Poachers kill ‘dolphins that saved swimmers’

By billrini

Nov

28

This is very sad but it appears that poachers have killed several of the dolphins who protected swimmers from a great white. The Scotsman reports:

The mutilated carcasses of the two bottlenose dolphins were found on Wednesday in the Awaroa River, which branches off the upper reaches of Whangarei Harbour on North Island’s east coast.

Staff from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) believe the dolphins died about two weeks ago after drowning in fishing nets set out by criminals poaching fish. DOC officer Richard Parrish said their tails had been hacked off, probably to free them from the net.

. . . read the entire story.

Eric Cheng Underwater Photography

By billrini

Nov

27

I ran across Eric Cheng’s site via gadling and wanted to share some excellent underwater photography.

How Deep Is Deep?

By billrini

Nov

25

The 62-year-old photographer, along with an A-team of biologists, oceanographers, and two of Jacques Cousteau’s grandchildren, will venture to the Mariana Trench, just off the coast of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. There they will drop a remotely operated camera system 7 miles down to the bottom of the deepest spot on Earth.

via Wired Magazine

Well worth checking out. Some interesting trivia the article offers:

220 feet: Depth at which compressed air becomes toxic and can cause seizures in divers.

558 feet: Only two people have held their breath to this depth: Audrey Mestre, who died in 2002 when her equipment failed; and her husband, Pipin Ferreras, who tied her unofficial dive record one year later.

1,010 feet: Scuba-diving record set by Brit diver John Bennett in 2001.

1,969 feet: Maximum diving depth of nuclear-powered attack subs.

5,187 feet: Maximum diving depth of the elephant seal.

12,434 feet: Average ocean depth.

12,500 feet: Depth of the wreck of the Titanic discovered by a US-French team headed by Woods Hole researcher Robert Ballard in 1985.

36,201 feet: Deepest recorded ocean depth, taken by the Soviet submersible Vityaz in 1957.

Dolphins saved us from shark, lifeguards say

By billrini

Nov

24

A pod of dolphins is being credited with saving a group of lifeguards from a circling great white shark.

Lifeguard Rob Howes, his daughter Niccy, 15, Karina Cooper, 15, and Helen Slade, 16, were swimming 100m out to sea at Ocean Beach, near Whangarei, when seven bottlenose dolphins sped towards them and herded them together.

. . . via The New Zealand Herald

Learning To Dive In Belize

By billrini

Nov

23

Wham! Reality check, Roger. It’s 9:30 on a perfect, tropical April morning off the shore of Ambergris Caye, Belize’s largest island.

. . . Read Theresa Storm’s introduction to scuba diving.

Poco Missed

By billrini

Nov

22

Poco was a beluga whale who seems to have been lost from his usual pals and decided to stay in Maine and befriend the locals. Despite the best efforts of wildlife officials young Poco didn’t want to return to the wild. He was known for playing with scuba divers and making visits to be with the local fishermen. Unfortunately, his body was found last week, washed ashore in South Portland.

Chances of Shark Attack

By billrini

Nov

8

“You are more likely to be killed by falling airplane parts or be hurt by using a room deoderizer than be attacked by a shark.”

– Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, Ca.

Taken from the Nov. 2004 edition of Scuba Diving Magazine.