Flotsam & Jetsam

New Zealand Great White Shark Attack. Fatal shark attacks are quite rare globally, according to the Global Shark Attack File (www.sharkattackfile.net). But on November 19, a 24-year-old commercial diver died after being mauled by a shark - believed to be a Great White - off the coast of New Zealand's remote Chatham Islands, 528 miles off Christchurch. The victim, Jade Kahukore-Dixon, was diving from a boat when he was attacked.

Barack Obama's Nature Show. With his soothing voice, the ex-president narrates this gorgeous wildlife program, but the majestic visuals are the real star of the new Netflix documentary Our Oceans. With each episode dedicated to one of the planet's five oceans, the series is jaw-dropping. As much as the starry narrator will grab the headlines, the photography is the star. It is crisp, intimate, and shows the familiar in unfamiliar ways. It's especially good at demonstrating scale. When the focus shifts to a manta ray or a whale shark, the animal is filmed from below, making it look like a geometric monolith compared with the other creatures swimming around it. This, of course, doesn't mean that Obama is the new David Attenborough. (The Guardian)

DIY Photography's Nature Photographer of the Year awards included this wonderful photo of an octopus by Andrey Shpatak in the underwater category. You can see winners of other categories here. https://tinyurl.com/4bfynfaz

PADI Seeks a Monopoly. PADI has told Matt Bunce at Tank-Ha in Playa del Carmen that his dive center cannot be a PADI operation if it also offers SDI courses. As an independent operator, he may still employ PADIcertified instructors to certify the divers by teaching PADI courses. PADI's Jorge Martinez wrote, "Our goal is to drive PADI divers to PADI dive centers to complete PADI courses. Effective 2025, we have decided utilizing our marketing resources for multi-agency centers that concurrently represent multiple training agencies is no longer appropriate. If you continue to decide to offer SDI, then there would be no benefit in you being a PADI dive centre and as such, we would not be able to accept your store renewal."

Stay Out of Rough Water. As many in the surfing world will know, the North Shore season has started in Oahu, Hawaii. This means big waves, epic rides, vicious wipe-outs for surfers, and dangerous conditions for visitors - especially snorkelers - who do not know what they're doing. A 29-year-old snorkeler recently died in the heavy surf at Shark's Cove, caught on the wrong side of the reef. Two others with him made it to shore safely.

More Liveaboards in Trouble. Just when you thought it was safe to get back on the water, on December 14, Egyptian Red Sea liveaboard MY Samara Cruise limped back into Marsa Alam after it developed a catastrophic leak in its planking due to impact with high waves driven by a northeasterly wind. All guests were safely evacuated, and the damaged vessel remained afloat, returning to the harbor under its own power. (Taucher.net) One week later, on the night of December 21, MY Maluku Explorer (pictured) caught fire at its mooring at Monyet (Monkey) Island in front of Labuan Bajo, Komodo, harbor while undergoing renovations. There were no reports of injuries among those working aboard.

Australian Dive Company Fined. In October 2022, a volunteer dive instructor was filling scuba cylinders with compressed air at the Australian Diving Instruction's Drumcondra workplace when a tank exploded. Shards severed his left leg below the knee and injured his right foot, requiring emergency surgery. The explosion blew out the shop's windows and damaged the building's internal structure. An investigation found that the exploded cylinder was out of test, and it was not known when it was last tested. The company was sentenced in the Geelong Magistrates' Court on November 14 after pleading guilty to one charge of failing to provide a safe workplace and was fined AUS$40,000 plus costs.

You'll get Doubly Soaked Going to Socorro. Mexico has raised entry fees for all marine parks, effectively doubling them. The Socorro Park fee is now 3,622 pesos per day, about $178, meaning the typical six day liveaboard trip will cost about $1070 in park fees. Add to that high customs fees, sometimes several hundred dollars, and random divers getting charged for photographic equipment when they enter Mexico through Los Cabo Airport, and Socorro may be unaffordable for some divers.

Red Sea Shark Attack. A shark attack in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam has killed an Italian European Union official who was celebrating his birthday with a scuba diving trip to Egypt. On the morning of Sunday 29 December, Gianluca Di Giola, 48, from Rome, was attacked and killed by a tiger shark. His friend 69-year-old Peppino Fappani was injured trying to intervene and was later hospitalized in Port Ghalib with severe injuries.

A Devil Seaweed Spreading in Hawaii. An invasive algae has wrecked huge sections of reef in Papah?naumoku?kea Marine National Monument. Scientists are racing to discover what it is, where it came from, and whether anything can stop it. Manawai, also known as Pearl and Hermes Atoll, is where scientists first found an invasive seaweed smothering reefs in 2019. It's deep in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, protected as part of the nearly 600,000-square-mile Papah?naumoku?kea Marine National Monument. Some state officials were so alarmed that they directed the NOAA crew sent to get samples to stay put at Manawai for fear that their ship would be a carrier for the killer algae.