Undercurrent Online Update for Subscribers

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

February 15, 2019  

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Ocean Art 2018 Winners Announced

The overall winner of the Ocean Arts competition, organized by the Underwater Photography Guide, with judges including underwater photographers Tony Wu, Martin Edge, Marty Snyderman, and publisher Scott Gietler, was Duncan Murrell, with an image three giant mobula rays engaged in an underwater ballet. All winning images can be seen at http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/2018-ocean-art-contest-winners

Which Are Your Favorite Fins?

Split blades, technopolymer paddle fins or traditional hard rubber fins like those of days of yore? We’re working on a story and would like your thoughts and any problems you might have had. And what about the straps? Spring straps, bungee straps or traditional rubber-style straps? Write and tell us, not forgetting to say your town and state. BenDDavison@undercurrent.org

Plastic Filled Turtles

A new study by the University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the U.K. found that 102 sea turtles examined from three different oceans had each ingested between 150 and 500 pieces of plastics, micro-plastics and other synthetics. They were dead of course.

Closed to Divers

If you booked a Red Sea liveaboard this month you won’t be going to the Brother Islands, one of the best dive sites. Egypt’s Chamber of Diving and Water Sports, the governing body for scuba diving, announced the islands will stay closed to divers at least until mid-March. That action was first taken last year in response to some divers getting bitten by sharks. (See our article “Why are Red Sea Sharks Biting More Often?” in the January issue of Undercurrent)

Are Fish as Vain as We Are?

It may have been proved that fish are sentient but the brainpower of marine animals has been considerably underestimated. Alex Jordan, an evolutionary biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology in Germany, is calling for an overhaul of the traditional hierarchy of animal intelligence, saying that despite their reputation for being “basically vacant,” fish perform exceptionally well on certain tasks. His experiment with cleaner wrasse proved that when confronted with a mirror, after some time they became enamoured of their own image, showing they might have a degree of self-awareness. https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000021

A Hint of Good News on Coral Bleaching

As the populations of corals across the world decrease thanks to climate change, there’s some good news coming from Israel. A recent study published by the Journal of Experimental Biology reveals that the spawns of the fully formed corals in the Gulf of Eilat, in the northern Red Sea, inherited the same genetic imprint responsible for hot weather adaptation, making the Gulf one of the few places on earth where the this underwater ecosystem will continue for years to come in the face of the deteriorating climate change.

Coming Soon in Undercurrent

MV Odyssey in Truk Lagoon . . . Old Gin House, St. Eustatius . . . MV Kona Aggressor, Marisol . . . Glover's Reef, Belize . . . Nitrogen narcosis can kill . . . Keeping predatory sharks at bay . . . An underwater tent, but not for camping . . . The question of bends . . . The canary on the reef . . . Should you let shrimp clean your teeth? . . . and much, much more.

Those Independent Reader’s Reports

are the lifeblood of Undercurrent because they reflect your own experiences that you share with other subscribers. They tell both the good and bad – your reports make us a unique read in the dive travel industry. Report too on their use of single-use plastic. You’re free to tell it like it is, and it’s easy to do file your report online and your reports join more than 10,000 other reports in the Undercurrent database -- that’s easily searchable by any other subscriber.

Thanks for being a loyal subscriber.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
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