Diving Thoughts

The BBC are featuring some photos of deep sea creatures from the International Census for Marine Life.

You can see their photos on the BBC website.

Something that might interest UK divers – the BBC has a series of photographs of vulnerable marine creatures on its website.

In an Auckland aquarium visitors spotted four baby sharks spilling out of a wound in the side of  a pregnant female. The wound was caused by a bite from another shark. Staff removed the female and the four baby sharks, and found four more still inside the mother. All eight of these have now been placed in a nursery tank with some juvenile eagle rays, where people can see them for a while until they are released into the wild. The mother also survived.

It is not unusual for sharks to take chunks out of each other, but this particular bite must have been in just the right place to let the babies out without harming them, and at just the right time in that they were old enough to survive. Bizarrely it may also have saved the young sharks lives, as if they had been born naturally, most likely at night, staff would not have known and they would probably have been eaten by the other sharks and rays in the aquarium.

The above photo comes from the New Zealand Herald, and you can find out more from their website.

Not specifically diving photos, but there are some great wildlife shots from the BBC’s website.

Last year in July, Dr. Andrea Marshall reported to the American Elasmobranch Society’s annual conference in Montreal her view that there are actually two species of manta ray. Until then people had believed there was only one species – Manta birostris.  Mantas evolved from stingrays and some frequent reefs while others live in the open ocean. It had been thought that they had lost their sting, but Dr. Marshall found that the larger, ocean-going mantas still have a rudimentary sting on their tails, which proves that they are actually a separate species. These larger mantas will continue to be called Manta birostris, while their smaller, reef-dwelling cousins have been named Manta alfredi, in tribute to Alfred Whitley, who first scientifically described mantas in the 1930s.

Dr. Marshall’s more recent studies have shown that the larger mantas, which can grow up to a 7 metre wingspan, dives deeply and some of them migrated 700 miles to the Maldives from Mozambique in just 60 days.  Hundreds of these mantas have been seen gathering in the Maldives, around 80% of which are pregnant females.

The photograph above accompanies a BBC article which also has a couple of videos. You can see the full article on the BBC website.

A BBC camera crew have managed to film a smalleye stringray, which is largest of the 70 known species of stingray, growing up to a 2 metre wingspan. The stingray was discovered in 1908 and has only ever been seen off the coast of southern Mozambique.

You can see some footage of it from the BBC website.

Divers used to be a fairly sedentary bunch. Heavy exercise meant carrying 2 pints of bitter and a meat pie from the bar to a table and was only to be attempted if you couldn’t find a waiter to carry it for you. Your average diver would make Father Christmas look anorexic, and would get out of breath climbing up the ladder on the dive boat, even without his dive gear on.

With that in mind, I’m a bit worried that some of our members are not real divers. Not for them the real diver’s beer belly. Instead they are fit and lean like greyhounds, albeit with a lot less hair. Not for them the real diver’s pursuits of propping up the bar until the small hours. No, they spend their small hours hiking over mountains and running along catchwaters. What inspires this enthusiasm for vast quantities of exercise and pointless sporting activity? I can only assume that they are going through a particulary serious mid-life crisis. This mid-life crisis has culminated in them planning to walk 100km for charity on 20th November as part of Trailwalker 2009.

And who are these pseudo-greyhounds? Our very own Andy Eastwood, Andy Niven and Rob Christie. And Mike.

Their team name is South China Diving Club, although in view of their emotional state and their physiques, a more appropriate team name might be The Mid-Life Whippets. And Mike.

Here’s a few words from the Chief Whippet about how we can help…

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Hello SCDC,

We are pleased to announce that (for the first time ever!) a South China Diving Club team has been assembled to compete in the Oxfam Trailwalker Charity Walk across Hong Kong territory on November 14th.

Each year Oxfam organizes the Traliwalker event to raise funds for the needy and impoverished. Teams of 4 walkers join together to show their support and raise funds by hiking 100 km (62 mi) across the territory.

We are asking all of you to please consider making a pledge to the SCDC team and donate to Oxfam. This year’s donations will go towards helping impoverished communities in Asia combat the impact of climate change on their environment.

You can make a pledge by visiting the link below and clicking on the ‘Sponsor Us Now’ button:

https://admin.oxfamtrailwalker.org.hk/en/registration/teamDetail.html?teamId=200954238

Thank you very much for your consideration, and we look forward to telling you all about this challenging event once we have finished!

Best regards,

• Rob Christie
• Andy Eastwood
• Andy Niven &
• Mickey ‘Big Ears’ Belshaw

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This year, the fund raising will go to benefit the following:

• Helping poverty stricken areas of western China to adapt to extreme weather changes with eco-friendly programs to introduce solar stoves and produce biogas from livestock waste.
• Reduce vulnerability to severe flooding in Bihar state of India through training and skill development with the local community, such as how to create makeshift floatation devices and lifejackets.

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Notes about Trailwalker (Hong Kong):

+ Teams have up to 48 hours to complete the challenge. Our team is targeting to complete within 24 hours.

+ Despite its dense city, Hong Kong territory is mostly country parks with spectacular mountains and sweeping views of the ocean.

+ Trailwalker starts at the eastern most point in the territory and finishes on the far western side of the peninsula.

+ All proceeds go directly to Oxfam; the race participants receive no funding from the donation (and walk away with only sore legs!)

+ Hong Kong residents will receive a receipt for tax filing. Apologies, but if you are not a Hong Kong resident your donation is not tax deductible.

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So please give generously and support our team. It’s for a good cause, it’s tax deductible, and it’s a small price to pay to see the pain these guys will be going through. (Large donors may be given the opportunity to prod their blisters).

To conclude, I’d just like to say Good Luck to The Mid-Life Whippets. And Mike.