DIVING NEWS
DAN suggests divers pause after jab
Divers should consider waiting at least seven days after each dose of coronavirus vaccine before engaging in scuba or freediving activities, suggests DAN Europe. Read more...
Dive-boat fugitives caught on TV
A British couple who became fugitives 10 years ago following the death of a scuba diver on their Florida charter-boat have been captured by police in Spain. Read more...
‘Two good mates’ dive to deepest point
Limiting Factor, the world’s only private submersible certified to dive to any ocean depth, has continued its series of record-breaking Pacific dives - though this time the pilot was not owner Victor Vescovo, nor was it a world record that was claimed. Read more...
‘Diving is a wonderful sport’ – Prince Philip remembered
The late Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, a scuba-diver who became the British Sub-Aqua Club's first president in 1960, has been paid a tribute by the club, the sport's governing body. Read more...
Easy way to stop windfarm ‘bloodbaths’
An MP has received cross-party support after calling on the UK government to stop the developers of offshore energy projects harming marine wildlife by detonating any unexploded ordnance that might lie in their way. Read more...
Ancient shipwreck to be shifted ashore
The wreck of one of the Mediterranean’s oldest intact shipwrecks is to be raised. The well-preserved Phoenician ship currently lies in shallow water about 50m off Playa de la Isla near the Spanish port of Mazarron, and will be raised and transferred to a maritime museum in nearby Cartagena for restoration. Read more...
Time to consider octopus feelings
Invertebrates such as cephalopods - octopuses, squid and cuttlefish - are not only diver favourites when encountered under water but are widely used in scientific research. This is based on the belief that they are incapable of experiencing pain, distress or other negative states, as vertebrate animals do. Read more...
Video lifeline wins hero dive trip
The second of Emperor Divers’ eight Covid Diver Heroes, people who have stepped up in the pandemic, is Noam Har-Tzvi from Israel – and she wins a free Maldives liveaboard trip for her efforts. Read more...
UK team crack Antikythera code
It was one of the most significant discoveries ever made at a shipwreck site: the 2000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism, retrieved by sponge divers in Greece 120 years ago, is reckoned to have been the world’s first-known analogue computer. But it was incomplete, and its workings have baffled scientists ever since. Read more...
Lego divers rule in Underbathwater world
It was dive-equipment company Fourth Element that came up with the clever idea of the Underbathwater Photography Competition during the first coronavirus lockdown - but the follow-up in 2021 really seems to have unlocked divers’ pent-up creativity. Read more...
Divers explore ancient city of Olus
The ancient sunken city of Olus and its surroundings in Crete’s Elounda Bay have been revisited by an archaeological dive-team, Greece’s Ministry of Culture & Sports has reported. Read more...
Slug head with a life of its own
In what is described as the most extreme example of autonomy and regeneration ever seen in nature, at least two species of sea slug commonly seen by scuba divers in the Indo-Pacific region deliberately detach their own heads from their bodies – and then grow replica bodies. Read more...
Diver photo-ops: Close-up & UN
Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY) is a competition that celebrates close-up, macro and micro photography from around the world - and now it has zoomed in on divers by launching a new Underwater category. Read more...
Scuba diver lights London blue
Scuba diver and professional artist Laura Parker says she is “absolutely delighted” to have her Caribbean diving-inspired artwork “In Deep” lighting up central London. Read more...
Biggest glow-in-the-dark shark found
Three species of deep-dwelling shark have been shown to glow blue in the dark, with one, the kitefin shark that grows up to 1.8m long, now recognised as the world’s largest-known bioluminescent shark. Read more...
UK cave-diver died using unproven rebreather
An inquest has heard how a cave-diver in Cumbria drowned close to the surface early last year, after a problem was thought to have occurred with his rebreather, a unit under development. Read more...
Pioneering archaeological diver Bass dies
Underwater archaeologist George Fletcher Bass, referred to as the “father of underwater archaeology” for diving achievements that began more than 60 years ago, died on 2 March in College Station, Texas, aged 88. Read more...
‘We should fight to protect UK seagrass!’
As much as 92% of the UK’s underwater seagrass meadows have been lost, according to new research that calls for urgent action to be taken to help restore them. Read more...
Vandenberg diver’s body found
The body of the wreck-diver reported missing in the Florida Keys on Tuesday, 2 March, was found 24 hours later. She has been identified as Jordan Fisher, 50, from Rockport, Texas. Read more...
Scuba fish thieves pay high price
Two scuba divers were abandoned in open water off Hawaii, after their dive-boat had been intercepted for illegal collection of fish for aquaria and sent back to harbour. Now the married couple responsible for the poaching have been fined a record US $272,000 - and that’s before the case even reaches the criminal courts. Read more...
Hero doctor wins Red Sea dive trip
Diving doctor Deborah Braham has been named as the first of Emperor Divers’ eight Covid Diver Heroes. Each of the winners being chosen fortnightly until 14 June can look forward to a free liveaboard trip once they’re able to travel. Read more...
Shark rivals adopt social distancing
Two species of shark with similar diets and behaviour patterns might be expected to be bitter rivals, but sicklefin lemon and blacktip reef sharks populating a Seychelles atoll have worked out a timetable that allows them to co-exist peacefully, according to a new study by an international scientific team. Read more...
Divers steal beer from shipwreck
Scuba divers are accused of having stolen or vandalised seven 100-litre barrels of beer - from a 20m-deep shipwreck in Argentina. Read more...
Scuba instructor issues heart appeal
A Cotswolds scuba diving instructor is attempting to raise the funds needed to fix the hole in his heart that is threatening his livelihood. Read more...
Take a virtual dive on the GBR
Scuba divers, freedivers and snorkellers all over the world are being encouraged to participate in a citizen-science project designed to boost the long-term health of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. All that’s required is access to the Internet “and a few minutes to spare”. Read more...
Skindiver covers ice-record distance
Czech freediver David Vencl has claimed a new Guinness World Record for distance-swimming under ice without thermal protection. Read more...
Sound offer: free marine eco-training
Sound Diving in Plymouth is offering free SSI Marine Ecology courses, with the aim of boosting interest in local marine-conservation initiatives. Read more...
SOS: Save our sawfish
Scuba divers rarely get to see sawfish - which is not surprising, because the rays have disappeared from half the world’s coastal waters and now face extinction unless urgent action is taken, according to researchers at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Canada. Read more...
Earl Spencer resumes White Ship dive quest
Planned dives to find remains of the 12th-century “White Ship” off France’s Channel coast were foiled by seasonal weather in mid-December - but now historian and scuba diver Charles Spencer has announced that his high-profile quest will resume. Read more...
