DIVING NEWS
Trinidad diver survives 16 hours lost at sea
A scuba-diving spearfisherman who went missing from his boat off Trinidad managed to swim back to shore after spending a reported 16 hours in Atlantic waters. Read more...
Kremlin orders whale release
Russia's government is reported to have ordered that nearly 87 beluga whales and 11 killer whales confined in cramped pens should be released - a decision that coincided with a recent visit to their enclosures by US oceanographer and diver Jean-Michel Cousteau. Read more...
Diver dies in Dominica
A Canadian scuba diver is reported to have died following an underwater incident on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Read more...
Anti-dredge campaigners win hearing
A judicial review into proposed dredging of Goodwin Sands off the Kent coast has been granted and set for 5 June at the High Court in London. Read more...
Diver goes missing in Mexico
Extensive air and sea searches, funded by an appeal that raised $40,000 from 500 people in its first day, are continuing for a Canadian scuba diver who went missing off Cozumel in Mexico on Saturday, 16 March. Read more...
Coral reef discovered – in the Med
A living mesophotic coral reef lying off south-eastern Italy is thought to be the first to be identified in the Mediterranean in modern times. Read more...
British diver dies in South Africa
A British scuba diver died following a dive near Cape Town in South Africa yesterday morning (16 March), according to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). Read more...
Conditions imposed as Brothers reopen
The Brother Islands reopen to divers today (16 March) following a closure period of more than three months - and a new decree from Egypt’s Red Sea Governorate has defined how diving is to be carried out at the location from now on. Read more...
Skipper speaks out at Maverick deaths review
A second pre-inquest review has been held into the deaths of three divers in separate incidents over nine months from the same Dover charter-boat, the Maverick - and its skipper has spoken publicly about the fatalities for the first time, according to a report in Kent Live. Read more...
Polish divers scoop the pool in Bristol
Polish freedivers took the overall honours at the annual UK National Pool Freediving Championships, hosted by Bristol Freedivers at Hengrove Leisure Centre in Bristol on 9-10 March. Read more...
Maldives Victory wreck damaged but diveable
The Maldives is not renowned for its shipwrecks, so the reopening of one of its best-known after a three-year closure has been welcomed by scuba divers. Read more...
Italian warship located after 77 years
The warship victim of a British submarine during World War Two has been discovered in the Mediterranean by the Italian navy – at a depth of 1500m. Read more...
Fatality had complained of kit malfunction
US detectives are investigating an incident in which a scuba diver died in the Gulf of Mexico on the morning of Saturday, 9 March. Read more...
Divers find double blue holes in Borneo
An unusual double “blue hole” site discovered in Darvel Bay, Malaysia could become a major underwater attraction - but the area in which the holes lie needs protection, say the scuba divers who found them. Read more...
The biggest animal unknown to science?
Marine biologists have succeeded in obtaining DNA samples from what are believed to be ultra-rare “Type D” orcas off southern Chile - and now hope to prove that they represent a species that's new to science. Read more...
Slow response as Solomons oil-slick spreads
Concerns are growing that a serious oil-spill in scuba diving hotspot the Solomon Islands is spreading out of control. Read more...
Crowd-sourced science reveals hoodwinker
A sunfish until recently thought to exist only in the Southern Hemisphere has been washed ashore in Santa Barbara, California. The hoodwinker (Mola tecta, from tectus or “hidden”) was first discovered in New Zealand five years ago, and later described by scientists as the first new species of sunfish in 130 years. Read more...
Bid to dive Aquarius Reef Base
A rare opportunity has come up for recreational scuba divers to visit Florida’s Aquarius Reef Base, one of the world’s only undersea research laboratories - but it will involve a bidding war. Read more...
Diver to check out ‘Eldorado of the Seas’
An anchor trawled up by a fishing-boat off Cornwall is believed to be from the long sought-after 17th-century English galleon the Merchant Royal, which sank in 1641 with a substantial cargo of gold and silver. Local technical diver Mark Milburn plans to dive the site – but has also expressed fears that an unconsidered “gold rush” to find the wreck could prove dangerous. Read more...
Input sought for Scottish wreck-protection plans
A double consultation has been launched in Scotland, seeking public views on new protection status for the Scapa Flow wrecks off Orkney and an historic ship off Shetland, the Queen of Sweden. Read more...
Wreck archives surprise Spanish researchers
A total of 681 Spanish colonial ships wrecked off the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama and the US Atlantic coast have been catalogued in the first phase of a project carried out for Spain’s ministry of culture. Read more...
Sevengill sharks fill gap left by great whites
The decline of great white sharks in what has long been regarded as a prime site for them in South Africa has allowed another shark to take their place as apex predator. Read more...
Great escape delights Gozo divers
A severe weather event in Malta has brought an unexpected dividend for scuba divers. Read more...
Deptherapy members organise 24-hour pool-dive
UK Armed Forces veterans attached to scuba diving charity Deptherapy are set to take part in a 24-hour dive to raise funds for its work. Read more...
Shark-hunt shot wins UPY title
An image capturing the exact moment a pack of grey reef sharks catch and devour a parrotfish has seen British photographer Richard Barnden named Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019. His exciting picture triumphed over 5000 others, entered by divers from 65 countries. Read more...
How METAL predicts oceanic shifts
Ocean warming has led to unprecedented marine biological changes on a global scale over the past decade – and a new study indicates that future temperature changes are set to have even more momentous effects on marine life. Read more...
Eight ‘new’ deep Malta wrecks opened to diving
Eight deep wrecks are to be made officially accessible to technical scuba divers in the Maltese islands from May. Read more...
Sea Shepherd captures dolphin-kill evidence
Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd has captured evidence of dolphins being killed by commercial fishing operations off France's Atlantic coast. The release of its photographs comes despite what the group says have been efforts by the fleets to conceal their activities. Read more...
Run-off is latest threat to GBR
As if Australia’s Great Barrier Reef hadn’t been hard-enough hit by the effects of climate change in the form of bleaching events and storm damage, the latest challenge it faces comes from a gigantic plume of polluted run-off from the mainland. Read more...
