KUR dive-team recover Brett Hemphill
Divernet
by Steve Weinman
6M ago
The body of diver Brett Hemphill, who went missing during an exploratory dive in Phantom Springs Cave in west Texas on 4 October, as reported on Divernet, has been recovered by members of his own Karst Underwater Research (KUR) dive-team. Hemphill, 56, and his fellow-divers had set out to explore a lead about 2.2km into the system starting at 135m depth of water. He was last seen on video tying off the guideline on a rock at a US record-breaking depth of 174m, but after that he and the other divers had become separated.  The KUR team had stated that the effort to find and extract Hemphill ..read more
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Bret Gilliam: The multi-faceted scuba pioneer
Divernet
by Steve Weinman
6M ago
US diver Bret Gilliam, one of the most influential scuba-diving pioneers and also one of the industry's most successful entrepreneurs, has died in Maine following a series of illnesses at the age of 72. Gilliam’s diving successes straddled most aspects of the sport. Physiologically unfazed by deep-diving without the help of mixed gases, he at one point held the world record for deepest scuba diver on air, descending to 138m in Roatan in 1990 and later extending this record to 145m. But he is best remembered for his role in popularising mixed-gas diving through the establishment of the training ..read more
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Leg freedom with Argonaut 3.0 drysuit 
Divernet
by Steve Weinman
6M ago
Fourth Element has introduced a new drysuit, the Argonaut 3.0, which it wants divers to know is “engineered to move with you”. The garment allows perfect fit and freedom of movement when diving in horizontal trim, says the West Country manufacturer – AFT (Articulated For Trim), as it calls it – with “enhanced design, greater flexibility and more ways to design your own personal drysuit”. The Argonaut 3.0 has a distinctive leg design, with the cut offering freedom across knees and thighs for comfort throughout a dive, it says. Cross-body dry zipperArm dumpFemale P-valveLeg pocket The redesigned ..read more
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Blue Xmas dives in Dorset + Blue treks into Hants
Divernet
by Steve Weinman
6M ago
Dorset dive operator Jurassic Aqua Sports is getting its festive greetings in early and encouraging UK scuba divers to book places on its Charity Christmas Santa Dive in aid of the RNLI.  The Weymouth centre’s third such annual event will be a boat-dive trip from Portland Marina to Bat’s Head Reef followed by a second dive, taking place on Saturday, 16 December. Maximum depth is 18m so it’s open to all certified divers. “Bat’s Head Reef is a stunning dive-site not found in any dive-guide,” says Jurassic’s training director and skipper David Collins. “The site is located where a white clif ..read more
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Cave-diver Hemphill lost at Phantom Springs
Divernet
by Steve Weinman
6M ago
Leading cave-diver Brett Hemphill is believed to have died far inside Phantom Springs, the USA’s deepest natural caves and the site of a record-breaking dive he had carried out 10 years ago. Hemphill is understood to have entered the Texas cave on 4 October and was estimated by his team to have reached as deep as 174m, some 30m beyond the current US cave-depth record.  Jeff Davis County Sheriff’s Office took a call in the early hours of 6 October to report that Hemphill was still more than 3km inside the cave and about 145m deep, and a rescue team entered in a bid to reach him.  Know ..read more
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Has Colombia really mislaid ‘Holy Grail of Shipwrecks’?
Divernet
by Steve Weinman
6M ago
A top-secret sealed envelope is reported to have gone missing in Colombia – which would be unfortunate if true, because it contains the location of a Spanish galleon estimated to contain treasure worth around US $17 billion. The 62-gun, three-masted San José was launched in 1698 and sank 10 years later off Cartagena in Colombia, after losing a fierce battle with British warships during the War of the Spanish Succession.  The San José had been sailing from Panama as flagship of a treasure fleet of three warships and 14 merchant vessels. When her powder magazine exploded, she went down with ..read more
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WW2 aircraft wreck latest in string of Estonia finds
Divernet
by Steve Weinman
6M ago
A twin-engined WW2 military aircraft has been found in Estonia’s Gulf of Livonia in the Baltic Sea. Lying in two parts, with its tail section detached from the main wreck, the plane awaits diving to be identified. The wreck is the latest in a string of finds by the hydrographic department of the Estonian Transport Administration, the surveys of which have proved fruitful this summer. It was picked up on routine sonar scans being carried out from the research vessel Jakob Prei nine nautical miles south-east of Abruka, a small island lying off Estonia’s largest, Saaremaa. The aircraft’s fuselage ..read more
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Raja Ampat Global Conveyor Belt
Divernet
by Adrian Stacy
6M ago
The Importance of the Global Conveyor Belt of currents to Raja Ampat Raja Ampat is a stunning tropical paradise often called “diving's final frontier”. It has the highest known concentration and diversity of marine life on earth, with 75% of all the world's coral species, more than 1300 species of fish, 6 of the world's seven marine turtle species and 27 varieties of marine mammals. All in the pristine maritime metropolis where manta rays glide, whale sharks breed, sperm whales feed, turtles lay eggs, and tropical fish dazzle you with their spectacular colours. The global conveyor belt, known ..read more
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Marine-science base opens on Pitcairn
Divernet
by Steve Weinman
6M ago
The world’s most remote marine-science base – that’s the claim for a facility just opened by the UK government in the South Pacific’s Pitcairn Islands.  The volcanic outcrop and its three outer islands constitute a UK Overseas Territory that is also the world’s third-largest continuous “Highly Protected” Marine Protected Area, created in 2016.  No commercial fishing is allowed across its 842,000sq km, making Pitcairn an important reference point for scientists studying marine biodiversity and assessing climate-change effects. The MPA was awarded a Platinum Status Blue Park Award by t ..read more
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Green Fins adds travel incentives for divers
Divernet
by Steve Weinman
6M ago
UK charity the Reef-World Foundation, which administers the UN Environment Programme’s Green Fins initiative to boost environmental responsibility among professional diving operations, has set up an incentive scheme with insurer DiveAssure and an existing collaborator, dive-travel agency ZuBlu. According to the foundation there is strong demand among dive tourists for sustainability education, and it says that the new arrangement will assist in promoting sustainable diving practices by encouraging more divers to take its Green Fins Diver e-course. The US $25 course (free for those in exempt de ..read more
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