SCIENTISTS are calling for volunteer divers to help survey the health of a remote corner of the Great Barrier Reef.

 
Earthwatch Australia and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences are planning a detailed study of the coral reefs surrounding Orpheus Island to assess the extent of coral disease.
Scientists fear the reef around the small island, located around 1200km northwest of Brisbane, is at risk from rising sea temperatures.
Earthwatch Executive Director Richard Gilmore said the study was a unique opportunity for divers to give hands-on help to the scientific community.
"Volunteers will get to experience this unique marine park filled with an unusually wide variety of reef habitats, clam gardens as well as submerged indigenous sites and recent shipwrecks," he said.

"(The study will) help scientists understand more about the factors influencing the health of coral reefs."It's a great way to experience something different, while making a difference to this important World Heritage site."
He said the divers will help survey, tag and photograph diseased areas of the reef, which scientists will then monitor over time.

Walking Under The Ice

It’s the only time you can walk on a frozen lake and not have to worry about the ice breaking.

A group of divers have filmed themselves walking and performing various tasks while upside down under a lake in Finland.
The breathtaking footage, filmed in Lake Saarijärvi in Vaala, Finland, shows the diving team carrying buckets, pushing a wheelbarrow and taking a seat on the frozen barrier.
Divers Eelis Rankka, Tommi Salminen and Jukka Pelttari wore buoyant sealed dry suits, which are inflated with air.
The team then use air bubbles to fill the buckets and wheelbarrow, causing the objects to float to the surface.
But because the team are upside down, the buoyancy functions like gravity, giving the buckets apparent weight and keeping the wheelbarrow steady on the ice.
The video, which was posted five days ago in Finland, is already gaining massive traction on viral news websites.
"This video is going to have a few million views in time..It's just so awesome," a YouTube commenter wrote.
Other viewers from the Northern Hemisphere have quipped that it was filmed in Australia, because of it being upside now.

A lucky loggerhead turtle survives the odds

 

(CNN) -- She was named Sara, after the daughter of the man who found her, and she got to go home Wednesday. For her, home is the waters of the Florida Keys, a place no one expected she'd ever return to.

Sara is a 115-pound federally protected loggerhead sea turtle who, if not for sheer luck, would be dead today. In early August, a father and son fishing in the Keys spotted Sara floating with a 4-foot spear sticking out of her head.

The loggerhead was taken to the Florida Keys Turtle Hospital.

"This has to be one of the luckiest turtles in history," said veterinarian Doug Mader.

The odds of saving Sara were not good. The spear had gone in just behind her ear and lodged against the jawbone on the other side. "Quarter of an inch in either direction," said Mader, "and the animal would be dead."

The shooting of the turtle had to be deliberate, said Rich Moretti, who runs the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. From the angle of entry it appeared to the medical team that Sara had been shot from above, probably from a boat.

"Everyone in the Keys was absolutely offended that someone would come down and do that to one of our turtles," Moretti said.

He said he does not believe whoever shot the turtle was from the Keys. The spear was much bigger than what locals would normally use, he noted.

The day after the turtle was rescued, Moretti took a picture of the spear to every dive shop in the area. He hoped the person who shot the turtle would come looking for a replacement and someone in that shop could make an identification. No luck.

Doctors who first looked at the injured turtle said that with each breath she took, they could hear a fluttering sound. After stabilizing Sara and giving her antibiotics, Mader was able to remove the spear from her head and the flutter ended.

Sara is a young turtle, about 12 years old. It was only a week ago she started eating on her own, gobbling up some squid. Once that happened, Moretti said, "we knew it was time for her to go back home."

A $16,000 reward is offered for tips that lead to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the injury. Much of the money came from local commercial fishermen and boat captains. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Fisheries Service is investigating.

The staff at the Turtle Hospital sees many accidental injuries, "animals tied up in fishing line or hit by a boat," Moretti said. "When we see something like this, intentional, it's rare."

It's even rarer for a turtle to survive and recover so quickly from the kind of damage Sara suffered.

Under a beautiful blue September morning sky, Sara was released near the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon. For the volunteers, the doctors, and Moretti, this was the kind of day that makes them smile.

The Campaign and Its Impact “Dive Tribes Great Shark Release” hopes to be one of the largest shark releases ever staged. The idea is to release captive bred sharks and sharks we can rescue from restaurants and pet stores in Thailand back to the ocean on Sept 3rd 2011. We are working with a team of marine biologists and shark specialists to make sure that every thing we do is text book and no harm will come to any of the sharks during the release. Currently the shark situation in Thailand is becoming worse, sharks are taken for fins or the pups and small sharks simply taken for soup and Thai dishes. These sharks are sometimes taken illegally and usually at night from our National Marine Parks. By releasing Bamboo, Leopard and Black Tip Reef Sharks we hope we can:  1. Restore a small portion of the shark population  2. Bring public awareness to the decimation of Sharks in Thailand and globally  3. Educate the public as to the importance of sharks  4. Open and start dialogue with the relevant authorities regarding putting in some protection for endangered  shark species in Thailand   5. Make this an annual event until the relevant protection is in place.   Without this campaign we face serious decimation of our sharks population in the coming years. We have to act now and bring all the public media, aquariums & dive centers together and work as one before its too late and some of our last shark are taken from Thai Oceans. Practical and Moral Dilemmas We have been asked a number of question all of them relevant and good questions that deserve equally good answers. 1. Pratical Dilemma: Should one buy sharks from an aquarium or shop in order to release them ? Yes....These sharks are caught whether we buy them or not.They have not been brought in specially for us and as we will be buying them all in one day ,it is not possible to fuel the trade in such a short space of time. What we do is give these sharks a second chance, they are technically doomed as they are sat in tanks in restaurants and pet shops ready for the barbeque or a slow death in a tank to small to live in. 2. Moral Dilemma: Will buying sharks from Aquariums restaurants encourage fishermen to catch more sharks ? No ..... Fishermen catch what they can when they can. Sharks are not caught to order. Our campaign runs once a year so what ever we do take has very little impact on any take. 3. Practical Dilema: Can a captive shark be released and survive ? Yes ! ....Sharks have 420 million years of instinct pumping through their veins. They are not nurtured after they are born they simply know what to do .They are natural scavengers! Even our captive bred sharks that have been released before in smaller releases have been RF tagged and are doing well. Moral Comparison: Would you donate to release a Lion/Orca or Dolphin from Captivity ? Probably ..... So the sharks have a second chance ,surely that must be a good thing? Our Campaign is hard hitting and brings public awareness to a new level in Thailand which is long overdue.  We use rescued sharks and some captive bred sharks all of which are capable of living a long existence in the ocean when released in to the designated no take zones. Sharks will be RF tagged and data logged. Some of the facts  Some species of shark have declined by as much as 93 % simply for consumption in soup and other dishes. 72 Million sharks are killed around the world simply for there fins and flesh. Shark are the apex predator and removing sharks from our oceans at such a rate will upset the natural balance and cause catastrophic consequences for all of us. 70% of the oxygen we breathe comes from the oceans, sharks maintain this balance and order. Shark flesh particularly the fin contain up to 42 times the legal limit of mercury and can be harmful to your health. Tests in Thailand and Taiwan show some sharks contain mercury which exceeds World Health Organisations Recommended levels. Infact the US and Australian authorities have also warned the public and particularly pregnant women and young children against the consumption of shark meat.  OUR STORY Dive Tribe is a group of conservation minded divers that was set up in Thailand to look at what we call G.O.D. or Global Ocean Destruction We are from all sorts of backgrounds,some of us worked as Marine Park Managers, Marine Biologists lecturers at Universities, Dive Instructors and Commercial Divers. Since we all dived together we saw that the oceans and coasts in Thailand desperately needed more conservation work and a tough organisation that was not going to back down from the issues. So with this in mind we set up a list of projects that needed to be addressed immediately and set to work implementing our goals. These ranged from Shark Release programs, Marine Mooring Buoys in our Marine Parks, Giant Clam Farming, Coral Reef Reconstruction, Reef Monitoring, Ghost Net and Debris Removal, Water Quality Testing and Solid Waste Management. We have also been asked along on film shoots to take care of environmental issues and conservation on underwater film sets. Dive Tribe now has over 10,000 active members that follow our conservation work and news. In Thailand we also set up a network of 35 stores that help us actively police the Thai oceans and send us feedback on any environmental anomalies or illegal fishing. We post regular updates and photographs on our social networking sites of the projects we work on and those  that know us and follow us have given us incredible support over the last 2 years. “Dive Tribe are taking real and powerful action to make genuine changes in how we treat the ocean.  These are people who don’t just talk about conservation – they get out there and do something meaningful”. Mark Caney author of Dolphin Way http://www.eurotek.uk.com/markcaney.htm I have been personally funding Dive Tribe for the past 2 years and am now turning to the public to help on the individual projects that we have in our pipeline.  The immediate project we would like to bring your attention too is “Dive Tribes Great Shark Release”  This project is designed directly to raise awareness to the plight of sharks not just in Thailand but globally.  We have had some great successes in the past on different projects, our teams have removed large amounts of Marine Debris from beaches, we have also taken care of “Ghost Nets” at as deep as 45 meters and even removed Sharks Fin dishes from the menu at The "Conrad Hilton" in Bangkok. You may ask isn’t there other groups doing the same, our answer is we are the most high profile and vocal group. We are organised and very focused on getting the job done. Sadly Thailand does not uphold its laws of “No Take” from its Marine Parks and the other groups need our help to make the world know what goes on here. Since our start up we have been invited to talk with environment ministers, policy makers local government, Nation TV Chat shows and the newspapers. Our Motto is : To Protect & Preserve   MISSION Dive Tribe’s mandate is the protection and conservation of the terrestrial and marine ecology of Thailand's oceans. This includes the underwater bio-network of coral reefs and the sensitive land ecosystems of the Thailand's coastline.  At Dive Tribe’s core is a no compromise attitude for the future.  Our primary objective is working towards the protection and preservation of Thailand’s natural resources. WHAT WE NEED & WHAT YOU GET Dive Tribe would please ask the public for help on this important and worthwhile project. As little as $1 will go towards securing the release of a shark. But a real pledge such as $20 will place you on our Shark Conservation Board. What can you get for $20 ? - A fast food meal for two or you could Save A Shark ! But we have some other offers for you that we think make this whole Shark Release programme stand out from  the rest. You could personally save a shark by giving a donation for the full amount for a Bamboo Shark, Zebra Shark or Black Tip Reef Shark (Just take a look to your right and you see the donations are flexible) If we could make 25,000 USD then all of this money will go towards the purchase of sharks, construction of temporary holding tanks, administration, travel logistics and production of a DVD documentary. We would also like to have screenings of the DVD and give lectures about Sharks and this event to the Thai and international schools and colleges here in Thailand to carry on the public awareness campaign after the shark release. We will be presenting our petition to the environment minister and asking that Shark have the protection they need and working with the relevant authorities to install a Shark National Plan of Action. If we don’t make our target the release will still go ahead but the number of sharks released will be fewer and documentary production will be put on hold. And that's not all - How would you like to see a “Thai Politician in the Shark Tank” ? With your donation going to our shark release this could be a reality. ( No promises but we will sure try) What a Finale and what a way to let the public know “Sharks are our Friends Not Food” !!  HOW ELSE CAN YOU HELP ? IF YOUR IN THAILAND & WOULD LIKE TO BE PRESENT ON THE DAY OF THE RELEASE E-MAIL DIVE TRIBE AND WE WILL TRY AND PLACE YOU ON ONE OF OUR PARTICIPATING BOATS OR DIVE OPERATORS. YOU MUST HAVE YOUR DIVING CERT CARD AND BRING YOUR OWN EQUIPMENT. Don’t be Shy !!! Please share this with others on Facebook, Twitter or any of your social networking sites. You can e-mail it to friends and let your family know how much sharks need our help. Thanks for taking the time to read and caring for our oceans.  I hope together we can - Protect and Preserve Kind Regards Gwyn Mills CEO/Dive Tribe

Anyone for a game of sardines? Divers capture incredible pictures of fish shoals so dense they block out the sun

These amazing pictures show shoals of the fish packed so dense off the coast of the Philippines they block out the light of the tropical sun. 

While the annual gathering of vast shoals of thousands of sardines is a well-documented event in South African waters, the Philippine sardine run was unheard of three years ago.

Tightly packed: Even in their natural habitat, these sardines have barely more space to maneuver than the more familiar tinned variety

According to world-renowned underwater photographer Dr Alexey Stoyda, the fish were first spotted gathering in large numbers around the island of Pescador, near Cebu, in the Philippines, in March 2009.

For three months, large swells of sardine were spotted circling the island before their number dwindled and they disappeared.

 

A year later the phenomenon occurred again when a shoal of sardines began to increase in size, and this time it showed no sign of leaving. By July whale sharks and thresher sharks descended on the island for a feeding frenzy.

Today the 'Philippine sardine run' has captured the imagination of divers from all over the world, keen to see one of nature's most impressive sights. And while the number of sardine has not decreased, neither has the variety of predators keen to take advantage of the natural occurring 'bait-ball'.

Group think: A diver swims beneath the massive shoal, which moves as if it had one mind

You eat them whole: The congregation of such vast numbers of tiny fish sparks a predators' feeding frenzy

Dr Stoyda said: 'As our boat approached the island I suddenly saw an enormous shoal in a area of water no more than one metre deep.

'We literally had to jump into it.

'As we began to descend deeper, the shoal seemed like a living, moving wall.

'At a depth of 30m the ball of sardines was so dense there was no visible sun.

'This wall was constantly moving like a cloud in a hurricane and every so often a window opened for divers, as if luring them inside before sucking them in.

'It was unforgettable experience which I'm not sure any photograph can fully convey.'

Spectacle: World-renowned underwater photographer Dr Alexey Stoyda travelled to the Philippines to capture these amazing pictures

 
We're used to seeing them tightly packed in tins on our supermarket shelves, but even in nature it seems that sardines stick close together.

Diver swims 20 MILES through shark-infested seas of Borneo to reach safety after being abandoned by boatman

Survived: Mr Koze managed to swim to safety over 24 hours and 20 miles

A Japanese diving instructor managed to survive being abandoned by a boatman in shark-infested waters by swimming 20 miles to shore in 24 hours.

Hishashi Koze had been left for dead following a routine dive off Borneo's Santubong peninsula with two other diving colleagues.

The three men had gone underwater for a third dive, only to be abandoned when boatmen on the surfrace lost sight of their air bubbles underwater and assumed they were in trouble.

Mr Koze, 39, was then left alone himself after trying to swim after the boat and losing sight of his two colleagues.

Exhausted, sunburned, dehydrated and emotional, Mr Koze managed to swim back to Malaysia's Borneo island, where he told how the dive boat he was on had headed back to the shore after the boatman had decided there was no hope of finding him and his two companions alive.

But Mr Koze's friends, Satoo Makoto, 40, and Ngu Teck Hua, 52, were soon picked up by a passing fishing boat.

Mr Koze, however, lost touch with his friends and did not see them being rescued - he did not even see the fishing boat that picked them up.

'I kept thinking "I must survive - I must survive",' he told The Star newspaper of Malaysia.

 

'I swam backstroke against the waves, covering, I think about 30km through the afternoon, through the night and through until this morning when I reached the shore.'

Mr Koze and his companions had been taken to the site of a Japanese shipwreck, some 50 minutes from Borneo's Santubong peninsula.

The dive was routine for the three men - and none dreamed it would turn into a nightmare, particularly for Mr Koze.

'We made two successful dives and then we decided to dive for a third time,' said Mr Koze.

'The third dive lasted for about an hour. Then when we surfaced I saw the boat was quite far away.'

What the three men did not realise was that the boatman had panicked after losing sight of the trio's air bubbles, a common safety indicator between divers and boatmen.

'I left the two in order to swim to the boat and get it to pick us up, but then I lost sight of it. I then couldn't find the two other divers, but made up my mind it was my responsibility to get rescue.'

Unaware that his friends were later picked up by a fishing boat, Mr Koze struck out for what he hoped was the direction of the shore.

'As the light faded I followed the stars as I swam. I realised I had to be calm.

'The direction of the current told me I was in the right direction and I also had the help of a compass.'

All three men were kept under observation in the Sarawak General Hospital before being released.

Asked if he would go back to sea again, Mr Koze, who manages a dive shop on Borneo, said: 'Oh yes - maybe in a week or so.'

Mekong dolphins on brink of extinction - WWF

REUTERS

An Irrawaddy dolphin, also known as the Mekong dolphin, swims in the river at Kampi village in Kratie province, 230 km northeast of Cambodia, on March 24, 2007.

Tokyo - The Irrawaddy dolphin population in the Mekong River numbers roughly 85, with the survival of new calves very low, suggesting they are at high risk of extinction, environmental group WWF said on Wednesday.

The Irrawaddy dolphins live in a 190 km section of the Mekong between Kratie, Cambodia and the Khone Falls, which are on the border with Laos.

Fishing gear, especially gill nets, and illegal fishing methods involving explosions, poison and electricity all appear to be taking a toll, with surveys conducted from 2007 to 2010 showing the dolphin population slowly declining, the WWF added.

“Evidence is strong that very few young animals survive to adulthood, as older dolphins die off and are not replaced,” said Li Lifeng, director of WWR's Freshwater Programme, in a statement.

“This tiny population is at risk by its small size alone. With the added pressure of gill net entanglement and high calf mortality, we are really worried for the future of dolphins.”

Research also shows that the population of dolphins in a small transboundary pool on the Cambodia-Laos border may be as few as 7 or 8, the WWF added, despite the fact that Irrawaddy dolphins are protected by law in both nations.

The group called on Cambodia to establish a clear legal framework to protect dolphins, including steps such as banning gill nets if needed.

“Our best chance of saving this iconic species from extinction in the Mekong River is through joint conservation action,” Li said.

Dolphins once ranged from the Mekong delta in Vietnam up through the Tonle Sap in Cambodia, and then up tributaries into Laos, but they have been shot by soldiers and harvested for oil in the past.

Irrawaddy dolphins are found in coastal areas in South and Southeast Asia, and in three rivers: the Mekong, the Ayeyarwady in Myanmar, and the Mahakam in Indonesian Borneo. - Reuters