Diving News

The captain and crewmen of a Chinese ship responsible for an oil spill after hitting the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge have refused to speak to federal investigators, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday. But the local pilot who was guiding the ship told investigators that its radar had malfunctioned shortly before the accident. The spokesman, Peter Knudson, said crewmen aboard the Cosco Busan, the 900-foot vessel that spilled 58,000 gallons of fuel into the bay on Nov. 7, have hired lawyers in the face of possible lawsuits and charges
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This is the fourth story in a continuing series on the Megafishes Project. Join National Geographic News on the trail with project leader Zeb Hogan as he tracks down the world's largest freshwater fishes. Hucho taimen may be known to the Chinese as the river god's daughter, but in this remote corner of northern Mongolia, the world's largest trout has long been king
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Australians fear that the world's only known white humpback whale could be slaughtered as Japan's whaling fleet prepares to embark on its annual hunt in the Southern Ocean
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A rare type of jellyfish has been photographed for the first time off the South West coast. The orange-pink creatures, called apolemia uvaria but also known as "pearl strings", have been seen off Plymouth and the Cornish coast
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East Asian countries are importing between 50% and 90% more Russian sockeye salmon than Russia is reporting as caught, according to a new report from WWF and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. Analysis of data from officially published sources reveals that from 2003 to 2005, the estimated excess quantity of Russian sockeye salmon entering East Asian markets was between 8,000 and 15,000 tonnes each year, worth US$40-76 million
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Tel Aviv University Professor (and alumnus) Hudi Benayahu, head of TAU's Porter School of Environmental Studies, has found that soft corals, an integral and important part of reef environments, are simply melting and wasting away. And Prof. Benayahu believes this could mean a global marine catastrophe. Environmental stress, says Benayahu, is damaging the symbiotic relationship between soft corals and the microscopic symbiotic algae living in their tissues. There is no doubt that global warming is to blame, warns the marine biologist, explaining that this symbiotic relationship is key for the survival of most soft corals
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North American online magazine, the Underwater Journal's latest release is available for free download
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Italy's dive expo, AdiSub, takes place in Milan December 1st and 2nd. This is the 3rd annual event for AdiSub. Our Italian partner, the largest diving related website in Italy, Scubaportal.it & Scubaportal.net (English/international version), will be exhibiting at the show and reporting from the show floor
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Scientists involved in monitoring changes in Australian waters say more needs to be done to slow the effects of climate change. Fifty scientists from around the world are in Hobart this week discussing the Argo ocean robot network. Scientists deployed 3,000 floating devices across the globe to measure salinity, temperature and currents
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The full environmental impacts of yesterday's oil spill in the Black Sea would not be known for some time, says WWF. At least four ships sank, including one tanker believed to be carrying about 1200 tonnes of oil, and four others were in danger of breaking up after a severe storm hit the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea on Sunday
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