Divers and snorkelers can tour the unique sculptures and explore the hard and soft corals found on the surrounding reef.

Dive Shops & Logistics

There are six PADI dive centers based in the parish of St. George's on Grenada. ScubaTech is based in Prickly Bay, on the Atlantic coast; the remaining centers are all located along the Caribbean coast in the Grand Anse area. Some dive centers will arrange free collection services if you are staying at an alternative hotel, villa, or yacht.

Dive Grenada, a PADI 5 star and BSAC resort, is located centrally on Grand Anse Beach at the Flambouyant Hotel & Villas. British owners - Phil and Helen - offer a small and flexible service designed to suit all levels of recreational diver. Safety and fun are their highest priorities, and they offer the full range of certification courses and snorkel tours.

ScubaTech Dive Center - a German-owned PADI and TDI resort - caters to recreational divers and specializes in technical and rebreather diving, with the full complement of certification courses. They offer non-diving excursions such as the famous Gouyave Fish Friday boat trip, sunset champagne cruises and sightseeing coastal tours. Exceptional safety standards and one of the friendliest teams.

Enriched Air Nitrox is highly recommended due to the deeper wreck diving profiles. Reputable operators offer complimentary nitrox for this reason - PADI and TDI certification courses are available. Boat dives are predominantly conducted as drift dives with the dive leader towing a surface marker buoy. Four out of the six dive centers operate large, customized pirogue dive boats allowing for timely trips to the dive sites. Inshore dive sites are all within 30 minutes of all the dive centers. The north end of Grenada has beautiful unspoilt and less frequented dive sites - usually offered as a 3-dive day trip.

Carriacou, "Land of Reefs", has three PADI dive centers that are happy to show you the unspoiled, healthy marine environment. Arawak Divers and Lumbadive are based in the harbor at Tyrrel Bay; Deefer Diving is in the main town of Hillsborough.

The Maurice Bishop International Airport (GND), at Point Salines, is the main gateway from the EU, North America and Caribbean. Inter-island charters are available to Lauriston Airport (CRU) on Carriacou. Osprey Lines Ltd. offers a fast ferry passenger service between the islands of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Cruise ships arrive at Grenada from Florida and Puerto Rico.

Diving in Ireland - the Island of Contrasts

Fri, 14 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Perched on the northwest edge of the European Continental Shelf, Ireland is an island of contrasts. The Republic of Ireland takes up three-quarters of the island, whilst the six counties in the northeast of the Ireland are part of the UK. This is important for overseas travellers, who will need to consider visa implications for two jurisdictions. Cross-border travel is fairly relaxed these days, and the troubles in Northern Ireland are just a memory. There is great diving across the whole of the island, so don’t let this deter you from planning an all-Ireland diving trip.

Ireland boasts a cool temperate maritime climate. The “land of eternal spring”, means plenty of rainfall and no real extremes in temperature. Temperatures range from low teens to mid-twenties Celsius at the height of summer, to single digits and close to freezing daytime temperatures in winter. It rains almost every day in Ireland, but showers can last just minutes. Make sure you bring plenty of layers and some decent rainwear.

Water temperatures go from 5-6C January to March, to a balmy 15-16C July to September. Most occasional divers are happy with a semi-dry complete with a hood, boots and decent gloves, but for longer, more frequent, or of course deeper dive outings, you might be happier with a dry suit.

The best time to travel to Ireland for diving is May to October, when daylight is plentiful and the weather is likely to be at its most clement.

Just over 500km north to south and 300km east to west, Ireland is not a huge island; unless you are travelling from major city to major city, travel times aren’t long.

Ireland’s main diving will be found along the Atlantic west coast; however there are a plethora of good wreck dives accessible from Dublin and a good number of inlands lakes worthy of a visit. There is some excellent shore diving all along the west coast and beyond.

Diving in Egypt

Fri, 07 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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A soft and hard coral sanctuary with unrivaled visibility, the Egyptian Red Sea teems with endemic fish species and is undisputedly one of the world’s top dive destinations. The stark contrast between the arid, desert landscape and the vibrant oasis of color that unfolds down below will continue to amaze you each and every single time you begin your descent.

From shallow coral gardens, to dramatic drop-offs, caves, lagoons, and wrecks- diving Egypt is everything but monotonous. At first glance, selecting your port of call may seem like a daunting task due to the sheer abundance of choice. Many divers will be delighted to dive the Northern waters around the Sinai Peninsula resorts, while more experienced divers might prefer heading to destinations further down South along the coast, near the towns of Hurghada and Marsa Alam.

Select your destination and book your flights to the nearest international airport (Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport or Hurghada International Airport), as domestic flights in today’s Egypt are limited, and will account for long lay overs. You will also want to avoid road travel, which is slow and bumpy at best due to aging, uncared-for infrastructure.

Most resort-based dive sites will be accessed by a short boat ride whether you are up North in Sharm el-Sheik, or down South in the vicinity of Hurghada, and either route has got the goods to keep you busy underwater from three days up to a week. Liveaboards are highly recommended and remain the best option for those that want to see the most, with the added advantage of avoiding the crowds which are often found around Egypt’s resort-based dive sites and are one of the turn-offs of the Red Sea.

The climate is arid (hot days, cool nights) with year-round warm temperatures ranging from 99°F to 68°F in coastal areas, and two single seasons, summer (June to September) and winter (October to May). Boasting an average winter water temperature of 75°F, the Red Sea is one of the world’s warmest seawater bodies, so don’t be put off by the cooler winter air temperatures, and plan your Egypt dive trip for the milder months (September through November and April through June in particular). You will avoid scorching summer temperatures but still enjoy warm beach weather and comfortable diving.

Dive Sites and Marine Life in the Red Sea

The magnetism of Red Sea diving resides in its versatility. It can be the calm pool where open water divers learn to log their first dives. It harbors more wrecks than can be explored (due to dense boat traffic through the Suez Canal). And it still hides diving spots (and of these, there are many) to stun even the most jaded divers.

The Thistlegorm

This is the wreck site of a 400-foot WWII British cargo vessel that was sunk in 1941 by German bombers as she waited to enter the Suez Canal. The bottom of the vessel came to rest at a depth of 100 feet. It was discovered and explored by Jacques Cousteau in 1955, then lost again. The sheer size of the vessel is impressive enough until you explore her holds -ripped open by explosion wholes- to find a cargo of military gear: Milford cars, Bedford trucks carrying BSA motorcycles, airplane parts, ammunition, rifles, radios… Boat daytrips are usually organized from Sharm el-Sheikh and planned for two descents (orientation) and (penetration) with the option of a third.

The Brother Islands

Mantas, turtles, barracudas, big tuna, schools of snappers and jack fish, accompanied by white tip-sharks, hammerheads, grey reef, silver-tip, thresher sharks and the occasional moonfish are just some of the fish you will list in your dive log’s Brothers entries. These two islands (Big and Little brother) lay about 95 miles Southeast of Hurghada and are arguably the top Egyptian dive site. You can dive in about twelve different areas, and with the exception of two wreck sites most of the diving is dramatic walls with ripping currents.

Abu Dabbab

An excellent dive site on this sandy bay with seagrass where you will have the chance to spot dolphins, whitetips, hammerheads, and the infamous dugong. Beginners will feel at ease as there is no current, and depth is shallow, reaching a mere 53 feet at its deepest part. It is located 18 miles Northeast of Marsa Alam, and most dive operators organize boat trips to it daily. Sign up for the earliest one, as diver and snorkeler pressure can be high, especially in the summer months.

Getting Around

The dynamite combination that is Egypt’s cultural allure, sandy white beaches and year-round warm temperatures has drawn increasing tourist numbers to the Red Sea during the last three decades. International airports, hotels and resort towns have sprawled up along the coastline, engulfing old fishermen villages, and drawing locals en masse to work the hospitality industry. The high water mark was 2009, after which the instability of the Arab Spring insurgence and the regime change halted the flow of foreign investment and dramatically reduced tourist numbers, making inter-resort competition fierce. In many ways, this has meant survival of the fittest, swim or sink for hotels, dive shops and dive clubs alike, with only the best ones left standing.

One of the names you will hear everywhere is Emperor Divers. This PADI center has been awarded the ‘Padi Excellence in Dive Centers Award’ and has opened up shop in five different resort towns since 1992. Emperor will cater to your every need -from gear rental, to a full-blown professional training program- and cover all that diving Egypt has to offer, including a large range of liveaboard packages to choose from. They will even arrange your hotel and help you with your flight if you let them.

The Red Sea Diving College PADI center in Sharm el-Sheik is another Red Sea giant, five-time winner of Diver Magazine’s Dive Centre of the Year. They cover a plethora of local dive sites, as well as all the highlights nearby (among others the straights of Titan, the Thistlegorm and the Dunraven wreck, near the Ras Mohammed National Park). If you are fresh off the plane and don’t know where to begin, rent yourself some gear and check out their house reef just a short swim away from the beach to wet your appetite.

The Aquarius Diving Club -a PADI Gold Palm center- with six shops in Hamata, Hurghada, Makadi Bay, Marsa Alam, Sahl Hasheesh, and Sharm el-Sheikh comes highly recommended. They have just teamed up with Diving Attitude to offer top-notch Red Sea liveaboard trips. Their Triangle D’Or itinerary follows the Egyptian coast down South from Hurghada for six days, allowing you to dive the legendary Brother Islands. But they also offer routes catering to the less experienced diver.

Indonesia Bans Manta Fishing, Part 1

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Manta Rays are easily my favorite marine animals. No dive excites me like a manta cleaning station or any other manta encounter. I have been very motivated to get involved with Manta Ray conservation, so when I came across some interesting materials regarding the ban of manta fishing in Indonesia, I felt inclined to share some thoughts of my own.

In my previous articles, 'Economics of Conservation' Part 1 and Part 2, I had looked at the importance of viewing conservation as an economic activity, where the net value derived to each stakeholder will determine whether or not there is a sustainable mechanism for conservation or not. Quite simply, it is the cost/benefit analysis of participating in unsustainable marine related activity vs. sustainable marine activity.

For this series of articles, I have been researching the issue of Manta Conservation in Indonesia, and what factors come to play into the equation.

Issue of Manta Conservation

Manta rays are another marine animal in the list with a radically declining population. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently classifies them as ‘Vulnerable to Extinction’. As most divers know, Indonesia is a very active part of the planet for Manta habitation and is currently fighting a battle against fishery.

In February of this year (2014), the Indonesian government has implemented a nationwide ban on manta fishing. Mantas are primarily caught for their Grill Rakers, which are sold in Guanghzou region as a medical product to supposedly cure a very wide range of diseases. This ingredient, however, is not part of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Cost of Enforcing Ban and Building Tourism Infrastructure

"Tourism and fishery values of mantas are at direct odds with one another and we need to make a choice," said Dr. Tiene Gunawan, Conservation International's Indonesia Marine Program Director, and added "The economics make our decision easy; we now know that a living manta ray is easily worth at least 2,000 times more alive."

The first thing that comes to mind is that the numbers listed above don’t factor very important costs. The comparison above compares the estimated lifetime value of a manta ray in the context of a tourist attraction versus the 'retail' value that can be derived from fishing the manta and selling it for medicine.

One thing that does not seem to get factored is the cost of policing such a large territory. The manta fishing ban is great on paper, but until it is policed, its nothing more. So even though the 'retail cost' of a dead manta is no more than $500, if you hypothetically allowed fishing to go on and didn't have to be policing the poachers, you would be saving millions.

The second factor, not included in the equation, is the additional cost of all the manta tourism. You can't simply make millions; you need to first invest millions. You need to build hotels, roads, dive centres, liveaboards, airports, hire more border guards, train local divers etc. In 10-15 years you can maybe recover the investment, or perhaps you can't.

You cannot simply look at the 'revenue' and not factor in the costs. If this analysis were done correctly, manta tourism wouldn't be such a clear-cut winner, economically at least. Especially if you view it from the perspective of a local Raja Ampat community member who does not get a share in the 5-star liveaboard that he distantly sees off the horizon of his shores.

"Indonesia now has the second largest manta ray tourism industry in the world, with an estimated annual value of over US$15 million," declares Agus Dermawan, the Director of the Ministry's Marine Conservation Directorate. "Given the huge area of reefs and islands in our country, if managed properly, Indonesia could become the top manta tourism destination on the planet."

Essentially, all forms of unsustainable damage to the environment: reef destruction, overfishing, manta fishing etc. are all a negative externality of lack of quality employment, i.e. alternative employment that can provide an equal or greater standard of living than the unsustainable one.

The real question is the amount of direct benefit of the 'Manta Tourism Revenue' that reaches the local communities. Indonesia already has a rather large Manta and broader Scuba Industry, but the local communities don't benefit from them enough. This is why many resort to manta fishing and other forms of poaching.

If the standard of living provided by the 'Manta Tourism' industry is able to surpass that which manta fishing can provide, the tourism will win. If all the money leaves the community through foreign ownership and government corruption, conservation cannot occur.

In the part two of the series, I will aim to look at what I believe the government needs to do to improve the distribution of wealth in the country.

All materials reviewed are in links in sidebar.

Palau: Photography in Paradise

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Fourteen underwater photographers joined on an expedition to the Rock Islands of Palau in late November of 2013. After a long flight, they joined onboard the Palau Aggressor liveaboard on an extended, 10 day cruise.

With the weather wet and warm, the comforts of the ship were welcomed.

Spacious cabins, sun deck, a large camera table, salon and dinning areas let the large group spread out comfortably. Diving was from a skiff, with all dive gear left aboard. It was lifted from the water after each dive, so divers just had to step onboard, cameras were loaded onto the skiff's camera table by the crew.

Besides Captain Marc, there were 2-3 guides and drivers onboard, as well as chief, stewardess and stewards; all-in-all treating us to great, professional service.

After getting organized and briefed, we headed out of port to enjoy the outer reefs. No hour long day boat rides for us, dive sites were within 15 minutes, more or less. Palau is in danger of being “over-loved” by divers and sites can get crowded.

We were generally first on the sites in the morning and having lunch while the day boats were diving. Continuing to avoid the crowds, we dove into the late afternoon with a few night dives after that. Multiple dives on many of the sites let the expedition try various lens combinations and techniques.

Many times, varying currents allowed divers to also try different directions and depths as well. For the most part, currents were very light, even on sites like Peleliu and Blue Corners.

Palau is famous for having nearly every type of marine animal in abundance, and one never quite knew what you'd see; sharks, turtles, giant wrasse, eels, enormous schools of Jacks, as well as macro life; with nudibranchs and small fish, like Square-spot Anthias, challenging our photographic abilities.

Dives were set up especially to shoot Reef Mantas, which came zooming up German Channel late in day. Walls were decorated in vivid hues of sponges, anemones, huge fans, corals of every shape and kind, as well as many other colorful invertebrates.

Starting on the outer reefs, we dove the Turtle Cove, Blue Corner, German Channel areas. Then we continued down to the island of Peleliu for a couple of days.

While there, we enjoyed a tour of this battlefield, home of some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Bomb disposal teams are still actively working to clear ordinance from the area - 60 years later.

Returning to the Turtle Cove area, we dove some of those sites as well as Ngemelis Wall - enjoying a little more sun for better wide-angle photos.

We also dove Blue Hole on a couple of occasions, enjoying the dramatic lighting and framing afforded in those caves.

The next day, while the Aggressor moved up to anchor as close as she could to Ulong Reef, the skiff departed for a sunnymorning of snorkeling famous Jellyfish Lake

Conditions couldn't of been better as the group hiked over the steep ridge, with a sunny day giving us lots of color to work with. As we could afford the time, Captain Marc led us on a long swim to the other end of the brackish lake where there were more of the yellow, non-stinging jellyfish to take photos with many different techniques being tried. I had envisioned a shot utilizing a type of refractive physics called "Snell's Window" that focuses the sky and surrounding area behind the subject clearly in a circle. Aiming my rig by sight at arms’ length, it took many tries, but I got a few keepers in the end.

The lake also is home to a species of cardinalfish. Snorkeling amongst the mangrove roots along the shore they were completely tame to my camera lens.

That afternoon, we started diving Ulong Reef. Ulong Wall, Ulong Channel, the Coral Gardens on top and Siaes Tunnel were enjoyed repeatedly. Siaes is a cavern at a starting depth of 90', but it's long entrances made for some great photos of the divers and fauna there. A nearby sand bar was also dove late in the day to shoot some macro subjects there.

Heading back into the lagoon, and enjoying a skiff tour of the Rock Islands, we dove a couple of large WWII wrecked ships and a Japanese seaplane there. Visibility was very poor, and a crew was surveying the crashed "Jake" plane to see how it had deteriorated. But it was something different; certainly another attraction of the diving in Palau.

After arriving back to Korror, we went on a land tour, driving out of town to he north a couple of hours, stopping to view farms, scenery and old Japanese gun emplacements, we went on a tour to a huge waterfall in the dense jungle.

Palau certainly was an adventure, and the longer cruise was worth the extra time and expense to truly enjoy this amazing South Sea paradise.

7 Elements of a Great Dive

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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There are some dives that make you really happy and some leave you wanting more.

The reality is that what makes a good dive is extremely subjective and I will not try to act like any sort of authority - just summarize what
elements need to come together for a great experience overall, in my opinion ofcourse.

Element #1: Comfortable Dive Equipment

This is an absolutely necessity - ideally if you are really into diving you will have your own gear that fits you perfectly and that you are used to.

If you don't, or you are on travels without it - picking gear that is a comfortable fit is key. If an operation that you plan to go diving with only has old and really worn equipment, perhaps you should look for an alternative.

Element #2:Spacious and Well Equipped Dive Boat

Everyone has been on a dive boat with WAY too many divers. Gear is everywhere. Tanks are bouncing around. People falling over. Everyone is clumsy.

Besides not taking onboard too many people some dive centres have boats that are just not equipped for diving. For example, you need to have tank holders, you need to have some kind of tarp to provide shade, you need to have a cool box for drinks (unless you are in cold water ofcourse).

Element #3: Good Dive Buddy

Once again, I'm sure you have been on a dive where your dive buddy just really annoys you. There are many ways of being a bad dive buddy - the most obvious one is having poor air consumption and cutting the dives short by 10-15 or more minutes.

Another example is always getting lost. Or having a camera and taking a million
shots of each subject that you come across.

Element #4: Experienced, Local Dive Guide

Most of the time as a recreational diver you will not be experienced with the area that you are diving and a knowledgable local dive guide can make a huge difference.

First of all, the dive guide will know which dive sites are likely to be better on certain days (based on currents) and secondly, they are likely to have a better idea of the needs of the group.

A good dive guide will always have some secrets - a hidden overhang where lives a resident sting ray or a place known for mantis shrimp etc.

Element #5: Good Visibility

For me personally, good viz is probably about 50% of the dive. If the viz is say 30 metres, and there is little marine life, I would enjoy it more than amazing marine life with 2 metres viz.

When in amazing vizibility, it changes the entire perception of the dive and greats the effect of being in flight. When in bad viz, you cannot imagine that you are flying, but rather feels like wading through mud.

Element #6: Healthy Marine Life

Obviously, most of us dive for the marine life that lives beneath the surface. Over the years I realized that its not necessary to be at a manta cleaning station or a shark point to enjoy a dive. Sometimes large schools of smaller fish can be just as exciting, not to mention the macro life which sometimes feels like such an accomplishment in spotting.

Element #7: Comfortable Environment

Finally, all the other 6 elements can be in place, but if for example there is a super strong current that you need to constantly fight just to stay in place, it all won't matter - you probably won't enjoy the dive.

Another thing that often disrupts the dive is some really noisy enviroments. For example, in Indonesia, very often on dives you will hear the sound of exploding home made poacher bombs. Very hard to relax when that happens at regular intervals.

In the Maldives, on certain dive sites, you have just too many divers and half the time you are worried about a holiday diver that is finning in your face or scaring away all the animals.

The dives that have most of those elements in my experience have been the ones that made you really happy and glow with excitement and happiness afterwards.

Cuba Diving: Jardines de la Reina

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Located in the southern part of Cuba, Jardines de la Reina (Queen’s Garden), without doubt, is the most adventurous archipelago in Cuba for scuba diving. The area is profoundly protected by the Cuban government where the commercial fishing and industries are prohibited, and only certain number of tourists allowed.

Fidel Castro, who used to be a scuba diver, decided to preserve the area in 1990-ish and pointed out an Italian company, Avalon, to manage the tourism industry in the archipelago. The company allowed to bringing of maximum 750 scuba divers and 500 fly fishermen annually.

These fully protection measures deliver impressive marine condition to date. Since then the fish population increased between 30 to 50 percent and the coral reefs recovered easily against the bleaching (CBS 60 Minutes, December 2011).

The mangrove area in Jardines de la Reina is home to birds, fishes and American saltwater crocodile. This endangered crocodile has average life span of 70 years with size of around two meter. And one of them was frequently visiting us in Tortuga, floating cabin where the scuba divers stay. Franco, as the staff in Tortuga named him, would waited under the deck of Tortuga until one of the staff or guests fed him with chicken meat pinned by fishing twine. He played around a bit before finally swallowing the meat. It looked as if he enjoyed our company on the deck who were amused by this close encounter.

One thing to guarantee while diving in Jardines de la Reina is, almost in every dive site you will come across groups of Silky sharks and Caribbean reef sharks. Occasionally you can also expect to bump into Lemon and Nurse Sharks. Most of the sharks are about two to three meters long, and yes, they are huge! Before diving, our dive masters who have long experience diving with sharks briefed us that sharks in the Caribbean waters are not aggressive unless when they feel threatened.

We were advised to keep our hands close to our bodies otherwise the sharks could assume the hands as small fish to catch.

Our first encounter of around 20 sharks was in a dive site called Black Coral Two. Similar sights could also be found in dive sites Boca de Piedra, Caves o de la Qera, Cabeso de la Ralla, and Los Moqotes.

They were cruising around the scuba divers; it felt like they were investigating us as new weird species that produced bubbles. And they kept following us until we were ascending to our boat, when finally they were swimming circling our boat. The scene reminded me of Jaws movies, only then my experience showed me otherwise: no one was attacked by the sharks.

In addition to sharks, we also encountered Nassau, and Goliath groupers. These species were considered endangered due to severe over-fishing. The groupers were relatively huge; we predicted their weights were about 80 to 90 kilograms. After several days diving with the sharks and groupers, I concluded that I should be more on guard towards the groupers rather than the sharks.

Groupers are solitary fish and they defend their territory against other fish or other groupers, therefore their curiosity could mean that they feel their territory was threatened.

Other dive sites such as Frallon, Anclitas and Montana Russa have beautiful landscape featuring underwater canyon with tunnels and caves along with gorgonian fans and sponges. In these dive sites, scuba divers can easily spot the morays, barracudas, sting-rays and tarpons.

Unfortunately, numbers of common lionfish, which is not the native of Caribbean waters, could also be spotted. War against the common lionfish has been on going in the Caribbean countries for years already, as there was no lionfish predators while lionfish eats the juveniles and potentially threatening the Caribbean marine ecosystem. Our dive guides tried to feed dead lionfish to the sharks, hoping in the future the shark will hunt the lionfish themselves.

After all, Jardines de la Reina is a living proof that profound marine protection could result amazingly. It is a place worth to visit for scuba divers to enjoy a pristine area and to feel that there is small part in this planet where our ocean, sharks and other endangered species get fully protected.

6 Dive Sites To Add To Your Scuba Bucket List

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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If you’re a regular diver, you lead a pretty interesting life already. Traveling to exotic places, meeting new people, learning about and exploring nature, viewing the most beautiful sights of the underwater world, and getting fit in the process. In fact, scuba diving (as a New Year’s Resolution) coalesces the most common resolutions made each year.

But even divers have their own New Year resolutions; they can get bored- dive less over the years- especially if they’ve been diving the same spots over and over again. A new year calls for adding some new and unique destinations onto your scuba bucket list.

Silfra Crack, Iceland

Iceland is one of the most spectacular places to visit, even more so to dive in. The island was formed on the diverging point of the North American and European tectonic plates, and these plates are moving apart an average of two centimeters per year. You can grab a dry suit and dive in the crack right in between them. Read More

Sardine Run, South Africa

Witness the second largest animal migration - after the Great Wildebeest migration in East Africa – the Sardine Run, along the South African coastline. Approximately 10 million sardines (in a shoal of around 7km in length and 1.5km in width) migrate from Cape Point towards the port of Durban, attracting a diversity of predators (common dolphins, a variety of shark species, game fish, birds, seals, penguins, and humpback whales)- a spectacular sight for scuba divers and a dream for photographers. Read More

Silver Bank, Dominican Republic

Every year, the North Atlantic humpback whales travel to the Silver Bank to mate, give birth and raise their offspring. And the Dominican Republic is the only country in the world that issues a limited number of permits to snorkel with them. This encounter is quite a breathtaking spectacle. Read More

Devil’s Eye, Florida

This beautiful limestone cave is quite the adventure for any cave diver. With over 30,000 feet of surveyed cave, you can spend months exploring this cave and still not see it entirely. To this day, there are cave divers from North Central Florida who are still mapping new sections of it. Read More

Lake Malawi, Kande Island

In between Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania lies the third largest lake in Africa, Lake Malawi. Diving in Lake Malawi is like diving in an aquarium; it’s full of beautifully colored fish. Known for its cichlids, Lake Malawi contains 30% of all known cichlid species, almost all of which are endemic to the lake, and over 1000 species to observe. Read More

Whale Shark Feeding Aggregation, Isla Mujeres

Every summer, in the Gulf of Mexico, hundreds of whale sharks gather for their largest ever-known feeding aggregation of fish eggs, specifically bonito tuna eggs. Watch one gentle giant after the other pass you by, with an open mouth, filtering plankton and eggs, coupled with a manta spectacle right below them – a surreal experience. Read More

Every dive site is like a new world to a scuba diver. And the process of choosing a new site is very exciting! Go through this list and let your curiosity select a destination.

Please "Like" My Photo!

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Not that you could pay your rent with “Facebook likes”, but sharing underwater photos with others comes with good karma (depending on the photo, of course) and with the opportunity to connect yourself with others who are sharing the same passion. 665 million people are active on Facebook every day. Well, to be honest, not all of those 665 million are interested in underwater images, but enough are ;-).

So for now, let's view sharing images on Facebook as a good thing that has the potential of exposing your photographic work to more people. To whatever end.

Many photographers are already active on Facebook, but many of them have problems presenting their photos in the best possible way. Let me share some insights on how to prepare your images for Facebook.

Image dimensions

Many Facebook users upload and share their images as they come right out of their cameras. That’s not good at all, as the ideal image dimensions for Facebook are clearly defined. Because we’ve worked so hard on shooting our great photos, we want to keep the control in our hands to ensure that our images look the way we want them to.

Whenever you upload a photo to your Facebook profile it will appear on the front page (timeline) in 403-pixel width and corresponding height, but not more than 403 pixels. Images wider than 403 pixels will be cropped by Facebook to fit in the timeline. So called “milestones” or highlighted posts have a maximum width of 843 pixels and height of 403 pixels.

Clicking on a photo takes you to the Photo Viewer that displays an enlarged version of the photo. Whatever you've uploaded, the image viewer shows images of 960x960 pixels, or in simpler words: 960 pixels on the longest side of the image.

The maximum Facebook photo size for picture upload and download is 2048px square. If you upload a larger image, Facebook will reduce it to a longest side of 2048px. It, however, can be downloaded in full size, and in case you believe that activating the option “upload in high quality/resolution” results in Facebook displaying your photo in the best possible quality, I am sorry but you are wrong.

This option is not helping you at all, it just stores a high res version of your photo for later downloads. Considering the maximum size of 2048x2048 pixels, there would then be a bit more than 4 Megapixel of image resolution, which is enough for a small-sized print, and- I hope you agree with me- we don't want that!

Conclusion: Resize your photos to 960 pixels on the longest side before uploading them to Facebook.

Compression, file format, resolution and color space
Facebook accepts image uploads of .jpg, .gif, and .png file types. However, Facebook compresses all images you upload to .jpgs. Facebook's image compression remains a serious problem. The only thing we can do here is to prevent Facebook from altering our photos too much. We need to keep the control in our hands.

Conclusion: After we set the right dimensions in our image editor we should save/export them for web use: JPG, max quality/lowest compression (Facebook will compress the picture anyway), 72DPI, and sRGB color space. The option “save for web” such as in Photoshop or Lightroom comes in handy here.

Note: Only Macintosh's Safari browser is capable of rendering RGB images. All other browsers display only sRGB. If such browsers need to display a RGB image, they will render it to sRGB, which mostly results in contrast and color loss.

That's the reason why some photos look awesome when viewed on a MAC but way “less awesome” when viewed on any other system such as Windows PC. The reason lies in the difference between RGB and sRGB. It’s better to do it in sRGB right from the start.

Copyright/Watermark

Where 665 million users are accessing Facebook every day, it is a sad matter of fact that there are some black sheep among them. The dark side of the force arises! Taking photos and claiming them as their own, or using them to boost traffic, without even giving credit to the photographer; that happens very often. Sadly, Facebook is not doing much to prevent this fraud.

Conclusion: Do not trust your images' IPTC data (where you might have stored your copyright notice) as Facebook is erasing ALL of them during image upload. Yes, they are. You better insert a watermark (your name or logo + your website's URL) to your image by using your image editor software of choice. Make yourself clear as the image owner!

Please bear in mind that everything on Facebook is about sharing, not about who is the owner of what. What you share on Facebook, you share with the world... and yes, you share it for free.

That's the price you pay for gaining the attention of lots of people and hopefully their admiration. If you don't want that, well then, don't share your photos on Facebook. It’s your decision.

Blue Heron Bridge

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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My dive buddy and I walked into the water under the Blue Heron Bridge and went into about five feet. With our fins on, we descended (or more like put our heads underwater) and started swimming along the sandy bottom dotted with seagrass.

Moments later, I heard my buddy rap his tank, and I swam over to see what he was photographing – a seahorse! Not five minutes underwater, and probably less than 100ft from where we parked the car, we found one of the Holy Grail ocean critters that some divers wait years to see.

He was taking photos while I was swimming in a larger circle around him, looking to see if anything else was around. Within minutes, I’d spotted a deep purple mantis shrimp eyeing me from its hold in the sand. Within an arm’s reach was a pile of rocks that had two colorful blennies perched on the top, almost as if they were beckoning me to take their photo. I looked at my dive computer; we’d been underwater seven minutes and were at eight feet, and I was already thrilled with the dive.

Really? Diving Under a Bridge?

Dive instructors originally started diving under the Blue Heron Bridge because it was a great place to take students when the weather was rough. The calm, shallow water made for a great place to practice diving skills and teach new divers (and still is a popular place for dive training). Who would have thought they’d find a congregation of the most sought out after marine critters underneath the bridge too?

Having become very popular in recent years because of magazine articles and numerous amazing photographs from professional photographers, the dive site is a busy place. It’s hard not to want to dive under the bridge when someone brings back photos of shortnose batfish, jawfish with eggs in their mouths, stargazers, seahorses, and octopus, all from one dive!

How to Dive the Bridge

Even beyond the treasure of critters under the bridge – it’s an easy dive. Just minutes off major highway I-75 that runs along the Atlantic coast of Florida, Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach hosts the entrance to the dive site. The park itself is a cool place to hang out with lots of picnic tables and grassy areas to set up gear and a white sand beach to sunbath on. After the dive, there are showers and hoses to rinse off and clean gear at. Even better – it’s free and there’s plenty of free parking.

Divers walk in off the beach and the water gets gradually deeper, although most of the dive occurs in 6-16ft. There is great diving to the east and the west of the entry, and most divers choose one direction to spend a dive.

Swimming towards the east takes divers under the east bridge, where concrete pilings are covered in sponge and coral life, and in the shallows of the pilings are stingrays, flying gurnards, and octopus. When heading to the west, divers can find schools of spadefish and usually barracuda in the water column.

In the sand, batfish walk around and sharp tail eels slither across the sand. Continuing west will take divers to the boat channel, which should be avoided because it can be very busy.

Night dives under the bridge are also fantastic when many animals come out to hunt, however a special permit is needed to be in the park after dark, and most local dive shops plan night dives several times a month.

Recently, a snorkel trail across a 2-acre area was created from limestone boulders and reef modules to build an artificial reef. These structures sitting in 6-10ft are becoming more and more populated with juvenile fish of many species, blennies, and other fish. It’s a great area to check out on scuba or while snorkeling.

When to Dive

Be aware that the bridge can only be dived at certain times each day. The best time to dive is during one hour before and one hour after high tide. As the tide moves in, it brings clear, clean water, allowing for the best visibility and less current at the high tide. Tidal changes can create very strong currents.

When the tide goes out, silty and murky water with sediment from the inter-coastal waterway moves under the bridge making visibility very poor. Currents will be strongest during the tidal changes surrounding the full and new moons.

The secret is out about how great diving the Blue Heron Bridge is which means it can be busy, especially on weekends and holidays. Arrive early to get a good parking and picnic table spot.

During the dive, be careful not to kick up sand with your fins and practice good buoyancy, which can be more difficult in the shallow water. Also be courteous to your fellow divers.

I had three amazing days at the Blue Heron Bridge, spending almost two hours underwater in each dive. With hundreds of photos and many critters checked off my list, all I wanted was to stay for another week and keep diving! It’s exciting to hunt for critters and be able to find so many. Locals talk about how they’ve dived the bridge hundreds of times and still find new things. Each dive is a new treasure hunt.

Reef-Art: Looking at the Reef with different Eyes

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Diving is fantastic! You're floating across the reef, watching the corals and animals. For now, it's time to stand still and discover a new point of view to the reef. And perform "Reef-Art Photography". Reef-Art shows fascinating insights to an underwater world, 99% of the divers never see.

We get closer to the subjects, stop and wait, observing the animals, the corals. This time, we don't observe the behavior but we study their graphical textures: fins, scales, ascertainments, indentations, color gradients, lines, patterns. And we learn how to picture them successfully.

The tightrope walks from "boring" to "exciting"

Repeating patterns can be boring or exciting. It's important more than ever to take care of the composition. Diagonal lines, unexpected views, or just beautiful areas attract the spectators. Breaking the pattern with an element can also increase the tension.

Reef-Art is the "Fine Art" of macro photography. It's a passion! The passion to bring your audience something they don't expect, they have never seen, they have never imagined.

All the creative elements in photography have to be considered to make eye-catching shots. Play with the depth of field, your lights, close-up lenses. Monochrome shots are very nice: A small red Goby on a red Sponge or the same in yellow. For once, the Goby can be small, as it is the pattern breaking element and not the subject itself.

A straight downward shot is not widely recognized for normal underwater photography. For Reef-Art it works. Fill the frame with the patterns. A distracting background won’t matter if it's black or blue or even a nice bokeh. The bokeh should be done within the subject.

Close-up lenses show you another world

A good macro gear is evident. But to make really successful Reef-Art pictures, you should add close-up lens(es). They open a new world of underwater life. They show you the tiniest polyps, the smallest surface patterns, and bring them as a frame filler on your sensor!

The use of close-up lenses is confusing at first. It lowers the depth of field dramatically, and after a certain distance you don't get sharpness anymore. Many first users struggle when they can't focus because the subject is too far away.

Keep your camera stable. Imagine being able to picture such small areas with small movements of your camera, without losing your subject. Take your time to get used to your gear and be patient.

Close-up lenses are available as wet lenses to mount underwater on the port and come in different strengths. If you take moderate ones (+5 diopter), you can use them as single ones or stack them to get higher magnification.

But you lose quality with each additional glass used. Good and strong ones with a +10 diopter are available from Subsea and recently also from INON. They can increase the magnification of your macro gear up to 3.5 times.

What subjects are the best for Reef-Art?

To start with Reef-Art (or the same with super macro), choose a non-moving subject: A mushroom coral, stony corals, or sea stars etc. This is just the beginning. Then have a look at nudibranchs.

Can you figure out an area that looks good for them? The gills, for example, are always worth considering. Fins of scorpionfishes, lionfishes, and parrotfishes can be chosen or other body parts, especially the eyes. The eye of an octopus, pufferfish, or something similar together with the surrounding lines makes great Reef-Art.

Have a look at corals. The polyps of the octocorals are like stars. At Christmas you will remember them and make your own submarine Christmas cards! Crown of thorns are dangerous for the reefs, they are very poisonous and nobody loves them... except for Reef-Art photographers.

Look out for feather worms, especially the double-spiral feather duster worm. They are not easy. Moving in the current, they pretend to have a "bad hair day". Sometimes they need some shelter from the current to make them photogenic. Be prepared to take a lot of shots to have a perfect one.

If you have circles, you can place them in the center. Centered placement works with strong symmetry. With spirals, for example, it gets harder. A composition according to the rule of thirds works better here. You find these, for example, on the shell of a snail like the conus sp.

Imagine your pictures in XXL wall prints

The super macro shots of your smallest areas will have a great effect printed big! Enlarging something small is always an eye catcher; the unknown stuff also brings you feature-length conversations.

The Underwater World of Bali

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Bali is the world of the Gods. Magnificent temples are built all over the Island, magnificent ceremonies are held every few days, and a magnificent underwater world awaits you!

When visiting Bali, I highly recommend planning trips to both worlds. And a good place to base yourself is Kubu Indah. Kubu Indah is located at the east side of the Mount Agung. Mount Agung is well known for the host of the mother temple "Besakih" and a volcano. In 1963, the volcano erupted, sending debris up to 10km in the air. It's a miracle that the temple remained intact.

By making Kubu Indah your "base camp", you can not only reach the "Besakih" in a one-day trip, but also the bat-cave at Goa Lawah, the handcraft and art center Ubud, the rice fields, the hot springs of Banjar, Mount Batur and many temples around. Not to mention you can reach many great dive spots within minutes.

The House Reef

For the first dive, we chose to visit the house reef of the Kubu Indah Dive & Spa Resort. It's divided into 4 parts- The "Coral Garden", "Drop Off", "Batu Kembar" and "Left or Right".

The "Coral Garden" offers a broad variety of hard and soft corals, and huge red barrel sponges. Always look into the sponges, as some fishes are often hidden there. On the outer side of the sponges, you’ll find lots of gobies and shrimps.

At the "Drop Off", you’ll find a lot of fish. Additionally, it's covered with beautiful hard and soft corals. In shallow waters, you’ll find ghost pipefishes and other macro jewels.

Macro is the main topic in general, but especially at the third part of the house reef: "Batu Kembar". There you can find the Pygmy seahorses!

The left and right side immediately after the entrance is used for the several courses the dive base offers. And it is also free to dive with your buddy on your own. Night dives there are exciting! Spanish Dancer or rare black egg cowries live there.

The Kubu Indah Dive and Spa Resort itself is a small resort. 13 Bungalows, a restaurant, bar, spa, reception and a dive center that offers all you need to enjoy your holidays. Local food there is delicious. The staff is very friendly and the congenial owners are always around to help out. They speak English, German, and Danish.

Diving the Liberty

Another attraction that awaits, just 5-10 bus minutes away from the resort, is The USAT Liberty wreck in Tulamben. The wreck is 120m long and 16m wide, and located just at the shore. After being bombed by a Japanese submarine, it was unable to be towed to the next harbor.

The ship landed on shore, but the eruption of Mount Agung disposed so much lava that the ship was moved back into the ocean, where it became a paradise for marine life.

Diving the Liberty means entering a tough competition with many other groups of divers. Our nearby location allowed us to enter it very early in the morning, and this is why I recommend this location.

The Liberty offers everything a diver's heart strives for: wreck diving, big fish, schools, and tons of macro. Just after entering, we saw a school of bumphead parrotfishes in shallow water. The robust ghostpipefish also lives here, as well as the bargibanti seahorse, orang utan crabs, hingebeak prawns and more.

Muck Diving

After the early morning dive, we found a quiet place close by. It's a wonder that we were mostly alone at "Melasti". Melasti is totally different - its black sand invites fantastic muck diving!

For many divers, sand looks like dead material, but this is not the case at all. Give your eyes some time to adapt to the new situation, and you will be overwhelmed by the huge biodiversity in the sand. Like little bushes, hydroids are living there, amongst ornate ghost pipefishes.

If you look closer, yes really close, you'll find crazy skeleton shrimps. Bali hosts brown, red and yellow ones. There are baby frogfishes, sawblade shrimps, and the green halimeda ghostpipefish. And for sure, you’ll find nudibranchs like Risbecia tryoni. If you are lucky, you’ll find them together with the emperor shrimp, a commensal partner of the nudibranch.

Diving the east side of Bali is easy. The current is small and you are close to the shore. The shore consists of lava stones in various sizes. Boots are highly recommended. For muck diving, the best season is all year round. For best visibility, choose March till July and October/November.

It's worth considering a day trip to Nusa Penida, where the Indian meets the Pacific Ocean. Mantas are guaranteed there, 99% of the time.

Cabilao, A Tiny Island for Tiny Creatures

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Today, we visit a small island: Cabilao.

Cabilao is located on the west side of Bohol (Visayas, Philippines). 3,500 inhabitants live there in 5 villages. The entire Island measures about 7.5 km², and is surrounded by a beautiful reef, a paradise for the tiniest creatures.

The entire island is a nature reserve, and there are two fish protection areas around the island. Diving is most beautiful at the North side, but the other sides are also nice.

A special show at the house reef

Let's dive Cambaquiz! Located just in front of the Cabilao Beach Club, Cambaquiz is a split dive spot. Depending on the current, you can dive one side or the other. Cambaquiz 1 is in the south corner; Cambaquiz 2 is in the north.

In Cabilao we had mounted the macro gear, and it wasn’t a surprise that the first creature we saw was a turtle. But no worries, the small creatures were waiting. The first dive was an easy dive, but we saw a lot: porcelain crab, a tiny juvenile scorpion fish, shrimps, blennies, spider crabs and much more. It was such a nice dive that we decided to attach a night dive at the same spot.

We were diving only for a few minutes when we spotted a pygmy squid. We stayed, observed, and took a few pictures. All of a sudden it started to move in a zigzag motion. When it came to rest again on a piece of wood, we saw the reason: the pygmy squid had caught a tiny shrimp. It was eating it unhurriedly, regardless of the audience around. This was a great show in Cabilao!

Traveling

It’s worth it to stay a bit longer in Cabilao or combine the trip with other destinations around the Visayas. First fly to Cebu from anywhere in the world, usually stopping at least once in between, take the speedferry to Tagbilaran, and then the bus to Sandingan, where a little boat will await you for the last part right to Cabilao.

The diving compensates for every travel. For example at Lighthouse, which is a spacy slope with a sandy bottom and seagrass, we met the devilfish, sea snakes, catfishes, harlequin and mantis shrimps, and the blue starfish with the little blue slug on the lower side. The place was also inhabited by many different nudibranches. Lighthouse is widely recognized as one of the best dive places around the Philippines.

Diving more places

Cabilao's pristine reefs are profiting from two marine protected areas around the Island, and only traditional fishing by the inhabitants. A little bit south of Lighthouse is the Gorgonia Wall.

The gorgonias are beautiful and home to the pygmy seahorses, Hippocampus denise, and the yellow bargibanti. Leaf fishes, orang-utan crabs, and egg cowries made the dive a fantastic experience.

Sandingan Island is the place where the bus threw us out to take the boat to Cabilao. It's also a great dive spot and sometimes the dive boats go there, too. At Sandingan, we found the red bargibanti pygmy seahorse, spider crabs, porcelain crabs, lots of nudibranches, and beautiful corals.

Cabilao: A quiet place to relax and dive

Cabilao is a quiet island; there’s no disco, no shopping mall. It's best for recreation and diving. Life is simple there; people live off agriculture and traditional fishing. One of the resorts is the Cabilao Beach Club, where I stayed.

And I can only recommend it. After 2012, you can find new, very comfortable rooms available. Power was supplied 24h even though the Island gets no power during the night.

Though the currents change quite frequently, Cabilao is easy to dive. You always find a spot around the Island with convenient conditions. The Sea Explorers dive base is very professional.

Instructor Bobet, the local discoverer of Cabilaos new "heraldic animal", the Bargibanti seahorse, leads the base.

Diving around

Pangangan Wall is located a few minutes northeast from Cabilao and is absolutely worth a dive. Despite looking a bit empty (fishwise) you can find a lot of small creatures. One of the cutest is the pegasus seamoth, a really funny fish that runs over the sandy bottom like a flying moth.

Back at the Resort we made a final dive at Cambaquiz 1, the other part of the house reef. Until 10m (33ft) deep, the bottom is sandy with sea grass, then coral formations starts to appear.

They are home to many nudibranches including head shield slugs and ornate ghost pipefishes. Porcelain crabs live in the anemones together with shrimps, and small cuttlefish swim around.

Cabilao is really a paradise for macro fans and photographers!

Sangalaki Island

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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A romantic get-away is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, which may be transformed by an exotic locality. Little interesting islands tucked away from the major hustle and bustle of touristic cities, plus the white sandy beaches and good ambiance of the ocean breeze, could turn such an occasion into a remarkable magical moment you can never disregard.

If you and your loved one prefer adventure and excitement, then scuba diving at Borneo in the South Pacific is ideal. There are a variety of diving destinations in the area, including Sangalaki Island, which is one of the most beautiful Borneo diving destinations.

Sangalaki Island is reputed to be one of the best and richest diving grounds in Borneo, Indonesia. As part of the Marine Heritage Park, it is an uninhabited island surrounded by a large lagoon and low reefs with a large population of manta rays, giant turtles, and colorful fish.

Manta rays are strong amazing creatures with incredible features that attract parasites like Remora. The diversity of soft and hard coral reefs is just as prolific. All this makes the diving worthwhile, without fear of running out of things to see.

Coral Gardens
The coral garden is an undulating bed of brilliantly colored corals that shelve gradually before turning sandy. Here, you will also see other beauties like giant sea fans, sponges, feather stars, purple carpet anemones, and cuttlefish. From the gardens, you can decide to drift to Turtle Town.

Turtle Town
Turtle town is a locale that harbors all kinds of turtles. These turtles lurk below overhanging rock shelters in the coral gullies, breeding all year round. The Giant Green Turtle is considered the most popular. From here, you can then venture to the Sandy Ridge.

Sandy Ridge
This is the most striking dive site you can ever view in Borneo. It is popular for its blue-ribbon eels, beautiful little sharks, snappers, jacks, and catfish. It is also an area where you can clearly view the amazing giant clam, along with friendly crustaceans and lobsters. Here, you can also view different types of soft corals and sponges including tube corals and lettuce.

Manta Avenue and Cleaning Station
At Manta Avenue, you can stand from a distance and view all the manta rays. They are magnificent to see en masse, and especially while the cleaning is taking place. It is a fascinating site, as you get to see them queue in their amazing figures.

Although there could be no accommodation on Sangalaki, there are nearby resorts that have regular diving excursions to the isle. An added advantage to this is that you will get to experience other high quality dive sites that could be worth your visit too. Some of these dive sites include Maratua and Derawan Islands.

The Frogfish (Antennarius)

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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When you come face to face with a frogfish for the first time, you will probably be rather confused, not knowing whether you are looking at a land animal, a fish, or some alien. Some may wonder whether this creature would be better fit in a horror movie than on the seabed.

Diving With It

Regardless of this, many divers, especially underwater photographers, have a particular interest in this creature, not just because of its extravagant appearance, but mainly due to the wide variety of its color, size and morphology. Frogfishes are not good "swimmers", and live mainly on the ground like stonefish.

Their pectoral fins are very similar to legs, and are used to walk over the ground. Really, they just swim over small distances, and in a very funny way. Sometimes, they can take a very quick “jump”, by sucking a large amount of water through their mouth and emitting it suddenly through their gill openings.

Camouflage

Frogfishes are masters of camouflage, making them very difficult to spot. They can quickly change from one color to another, depending on the environment in which they dwell. Also by using wrinkles, spots, or stripes, they make it difficult to distinguish them from a rock, piece of coral or colorful sponge. Despite their terrifying attitude, frogfishes are not poisonous or aggressive, and are easy to approach.

Diet

Apart from their perfect camouflage techniques, they also have a very interesting way of eating.The frogfish is a fish eater, and because he is no fast agile hunter, he has to outwit his prey in a different way. He cleverly lures small fish, crayfish, or shrimp towards himself through his "rod" or “lure”.

This projection, which is in fact a modified vertebra, is situated above the head. Sometimes his “rod” looks like a moving fish, shrimp or a twisting worm, depending on the prey he wishes to attract. As soon as his prey is within range, the frogfish opens his mouth rapidly and sucks it in.

This happens so fast that only through a slow motion movie recording can someone see this action clearly. His mouth can open so far that sometimes a prey of the same size as the hunter himself can be swallowed.

Sizes & Colors

The size of the frogfish can vary from a few centimeters to the size of a football. Usually, the smallest ones have the brightest and finest color shades. Sometimes they can be completely white, red, or black, and at other times, a colorful mixture of yellow with red, green, or purple spots, like the "clown frogfish", for example.

Frogfishes, a type of anglerfish, can be found in almost all tropical seas, and at all depths, sometimes even at - 300 meters. They especially like the coral or rock formations between sandy soils. They are regularly seen during “muck” dives, and on wrecks. So, when diving, keep your eyes wide open for those strange, yet gentle animals.

Diving in Mexico

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Mexico is a huge country that has extensive coastline on the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean sides of the country. Scuba diving and tourist areas in Mexico go hand in hand; most if not all of the resort towns that line Mexico's coast have one or more scuba diving shop.

If you find yourself in a remote area of Mexico, ask around. Certified scuba divers will most likely be able to find a private, competent boat captain and scuba instructor that is either a local Mexican or an expatriate from the United States or Europe.

In general, they say scuba diving in Mexico is “the best along the Riviera Maya and Costa Maya coastal areas”, where the Yucatan Peninsula meets the quiet, warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. The blue, warm, clear waters of the Caribbean are truly hard to beat and offer paradise conditions for beginners and advanced scuba divers alike.

The pinnacle of scuba diving in Mexico is probably the remote, hard to get to and protected Banco Chinchorro. This coral atoll is off the coast of Costa Maya not far from the border between Belize and Mexico. The scuba diving on the atoll is pristine and offers high visibility and diverse healthy marine life and reef.

Banco Chinchorro is one of four coral ref atolls in the western hemisphere; the other three atolls are just to the south of Banco Chinchorro in the waters of Belize. The atoll is heavily protected and guarded by the Mexican government. Although there are wrecks around, scuba diving on the wrecks is limited by the government due to theft and shallow, dangerous currents.

On lucky occasions, some of the mainland dive shops along Costa Maya or even some dive shops, which launch from the Cancun and Playa del Carmen area, provide the rare opportunity to dive this pristine wonder. If you get a chance, and have the stomach for high seas do not forget about Banco Chinchorro.

Most of the scuba diving in Mexico's Caribbean coast happens off shore from Cancun and Play del Carmen, and their nearby islands of Isla Mujeres and Cozumel. When you combine the beauty and laid back environment of the Riviera Maya with its warm winds and waters plus the amazing Mayan ruins scattered in the jungle nearby, you will not be disappointed.

Up along the Gulf coast of Mexico, most of the diving and dive shops are offshore from the state of Veracruz, and either north or south of the Port of Veracruz. The small fishing town of Anton Lizardo to the south of the port is a great place to embark on a scuba diving trip to explore Veracruz reef systems that lie offshore as reef platforms.

Looking to the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Sea of Cortez, you will find many famous and established tourist towns like Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Acapulco. While the Pacific Ocean is a gorgeous, deep, dark blue, the waters are stronger and colder than the Caribbean and do not offer the inviting waters of the Caribbean.

You can easily arrange scuba diving trips via boats that bring you out a bit offshore to get away from the current. There, the islands known as Islas Marias, off Puerto Vallarta, offer a unique scuba diving experience.

Traveling to the remote and desert environment of the Baja Peninsula brings most visitors to the tip of the baja known as Cabo. In the town of Cabo, San Lucas there are scuba and snorkeling shops to arrange boat trips to explore Cabo's underwater world, and there is the capital of the baja, La Paz on the Sea of Cortex side.

When you depart out of La Paz, scuba diving trips can quickly get you to the many scattered, small reef formations in the area. Basically, scuba diving in Mexico on the Pacific Coast is more for experienced scuba divers and usually requires a wet suit, or even a dry suit because of the lower water temperatures. Caribbean scuba diving, however, rarely requires any more than a swimsuit.

Marine Life

The marine life in Mexico's Caribbean Sea along the Yucatan's Riviera Maya and Cancun area is famous for being colorful. There are famous dive sites such as the now famous Cancun Underwater Museum where you can swim with nurse shark, dolphins, sea turtles and many reef fish, among the artificial reef art scattered to make an underwater landscape. The statues provide a medium for coral growth and hiding homes for moray eels and reef fish such as damselfish.

Two other famous technical dive sites that lie between the resorts of Cancun and near the island of Isla Mujeres are known as El Tunel and Cuevas de Afuera. These deep dive sites offer a challenge to advanced scuba divers and the visibility at least dive sites are reliably clear. It is common to see hammerhead sharks cruising these dive sites.

Along Mexico's Gulf coast lies the port of Veracruz and off that shore lies several amazing and healthy coral reef platforms perfect for scuba diving. While the port is busy and polluted, the reef has survived, and the greenish blue warm waters of the gulf give a surprising, amazing diving experience with high visibility. Check out the two wreck dive sites on either end of the beautiful Anegada reef. The Maria Elena wreck is found on the northern end of the reef, and the wreck known as El Rielero is on the southern end of Anegada.

On the southern rim of Puerto Vallarta's Banderas Bay are the dive sites near the shore known as Los Arcos, Majahuitas and El Chimo. There are many dive sites in the bay as well as to the north and south of the Puerto Vallarta area. Many of the resorts in the area offer instruction from their pools and form cooperative tours with local dive shops and scuba diving instructors so they can offer their guests first class scuba diving opportunities during their stay.

There are scuba dive sites established and yet unexplored along most of Mexico's huge Pacific, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico coasts. No wonder Jacques Cousteau fell in love with Mexico and spent so much time exploring Mexico's underwater treasures.

Dive Shops and Logistics

Many of the touristy coastal towns of Mexico have their own international high traffic airports. Many direct flights from cities in the United States and from Mexico City deliver you quickly to where you can get your fins wet. Mexico's International Airport known as Internacional Benito Juarez (MEX) is a great launching point after exploring the busy but historically amazing Mexico City.

From there, catch a direct flight to Mexico's larger tourist locations from Mexico City such as Cancún International Airport (CAN), Veracruz's Las Bajadas Airport (VER), Acapulco's General Juan N. Alvarez International Airport (ACA), Puerto Vallarta's Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport (PVR) or service to Cabo's via Los Cabos International Airport (SJD).

There are also smaller airports you can hop flight from Mexico City to Mexico's more remote and smaller coastal villages. If you are traveling from the US to Mexico, take a direct flight or go through Mexico City from California's Los Angeles International (LAX) and other airports out of several major cities in the state of Texas that borders Mexico.

It is easy to arrange a direct flight to Cancun in the Caribbean or Puerto Vallarta or Cabo on the Pacific coast from the western United States. These direct flights from the US can be very reasonably priced, and flight time is only about six hours to step out to paradise.

The most prominent regions for scuba diving in Mexico lie along its coasts. There are the clear green waters of the Gulf of Mexico around Veracruz, the pristine Caribbean waters off the eastern shores of the Yucatan Peninsula, the historic resort cities and beach towns along Mexico's Pacific coast and the Baja Peninsula and its party town of Cabo at its tip.

The platform reefs found out in the port of Veracruz can be accessed by boat through local dive shops such as the prominent Veracruz dive shop Scubaver. Check out the small fishing town of Anton Lizardo, not far south of the city of Veracruz. In Anton Lizardo, find the Sobuca Dive Shop and arrange a trip out to the many reefs scattered offshore.

The great thing about the Gulf coast around Veracruz is that it is still a hidden treasure and has not yet been made into an ultra touristy, resort centric Mexican coastline like the Cancun, Cabo and Acapulco areas. Big resorts and flashy places are great but the authentic feel of Veracruz is unique and the Gulf breeze and waters are so warm and inviting.

There are many dive shops and private boats for hire in the Puerto Vallarta area. Inquire about the day trips that the dive shops known as Vallarta UnderSea or Vallarta Adventures are offering. If you shop around you will most likely find a perfect day trip to local dive sites in and around Puerto Vallarta's Banderas Bay.

If you are planning an adventure to the rocky shores of the Baja Peninsula there are some established dive sites off the tip of the peninsula around the town of Cabo San Lucas. You can easily arrange a snorkel or scuba diving trip from the many boat captains and dive shops that operate from the marina at Cabo. Investigate what the dive shop Cabo Eagle Divers has to offer for the week you are visiting and make sure to also check out Cabo's oldest dive shop Amigos Del Mar.

Last -but by no means least- are the dive shops that provide access to Mexico's most famous scuba diving coast, the Riviera Maya and the area off Cancun. Two prominent dive shops in Cancun's hotel zone are Nautilus Diving and Training Center and divePro Cancun Dive.

Both shops will hook you up as a beginner or an advanced scuba diver. Down the coast and away from the resorts of the Riviera Maya, you enter into a much more quiet and traditional Caribbean Mexico along the Costa Maya towards Belize. In the small fishing village of Mahahual there is the resort and dive shop known as Dreamtime Dive Resort.

This dive shop offers local dive trips to the barrier reef and also occasional trips that can be organized to go to the remote Banco Chinchorro, Mexico's only coral atoll.

No matter where you journey along Mexico's extensive coastline the beauty of Mexico is that the air is almost already warm and the waters are open to scuba diving adventures. The industry of scuba diving is growing stronger and stronger each year in Mexico's resort regions and even within more remote beach villages, especially along its Pacific coast and Caribbean shores.

The Best Places to go Scuba Diving in Spain

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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Diving in Spain offers some good year-round opportunities and seasonal dives, and is easy to reach from anywhere in Europe. Water temperature ranges between 10 degrees Celsius in some parts in the winter, and up to 28 degrees Celsius in summer, with the main diving season being between March and November. The Canary Islands are situated southernmost and have the warmest climate.

Just off the Costa Brava, and easy to reach from L’Estartit, the Medes Islands are one of the best places to dive in Spain. Consisting of two main islands and several islets, this archipelago is a marine reserve and has special diving regulations, resulting in beautiful, untouched scenery, wealthy in marine life.

Diving the Balearic Islands, which is only a short flight from major European cities, is known for its warm waters and good visibility. Consisting of the islands Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, the Balearics offer several good dive opportunities that include marine parks, wrecks, and caves.

Diving in the Canary Islands is one of Spain’s highlights in diving. Benefiting from the warm Sahara winds, the Canary Islands have a comfortable year-round climate with water temperatures ranging between 17 and 24 degrees Celsius. The island group consists of 7 islands (Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuertefetura, Lanzarote, El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma), each with diving opportunities of their own.

The rocky lava topography is excellent for photography and a mix of species from the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and endemic species are found here. Connections are excellent by air to many Spanish and other European cities.

The Costa del Sol, from Tarifa to Almeria offers some excellent dive opportunities. As the southernmost point of Europe, and the place where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, Tarifa offers spectacular diving and a unique mix of marine life. Gibraltar, the impressive rock rising from the sea, and gateway to the Mediterranean, has some great wreck diving that includes WW2 and cargo vessels.

Both Tarifa and Gibraltar are subject to currents, and recommended to experienced divers only. The more sheltered Marina del Este in Amuñecar is a marine reserve with an abundance of marine life, as well as some wrecks and caves that are suitable for novice and experienced divers alike.

The Medes Islands have 10 official dive sites, which are well protected and offer plenty of healthy marine life to watch. Dive site Dolphin’s Cave has opportunities for both beginner and experienced divers to explore the tunnels and caves at this site, which create spectacular underwater scenery. The depth here ranges from 5 to 30 meters and the area is home to crayfish, grouper, eels, and corals.

Only a short boat ride from Ibiza Town is dive site Dado Pequeño, a rocky reef that offers a nice and easy wall dive with plenty of marine life. Amongst the many creatures that call this reef home, divers may find moray eels, schools of barracuda, octopus, lobster and nudibranchs.

Cueva de Palm Mar is a highlight when diving Tenerife. Suitable for experienced divers, only due to its depth, this dive site usually has incredible visibility, a mysterious cave, and plenty of interesting marine life like different species of moray eels.

With drop-offs around the island of over 300 meters deep, diving El Hierro has quite a spectacular topography and excellent visibility, often up to 40 meters. El Bajon is one of the most spectacular dives. This pinnacle, rising from the depth to 9 meters, attracts a wealth of marine life that includes amberjack, tuna, and even the occasional turtle and manta ray.

The Wall at Tarifa is an 18-meter deep vertical wall dive that is suitable for the intermediate diver. Covered in soft coral and a good place to find colorful nudibranchs, this site is excellent for the underwater photographer. From Gibraltar, the Helen makes another good photo opportunity. This wreck is in great shape and has easy access to the wheelhouse. Cerro Gordo in the Marina del Este is an easy dive site that consists of large stone blocks and has a healthy amount of marine life.

Dive Shops

With over 45 years of experience in taking divers to see some of the best diving in Spain, Unisub is a well-established and professional dive center for diving the Costa Brava and Medes Islands. The center is located in the town of L’estartit and alternates trips on their two boats between the coast and the Medes Islands, covering over 15 different dive sites.

Scuba Ibiza is a 5-star PADI IDC center that is conveniently located in the marina of the Ibiza harbor. They offer a wide range of PADI courses, including TecRec, in over six different languages. Dive trips go out on their custom designed dive boats to over 30 different dive sites that take between 5 and 60 minutes to reach.

Wannadive on Tenerife is conveniently located between the island’s most popular resort towns, Playa de las Americas and Los Cristianos. Rated as a PADI 5 star IDC center, Wannadive Tenerife has excellent training facilities and runs courses year round from total beginner to rebreather training. An extra bonus is the free Nitrox available for certified Nitrox divers.

Situated on el Hierro and only a short boat ride away from over 20 beautiful dive sites, Arrecifal is a small PADI dive center that runs dive trips and training courses all through the year.

Fuengirola diving center is your one-stop dive shop for all your diving in the Costa del Sol. Running all year round, FDC organizes dives to the best dive sites in the area, including Tarifa and Gibraltar, as well as local dives in the beautiful Marina del Este.

Because of their wide cover, they are able to offer divers a wide choice of dive sites that include wrecks, reefs and caves. As a PADI 5 star IDC center they are able to offer a full spectrum of dive courses and their fully stocked dive shop can supply any needed equipment.

Sights of Tioman, Malaysia Photo essay of 'Alishs' Work

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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So as many of you know, we are a new project, and for us active users are a reward for our hard days and nights - planning, writing, coding, designing. Active users in a way validate your plans and your designs of the interface and this is a great feeling for us.

One of the users that has been consistently active over the last couple months and has rewarded us with some awesome pictures of Malaysia is username is Alish.

Judging by his pictures, he is a big fan of nudi's.

I have personally been diving in Malaysia, and the mecca of diving , Sipadan Island. I absolutely love the country - it's beautiful nature and its people. The Island of Borneo is the most bio diverse area on the planet and the diving is excellent. From experience, the Malaysians are generally more friendly than the Indonesians and even the Thais.

Anyhow, with any further ado, here is a selection of some my favorite photographs by user Alish.

Alish also wrote a great article about Tioman, you can find his profile over at diveadvisor.com/alish and you can find him on instagram.[@alish_81),

Hydrotherapy For Dogs - How It Works And Why You Should Try It

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 12:40:01 GMT

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You might have known someone who had hydrotherapy treatment within a hospital’s physiotherapy department. Usually, a physiotherapist or his assistant with expert training will demonstrate how to do the exercises. You’ll be surprised to know that even the people in ancient times and other cultures around the world have been doing this type of therapy for centuries to treat a variety of health conditions. They knew from the start that water counteracts gravity and allows an individual to exercise his muscles in an effective environment as well as having a beneficial effect on his well-being as he relaxes. In fact, the term hydrotherapy originated from the ancient Greek roots, which simply translates as “water healing.”

Because of its effectiveness, doctors from veterinary clinics and canine rehabilitation centers recently view the benefits of hydrotherapy treatments for animals. The first hydrotherapy equipment began when horse trainers first thought of using it to figure out if their horses could recover in water after a tiresome race or leg injury. Afterwards, the same procedure was adapted to racing Greyhounds to enhance their strength and speed including healing injuries from the rigors of racing. Nowadays, hydrotherapy treatment is available to dogs and cats in the United States, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, and Western Europe. This is because numerous vets claim that hydrotherapy has plenty of beneficial effects on a pet’s physical, emotional, and mental health. But before you consider this treatment option for Fido, we suggest reading this guide to make sure you know everything about its benefits, the process, and cost first. Let’s dive in!

What Is Hydrotherapy For Dogs?

Hydrotherapy doesn’t mean your dog will take a bath. As defined by experts, hydrotherapy is a form of exercise–such as swimming or walking in water– in an aquatic environment that is used as a structured program to optimize conditioning of animal athletes, easing arthritis, discomforts in pets, and even improving function after injury or surgical procedures. This aquatic exercise uses the therapeutic quality of water in about 85 degrees to give and support gentle resistance, allowing a dog to move their joints freely through the water.

If you’re unsure whether canine hydrotherapy is the right option for your pooch, talk with your veterinarian first. Once he has assessed your pet’s condition and decides on when your pooch may begin hydrotherapy, then he can also point you to a reputable hydrotherapy facility for dogs.

Benefits Of Hydrotherapy For Dogs

Besides the benefits of rehabilitating joints and relieving pain as mentioned previously, canine hydrotherapy can provide more benefits for your dog physically, mentally and emotionally, such as:

Lessens dog’s weight burden
Makes exercising more comfortable
Keeps dogs mobile
Suitable in dog patients of all ages especially old-aged dogs
Muscle strengthening and endurance
Relief swelling and stiffness
Reduce muscle spasms
Promote blood flow circulation which leads to healthy skin and coat
Increase a dog’s range of motion
Cardiovascular fitness
Increase energy and agility
Tissue healing
Faster recovery from injuries
Promote balance and coordination
Gait modification
Increase joint flexibility
Better digestion
Eliminates coat and skin conditions
Decrease inflammation
Decrease stress
Stimulate metabolic functions and hormones
Drain lymphatic fluid, rid the body of toxins, and improve the immune system
Alleviate dogs from sadness and fear
Promote a sense of safety and wellbeing
Load off a dog’s mind
Provides a feeling of completion and harmony
Support dogs that are suffering from fractures, hip dysplasia and amputation of a limb
Helps treat geriatric patients with arthritis, muscle atrophy or wasting, neurological problems, ACL injuries, post-surgical healing and recovery, as well as metabolic conditions like Cushing’s and diabetes.

Furthermore, as your dog relaxes in the water, you can also use this moment to play fetch with a tennis ball with your pooch or do some creative activities to amuse and tire out your over-exuberant doggie. In this case, hydrotherapy can also serve as a good way to spend quality time with dogs.

How Does Hydrotherapy For Dogs Work?

Hydrotherapy for dogs basically uses the main properties of water –buoyancy, resistance, viscosity, and hydrostatic pressure– to allow a dog to move his joints. Buoyancy, for example, is the ability of a body to rise to the top or stay afloat of a liquid or gas. This means water can make a dog’s body buoyant by supporting the weight of his body–without the need to fight gravity–when submerged. The buoyancy of the water acts as a pain reliever for dogs by minimizing stress on the joints and thus, creates a safer environment for recovery from joint injuries or after surgery.

There are three common types of canine hydrotherapy. These types all use different sets of equipment and serve specific purposes. To know which best suits your pup’s rehabilitation needs, it’s recommended to consult with your dog’s vet first.

Underwater Treadmills

Dog water treadmills are probably the best-known type of hydrotherapy. It consists of a treadmill belt enclosed in an empty small tank. It also allows adjustments depending on the dog’s needs. Hence, the small tank will be filled to the desired level of warm water. The dog will be assisted and supported by a hydrotherapist while he walks along the underwater treadmill. Since this type of hydrotherapy can be customized, the hydrotherapist can program the pace or speed of the belt, add or remove water, and otherwise optimize therapy for each animal.

Whirlpool Therapy

This method acts like a Jacuzzi for dogs as it relieves pain and is used for pets who are recovering from major surgeries. To get started, the dog will be secured on a harness and lowered slowly into the pool. The level of the water will depend on where the injury is located on your pooch. Once the dog enters the water, the whirlpool’s warm jet stream will effectively massage your pet’s injured muscles by creating a deep effect that is needed to relieve your dog.

Pool-Based Hydrotherapy for Dogs

Hydrotherapy pools, on the other hand, are specially designed if you want a larger space for your pooch to move about freely as he interacts with a hydrotherapist. The pools usually have built-in ramps for easy entries and exits. The water may be cooled for athletic canines who are exercising or training or may be heated to help loosen and soothe aching muscles and joints for pets who are recovering from surgeries.

If you noticed that your dog doesn’t feel comfortable being in the water and has trust issues to be with a hydrotherapist, ask if you can join in too.

How Much Does Hydrotherapy for Dogs Cost?

Hydrotherapy clinics can be found all over the United States and around the world, and even veterinarians are adding aquatic therapy equipment to their facilities. If you’re wondering about its cost, you should know that hydrotherapy fees vary according to influencing factors such as the type of hydrotherapy, the condition being treated, the length of each therapy session, location of practice, level of experience, the degree of services needed as well as the specific center you choose to attend.

In this case, you can expect an average fee of around $35 to $45 for an initial consultation, $35 to $50 for an underwater treadmill session, and between $20 to $30 for a swim therapy session. If you want a less expensive one, it’s wise to go with the most reputed centers and treatment procedures or visit the facilities to talk to the providers to have a look at their equipment and check for insurance before booking a session for your pooch.

Is Hydrotherapy Suitable For Your Dog?

Canine hydrotherapy can benefit pets of any age, breed or size. Unfortunately, it does not apply to every dog. There are some considerations that you should be aware of before deciding for your pet to undergo hydrotherapy such as if your dog has an ear infection, serious skin conditions, with open wounds or sores, has breathing difficulties (like Pugs) and suffering from heart disease. To be sure, it's best to have your dog diagnosed by a veterinarian before taking some action.

Final Thoughts

While many health professionals agree that therapy should start as soon as possible, you should also keep in mind to never force your dog to swim or even try hydrotherapy without a professional. A professional hydrotherapist is trained for a reason and doing it on your own may worsen your dog’s condition without proper supervision from an expert. However, if you sign up your dog for a hydrotherapy session at a reputable center, not only will he feel better, you are also ensuring that your dog will live a long and healthy life. Now, does your dog need hydrotherapy?

Underwater Photography: Shooting Panoramas

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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A panorama – stemmed from the Greek ‘pan’ meaning ‘all’, and ‘horama’ meaning ‘sight’ - is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, or film/video. The early 19th century was the peak time of panoramas, when paintings of 100x15 meters fascinated the beholders.

In landscape and architectural photography, panoramas are used very frequently, showing scenes that no lens in the world could capture with one single image, at least not in proper quality.

Why is that so? The horizontal angle of the human eye is 176 degrees, a 50mm camera lens has around 45 degrees, and a 10mm super wide-angle lens provides 122 degrees.

Now, imagine standing in front of the Buckingham Palace, a huge building. What would you need to do to see it entirely? You would need to increase the distance between the building and yourself. But this option doesn’t really exist in underwater photography, as distance from the object results in loss of contrast and colors in the photograph (remember, get closer!).

So, a panorama might be an option. Photographic panoramas consist of a series of several photos shot in the same place, at the same time, and from the same shooting position. At the end, the images of the series are stitched together using imaging software. If everything works well, we then have a really wide scene (even up to 360 degrees) in one image.

Note: Panorama photography on a high-end level is complex, and requires special equipment such as tripods and so-called nodal point adapters. To keep things simple, I would like to introduce you to my so-called “free-style” technique that works without any special equipment. P.S. All images above are taken using this technique.

You need:

A camera, preferably equipped with a wide-lens or wide-angle adapter.
A nice “wide” subject to shoot (wrecks, underwater landscapes etc.) For beginners, I recommend working on static, motionless subjects.
A good underwater visibility. At least 15 meters, but 20 or more is better.
Excellent diving and buoyancy skills. Half of this technique depends on your diving skills.

How to do it:

First, find yourself a nice subject. UW landscapes, reefs, and wrecks have great panorama potential. It helps a lot to stay in shallow water, 5-15 meter, as this depth gives you the opportunity to work with ambient light instead of flashguns.
If possible, switch to manual focus. If this option does not exist, set the auto focus to center spot only.
Adjust your camera settings by measuring the scene/object you plan to shoot. Set your shutter, aperture, and ISO. Take a test-shot and refer to the histogram in your camera's LCD display.
Now stabilize your own position. Check your buoyancy, as it is important that you exactly stay at the same position. If you have the opportunity (without damaging nature or hurting yourself) to kneel on the ground; that works as well. Imagine a monopod (a tripod with only one leg). You are this monopod now. Get in an upright position (like standing in the water) and look through your camera's viewfinder.
Stay in position, don't change your depth and turn a bit to the left around your own (mono-pod!) vertical axis while looking through your camera's viewfinder. A very slight “mini-kick” with your right fin would do it.
Check your subject, and if you are happy with the frame, take the first shot.
Keep your eye on the viewfinder and turn a bit to the right. You will see in your viewfinder that now a new frame of the wreck, for example, is ready. Try to keep an overlap between single images of around 30% - meaning the right border of image number 1 should not be on the left border of image number 2. They should overlap a bit, as this is important for image stitching later.
Take your next shot. Remember, stay in position. You are ‘standing’ in the water and you turn only around your own vertical axis, not swimming to the right or to the left, and definitely not changing your depth. As said, this technique is half a diving skill ;-) It's also a good idea to do a couple of panorama image series of one and the same subject, as using this "free style" technique does not always produce a perfect result on the first attempt.
Happy with the frame? Do the next shot then.
Turn once more a bit to the right (keep that overlapping in mind) and shoot the 3rd photo of the scene.
Listen to the applause of the crowd, as you've just shot your first underwater panorama series! It's up to you to shoot a series of four or more photos, of course.

Hint: Later, when reviewing the photos and selecting those to stitch together to a panorama, you might get slightly confused as to which image belongs to the panorama series and which one doesn’t. Here’s an easy way to remember: Shoot your own hand before and after each series. The pictures ‘between the hands’ belong to the panorama :-)

Photoshop, Lightroom, and many specialized tools such as Panorama Studio PRO have assistant-guided functions to help you stitch the photos to a panorama image. How to use that sort of software for panorama shots will follow in a separate blog post here on The Sub2o :-).

Happy (panorama) shootings, happy bubbles, and always stay safe!

Caribbean Diving: Caribbean Netherlands

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

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The Caribbean Netherlands consists of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba - they are often referred to as the BES-islands and enjoy the benefits of being special municipalities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Since October 2010, the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Sint Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Bonaire and the uninhabited sister island Klein Bonaire are the furthest south in the Caribbean – just 50 miles north of Venezuela. Saba and St. Eustatius are in the northern Leeward Islands, with Saint Maarten lying further to the northeast.

Bonaire and Saba are considered to be scuba diving Meccas, although St. Eustatius and Sint Maarten have good diving too. All of the islands have a good infrastructure for tourism and travel and they are known for being well managed. Cruise ships regularly call at Bonaire and Sint Maarten.

Bonaire is regarded as the “Shore Diving Capital of the Caribbean” and has world-class reefs that are also accessible by boat. Divers who visit Saba will experience dramatic volcanic topography – stunning pinnacles and seamounts characterize this island. St. Eustatius is also a volcanically formed island, and the underwater scenery is reflective of this. Spur and groove reefs and coral-encrusted lava flow canyons are typical of the “Golden Rocks” diving. Sint Maarten sits on a shallower plateau than Saba and St. Eustatius, and the diving is centered on coral-encrusted boulder formations with some pleasant wreck dives.

All of the islands have a great reputation for varying species of marine life – this is probably due to the National Marine Parks that have been established around the islands. Each island has a different point of interest in terms of marine life - large pelagic fish in Saba, critters in Bonaire, sharks in Sint Maarten, and turtles and reef life in St. Eustatius.

The climate throughout this region is tropical and generally stable; average air temperature throughout the islands is 80 °F. Average water temperatures range from 75-85 °F – short or long 3mm wetsuits are generally worn throughout the Caribbean region.

Dive Sites and Marine Life

There are over 60 officially listed dive sites on the leeward coast of Bonaire, and 20 sites around Klein Bonaire – all with amazing corals, sponges and marine life. Visibility averages 80-100ft, and surface conditions are generally calm. The fringing reef starts just 30ft (10m) from shore and generally slopes down to a sandy bottom.

The northern end of the leeward coastline has a dramatically sloping reef and the southern end has a double reef system. Top dive sites to visit are Karpata, La Machaca, the Hilma Hooker Wreck, Vista Blue, and Jerry's Reef. Marine life is healthy and abundant across all of the well-protected dive sites and turtles, eagle rays, eels, frogfish, and seahorses are common to see.

Saba has 30 dramatic dive sites around the island. The volcanic formations teem with diverse marine life and lucky divers will get the chance to see larger pelagic visitors too. The dive sites range from pretty patch reefs, that are suitable for novices, to advanced, deep dives with thrilling blue descents. The pinnacles and seamounts are not to be missed. The dive sites can be categorized into five main areas: The Pinnacles, The Windwardside, Tent Bay, Ladder Bay, and Well's Bay/Torrens Point.

Sint Eustatius has around 36 marked dive sites. There are distinct topographical areas to be seen underwater: In the north, lava blocks, boulder slides, and shallow lava flows (called lava fingers) create interesting formations that are covered by colourful sponges and corals.

Spur and groove lava formations characterize the southern area. These coral reefs are home to a good selection of Caribbean reef fish and creatures. The most interesting being flying gurnards, eels, frogfish, seahorses, spotted drumfish, octopus, various rays, sharks, and turtles.

Sint Maarten has a nice range of dive sites where divers can experience shark diving, wreck diving, and see coral-encrusted boulder formations. Sitting on a shallow plateau, the dive sites average 18 meters (60 feet) and visibility depends on weather conditions – normally averaging 18-25 meters (60-80 feet).

A popular dive is Shark Hotel, named for the amount of sharks that divers encounter at this site. Reef sharks and nurse sharks are common species that divers will see. Turtles, stingrays, eagle rays, and barracuda are some of the other larger inhabitants.

Dive Shops and Travel Logistics

Bonaire's regional and international gateway is called The Flamingo International Airport (BON). Inter-island flights arrive via Aruba or Curacao. There are direct flights from North America and Europe, but not from South America.

The Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) is the major airport on Sint Maarten. Direct flights come from North America. Inter-Caribbean flights operate to many of the other islands, with connections to Saba and Sint Eustatius.

All flights to Saba's Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport (SAB) connect through Sint Maarten. Winair operates five flights a day from Sint Maarten to Saba. Winair also runs five flights from Sint Maarten to St. Eustatius on a daily basis. The airport code for Statia is EUX.

There are 20 dive operators on Bonaire, representing all the major recreational diving agencies. Nitrox and trimix are available and guided diving trips, from boat or shore, run daily from each center. Drive 'n' Dive vehicles are available to hire. Buddy Beach & Dive Resort and Divi Dive Bonaire are two good dive centers. Cruise ship guests can pre-book diving excursions with many of the dive centers.

Saba has three dive shops – Saba Deep Dive Center, Saba Divers, and Sea Saba Dive Center. Saba's dive centers have international diving teams, and very good safety records. The instructors are multilingual with the main languages being Dutch, English, German, and Spanish. Nitrox is available.

There are also only three dive operators on Sint Eustatius - Golden Rock Dive Center, Subaqua Dive Center and Dive Statia. Similarly to Saba, they are multi-lingual and offer the full range of certification courses from the major training agencies. Rental equipment and nitrox are offered.

Sint Maarten has seven registered PADI dive operators, including a liveaboard that departs from the island. All of the centers have equipment rental for diving and snorkeling and nitrox. The Caribbean Dive College and Ocean Explorers Dive Center are highly recommended operators in online reviews.

Explorer Ventures Liveaboard also has its base on Sint Maarten - a luxury dive boat, it accommodates 18 passengers and visits the surrounding islands. Many cruise ships visit Sint Maarten and diving can be pre-booked with the dive centers.

Colorful Fiji

Fri, 25 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT

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Nothing about Fiji is dull. From the moment you step off the plane, smiling Fijians greet you in vivid flowered shirts singing bright, happy music.

The lush green mountainous islands with abundant bird life and pretty flowers could almost convince a traveler to stay on land to enjoy the all the beauty. At least until he/she sees the colors underwater.

The first descent into the appealing blue waters surrounding Fiji is like jumping into a painting. Pink and purple splotches of soft corals cover the walls and little anthias, like specs of splattered orange and yellow paint, flit back and forth just off the corals. With a sapphire backdrop of ocean, the scene looks like a painter’s dream masterpiece.

The Islands

Fiji is an archipelago made up of more than 300 islands and 500 islets, most of which are uninhabited. These islands of white sand beaches with tropical forests extending up mountains stretch over 75,000 square miles of ocean. Postcard perfect views are plentiful and that’s just on the surface.

Known as the soft coral capital of the world, there are several hundred species of corals and sponges. More than 1000 species of fish have been identified, and there are sharks, mantas, turtles, rays and sometimes even migrating humpback whales passing by.

Dive guides with a good eye can point out hidden nudibranchs as colorful as the reef. Other masters of disguise such as scorpionfish are common, if you can find them.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF TOURISM FIJI

The diving throughout the archipelago is fantastic. In many places, coral bommies or pinnacles rise up from the deep and the nutrient rich waters help these isolated areas flourish.

Carpeted with intense pink and purple soft corals, bommies are like an oasis for fish. From a distance they could almost be underwater beehives, the way the fish seem to buzz around the hive of coral. Divers can spend an entire tank circling the bommies and admiring the colors and life.

Fiji also has wall diving, drift diving, several wrecks, and a famous shark dive that often included bull and tiger sharks. No matter where you are diving in Fiji, get ready for a whole different palette of color.

What You Need to Know about Diving in Maldives

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT

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The Maldives is a chain of Islands and atolls approximately 700km South West of Sri-Lanka. The Maldives are widely considered one of the top dive destinations, and much of the country is a biosphere reserve as per the UN, with plans to make the entire country a UN biosphere within 5 years.

The Maldives consists of 26 atolls - a ring-shaped coral structure often surrounding an Island and enclosing a lagoon within it and 1322 Islands. The atolls and islands are formed by submerged volcanoes that create a landmass above the surface, which subsequently gets surrounded by reef formation. The formations result in a complex system of channels, reefs & underwater pinnacles that, in turn, attract and house a wide variety of exciting marine life, corals and crustaceans/critters.

The Maldives are located in the Indian Ocean and one of their distinct features is the pelagic life coming to the atolls reefs to hunt and feed on reef species, resulting in a great mix of macro and wide angle opportunities. Generally, the diving in Maldives is not for the faint of heart or inexperienced divers, due to strong currents and the need to go deep to have the best encounters. Channel Diving is particularly challenging. Crossing the channels requires staying below the lip of the channel to avoid being drifted out into the blue; this can often be as deep as 35-40 meters. Diving into the channel often requires fighting or managing currents, reef hooking, and being comfortable with difficult conditions.

Diving in The Maldives can basically be broken down into 3 major environments - channels, thilas & farus:

Channels

Entrances and exits to the atolls, through which the pelagic life enter the atolls to feed on reef life.
Strong currents & often challenging dives. Divers have to be careful of the strong currents and depth.
Big congregations of reef fish and pelagic action can often be witnessed here.
Best known for eagle rays, grey reef sharks and good visibility.

Thilas & Giris

Thilas aka 'Giris' are submerged sea mountains/pinnacles – coming up from between 30-40m and 15-1m on the surface. Best dived with a medium current – with masses of fish being attracted to the front of the pinnacle thus enticing the predators such as giant trevally, dog tooth tuna, grey reef sharks to hunt. Good on the slack side of the current for macro life, such as Leaf fish, Nudi branch, Flatworms & Scorpion Fish. The best-known thilas are Maaya Thila (North Ari Atoll), and Hafusha Thila (North Ari Atoll).

Farus

A Faru is basically an island reef, similar to reefs found in other destinations, which is usually sloping down from 1m to 30m and is generally the easiest dives that can be found in the Maldives. Good for fan coral & other macro life such as murre eels, anemones, nudibranchs, frog fish, leaf fish, glass fish.

Top 5 Dive Sites

Fushi Kandu – Laamu (with a medium incoming current): Grey reef sharks, chevron barracuda, midnight snapper, big eye jacks, eagle rays

Maareehaa Kandu – Gaafu Alifu: Beautiful channel, with hundreds of grey reef sharks and a high chance of larger sharks such as silky sharks and the great hammerhead. Unique that the inside wall is extremely beautiful coral with copious amounts of turtle and other sights.

Hafusha Thila – North Ari Atoll: Grey reef shark cleaning station with copious amounts of fusiliers, dog tooth tuna, big eye jacks, and sleeping baby white tip sharks.

Lankan Manta Point – North Male Atoll: Manta Cleaning Station, sometimes up to 20 mantas lining up to be cleaned.

Maachafushi Wreck - Beautiful wreck with a nice combination of soft and hard coral, frog fish, stone fish, scorption fish, leaf fish, schooling tiger jacks, and occasional nurse sharks.

Dive Shops, Airports & Logistics of Diving in Maldives

The best diving in the Maldives is undeniably done from a liveaboard due to the wide disperse of dive sites that spread over an area of over 1000km long. Diving from a resort would limit you to the dive sites that are within a boat ride, usually limiting you to one, two or maximum 3 atolls.

Logistically, the most common entry point is Male Airport, where you will get picked up from by your operator and taken by a smaller boat, often referred to as a 'Dhone', to either the liveaboard boat or the resort where you will be staying. Depending on the resort that you are staying at or the liveaboard you choose, you may need to take a connecting domestic flight to one of the more remote atolls, usually - Laamu, Huvadhoo, Addu, Baa, Huva or Haa Dhaalu.

Notable Operators

Ellaidhoo Island Resort

A beautiful house reef and in close proximity to some of the top dive sites in the country - a good alternative to a liveaboard, partly due to its geo-location.

Werner Lau Dive Centers

8 different dive centers spread over 8 different resorts across the Maldives. Professionally run German operation with a good reputation for safety and professionalism and attention to detail.

MV Orion

Very comfortable and large boat that is 4 years in operation, European-managed with a very multi-lingual team. Free nitrox on board, as well as plenty of safety equipment.

Ark Royal & Ark Venture

Another well-run liveaboard operation that brings a good mix of fun and safety to the table. It offers free nitrox, and has been in operation for over 5 years.

Theia

One of the most stylish & newest boats in the Maldives, run by local Maldiveans. It has an excellent vibe onboard, with more of a party atmosphere than some other boats, and a very fun team.

Scuba Diving Chile

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT

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Chile is the small strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains on the west coast of South America. Having over 4000km of coast and the isolated Easter Island, there is plenty of water for divers to explore. With tourism increasing, visitors come to Chile for all sorts of reasons including the deserts of San Pedro de Atacama, volcanoes, glaciers, Patagonia and Easter Island. But diving is only starting to get a foothold in this coastal country. You won’t find many other divers, but you will find fantastic diving.

Spanning more than 35 degrees of longitude, Chile is the longest north to south country on Earth, which means lots of diving! The Humboldt Current, one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world, runs from south to north up the coast of Chile, bringing the same waters to Cocos Island and the Galapagos. With these plankton rich waters, marine life flourishes.

Northern Chile is often said to have the best diving, with slightly warmer waters (16-20C) and the most diverse fish life and corals. The south has colder waters ranging from 12-13C, but don’t underestimate the diving because there are seal and sea lion colonies, dolphins, whales and great visibility. Chile has a desert climate in the north, subtropical in the central, and temperate in the south. The warmer summer months are from December to March, and winter is June to August. The capital, Santiago, has air temperatures from 10-30 in the summer and 0-10 in the winter. South of Santiago can be much colder. Diving occurs year round with proper exposure suits.

There are also diving opportunities on Easter Island (Isla de Pascua). The world’s most isolated inhabited island has some of the best visibility in the world. Resting on a volcanic ridge, the diving consists of rocky bottoms and lava tunnels, arches, and caverns. Over 25% of the fish species are thought to be endemic. Easter Island has a subtropical climate with water temperatures ranging from 20-22C and air temperatures of 20-26C.

Getting to Chile is easy by flying into Santiago International Airport (SCL), and from there domestic flights can take you to coastal cities. There are good road systems for renting cars and buses are a great way to get around the country. Easter Island (IPC) is a five-hour flight from Santiago. Chile’s official language is Spanish and they use the Chilean Peso.

Dive Sites and Marine Life

Chile’s most popular diving is on Easter Island, 3500km off the coast of Chile. This small island offers some of the best visibility in the world because there is little pollution, very little run-off or sedimentation from the island, and low densities of plankton. Many of the dive sites have walls, caverns, arches, and other exciting structures. Easter Island’s most talked about dive site is The Trail of the Moai, where divers can dive with an underwater moai (a replica of the human-like statues Easter Island is famous for.)

Some of the best diving is found around The Motus, three small rock islands off the southwest coast (Motu Nui, Motu Iti, and Motu Kau Kau). But only during calm weather can boats reach these destinations. They have some of the islands best underwater structures with plenty of lava tubes and caverns. Winter weather can be windy and may limit where dive boats can go. A 5mm wetsuit will make the 20C water comfortable.

On the mainland of Chile, diving is more popular in the north because of warmer waters and more marine life. Around Antofagasta there are many dive sites including Roca Chungungo, a popular dive with a sheer wall and often sea lions and otters. The Maria Elizabeth Wreck was sunk in 1965 and sits from 16-21m, making it a good dive site for beginners and more advanced divers. The Cauldron of Death is a wall dive with a large cave. It’s a more advanced dive because it can have a heavy surge, but has great marine growth and visibility.

Around the La Serena/Las Tacas area, popular dive sites include The Cathedrals with steep walls and tunnels covered in sponges with groupers, and giant jellyfish. For advanced divers, there is The Cavern which is a 15m cavern swim-through. This area has great macro life including nudibranchs, crustaceans, and starfish; as well as occasional sea lions, dolphins, and seasonal whales. Cliffs, rock formations, and underwater tunnels make this a very interesting area to dive.

Closer to Santiago Los Molles, Zapallar, and Quintay offer good diving, but slightly cooler water likely requiring a 7mm wetsuit or dry suit. Los Molles has eight dive sites with blue and orange anemones and lots of sea lions. Valaraiso has soft corals and large sponges, starfish and wreck dives including El Falucho and the Caupolican. These areas are popular for dive shops in Santiago to bring their students in training and weekend divers escaping the city.

Diving in Southern Chile will have cold temperatures, but can still be rewarding. There are kelp forests, wrecks, nudibranchs, seals, sea lions, and huge king crabs. Dry suits are needed to dive Southern Chile.

Less known than Easter Island, Chile also has the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, 700km offshore. It’s made up of three islands, and diving around them has often been said to be some of the best, unspoiled diving in Chile. The volcanic islands have great wall dives, caverns, and other neat structures. Large fish and schools of fish are common, as are morays, cods, pampanito, and the endemic Juan Fernandez Fur Seal. Dive sites include English Port, The Gobblin's Cave, Punta Loberia, and Punta San Carlos.

Dive Sites and Logistics

Chile is still relatively unknown in the diving world. Santiago has the highest concentration of dive shops, many doing weekend trips to the coast for certification courses and guided dives. BuceaMar offers PADI instruction, a wide selection of gear for sale, and has weekend trips to Quintay for diving.

They also group diving trips to Easter Island. Austral Divers is also located in Santiago, offers PADI courses and does weekend trips to Quintay. Tiempo de Fondo, also based in Santiago, offers PADI, SSI, and technical diving training. They lead weekend trips to Zapallar.

Valposub, in Valparaiso, north of Santiago, offers PADI courses and daily boat and shore dives including wreck diving. In Los Vilos, Buceo Pichidangui dives many dive sites in the bay and offers lodging. They teach PADI courses from discover scuba diving through instructor and sell a wide range of gear. Las Tacas Dive Resort offers daily diving leaving from the resort. They offer PADI courses and other water activities like kayaking, fishing, and surfing.

The Juan Fernandez Islands are an archipelago 650km from the coast off Valparaiso. The island of Robinson Crusoe has a few hotels, and the Crusoe Island Lodge offers diving and other activities on the island.

Easter Island’s most popular dive shops are Orca Diving Center and Mike Rapu Dive Center. They’ve both been rated highly as some of the best diving operators in Chile. Both are located in Hanga Roa, and offer daily boat trips and PADI training. Depending on the weather, both shops lead trips to dive around the island, including The Motus if conditions are calm.

Chile’s largest international airport is in Santiago (SCL) and receives daily flights from North and South America, Europe, Africa and Australia on many airline carriers. From Santiago, domestic fights fly throughout the country including to larger coast cities. It’s also very easy to rent a vehicle or travel by bus to get to the coastal towns. Only Lan Airlines fly to Easter Island (Mataveri International Airport (IPC) via Santiago, Lima, Peru, or Tahiti. Getting to the Juan Fernandez Islands can be difficult, but there are some flights from Santiago (ATA Aerolineas) and boats from Valparaiso.

It is possible to rent or buy dive gear from most of the dive shops, although most do not rent dry suits, only 7mm wetsuits. Nitrox is only available at a limited number of shops.

Prinz Eugen - Bismarck Era Ship Wreck Dive, Marshall Islands

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT

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World War II – Imperial German Navy

The Prinz Eugen was commissioned into the Imperial German Navy in 1940. Named after the 18^th century Austrian general, Prince Eugene of Savoy, the 681ft Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser carried a crew of 1,382 men. The ship was part of Operation Rheinubung in 1941, which involved trying to block shipping from England to allied forces. The ship moved to France to repair some engine troubles and was then deployed to Norway, where the British submarine Trident torpedoed the Prinz Eugen. Returning to Germany for repairs, the ship was fixed and then used in the Baltic to train officer cadets.

At the end of World War II, the Prinz Eugen was surrendered to the British Royal Navy and transferred to the US Navy as a war prize.

United States Navy

The Prinz Eugen was assigned to support Operation Crossroads, and moved to Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1946. Operation Crossroads involved 95 target ships that were lined up in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll for three scheduled nuclear weapon tests, to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons, particularly on warships. Only two of the tests occurred, the Able and the Baker; the third test, Charlie, was cancelled.

The Prinz Eugen survived the two nuclear weapon tests. Both the Able and Baker were Fat Man plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapons, the same type that was dropped on Nagasaki. At the end of the tests, only nine ships were in good enough condition that they didn’t have to be scuttled.

The Prinz Eugen was towed back to Kwajalein Atoll, more than 400 miles away, with hopes of scrapping the ship and further studying the residual impact of the radiation. Unfortunately, there was a leak in the hull, and radioactivity prevented anyone from repairing the hull.

The leak caused the Prinz Eugen to sink in December of 1946 in shallow waters next to the island of Enubuj (also known as Carlson).

The Dive

Having sunk close to shore, the Prinz Eugen sits upside down with its two remaining propellers and the rudder partially out of the water. The third propeller was salvaged from the ship and is currently displayed in the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany. The stern’s top deck sits in the sand around 40 feet, and the wreck continues down a slope with the bow at 110 feet.

Descending next to one of the huge propellers, which are larger than a diver, makes one realize just how huge the ship really is. Down to the sea floor, there is a small area where a diver can swim between the sand and the top deck. White tip sharks and marble rays are common in this area.

Continuing towards the bow, the sandy bottom slopes and the wreck has plenty of window-like openings to peak into the ship’s interior, revealing beds that appear to be mounted to the ceiling and fallen chairs that now sit on the ceiling. Much of the superstructure has collapsed on itself due to its massive weight.

The ship has two large turrets with 8-inch barrels, and cannons can be found below, mostly buried in the sand. Torpedo tubes on the port side of the ship still have torpedoes in them ready to go.

An open hatch exposes a room stacked full of torpedoes that could possibly still be live. Parts of the ship and the ship’s contents have spilled out onto the seafloor, including the gun director, which is a huge sphere sitting next to the ship.

Having been underwater since 1946, the ship is covered in rust and is disintegrating, but marine life has taken over and covered the ship. Schools of fish pass by, eating the algae covering the hull, and barracuda keep watch over the ship from above.

Octopuses are a common sight, crawling around the bottom of the ship, which is now covered in coral and anemones. Sharks and manta rays can sometimes be seen in the distance, and seem to be taking a look around the ship as well.

Parts of the interior of this ship can be explored but extreme caution is necessary, as the ship has been underwater for nearly 70 years, and because it sank upside down, much of the superstructure has collapsed on itself. Wreck penetration can be disorientating because everything is upside down.

With such an exciting history and beautiful marine life, the Prinz Eugan is a fantastic dive that suits both novice divers, wanting to dive the shallow parts of the wreck, and advanced divers, wanting to explore a World War II wreck.

Zip Diving in little cayman

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

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Have you ever wished for a little extra boost underwater?

Perhaps you are exhausted and your legs need a break or maybe you would like to further propel your fin kicks to keep pace with some elusive marine life. There are many reasons we find ourselves yearning for a little more oomph underwater, wishing we could hit an accelerator button. Well, that button exists, and one day last year I had a blast pressing it.

Gear Galore

It all began over a weeklong dive trip to Little Cayman for the Digital Shootout. The Shootout is an underwater imaging event held in different countries annually. Over the course of the week, underwater photographers and videographers get together to learn new techniques, test drive new gear, and engage in friendly competition. With so much going on it's difficult to know where to focus one's attention.

Experimenting with different cameras, ports, and strobes is definitely a highlight and the chaos of options can easily spin out of control. Before you know it, the weeklong event has vanished -- at least that's how it was in my case. After an overdose of equipment tests, I chose to revert to my own camera gear, promising myself not to get sidetracked by any more toys. However, just as quickly as I had made that sober decision, my childish curiosity was tempted by something altogether new for me.

The Opportunity

Heading out for the next dive I couldn't help but be intrigued by a provocative machine lying on the deck of the boat. With only some slight idea of what it was, I needed to know more. After a few questions to its caretaker, a kind offer followed and my decision was made. I would shed 5 lbs of lead on my next dive to be replaced with this "jet pack" contraption attached to my tank in true 007-style. My new toy for the day was a Diver Propulsion Vehicle (or DPV), and I was ecstatic in anticipation of zipping around the reef at full speed.

However, remembering my previous commitment to my camera, I felt a pang of guilt and determined it would make good loyal sense to take it along. From what I recalled, the propulsion vehicles I had seen in the past were always handheld. Yet, this exotic device was different in that it strapped directly onto the tank. The only part of the vehicle that has to be held is the ignition. That's right, ignition! From the battery-powered motor a small cord extends with a round knob at its end, which when depressed starts the engine.

The Dive

Once in the water, I quickly descended to about 15 meters, shot an "are you ready" look over to my buddy (who was similarly equipped with DPV) and almost simultaneously we hit the ignition. Prior to this dive, I was told there would be a slight learning curve, but once that passed the pure ease and excitement of the device would be evident. And so, as anticipated, I struggled for the first 10 to 15 minutes. The extra weight behind me felt a little awkward, but actually the appendage of my bulky camera in the front seemed to be the real problem. It quickly became evident the camera should have been left topside for my first attempt at this.

Despite my initial learning curve, as the minutes passed, not only did I manage to maneuver, my jet propulsion motion actually became second nature and made me feel streamlined with instincts like an ocean native. The terrain was uniquely appropriate for the propulsion vehicle. Huge clusters of coral rocks were scattered across the sandy bottom, creating a network of narrow channels to zip in and out of. And I admit I have never laughed so explosively underwater. I laughed at the frustrations; I laughed at my stubborn insistence on bringing my camera; and I laughed at the pure glee I felt as I flew through the water as free and fast as a fish!

The Final Word

It's rather amazing how the simple press of a button could transform scuba diving as I knew it. The weightlessness and the speed at which we cruised felt incredible and even a bit addictive. During my underwater reef flight, I considered how invaluable the DPV could be in countless situations. Surely being able to reach speeds up to 52m (170 ft) per minute would really come in handy when looking to keep pace with fast moving fish or even in the case of a strong current. Unfortunately, on this occasion, my photo results were less than stellar due to the combined distractions of learning and excitement. With the exception of one lonely and lethargic barracuda, I didn't encounter much marine life either (which contrasted to my other dives in Little Cayman). Nonetheless, I could see the obvious imaging benefits of such propulsion, particularly for video, and was not sure how I would ever go back to plain old frog kicks.

Further Reading

Scuba Diving in Cayman Islands

ScubaSpa, An Innovative Touch On Liveaboard Diving

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

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My latest liveaboard holiday in the Maldives was onboard a boat that is slightly different, ScubaSpa Ying.

The thing that stands out with this liveaboard is that they decided to diversify, and move into a slightly different direction. The top deck on the boat is a complete spa with couples rooms, single rooms and everything else that is needed to operate a fully functional spa.

The spa rooms open up into a sea view and its a fantastic vibe.

This seemingly insignificant addition makes a huge difference to their ability in marketing their product.

By adding this seemingly 'small' touch they have opened themselves up to newer target audiences. Here are some:

1. Non Diving Family Members

The first thing that is super intuitive is the fact that many Scuba Divers have family members of friends that don't scuba dive.

This is likely to keep them away from the trip altogether - or best case scenario go on the dive trip without their non diving family or friends.

Having a spa, mixed in with all the snorkelling activities tips the scale and attracts such clients.

2. Passive Scuba Divers

Liveaboards aka Safari boats in the Maldives generally have a reputation of being really hardcore in their diving schedule, basically its a Sleep, Eat, Dive, Repeat kind of scenario - which is great for a lot of the divers, but not so great for others, who are happy to do 2 dives a day and then relax for the rest of the time.

Many divers who are wealthy are also in their later years and if they go on a regular liveaboard and do 2 dives a day, they basically have 10 hours of non sleep time that they have nothing to do with.

3. VIP Divers

There is a whole segment of travelling divers who are really well off, they are succesful and rich and are used to travelling with luxury - why should their diving holiday be any different? Well, it shouldn't.

Ironically enough, from my observation, this still remains a rather underserved niche in the industry. Based on my estimates, there are probably around 5-10% of liveaboards that could be classified as 5 star, Scubaspa probably belongs in that category, and has the boat, the rooms, the food and the spa facility to attract such divers.

What I didn't Like

As much as I enjoyed the ScubaSpa experience overall, I can't say that it was perfect and there are a couple of things that they did get very wrong.

Firstly, they don't have nitrox onboard, which makes doing 15-20 consecutive dives a lot harder. In my opinion having nitrox onboard a liveaboard is absolutely necessary and makes for much better diving with less tiredness and longer bottom times.

Secondly, although an accident - their dive boat broke the day before we arrive which really ruined a lot of the diving since the replacement they got was very crap.

Thirdly, they were really understaffed with the dive guides. Sometimes there would be 2 dive guides for an 18 diver group. Too low in my opinion.

Conclusion

The Scuba Industry needs to see itself as a part of the broader hosptilaty industry not as a seperate industry.

The industry needs to carry over the established standards that hotels and cruise ships have into their quality of service.

Here are some things that I noticed which really characterize the scuba industry not following well established standards:

Unshaven and scruffy dive guides often not wearing any 'uniform' and acting like by taking you diving (for money) they are doing you a favor.
Horrible conditions of some dive centers and dive gear that they rent.
Liveaboards that have really bad food, broken air conditioners and a generally run down state.
Terrible marketing: websites that look like they were done by a 16 year old in 1999, a facebook page and virtually nothing else beyond word of mouth. This, without exaggeration would probably classify atleast 60% of the dive operations world wide.

Scuba Diving as a sport is rather well established, but scuba diving as a segment of the 'Hospitality Industry' i.e: not just the diver training and the gear sales, but the service of offering a 'scuba diving experience' is very young.

Think of it this way, when was the first hotel built? End of the 19th century. When was the first dive center opened? Probably in the 70's.

The good thing about this for dive operators is quite simple though, its possible to get ahead of the curve by thinking ahead. Its very easy to recognize something good when you see it, and divers will recognize quality when they see it, and will be willing to pay for it, like ScubaSpa is doing.

Much like with hotels, the industry will evolve into different levels of quality that correlate to different prices. We are hoping to be a part of that.

Do you agree? Have you been observing some sub par service in the industry? Do you think a liveaboard + spa combination is a good idea?

Pescador Island - A Small Island Full of Surprises

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

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Inhabited by two cats and equipped with a lighthouse, Pescador Island rises as a small pillar from a 300m depth to only a few meters above surface. Its diameter is only about 50m. But underwater, a fantastic, never ending world awaits you!

Starting at the Kasai Village Resort, the boat drive takes only 20 minutes. Slowly we dive down to the plateau surrounding the island with an extent of some to 20 meters. We go to the reef edge to descend and dive the wall.

At about 18m, the first unique experience is calling us.

Diving the Scary Area

Slowly we enter a hole. Inside a huge cave reaches from 40m to 18m. It's called "The Cathedral"- and it is a cathedral, with a really spooky and spiritual effect. So take care!

Enter the cathedral carefully and slowly turn around, getting startled by a huge face looking at you!

The lights through the entry holes make the face even more mystical.

Yes, there's life inside this face and it's worth exploring!

With better weather conditions, you can enjoy the sunrays entering the holes!

Diving the Cosy Area

Going round the Island, the scenery changes into the other extreme. A colourful soft coral wall warms your heart again.

It's time to switch from the big picture to small critters, and the other way round. The Philippines are well known for their critters and the region around Pescador Island is contributing to this image big time.

Colorful nudibranches all around!

Be patient and look on every soft coral, bubble coral, and feather star to find the marvels of Moalboals nature.

Shrimps and Crabs in so many species, I couldn't count.

The reef is full of sponges, gorgonias, and various colored feather stars. Of course, such a fabulous reef is inhabited by thousands of reef fishes like the anthias, the sea goldies, and much more.

One of these marvels is the frogfish. Often sitting on a sponge around the corner, observing what's going on in his district looking for a good bite. You can easily overlook the froggy, despite its size.

According to the seasons, you can find different kind of froggies around Pescador Island.

Pescador Island is small. But it's worth making at least two dives there; One starting from the south and one starting from the west side of the island. It's about twenty minutes by boat from the Panagsama beach.

Twice, I've had a very good experience diving Pescador Island with the crew of Kasai Village Dive and Spa Resort. They have recently built a new dive boat and enlarged the divers facilities. They've even built a camera and charging room for photographers.

Meeting the Big Ones

Pescador Island is also a nice place for the big stuff. Whitetip reef sharks are common guests. With a bit luck, you'll see Thresher sharks and whale sharks. There's a good chance to see turtles too.

Barracudas or hunting trevallies can be observed as well as thunas. Looking closer to the reef we find the lionfishes, murays, or the scorpionfishes. The scenery changes a lot along the seasons.

Diving Pescador Island is possible throughout the year.

What About the Sardines?

We all remember the huge school of sardines, which stayed there recently for more than two years. Will they come back again? I asked the locals but they were unsure.

However, the conditions around the Island are so good that a new population may settle down and grow into a big school like the former.

What do we mean by conditions?

Plenty of food and shelter are only one part; the existing currents are another.

But the main part is that around Pescador Island net fishing is not allowed. Fisherman are only allowed to fish one fish at a time with the fishing line. Like this, a small population can survive and grow up to another big school, which attracts big predators like sharks even more.

We finish the dive on the wonderful roof of the reef. It's obvious that fishing restrictions contributed to the huge biodiversity at this reef. The lights are fantastic here too.

The surface interval is very relaxing, and dreaming on the banca makes you really look forward to your next dives.

Pescador Island is for sure full of surprises and worth revisiting any time.

Further Reading

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Jellyfish Lake in Palau

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

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There is just something about jellyfish. Maybe we are drawn to them because they look so beautiful, with their long appendages and pink and purple colors, or how they move gracefully through the water as if they’re flying. Sadly, we know we can’t touch them or we will suffer the painful sting of their nematocysts. For all of us jellyfish lovers, there is a special marine lake in the Rock Islands of Palau, known by the locals as Ongem’l Tketau and known to the tourists as Jellyfish Lake, filled with a species of non-stinging jellyfish.

The lake is estimated to be around 12,000 years old, and during that time, the jellyfish living in it lost their defense mechanisms and no longer can ‘sting’ like other jellyfish species.

About an hour boat ride from Koror, and a short hike on Eil Malk Island, led to this amazing lake that is estimated to have over 13 million Golden jellyfish. I jumped off a wooden dock - reminiscent of my childhood days of summer lake swims - into warm waters as if it were any other lake in the world.

But as I swam out towards the center of the lake, away from the shadows of the surrounding jungle and into the sunlight, a few golden pink jellies appeared around me. As I swam to where the most sunlight shone on the lake, the number of jellies multiplied, and pretty soon I was bumping into them in front, behind, and below me. They were everywhere.

It felt funny at first; my instincts told me not to touch the jellyfish, unless my buddies were close by and needed to use the restroom! But it was impossible not to brush up against them, or for them not to brush up against me. Being brave enough to touch one, you'd feel they were like jello, smooth but not entirely solid. And there were just so many of them!

Snorkelling Only

Only snorkeling was allowed in Jellyfish Lake, as bubbles could get caught under the jellyfish bells and damage them. Because they relied on sunlight to help produce energy, jellyfish are found right at the surface. So why do they need sunlight? The jellyfish have symbiotic algae that live in their tissues that help them produce their energy.

In order to get the most from their symbiotic algae, the jellyfish migrate across the lake daily, following the sunlight. At night, the jellyfish move vertically from the surface to deeper waters, to acquire nitrogen and other nutrients for their algae.

The Golden jellyfish aren’t the only creatures in the lake; there are also moon jellyfish (Aurelia sp.), cardinal fish, silversides, gobies, and the jellyfish’s only predator, anemones. An anemone will make dinner of a wayward jelly that ends up in its tentacles. But, by following the sunlight, it’s uncommon for the jellyfish to end up in the shaded areas at the edges of the lake, where the anemones live.

The Golden jellyfish (Mastigias papua etpisoni) is thought to be a subspecies or the most closely related to the Spotted jellyfish (Mastigias papua), found in the nearby lagoons. Like the Golden jellyfish, the Spotted also have symbiotic algae living in their tissues, but the Golden jellyfish have lost their spots and most of their ‘clubs’, which are the appendages attached to the oral arms. You can encounter Spotted jellyfish on dives around the rest of Palau, but beware, they still sting.

The lake itself is quite unique. Still connected to the ocean through fissures and tunnels in the lime stone, it experiences slight tidal shifts. However, it doesn't seem that other organisms have found their way into the lake. The lake has two distinct layers: the upper layer being oxygenated, and the lower being anoxic, or oxygen-free. All organisms that require oxygen live above 50ft.

Dangers Below 50ft

The depths of the lake can also be dangerous to humans, as hydrogen sulfide rises from the bottom of the lake, and purple photosynthetic sulfur bacteria separates the oxygenated layer from the anoxic and contains high concentrations of ammonia and phosphate, which can poison divers through the skin. This is another reason why diving is prohibited in the lake. Being near the surface is perfectly fine though.

At least four other isolated marine lakes in Palau have jellyfish and each is thought to be diverse enough to be its own unique subspecies. Ongem’l Tketau, however, is the only lake open to tourists. The Golden jellyfish of Jellyfish Lake still have their stinging cells (nematocysts) but they've lost their severity. Regardless, some people can still experience sensitivity around their mouths so those who have severe allergic reactions to jellyfish may want to wear protective clothing.

Any trip to Palau should include a visit to Jellyfish Lake. Snorkeling with millions of non-stinging jellyfish is a very cool experience and shouldn't be missed!

You can find some useful information about Diving in Palau here and a directory of Liveaboards in Palau.

Have you been diving in the Jelly Fish Lake?

The Cuttlefish

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT

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The cuttlefish belongs to the family of cephalopods. Typically the cuttlefish has a - more or less- dorso-ventrally flattened body with fins like shirts on each side, which they use to move through the water. However, to move faster, they can make use of their hydro-jet propulsion, and then blow water from the mantle with great force through a narrow siphon.

Cuttlefish have eight arms and two tentacles. Their tentacles are engaged with suction cups, and each suction cup is provided with a small horny tooth. This enables them to get a good grip on their prey. Between those arms, we find the mouth equipped with a horny beak.

The global spreading of the cuttlefish is rather peculiar. They aren’t found near the American continent, the Pacific side, or on the Atlantic side, only along the coasts of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. They live in tropical and temperate waters, usually in fairly shallow water, with some exceptions to 600m. In total, there are about 120 known species.

Despite being widespread, most of those species, like corals and reef fish, are found within the Coral Triangle: Indonesia, Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Their length varies greatly from species to species. The smallest sepia is the “Idiosepius pygmaeus”, which lives in tide pools and has a length of 15mm. The largest is the “Sepia Apama”, measuring over 50 cm.

Each year, Belgian and Dutch divers can enjoy a beautiful spectacle that takes place in the “Oosterschelde” (Estuarium). When the water temperature rises above 10 °C, tons of cuttlefish swim up the “Oosterschelde" (Eastern Scheldt River) from the North Sea. They are the species “Sepia officinalis”, and they come from the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean further south. These animals migrate to the “Oosterschelde” to deposit their eggs.

Here, divers can experience some of the most important parts in the life cycle of the cuttlefish, namely “the courtship”, “the mating”, “egg deposition” and the “release” of the eggs. One should know that cuttlefish always return to the place they were born to place their eggs, something similar to salmon and frogs.

Once they arrive on the “spawning grounds”, the males start looking for a suitable partner. Then they court the female. Once a pair is formed, they can start mating. The male brings a sperm packet inside the mantle cavity of the female.

As this happens, the animals are face to face, in a sort of “Gordian knot” position. Even after fertilization, the male remains in very close contact with the female and he continues to chase rivals. Together then, they look for substrates where the female can deposit the eggs on.

Fortunately, some smart divers got the idea to put suitable substrates, such as branches in places that are easily accessible for divers, which makes observing and photography easier. The eggs of the “Sepia Officinalis” are black, and look like small grapes. Other species of cuttlefish lay eggs that are white or transparent.

So the female places a bunch of eggs on regular intervals on the substrate. That may be 3000 - 8000 eggs per female. Gradually the eggs become paler, and after a few weeks, the young sepias come out.

Once the young cuttlefish are large enough, they swim back to the North Sea, in order to migrate to their feeding grounds through the English Channel. The adults usually die after egg deposition. A single male can sometimes survive, and have a second mating experience the next year.

The “Sepia officinalis” is totally harmless to humans; on the contrary, the sepia is commonly found on the human menu. However, Sepia are not just fished for culinary purposes. Even going back to ancient Roman-Greek times, the Cuttlefish were used for the extraction of a brown-black dye.

Even in photography, we still refer to the brown dye when we talk about a “sepia photo”.

Scuba Diving Blog | The Sub2o by DiveAdvisor.com

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