Diving News

Fishermen caught nearly twice their legal quota of critically endangered bluefin tuna in European waters this year despite stocks being in a state of collapse, according to investigators
continue

A tiny Western Atlantic fish does something never before seen: It makes like a bird, living in mangrove wood for months at a time
continue

Pollution threatens the lake that is the heart and soul of Vietnam's capital - and a legendary turtle who lives below its murky waters - but now a high-tech solution may be at hand to save them both. Over the next three years, in time for Hanoi's 1 000th birthday in 2010, scientists intend to clean up Hoan Kiem Lake, home to the creature that symbolises Vietnam's centuries-old struggle for independence. Vietnamese and German experts say they will use a new device, which borrows from the designs of corkscrews, submarines and tanks, to suck several metres (feet) of toxic sludge from the bottom of the 'Lake of the Returned Sword'
continue

A federal agency that regulates offshore oil drilling says Alaska's northern coast had unusual visitors this summer -- endangered humpback whales. Humpback whales off Alaska generally are not seen north of the Bering Strait, the upper limit of the North Pacific Ocean. But observers connected to oil exploration activity spotted humpbacks east of Barrow in the Beaufort Sea. Robin Cacy (KAY'-see) of the federal Minerals Management Service says humpback whales were seen in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast last year. She also says endangered fin whales were detected this summer by acoustic monitoring north of the Bering Strait in the Chukchi Sea
continue

The Philippines government has approved an Australian company's plan to absorb excess CO2 by dumping massive amounts of urea in the Sulu Sea. Environmental activists say the dumping is a potentially risky, scientifically unsound gamble that underscores the dangerous absence of international geoengineering regulations. Like iron seeding, urea dumping is supposed to nourish blooms of greenhouse gas-gobbling plankton. But iron seeding is controversial, with some scientists saying it might produce even more CO2 -- and compared to urea dumping, iron seeding is well understood
continue

WWF Cymru is calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to include a full Marine Bill in the Queen's Speech to save wildlife in Wales for future generations. The charity has made the plea ahead of Tuesday's Queen's Speech to Parliament. Without such a bill, WWF Cymru says our marine habitat and wildlife will pay the price, especially the bottlenose dolphin, long-snouted sea horse and pink seafan coral, which are all found in Welsh waters. The group says bottom trawling, scallop dredging, sand and gravel extraction are all taking their toll on our marine environment, but so too are unregulated activities such as bait digging, unlicensed commercial fishing and water-based recreation
continue

By the end of the century many popular seafood dishes will disappear from our tables as shellfish become increasingly scarce, scientists warn. They have found that the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is causing the oceans to grow more acidic as increasing amounts of the gas dissolve in sea water. This change is reducing the ability of shellfish to make their protective shells. By 2100 some waters are expected to be corrosive enough to cause the shells to dissolve completely, making it impossible for them to survive. Marine biologists warn that this could have a devastating effect on the ocean environment, as other creatures that eat shellfish will find food increasingly scarce while corals, which make reefs, will also be unable to build their hard external skeletons
continue

The annual dolphin-hunting season in Japan is drawing protest from activists who say the practice is cruel. Some in Japan say it's cultural
continue

This summer, during the second phase of a two-year scientific survey of the waters around the Aleutian Islands, scientists discovered what appear to be three new marine organisms. This year's dives surveyed the western region of the Aleutians, from Attu to Amlia Island, while last year's assessment covered the eastern region. During the dives, two potentially new species of sea anemones have been discovered. Stephen Jewett, a professor of marine biology and dive leader on the expedition, says that these are "walking" or "swimming" anemones because they move across the seafloor as they feed
continue

THREE giant man-made reefs will be built off the NSW coast to boost fish stocks for recreational fishing. The State Government will today announce it will construct the reefs within three nautical miles of Newcastle, Sydney and the Illawarra. Each reef will be made of four steel or concrete pyramid-like structures up to 11 metres high, anchored together. Similar reefs have been built in South Korea and Japan - two of the world's leaders in the technology. NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said an environmental assessment had been made of the possible biological, biophysical, economic, social and environmental impacts of using artificial reefs
continue