Current Online Updates*
The Latest Dive News   What's this?

The Liveaboard Disaster Saga Continues
Smoke and CO Monitors
Wyland's Dolphin Mural is Gone
Going for the Most Foolish Guinness World Record?
Massachusetts Dive Shop Gutted by Fire
Dive Photo Guide's World Ocean Day 2026
The Wreck That Keeps on Giving
Your Fellow Divers Need a Report on Your Last Dive Trip

The Liveaboard Disaster Saga Continues:   June 23, 2026

On June 14, the liveaboard Philippine Siren II ran aground at Tubbataha National Park, a remote reef in the Philippines' Sulu Sea, after its mooring failed in a sudden squall. Its ironwood hull appears to have flooded. All 28 people aboard, including nine Americans and three Germans, were safely transferred to a nearby vessel, MY. Resolute, which took them back to Puerto Princesa. Ten crew members remained on the stricken vessel to effect recovery. Apparently, no oil or gas spills occurred, and the Philippine Siren II was eventually towed to port.

Smoke and CO Monitors.   June 23, 2026

In view of so many fires aboard liveaboards in recent years, let us remind everyone of the security brought by carrying your own smoke detector and carbon monoxide monitor when you travel. Available from places like Home Depot and on the Internet, you can be more certain that your own devices will work should they be needed.

Wyland's Dolphin Mural is Gone.   June 23, 2026

Known simply as Wyland, the American artist and conservationist who made annual appearances at the DEMA convention, is well known for his more than 100 large outdoor murals featuring images of life-sized whales and other marine life. Now, there is one less. The 82-foot-high mural he painted on the side of 505 North Akard in Dallas in 1999 has been painted over to promote the 2026 FIFA World Cup soccer games. Wyland told Undercurrent subscriber John Fine that the previous building owner was offered $250,000 a month to allow advertisers to repaint the wall, but he refused, saying his children watched Wyland paint it.

Going for the Most Foolish Guinness World Record?   June 23, 2026

To get more publicity for scuba diving in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the local tourist office organized a Guinness Book of Records attempt on May 3. Fourteen divers stacked themselves 73 feet from bottom to top, for more than three minutes, waving an Indian flag. This followed another 'record attempt' two days earlier when they unfurled what they claimed was the largest underwater flag. Both record attempts aimed to promote the islands as global diving destinations. See their video if you have time to waste here.

Massachusetts Dive Shop Gutted by Fire:   June 23, 2026

The heat of a fire that ripped through a building in Brookline, MA, on May 28 caused several filled scuba tanks to explode in the East Coast Divers scuba diving shop located alongside other businesses. It could not have come at a worse time for the dive shop, as the short Massachusetts summer diving season had just begun.

Dive Photo Guide's World Ocean Day 2026   June 23, 2026

Dive Photo Guide's World Ocean Day 2026 photo competition results have been announced. To view the selection of the winners' spectacular visual entries across a wide range of competition categories, with corresponding detailed captions, go here.

The Wreck That Keeps on Giving:   June 23, 2026

Scuba divers have recovered a 22 lb. silver ingot from the wreck site of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, originally salvaged by Mel Fisher's Shipwreck Expeditions. It's the first such recovery this century. The ship sank more than 400 years ago in the Florida Keys. Drake Nicholas, captain of the salvage vessel Dare, brought the ingot to the surface on June 11. The find fuels hope that there may yet be more to recover.

Your Fellow Divers Need a Report on Your Last Dive Trip.   June 23, 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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Online Updates* Archive, 2000-2019

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