Diving Thoughts

Paradise nearly lost? (Guardian)

So, the good news is that you’re a newly elected President of a tropical paradise. The bad news is that your home is sinking, or more accurately, sea water levels are rising and your country is on average only 2.3 metres above current sea levels.

That is what just happened to Mohamed Nasheed, who took power in the Maldives yesterday (Tuesday 11 Nov).

The UN forecasts that water levels will climb 59cm by 2100. And bear in mind that 2.3 metres is an average, most parts of the Maldives are only 1.5 metres above sea level. To make matters worse, climate change is a global phenomenon, so is completely out of his control.

His solution? Create a sovereign wealth fund from tourist revenue, and invest in land. He’s suggesting buying up land perhaps in Sri  Lanka or India because they have similar cultures, cuisine and climate (although I thought that was the problem!). Australia is also on his list as it has plenty of empty land (although that could be empty for a reason).

There are 300,000 people in the Maldives, and it would be very difficult to move an entire country, even if you managed to overcome problems of sovereignty with your new hosts. So is this realistic, or is the new president just attempting to raise awareness of the plight of the Maldives to the rest of the world?

Take a look at this article from The Guardian. Or this one.

BBC has an article in their “Green Room” environmental section by Rod Salm. He is director of The Nature Conservancy’s Tropical Marine Conservation Programme in Asia Pacific region. He argues that in addition to the widely known and recognised problems that affect coral reefs, such as rising water temperatures, destructive fishing practices, pollution and silt due to bad land-use practices, there is a more serious, and less widely discussed, problem. Global carbon dioxide emissions are at an all-time high, which is implicated in the global warming phenomenon. But the world’s oceans absorb approximately 1/3rd of this CO2, so the amount of CO2 absorbed is also increasing and presumably at an all-time high as well. As a result the oceans are getting more acidic, which will potentially have devastating consequences for coral reefs.

You can see if you agree with his views and his suggestions to mititgate this by reading what he has to say.

A Philippine fisherman was attacked by a shark near Paoay, Ilocos Norte. Joel Bacud was checking his nets, and according to his son, was climbing back into their banca carrying  a fish that was “dripping blood” when the shark attacked him from behind.  The police chief didn’t know what type of shark it was, and no-one in the town can remember any similar attack.

There is an article in the Hong Kong Standard, plus another on SunStar’s website.

Megaleledone setebos (BBC)

Research has shown that many of the deep living octopi evolved from a common ancestor which still exists. The Census of Marine Life project began in the year 2000 and involves scientists from 82 countries. Part of that project is called the Census of Antarctic Marine Life, which, among other things, involved collecting may deep sea octopus which underwent DNA analysis. A biologist at the British Antarctic Survey managed to trace them to a common ancestor 30 million years ago. They all traced back to Megaleledone setebos which lives in shallow water in the Southern Ocean.  Her research also looked at how these octopus adjusted to the new deep sea environment.

You can see the full article from the BBC.

Green Turtle (BBC)

Police in Sabah have seized 10,000 turtle eggs from a speedboat that was unloading on a beach near Sandakan. They believe that a smuggling syndicate got the eggs from several Philippine islands and were smuggling them into Malaysia where they are regarded as a delicacy. The eggs are apparently from species like Green and Hawksbill turtles.

Unfortunately the smugglers escaped.

Wildlife officials are going to try and incubate the eggs.

The photo above comes from the BBC, and you can read their article here.

Strange article in the Standard yesterday about 2 divers who are hoping to set a Hong Kong depth record. Apparently “Jackie Wu Ming-chuen, formerly of the marine police, hopes to break the previous mark of 72 meters which he set with diving instructor Johny Lee Kak-keung, 44.”

This attempt is going to take place in Puerto Galera. The Standard’s article seems to imply that they are attempting to break the 100 metre mark, although it doesn’t state it explicitly. Their aim is to publicise deep  water diving in Hong Kong.

I’m not quite sure how this qualifies as a Hong Kong record as it is being conducted in the Philippines, but presumably it’s a record by a Hong Kong diver. And I’m not quite sure why 72 metres is regarded as the current record as I know several people who have dived to over 100m. The article author also mentions that it was in Puerto Galera that “world record holder John Bennett set the bar at 308m in 2001″. While that is true, that record has subsequently been broken and is now owned by either Nuno Gomes (318.25m), or by Pascal Benarbe (330m). Guiness World Records currently seems to recognise the Nuno Gomes dive as officially the deepest.

Anyway, complaints about the article aside, good luck to Jackie Wu Ming-chuen and Johny Lee Kak-keung. It would be nice to see Hong Kong diving getting some good publicity, after too many incidents this year.

Here’s the Standard article.

Suunto have discovered a software bug in their D9 and D6 computers. On rare occasions the bug can cause the instruments to incorrectly track dive time. The following serial numbers are affected:

• D9 – 62102582 and below
• D6 – 62103693 and below

They strongly recommend that if you have one of these units, you don’t dive it until the software has been upgraded. The good news is that as a complimentary service, at the same time they upgrade your software, Suunto will apparently replace the battery and perform a pressure test free of charge.

You can find out more detail here.

First Encounter (Brian Skerry).

That Natural History Museum’s website has the winners and commended entries from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 competition, and there are some great photos there. You can see the various categories here. If you’re only interested in underwater photos, then the winners for that category are here.

The photograph above was the winner in the Underwater Category is entitled First Encounter, and was taken of a southern right whale by Brian Skerry off the Auckland Islands in New Zealand.