Month: October 2020

Fourth Element’s commitment to recycled plastics continues with its new rashguard line.

Ras Mohammed national park – and, it has been unofficially reported, the Brothers Islands – in the northern Red Sea have been closed indefinitely for recreational activities following a rare shark attack on a group of snorkellers.

Saturday, 7 November sees the world’s first “Underwater Selfie Day”, according to diver training agency PADI, which has linked up with action-cam maker GoPro for the occasion. And there are cameras and cash to be won.

Grenada has to date remained a viable destination for UK divers. It boasts the largest shipwreck in the Caribbean, the Bianca C, many other good-quality wreck dives, coral reefs and a wealth of marine life.

A male scuba diver died in an incident in Scapa Flow yesterday (28 October).

A coral reef in the Andaman Sea in southern Thailand that was damaged by a massive rockfall a fortnight ago has been closed off to scuba divers for at least two years.

The Great Barrier Reef has not lost its power to surprise and overwhelm the senses, it seems. Australian scientists have just discovered a detached coral reef so tall that it dwarfs skyscrapers such as London’s Shard – and it’s the first to be discovered for more than 120 years.

Three Malaysian dive-centres have shared the honours in the 2020 Green Fins Award for operations with the lowest environmental impact, given by UK marine-conservation charity the Reef-World Foundation. 

Barely making it to 2kg on the scales, the Magellan is proudly promoted by Mares as a travel BC.

Scuba divers Shane Breadmore and Leo Coucher took a break from their underwater cleaning duties in the 250,000-litre Sea Life Great Yarmouth tank alongside a green turtle called Noah recently. Their 6m-deep “Sunday Brunch” was part of a bid to raise funds and awareness for cancer research. 

Welcome news for travelling scuba divers running out of officially approved warmwater destination options as the UK winter approaches is that the Maldives and Spain’s Canary Islands are back among the travel corridors.

The wreck of a 19th-century British cargo ship that had been carrying bags of cement for an imperial infrastructure project has been investigated in the Bay of Biscay by a joint French-Spanish archaeological team.