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SCUBA News...
News, research and articles on scuba diving, travel and the marine environment.

• Fifth of corals dead: only emission cuts can save the rest, says IUCN
  The world has lost 19 percent of its coral reefs, according to the 2008 global update of the world's reef status. The report, released by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, shows that if current trends in carbon dioxide emissions continue, many of the remaining reefs may be lost over the next 20 to 40 years.
• SCUBA News 103 Now On-Line
  Issue 103 of SCUBA News is now freely available on-line. In this issue: Top 10 links for aquatic life, diving Australia, diving the Cook Islands, sea snakes and diving news from around the world.
• Oceans
  Drawing on the most exciting stories from the fields of sub-aquatic archaeology, geology, marine biology and anthropology, professional diver and explorer Paul Rose reveals an astonishing hidden world of lost cities, forgotten shipwrecks, underwater caves and submerged volcanoes. He also looks at life in the ocean habitat, from great white sharks to the myriad exotic, but rarely seen, creatures that thrive in the extreme conditions miles beneath the surface.This book, like the landmark television series it accompanies, examines the possible consequences of upsetting this delicate balance and its impact on global warming.
• Coral Reef Loss Suggests Global Extinction Event
  The world is on the brink of a massive extinction event, according to the United Nations. Rapid releases of greenhouse gas emissions are changing habitats at a rate faster than many of the world's species can tolerate. "Indeed the world is currently facing a sixth wave of extinctions, mainly as a result of human impacts," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme. The latest global coral reef assessment estimates that 19 percent of the world's coral reefs are dead. Their major threats include warming sea-surface temperatures and expanding seawater acidification. "If nothing is done to substantially cut emissions, we could effectively lose coral reefs as we know them, with major coral extinctions," said Clive Wilkinson of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. Overfishing, pollution, and invasive species continue to be risks as well, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• Update: Diving the Red Sea
  The Red Sea section of the SCUBA Travel site has had a major update. There are more dive centres in the diving operators pages, more descriptions of dive sites and more marine animals, photos and descriptions in the Red Sea Life area. What's more the navigation has been redesigned to make it easier to find what you are looking for. Includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Sudan.
• A Sea of Garbage
  plastics do not just end up in landfills or pollute city streets. They also twirl inside massive ocean gyres that draw in debris from the coasts without leaving any chance of escape. The most well-known is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that floats inside the North Pacific Gyre between San Francisco and Japan. This massive trash vortex, roughly the size of Texas, consists of an estimated 100 million tons of plastic debris continuously powered by currents in a clockwise fashion. Toothbrushes, umbrella handles, toys and soda bottles make up some of the material floating on the surface of the water. Most of the pollution is made up, however, of tiny pieces of plastic resting just below the surface, too tough for consumption by bacteria. Greenpeace estimates that there are one million items floating inside each square kilometer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The result is a sea of rubbish that harms marine life.
• Dolphin males leave sponging to the females
  Sexual stereotypes are not the preserve of humans - male dolphins seem reluctant to adopt a technique that females are keen to learn. Male dolphins, it seems, are not interested in learning how to use a sponge, but their sisters are. Dolphins were first seen carrying sponges cupped over their beaks in Shark Bay, Australia, in the 1980s. Janet Mann of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and colleagues have now reviewed data collected during 20 years spent monitoring this group of dolphins and found that, while mothers show both their male and female calves how to use sponges, female calves are almost exclusively the only ones to apply this knowledge.
• Egypt plans world's first underwater museum
  A new museum, the first of its kind, is to be built partly above and partly under water. The submerged part of the complex will enable visitors to see archaeological remains on the Egyptian seabed. Other artefacts recovered from the Bay of Alexandria and adjacent sites will be presented in exhibition spaces above water.
• Faroe islanders told to stop eating 'toxic' whales
  Chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption, because they are toxic - as revealed by research on the Faroes themselves. In a statement to the islanders, chief medical officers Pal Weihe and Hogni Debes Joensen announced that pilot whale meat and blubber contains too much mercury, PCBs and DDT derivatives to be safe for human consumption.
• Top 10 links for aquatic life
  British National Newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, has published a list of the "Top 10 links for aquatic life". See if you agree with their list at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/3394841/Top-10-links-for-aquatic-sites.html
• Thailand tourism plumits
  Thailand has been called the Land of Smiles but few are smiling here now as the political turmoil builds daily. Tour operators are already writing off this year's peak season and worrying about the next. Since anti-government protesters seized Bangkok's Government House in August, tourism arrivals have fallen precipitously with diving operators being hard hit.
• SCUBA News Issue 102 Now on-line
  The latest issue of SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) is now freely available on-line. With diving news and notes on the Maldives, Thailand, black coral, SCUBA bestsellers, etc.
• Greenhouse gases hit record levels last year
  Gases blamed for global warming reached record levels in the atmosphere last year, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday. Scientists have warned that high atmospheric levels of radiation-trapping greenhouse gases -- emitted by factories, cars, and in agriculture -- will lead to rising sea levels, big storms, and more heatwaves and droughts.
• Update: Diving Thailand
  SCUBA Travel have added more diving operators to their Thailand section. Find which are recommended and which to avoid.
• Solar-powered sea slug harnesses stolen plant genes
  A sea slug that gains the ability to turn sunlight into energy from the algae it eats is arguably the first functional plant-animal hybrid found in nature
• Deep Oceans could bring limitless clean energy
  A trick that exploits temperature differences in the sea could supply the world with cheap green power.
• Computers decide when to stop searches at sea
  Researchers at Portsmouth University and the US Coast Guard are working together to develop a computer model that will predict how long someone will survive when lost at sea. The Search and Rescue Survival Model has been designed to take the pressure off rescuers making difficult decisions about when a search and rescue mission should be stopped.
• Sea snakes drink only freshwater
  It has been the long-standing dogma that the roughly 60 species of venomous sea snakes worldwide satisfy their drinking needs by drinking seawater, with internal salt glands filtering and excreting the salt. Experiments published this month with three species of captive sea kraits captured near Taiwan, however, found that the snakes refused to drink saltwater even if thirst