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A Tale of a Tail
The SS United States -- Is It Finally Happening?
Ancient Coral's Secret: A 22-Hour Day
Underwater Winner of The Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Don't Waste Your Money
Want to Know Undercurrent's Senior Editor Better?
Rumble in The Underwater Jungle
This month in Undercurrent
Your Fellow Divers Need a Report on Your Last Dive Trip

A Tale of a Tail.   October 31, 2026

Tails come in pretty handy. So much so that many vertebrates, the thresher shark included, use them rather like an extra hand: they can be held out for balance, thrust side to side to swim, wagged or waved to send messages, or deployed as fly whisks, rudders, drumsticks, or whips. The thresher, with the longest tail of any animal, up to ten feet long, has another use, often tail-slapping their prey. One of the best places to dive with them is Malapascua in the Philippines.

The SS United States -- Is It Finally Happening?   October 31, 2026

The sinking of what will be the world's largest artificial reef could be just weeks away. The legendary 990-foot SS United States is scheduled to be sunk in the Gulf of Mexico during the second week of November. After months of preparation, delays, and disappointment, one of the most ambitious wreck diving projects in history is approaching its final stage. But what depths will divers need to encounter to visit this legendary leviathan, and what still needs to happen before deployment? Undercurrent has the answers. Click here to view the article.

Ancient Coral's Secret: A 22-Hour Day.   October 31, 2026

Four hundred million years ago, a calendar year was about 400 days long, according to fossil coral; its skeleton bears tiny growth lines, like tick marks on an ancient calendar. Count them within a yearly band, and they reveal a world spinning faster, with days lasting roughly 22 hours. Earth's trip around the sun took about as long as it does today, but it's just that the days were shorter, so there were more of them. The moon has been applying the brakes ever since. Its pull creates tides that gradually slow earth's spin while nudging the moon farther away. All this is what Cornell paleontologist John Wells determined in 1962 from ancient corals he discovered in central New York State.

Underwater Winner of The Wildlife Photographer of the Year.   October 31, 2026

Tony Wu provides a first-time glimpse into the mating ritual of two Abbott's moray eels at the apex of their spawning arc. On the verge of swimming back down to safety, the larger male in the foreground has already released a diffuse cloud of sperm, while the female in the background has just commenced ejecting a stream of eggs. This is likely the first time the courtship and spawning have been documented, and observations from Wu's work with biologists are feeding into published scientific studies. Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan. www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy/gallery

Don't Waste Your Money.   October 31, 2026

The government of Turkiye announced that it wants to turn sunken WWI ships into a diver's mecca, but the question is, "What Ships?" Our senior editor, John Bantin, says, "I went to dive the wrecks of Gallipoli and wrote an article for Diver Magazine entitled The Second Gallipoli Disaster when the divers in the group mutinied. It was because the wrecks were all salvaged long ago, and they dived what was merely indentations in the seabed where the wrecks had been -- and a landing craft that turned out to be nothing more than a large rowing boat!

Want to Know Undercurrent's Senior Editor Better?   October 31, 2026

Shaff Naeem, a popular Maldivian technical diver, interviews John Bantin for his 50th edition of the audible podcast Shaff Dives You Crazy, in which he asks how Bantin made the switch from a successful career as an advertising photographer and filmmaker to being one of the diving world's most respected and well-read diving journalists, together with the battles he had with both the diving trade and some diving equipment. At a time when there are more influencers than truly independent thinkers, it's an informal and candid conversation that might well entertain you.

Rumble in The Underwater Jungle.   October 31, 2026

A confrontation between two groups of divers 100 feet deep at a dive site of Koror, Palau, on October 9 resulted in a popular Taiwanese musician, Song Jianzhang, and his guide being assaulted by another guide, identified only as Romeo. The musician said the guide struck him and tried to remove his mask. His own dive guide intervened, but Romeo turned on him, pulling at his mask and fins and interfering with his regulator, and he lost his computer. But Romeo said the group approached his divers who had secured with reef hooks and ignored signals to move away. He says Patwary pushed and head-butted him first. Jianzhang subsequently shared footage of the encounter on social media and reported the incident to police.

This month in Undercurrent.   October 31, 2026

Diving from the Murex dive resort, Manado, Indonesia . . . Giving pigs 'the bends' for science . . . AI might keep a diver safe . . . 763 dives with a purpose . . . Two more divers lost at Peleliu, Palau . . . St. Lucia, Fernando de Noronha. Bonaire -- readers report . . . Melanoma’s sweet spot . . . The office masquerade . . . This diver should have died! . . . Unexpected surfacing calls for prompt action . . . Those wicked Indonesian currents . . . If your local dive shop disappeared? . . . Is Avelo waning? . . . Are manufacturers screwing dive stores? . . . And much, much more.

Your Fellow Divers Need a Report on Your Last Dive Trip.   October 31, 2026

The unedited reports of your and other members' dive trips form an ever-growing resource, with more than 11,000 entries in the Undercurrent database, for other divers who may follow in your fin strokes. By November 30, please share with your fellow divers where you have been diving, conveying both the good and the bad, as well as everything in between. Your reports will brief other subscribers about the dive resorts you've visited and the liveaboards you've taken. Don't hold back. You can post photos too. File your report at www.undercurrent.org/SubRR, and we will include it in the year's Chapbook, which will be sent to you and all readers in December each year. We appreciate your support.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org

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Note: Undercurrent is a registered 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization donating funds to help preserve coral reefs. Our travel writers never announce their purpose, are unknown to the destination, and receive no complimentary services or compensation from the dive operators or resort.

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