Undercurrent Online Update for Subscribers

For David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi', exp: 2024-08-20, at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )

Forward this email | Home | Login | Forgot Password? | My Account | FAQ

November 15, 2020

Star Dolphin Goes Missing. For more than 35 years, Fungie, the wild dolphin, has thrilled visitors to Dingle Bay in County Kerry, Ireland, by coming alongside boats for a close encounter. Sadly, Fungie has not been seen for some weeks, and Dr. Kevin Flannery, a marine biologist and Fungie expert, reckons there's little chance he'll return. This will be a blow to the Dingle tourist industry, already hit by coronavirus restrictions, with up to 100 people relying on Fungie tours and shops for employment. The Irish Post

Historical Raja Ampat Manta Images Wanted. Indonesia's Bird's Head Seascape Manta ID database contains details of more than 1400 individual mantas. Burt Jones, the administrator, is currently searching for images taken before 2009. If by chance, you have images from that time, he'd be delighted. The photos must have been taken in Indonesia's Bird's Head Seascape (Raja Ampat, Cenderawasih Bay, and Triton Bay). They must be belly-shots for ID purposes (and low res is preferable) and include the date and location you took them. Contact Burt at info@birdsheadseascape.com

Shark Attacks Snorkelers in Egypt. Five people, including two Ukrainian tourists and their Egyptian guide, were injured in a rare shark attack while snorkeling at Shark Reef in the Ras Mohammed National Park at the end of October. The six-foot oceanic whitetip made a second attack as the group attempted to reach their boat. It's an unusual place to take snorkelers, since the water at the famous scuba diving location is up to 2000 feet deep, and the currents are unpredictable, but it is probably indicative of the economic stress suffered by the Egyptian tourist industry. The site is temporarily closed to all in-water activities. English.Ahranonline

A Scuba Thriller to Read in Lockdown. Written by Undercurrent's publisher Ben Davison (writing as KL Smith) and set in Belize, Tropical Ice kicks off with a hairy shark feeding dive, and leads into a tale of shark-finning, reef-raping, murder and politics, on an industrial scale, with plenty of diving, including a threatening night dive. It all takes place at Cap'n Jack's Rum Caye Dive Resort, where Jack's trying to save his failing resort with shark-feeding dives, until a body turns up in the damndest place. Tropical Ice is available online from Amazon in paperback or Kindle.

A Dirty Business. A 26-year-old Belgian financed his scuba diving vacations by selling child pornography online. In October, Bryan Loyson, 26, was arrested in Australia in cooperation with European authorities and sentenced to four years in jail. Restraining orders were placed on his bank accounts in Australia and Germany containing $21,000, and authorities confiscated his camera equipment, a drone, and scuba diving gear. Euro Weekly

Wreck Find in Lake Ontario. Daniel Gildea thinks he is the first person to stumble across the remains of an unidentified 116-foot-long wooden schooner while he was scuba diving in the Henderson Bay (NY) in Lake Ontario. Imagine going diving and discovering a centuries-old ship! He was alerted when a boating friend snagged his anchor on an obstruction. The Hartford, another three-mast wooden schooner, recently washed up on North Sandy Pond. NYTV 7News

Ocean Acidification Affects Fishes. Researchers from six countries have released a scientific paper rejecting an earlier study claiming ocean acidification has no effect on marine life. In a rebuttal of a paper published by Clark et al. in Nature, lead author Prof. Philip Munday of James Cook University stated the errant authors had failed to replicate past studies’ methods. "The evidence that elevated CO2 can affect fish behavior is overwhelming," says Prof. Göran Nilsson, a co-author from the University of Oslo. Phys Org

Stop Your Denial. It is the Climate. Global warming is driving an unprecedented rise in sea temperatures in the Mediterranean, according to a major new report published by the Journal of Operational Oceanography. Orcas are leaving the Strait of Gibraltar for cooler Atlantic waters off the coast of Spain. In 2018, a mass of warm water also occurred in the northeast Pacific Ocean, according to the report. Akin to a marine heatwave -- dubbed 'the Blob' -- which was first detected in 2013, it has a devastating effect on marine life. Sea surfaces globally have warmed considerably from 1993 to 2018, with the largest increase in the Arctic Ocean. As sea levels rise as well, the Marshall Islands could be lost to climate change as early as 2080. Phys Org/Pacific Daily News

Catching those Turtle Egg Poachers. Green and Olive Ridley sea turtles, both endangered species, are losing their eggs to beach poachers in Costa Rica. So, biologists started 3D printing of fake turtle eggs using a material that combines the squishy feel of the eggs with the eggs’ dimensions and color. The feel is especially important because poachers typically work at night. After being printed, the fake egg is sliced in half, a small GPS tracker is placed in the middle, and the two halves are glued back together. Once the faux egg is grabbed from a nest, researchers can use cell towers and Google Maps to track how and where the eggs are being sold -- typically through a local grocery store or the poacher going door-to-door. Thomasnet.com

For Those Who Have Everything. Balenciaga, a Parisian luxury fashion house, has released a shiny leather scuba-style jacket. The Demna Gvasalia-helmed label has crafted the jacket from calf leather and has added a chunky full-length zip down the middle, making the jacket look as if it's a hybrid between scuba and motocross gear. At a price of $6000, it's probably best not to get it wet.

New Australian Reef Discovered. A huge, detached coral reef measuring over 1,600 feet and rising to just 130 feet below the surface has been discovered on Australia's Great Barrier Reef near the Cape York Peninsula. The first such reef to be found in over 120 years, it's taller than the Empire State Building and has a base almost 5,000 feet wide. Footage of the discovery was live-streamed and can be viewed here.

Octopuses Are Even More Clever than You Think. Turns out, they can taste food with special cells on their suckers. New research reveals a previously unknown type of nerve cell found in octopus arms that allows their suckers to taste anything they touch. That octopus suckers can taste the world around them has been known for some time, but the new paper, published in the journal Cell, uncovered the complex biology underlying one of this cephalopod's many superpowers. These specialized cells, which are not found in other animals, allow the arms to distinguish food from other objects they may encounter as they probe blind crevices. Science News & Smithsonian Magazine

Guinea Fines Chinese Fishing Fleet. The small West African country has arrested and fined several illegal Chinese fishing vessels carrying dead sharks and shark fins. Aided by the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza, authorities boarded three vessels, owned one of China's largest water fishing company, and fined them a massive $1.2 million. The Specifications

Crown-of-Thorns Starfish Can Find Their Way Home. Scientists have learned that these coral predators repeatedly emerge from their daytime shelters to feed on corals at night before returning home at dawn. But they only do that if there was plenty of their favorite acropora corals to feed on. The James Cook University study results show healthy reefs with a high cover of these corals may encourage crown-of-thorns aggregations and outbreaks. Phys Org

Art Installations by British Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor are proliferating all around the world. The latest on Australia's Great Barrier Reef features a color-changing figure warning of warming seas, a sunken skeletal greenhouse encrusted with coral, and a new museum of underwater art. They are intended to become sites for coral reef and marine life regeneration at several locations along Queensland's coast. The first, Ocean Siren, opened in December 2019, is on the Strand in Townsville. The solar-powered sculpture of a young indigenous girl will change color as a visual warning of critical warming, using live water-temperature data from the Australian Institute of Marine Science. It will be exposed at low tide and underwater at high tide. The Guardian

Israel Opens Eilat Dive Sites with Traffic Lights. With Eilat declared a green island, Covid-free and open for diving in mid-November, hordes of Israeli drivers, eager to get back in the water, are expected. To protect the reefs, traffic lights have been installed in four areas selected because of the degree of caution and protection required for marine life. iDive magazine

Phillippines Typhoons Destroys Diving. Typhoon Goni hit the Philippines in late October. It was the most powerful storm recorded this year, close on the heels of Typhoon Molave. Goni made landfall in the Mabini area, with Mainit (Secret Bay) taking the full impact of 140-plus-mph winds, giant wind waves and high tide surge. While the resort and staff are okay, many people in the community are not. All the boats along the Secret Bay shoreline are complete scrap and beyond repair, including a loss of more than 20 bancas with seven still missing. Mike Bartick has organized a GoFundMe appeal.

Stay Safe,

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org