Diving Thoughts

UB38 sank near Varne Bank in the English Channel in April 1918 when it ran into a minefield while fleeing British destroyers. There were 27 crew on board at the time.   It is said to be responsible for sinking 40 Allied ships.

Minimum clearance in the area is now 26.5 metres, but the wreck comes up to 23.5 metres.  Consequently Trinity House, which is responsible for marking shipping lanes in England and Wales, arranged for the U-boat to be moved 2 miles away and placed in 40 metres of water.

UB38 is not an official war grave, but talks were held with the German Government about the project.

There is some information on Northern Divers site, plus a BBC article. And here’s a YouTube video on diving it:

Further to yesterday’s report of the drowning near Port Island. There are also reports that wind was blowing the dive boat ashore, and that it was attempting to reposition itself. Unfortunately strong rain and surface swell added to the confusion and several divers may have swum towards the rear of the boat, tragically at the wrong time. There is a discussion on the forum.

Once again, our condolences and sympathy to all involved in this tragedy.

A woman died near Port Island (Chek Chau / 赤洲) at around 3:30pm on Sunday 27 July. She was apparently part of a group of 50 divers, and she was thrown into the sea from a rubber dinghy by strong wind and waves. Police later recovered a woman’s body. A man who was also thrown into the water suffered a broken arm and is in hospital in serious condition.

If you are a subscriber, SCMP has a story. And The Standard also mentions it, and says that the junk they were on was heading to Tap Mun (although it must have been a big junk if it had 50 people on board).

Some of the Chinese press are apparently reporting that the weather had blown up and people were being ferried ashore when 2 of the inflatables collided. The woman may have been hit by a propeller, and according to the SCMP the body  which was found had injuries consistent with that.

Our condolences and sympathy go out to her family and friends.

Over 120 rare, short snouted seahorses have been bred at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth, as part of a captive breeding programme. They normally live in shallow muddy waters, estuaries or inshore among seaweed.

This is apparently the first time that Blue Reef Aquarium has managed to breed short snouted seahorses and they are being kept in special nursery tanks and fed on microscopic shrimp.

I actually walked past this aquarium at Christmas when I was back in the UK. I would have gone in if I’d had more time (or if the entrance fee had been cheaper), but I had to rush back to my parent’s for a family dinner. Maybe next time.

There’s more information on MSN’s website, which is where the photograph came from. You can also visit Blue Reef Aquarium’s website.

Here’s a good video of an Australian submarine sinking a decommissioned US warship during a test of the Mk 48 Mod 7 Common Broadband Sonar System torpedo.  This new torpedo was fired from HMAS Waller off Hawaii.

I’ve seen the results of a torpedo strike on wrecks that I’ve dived but to see this ship buck and almost jump out of the water as its back is broken, just shows the power that is involved in such an explosion.

A white humpback whale has been spotted off Byron Bay, which is on the east coast of Australia. If confirmed, this would be only the second known all-white whale. The first one, Migaloo (which means “White Fella” in Aboriginal) was first seen in 1991 and it is possible that this new whale is related. The new whale is mainly white but does seem to have some black markings around its head and tail.

“as far as we know, he is globally unique,” – Professor Peter Harrison from the Whale Research Centre, Southern Cross University on Migaloo’s celebrity status.

“There she blows!–there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!“  – Captain Ahab, well-known conservationist and whale lover.

You can read more from Divemaster News, or a website dedicated to Migaloo.

Or even see a video of Migaloo from You Tube:

A documentary on climate change that was made by the UK’s Channel 4 and has subsequently been sold to 21 countries and distributed on DVD, broke the Office of Communications (Ofcom) rules. The documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle, controversially argued that temperature increases seen since the 1970′s was not primarily caused by greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. It claimed that the whole focus on global warming was driven by politics rather than science.

Ofcom found that the documentary did not fulfil requirements to be impartial and to reflect a range of views.  It was also found to have treated interviewees unfairly. However, in what has annoyed many people, the programme was not found to have mislead viewers “so as to cause harm or offence”.

Sir John Haughton chaired the scientific assessment carried out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that it was very disappointing that Ofcom didn’t come up with a stronger statement on being misled. Bob Ward, former head of media at the Royal Society, felt that the programme had been let off the hook on a technicality. Carl Wunsch, an oceanographer who was interviewed for the documentary, said he had been invited to appear in a programme that would discuss the issues of climate change in a balanced way, but that it turned out to be “an out-and-out propaganda piece, in which there is not even a gesture toward balance”.

Still, on a positive note, the decision did find against the documentary and questions its credibility.  It will be difficult for climate change sceptics to use it as an argument in favour of their increasingly marginal views.

Hong Kong’s Science Museum have got a Special Exhibition running from now until November, which is intended  to introduce the world of deep-sea creatures to the public and underline the importance of conserving the ecosystem.

Exhibits include photographs, film footage and preserved specimens of the great diversity of rarely-seen life forms in the deep sea. Using special light and sound effects, the pitch-black environment of the deep sea is recreated to simulate the conditions in which the animals live, allowing visitors to experience the world from a completely different dimension.

Exhibition Period: 11 Jul 2008 – 12 Nov 2008
Exhibition Opening Hours:
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays : 1 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays : 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Closed on Thursdays (except Public Holidays)
http://hk.science.museum/ese/ese.php
General Enquiries
Tel: 2732 3232
Fax: 2311 2248
Address : 2 Science Museum Road, Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Last night SCDC held a charity DVD night to show Sharkwater. There were around 30 people who attended and they raised money which will be donated to the Shark Trust. For those who don’t know, Sharkwater is a documentary made by Rob Stewart to expose the exploitation and corruption surrounding the shark finning industry. Sharks have been around for 400 million years, to which  humanity is just a footnote. Yet we may be on the verge of wiping out many species of sharks just so that we can eat their fins. Throughout he emphasises how long they have been around, as well as their importance as the top marine predator. Without sharks, there could be an explosion of life that eats plankton. Plankton is apparently a huge consumer of CO2, so his argument is that  by removing sharks, we risk aggravating the already serious problem of global warming.

Mr. Stewart teams up with Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd, an activist conservation group, to try and stop shark finning in Costa Rica and around Galapagos. At one point they are arrested in Costa Rica, despite having apparently been invited to protect sharks around Cocos by the President. In Costa Rica they take some under cover footage of thousands of illegally acquired fins drying, hidden on roofs out of sight. He claims, plausibly, that the trade is being run by a Taiwanese mafia, which is paying off people to allow it to continue.

It’s a great documentary with wonderful photography. It was also good to see him interviewing a young Singaporean (by the sound of the accents) couple, who had opted not to serve shark fin soup at their wedding. He also interviewed Vic Hislop arguing that he has saved many lives by seemingly making it his life’s work to kill sharks. So Mr. Stewart avoided a “Chinese are bad for eating shark fin” and “Westerners are good for protecting them” bias, which was important given SCDC’s audience was a very mixed group.

The film is not perfect, we saw a bit too much of Mr. Stewart rather than the sharks. Towards the end of the film he is in hospital with a badly infected leg, faced with the possibility of losing his leg, or worse. Having also been in hospital, on intravenous antibiotics with a similar problem, and similarly relieved when the infection finally stopped creeping up my leg, I can relate to that. But that’s not what I came to see. But these are minor criticisms, it is an excellent film, fantastically photographed and well worth seeing.

I don’t know where his statistics come from, but he claims that in the 89 minute running time of the film, 15,000 sharks will have been killed. For that to stop, more people need to be aware of what is happening, and hard-hitting documentaries like this can only help.  And did I mention how good the photography was?

The BBC website has had some good things on it recently, and here’s another. Apparently grunting fish have helped scientists to date the origins of vocal sound to 400 million years ago.

Since I didn’t even realise that fish which can grunt even existed, I found the story interesting. Humming toadfish (also called the Midshipman) are bottom dwellers from the west coast of the US. The males carve out nests under the rocks, and then spend hours humming to attract females. They also  growl to keep competitors away.

Andrew Bass from Cornell University mapped out the neural circuits involved in making these sounds and found they are remarkably similar to other animals that vocalise. It is a very ancient part of the nervous system which is shared by all vertebrates, implying that it evolved before the various branches split, which allowed him to date it as being from 400 million years ago.

The above photo is from Science’s website and credit for it should go to Margaret A. Marchaterre/Cornell University.

You can read more from the BBC website and there are a couple of videos of them in action.

Australian scientists have found that some fish act as “lawnmowers” and keep coral free from some unwanted algae and kelp. The best fish seem to be parrotfish and rabbit fish.

Higher sea temperatures are putting pressure on coral reefs which live within a relatively narrow temperature range. At higher temperatures the polyps expel the algae which symbiotically live with them and provide their nutrition. They may be able to recover, but if at the same time they are hit by an infestation of non-symbiotic algae or kelp, then their chances are significantly reduced. Hence the importance of the fish that graze on such unwanted algae or kelp.

The research was carried out on the Great Barrier Reef by scientists from James Cook University in Townsville.

You can read more from the BBC.

Three weeks ago one of the 5 Chinese sturgeon that were donated to Ocean Park by the National Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Association died after being bitten by a barracuda. The Association originally offered to replace it, but instead they are now sending 5 more of these rare fish. That will bring the total to 9. The number 9 is related to longevity (among other things) in Cantonese. The original 5 fish represented the Olympic rings since Beijing is hosting the Olympics this year, with Hong Kong hosting the equestrian events.

This batch of sturgeon are between 7 and 9 years old and about 2 metres long, which is larger than the original batch which ranged in age from 2 to 9 years. They will be housed in what is now the shark aquarium. Some of the sharks will be moved to the Atoll Reef and some to back of house pools, not for public viewing.

This new batch are due to arrive by the end of July. The barracuda can’t wait!

You can read more from the Hong Kong Standard.