Scuba With Bill

Recently, a team of 9 engineering students from Rochester Institute of Technology constructed a ROV capable of diving to 400 feet. Dan Scoville — a 2005 RIT grad who claims to have located 3 virigin, undisclosed wrecks in Lake Ontario — led the team and largely financed the project. Scoville and the team intend to use the ROV this summer to explore the wrecks in Lake Ontario as well as to search the Atlantic Ocean.

Engineering Students Make ROV Capable of Diving to 400 Feet - Divester

Reporting in the June 1 issue of the journal Nature, scientists from six institutions detail how male guppies with the most colorful — and most rare — patterns are more likely than their more commonly colored counterparts to survive in the wild.

“This study provides very solid support for frequency-dependent survival,” said principal investigator Kimberly A. Hughes, an animal biologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “We found that rare color patterns of these guppies had a highly significant survival advantage.”

Underwater Times | Study: Colorful, Rare-Patterned Male Guppies Have Survival Advantage in the Wild

A rare pair of critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal twins — only the fourth set of twins ever documented — was brought to Honolulu from Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge aboard a U.S. Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft early yesterday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service are working to ensure the pups are given the best chance for survival and hope to return them to Midway Atoll, where they were born, in the fall, officials said.

Monk seal twins receive crucial care in captivity - The Honolulu Advertiser

Overfishing presents a much greater risk to the kelp forest ecosystems that span the West Coast — from Alaska to Mexico’s Baja Peninsula — than the effects of run-off from fertilizers or sewage from the shore, say scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings have important implications for the design of California’s Marine Protected Areas.

In an article published in the May 26 issue of Science, researchers describe the first study to compare the top-down versus bottom-up human influences on the food chain of the kelp forest ecosystems.

Underwater Times | Study: Overfishing Puts Southern California Kelp Forest Ecosystems at Risk; ‘So Sensitive’

Between June 1 and June 6, my father and I enjoyed Grand Cayman’s charms. During our well-deserved vacation, Don Foster’s dive operation took us out as we explored the reefs and the marine life off the western and northwestern edges of the island. Ultimately, we managed to squeeze in a dozen dives, all of which were at least “very good,” and some of which were “spectacular.” Topside, we did some exploring, too.

12 Dives in Grand Cayman: A Trip Report - Divester

Thailand is blessed with many world class diving sites - and there’s so many of them, it can get a bit bewildering about where to go. The Tourist Authority Of Thailand has a very good summary of the different sites on a single webpage, with links out to separate pages on each of the different major dive destinations. It’s well presented, with maps and some beautiful photos to get you in the mood for what you’ll see. There’s also practical info on how to get to each destination too.

Thailand Dive Sites At A Glance - divehappy.com: Scuba Diving In Thailand and South East Asia

A new type of hammerhead shark has been discovered in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, marine scientists say.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | New shark discovered in US waters

“We can see from fossils that whales clearly lived on land - they actually share a common ancestor with hippos, camels and deer,” said team member Martin Cohn, Ph.D., a developmental biologist and associate professor with the UF departments of zoology and anatomy and cell biology and a member of the UF Genetics Institute. “Their transition to an aquatic lifestyle occurred long before they eliminated their hind limbs. During the transition, their limbs became smaller, but they kept the same number and arrangement of hind limb bones as their terrestrial ancestors.”

In findings to be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists say the gradual shrinkage of the whales’ hind limbs over 15 million years was the result of slowly accumulated genetic changes that influenced the size of the limbs and that these changes happened sometime late in development, during the fetal period.

Underwater Times | Researcher: How ancient whales lost their legs, got sleek and conquered the oceans

There’s an excellent scuba diving liveaboards comparison chart tucked away on the Divernet website - it covers not only Thailand and other countries in the Asia Pacific region, but the major diving regions across the world. It looks a bit clunky, but the information is invaluable and a good start to figuring out which company you should invest your hard earned cash with for a dive holiday.

Scuba Diving Liveaboards Compared - divehappy.com: Scuba Diving In Thailand and South East Asia

This fall, Chuck and Roz will host two separate humpback whale snorkeling excursions in beautiful Tonga. (Opportunities for diving exist on this trip to the Friendly Islands, but not in conjunction with the whales.) The trip costs $2,863 per person, and includes accommodation, meals, 5 days with the whales, and airfare from LAX all the way to Vavau, Tonga. Chuck only has space for 6 people per trip, so email him soon to reserve your spot.

Swim with Humpbacks in Tonga - Divester