Secrets of the Octopus – a new must-watch documentary series from National GeographicA preview of Secrets of the Octopus, premiering this Earth Day (22 April) on National Geographic LIVE and Disney+ By Mark 'Crowley' Russell A new three-part documentary series is coming to National Geographic LIVE and Disney+ this Earth Day, offering a fantastic glimpse into the lives and behaviours of octopuses. Narrated by Paul Rudd and produced by film-maker and explorer, James Cameron, Secrets of the Octopus is presented and co-produced by National Geographic Explorer, Dr Alex Schnell, a marine biologist a ..read more

Bleached coral in the Maldives (Photo: The Ocean Agency/Ocean Image Bank)It’s official – scientists have announced that the second global mass coral bleaching event of the decade is underway Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), have announced that the fourth global mass coral bleaching event is underway, the fourth recorded since NOAA’s coral reef and sea temperature monitoring began in 1985, and the second in the last ten years. According to NOAA, bleaching-level heat stress, as remotely monitored and pr ..read more

The Claudia Gas sitting on the reef in Sharm El Sheikh (Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Environment) By Mark 'Crowley' Russell A Libyan-flagged LPG tanker, the Claudia Gas, has been seized by Egyptian authorities after running aground on a coral reef in Sharm El Sheikh. The tanker was reportedly returning to Russia after unloading its cargo in Aqaba, Jordan, when it struck the fringing reef on the night of Friday, 12 April, prompting a state of emergency to be declared by Egypt’s Minister for the Environment, Dr Yasmine Fouad. The stranding coincided with Eid Al-Fitr, the celebration at the end of ..read more

Ocean Census’ deep sea submarine, Pisces VI (Photo: Ocean Census) The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, a global alliance dedicated to the discovery and protection of marine life, has announced it has been officially endorsed as a UN Ocean Decade Programme. The UN Ocean Decade project is an initiative to complete 10 different challenges over the next ten years, with the aim of bringing humanity closer to the world’s oceans in order to better protect them, as outlined in its ‘Vision 2030‘ statement. In doing so, a series of collaborative expeditions have set out to discover as many new spe ..read more

Caskets filled with settlement substrates – each pool can contain up to 1200 substrates (Photo: Paul A Selvaggio/SECORE International)SECORE International‘s coral seeding programme is being hailed as a great success, with its reef restoration initiative now present in nine Caribbean nations Coral seeding is a process whereby the natural sexual reproductive cycle of corals is carried out in laboratory conditions, before the resulting spawn are redistributed – seeded – across dead or damaged reefs. The process greatly improves genetic diversity across populations of coral species, enabling those ..read more

Preliminary report names medical event, not mechanical failure, as the cause of the celebrated diver’s death The Divers Alert Network (DAN) has issued a preliminary report into the tragic death of popular cave-diving expert and Dive Rite General Manager, Jared Hires, who died in Norway’s Plura cave system on 3 April. Internet speculation has revolved around the possibility of CNS (central nervous system) oxygen toxicity, a known danger for rebreather divers should a controller failure inject pure oxygen into the breathing loop while the diver is at depths sufficient to exceed the safe partial ..read more

The Reef-World Foundation panel at ADEX 2023 (Photo: Reef-World Foundation) The Reef-World Foundation – the international coordinator of the UN Environment Programme’s Green Fins initiative – is returning to ADEX Singapore this weekend (12-14 April 2024) by popular demand with two Sustainable Diving events – ‘The Sustainable Diving Think Tank’ and ‘The Sustainable Diving Dialogue’. The charity will also be presenting its Green Fins Award to the watersports operator recognised to have the lowest environmental impact. Reef-World says that the Sustainable Diving events ‘aim to break down the barr ..read more

Take our shark quiz and test your knowledge! Can you identify the different species? Score 75% or higher for an exclusive discount! The post QUIZ: Sharks appeared first on DIVE Magazine ..read more

The march of the spiny spider crabs (Photo: Lewis Jeffries)The aggregation of huge numbers of spider crabs is one of the most astonishing underwater spectacles in UK waters Words & Photography By Lewis Jefferies As a young teenager learning to scuba dive in 2001, I remember one of my first open water dives off a pebble beach in east Devon. We made entry into the water from shore and proceeded offshore to gain depth – at first swimming over a featureless, sandy seabed until a large shadow came into view, and trailed strangely off into the distance. As we neared the dark shape, it became cle ..read more

The moment a diver touches the tip of a whale shark’s tail (Photo: Facebook/other social media) A scuba diver has been fined by Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) for touching a whale shark, according to local reports. In a video circulating on social media, a group of divers can be seen following the whale shark before one of the divers reaches out to touch the upper tip of the whale shark’s tail, before another diver, presumably the group’s guide or instructor, intervenes. The incident occurred at the famous Richelieu Rock, a popular sea mount in K ..read more