2019-04-01 Diver.pdf

LAST BREATH: WE PREVIEW THE FILM AND MEET THE DIRECTORS

APRIL 2019

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CURSE OF SKULL ISLAND

WORLD OF JACK

Or was a Solomons wreck-diver blessed?

Revel in the spectacular marine park at Mexico’s Cabo Pulmo

ZERO WEIGHT QUEST

SENIOR MOMENTS

But is shedding the lead such a great idea?

Diving on gracefully (or otherwise!)

PRISTINE IN COMOROS Completing 1000 dives is a big deal for Mohéli!

MARVELS OF MIRIHI

JOSH BOGGI: RESCUE DIVER

TESTED: SUUNTO D5

9 770141 346176

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£4.40

LIVEABOARDS RED SEA ALIGHT HERE . . .

WHERE IT ALL BEGINS WWW.EGYPT.TRAVEL

Liveaboards are the ultimate way to experience the best of the Egyptian Red Sea. Exploring wrecks and reef areas not accessible by day boats, logging up to four dives a day and enjoying the serenity of sleeping at sea, liveaboards are a great choice for those who want to get the most diving out of their holiday time. With so many different liveaboards and underwater sites to choose from, booking a liveaboard for the first time can be a little

daunting. The first step is to pick the area you want to dive and the itinerary that suits your diving interests and experience. Liveaboard cruises depart throughout the year from Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Port Ghaleb, Safaga and Sharm el Sheikh, as well as some other minor ports. The North This area includes the celebrated diving gems of Tiran and Ras Mohammed, and famous wrecks such as the Thistlegorm and the Abu Nuhas wrecks of the Carnatic, Giannis D and the Chrisola K. Most operators offer a choice of two week-long excursions: best of the wrecks and reefs, or simply wreckfocused trips. Hurghada is a popular point of departure and the new marina is only a 20-minute drive from the airport. It offers a cosmopolitan feel with top-quality restaurants and bars. The liveaboard mooring area of the marina is very quiet, as it is

far enough away from the hustle of the busiest marina bars. Usually arriving in the evening, for most liveaboard trips your luggage will be taken with you straight to the port where you will board the vessel. Following a short briefing, you will soon be heading out ready for your early morning start underwater the following day. The South The marine parks of the South offer some of the best sites for marine life in the Red Sea. Most popular liveaboard trips take in the south marine park, including life-filled reefs such as Elphinstone, Samadai, Shaab Makhsour, Shaab Claude, Staya and St Johns. Deep south trips head towards the stunning sites of Rocky and Zabargad Islands. In the central part of the Red Sea you will find the northern marine park and the famous pelagic haunt of the Brother Islands. These sites are often exposed to strong currents and may require a minimum qualification of advanced open water or equivalent, plus 50 logged dives. Southern trips usually depart from Hurghada or Marsa Alam, both destinations with international airports. Port Ghaleb marina is only five minutes’ drive from Marsa Alam international airport and offers much closer access to the deep south sites as far as the Sudanese border.

B

IG SPLASHES OF GOOD NEWS for divers seem to be the order of the day at a certain underwater hotspot in the Mediterranean. Malta has been British divers’ second-favourite destination (after Egypt) for some years now – we know that because you vote for it so enthusiastically every year in the divEr Awards.

Severe weather is usually bad news for divers, but a massive storm that struck north-eastern Malta at the end of February, causing waves up to 5m high to flood beaches and streets, seems to have done us a bit of a favour.

FIRST IN

Raining fish & ships in Malta

There are several fish-farms in the area, and damage to sea-pens led to the liberation of several hundred tonnes of awrat, otherwise known as sea bream. Thousands of fish were hurled ashore, with locals rushing to pick up what they could and cash in: “It's Raining Fish in Malta!” ran the headlines. Most of the fish escaped alive, however, to the delight of those in the diving business tired of fielding whinges about sparse marine life in the islands.

STEVE WEINMAN, EDITOR

“We’re seeing them all around Gozo,” divEr heard from Richie King, who runs Scuba Kings Gozo. “We dived yesterday at Mgar ix-Xini, and our try-divers and even instructors couldn’t believe their eyes – it was wall-to-wall fish!” Let’s hope they hang around and multiply.

W

HILE MOST DIVERS ENJOY seeing marine life, for many who visit Malta it’s wrecks that are the big draw. Not only are there many impressive examples from both world wars, but a programme of sinking diver-attractions such as redundant ferries every now and then has guaranteed interesting experiences for all levels of diver. Around the time of the big storm, more good news emerged from the Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit, part of Malta’s Tourism Ministry. It announced that eight deep ship and aircraft wrecks, mostly war casualties, were to be opened up to technical divers (See News, p11).

Many of these wrecks sound fascinating although, unlike the fugitive sea bream, they’re not for everyone, several lying at depths well over the 100m mark. It seems that there are more to come, too. When divErNet broke the story, the incredible number of hits suggested that a lot of divers might be eager to take the plunge. I should point out that this largesse also marks the introduction of wreck regulation to Malta’s underwater world, with all dives on these attractions to be carried out through licensed dive-centres that become responsible for the conduct of the divers. Malta’s marine archaeologists have long called for more protection for the islands’ historic and ancient assets (although local divers will tell you that that boat sailed as long ago as the 1960s, when widespread pillage of artefacts from shipwrecks allegedly began. What’s new?). But few should complain so long as the new rules are applied fairly and succeed in maintaining underwater attractions for all divers to enjoy – especially if they are accompanied by better moorings at all sites, and less encroachment by fishing-boats, something that’s become a live issue. Let’s hope Malta proves as good at regulating its diving as it has been at packaging its diving attractions. divEr

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the magazine that’s straight down the line… APRIL 2019

Volume 64 No 4

Published monthly by Eaton Publications Ltd, Suite B, 74 Oldfield Road, Hampton, Middlesex, TW12 2HR Tel: 020 8941 8152

CONTENTS

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Nigel Eaton [email protected] Editor Steve Weinman [email protected]

FEATURES

Publishing Consultant Tony Weston [email protected] Production Manager George Lanham [email protected] Technical Editor Steve Warren [email protected]

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500% More Fish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henley Spiers is bedazzled at Mexico’s Cabo Pulmo

Webmaster Mike Busuttili [email protected] Advertisement Manager Jenny Webb [email protected]

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Senior Moments

30

There’s Pristine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

38

Ocean Art

43

Josh Boggi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Senior Advertisement Executive Alex Khachadourian [email protected] Subscriptions Manager [email protected] Marketing, Sales & divEr Bookshop Dorothy Eaton [email protected] [email protected]

Old divers, bold divers and those who draw the line

…then there’s Mohéli, crying out to be dived

Accounts Julian Auty [email protected]

EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS Archaeology Dave Parham Biology Dr David Bellamy Freediving Marcus Greatwood Industry Dr John Bevan Law Prof Mike Williams Medicine Dr Ian Sibley-Calder Photography Saeed Rashid, Brian Pitkin Ships Richard Larn Wrecks Rex Cowan

HOW TO GET divEr MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION: Twelve issues, including p&p, cost £52.80 (UK); £64.80 (Eire/Europe/Worldwide surface); airmail rates available on request. Pay by Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, American Express, sterling cheque or UK Postal Order. Contact the Subscriptions Dept, divEr Magazine, at the above address. NEWSAGENT: If you prefer to buy divEr over the counter, please order from your newsagent. All newsagents can obtain divEr, but in case of difficulty notify the Subscriptions Dept at the above address. The reproduction in whole or in part of any of the contents of divEr is expressly forbidden without the written permission of the Publishers. Copyright © 2019 by Eaton Publications Ltd. divEr reserves the right to reproduce on-line any articles that it has published in print. The views expressed in FIRST IN are not necessarily those of anyone but the Editor, and other editorial should be ascribed only to the authors concerned. The publishers accept no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions or alterations, or for any consequences ensuing upon the use of, or reliance upon, any information contained herein. Due caution should be exercised by anyone attempting dives on any site herein described or indicated. The company does not accept liability for submitted photographs. The printing of an advertisement in divEr does not necessarily mean that the Proprietors endorse the company, item or service advertised. divEr is distributed by Seymour Distribution Ltd,

2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT and printed by Pensord Press Ltd, Tram Road, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood, NP12 2YA.

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Striking images from the annual photo contest

Meet the world’s first triple-amputee Rescue Diver

46

Fish are the stars at a laid-back Maldives resort

54

Rejoin the ‘cursed’ Mark Hatter in the Solomons

60

We review the new film and talk to the directors

Batty as Frogfish on Bikes. . . . . . . . .

Nation of Riches Pt 2

Last Breath. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . COVER IMAGE: Among the jack at Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, by Henley Spiers

The biggest online resource for scuba divers

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divEr

Britain’s best-selling diving magazine

CONTENTS REGULARS 4 8 10 19 34 52 59 60 66 68 74 82

First In Editor’s view

Off-Gassing ‘Don’t dare touch my tank-valve’ and other letters

News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eco-training after Brothers shark shutdown

Beachcomber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ever known an alligator need a weight-belt?

Be the Champ! Location-specific photo tips for Palau divers

Technique The rocky road to reducing weights to zero

Trewavas Scuba-diving and the movies

Review Books on Thistlegorm, Seychelles & the Laurentic

Booking Now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Red Sea liveaboard and other holiday ideas

Diver Tests Suunto D5 computer, Apeks reg and TUSA BC

Just Surfaced. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New but untested products

Deep Breath ‘Don’t put me in a “woman diver” compartment’

PLUS 77 Dive Holiday Directory 78 Classified Ads 80 Dive Centre Directory 80 Advertisers’ Index Here 81 …Subscribe and get an Apeks diving watch! divEr

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@DIVERMAGAZINE 20,000 followers

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OFF GASSING

This month’s selection from the divEr inbox…

HANDS OFF MY VALVE! I have been reading divEr since it was first published (and Triton etc before that!). I have been diving for more than 50 years and am a BSAC Instructor, so I have done a few dives in my time, and I am still diving. I really enjoy divEr, and when I read Louise Trewavas’s column Supercali Fragilistic about being a “Dive Mum” (February) I wore my usual wry smile for most of the article… until she wrote: “I checked that the diver in front had his cylinder fully turned on as we queued to jump.” This made me feel very uneasy. If anyone fiddled with my cylinder-valve when I was about to enter the water, I would be very annoyed. I’ve read many articles about so-called helpers on boats etc actually turning air off in the name of being helpful. I have taken full control of my equipment ever since I started diving to avoid this, and if anyone touched my cylinder after I ‘d checked it, I would politely say “keep your hands off my kit”, or words to that effect! Anyone who turns off a diver’s cylinder is opening themselves up for legal action if anything goes wrong as a result. So the moral is: the diver is responsible for the cylinder being on, and this can be confirmed by the buddy-check just before entering the water. What Louise meant to say was that she was doing a buddy-check to ascertain whether her buddy’s air was on. I still regard divEr as the best diving magazine, so keep up the good work!

Encouraging protection Your editorial in January’s magazine was spot-on (First In, Follow the Protection). We need help, not obstruction, to encourage clean-ups etc. We need to question the motives behind (especially large) marine protected areas that might just help to achieve the targets handed down from directives, conventions and statutes. In the UK, we need to spend money on marine environmental protection where it will make a difference, not just to tick boxes.

DR KEITH HISCOCK

FRANK JAMES Louise Trewavas comments: What I actually do is to sneak a look at the diver’s contents gauge. If it’s not showing full pressure, their air is usually off. If it shows full but the diver is not actually breathing off their reg, I’ll give their octopus an ‘accidental’ squeeze to see if the contents gauge moves, which means that their air isn’t turned on. If so, I say “Oh, sorry, is your air on?“ (a very English approach). If it isn’t, I helpfully turn it on for them. Grabbing someone’s pillar-valve would be rude. And way too direct.

MARTIN STRMISKA

GREAT ESCAPE!

divEr

Recovering after a fast ascent from a submarine.

Going ballistic In the summer of 1965, the Royal Navy set about trying to break the world record for releasing men from a submarine moored 152m down, followed by a free ascent to the surface. It had been working on improving the art of rapid free ascent for some time, hoping eventually to take it beyond 300m! In 1965 as a young RN clearance diver I was involved in these trials. I had experienced submarine escapes since my training days in 1960,

I wanted to say how much I enjoyed Martin Strmiska’s article The O2 Rebreather Miracle [about the WW2

submariner escape from HMS Perseus] in the January issue. Nice to have such an interesting background to a wreck, and the pictures were stunning (as they always are). We subscribe and love the magazine but sometimes find the travel reports slightly lacking, ie dived here, saw this etc. This article, however, provided something more. Technique articles are great and the bit I most look forward to every month. I like these because they're relevant to all divers regardless of experience, training level and dive budget. Keep up the good work.

ANDY WILLOWS

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when I spent time at the submarine training centre in Gosport, and now we were part of an operation called Sub Miss – Sub Sunk. I was prompted to write after going through a load of old photo negatives, some going back to the 1950s. We would go down onto the casing of the submarine at around 45m, and I had to stay by the escape hatch to make sure each submariner got clear without injury to himself or his suit. The submariner went up into the escape tower. A hose running up the back of his arm and appearing at his other side was plugged into the submarine’s air supply once he was inside the tower, with the bottom door closed. From the rapid flooding of the tower to arriving at the surface, the operation had to be completed within five minutes. Outside on top of the casing, the flooding sounded like thunder. The water compressed the column of air in the tower until it reached a pressure matching or a little over that of the sea, and the top hatch opened. Meanwhile the submariner’s suit, fitted with the appropriate relief valves, was being inflated over ambient pressure to provide plenty of positive buoyancy, so once the hatch was opened the men would go up like sub-launched missiles. They had to be disciplined and stay at attention. If they leaned back to try to look up, the relatively large surface area of their visor and hood would cause them to veer off from the vertical, surface in the wrong place and perhaps hit something at the surface. It’s amazing what our bodies can cope with. The submariner headed for the surface, like a rocket trailing its exhaust. We were taught: “Imagine you’ve got a whistle in your mouth: blow it as hard as you can. Don’t worry if you run out of air.” It all sounds so simple, reading this – all that way up at that rate. The astronauts had nothing on these fellows.

THOMAS MC CLUSKEY

Drowning from inside Thanks for the mention of IPO [Immersion Pulmonary Oedema] in the February edition (First In, Drowning From the Inside). This is a difficult issue – a balance between protecting divers from themselves and scaring them off diving altogether. At this stage it’s a bit like the early days of the PFO [Patent Foramen Ovale] issue. Many thought that was a load of old codswallop, but the hole-in-the heart condition turned out to be true, and manageable. However, once the rock has been turned over, you can’t put it back! Equally, I feel the true extent of the IPO issue needs time to sink in, and all training agencies must embrace these issues with the facts. It needs to be put in proportion to the risk with background info, ways to manage/prevent it happening and first aid. I feel it all comes down to diver behaviour before, during and after diving – rather like the prevention of decompression illness.

BOB COLE Got something diving-related you’ d care to share? Email [email protected], including your name and postal address – and please confirm that you’re writing exclusively to divEr

divErNEt.com

DIVER NEWS

Shark activity prompts compulsory crew training E

Unusual behaviour by oceanic whitetip sharks prompted a review at the Brothers. nutrition and fishing activities in the sea”. “Nutrition” appeared to refer to baiting, either specifically to attract sharks for divers or while fishing. During the closure period the CDWS has consulted shark experts and carried out field trips to the area with representatives from HEPCA (Hurghada Environmental Protection & Conservation Association) and the Ministry of the Environment. The joint conclusion was that lack of awareness among boat-crews, including galley staff, about best practice in preserving the marine environment required corrective

ALEXANDER VASENIN

GYPTIAN AUTHORITIES appeared to have laid the blame for the temporary closure of popular Red Sea divelocation the Brothers Islands around the turn of the year on the behaviour of liveaboard crews, and insisted that they undergo compulsory “environmental awareness courses” during February. The move, which was expected to affect some 1500 safari-boat crewmembers, was described as “urgent” at the end of January by the Chamber of Diving & Water Sports (CDWS), which regulates all Egyptian Red Sea diverelated activities. Diving safaris to the Brothers were originally prohibited by the Red Sea Governorate from early December last year until the start of 2019, but the ban was then extended until 15 March to allow a committee to further “study the sharks’ behaviour and understand environmental changes at the site”. The closure followed a series of non-fatal incidents involving scuba divers and oceanic whitetip sharks at the Brothers. The CDWS issued a statement to the effect that changes in the sharks’ behaviour appeared to have arisen from “dumping either solid or liquid or organic waste and [the] practice of

action, both through training and regulation of their working practices. The 3.5-hour awareness courses were to be held in Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada during February, and any crew-member failing to attend or complete the course will be denied the CDWS permits required to work on the liveaboards. The vessels themselves would not be allowed to operate before they have been cleared as complying with the new requirements, and would not be able to hire new staff unless they have undergone the awareness training. I

Freediver backs dolphins on epic swim

divEr

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PAOLO VALENTI

NEW ZEALAND freediver William Trubridge has carried out a “dolphinstyle” underwater swim across the 14mile-wide Cook Strait separating the country’s North and South Islands, coming up for air between each of 930 breath-hold dives along the way. The nine-and-a-quarter-hour crossing, made to raise awareness of endangered dolphins, took place in challenging currents on 15 February, with Trubridge using a monofin to propel him west from the capital Wellington on North Island. His plan was to cover a distance of about 25m on each dive, followed by an air-break of around 10 seconds. Trubridge is calling on New Zealand’s government to revise fishing regulations that he says fail to protect critically endangered Hector’s and Maui dolphins, and hopes his feat

will draw attention to their plight. Hector’s are among the world’s smallest dolphins and found only in New Zealand’s waters, while only around 50 breeding Maui adults now remain there. Trubridge described their protection as “a matter of now or never, or they will go past the brink and won’t be able to recover”. The 38-year-old said he had never swum in the Cook Strait before, or

carried out any similar endeavour. “The whole time I was swimming, I was getting pushed in different directions, north and south and then north again, but in the last stretch I was getting pushed sideways and almost missed the headland,” he told Radio New Zealand. “If I’d missed that one there was another current from the other side of the headland that could have pushed me straight out to sea, so I was lucky on so many levels.” He said he had enjoyed the first few hours of the challenge but grown fatigued in the later stages as the water got colder and the currents strengthened. Trubridge holds the AIDA world record of 102m, set in the Bahamas in 2016, in the Constant Weight Without Fins freediving category. I

LDC closes THE LONDON DIVING CHAMBER (LDC), which has treated many scuba-divers for decompression illness in its 15 years of existence, is set to close its doors at the end of March. The facility, based at the Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth in St Johns Wood in north London, reckons to have completed more than 10,000 dives in support of divers as well as dry-divers, course-attendees and non-diving hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) patients. It is “ceasing service due to NHS budget cutbacks and constraints,” said Medical Director Oliver Firth. The move leaves the Whipps Cross University Hospital unit in east London as the capital’s only hyperbaric chamber. The LDC was linked commercially with the Midlands Diving Chamber in Rugby, which continues to run its full service and emergency DCI advice line from the same emergency number (+44 7931 472602). A year ago divEr reported that NHS England was reviewing its HBOT services “with extreme prejudice” and considering the closure of two of the country’s 10 hyperbaric chambers. The good news for divers is that NHS England has confirmed to divEr that LDC is the only facility it is closing. NHS England has stressed that its review was not intended to question chambers’ value to divers, for whom HBOT is the only effective treatment for DCI, but to question its effectiveness for other injuries such as carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene and burns. The LDC has stated that its closure risks increasing transport times for injured divers to an appropriate chamber, reducing national capacity to treat multiple simultaneous incidents and deskilling chamber staff, apart from losing the training and other services supplied by the facility. Dr Firth’s advice to divers was to “keep your dive emergency assistance plans and risk assessments up to date by finding the location of your nearest chamber and updating your records”. I

divErNEt.com

DIVER NEWS

Eight ‘new’ deep Malta wrecks opened for diving EIGHT DEEP WRECKS are to be made officially accessible to technical scuba divers in the Maltese islands from May. The Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit, part of Malta’s Tourism Ministry, is co-ordinating diving activities on the wrecks. Three aircraft are among the eight wrecks – two from WW2, a Junkers 88 bomber in 60m off Bahar ic-Caghaq and a Fairey Swordfish torpedobomber biplane at around 55m, and an unidentified plane at 90m. Of the shipwrecks, three were Royal Navy warships. HMS Russell, a preDreadnought battleship, struck a mine and sank on 27 April, 1916 with the loss of 125 men. The wreck, which lies at 114m, was first visited by divers in 2003. Also from WW1 is the wreck of minesweeper and sub-hunter HMS Nasturtium, which was sunk by a mine the day after the Russell with the loss of seven crew, and lies in 67m. HMT Trusty Star was a trawler requisitioned during WW2 as a

HMS Russell, which was mined off Malta in 1916.

minesweeper but was herself mined, on 10 June 1942. The wreck lies at a depth of 85m. Polish Navy destroyer ORP Kujawiak was originally HMS Oakley, sister-ship of the well-known wrecked destroyer HMS Southwold. Mined on 16 June 1942, it lies at 90m. The eighth wreck is that of British collier ss Luciston, lying at 105m having been torpedoed on 29

November 1916. Up to four more wrecks are expected to be announced at a later date. The release comes at a time when new regulations are being introduced in Malta to exert more control on scuba-diving and prevent untoward interference with wrecks. All dives on the newly named wrecks have to be booked through one of Malta’s 60 or so dive-centres,

Divers find castle tiles from last Shogunate

divErNEt.com

KAZUHIKO OKADA / ASAHI SHIMBUN

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIVERS have recovered cargo from an early 18thcentury shipwreck showing that it belonged to the Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan’s last feudal military government. Among items found was a roof-tile containing the family crest, according to a report in Asahi Shimbun. It and other tiles were thought to have been intended for Edo Castle in Tokyo, which had become Japan’s capital under the Shogunate. The team of 11 divers from the Asian Research Institute of Underwater Archaeology spent four days in December diving off Hatushima Island in the Sagami-nada Sea, at a 20m-deep wreck-site that had been found in 2011 but dived only intermittently. The cargo ship was thought to have been sailing east from Osaka to Tokyo (then called Edo) when it sank. Hatushima lies south-west of Tokyo. Some hull timbers remain at the 25 q m site, but the divers were surveying the many earthenware objects on the sandy seabed. These included mortars and whetstones, but mainly neatly stacked roof-tiles of various types. A diver noticed that one “ridge-end gargoyle” tile was embossed with a coat of arms. The crest, described as

Divers examine stacks of roof-tiles. a “wild ginger trefoil”, denoted the Tokugawa dynasty, founded by general Tokugawa Ieyasu at the start of the 17th century. Tokugawa became Japan’s supreme military leader after defeating a rival in battle in 1600, after which the Emperor made him Shogun. The Shogunate, which brought peace to Japan after a long period of bloodshed, remained in power until the second half of the 19th century. Tokugawa mobilised a workforce from all over Japan to build Edo Castle, said to have been the largest fortification in the world. The tiles on the wreck were made between the

17th and early 18th century by the Terajima family, which made all the roof-tiles for the castle. “This underwater site is valuable because it has things that can tell us about the Tokugawa Shogunate and Edo Castle, and even about industries and distribution systems of the time,” said Toshiaki Hayashibara, leader of the dive-team. “Our study is important, not least for the site’s protection and its use in education and other purposes.” The underwater site is not protected under Japanese law, although the researchers hope to get it designated as a “site containing a buried cultural property”. I

which will be held responsible for ensuring that divers have appropriate qualifications and experience. Divers will be charged a fee, the level of which has yet to be decided. Both the centre and boat-operator will require special permits, and dive-boats have to be fitted with the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for monitoring purposes. Meanwhile three previously undiscovered WW2 wrecks, a ship and two aircraft, are reported to have been discovered in Maltese waters during a scientific survey. The survey was being carried out as part of preparations for the construction of a gas pipeline between Malta and Sicily. “This is great news for Malta’s heritage,” said Energy Minister Joe Mizzi. He told MPs in Malta’s Parliament that the pipeline’s route would be altered to bypass the remains. No details of the wrecks have yet been made available. I

British diver dies in Tenerife A BRITISH DIVER died after losing consciousness on a dive in the Canary Islands on 14 February. Andrew Littler, 54, a driver from Coalville, Leics, was on holiday with his wife to celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary. The incident occurred off the resort of Abades in the south-east of Tenerife, on what appeared to be a boat dive. A Canary Islands Emergency Service medical coordinator responding to a call concluded that Littler had suffered a heart attack, and advised that CPR be carried out while he was brought back to shore. A helicopter and two ambulances attended the scene with municipal police and Civil Guard officers. Paramedics confirmed the diagnosis but were unable to revive Littler, who was pronounced dead at the scene. A judicial review was under way. Two days earlier Civil Guard officers in Tenerife reportedly announced that recent inspections of a number of diving schools, including two in Abades, had uncovered alleged infringements, including faulty equipment and unregistered workers. I

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divEr

DIVER NEWS

Inquest verdicts returned on three British Isles diver deaths Miller told the inquest that the group had agreed to stick together on the dive. Because of the heat, he had waited in the water while the others kitted up.“I saw Chris go into the water and then he went down quite fast,” he told the Coroner. He and Herbert-Moment had looked for Baker on reaching the wreck but, failing to find him, had completed their dive, assuming he was back on the boat. After they surfaced without him, the crew had mounted a surface search and called the Coastguard. The unsuccessful search operation had involved three lifeboats, an RAF

“It was a very hot day and he was very hot,” said the Coroner in giving his verdict of death by natural causes. “He went to the bottom in a short amount of time, so it was likely he was unconscious. The cause of death was cardiac arrest.” Meanwhile an inquest at the Coroner’s Court in Letterkenny in Donegal, reported by RTE News, heard how two divers came to the same part of Ireland in the summer of 2017 on separate trips and died within three weeks of each other. John Allwright, 57, from Langford, Beds, was part of a group of seven wreck-divers.

helicopter and many small boats. The Constantia, an armed merchant ship torpedoed by UB21 in 1918 and lying at a depth of 42m, is a popular dive out of Scarborough. Local diver Clive Ward said that he searched the wreck-site two weeks after the incident and eventually found Baker’s body, 27m off the stern. The inquest heard that Baker had an undiagnosed heart condition in the form of narrowed arteries, and pathologist Dr William Low said that exertion associated with the dive was likely to have caused him to suffer a heart attack.

Earlier in the week they had dived HMS Audacious and other wrecks but, with weather conditions worsening, on 28 July they had decided to do a shallow dive and explore a scenic cavern in Sheephaven Bay. Dive-guide Declan Burke had led them through the cavern, which he said took only about three minutes to swim through. However, Allwright had been sucked into a tight side-cave, losing his mask. Burke said he had been unaware of the side-cave, even though he had dived the cavern some 50 times, but about a month later a local diver had

USAF

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IAN TAYLOR

NQUESTS INTO the separate deaths of three scuba-divers, two British and one Canadian, took place on the same day, 13 February. Christopher Baker, 74, who had been a diver for some 50 years, went missing on 8 July last year while diving the wreck of the Constantia, five miles off his home town of Scarborough. The incident was reported in divEr and the inquest proceedings were reported in the Northern Echo and Yorkshire Post. Baker was a retired senior staffmember at RAF Fylingdales, Coroner Michael Oakley heard. His wife Rosalyn Baker told the inquest that he cared for his diving equipment meticulously. On leaving home that day he had said that he felt “a bit nervous” about the dive but that “I’ll be all right when I get there”. The weather had been very hot but the sea was flat and visibility good. Christopher Robinson was skippering the boat that took Baker and two other divers, Thomas Miller and David Herbert-Moment, out to the wreck. He said that Baker was very experienced and had been out with him before, although he was more accustomed to diving from his own boat, which required a metre less of a drop into the water. “Chris did struggle with his equipment and was a bit agitated about finding a clip on the front of his kit,” Robinson told the inquest, but said that Baker had composed himself. “He went in with a big splash and I said: ‘What the hell is he doing?’, as his arms and legs were all over the place. But then he righted himself and I watched him head down towards the rope, and bubbles came up as though he was breathing.”

also been sucked into it, and survived. Allwright had managed to get out and was seen clinging to rocks and shouting for help. Other divers reached him and took him to the boat, where CPR was administered. He was airlifted to hospital but pronounced dead there. After hearing expert opinion, Coroner Dr Denis McCauley said that Allwright had been a large man with a lot of equipment. He had been able to extricate himself from the cave but at some point his regulator mouthpiece had come out and his equipment had become a hindrance and decreased his buoyancy. It was a genuine accident, he concluded in returning a verdict of death by drowning. In the second case, Randy McNalley, 63, from Edmonton in Canada, had been diving the 64mdeep wreck of the WW2 cargo ship Pinto on 12 August. Described as a very experienced diver and triathlete, he was ascending following a dive with a group of nine in good conditions when he suddenly dropped back down. McNalley’s body was recovered by a search team two days later, lying on his back on the seabed with his mouthpiece out. A post-mortem concluded that he had died as a result of hypoxia, although diving expert David Gration said that McNalley had not run out of gas. He believed that a medical incident had occurred about 18m from the surface. The Coroner agreed that the diver had lost consciousness probably because of a health rather than a diving issue, and became hypoxic because his mouthpiece fell out. Once again he recorded a verdict of accidental death. I

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MARJO TYNKKYNEN / HMS ROYAL OAK 80 SURVEY

Theft knocks back Royal Oak dive-team

images for use in this year’s 80thanniversary commemorations of the ship’s sinking. The last survivors died two years ago. But the plan to be able to present their findings to relatives of the crew and the public in time for the anniversary were set back by theft of the team’s Schenker laptop and two back-up drives along with a monitor and two dive-lights from a property in Stromness. A £1500 reward has been offered for recovery of the equipment, and local police are investigating the crime, which they say is unusual on Orkney. “There are few details of the ship in the public domain, despite the huge loss of life,” said Gareth Derbyshire, Chairman of the Royal Oak Association. “We believe that the survey will not only be of significant interest to those with a decent connection to the ship, but also act as an important means of ensuring that the history of the ship and the circumstances of its loss are available to future generations.” I

Sea Shepherd captures dolphin-kill evidence

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put the total closer to 3000. “Dolphins swim through the sea bass-spawning waters where many trawlers and seiners are fishing – which is already an aberration in itself – using techniques widely known to be deadly to marine mammals,” said Lamya Essemlali, President of Sea Shepherd France and director of its Operation Dolphin ByCatch campaign. “Therefore, these catches are not accidental. They are predictable, almost systematic and accepted as such. It’s essential that consumers start demanding accountability for the origin of fish on their plates.” I

TARA LAMBOURNE / SEA SHEPHERD

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST group Sea Shepherd has captured evidence of dolphins being killed by commercial fishing operations off France’s Atlantic coast. Its photographs were taken despite what the group says have been efforts by the fleets to conceal their activities. The pictures show dead dolphins being hauled onto a French trawler crew pull up dolphins in their nets. pair of trawlers fishing for sea French beaches over the previous six bass in the Bay of Biscay on the night weeks, it said, adding that the Pelagis of 19 February, echoing video footage Scientific Observatory in La Rochelle Sea Shepherd released a year ago. estimated that 80% of the killed Some 600 other dolphin carcasses, dolphins sink at sea – which would many mutilated, had been found on

diving holidays worldwide

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The wreck of the Royal Oak.

MARJO TYNKKYNENVEY

EFFORTS TO PRODUCE a comprehensive report following a series of survey dives on HMS Royal Oak in Orkney’s Scapa Flow have been frustrated by theft of the dive-team’s computer equipment, which contained raw data and images of the wreck. The dives were arranged by the Royal Navy Northern Diving Group and the Royal Oak Association and included volunteer civilian divers, with the survey led by Emily Turton, operator of local dive-boat Huskyan. The Ministry of Defence had granted the team special permission to survey the wreck of the famous battleship, which was torpedoed by a U-boat in 1939, just six weeks into World War Two. The vessel was at anchor Navigation lamps on the wreck. when U47 struck on the night of 14 October. She Diving is usually banned, although RN sank in minutes, with the deaths divers visit the wreck every year to fly of 834 crew, including some 100 a White Ensign in honour of the crew. boy-sailors. The dive-team had been licensed Today the site is a war grave and to gather data and produce stills and represents the most intact video to create 3D photogrammetry Dreadnought-era battleship wreck.

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DIVER NEWS PAUL MORRIS

Diver survey sheds light on seastar epidemic

FRANCESCO PIPINO

SAM WILSON

DESCRIBED BY SCIENTISTS as the biggest disease epidemic ever observed in wild marine animals, Seastar Wasting Syndrome has killed millions of starfish along the Pacific Coast from Mexico to Alaska over the past six years. Affecting 20 species, the disease causes the seastars’ limbs to fall off before their bodies disintegrate into liquid. The epidemic is understood to be naturally occurring, but a new scientific study of data collected by scuba divers has indicated that climate change appears to have weakened the starfish, making them more susceptible to the disease. The researchers, from universities in North America and elsewhere, focused on the hard-hit common sunflower seastar (Pycnopodia helianthoides), which has now been eradicated across most of its range. They found that divers were less likely to see living seastars in nearshore waters when water

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temperatures were abnormally high, and believe that this might affect their simple immune systems. The epidemic is having a domino effect on oceanic eco-systems, say the researchers. Without starfish to prey on them, kelp-eating sea urchins were proliferating – and eating their way unchecked through the kelp-forest habitats on which many species depend. The research is published in Science Advances. I

“Excellent

instructor and a beautiful person. Very professional and passionate about his job, he is a master in describing marine flora and fauna and making your dive a great experience. Safety and respect for the sea are important ingredients of his philosophy. “ Deborah Buttignol

“A very patient, principled man who loves the

ocean. I had a problem equalising and he patiently guided me and made me feel comfortable under water. My English is very poor, but Francesco showed no impatience. An unforgettable learning experience from an unforgettable instructor.” Yi Lu

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“Our guide on two Red Sea holidays with my

young son, his attention and care to ensure that we were safe was exceptional. He went that bit further to ensure that we always had a great dive. A true pro with a very kind character.“ Neil Peacock

JOHN MARSHALL 5 out of 5 stars / 13 reviews NAUI Instructor, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, SORA Marine Training, Doha, Qatar

“John was my

instructor on a refresher, and his knowledge and experience made me feel at ease under water again. He gave me great tips on things I was battling with after three years of not diving, and his enthusiasm and sense of humour reminded me of how much fun it is to dive. You are awesome!” Colett

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THE TRUE TRAVEL BCD: EXTREMELY LIGHTWEIGHT INTEGRATED QUICK RELEASE WEIGHT SYSTEM OPTIONAL TRIM WEIGHT (TO BE PLACED ON THE TANK BAND) FOLDABLE WITH NO RIGID BACKPACK STRAP LOOP BACKPACK FEATURE FOR EASY ADJUSTMENT 1 ROLL-UP POCKET CONCAVE ERGONOMIC SHOULDERS (PATENT PENDING): INCREASED COMFORT IN CHEST/SHOULDER AREA TROUBLE FREE FOR FEMALE DIVERS

diving but John made it good fun. He takes diving very seriously but is up for a joke too! During the rescue training his experience really showed; I learned lots of handy extras!“ Mark Rustemeijer

“I enjoyed my OWD dives with John to the extent

that diving became a lifestyle. Now I’m certified as Advanced and going on with the specialities, all thanks to the spirit I received from him.“ Belal divErNEt.com

DIVER NEWS

Strobe damage to seahorses is a fallacy, claim scientists T

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seahorses has led some dive-resorts in South-east Asia to restrict the use of flash, while in the UK a ban on using strobes while taking pictures of seahorses had been imposed “despite open acknowledgment of a lack of evidence to support the ban”. The research involved a field study to test the effects of photography and manipulation on the behaviour of 13 species of seahorse, ghost pipefish and frogfish commonly found in South-east Asia. Two laboratory studies then tested the effects of flash on the behaviour and anatomy of 82 Western Australian or tiger-snout seahorses (Hippocampus subelongatus). Even under the heaviest bombardment of light, the seahorses were said to spend as much time hunting and catching prey as those that were not exposed. A number of the seahorses were euthanised after the experiment and

A tigersnout seahorse, the type involved in the experiments. their eyes examined, but no negative effects could be discerned, according to the report. Neil Garrick-Maidment, Executive Director of the UK’s Seahorse Trust, told divEr that the research was “an appalling piece of work” that failed to address the issue of dormant diseases being activated by stress. “I sit on a number of ethics committees… and this so-called experiment would have been thrown out on grounds of cruelty before it even started,” he stated, citing a marine biologist who questioned the validity of laboratory research based on a “tiny population sample” of a

RN diver wins gallantry medal A ROYAL NAVY DIVER who risked his life recovering a drowned man from a sinking fishing-boat is to be awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal. Leading Diver Simon Wharton, 37, was part of a team that attempted to find the owner of mv Solstice, which had capsized and been driven towards rocks seven miles south of Plymouth on 26 September, 2017. The 10m scallop-dredger had recently been modified to operate as a stern-trawler, and the owner along with the skipper and crewman were trying to haul a dangerously heavy catch on board when the vessel became unstable. The men had no time to raise the alarm before entering the water, and carried no location devices. It was only when the boat failed to return on time that the

JSUTTON93

HE WIDESPREAD BELIEF that flash photography is detrimental to slow-moving marine creatures such as seahorses has been challenged in a controversial new scientific study. Researchers in Australia claim that the effects of strobe lights on seahorses are “negligible”, and have no more impact than does the mere presence of divers. But the findings have been challenged by conservationists who believe restrictions should be imposed on underwater photographers. In what the researchers claim to be the first study to investigate “the combined pathomorphological and behavioural impacts” of photographer behaviour and photographic flash on animals, they conjecture that the fish are unaffected by flash because they are naturally equipped to cope with the ripple effect caused by sunlight focusing through waves – which results in short but intense bands of light. At the same time the team has stressed that physically manipulating animals during photography provokes strong evasive responses and should be avoided. Although they say that manipulation was not detrimental to the animals’ feeding efficiency during the study, repeated touching by divers at popular sites could lead to animals experiencing chronic stress, increased energy requirements and reduced fitness. The lead author of the research study is marine biologist Maarten de Brauwer of Curtin University in Western Australia. A scuba-diver affiliated with marine-conservation group Project Seahorse, De Brauwer says that the research provides important new information to help develop efficient management strategies to reduce the environmental impact of wildlife tourism. He and his team point out that fear of blinding subjects such as pygmy

Coastguard were alerted. Lifeboat crew rescued the skipper and crewman more than five hours after the start of the incident, but LD Wharton went on searching the upturned vessel for the owner, who it turned out had been trapped in the wheelhouse. He managed to locate him in pitch-black conditions – the man had drowned but, despite knowing that the ship could plunge to the seabed at any moment, LD Wharton brought the body out with him. He was led to safety through tangled lines and netting by LD Joshua Smith, who received a commendation for his role in the rescue last year. LD Smith is with the Clearance Diving Group and LD Wharton is now with Fleet Diving Unit 1, both based in Portsmouth. I

single seahorse species from a high light-intensity environment. “I have said repeatedly that it is not the flash that actually kills the seahorses but the effects of the stress caused by the flash,” said GarrickMaidment.“Seahorses have diseases dormant in their bodies (TB being one of them, vibrio another) and when they become stressed and the body weakened as a result of it, these diseases take over the body and kill them some weeks later.” He said that “startled” reactions of the seahorses described in the report looked like the start of an escape reaction,“but since the seahorses were in an aquarium, escape was impossible. In the ocean or a large aquarium seahorses would simply move away, which would end the disturbance”. “Here at the Seahorse Trust we will always defend the no-flash policy as laid down by the Marine Management Organisation and Natural England, and continue to lobby the authorities to keep it in place.” Garrick-Maidment acknowledged the report’s findings on the damage caused by divers who physically manipulate seahorses, saying that when harassed the animals “use up large amounts of energy, go into flight mode (if they are allowed to escape, which these were not), become stressed. It also splits up pairings, leading to reduced breeding, as time is wasted on trying to find a new partner, if one is available.” The study Behavioural and Pathomorphological Impacts of Flash Photography on Benthic Fishes is published in Scientific Reports. I

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DIVER NEWS

DNA news for UK’s last shark-fin diners

SCUBAZOO

“We’re making huge strides in shark conservation but the continued appearance of shark-fin soup on menus confounds us,” admitted BiteBack’s Campaign Director Graham Buckingham.“Out of the 10 fins analysed by the university, two came from species that are either endangered or threatened. “Clearly anyone ordering shark-fin soup, or buying the ingredient, could be contributing to the extinction of rare and majestic sharks. It’s time that British restaurants ditched this highly controversial dish.” “Right now one in four shark species is listed as endangered or threatened,” said wildlife expert, TV presenter and Bite-Back patron Steve Backshall.“It’s clear that demand for shark-fin soup could wipe out many

The cost of shark-finning.

of the ocean’s most remarkable and fascinating predators. This DNA research is Dried shark-fins. all the evidence you need to know that it’s simply not OK to eat shark-fin soup.” Bite-Back says that the campaign it has run since 2004 has helped bring about an 81% decline in the number of UK restaurants serving shark-fin soup, including Hakkasan, the country’s only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant. The charity hopes to have rid Britain of all shark products by 2022, but has provided divEr with the names of nine UK restaurants that still serve shark-fin soup, though it says that there could be more. They are: Mandarin Kitchen (Queensway, London); Yi-Ban (Dockside Rd, London); Overseas & Wan Chai Corner (both Gerrard Street, London); Jun Peking (Sutton Parade, London); Yew Tree (High St, Walkern, Herts); Golden Dragon (London Rd, Shardlow, Derby); Shanghai Moon (High St, Leicester); and Ming’s Garden (Stortford Rd, Hatfield Heath, Bishop’s Stortford). The DNA research is published in Scientific Reports.

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Flotilla, sent from Germany to Romania at the start of the war to attack Russian ships in the Black Sea, and later referred to as “Hitler’s Lost Fleet”. Operating in the Atlantic in the first two years of the war, U-23 had already sunk seven ships including two warships. In 1941, along with the five other U-boats, it was sent in sections along the River Danube to be re-assembled at the Black Sea port of Galati, and after that was based at Constanta. The transport strategy came about because accessing the Black Sea via the Bosphorus would have violated Turkey’s neutrality. U-18, U-19, U-20, U-21, U-22 and U23 between them went on to sink

finances, pledging to raise £10,000 for the cause this year. “Choosing to support Bite-Back was an easy decision,” said blue o two’s MD Alyson Tyler. “We’re certain our clients will love this partnership too.” “We’re enormously proud and grateful that blue o two has chosen to get behind Bite-Back’s campaigns with funding, outreach and exposure to thousands of loyal customers around the world,” said Bite-Back’s Graham Buckingham. “With its support we look forward to accelerating our campaign ambitions and sharing our successes throughout the year." blue o two customers can also pledge a donation to Bite-Back when making a booking to any of its 15 destinations, blueotwo.com I

4 Meanwhile UK tour operator blue o two has announced a tie-up with Bite-Back to help boost the charity’s

BLACK SEA ‘LOST FLEET’ U-BOAT LOCATED THE GERMAN submarine U-23, which was scuttled in the Black Sea during World War Two, is reported to have been found at a depth of almost 50m and videoed from an ROV by the filmcrew making a new Turkish TV documentary called Blue Passion. The team, operating from the Turkish Navy’s submarine-rescue vessel TCG Akin, found the 43m U-boat some two nautical miles from the resort town of Agva. The position was pointed out by Turkish wreck-hunter Selcuk Kolay, who reported locating what he believed to be U-23 back in 2008, when he also succeeded in finding U-20 at a depth of 25m. U-23 was one of six compact Type IIB submarines from the 30th U-Boat

BITE-BACK.COM

I

T MIGHT NOT bother them, but diners who order shark-fin soup at those restaurants that still serve the “delicacy” in the UK could well be consuming endangered species, according to Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation. The UK charity is urging diners to avoid – and restaurants to stop serving – all shark-fin dishes, after new DNA research by Exeter University found fins from endangered scalloped hammerheads and threatened shortfin makos among generically labelled shark-fin products being sold into the restaurant trade by an Asian food wholesaler. Once a shark’s fins have been cut off, dehydrated and packaged, the species becomes difficult to identify.

U-18 being re-assembled at Galati..

some 45,000 tons of Russian shipping over the next two years, although three of the submarines were lost in action. However, when Romania joined the war against Germany in 1944 and the Russians pushed forward, the commanders of the surviving three U-boats were ordered to scuttle them. U-23 was sunk on 10 September, after which the crew were arrested and imprisoned. If the identity of U-23 has now been confirmed that leaves only U-19 to find, although that vessel is believed

to lie far beyond normal scuba-diving depths. Watch out for a feature about the hunt for U-23 and a wreck-diver’s meeting with the man who commanded the U-boat on its final mission, Oberleutnant Rudolf Arendt, in a forthcoming issue of divEr. I

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DIVER NEWS NEWS DIVER

How great whites could save lives

Freda’s Diver Dishes For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Freda Wright and I’ve been a diver for a long time. For the past 20 years, I’ve been the chef on British liveaboard mv Salutay, where I’m lucky to be able to combine my twin passions for food and diving, and where I serve up a wide selection of mouth-watering dishes to our clients. Some of my recipes for these will feature in this new column. I have chosen the first dish because of the current emphasis on eating less meat. Let’s face it, it won’t do any of us any harm to have a couple of days a week meat-free! As the UK dive season approaches, we’ll all be looking for quick and nutritious meals to replenish our energies after a dive day. So I’m starting with this divine vegetarian pie. It’s so creamy, you’d think it had double cream in it!

Creamy Cashew Nut Vegetable Pie BYRON DILKES

Serves 4 hungry divers (large portions)

Ingredients

THE COMPLETE SET of DNA, or genome, of the great white shark has been decoded by a scientific team – and they believe their findings could have major implications in the search for a cure for cancer and more effective wound-healing in humans. The white shark genome, which was found to be 150% bigger than that of humans, has revealed many genetic adaptations that could explain the evolutionary success of large-bodied, long-lived sharks. The research was led by US scientists from Nova Southeastern University’s Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Research Centre in Florida, the Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI), Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Monterey Bay Aquarium. Comparing the decoded genome to those of other vertebrates, including whale sharks and humans, revealed “striking occurrences” of specific DNA sequence changes related to maintaining the genetic defence mechanisms that counteract an accumulation of damage to DNA. This “genome stability” was the result of adaptation of genes linked with DNA repair, damage response and damage tolerance.“Genome instability”, the opposite phenomenon caused by accumulated DNA damage, is known to predispose humans to cancers and age-related diseases. “Not only were there a surprisingly high number of genome stability genes that contained these adaptive changes, but there was also an enrichment of several of these genes, highlighting the importance of this

genetic fine-tuning in the white shark,” said Mahmood Shivji, director of the Shark Research Centre and GHRI, who co-led the study with Michael Stanhope of Cornell. The fact that white sharks share many of the key genome stability adaptations previously found in whale sharks was regarded as significant. Larger-bodied organisms are normally expected to be at greater risk of cancer simply by having more cells, yet white sharks and whale sharks appear to have evolved superior cancer-protective abilities. “We found positive selection and gene content enrichments involving several genes tied to some of the most fundamental pathways in woundhealing, including in a key bloodclotting gene,” said Stanhope, adding that the adaptations “may underlie the vaunted ability of sharks to heal efficiently from even large wounds”. “Genome instability is a very important issue in many serious human diseases; now we find that nature has developed clever strategies to maintain the stability of genomes in these large-bodied, long-lived sharks,” said Shivji. “There’s still tons to be learned from these evolutionary marvels, including information that will potentially be useful to fight cancer and age-related diseases, and improve wound-healing treatments in humans, as we uncover how these animals do it.” The study, which is also expected to assist with the conservation of great white and related sharks, is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. I

300g cashew nuts, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 med white onion (roughly chopped), 1 leek (trimmed, sliced into rings), 1 med carrot (trimmed, peeled, roughly chopped), 135g pack baby sweetcorn (roughly sliced), 1 pointed red pepper (trimmed, roughly chopped), 1 med courgette (trimmed, roughly chopped), 2 vegetable stock cubes, 1 handful freshly picked thyme leaves, 100g fresh spinach (whole), sea salt & black pepper, 320g ready-rolled puff pastry, small handful omega mix seeds (sunflower, pumpkin & linseed), 80g mature cheese, grated, 1 egg.

Method Soak 200g of the cashews by covering in cold water with a lid for 2hr. Heat olive oil in a large heavy saucepan, add onion, leek & carrots and fry gently for 10min. Add sweetcorn and red pepper and fry for another 5min, stirring. Add courgette, remaining 100g of cashews, thyme leaves, crumbled stock cubes and a good grind of sea salt and pepper. Cook for another 15min with a lid on, stirring from time to time. Add spinach and stir well. Set aside. Drain soaked cashews and rinse well. Whizz with 300ml cold water in food processor on full power for at least 5min until smooth, thick and creamy. Add to vegetables and stir well. Pour pie mix into a 33 x 20cm oven dish (or similar size), cover and leave in fridge for the next day, when you return home from your dive. Unroll pastry sheet and separate from paper. This is your pie lid. Brush all over with lightly beaten egg and sprinkle omega-mix seeds and grated cheese all over it. Lightly roll over the pastry with a rolling-pin and press down seeds and cheese into it. Lift lid carefully and place on top of pie. Push down edges to create rustic look. Brush more egg around edges of pie and place in oven for 25-30min at 180°C or gas mark 4 until golden-brown. Serve onto warm plates and enjoy while you fill in your logbook or download your photos from the great dive you had.

Tip Plan your pre-dive meals like you plan your dive. When I get the chance, instead of spinach, I like to use its better cousin, sea beet. This can be found in abundance all around the British coastline year-round, though some say it’s best when it isn’t flowering, and others only eat the leaves in spring when they’re particularly delicate. Spinach and sea beet both contain magnesium, which can help to prevent cramps.

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DIVER NEWS

Petrel locates more deep historic wrecks Navy’s first modern warships, Hiei was designed by British naval architect George Thurston and patrolled Chinese and Korean coasts in WW1. Upgraded to a fast battleship just before WW2, she escorted the aircraftcarriers that attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, later seeing action at the Battles of Midway and Guadalcanal. At Guadalcanal on 13 November, 1942, she came under heavy fire from US forces. Her steering gone, she went round in circles as the onslaught continued until the crew were forced to abandon ship and she was scuttled by escort destroyers. Of the 1360 sailors aboard, 188 died in action. The discovery of the USS Hornet came hot on the heels of the Hiei identification. Also sunk in 1942, the aircraft-carrier is even further beyond the scope of divers, resting at 5.3km. Hornet was commissioned in 1941 and in April 1942, soon after Pearl Harbor, took part in what became

MATT DOGGETT

this month divEr likes… Labour of Love The annual black bream breeding migration to Sussex’s Kingmere Reef is an underwater spectacle and was celebrated with an exhibition in Worthing in February and the launch of website kingmeremcz.uk to honour the Kingmere MCZ. It’s worth checking out.

Jet Candy Some long-haul divers seem to swear by this jet-lag preventer – for serious sufferers, this homoeopathic remedy in a bottle might just improve the quality of, or even save, a day or two’s diving.

Gardener’s World Amun Ini Beach Resort in Anda on the island of Bohol claims to have achieved the most successful coralbreeding programme in the Philippines. More than 40,000 corals have already been grown, with a claimed propagation success rate of 89%.

Keep Running Mother of three Rosie Moss lost husband Ben on a dive off Kent and life has been tough, especially as he’s still classed as a missing person a year on. She runs in her first marathon in Manchester in aid of charity Holding On Letting Go in April, mydonate.bt.com

ScubaJet We have yet to test one but like the idea of a 5mph DPV light enough at 3kg to pack in your flight baggage. Hope it works! divEr

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known as the “Doolittle Raid”. From her deck, US Army Lt-Col James Doolittle led the first airborne assault on Japan, including the capital Tokyo. Two months later at the Battle of Midway Hornet helped to sink four Japanese aircraft-carriers. She met her own end at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in late October 1942, bombarded by Japanese aircraft and finished off by torpedoes from Japanese destroyers. She lost 140 of nearly 2200 sailors. “We had the Hornet on our list of WW2 warships that we wanted to locate because of its place in history as a capitol carrier that saw many pivotal moments in naval battles,” said Robert Kraft, director of subsea operations for Vulcan, the company that operates the Petrel. “Paul Allen was particularly interested in aircraft-

VULCAN INC

A

SHIPWRECK FOUND last year in the Solomon Islands has been confirmed as the first Japanese battleship to be sunk by US forces during WW2 while, also in the Solomons, the wreck of one of the war’s most significant aircraft-carriers has also been located. Both finds were made on recent expeditions aboard Petrel, the US research vessel operated by Microsoft co-founder the late Paul Allen. Japanese researchers had originally located what they thought to be the IJN Hiei through sonar scanning at a depth of 985m in Iron Bottom Sound, north-west of Savo Island. The ship had been reported sunk there during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942, though there had long been confusion about its exact position. Confirmation came after the Petrel team sent an ROV to examine the inverted wreck. One of the Imperial Japanese

International Harvester aircraft-tug on the wreck of the USS Hornet.

carriers, so this was a discovery that honours his memory.” Petrel’s 10-person expedition team located Hornet by piecing together data from national and naval archives, including official deck-logs and action reports from other ships engaged in the battle, says Vulcan. Positions and sightings from nine other US warships in the area were plotted on a chart to generate the starting point for the search grid. The carrier was discovered on the first dive carried out by Petrel’s AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) and confirmed by video footage from its ROV. The vessel is continuing its “public outreach” mission to locate historic shipwrecks. I

Diver-skipper Sylvia Pryer dies WELL-KNOWN MEMBER of the British diving community Sylvia Pryer has died of cancer at the age of 61. A scuba-diver since 1995, she ran the Dive125 charter-boat operation in Eastbourne alongside her partner, dive-buddy and very recently husband David Ronnan. The couple set up and ran Dive125 after Ronnan bought the dive-boat Our W in 2004, running dive-trips in the eastern Channel and southern North Sea. The following year Pryer qualified as a skipper, allowed both partners to dive on most days when chartering the boat – “though not at the same time!” says Ronnan. “Sylvia became an accomplished self-sufficient diver and underwater photographer,” he told divEr.“Her passion for underwater photography started way back in 1996 in the days of film, and a hired Sea&Sea camera. “She moved into technical diving in 1998 and participated in a number of expeditions, including the Battle of Jutland wrecks in 2001. “One diving journalist remarked that Sylvia was ‘a photographer who dives rather than a diver taking snaps’,” said Ronnan, adding that his wife had left a vast archive of mainly Channel wreck photographs, many of

which he planned to upload to the website wrecksite.eu over time. “Sylvia loved diving all over the world, but the Channel on a good day was her favourite, especially exploring and photographing ‘new’ wrecks, and hunting for something to give a positive ID on them.” Besides Dive125, Pryer ran the general store in the couple’s home village in Essex until 2013, and the post office until 2015. Ronnan aims to continue to operate Dive125 this summer from 13 April to mid-October “as normally as possible”. I

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BEACHCOMBER

ALLIGATOR ROCK

Blue and red-faced The trouble with diving gear is that it’s so darn complicated. I mean, there’s zippers and big screwy things and straps and stuff, and it’s all a bit of a bother to deal with. Take semi-dry suits, for example. They’re hard work to put on, but a source in the north of England has shared a story with me of a diver who made donning his 8mm two-piece even tougher. It took our intrepid semi-dry diver almost 15 minutes of huffing, puffing, pulling and grunting with effort to finally climb into the first part of his suit. That’s 15 minutes of standing near-naked in the quarry car-park, with a biting wind stealing body heat and the occasional flurry of sleet delivering a bit of water that made the neoprene stick and even harder to get into as he struggled manfully.

But don’t doze off

and haul yourself down the line and then grab a few rocks to stuff in your BC pocket – rocks that can be discreetly dumped when you’re back on the surface and waiting for the boat. Which also turns out to be the way alligators do it. Scientists have long known that rocks are often found in alligator bellies, and have thought they were either accidentally ingested when the animals fed, or deliberately eaten to help the

digestive system break up tough foods. But a new study suggests that the extra weight allows the animals to dive with less effort and stay submerged for longer. Ingesting stones weighing around 2.5% of their body weight allowed alligators to stay submerged for 88% longer, up to 35 minutes. Brilliant. Next time I forget my weightbelt I’ll be loud and proud, and tell the world that I dive alligator-style.

And all through the 15 minutes, his drysuit-clad buddies were twiddling their thumbs and chatting and making no real effort to help until finally the incipient hypothermia was too much, and our semidry, semi-naked hero wailed for help. He explained that his suit wasn’t going on properly and felt all wrong and was really uncomfortable. I have omitted a large number of expletives that you can mentally re-insert if you wish. “Well,” said one of his buddies, looking across. “That’s because you’ve got it on back to front.” I told you diving gear was complicated.

could go and look at the wreck of the real vessel, has recently said that the underwater scenes in Aquaman were not terribly realistic. You don’t say, Jim? So here’s a thought. Cameron is both a talented moviemaker and a real-life underwater explorer and enthusiast, so who better to make a proper diving movie and not, at best, a glorified B-movie?

Walk the walk Director James Cameron, who reputedly made the movie Titanic solely to fund an expedition so that he

Still crazy I liked a headline about diving I saw the other day. “Winter blues?” it asked.“Try Scuba Diving and You Can be Certified by Summer”. I saw this headline following a dive in a local lake where the vis and temperature matched perfectly – 2°C and 2ft of vis.

Trouble brewing? Richard Branson has been to the bottom of Belize’s famous Blue Hole, and guess what he found? Depressingly, seemingly inevitably, it was discarded plastic rubbish. Which requires a feel-good story to make up for it, so here goes. The wreck of the ss Oregon lies some 40m down off Long Island, Maine, and was carrying many bottles of ale to quench the thirsts of her passengers on the run between Europe and the USA when she sank in 1886. Local brewer Jamie Adams has

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used yeast recovered from bottles from the cargo to brew an ale he calls SeaKing New York Ale, which he intends to put on sale shortly. But then he discovered that someone had sent a university one of the bottles raised for Adams, and students there had cultured the yeast and announced that they were sending it to a rival brewer to produce a new old ale.

So Adams phoned the rival, who knew nothing about Adams’ project, and after an amicable conversation he agreed not to brew his beer. See, sometimes you can sort things out amicably.

Last time I went camping, it started to rain in the middle of the night and before long I’d have needed scuba gear to stay in the tent. Fortunately we were only in the back garden, so we could retreat to a proper roof, and mum made us cocoa. I was, I think, eight at the time. Since then I’ve never once considered camping as a serious alternative to a B&B, but Ocean Opportunity might be about to launch the product that will change my mind – an underwater tent. Yes, really. Think a big lifting bag. No, bigger than that. Big enough when inflated to lie inside full-length and that’s it, basically. OCEAN OPPORTUNITY

Let’s be honest about this. We’ve all done it at least once, and sometimes more. My mate Bob did it twice on the same day once, and the last time I did it I was ready to drop into the water, and only noticed when I did my final pat-down to make sure that everything was where it should be, only to discover that it wasn’t. Forgetting your weightbelt is one of those things that happens. And what do you do when you do forget your weights? Well, if you realise before you get wet, you dekit and start over and it doesn’t really count. If you find out after you’ve dropped in, you can either call the boat over for a pick-up or, like Bob, thrash around and dump as much air from your drysuit as possible

Certified by summer, I thought, nah – I ought to be certified today!

You anchor it securely to the seabed, or you could tie it off to a wreck, I suppose, though it’ll need to be a decent-sized wreck or you risk lifting it, and then inflate, add bunks and you have a habitat in which you can take a rest or even do your deco. Brilliant. Want one!

Maybe next time I’m a bit sad and a bit “I told you so” about this, but the expedition that was set to find Sir Ernest Shackleton’s vessel Endurance hasn’t and won’t. Shackleton’s expedition to cross the Antarctic ended when the ship was caught in ice and sank in the Weddell Sea, though the loss of the ship was just the start of the most incredible survival story ever told. Today’s scientific expedition team had conducted important research before announcing that they would pop over to the sinking position to locate and photograph the wreck. This afterthought was posited to suggest that finding the wreck would be as easy as ninepence, though I suggested otherwise at the time. That expedition was also caught in ice, and abandoned for safety reasons after the loss of an ROV beneath it. Antarctica 1, Scientists 0 – but it’s a shame. Finding Endurance would have been too brilliant for words.

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MORE FISH Is this the most successful marine park ever? The stats are astonishing, and the reality of diving at Cabo Pulmo is even better, says HENLEY SPIERS

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HEN OUR DIVE-GUIDE, Alex, had said that the school of jack was so big that you could smell it from the surface, I thought it was just flamboyant, diver hyperbole. But as we approached the site, the unmistakable oily whiff of fish started to hit my nostrils… I was in Cabo Pulmo, in the Baja California Sur peninsula of Mexico, and could barely contain my excitement as we prepared for our first dive. Cabo Pulmo is home to one of the most successful marine parks in the world, and an area widely mentioned in diving vernacular. Despite this, I was very happy to find that it still had a decidedly undiscovered feel to it. Landing in San Jose del Cabo, I hired a car (unable to resist the Jeep upgrade option) and took a spectacular two-hour drive through a mountainous, desert landscape, the sea coming in and out of sight as the road wound around the coastline. The flight had been tortuously long, but I was now experiencing that elation that comes with arrival in an exciting new dive-spot. Taking a right turn off the main road, the last half-hour was spent driving along a bumpy, dirt road. I couldn’t quite believe that Cabo Pulmo, a place about which I had heard so much, still existed within such humble, mass-tourism-free surroundings.

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ABO PULMO is a village community that relied on fishing until, in the early 1990s, the population realised that their waters had been totally overfished. It was then that one of the biggest families, the Castros, convinced the community that they had to protect their bay. In 1995 they successfully campaigned for the government to establish the Cabo Pulmo National Park. Initially, 35% of the park area was designated as no-take zones, but this was later expanded to allow zero tolerance of fishing throughout the park.

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underwater world! Even better, with strict limits on number of divers per site, and a dive-site booking system in place with the park rangers, we had the experience all to ourselves for the next 45 minutes.

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Above: Burro or Panamic hogfish contrast beautifully with the blue water. Below: Launching the dive boat from the beach. Below right: A hawkfish looks a little upset about the nudibranch passing over the roof of its hide-out. Left: Dive-guide Alex gazes up at the huge school of jack.

The results, in only a decade or two, have been astounding. By 2009 every group of fish, from the smallest to the biggest, had returned, and the overall fish biomass had increased by 463%! By this measure it’s the most successful marine park ever established, a beacon of hope in an ocean that needs our help. For my first dive, they asked where I wanted to go, and the huge school of jack was the obvious answer. I put on my mask, and the smell of the fish disappeared, soon replaced with the sight of the largest accumulation of fish I had ever seen as we back-rolled in. I’ve swum among schooling jack before, but this was different. Even in 20m visibility, the wall of fish was so big that you couldn’t see the start or the end of it. Down on the sand at 20m, I found myself with a ceiling of jack, stretching all the way to the surface. Just 10 minutes from shore, and we were engulfed in big-eyed jack in what has to be one of the wonders of the

EXICO HAD LONG BEEN on my diving bucket-list and, now that I was here, it was rapidly meeting my high expectations, and that’s not just the mezcal talking! I would soon find out that Cabo Pulmo had a lot more than massed jack on the menu. The oldest living coral reef in North America is located there, one of only three in existence. Four enormous, mineral fingers reach out to sea and create an interesting geological seascape. These fingers are the foundation of the reef, and, although it doesn’t have the vivid colours we tend to associate with coral reefs, it is home to a great deal of life. Hundreds of small seafans dot the rock face, swaying with the rhythm of the sea. Every nook, cranny and overhang is a home to fish, corals, and creatures. Peer inside and you’ll find a blunthead triggerfish taking a breather or, my personal favourite, the guinea-fowl puffer, using its dark, white-spotted body to hide in the shadows. Throw a bit of strobe light onto the seascape and the colours come back, revealing a distinctive palette of pink, purple, orange, and yellow hues. As an underwater photographer, I was delighted to find that the fish were both abundant and very comfortable in the presence of divers. You could approach to within inches and they would happily pose. The jack school made the marine park famous, but on each reef-dive we would pass swathe after swathe of small fish shoals. Resembling one of Picasso’s cubist artworks, the burro, or Panamic porkfish, have vivid yellow bodies, sloping stripy faces and form tight packs. They are found on almost every dive, but I couldn’t resist taking pictures at ☛

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Pictured from top: The spectacular bluebanded goby; a redhead goby; Panama graysbys have beautifully ornate patterns on their scales; browncheek blenny, an inch long but full of attitude; Mexican hogfish are among the most curious fish in the area.

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every opportunity, their colours contrasting perfectly against the blue water. I was staying at Cabo Pulmo Beach Resort, recommended as the best place in town by some Mexican friends. The rooms here range from basic to large, beach-side villas. I was in a basic room, which provided all I needed as a solo traveller, but was already daydreaming of a return trip with the family in one of the villas. The dive programme allows for up to four dives a day, with two in the morning and two in the afternoon. The dive-boats are launched by tractor, and you stay out on the ocean during the surface intervals. The sea was pretty calm during my visit, so the launches were easy. The boats are fairly small and do rock a lot in even a modest swell, so bring the tablets if you’re vulnerable to motion sickness. According to park rules, the maximum ratio is six divers to one guide, so the divegroups are always nice and intimate. The dives are almost all around the 20-25m mark, without the possibility of working your way up a gently sloping reef. The rules dictate a maximum dive-time of 50 minutes and, at those depths on a single cylinder, you find that either air supply or no-stop time dictate an ascent around 45 minutes anyway. I was surprised to find nitrox unavailable at any of the Cabo Pulmo dive resorts, particularly with lots of repetitive dives in the 20m range, and hope to see a change there in the future. Although it was my first time in Mexico, I have long admired the food and was feasting on fajitas, quesadillas, and

burritos between dives. Smartly, the restaurant staff take your lunch order at breakfast, so there’s no messing around when you get back from the morning dives (which regular readers will know is a bugbear of mine). The dive-staff were very friendly and quickly make you feel part of the family, even over a short stay.

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ULL SHARKS ARE AMONG the residents of the Cabo Pulmo reef and I had been thrilled to get my first-ever encounters with these stocky predators on our first day out. However, unlike the reef fish, the sharks were remaining just out of photographic range and, as they say, if you don’t have a photo, it didn’t happen! So, keen to get definitive proof of these shark sightings, I asked Alex to do his best shark-summoning act. He took our group to Esperanza dive site and we hovered over the sand at 25m. Soon enough, the silhouette of a bull shark emerged from the distance and made its way towards us. I tried to remain calm and low to the ground, and time my breathing to avoid bubble-spewing as it came close… click… now I certainly had proof, although more of an ID shot (a mostly derogatory term among underwater photographers) than anything award-winning. Our group spread out a little to expand our visual reach, and we waited for the bull shark to loop around again. It kindly obliged, and the excitement among our group was almost palpable. As we continued to scour the horizon for action, a shoal of jack came into view, not quite as big as the school but a good size nonetheless. I dared to dream for a moment that these two subjects, shark

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and schooling fish, would come together, and to my incredulous delight the bull shark came back round and was swiftly engulfed by the jack! It was an incredible sight, as the shark impassively cruised along the sand with an army of fish surrounding it. The shark showed no sign of aggression towards them and, actually, the big-eyed jack seemed to be actively rubbing themselves against its body. I would later learn that the rough sharkskin is a perfect scratching pole for ridding themselves of parasites. The bull sharks are also commonly

Pictured: Dive-guide Karina delights in her daily visits to the schooling jack. Left: Guide Marco explores El Vencedor shipwreck.

sighted at El Vencedor, the only wreck-dive in the bay. The repopulation of the reef with sharks, rays and large grouper is the most noticeable difference compared to other dive-spots, and it is such a pleasure to swim around under water knowing that, at any moment, you might encounter one of these kings of the reef. Funny to think that it’s actually the way the oceans should be, and we have become oddly accustomed to reefs on which sharks are an unusual sight. El Vencedor was a large tuna-fishing trawler that sank in the 1980s after hitting the reef. Today it’s one of the most popular dives in the area. In only 12m of water, it’s a hotbed for marine life and its parts are strewn all over the seabed, as if thrown by an underwater giant. The propeller peers out from a mound of old fishing-nets, and its impressive

engine stretches along the sand. As we explored the site, bull sharks would come in and out of view in the distance, keeping us company as we explored the ship’s remains.

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MID ALL THIS GREAT DIVING, the jack school remained enormously compelling, and we would return to it daily. On each occasion, the fish’s behaviour and conditions varied slightly. On one day we found the whole school close to the bottom, rubbing themselves against the sand – the same kind of fish spa treatment we had seen them perform with the bull shark. Over time, I started to notice more of the other marine life that would either accompany or visit the school. Pufferfish are frequently found, seemingly using it as a protective shield. Yellowfin surgeonfish, sporting a yellow band across the face that gives them the appearance of highway robbers,

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MEXICO DIVER Pictured: Jack brush up against the rough skin of a bull shark to rid themselves of parasites. Below:The schooling jack and accompanying surgeonfish create an underwater fish highway. Below left: A tiny porcelain crab hides out on the reef.

pulsated their pectoral fans frantically to keep up. On rare occasions a turtle would show up too, bringing added fun to the action before moving on. Considered a delicacy, turtles were once a part of the diet at Cabo Pulmo. Today, they are protected and yet another marine-park success story. Cabo Pulmo left me inspired for the marine life, but also the will, determination, and foresight of this small community, numbering only just over 100 people. It’s easy to see that things are working better for everyone now, but 25 years ago Cabo Pulmo’s population took a decision that threatened their very livelihood, in the hope that one day it would pay off. It’s hard to overstate how brave and rare that is, and wonderful to see how well

the gamble succeeded, both for the environment and the local people. This tiny Mexican town is now world-famous, and a beacon of inspiration to coastal communities all over. I loved Cabo Pulmo: for the diving, for the sense of discovery, for the friendly welcome, and for the heart-warming conservation story. I will definitely be coming back, and hope we can see more “Cabo Pulmos” in the world in 2019 and beyond.

FACTFILE GETTING THERE BA flies from London to San Jose Del Cabo via a US stop, and TUI is set to introduce direct flights from London to Los Cabos from this November. DIVING & ACCOMMODATIONCabo Pulmo Beach Resort, cabopulmo.com WHEN TO GO High season is mid-September to midDecember, with October and November especially popular as these months offer the best visibility and warmest water (26°C). Windy season follows and water temperatures can drop to 16°C. Visibility reduces drastically as plankton and algal blooms occur but whale season starts, and far more nudibranchs and other macro creatures are visible. May and June is the time for large schools of mobula rays. HEALTH Nearest hyperbaric chamber is in Cabo San Lucas. MONEYMexican peso. PRICES BA return flight from under £500. A three-night full-board stay at the resort during high season, including two dives a day, costs US $700pp. VISITOR INFORMATION visitmexico.com, visitloscabos.travel

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RINCE PHILIP’S RECENT ROAD ACCIDENT and subsequent retirement from driving at the age of 97 has made a number of people face the question of whether they should still be behind a wheel in their old age. It’s such a difficult decision to make, when you either depend on driving to stay in contact with society and for shopping or, simply, because you love it. My own father insisted on keeping up his insurance and road tax for several years after he had given up driving, just so that he had the option – even though we knew he would never take it. The same surely applies to diving. A week after his 90th birthday, in April 2013, Stan Waterman, pioneer of underwater photography and cinematography, and famous for his filming of such epics as Blue Water, White Death and The Deep, carried out his final dives from the luxury of the Cayman Aggressor. “Having reached the age of 90, I have entered an age of hedonism,” he was quoted as saying. “Delights like being comfortable, air-conditioning, lots of hot water, homemade food – that’s the Aggressor.” This coming June, our usual brigade of dedicated divers will head off on the annual pilgrimage to the Red Sea. One will be 83, and several others have already exceeded their three score years and 10. A couple of years ago one newcomer changed his mind and dropped out after deciding that we were all too old! I think only one of us was under 40. However, it could be argued that is simply the demographic of the majority of the diving fraternity today; we’re a relatively mature bunch. On that same trip another chap was told, after he’d booked, that he was no longer allowed to dive because of a heart condition. He came along anyway, and was content to sit and read. After the ritual of completing our waiver forms before the boat could depart, the Cruise Director (that modern, elevated term for a dive-guide) decided that another of our group should seek the approval of a diving doctor, because

SENIOR MOMENTS As divers get older, if they’re sensible rather than getting bolder they learn to tailor their diving to their capabilities. But eventually there may come a time to take stock, as JOSS WOOLF reports

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MATURE DIVER he had ticked a box to declare that he was on steroids. Although this meant that our entire group was obliged to wait half a day for the result, thankfully he passed the test. He was probably fitter than the person who examined him, a doctor whose considerable girth posed an obvious challenge merely in standing up.

Right: ‘Living fossils’ at the World Heritage Site in Komodo - Joss Woolf’s description, not ours! Left: Veteran diver Mike Maloney.

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INALLY WE WERE UNDER WAY. However, it was clear that the diveguide (sorry, Cruise Director), had taken one look at us and said to himself: “Huh! No RIB-diving for you lot”, and we all had to make do with dive-sites that required only a not-so-giant stride off the back of the boat. Still, who am I to complain? Talking of giant strides, last year our octogenarian, despite his long legs, didn’t quite do a big-enough stride, and the bottom of his tank hit the deck. This caused the top of the tank to hit his head, and there was much blood. He was banned from diving for the next four days by a retired GP guest we were lucky enough to have on board. Unfortunately, on the last day when we all thought it would be safe for the casualty to do the last dive of the trip at only 12m, and although he was assisted by two members of the crew, this time he entered the water in such an awkward manner that he actually cracked several vertebrae in the process. But he is still looking forward to coming again this year! So, back to the morning of day one, and it was time for the dive-briefing upstairs. I was just thanking my lucky stars that I probably still had a decade or two to go before I’d start to suffer the consequences of age-related illnesses when I missed my footing (tripping on my sarong) at the top of the highly polished wooden staircase on Whirlwind. I fell down the entire flight, instinctively protecting my precious camera, as you would a small child, all the way. Miraculously, thanks to my generous “padding” no real harm was done to anything other than my ego. From my screams, the rest of the group, patiently awaiting my arrival upstairs, had visions of blood and broken bones at the very least.

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HERE ARE, AS IT HAPPENS, some advantages to being a little more mature: years of experience, a broad knowledge, perhaps a little more money in your pocket, consideration for and a tolerance of other people’s habits as well as being expert drinkers! There is also the great wealth of afterdinner stories that are reeled out year after year, and it doesn’t matter that we may have heard them all before because

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we can’t remember them! Then there is the deafness. On a recent visit to Komodo, our lovely queen-of-the60s Linda jumped into the sea at the beginning of the trip with her hearing aids still in. This was not so that she could hear the fish. As any self-respecting underwater photographer will testify, water and electronics do not make good bedfellows. It was actually quite a tragedy, because without the aids she is stone deaf. But it didn’t stop her asking us questions all the time to which she couldn’t hear the reply! Many divers suffer from hearing loss later in life; it goes with the territory, but it can be quite entertaining listening to two elderly deaf divers shouting a conversation at each other. Uh-oh, the first camera flooding has taken place. Never leave your camera in the rinse-tank. The water gets warm – actually, it gets quite hot – and the metal housings expand and the water seeps in. I can remember on one of these trips that there were no fewer than six floods, all for different reasons, but the best had to be the most recent. It was the last dive of the last day and, at the last moment, the hapless gentleman concerned decided to change lenses. This also required a change of port, but what he forgot to do was put any port at all onto his camera housing. Then there are all the bad backs. One of our group, who hadn’t dived for a couple of years, had piled on the pounds and it was probably quite some time since he had last seen his feet.

Having to carry all that weight – as well as a 15-litre tank – is no mean feat! Hardly surprising that something had to give. Still, you can always make up for the loss of diving days by having some very expensive massages at $83 per hour.

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UT IT’S NOT ONLY large or older people who get bad backs; some of the leanest, fittest divers can suffer in the same way. And neither are accidents confined to the elderly; they happen to people of all ages. On a recent trip to the Azores, we were happily dangling on a rope at 15m waiting for blue sharks to come along and inspect us. Suddenly, like an Exocet missile from above, a diving cylinder complete with BC and free-flowing regulator could be observed hurtling, much to the surprise, no doubt, of some rather startled crabs, to the seabed 147m below. It took a few moments to realise what we had just seen. The rig’s former owner (because it now belongs to the sea) had decided to abort the dive while still at the surface. He had handed up his weightbelt (at least he remembered to do that first) but had forgotten to put any air into his BC. The weight of his still-full steel tank was all it took. Let that be a warning to us all. I asked two of our older diving comrades, Ken Sullivan and Colin Doeg, one who is still diving and one who has given up, for their views on when to stop. Ken is well into his 80s and still dives regularly: “An old friend once told me ☛

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MATURE DIVER that the only problem with growing old is that you start to lose your friends. “This also applies to your dive-buddies, to the point that not every diver, particularly underwater photographers, wants to spend his entire dive looking over his shoulder to check if their ‘old buddy’ is still in this world. “I’ve had some experience of this, and it’s not fun for either diver. There are lots of what-if’s in this, but it has to be faced by all divers and clubs, to keep us all safe in all conditions. “That includes divers who don’t want to stop diving and think they’re just fine. As long as a diver has regular annual medicals and is not just buying insurance for the trip, and has a consenting and aware buddy, there should not be a serious situation.”

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EANWHILE COLIN, co-founder of BSoUP, is now 91: “Every time I glimpse a suitable stretch of water or an intriguing length of coast I yearn to slip in with a camera and search for some striking photos, but I still believe I made the right decision 11 years ago that it was time to stop diving. “After all, I had enjoyed 50 years of getting wet, and am still around to show

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some of my photos. “In their own way I hope that everyone who dives today gets the same pleasure and excitement that I have enjoyed, but I count myself lucky to have done most of my diving when everything was, shall we say, less regulated. “Indeed, as soon as things became more regulated some of the more adventurous and entertaining spirits immediately turned to hang-gliding. In those early years it was easy to walk in from the shore, dive on your own from a Zodiac when no-one else was around, or slip into a salmon run when all was quiet. “We were pioneers, breaking new ground all the time; we were doing something few others ever dreamt of doing. Based on the UK population, one member calculated that every underwater photographer was a person in a million. “Of course, there is a time to stop unless you want to come home in a body-bag or have helicopters and lifeboats searching for you. “I enjoyed my last week of diving in the Red Sea. I was with a very select group of friends. I could still kit up and step off the end of the dive-boat without any

Above: Ken Sullivan now (inset) and on his very first dive in 1965. His daughter, seen beside him, is now a grandmother. Below: Colin Doeg (inset) on his final dive.

assistance… and get back up the ladder. But I couldn’t fight and play the currents as I used to, and I also got puffed. “The decision was made easier by the fact that I have always enjoyed even more my holidays with Mary, my wife, and I knew I had many more holidays to look forward to.”

THERE’S PRISTINE – THEN THERE’S MOHÉLI They’re celebrating the 1000th dive off the Indian Ocean island of Mohéli, which gives you a good idea of how little it has been dived to date. That’s what attracted MICHEL LABRECQUE in the first place…

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AVE YOU EVER HEARD the name of an island without knowing where it is located on the planet, and wondered what the diving would be like there? That’s what I did before visiting Mohéli, a small island in the Union of the Comoros. The Comoros Archipelago is in east Africa’s Mozambique Channel, almost centred between the coast of Mozambique and the island of Madagascar. This tiny country of fewer than one million inhabitants comprises four islands: Grand Comoros, Anjouan, Mohéli and Mayotte. Mayotte has a particular status that links it to France, although it is claimed by the Comoros

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and recognised by the UN as being part of the union. It’s always a hot topic when speaking to locals and not relevant to this article, except that when I talk about the Comoros I will be referring to the other three islands. Scuba-diving is in its infancy in the country. There is no diving infrastructure in Anjouan, and we preferred Mohéli to Grand Comoros because, bordering on a huge marine park created in 2001, it was logical to assume that the island’s waters would be more diverse and plentiful. The general manager of the Laka Lodge resort Jon and his team arranged everything, from airport transfers to our overnight in Moroni, the

capital of Grand Comoros, to our transfers to the resort on Mohéli. This 5* turnkey service was appreciated, especially on Mohéli, where there are no taxis. Once in Comoros everything went as planned. All I had to do was add the international flights, which came in via AddisAbaba in Ethiopia. Laka Lodge resort is perfectly located in the heart of the marine park, centred on the south coast of the island and neighboring the community of Nioumachoua. Facing the resort, four main islets host the most beautiful reefs. The 156sq mile marine park covers all Mohéli’s south coast, including the most important green-turtle nesting sites in the area. The island’s shores are their secondlargest Indian Ocean nesting zone. Laka Lodge hosts the island’s only dive centre, and it has a high level of equipment. My technical background always pushes me to visit all areas of a dive centre, a ritual that reveals much about the quality of the diving operation. All is well-maintained, and dive operation manager Richard is very proud of this. Compressors are shiny, cylinders and regulators serviced regularly when not new and so on. It was enough to put to shame many centres I’ve seen in North America and Europe. However, although introduced in 2013 this dive-centre is still in its development phase. Nitrox is not yet available, and for the safety of the staff and guests the number of dives per day is limited to two. The fact is that hardly anyone has dived or

COMOROS DIVER Pictured: View of the islets across from Laka Lodge. Below: Mohéli reefs are very healthy. Below left: Honeycomb morays are always popular with photographers.

explored Mohéli. On 5 October last year the dive-centre staff celebrated their 1000th dive! Fewer than 100 divers a year have explored Mohélian waters, which makes every dive pure exploration. This was my main reason in choosing to visit – to nourish my inner explorer and dive virgin sites.

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LISTEN TO THE FIRST briefing as the staff carry our equipment, emergency oxygen and my camera to our small boat, and we head to the first dive-site, Magic Rocks. The name is inspiring. I back-roll in, take my camera, start the descent – and the magic starts! It’s difficult to concentrate on my camera with so many fish surrounding us. The diversity and abundance is disconcerting. On the dive I notice most all those fish species you expect to see in the Indian Ocean – the yellowback fusiliers, powder blue surgeonfish, melon butterflyfish and regal angelfish. Then, after a great day’s diving, I return to the resort to download my memory card and find that something is bothering me. Many of the fish are similar to those I have encountered in places such as the Maldives but, after a careful review, I can’t seem to find some of those I’ve photographed in the classic Indian Ocean ID books. Fortunately the resort has other books specific to Madagascar and the Mozambique Channel. This is where I find my mystery species… or not. Now I understand what was bothering me. Some species are very similar to those listed in

the book, but still seem a bit different. This is the case with the moray eel Gymonthorax hansi, which could easily be confused with the Gymnothorax albimnarginatus. When I ask Jon and Richard about this, they point out that virtually nothing is known about the underwater realm of Mohéli or its levels of endemism, as very few scientific studies have been undertaken on its reefs. I am under Mohéli’s spell! On subsequent dives, it just keeps getting better. Time spent under water is never long enough. Visibility is usually 25m-plus and sometimes 40m-plus when we’re further out from the coast. Such vis helps us to appreciate the impressive size of the many schools we encounter. I’m reminded that I’m in Africa when I hear the name of the next dive site: Mchaco! (Bird Islet). When we get closer, the smell explains the name – thousands of boobies and other bird species call this rock home. On Mchaco, the schools of fish are abundant. Unicornfish appear by the hundreds, fusiliers by the thousands and snapper pass before us in an endless parade. We end the dive on a portion called Shark Passage. I feel like a kid in a candy store! After a short encounter with grey sharks and giant trevallies the dive comes to an end and I do my safety stop. While decompressing, I look up to see a large school of needlefish that hugs the surface of the ocean. I have to be disciplined and end these three interminable minutes before heading for the surface, where I frantically swim

in an attempt to capture images. While not a huge success in terms of needlefish shots, my reward is a short visit from three large tuna. As it turns out, tuna appear on almost every dive in the area. Although the large animals stand out, critter enthusiasts will also enjoy the dives. After close inspection of the reef, I find many species of nudibranch as well as various crabs sometimes hidden in the cauliflower coral. Frogfish, our guide’s favorite critters, are present at several sites, and a location that begs to be explored further in terms of muck-diving is the one that starts at the end of the resort’s beach. You simply walk down the slope on the private beach inside a protected bay.

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OMOROS IS KNOWN, if it’s known at all, for cœlacanths (Latimeria chalumnae). This prehistoric fish, dating back 400 million years, was once thought extinct, but a specimen made headlines in 2010 when a team of divers found it in its natural habitat more than 100m down. The chance of encountering one at recreational depths is sadly close to none but the species is very popular in the Comoros…even the national soccer team bears its name! Diving in Mohéli without mentioning pelagics would be unthinkable. A resident population of manta rays has yet to be studied appropriately but a small research group has started collecting data, and estimates there to be 30 to 60 individuals, though it has yet to link these rays to a population of similar size in Mayotte. ☛

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During our short stay, we managed to jump in the water twice with the mantas. I didn’t see any dugongs but I’m told that they are occasional visitors, attracted by abundant seagrass south of the island. And as we motored between sites we always kept an eye out for the many species of dolphins present. Humpback whales migrate to the area to give birth from July to October, and the resort offers the opportunity to swim with them, and says that mother-and-calf duos often allow an approach. As I was leaving the resort a group was able to enter the water with the whales six times on a half-day excursion.

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AKA LODGE IS A very intimate resort, with only 13 rooms giving a total capacity of 26 divers and non-divers, and the team makes colossal efforts to be ecoresponsible. The resort produces its own electrical power from solar panels, the food is supplied by local traditional farmers, and beach and underwater clean-ups are conducted regularly. The resort team even implemented a rubbish-collection programme in the village of Nioumachoua, and helped in the construction of an incinerator. The small dive-boats avoid using anchors that might damage the reef, and no permanent moorings have been installed – they simply hover above the divers like liveaboard tenders. The resort also supports the marine park, and has a project to produce a short film on the destructive effect of pollution and unsustainable fishing, narrated in the Comorian language, to raise awareness with the local villagers. Because of Laka Lodge’s close ties with the community, villagers are happy to see visitors. Even though the average Comorian lives in great poverty (average annual salary was US $698 a year in 2016), neighbouring villagers never ask

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for money when they see tourists or when they help you. The people are generous and very friendly. Going to east Africa without experiencing the culture and seeing local attractions should be out of the question. On a hike in the forest you can observe one of the world’s largest bat species, the Livingstone bat, which can attain a wingspan of 1.5m. Endemic to Mohéli and Anjouan, in 2012 it was IUCN-listed as one of the world’s 100 most threatened species. At the resort mongoose lemurs appear every evening at 5 like clockwork near the banana trees in the hope of sampling their favourite fruit. An offering guarantees the chance to pet them! A visit to a busy green turtle nesting site can also be arranged. At Istamia, you will almost certainly observe one or more turtles laying eggs, and perhaps even turtles hatching. Usually under cover of dark or at dawn, often during a rising tide, females come ashore to lay their eggs. They avoid daytime because a lengthy exposure to the sun would be fatal. For hatchlings, if the temperature is too high they stay buried, but as soon as it drops they dig their way out of the nest and rush to the sea. This is why they often hatch at the end of the day or on a cloudy day.

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URING MY STAY the tides were just right at sunrise to allow us to see hatchlings from two nests, followed by females crawling back to the sea. The young turtles have to be quick to avoid being eaten alive by birds and other predators. What a show! After 10 days in the Comoros I had become accustomed to the pleasant weather conditions. It was not too hot, not too cold, not too humid. Nights are usually cooler, with temperatures around 22°C. I was starting

to live to the rhythm of Africa, but my time was up. Hans, the owner of the resort, had warned me that I would fall in love with the Comoros and its people. Now I understand what he meant.

Pictured, clockwise from below: Nesting turtle; this anemonefish looks like a singer; mongoose lemurs are easily approached with an offering of bananas; mesmerising crown jellyfish; scalefin anthias have a purple spot on their pectoral fins; a pair of emperor angelfish dance along the reef; schools of yellowback fusiliers accompanied Michel on every dive; a timid smooth grouper is a rare sighting; unicornfish are camera-shy and hard to capture; splendid black coral; master of camouflage, the leaf scorpionfish; striped surgeonfish are very swift and often seen on shallow portions of the reef; a small group of mantas is thought to live in Mohéli waters.

FACTFILE GETTING THERE Ethiopian Airways, KLM, Kenya Airways and Air France fly to Moroni via Addis Ababa or Nairobi. Internal flights with Hahn Airways, but might well require an overnight stay in Moroni. Visa 30 euros payable on arrival. DIVING & ACCOMMODATIONLaka Lodge, lakalodge.com WHEN TO GO The climate is tropical and the rainy season is November-May, so tourist season is JuneNovember, when temperatures range from 29°C during the day to 23°C at night. Water temperature ranges from 26°C in June to 29°C in November. HEALTH Nearest hyperbaric chamber Mayotte. MONEYComorian franc (KMF), but bring euros in cash (490 KMF = 1 euro). Credit cards not widely accepted and no cashpoints. PRICES Return flights from UK to Moroni from £740. Flights from Moroni to Mohéli from £170. A oneweek dive and stay package costs around 1100 euros. VISITOR INFORMATION comorosdiscover.com

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BE THE CHAMP!

The Micronesian destination of Palau opens up big vistas for divers lucky enough to get there, and ALEX MUSTARD weighs in with winning advice in another episode in his sub-series on photography in classic locations

‘We have the chance to take on larger scenes than normal, and the fisheye will be our go-to lens’

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AST MONTH, I WAS PLEASED to read that the famous Jellyfish Lake has reopened to visitors in Palau, Micronesia. It’s the ideal excuse to make Palau the next stop in my current series of photographic guides to shooting in once-in-a-lifetime dive destinations. Palau is certainly an exotic location for British divers, not least because its location out in the open Pacific Ocean is a long way from home. But it is certainly worth the air miles, with amazing landscapes both above and below the surface, fascinating World War Two wrecks, a super-abundance of big marine life and a host of iconic dive sites. The last of these tends to dominate the experience for the photographer. From our perspective, the photos we want to be taking home don’t tend to be shots of a typical Palau-style dive. Instead, most photographers want images from Palau’s celebrated dive-sites – which are all quite different.

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LUE CORNER IS an action-packed drift packed with marine life, while Chandelier Cave is a shallow, cenote-like limestone cavern; Jellyfish Lake is a surreal snorkel and German Channel is a manta cleaning station. All classic Palau, all completely different. That said, there are a few things to expect in Palau. This is the open Pacific Ocean, so the visibility is typically excellent, and the currents can often be very strong. Good visibility means that we have

STARTER TIP German Channel is a classic manta cleaning dive, and the key as always is to follow exactly the advice of the guides. Mantas can be curious and playful, but they can also be easily scared. Experienced guides understand much better how to get close encounters. Do as you’re told and you will get that proximity – and better photos.

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the chance to take on larger scenes than normal and the fisheye will be our go-to lens. In such clear water, we shouldn’t limit ourselves just to close-focus wide-angle, but instead take on some big-scene wide-angle. Currents bring reefs to life, but, at the same time, make photography a challenge. I’ve run many workshop trips in currenty locations, and the main thing I’ve learned is that photographers are never happy! When the currents run, we moan that it’s hard work shooting images. When they don’t, we complain that the reefs aren’t alive! My approach is to try to avoid the strongest currents, but otherwise I’ll always take them on. Learn how to hide from the flow in the lee of objects, or ride back eddies to get where you want to go. Also be prepared to swim more, breathe more and have a shorter dive in the right place – then spend longer in the wrong part of the dive-site, just because the conditions are easy there.

Above: The Jake seaplane is Palau’s most photogenic wreck, and is perfect for available light and filter. Taken with a Nikon D4 and Nikonos 13mm, Subal housing, Magic Filter. 1/125th @ f/14, ISO 400.

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LOSE TO THE main islands are many of the wrecks. Most are Japanese from WW2 and remain reasonably intact, but are not as photogenic as those in Truk. They’re well worth diving and shooting, but they shouldn’t be the focus of your trip. I found the Teshio Maru and the Iro tanker to be the most productive. The visibility in these areas is less good than further offshore, so it’s often worth shooting these large ships without strobes, to avoid backscatter. Alternatively, because these WW2 wrecks are densely colonised there is the possibility to make the marine life the subject of the photo, and let the wreckage form the backdrop. My favourite wreck in Palau is the Japanese Aichi E13A-1 or Jake seaplane. There are other plane wrecks, but this one is the most complete, amazingly so after so many years. As you will have read in last month’s divEr, seeing a plane wreck under water “snatched out of its element” always excites, and that same feeling is conjured by our pictures. ☛ divErNEt.com

PHOTO TECHNIQUE

Pictured: Inside Chandelier Cave you need off-camera lighting, either a remote strobe or a powerful video light. Taken with a Nikon D4 and Nikonos 13mm,Subal housing, Seacam 150 strobes and Inon Z240 offcamera. 1/80th @ f/10, ISO 640.

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The Jake seaplane is in shallow water and easy to shoot using a filter and available light. However, despite making a great image, there isn’t enough there to entertain for a full 60-minute dive. I’ve always asked to do it as an extra, by finishing our planned dive a bit early and then using the rest of our air to spend 10 minutes or so shooting the plane. The other must-do dive close in to Koror is Chandelier Cave, which is a four-chambered cavern, with stalactites jabbing down through the surface of the dark waters. An off-camera light-source is key here, either a remote strobe or a very powerful video light. The best way to shoot the cave is to work as a team of three, with one group shooting, one modelling and one hidden

MID-WATER TIP Blue Holes is one of the easier dives in Palau, because this huge cavern is protected from the current and any waves. The best shots here are big scenes, ideally shot without strobes with a model giving scale to the scenery. Consider shooting a panorama of stitched images to capture the grandeur.

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Above: Spawning aggregations offer unusual opportunities, such as these snappers feeding on a cloud of eggs. Taken with a Nikon D4 and Nikonos 13mm, Subal housing, Seacam 150 strobes. 1/100th @ f/8, ISO 640.

behind the model holding the backlight. Chandelier Cave is very shallow so you’ll have plenty of time and you can surface (mind your head) to discuss ideas for shots.

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HE OFFSHORE REEF dives southwest of the mainland are where most of Palau’s iconic sites are found. Blue Corner is the most famous, but with changeable currents it is the most unpredictable. The best approach here is to switch over from fisheye to a wide-angle zoom to give flexibility. There are often lots of grey reef sharks here, and a zoom can help us to fill the frame with them. The wide-angle zoom also suits the many schools of fish lined up in the current. Turtles (green and hawksbill) are common here, especially when the current carries you down the reef in a southerly direction. If you remember just one thing when shooting turtles it is “see a turtle, turn your strobes down”. Turtles have reflective skin, and they are always brighter than whatever we were photographing before. So as you stalk into shooting distance, always take a moment to drop the power of your flashes – it will massively increase your hit-rate. Perhaps the most exciting dives in

ADVANCED TIP Shooting fish-spawning aggregations is tough. The action is fast-moving and often hard to reach out in the current. Estimate your shooting distance and practise shooting your buddy to dial in your exposures as you wait. Strobes out wide, ISO bumped up and aperture opened up will all help. You also need some luck, so if in doubt, shoot!

Palau are those targeting spawning aggregations that occur on the big corners of the reef, like Shark City or Peleliu Express. The strong tidal currents in Palau mean that many larger reef fish gather for synchronised spawnings, and these massive groups can be spectacular, especially the bohar snapper and the bumphead parrotfish. However, getting your timing right is not easy, and it’s essential to work with local knowledge – such as the guys at Unique Diving, who have done a lot in the way of research – to maximise your chances of being in the right place at the right time. Get it right, because you have the chance for something truly unforgettable. divErNEt.com

The next innovation in dive computing – make it yours

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OCEAN ART

It’s one of the landmark annual photographic competitions – here are the striking winners of the Underwater Photography Guide’s high-value-prize event

Devil Ray Ballet by Duncan Murrell, UK MARINE LIFE BEHAVIOUR

The Best of Show image in the prestigious 2018 Ocean Art underwater photo competition was judged to be Devil Ray Ballet by British photographer Duncan Murrell who is based in the Philippines. Murrell used soft ambient light to accentuate the movements of the giant devil rays and triumph in the seventh annual event, which is organised by the California-based Underwater Photography Guide (UPG). Murrell came first in Marine Life Behaviour, one of 16 categories designed for all levels of photographer, disciplines and types of camera in the international contest. The three spinetail devil rays (Mobula japanica) were engaged in what was described as rarely observed or photographed courtship behaviour in Honda Bay, Palawan in the

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Philippines, with two males pursuing one female. Murrell used a Canon 6D camera with 15mm lens set at f7, 1/200th, ISO 500, and won an Oceanic liveaboard cruise to Indonesia’s southern islands, with a 50% discount for a companion. The judges, underwater photographers Martin Edge, Tony Wu, Marty Snyderman and UPG publisher Scott Gietler, evaluated thousands of entries from 70 countries before selecting the winning sets. “Other exceptional images include some astonishing fish and marine-life shots, rarely seen animal behaviour, innovative shooting techniques, stunning portraits, seals, ocean adventure, whales and some dramatic moments between humans and marine life,”

says UPG. It reckons that the US $80,000-worth of prizes awarded, mainly travel packages and equipment, puts the event among the most valuable in the world. “This year’s outstanding underwater images … continue to raise the bar for underwater photographers,” said Gietler, adding that the judges “were honoured to be viewing such amazing results of the dedication and drive of the human spirit”. The following pages show the winners in each category, but more than 100 placed photographs can be seen at uwphotography guide.com/2018-ocean-art-contest-winners. And for all underwater photographers interested in entering the 2019 competition details can also be found on the Underwater Photography Guide website.

PHOTOGRAPHIC DIVER

Grey Seal Face by Greg Lecoeur, France, COLDWATER Cannibal Crab by PT Hirschfield, Australia COMPACT BEHAVIOUR Each year in Victoria, Hirschfield awaits the return of the spider crabs en masse as they gather to shed their old shells, and happened across the harrowing sight of a ravenous unmoulted spider crab fiercely feasting on a vulnerable, freshly moulted crab. Canon G12, Recsea housing, Sea & Sea YS-D1 strobe, f5.6, 1/125sec, ISO 100.

Hairy Shrimp by Sejung Jang, Republic of Korea COMPACT MACRO The dive-guide in Anilao in the Philippines found what was Jang’s first red hairy shrimp and its jumping about made it hard to photograph – after this shot, the camera packed up. Olympus TG5, Olympus housing, PT-058, Weefine Snoot light, f6.3, 1/160sec, ISO 100.

Ancistrocheirus

Dancing Jellyfish by Melody

by Jeff Milisen, Hawaii MACRO

Chuang, Taiwan COMPACT WIDE-ANGLE

A 7cm sharp-eared enope squid seen on a blackwater dive at Kailua-Kona in Hawaii and followed to a depth of about 28m.

A night-dive last summer was the first time Chuang had seen a jellyfish on a north-east Taiwan shore dive. Her husband used his torch to backlight it as they followed it for more than a mile against current, until sunrise at 5.30am!

Canon T1i,Ikelite housing, Canon 60mm, dual Ikelite DS-51 strobes, dual Sola video lights, f13, 1/200sec, ISO 400.

Olympus TG5, Inon UFL-M150 ZM80, dual Inon Z-240 strobes, f6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 200 ☛

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My Babies by Fabrice Dudenhofer, France MIRRORLESS BEHAVIOUR A guide showed Dudenhofer a pair of clownfish with their eggs off Amami Oshima island in Japan. Because of their endless movements it proved difficult to capture the perfect moment. Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk II in an Isotta housing, Olympus 60mm macro, dual Retra strobes, f22, 1/250sec, ISO 100.

3 Baby Seahorses by Steven Walsh, Australia MIRRORLESS MACRO Each spring at Blairgowrie Pier in Victoria, Australia, big-belly seahorse fry appear in large numbers. The photo is the outcome of four hours’ diving between night-shifts as a firefighter. Sony A7III in an Ikelite housing, Sony 90mm macro lens, dual Sea & Sea YS-D2 strobes, f22, 1/160sec, ISO 100.

Spotted Dolphin by Eugene Kitsios, Netherlands MIRRORLESS WIDE-ANGLE Taken in Bimini in the Bahamas. Olympus OM-D EM-1 in an Olympus Housing, Olympus 8mm fisheye, dual Sea & Sea YS-D2 strobes, f5.6, 1/320sec, ISO 200.

Special Encounter by Alvin Cheung, Hong Kong NOVICE DSLR

Inside the Eggs by Flavio Vailati, Italy NUDIBRANCH

On a dive in Socorro, Mexico, a giant oceanic manta ray appeared. Cheung remembered the motto “background first” and shot it and another diver against the El Boiler pinnacle.

Taken in Anilao in the Philippines.

Nikon D810, Nauticam housing, Tokina 10-17mm, dual Inon Z-240 strobes, f11, 1/125sec, ISO 250

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Nikon D500, Nauticam housing, dual Sea & Sea YS-D2 strobes, Subsee +10, Retra snoot, f22, 1/250sec, ISO 200

PHOTOGRAPHIC DIVER

Chimaera by Claudio Zori PORTRAIT

Hairy Flames Edison So, Malaysia SUPERMACRO

The spotted ratfish usually lives between 50 and 400m and prefers temperatures no higher than 9° but comes into shallower water in spring and autumn. The photo was taken on a night dive in front of the God's Pocket dive-resort at Hurst Island, British Columbia, Canada.

This hairy shrimp was shot in Anilao, Philippines –“a challenging task due to its tiny size and nature. They like to hop from one place to another…” Canon 5D Mk III, Sea & Sea housing, Canon 100mm, dual Sea & Sea YS-D1 strobes, Nauticam SMC, extension tubes, torch, f18, 1/200sec, ISO 100

Nikon D300S, Sealux housing, Tokina 10-17mm, dual Seaflash 150 strobes, f16, 1/320sec, ISO 200

Disco Nudi by Bruno Van Saen UNDERWATER ART Van Saen was trying to create an image out of the camera using self-made backgrounds, but in the end it was the Photoshop “swirl” filter that worked for this nudibranch in Bali, Indonesia.

Mangrove by Yen-Yi Lee, Taiwan

Nikon D810, Hugyfot housing, Nikkor 105mm VR, dual Inon Z-240 strobes, f18, 1/250sec, ISO 100.

REEFSCAPES A soft coral anchors and grows on mangrove roots in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Two remote strobes were used to highlight the details of mangrove roots in the background, which also provided a water-surface reflection. Canon 5D Mk IV, Nauticam housing, Seacam 150D strobe, f16, 1/160sec, ISO 400.

Gentle Giants by François Baelen, Reunion, France WIDE-ANGLE In September humpback whales come to Reunion island to breed and give birth. The mother was resting 15m down, while her calf was enjoying his new human friends. Sony A7III in Nauticam NA-A7III housing, Sony 16-35mm, natural light, f9, 1/80sec, ISO 400.

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AS UNIQUE AS YOU

. . .

Mirihi Island Resort | Maldives | [email protected] | www.mirihi.com

RESCUE DIVER

JOSH BOGGI DIVING TO NEW DEPTHS Josh Boggi recently became the world’s first triple-amputee Rescue Diver – MELISSA HOBSON met him to find out how he achieved this incredible feat. Photography by DMITRY KNYAZEV, Deptherapy

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’M DOWN IN A BLACK WETSUIT. I’m four foot six because I’ve got no legs on. I look like a seal. Well, what do sharks eat? Seals. That's what’s going through my head.” It surprises me that Josh Boggi is afraid of anything – including sharks. Since the former Royal Engineer stepped on an IED (improvised explosive device) while on tour in Afghanistan – resulting in the loss of both his legs and one arm – he has learned to walk again, taken up cycling, won medals at the Invictus Games, completed the world’s hardest endurance cycling challenge, the Race Across America, learned to dive, and has now been certified as the world’s first tripleamputee Rescue Diver. The first time Josh saw a shark – an uninterested grey reef – he says he nearly spat his reg out. Pretty understandable for someone who had been afraid of sharks since watching Jaws as a kid! divErNEt.com

Above: Josh Boggi, diving with Deptherapy at Roots, El Quseir in the Red Sea. Above: Pool rescue training.

In fact, he hadn’t felt comfortable in the ocean, and is sincere when he tells me: “If I couldn’t touch the floor, I didn’t like it.” But his perspective is that “you’ve got to put yourself in situations that overcome these fears.” That’s why he dives: “Every time I go under water, I think I’m going to be attacked by something bigger than me, but this is exactly why I do it. It takes me out of my comfort zone and puts me in a position where I’m constantly being challenged.” It’s also why he is booked onto a sharkdiving liveaboard later this year.

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OSH FIRST TRIED scuba while on honeymoon in the Maldives in 2016 (if

you don’t count perforating an eardrum during a military diving aptitude test aged 20). He was “a bit bored” with sunbathing and, spotting a dive-centre, went in to ask if he could do a try-dive. The instructor, Josh tells me, grinning, looked him up and down and said: “Diving? This could be interesting!” The instructor cancelled his plans for the following day and Josh contacted his surgeon in the UK to get the necessary medical permissions. He was diving the following afternoon. It’s clear how much Josh loves diving – he lights up when talking about his first underwater experience: “I was all over the place on the first dive but I fell in love ☛

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with it straight away. It was amazing.” He decided “then and there” to get his Open Water Diver, and describes diving as his “favourite thing to do in the world”. Josh doesn’t use special equipment – or even fins – to dive. While some of his friends put fins on the end of their stumps, he has yet to try that (he doesn’t want to look “even more like a seal” to the sharks). Once he’s buoyant, he swims breaststroke instead of kicking.

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YEAR AFTER qualifying, Josh saw a Facebook post from a doubleamputee friend who had been diving with Deptherapy, the charity that runs specially adapted scuba programmes for seriously injured personnel and veterans of the British Armed Forces. Since being founded in 2015, it has completed 10,500 hours of volunteering, helping 73 veterans. That’s 2000 hours of diving! Inspired, Josh decided to complete his Advanced Open Water: “I flew out to Egypt with Deptherapy, got in – and I’d forgotten everything. “I hadn’t dived for a year. I knew how to breathe and everything and get buoyant, but I was all over the place, and it took a day or two to get back into it.” He is clearly fond of the charity that has done so much for him. “The healing power that diving has is unreal,” he tells me. “I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for Deptherapy.” People like Josh with physical injuries – amputations, broken legs, backs, gunshot wounds and so on – can suffer from constant aches and pains. While diving, he tells me, “there’s no pain whatsoever. You’re just existing down there. Just being, taking it all in.” Diving can also help with post traumatic stress disorder or brain injuries, because it’s calm and silent under water. Josh noticed that the soldiers with PTSD who were initially “ready to bolt and not actually get on the plane” were “completely different people” by the end of the week. As someone determined to rise to any challenge, Deptherapy’s “hands-off” approach appeals strongly to Josh. “They

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let you do the thinking,” he explains. Rather than telling him what to do, they show him how an able-bodied person would carry out the skill; then it’s down to him to figure it out: “It’s all about adapting and overcoming.” Importantly, Deptherapy doesn’t lower its standards in consideration of Josh’s injuries. If anything, its expectations are higher: “Obviously, they’ll give you advice here and there, but that’s what I love about them. They’re not there to give people ticks in the boxes… they make you work hard, and it’s great.” Dr Richard Cullen, Founder and Chairman of Deptherapy, told me how impressed he had been by Josh’s hardworking, can-do attitude: “Josh doesn’t understand the words ‘can’t’ and ‘impossible’. Since he started diving with us, he has shown a determination not to be defined by his life-changing injuries.”

Above, from left: All’s going well on the 2018 Truk expedition; heaving a rescuee from the pool.

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IS MILITARY EXPERIENCE clearly comes into play here: repeating a drill so many times that it becomes reactive, almost automatic. “That's the training kicking in,” Josh confirms: “It’s your body going into a reflex that you’ve trained to do again, again, again.” Without regular and repeated practice, you have what the military calls “skill failure”. Essentially, “you’ll forget how to do it”. The Rescue Diver course was similar to

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FTER COMPLETING his Advanced Open Water Diver, Josh wanted to further improve his diving, and decided to do his Rescue Diver. When he started his course, he knew that he would be scrutinised to the hilt: “There’s a standard you need to nail – and more – because no one’s done this before.” There were many tough skills to complete. Most, let’s be honest, are hard work for able-bodied divers. But rather than be overcome by the challenge of lifting an 80kg man out of the pool with one arm, Josh breaks the task down into stages: “I need to get him to the side, get out myself, get him out… and then go into rescue breathing.” Similarly, working out how to ascend with an unresponsive diver took a while and a few failed attempts (“first time I was halfway up and I dropped the bloke!”) but, after chatting it through with his Deptherapy instructor, Josh figured out the best approach. As if being tested on the skill again, he runs me through the process: “Straight in, check they’re unresponsive, reg in. Right. I’ll literally reach around with my stump on the reg, dump everything, inflate, clamp on the cylinder and get them up.

Obviously slow ascent rate. Get them to the surface, smash the BC up, weights…” and so on.

Above: Boat entry in Truk… Right: There is freedom in being under water, in this case in Truk, but it can be hard work when you don’t have the benefit of finning.

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RESCUE DIVER

military patrol because “your head’s on a swivel all the time” looking out for problems: “Why is he coughing? Who's that over there? Why are they diving on their own?” As in the military, when problems arise, planning is key. If someone’s missing, rather than rushing out straight away, you must step back – “Command Pause” as it’s called in the Forces – to assess the situation before acting. “It’s the realisation that getting in sometimes isn’t the best way forward.” Josh’s Rescue Diver assessment was observed by four Master Instructors, which he said made him feel “under more scrutiny” than he had ever experienced before. Not to mention the scrutiny he applied to himself; he wasn’t happy with how he did on his first assessment (despite passing), so he “went and did it again!”. “From the outset, we were very clear that, being a triple-amputee, he faced massive challenges in becoming a PADI Rescue Diver,” says Dr Cullen. “You show Josh what the skill is and then he adapts it so that he can complete it in spite of his disabilities. “To watch his assessments was amazing; he insisted on perfection in each skill and achieved perfection, becoming the world’s

Above from left: Josh always insists on setting up his kit himself; in Egypt, when a barrow is the most practical way to get Josh and other amputees down to the shore.

first triple-amputee Rescue Diver.”

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HAT OTHER STRUGGLES are faced by amputee divers? Current is a killer: “It’s just hard work. You haven’t got legs to fin with, so you’re using your arms to power.” Josh faced tough currents several times, even while doing a tireddiver tow with “a lad with a leg missing”. On another occasion, a strong current kicked up when he was returning from a leisurely shore-dive. Diving in sidemount configuration, he had used a third of his two 10-litre cylinders on the way out and, when he turned back, the current hit. It was so strong that he “just wasn’t going anywhere”. By the time he got back to the beach, exhausted, he had used nearly 400 bar and had 10 bar left in each cylinder. However, Josh stresses that the main problems for amputees usually involve getting to the dive-site or going up from a beach. There’s a picture of him in Egypt, being carried down to the beach in a wheelbarrow. It was the only way he could cross the 25m stretch of sand to get to the shore. He admits that it was “a bit shocking” when he was pondering how to get to the dive-site without his prosthetics and “this wheelbarrow just rolled up”. Yet he’s remarkably pragmatic: “If that’s how you’ve got get to a dive-site, that’s how you’ve got to get to a dive-site.”

The only time he won’t ask for help is when setting up his kit, which he always insists on doing himself. “It's like in the Army, before you go on an operation you lay all your kit out; you know exactly where everything is in each pouch. So if anything happens, you react to it.” So how does it feel to be the first tripleamputee to ever pass the Rescue Diver course? Great, of course, Josh tells me, but he didn’t know this until afterwards. It wasn’t the reason he took up the challenge – he just did the course, he tells me, to “keep improving as a diver and enjoying the sport more”.

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HE SHARK TRIP to Egypt apart, what other challenges await Josh? The first he’s very clear about: to get his wife to dive. She had a panic attack during their dive in the Maldives and hasn’t tried it again since. There is also “talk of trying to be a DM”, but he has yet to decide whether being a Dive Master is for him. While clearly not one to shy away from a challenge, to be able to pass the timed swims he would have to “hit Paralympic standard”, he says. Given all that he has achieved, it’s probably not beyond him but he’s “not really fussed” about it at the moment. Laughing, he tells me: “I don’t actually like swimming, to be honest.” So what else is on the horizon? “Who knows? We’ll see,” he tells me. “But at the moment, I’m just enjoying diving.”

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HILE BEING DUMPED onshore in a wheelbarrow “can be a bit demoralising”, for Josh it’s all about remembering that “I’m doing this because I can’t wait to get in there and get my head wet, and I just love it”. When he was first injured, asking for help wasn’t so easy. Once he could walk again, he felt invincible. He insisted that he didn’t need a wheelchair or help from anyone, did too much too soon and put himself back in hospital with infections in his legs. Now, if he needs help, he’ll ask. As far as he’s concerned: “There’s no point trying to be a big hero” struggling across deck with your tank when someone could help you.

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T ISN’T OFTEN THAT I feel the need to laugh aloud under water, but the sight of frogfish riding bicycles did bring me close to losing my second stage. What this collection of a dozen or more bike-frames was doing on the seabed I’m not sure, but their dumping had clearly brought out the frogfishes’ inner Wiggins. Each of the burgundy-coloured Antennariidae had commandeered a different bike, and was posing in proud possession of its chosen machine. All they needed were helmets and water-bottles. It was one of many highlights of a week’s stay at Mirihi Island Resort in the Maldives’ South Ari Atoll. Mirihi is celebrating its 30th year as a high-end resort this year, and can claim to have been the first in the Maldives to build overwater bungalows, now considered de rigeur at most resorts. Mirihi has 30 of these luxurious stilted dwellings, plus two overwater suites and six beach villas, and the island is agreeably compact at about 330m from end to end. I’ve stayed on a fair few Maldivian islands, but this was the first time I had occupied an overwater rather than a beachside bungalow. I enjoyed being able to observe the bountiful house-reef activity in the clear waters below the deck while sipping a Nespresso and toying with my dive-notes. When temptation overcame me I could join in the fun by grabbing a snorkel and slipping in off the steps. A number of decent-sized (considering that they rarely grow longer than about 1.5m) blacktip reef sharks carried out regular patrols, too, so with all the fish there was plenty to keep me interested in the gentle late-afternoon light after a day’s diving.

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ROUND THE TIME I was on Mirihi, last October, there had been a lot of publicity about the first “underwater suite” opening at the nearby Conrad Maldives Rangali – a snip at $50,000 a night. Mirihi isn’t cheap, but that puts things into perspective. I could see the smaller Rangali resort just across from the island, but I felt no envy towards the occupants of that newsworthy suite. I was comfortably accommodated, enjoying the same dive-sites, could access the underwater world directly from my bedroom and, to be honest, if I was paying that sort of money I’d feel bound to stay awake all night peering through the glass in case I missed anything interesting. Too much pressure!

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Besides, Mirihi has found that perfect balance between luxury and simplicity. It’s bad form to wear shoes there. Sand carpets all the covered areas such as foyers, restaurants and bars, and once you’re barefoot you’re on holiday. The dining, facilities and service are as immaculate as they’re user-friendly. There are no private pools or TVs. The emphasis is on personal recharging in an informal setting and the resort even occupies its own time zone – it’s an hour ahead of the capital Male! But I was there to dive, and the longestablished PADI 5* Ocean-Pro dive-

BATTYAS

FROGFISH ON BIKES The big stuff is always around, but on STEVE WEINMAN’s recent trip to Mirihi in the Maldives it’s encounters with characterful fish that make a big impression

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centre is the sort of knife-sharp operation that takes away the strain, and where no opportunity to enhance your diving experience is overlooked. Cycling frogfish apart, I was struck by the fact that sharks turned up on every single dive, as well as on most snorkels. That decision 10 years ago to protect sharks in Maldivian waters might not have been all-embracing, but it did work. As is commonly found in the Maldives, the whitetip reef and grey reef sharks rarely come as close as we might like, though they seem more indifferent to, rather than bothered by, divers. The same goes for eagle rays, of which there were many, and Napoleon wrasse

Left: A space-invading batfish. Above: On your bike: it’s home for a frogfish. Below left: Overwater bungalows at Mirihi. Below: Blue-lined snapper at Thinfushi Matti Thila.

too, although the turtles were less remote. There were small mantas around too, though on this trip I saw and got close to them only while snorkelling from the dive-boat during a surface interval at one of their favourite hang-outs. Dusky mobula rays were happy to play too.

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ND THEN THERE were the batfish. I’m aware that having these large fish accompany you on descents, ascents and especially safety stops is an experience that occurs in many locations these days, and that they often like to get close enough to peer into your mask and even brush against you, but I enjoy it very

much – especially as it offers good closequarters photo opportunities with large fish and divers in shot. These seemed to be mostly Platax teira (platys is Greek for flat) or longfin batfish, the largest species at a maximum length of 70cm, as well as the rounder orbicular variety. Those extended pectoral fins are bright yellow, so it’s no stretch to see why these handsome fish seem to attach significance to the colour. Divers with yellow fins or other equipment would be especially favoured with their attention. The fish would show up in mobs of 30 or more and, while some would stick with the shoal, others would disperse to check out the divers, sometimes quite intensely, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Not that we wanted to say no; their company was always welcome, especially on a hang. Batfish are especially interesting to watch when they’re being cleaned, growing either darker or more silvery and their distinctive banding coming and going. Compelling performers, they’re certainly among my favourite fish to encounter on a dive. My first scene-setting dive in Mirihi was at Aiyabe Thila. The expected currents didn’t materialise – in fact my current hook stayed in my BC pretty much throughout the trip. We stopped in midwater in good visibility to watch a large shoal of barracuda hanging, while below us three or four whitetips made their way along the bottom. I had a new camera, following the loss of my previous one on my first dive in Grenada (Passing Through, February), but on this maiden dive it was my computer that proved erratic, and eventually packed up. No drama, and I borrowed a more reliable one thereafter.

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HERE WOULD BE TIME for another dozen varied dives during the week, and there wasn’t a dud among them. Early inspiration came with an hour spent touring the dog’s-bone-shaped Thinfushi Matti Thila. We started off in one of two huge overhangs that lit up scarlet with sponges, jostling squirrel and soldierfish and other colourful shadow-dwellers – and then we all found ourselves knee-deep in blue-striped snapper. This was a spectacular gathering even by Maldives standards, and other divers in the group would disappear momentarily in the swirling golden cloudburst. As the dive progressed, the cast of characters passing across the scenery included both whitetip and grey reef sharks and eagle rays, and the bushy ☛

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soft corals were impressive. There were healthy hard corals on the top of this thila too. In the Maldives, divecrew often get their apologies in first for the ravages caused by successive El Niño events, but when you come across reasonably flourishing coralscapes it’s all the more appreciated for that. Often the volume of fish, soft corals and sponges are so distracting that it’s hardly an issue for divers anyway. And at other sites such as Mirihi Thila there was certainly no call for apologies, with its attractive plate and staghorn coral display.

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HINFUSHI MATTI Thila and the manta snorkelling interlude were followed by the dive that yielded the amusing frog cyclists loitering in the bike scrapyard – the dive-centre quite likes to keep that one to itself – along with walls adorned with snapper and sweetlips, titan triggerfish and sting rays, passing tuna and a pair of moray eels enjoying the attentions of cleaner shrimps. Nor was that all for the day – a third dive at tiny Bobana Thila found me with instructor Yukiko and an elderly guest who for some reason wore his mask and snorkel from before he boarded the boat until he was back on dry land. He had some buoyancy issues as the dive progressed but I think we all enjoyed

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the sheer volume and variety of fish, interspersed with colourful diversions – blue moray, red octopus, whitetip shark and so on. I stayed at the dive-resort on the island of Vilamendhoo years ago, and enjoyed the diving there. In mid-week Ocean-Pro’s dive-boat crossed to the east of the atoll to dive Vilamendhoo Thila, and once again it provided an outstanding fish-fest in good visibility, its steep slopes rich in corals hard and soft, and swarms of redtoothed triggerfish and other tiny reef fish, bisected by hunting trumpetfish. I watched two blue-faced angelfish quarrelling over something in a fight that turned into a sort of ballet, but this is a site rich in characters, from picturesque banner, surgeon, butterfly and triggerfish

Top left: Whitetip reef shark on patrol. Top: Bumpnose unicornfish. Above: Dance of the bluefaced angelfish. Below left: Giant trevally. Below: Oriental sweetlips.

and oriental sweetlips to octopuses and morays. As we were about to ascend divecentre manager Philipp whipped up a perfect storm of fish swirling around his DSMB, and for once a whitetip couldn’t resist making a relatively close pass. A follow-up dive at nearby Endiri Thila offered similar fishy attractions, and made a happy hunting ground for an enormous solitary king trevally. We finished that day at another site replete with photo opportunities, including lobster and turtles, but it made its mark primarily as a bustling anemone city. How do you choose your photo subjects in such a habitat? Concentrate on those you can easily get below.

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OT ALL THE BIG SETPIECE dives were unqualified successes in terms of meeting objectives. Hukurudhoo Faru to the west was all about peering into the blue during a mild drift along the top of a rubbly wall. A faru has reef extending above the surface, and this one is known to attract manta rays when conditions are right. Whitetips patrolled the margin, a Napoleon trundled past one way and an eagle ray the other, but none of them was remotely close to us, and there was no hint of mantas. The currents weren’t playing ball, although as usual there was plenty of

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smaller reef-life to keep us entertained. We tried to focus on the big stuff to the west of the atoll again on my last day. This was at Huruelhi Kandhu, a channel connecting ocean and inner atoll. Our group of six, hoping to be first to the action, took a longish swim against a modicum of current to reach a popular sighting point where the channel narrowed, but it was all too easy in terms of water-flow, so the hoped-for Sharknado failed to materialise. We had been teased by a patrolling grey reef shark and a whitetip going our way along the wall, followed by some eagle rays and then a distant Napoleon – but they were all passing trains in the distance. The star of the show was a sting ray that slipped beneath one of our number without him noticing and stayed there, to our amusement, like his shadow on the sand. My final dives were particularly memorable. On Mirihi Thila you can root around under the deeper overhangs and spiral up slowly to explore the very lively top. Almost every familiar species seemed to be represented there, like some sort of Noah’s Submarine – I won’t list them, you could just look at one of those Maldives fish-cards – but I was particularly taken on this occasion by an amorous pair of peacock grouper. ☛

Above: Sting ray. Above right: Two moray eels enjoy the services of cleaner shrimps. Right: Ocean-Pro diving dhoni. Below right: Luxuriant anemones. Below: Hawksbill turtle.

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It’s a beautiful fish, is Cephalopholis argus, with its blue/olive colouring and stars & stripes markings. The patriarchal male likes to keep harems of up to half a dozen females scattered around his coral-head territory. He hunts morning and evening, but during the day finds time to visit each of his concubines. The female sees him coming, grows pale presumably with excitement and comes to meet him for a catch-up. Both fish, dorsal fins erect, then spend quality time nudging up against one another. The daily ritual is worth

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Above: Afternoon tryst for a pair of peacock grouper. Right: Blue octopus. Below: Queen angelfish on the Madi Ge wreck at night. Below right: Yellowfin emperor on the same dive.

watching – as, I’m told, are male-on-male peacock grouper “colour fights”.

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S AT MOST of the dive-centres I visit, and I would hope you have the same experience, the Mirihi team proved a likeable bunch you’d happily do all your diving with. Sebastian, who might not be there by the time you go as he seems to be a restless soul, volunteered his company for a two-man night-dive to protract my pleasurable Mirihi experience, and I believed him when he explained that any excuse to dive was welcome.

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I’m grateful to him, too, because that dive was a fine climax to my trip. We entered from the steps at the end of the jetty by the centre and spent a few moments by a crack in the wall bursting with striped cleaner shrimps. Then we headed out over the sand, following a line to the Madi Ge, a trawler sunk bow-down in around 24m in 2000. Yes, Mirihi even has wreck, and it’s a nice one from what I could see in the darkness. Stationed behind the bright red propeller and gazing into the scour beneath the hull, we watched a large tawny nurse shark lying asleep. Then we moved up and spent some time exploring the boat, where a queen angelfish was lording it in the upper reaches. Later we made our way back to the reef wall along the sand, which was studded with map pufferfish. Their natural defences mean they don’t need to hide while at rest. We passed some thriving coralpropagation frames. A shy blue moray slithered away, as did what looked like a large, burgundy-coloured segmented

Above: Mantis shrimp.. Below: Spiny lobster. Bottom: Not bad – plenty of life to see just snorkelling off the steps of the water bungalow, including resident blacktips.

worm. I think it must have been some sort of stretched-out sea cucumber, as its pale innards were protruding from one end – a new one on me. Neither had I come across what made me start as it suddenly loomed in my light beam. It was a yellowfin emperor resting on the gravel, but I had been surprised by its size – these are the biggest of the emperors. It’s another appealing fish, with its bright blue head, green heavily scaled body and thick flame-coloured fins. By way of colour contrast, a very pale mantis shrimp protruding from a sandy hole of the same colour nearby proved tricky to capture on camera. There was much more. I was getting a little buoyant in the shallows, but just about managed to stay submerged as we made our back under the jetty legs, giving the folk in the restaurant a modest light show with our torches. I love night-dives, and this had been a particularly enjoyable one. A shower, a change and it was time to see if there was any of the too-good-to-miss buffet left in the main restaurant overlooking the pier. Needless to say, there was.

FACTFILE

GETTING THERE Steve flew with Sri Lankan Airways from London to Male with a short stopover at Colombo. A seaplane operates direct flights on to Mirihi, although on the way out because of bad weather he caught a regular flight to Maamigili in the south of the atoll and was picked up by a Mirihi speedboat. DIVING & ACCOMMODATION The Ocean-Pro Dive Centre provided nitrox in 15-litre tanks when required, to the Editor’s contentment, at Mirihi Island Resort, mirihi.com. Mirihi also offers year-round whale shark trips (he was too busy diving!) WHEN TO GO Any time. It’s calmest and driest from December to March, during the north-east monsoon, and wetter with rougher seas during the south-west monsoon from May to November. Water temperatures is in the 25-30°C range. MONEY Maldivian rufiyaa, credit card only needed at resort. PRICES Return flights to Male with SriLankan from around £800. Return seaplane transfer around £360. Nightly B&B rates at Mirihi start from US $600 per bungalow (two sharing) plus service charge and tax. A 10-dive package costs $540. VISITOR INFORMATION visitmaldives.com

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ELGA WAS ON THE EIGHTH day of a long liveaboard trip across Indonesia. The diving had been superb, and she was having fun and feeling relaxed. She back-rolled into the water, dropped to the seabed at 24m and swam over to a coral head to see what she could find to photograph. The first thing she spotted was a tiny, beautiful, bright red frogfish pretending to be sponge. “Got you!” she thought. “What a great start to the dive!” She spent a couple of minutes taking pictures from various angles until she was satisfied that she had the right shot, then turned to find her husband, who would normally be hovering close by. There he was. She flashed him an OK sign but, instead of responding in kind, he pointed at her waist. She looked down, wondering what the problem was and, at first, she could see nothing wrong. Then she saw what he had noticed. She was not wearing her weightbelt. Her initial thought was that she should go back up to the tender-boat and retrieve her belt, but then it occurred to her that she was already at 24m. What would be the point of ascending to get a piece of equipment to help her descend if she was already on the bottom and doing just fine? She had been wearing 3kg of weight on her belt. This was 1kg more than she usually wore, because she had begun the trip with a new 3mm wetsuit and was aware that, being new, this suit would

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REDUCE, REDUCE REDUCE! Everyone knows that minimising the amount of weight carried is a diver’s holy grail, says SIMON PRIDMORE, but there are practical limits in the quest to down-weight have more positive buoyancy than her old one, which had been compressed and recompressed during a couple of hundred dives over the years and had consequently become thinner, less able to keep her warm, and less positively buoyant too. Helga’s husband slipped a 1kg weight off his weightbelt and passed it to her with a shrug, as if to say that was the best he could do. He raised a thumb, asking her if she wanted to abort the dive, but Helga shook her head. She popped the weight he had given her into a zippered pouch on her harness, and indicated that they should just continue the dive.

Above: The post-dive discussion gets underway.

This they did. They had a great time, ascended after the prescribed 60 minutes and Helga managed the safety stop without any difficulty at all. She is a slim, petite woman, always uses less air on a dive than the others in her group and usually surfaces with at least 70 bar in her cylinder.

THE WEIGHT DEBATE Back on the tender boat, Helga told the group what had happened. “Well, you’ve obviously been wearing too much weight!” said one person. “Maybe you don’t actually need any weight at all,” said another, indicating that Helga hadn’t even noticed that she had left her weight-belt behind until her husband had pointed it out. A third diver began a short speech about how it was always best to wear as little weight as possible, because carrying too much on your belt affected your posture in the water and pushed your legs down. Then, adding air to your BC to compensate for the excess negative buoyancy lifted your head up and made you look like a seahorse. Also, he added, extra air sloshing around in your BC made it hard to keep your balance, and all that rocking and rolling increased your air consumption. A few heads nodded in sage agreement. However, a fourth diver objected; while all that might well be true generally, it certainly didn’t apply in Helga’s case. They had all been diving together for a divErNEt.com

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week and, as far as he could see, even when she had been wearing her weightbelt, Helga’s posture and stability in the water were as good as those of any diver he had seen. And she always had more air left at the end of a dive than the rest of their group. These, everyone acknowledged, were all good points. The conversation moved on. Helga had noticed three things during her almost-weightless dive. The first was

Above: The red frogfish: ‘What a great start to the dive!’

that she had not added any air to her BC at all. The second was that her lower back had started to hurt during the second part of the dive, which was unusual, and the third thing was that she had found it more difficult to stay completely still while she was taking photographs. She concluded that, after 20 dives in her new suit, she evidently no longer needed to wear more weight to compensate for its newness. She had managed to do the dive with only the 1kg her husband had lent her, yet

Read more from Simon Pridmore in: Scuba Confidential – An Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Better Diver Scuba Professional – Insights into Sport Diver Training & Operations Scuba Fundamental – Start Diving the Right Way Scuba Physiological – Think You Know All About Scuba Medicine? Think Again! Scuba Exceptional – Become the Best Diver You Can Be

All are available on Amazon in a variety of formats.

she had missed the sensation of being rock-solid and “centred” in the water that she usually felt. She also guessed that her lower back pain might be associated with her subconsciously arching her spine towards the end of the dive, as her cylinder gradually emptied and became increasingly positively buoyant. Her conclusion was that, while she had shown that she could accomplish a normal dive using only 1kg of weight, and was even able to descend wearing no weight at all when her cylinder was full, this was not a justification for changing the way she dived. Yes, the advice that divers should carry less weight on a dive to improve their posture, balance and air consumption was entirely well-placed, but this did not mean that a diver should therefore carry less weight than they needed. Less was not always best. So far as Helga was concerned, her previous experience had told her that 2kg was what she needed to be completely comfortable and relaxed on a dive, and this latest dive had actually confirmed that this was the case, rather than the contrary. She continued to dive with 2kg with her 3mm suit, and tried to remember never to forget her weightbelt again.

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NATION OF RICHES MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD (Pt 2) A

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allowing us to step off the boat. I got my images, and brushed off Barbara’s continued apprehension that “something bad was going to happen”. Later that day my right ear began to ache, going quickly off the charts. I managed the one-hour flight to Honiara that afternoon without my head imploding, but was in dire need of medical help, even after self-medicating the ear with a concoction of crushedup antibiotics in a solution of alcohol and vinegar for most of the night. And I might have written this off to coincidence had it not been for the compounding of additional problems, including the death of my mobile phone (for no apparent reason) coupled with a case of fever, chills and intestinal distress. Did I somehow insult the spirits on Skull Island? I’m not particularly superstitious but I figured it couldn’t hurt to make my apologies to the deceased chieftains for any perceived faux pas, and thank them for the privilege of capturing their images in their shrines. Which I did with gusto.

In the January edition we left MARK B HATTER heading onward after the first leg of his Solomon Islands adventures but feeling distinctly unwell. Had the curse of Skull Island claimed a victim? VECTEEZY.COM

DIVER’S WORST NIGHTMARE while on a diving holiday is succumbing to some malady that inherently puts a stop to diving for the rest of the trip. This was exactly my predicament midstream on a recent visit to the Solomon Islands. I was halfway through an incredible experience, having completed a week of reef-, wreck- and wall-diving in the crystalline, pristine waters of Munda in the Western Province, and on my way to a week’s worth of diving out of Tulagi in the Eastern Province Florida Islands, when I hit a health speed bump. A big one, and one that might have been the result of my own unwitting irreverence to ancestral spirits at the sacred burial ground on Skull Island. The tribes of the Solomon Islands, particularly in the Western Province, were fond of taking the heads of enemies to ensure that tamu garata (good juju) would prevail over them. They also believed that keeping the heads of their deceased tribal leaders enabled their eternal afterlife. The practice of head-hunting continued until the early 20th century, when missionaries arrived to impose Western “influence” on what they called “these primitive cultures”. Fearing that the Westerners would destroy their revered, centuries-old tradition of skull-keeping, the people moved their leaders’ skulls from local villages to Skull Island, a remote, sacred location where the chieftains could reign in perpetuity in the afterlife. Which, possibly, is where my medical calamity began. On my no-dive air-travel day from Munda back to Honiara I had taken a water-taxi with an Australian journalist and Barbara, a representative from the Solomon Islands Tourism Bureau, to visit the sacred shrines on Skull Island. Barbara had told us that ancient lore barred women from visiting the shrines, leaving her uneasy about our trip. But we did it, assured by our pangadriver that we had spiritual permission after his requisite incantation before

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Coincidence again? The severe ear pain, fever, chills and stomach issues abated quickly after breakfast and my act of contrition, leaving me only with a dead phone and near-deafness in my right ear. Regardless of my improved condition, I had time before my 10am boat-trip to Tulagi in the Florida Islands for a pit-stop at a Honiara clinic, where the medical attendant confirmed my ear infection. He prescribed internal and external antibiotics, then issued me a strict warning: “No diving for at least a week.” As I walked out of the clinic, meds in hand, pain-free but unable to hear from one ear and more than worried, I heard myself say: “Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.” A week sitting in a hotel room in the beautiful and historically storied Florida Islands? No way… The Florida Islands archipelago lies north of Guadalcanal Island on the opposite side of Iron Bottom Sound (Savo Sound before WW2) – so named by Allied sailors for the stretch of water between Guadalcanal, Savo Island and the Florida Islands in which dozens of ships and planes sank during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942–43.

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Left: Anemonefish on Nanjalakaulau Wall. Top: ‘Bulb-tip’ anemone forest at Twin Tunnels. Above: A pair of nudibranchs at Twin Tunnels. Below: Dwarf gobies in bubble coral.

The mountainous archipelago includes two main isles, Nggela Sule (Florida Island) and Nggela Pile (to the south), plus several smaller ones, the largest of which are named Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo. While dive-sites around Munda in the Western Province are largely defined by the inner and outer reef structures surrounding the massive Roviana lagoon, sites around the Florida islands are characterised more by offshore bommies and fringe reefs surrounding the islands, often with plunging walls. There is also a plethora of Allied and Japanese WW2 plane wrecks all around the islands. Tulagi was a significant Japanese

stronghold before the Battle of Guadalcanal, with land-based garrisons and a seaplane port between Gavutu and Tanambogo Islands leaving historic wreckage everywhere within a stone’s throw of diving operations at Raider’s Hotel & Dive. This centre was named after the US Marines 1st Raider Battalion, commanded by Lt-Col Merritt A Edson and known as Edson’s Raiders, on Tulagi. It’s this history, the tropical climate and the spectacular diving on the edge of the Coral Triangle, the epicentre of marine biodiversity, that brings divers like me to the Florida Islands.

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Y WATER-TAXI for the one-hour trip to Tulagi turned out to be the large, comfortable, fast boat from Raider’s Hotel & Dive from which I had been diving. As we cast off from the dock in Honiara I explained my medical problem to Raider’s owner-operator Bob Norton, who suggested a test dive after checking in to see if I could manage. I survived that dive, at a site called Twin Tunnels, and was easily able to clear my ears without issue. I even got to shoot some images with my macro kit. I was now looking forward to exploring those WW2 aircraft wrecks and reefs, mostly minutes from Raider’s dock, for the balance of the week. And with regard to that check-out dive (it was slow to occur to me thanks to my preoccupation with ear-clearing), Twin Tunnels was phenomenal! Only 10 minutes from Raider’s dock, the reef is a large, flat-top volcanic pinnacle, rising from the deeper sound with a pair of ancient lava-tubes roughly in the centre of the reef-top at 15m. The tubes drop nearly vertically, exiting ☛

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along a plunging wall at 36m. They were cool, but I was particularly blown away by the numbers and density of anemones with families of anemonefish atop the reef. Over a bowl-shaped depression near the tunnels, as I hovered a few metres above the reef, I counted more than a dozen anemone colonies represented by five species within my circle of vision. This site is special, and we observed the liveaboard Bilikiki spending a day at the site later in the week. Back at the hotel and finally able to relax, I ordered a beer and rested elbows on the deck railing, overlooking a small

house-reef below. I had counted 11 giant clams when Bob ambled up, announcing: “Dinner is served!” Then he added: “Tomorrow we’ll dive two plane wrecks – an American Catalina between 24 and 31m and a pair of Japanese Kawanashi Mavis 1 seaplanes off Gavutu Island,

Top left: Japanese Mavis aircraft wreck. Top right: Twin Tunnels. Above: Bicolour coral blenny. Left: Fringe reef slope at Maravagi Passage. Below: Medium-calibre munitions on the Catalina wreck.

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between 25 and 32m.” If you’re a wreck buff, particularly if you’re into aviation wrecks, the plane relics around Tulagi should be added to your diving bucket-list. We dived the Catalina before breakfast. The historical record suggests that it was heavy with cargo at take-off and experienced problems during climb-out. Unable to maintain lift, it crash-landed shortly after take-off, killing one passenger though the crew survived. The seaplane rests upright with its fuselage, wings and engines intact; great for wide-angle imagery. Medium-calibre munitions can be found on the left wing, below the gunner’s cupola, a reminder that this aircraft and the others of the time were armed with deadly force. As the wreck is close to shore, in the sound between Tulagi and Gavutu, the bottom is silty and care must be taken not to stir it up – all of which adds to the allure of diving historic relics. Until now, all the wrecks I had dived in

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SOLOMONS DIVER

the Solomon Islands (including those in Munda) had been US planes. So I looked forward to diving the Mavis seaplanes, sunk at anchor during an Allied naval bombardment of the Japanese base during the Battle of Tulagi and GavutuTanambogo. The Mavis were impressively large, multi-engine seaplanes and rested upright on the silty bottom, very much intact. They were sunk rather ingloriously, rather than being shot from the sky, but their history and aluminum “bones” are no less glorious for that. Later in the week, Bob suggested a walldive off Nanjalakaulau Island. With the wind nearly calm, the weather was excellent for the hour-long run to the dive-site. We packed a hearty lunch and

Above: The new discovery, the US Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat. Above right: Front view of the Wildcat wreck.

left early on a smooth sea. About 40 minutes into the run north, Bob slowed the boat and offered a new option. “About three weeks ago, two WW2 relic researchers I’ve been working with approached me regarding a possible new airplane wreck at Maravagi Passage, close to the walls we’d planned to dive,” he explained. “As they were fluent in some of the island languages the researchers talked to locals about the rumoured wreck and commissioned me to help find the plane.” “Incredibly, we found the wreck quickly – a Navy F4F-4 Wildcat, at 37m, right where the villagers said it had gone down more than 70 years ago,” said Bob.

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N OFFER TO BE the first photographer to catalogue a wrecksite doesn’t come along every day. Of course I’d ditch a wall-dive for this opportunity to be, literally, the fourth diver beyond the researchers, Bob and his wife, to dive this relic! Bob recalled his triangulation points from memory, and we slipped into the

FACTFILE

GETTING THERE Brisbane, Australia is the gateway city to the Solomon Islands. Solomon Airlines flies direct from there to Honiara and the resort will arrange boat transfers to Tulagi. DIVING & ACCOMMODATIONRaider’s Hotel & Dive offers three dives a day, raidershotel.com WHEN TO GO Rainy season is November-January but it usually just showers. There is always a lee site to dive if the wind blows. HEALTH A recompression chamber in Honiara is manned by volunteers but not always available – the next is 1500 miles away in Townsville, Australia. MONEYSI dollar, credit cards widely accepted. PRICES Return flights from London around £1200. Three-tank excursion with breakfast, lunch and dinner with a single room at Raiders Hotel & Dive costs £210 a day. VISITOR INFORMATIONvisitsolomons.com.sb

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water but misjudged the current. Reaching the bottom, we clawed our way upcurrent for perhaps 50m before the fighter, lying intact upside-down, materialised into view. Lying in a passage with strong currents, visibility was excellent, with no silt. Time was short, and we worked together to capture the best angle to portray this rare discovery before having to work our way back to the shallows along a beautiful fringe reef at the edge of the passage channel. Back aboard the boat we celebrated with fist-bumps, ate granola bars and hydrated while idling at a nice, slow offgassing pace to our wall-dive site along Nanjalakaulau Island. The wall-diving at the northern end of the archipelago was impressive, as I would expect, with the full cast of characters from reef sharks to giant seafans, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about spending my last dive of the trip back at Twin Tunnels. I wanted to go back with my wide-angle kit, knowing the shots I wanted. “Not a problem!” Bob assured me. “We’ll end the trip with an early-morning dive at Twin Tunnels before we shuttle back to Honiara.” Next morning, again on a smooth sea, we slipped into the water to find excellent visibility and a moderate current. Bob worked with me and modelled well at the mouth of one of the tunnels while I silhouetted him from below. Reviewing my images through the housing, I was pleased with a couple of shots and swam out to shoot the vast bulb-tip anemone forest I recalled from my first dive. It was a fitting end to the second chapter in my Solomon Islands holiday.

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OSTSCRIPT: My hearing remained impaired for four weeks following the trip. In retrospect, the medical issues were simply random incidents, not a curse from malevolent spirits. No, considering the possible dire circumstances of diving with an ear infection, I am now more than convinced that the ability to clear my ears, while diving, and without pain, was based on the gracious intervention of the benevolent spirits of Skull Island; they wanted to share with me their nation of riches, more valuable than gold!

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LOUISE TREWAVAS

Far from shallow

SEE DIVING EVERYWHERE. Perhaps I’m just obsessed. And perhaps that’s why I was bemused by Beachcomber commenting in the March issue on the movie Aquaman: “There’s never yet been a real diving movie that’s done anywhere near as well at the box office as this CGI fantasy epic.” It made me wonder: so what counts as a real diving movie? This question so completely overloaded my brain cell that I couldn’t even start to consider whether looking at box-office takings (BOT) is a good measure of a film. So let’s just accept it for now. I confess that I haven’t seen Aquaman (BOT $1 billion). I had assumed from the publicity that this was simply a movie about a man with grotesquely cartoon-sized pecs. And if that’s what floats your boat, there’s nothing wrong with it. But does it pique my interest as a diver? Not so much. Apparently Aquaman can also talk to fish! For some reason this hasn’t exactly set my interest alight either. So do I need more? What’s the something else I’m searching for? “I’m off the deep end – watch while I dive in. I’ll never meet the ground. Crash through the surface, where they can’t hurt us. We’re far from the shallows now.” Yes! That speaks to me. Forget swimming, only a diver would “crash through the surface”. Only a diver would feel that beneath the surface offers a shelter and a haven. These are lyrics from the Oscar-winning soundtrack from the movie A Star is Born (BOT $425 million). Without wishing to spoil the day for anybody who hasn’t seen the film, it has absolutely no diving in it. So how does that even hit my radar? It might seem obvious that the diving scenes depicted in Bond movies such as Dr No (BOT $16 million) will give them a direct appeal for divers. I don’t deny that. My feeling is that the connection is far less literal. Diving is more than an activity. It’s a sensibility.

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OUR UNDERWATER EXPERIENCES give you a new perspective, a different prism through which you assess and understand what you see. Just as Inuits have 50 words for snow, just as Spiderman (BOT $2 billion) has spidey-senses, so divers can tap into a hidden vocabulary of feelings and experiences gained through diving. There are movies that happen to feature diving, and others set in an underwater environment that try to reflect what it’s like. Fair play to Finding Nemo (BOT $940 million). Pixar did a reasonable job with the look and feel of the coral reef. SpongeBob SquarePants on the other hand (BOT $325 million)… OK let’s not go there. Fish cartoons and mermaid fantasies; they’re not “real diving movies” to me. Gravity (BOT $723 million), with its depiction of weightlessness, managing your breathing and oxygen deprivation, is a really good “diving” movie. The CGI epic Avatar clearly signposts its intentions by featuring recognisable sea creatures and fluorescence, along with rebreathers, and “weightless” floating objects. And with over $2.7 billion BOT, it leaves Aquaman floundering. It’s written in the wind, it’s everywhere I go. Diving is all around us. Or maybe that’s love? Maybe I love diving so much that I’m unable to tell the difference any more.

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FILM REVIEW

LAST BREATH

A new film based on an incredible but true story of saturation divers in the North Sea will be in UK cinemas soon – careful to avoid spoilers, STEVE WEINMAN reviews it (below) and talks to directors Alex Parkinson and Richard da Costa…

THE SATURATED TRUTH Last Breath Directed by Alex Parkinson & Richard da Costa

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OU MIGHT HAVE SEEN THOSE blockbuster movies about fictional saturation divers in peril, like Pressure and Pioneer? Forget about them – for tension and emotional engagement, you deserve to see Last Breath. It’s not just based on a true story from 2012 set in the North Sea, it is that story. It’s a “documentary thriller” about real divers, and I challenge you not to feel the pressure in every sense as its 86 minutes unfold. Also, if this was fiction, you probably wouldn’t believe it. The world of sat divers is far removed from that of recreational divers, like “going into space but under water” as one of the divers puts it. It starts off with three men on board the DSV (diver support vessel) Topaz, wondering with which other two men they’ll be sharing a confined bell over the next month. Quite a consideration, when you think about it. Two of the men, Duncan and David, are veterans and know each other; the other, Chris, is new to the team and keen to prove himself.

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Duncan was Chris’s mentor – or “Sat Daddy” – but David doesn’t know Chris. Duncan vouches for him. Working on part of an oil pipeline 100m beneath the North Sea, 12 hours out from Aberdeen, the divers’ mission is routine – to remove and replace some pipework on an 11m-high structure called a manifold. The surface conditions are rough, but not extreme by North Sea standards. Then, suddenly, control of the 120m mothership is lost as its computer system goes down and the vessel is dragged away from the manifold below, with Duncan in the bell and Chris and David still out on the manifold, connected to the bell only by the umbilicals that provide them with breathing gas, water for heating and communications. And then one of the umbilicals snags on the underwater structure, and troubles really start... How the men variously react to their predicament as it rapidly gets ever more wildly out of control is fascinating – these aren’t actors, remember, and we know we’re learning something about how professionals behave in a crisis. Divers, supervisors, the ship’s medic, Chris’s fiancee Morag and

others speak with disarming frankness to camera along the way, usually dispassionate although sometimes it all gets too much for them, and their accounts of what happened are interspersed seamlessly with incredible archive and black-box underwater footage and underwater reconstructions. When film-makers Alex Parkinson and Richard da Costa describe the film as pulsequickening that’s an understatement, and the swelling music by Paul Leonard-Morgan serves it well in that regard. I watched Last Breath as a screener on a laptop, which is always a subpar experience, and would happily watch it again on a cinema screen. Only one tiny gripe – subtitles are necessary sometimes to make the Mickey Mouse heliox voices of the divers comprehensible, but why use tiny condensed and tracked-out capital letters? They’re as hard to read fast as you can get. I don’t intend to spoil your cinema experience by describing what happens any further, but you do need to see this film. It’s the first diving production of 2019 and it sets the bar high. It goes on general release in the UK on 5 April.

FILM INTERVIEW

HOW WE MADE THE FILM Is this the first project you’ve worked on together? ALEX: Yes, but we’ve known each other for some time. We first met when I was making a film about people living as pigs, for which Richard was living in a pigsty. A few years later he told me the story on which Last Breath is based. He’d been working on oil-industry safety films, and had heard it in a bar from this sat diver.

Above: Directors Alex Parkinson (left) and Richard da Costa.

RICHARD: My jaw was on the floor the whole evening, and I said we have to make a film about this. There had been approaches to the dive company before, but because of some misreporting it had been keen not to get too involved. But I struck up a relationship with this diver and he put me in touch. We watched an industry film looking specifically at the incident, and thought it was such a great story there had to be interest, and we’d like to take it to a wider audience, on a much, much bigger scale. ALEX: The industry film was astonishing to watch and I thought my god, it’s got feature-doc written all over it. Such an incredible story, amazing characters, and the archive video was jaw-dropping. From there on we got together to work it up. You don’t need to be a diver or know much about diving at all to engage with the story and the utter horror of being trapped all alone on the seabed. So that was what drove us eventually to get it made into a feature film for a worldwide audience. Below: Blue-legged crab The film has a sort of sci-fi appeal… hiding under algae. ALEX: Yes, that was what engaged me. Richard knew about diving from his industry work – I had my PADI certification but knew nothing about commercial diving. The pod scenes are like the International Space Station, it’s an alien world. RICHARD: I don’t think people outside the

diving community have any concept of just how extreme that environment is. The pressure difference at which these men were working is 10 times greater than at the surface and the way they live is incredible, even without anything going wrong. You’ve already got drama intrinsically within the environment. All the ingredients are there. ALEX: The industry itself is intriguing, and that’s what the first part of the film is about. For an outsider it’s extremely exciting and also quite fear-inducing – I admire the people who do it but I wouldn’t want to be locked into a pod that size for a month, going down to the seabed for eight hours at a time in the pitch-black. Had the story been reported outside the commercial diving community? RICHARD: When it first happened one of the papers carried a report and there were lots of factual inaccuracies. There was a picture of a fishing-boat that was supposed to be the DSV, for example. We wanted to make the film accessible to a wider audience but also as authentic as possible. Among the understandable anxieties of anyone involved in the story would be: ‘Am I going to be represented properly or are things going to be Hollywoodised or cheapened?’, so we were really keen not to do that. I hope we’ve achieved that – certainly the response of the divers has been that they think it’s as close as you can get. ALEX: They’d be the first people to say whether it’s accurate or not, and their response was overwhelmingly positive. Did everyone agree to take part? ALEX: Everyone took part. The story as told is unique in a way for a film-maker, because you’ve got all these people in very distinctive areas on the ship and in the water. They took a bit of convincing, because obviously it’s a big step to go from being in a film that’s shown only to your peers to then opening it up for everyone, so we spent a lot of time talking them through the process. Because we were so keen to keep it authentic, and because so few people understand what commercial divers do for a living, they were totally up for it when they understood what we were trying to do. Sometimes even their own families don’t understand the nitty-gritty of what they do. They know they ☛

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disappear for months at a time offshore, but it’s so everyday for the divers that they don’t think to tell their families about it. I think they were really excited by the idea of showing their families what they do, and that was a big component of why they took part. RICHARD: The film would be nothing without the people in it and they’re all very different characters, but what they had in common was that they were totally straight with us, told their stories and were very honest about their emotions, their roles in the incident and what they thought and felt as things went along. I think the power of that really comes through in their storytelling. Divers are a unique breed anyway, and they played really well off each other in their interviews, which was a gift for us. The divers appear phlegmatic by nature, so when emotion gets the better of them, it’s quite moving. RICHARD: It’s a very male environment and you would expect it to be a very macho environment. The’re tough guys, but they’re also very caring guys because they live in such close proximity. Because they have to endure the extremes of their environment they look after each other, and it struck us very early on that it was a sort of microcosm of a family unit. I’m very pleased if we’ve managed to get across that these are feeling guys who really care about what they do and, most of all, about each other.

had 60 meetings one way or another. But once people had heard the story they wanted to talk about it. We had the commercial interest all the way through, but it was a question of getting the right package with the right people in place. From getting the go-ahead it took one year before we picked up the first camera in November 2016. Did you encounter any problems while filming? ALEX: Boat movement! RICHARD: Transport vessels aren’t cheap and we were very much relying on the support of the dive company, but we had to work around its schedules, which are very dependent on weather and jobfinishing times. Alex and I had to spend quite a lot of time hanging around Aberdeen harbour waiting for a ship. That was a challenge, because then it was difficult for us to book our crew, so Alex decided it would be best for him to shoot a lot of the offshore stuff himself rather than relying on crew. It turned out to be a really good way of working, far more flexible. Other challenges were the big setpieces like the underwater shoot, reconstructing the bell and so on. ALEX: It was about finding the right location. It took a while but we shot it up at Fort William [at the now-closed

Last Breath is a Dogwoof production

Underwater Centre]. The water in the tank was about 4m deep, so it was quite a challenge to make it look as if it was 100m under water, get the camera angles right and not catch the surface. Erik, a Swedish guy at the centre, did an amazing job on that – I’d totally buy into being at the bottom of the sea there. RICHARD: We had the choice between going to a dive facility and an underwater studio and it made much more sense to go somewhere where we had the dive expertise. The guys at the Underwater Centre were 100% on top of their stuff and totally supportive. ALEX: Then the National Hyperbaric Centre just outside Aberdeen was a real gift for us because it has that sort of bell set-up there. It’s slightly bigger, because there’s no way we could have shot what we did inside a normal-sized bell. RICHARD: In the run-up we also consulted quite a lot on the science side of things with DDRC, and they gave us quite a lot of advice because they were trying to get to the bottom of what actually happened during the incident. It was very helpful having all that background knowledge when we came to shoot the underwater section. ALEX: It was also a joy shooting on the actual ship this all happened on, because all but one of the people seen in shot are the actual people or their equivalents, so the action you see happening is totally authentic – which is very unusual.

Was it difficult getting the film green-lit?

The music really adds to this film…

ALEX: It was quite a long process. Because we were making it as a feature-doc rather than for broadcast it took about three years to get it financed, though that’s quite a short time in the grand scheme of things. It normally takes seven to eight years!

ALEX: Paul [Leonard-Morgan} was superb; he did an amazing job on the score. We had a temp score on the edit, and he just took what we’d put down and elevated it to a whole new level where it had this cohesion about it and is just so powerful. It was a frantic rush to get it done, too, but he did it in four weeks, an incredibly short time to write a whole score and get it recorded.

RICHARD: The difficulty is always getting meetings with people, and we probably

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BOOK REVIEW

DIVING THEIR SOCKS OFF

BIG IN THE INDIAN OCEAN

THETHISTLEGORMPROJECT.COM

Underwater Eden – The Marine Life of Seychelles, by Christophe Mason Parker & Joe Daniels

ss Thistlegorm – The Ultimate Visual Guide to the World’s Greatest Shipwreck (iBook), by Simon Brown, Jon Henderson, Alex Mustard & Mike Postons

THETHISTLEGORMPROJECT.COM

IS THE THISTLEGORM really the best wreck-dive in the world? Is it the best dive in the world? I’d have to answer with a resounding no to both of these claims. I suspect that most divEr readers will be familiar with either the wreck itself or with its reputation, and can form their own view. Is this the most intelligent, most spectacular and most interactive photographic publication about a wreck that I’ve ever seen? Well, I’d have to say yes. It is stunning. The photos and images are topquality, and it combines a wealth of material with “3D photogrammetry and digital reconstruction”. This is some awesomely clever stuff. The four guys behind this publication have clearly dived their socks off, know their stuff and have

taken sublime, mouthwatering images of the wreck. This publication makes you feel that you’ve dived every lovely inch of this wreck with a limitless supply of gas and no concern for your bottomtime. If you’re sent into a spin of excitement by the thought of all those classic motorbikes, trucks, aircraft spares, armoured vehicles and boxes of ammunition, then fill your boots. This is seventh heaven. I can imagine nondivers being persuaded to take up the sport just to experience what they’ve seen here. So I had to ask myself: what is missing? Well, only the circus! The dive-boats jostling for position. The cat’s cradle of competing lines. The brave dive-guides, risking a bend to tie in or retrieve those lines. The queues of divers waiting to enter the holds, torches flicking back and forth like a crazy underwater disco. The champagne effect of thousands of

exhaled bubbles rising through the water. And the Italians, constantly running out of gas and causing endless drama. That’s part of what’s lost between me experiencing and remembering my actual dive, and the experience of looking at a well-researched publication about the wreck with brilliant photos and interactive 3D models, on a computer. Fortunately it’s not a choice of one or the other. You’re really better off doing both. Any dive that you do on this wreck is going to be infinitely better informed, and therefore probably more fulfilling, if you look (and play) with this publication beforehand. Is it the ultimate visual guide to the Thistlegorm? Yes, it certainly is. Top job, guys!

Deep3D, thethistlegormproject.com Available on iTunes for Apple Books, iPad, iPhone & Mac iBook, 113pp, £19.99 Louise Trewavas

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THERE’S A LOT OF MARINE LIFE in the 115-island Indian Ocean retreat of Seychelles, and this is a lot of book. It’s hefty, as is the price. Christophe Mason Parker lives in Seychelles and has written about it in divEr in the past, is a devout conservationist and also co-wrote a guide to popular dive-sites and marine life, with the same publisher, some four years ago. My only real criticism of that guide was that the pictures looked gloomy when the colours of the reefs should have been singing out. As it happens, my initial impression of this new heavyweight tome was again that the photos veered towards the dark side, but on leafing through I decided that this was unfair – while they do tend towards the dramatic and the muted, there is plenty of colour and light too. What I wouldn’t have guessed is that most of these pictures were taken on a single breath while freediving, which is not the easiest way to take underwater pictures. The environments on display range from coral and granite reefs to mangroves and seagrass, and their conservation is at the heart of this book. The two authors met through their work with volunteer organisation Global Vision International but were moved to start on the project by a threat to dredge Baie Ternay Marine National Park in the north-west of Mahe island, where they worked. The dredging was to enable a luxury resort to be built at Cap Ternay. The hotel project never went ahead, but their book project did – recording an underwater environment under threat of destruction provided the impetus the divers needed. And being able to dive around other Seychelles islands, including richly favoured private retreats such as Frégate and Alphonse, was clearly a boon. This is primarily a picture-book – there are chapters on eco-systems, turtles (Mason Parker’s special interest), fish, invertebrates and conservation, but the wordage is not extensive and amounts to solid reference material that won’t spring too many surprises for anyone. Of most interest is the frank appraisal of the environmental threats

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facing Seychelles (even though they will be probably be familiar to you) and the positive steps being taken to combat those threats, such as coralpropagation projects. I don’t honestly think the 145 pictures are spectacular enough to have you leafing through this book again and again, but if you want a Seychelles souvenir this will make a (very) solid if predictable one.

John Beaufoy Publishing ISBN: 9781909612976 Hardback, 224pp, 31x31cm, £45 Steve Weinman

TWO-WAY PUSH Sunken Gold by Joseph A Williams

almost £5 million (£344m today) from the wreck of the Laurentic. The book gives a wonderful account of the challenges the divers faced – from wild seas breaking up the wreck and making recovery of the gold painfully slow, to trying to keep the salvage secret amid political unrest in Ireland. Britain desperately needed the gold but the U-boat threat took priority. So Damant and his dive-team would be called away from the operation to salvage recently sunk U-boats for cyphers, code-books and minefield schematics that would also assist the war effort. After the war Damant and his team were back working on the Laurentic for five years up to 1924 to complete the salvage of the gold – more than 99% of which was recovered. The book is a great read, though it could have done with a better title. Yes, it is about recovering gold, but when the salvage turned to the U-boats I felt a little lost before eventually being put back onto the “gold route” – it almost felt like two books being squeezed into one.

The History Press ISBN: 9780750988933 Hardback, 338pp, 15x22cm, £20 Alex Khachadourian

ON 25 JANUARY, 1917, HMS Laurentic struck two German mines off Lough Swilly on the coast of Ireland, and sank. Few knew what the armed merchant cruiser – an ocean liner before the war – was carrying at the time. What follows in Joseph A Williams’ Sunken Gold is a wonderful account of one of the great treasure salvages ever undertaken. Lt-Commander Guybon Damant (later Captain) was arguably one of the leading Navy divers of his time, and had developed a great understanding of decompression illness theory. He was summoned to Whitehall for a meeting to explore the feasibility of recovering 44 tons of gold, valued at

TOP 10 BEST-SELLING DIVING BOOKS as listed by amazon.co.uk (19 February, 2019) 1. Fifty Places to Dive Before You Die, by Chris Santella 2. Underwater Foraging – Freediving for Food, by Ian Donald 3. Deco for Divers: A Diver's Guide to Decompression Theory and Physiology, by Mark Powell 4. Stars Beneath The Sea: The Incredible Story of the Pioneers of the Deep Sea, by Trevor Norton 5. Amazing Diving Stories – Incredible Tales from Deep Beneath the Sea, by John Bantin 6. Side Mount Profiles, by Brian Kakuk & Jill Heinerth 7. Pirate Hunters (audiobook), by Robert Kurson 8. South Africa & Mozambique Atlas of Dive Sites, by Map Studio 9. Underwater Guide to the Red Sea, by Lawson Wood 10. Dive Maldives: A Guide to the Maldives Archipelago, by Tim Godfrey

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HOLIDAY NEWS

BOOKING NOW… Buddy-checking Jean-Michel

Explorer Ventures expands into Red Sea

The Explorer Ventures liveaboard fleet has added a new vessel, and it’s operating in the Red Sea. The 41m Grand Sea Explorer joined the fleet in January and offers a seven-night itinerary through the Brothers Islands, Daedelus Reef and Elphinstone Reef marine park sites from US $1895pp. The liveaboard takes up to 22 divers in two suites, two double cabins and

10 twin cabins, all equipped with air conditioning, stereos, fridges and en suite facilities. Up to four dives a day are offered from three dive tenders from May to September and three dives on the shorter days for the rest of the year. Nitrox is free. The liveaboard departs primarily from Port Ghalib but will move to Hurghada next year.

The operator is also working in partnership with Emperor Maldives to offer trips on the 42m Emperor Explorer, the liveaboard announced in Booking Now in March, with seven and 10-night trips available for individual and full charter bookings. The growing fleet also covers Saba/ St Kitts, Turks & Caicos and Dominican Republic, Galapagos and Indonesia.

 explorerventures.com

For those inspired by BBC One’s Blue Planet Live broadcasts in March, Dive Worldwide is offering divers trips to the Bahamas (right) and Australia (below) to see some of the underwater attractions featured in the programmes. In Nassau in the Bahamas you can stay at Orange Hill Beach Inn and enjoy six days’ diving with Stuart Cove’s Dive Centre with the sharks and on the various well-populated wrecks. Prices are from £1875pp for seven nights’ accommodation (two sharing), return flights from the UK and 12 boat dives. You might prefer to explore the

SHUTTERSTOCK

 adventures.thirdhome.com

Tec-wreck trip Jack Ingle Technical Diving is planning another expedition to dive the historic WW1 and WW2 wrecks off Malin Head and Northern Ireland, all in the 40-70m range. The WW1 battleship HMS Audacious, 154m tanker Empire Heritage, White Star liner RMS Justicia, D6 and U89 subs and Laurentic are among the possible dive-sites. The six-day boat-diving trip from 7-13 July costs £800pp and makes use of mv Rosguill, a day-boat with lift set up for technical diving. B&B cottage accommodation costs another 38 euros pp per night, and nitrox, oxygen, helium and air also cost extra. Travel is by ferry from Liverpool or Cairnryan to Belfast or Larne, with a two-hour road journey to Donegal.

 [email protected]

Aqaba app Great Barrier Reef on a liveaboard adventure out of Cairns, taking in Ribbon Reefs and the famed grouper population at Cod Hole and, in the Coral Sea, encounters with sharks, possibly including hammerheads, and drop-offs down to 1000m. The final day could be spent on Bougainville Reef with its caves, canyons and Antonio Tarabocchia wreck. This trip costs from £2275pp for seven nights’ full-board liveaboard accommodation, 26 dives and transfers from Cairns. International flights are extra for this holiday.

 diveworldwide.com

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SHUTTERSTOCK

INSPIRED BY BLUE PLANET LIVE?

Want to do some Pacific diving and snorkelling and only a senior Cousteau will do as a buddy? Then you’re invited to join illustrious oceanographic explorer Jean-Michel and his marine biologist on his private Fijian island from 5-12 September 2020, by signing up for ThirdHome Adventure’s “Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Fiji Island Hideaway Adventure”. “Enjoy ocean-to-plate Fijian cuisine, clam snorkelling and reggae-band performances, all the while staying in luxurious bures,” says the operator, which charges from £4917pp for fullboard accommodation, transfers and activities – flights extra.

Jordan’s Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority has launched a smartphone app, Diving Aqaba. It includes interactive 3D underwater maps of more than 20 sites, to help divers plan their dives, and divecentres to brief guests. “Divers can virtually create, record and share their diveplans,” it says.

divErNEt.com

HOLIDAY NEWS

BOOKING NOW…

Deeper into Pacific sharks

Beachcomber dive packages

Yap Divers at Manta Bay Resort is running a two-week shark-awareness event from 12-26 October, with a programme of international sharkconservation studies combined with diving the waters around the Pacific island hotspot. Shark-ecology presentations, photo-workshops and a competition are set to be combined with eco-tours, including a sunset shark photo-shoot, with the conservation organisations Divers 4 Sharks and the Shark Angels in attendance. Grey, blacktip and whitetip reef sharks are the most commonly seen species, with less predictable sightings of nurse, silky, tiger, silvertip, hammerhead and leopard sharks. Packages including B&B accommodation, daily two-tank dives, shark nursery kayak/snorkel trip, island tour, transfers, beach barbecue cost from US $1039 (four nights), $1709 (seven nights), $2399 (10 nights) or $3239 (14 nights).

If you’re looking for a diving holiday in Mauritius, Victoria Beachcomber Resort & Spa is set on a white-sand beach on the sheltered west coast between the capital Port Louis and Grand Baie, with all rooms ocean-facing. It also claims to offer one of the best PADI dive-centres on the Indian Ocean island. Two new dive packages have been created for guests in partnership with Diving World in Mauritius, and include full equipment hire. The five-dive package costs £202 and a full 20-dive option £675. Expect to pay £1547pp at the Victoria this June for an all-inclusive package including Superior room (two sharing), return Emirates flights and transfers.

 beachcombertours.uk

 mantaray.com

Picture this in the Red Sea

Underwater photographer Paul “Duxy” Duxfield has joined forces with Emperor Divers to lead two week-long Red Sea liveaboard workshop trips. Both trips include “open-deck” diving on at least three days, meaning that you can dive with your buddy at times that suit you between 6am and 6pm. There will also be three guided “excursion dives”. The “North & Easy” itinerary takes in Ras Mohammed, Straits of Tiran, the Thistlegorm, Dunraven and Straits of Gubal aboard Emperor Superior from 21 June and costs from £1545pp.

divErNEt.com

BIG BLUE DATES Freediving with blue whales, the world’s largest animal, is reckoned to be a tough act to follow. Amos Nachoum’s Big Animals operation is running trips off San Diego in California this summer, locating the whales using a scout plane, then meeting them from the 12m dive-boat Humboldt. Only four guests are able to go on each one-week trip, which run from 7 and 14 July and cost US $9800pp. Bookings are also being taken for the following year (5 and 12 July) at $10,800pp. If you don’t manage to get onto one of these trips, you might want to consider the thrills that striped marlin encounters 15-20 miles off

Baja California in Mexico can offer. Other predators attracted by seasonal baitballs include California seals and sometimes Brutus whales. Most of the action involves freediving or snorkelling but pony tanks suspended beneath the boat are used to enhance the experience. Nachoum is leading three expeditions this year during peak season from the last week of October to mid-November, again with only four guests on each $4900 trip. The price includes accommodation (not meals), six days’ diving, dive gear, and photo guidance.

 biganimals.com

“South for Winter” covers Abu Dabab, Fury Shoals, the Hamada Wreck at Zabargad and Elphinstone on Emperor Elite from 30 November (£1520pp). Included are return flights from London to Hurghada (20kg baggage limit), transfers, seven nights in a shared cabin, full board and six days’ diving with free nitrox.

 diversetravel.co.uk

AMOS NACHOUM

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WELL AND TRULY

Not wanting to hang about in assessing Suunto’s latest divecomputer, this month’s lead test by STEVE WARREN was carried out on the ‘wet launch’. MIKE WARD has been trying to freeze a reg…

COMPUTER

SUUNTO D5 SUUNTO WAS ONE OF THE FIRST ENTRANTS into the electronic dive-computer market, launching the SME-ML in 1987. This innovative unit was far smaller than earlier contenders from two long-gone brands that took up the diver’s entire forearm – the size of a depthgauge, it sat easily on the wrist. It was also much cheaper. The SME-ML also outclassed its nearest-sized and similarly priced competitor by providing considerably more advanced dive-planning and logbook functions. Today, Suunto is one of the biggest players in the computer field, with a diverse range that encompasses both the needs of holiday-divers and those pushing the limits of technical diving. The launch of a new product from Suunto is therefore newsworthy. The D5 is a wristwatchstyled computer aimed at recreational divers, because it’s restricted to using combinations of normal and enriched air (nitrox) rather than funny gases such as heliox or trimix. That said, this is a machine that can, at first glance at least, consummately handle advanced recreational diving, because you can switch between three air/nitrox mixes under water. Dive-computers are just a part of Suunto’s outdoor instrument range. In the UK the company owns its own Alton-based distribution company, rather than working through an overseas office or outsourcing, which provides continuity of dealer and customer support direct from the manufacturer.

It also has the resources to stage what are, by UK dive-industry standards, big product-launch events, and chose to introduce the D5 at NEMO, the 33m-deep indoor diving centre in Brussels. The computers we were given were close-tofinal-version prototypes rather than production models, which should be available as you read this. Suunto was still making last-minute tweaks, and by inviting dealers and media to dive with these pre-production versions it was being canny, creating pre-launch interest while leaving the way open to react to any issues that might arise. I was able to make only two dives with the D5, partnered by divEr’s Alex Khachadourian, an experienced diver and instructor, so to claim that this is a comprehensive test would be unfair to you and to Suunto itself, because the D5 has far too many features to evaluate properly under restricted test conditions.

The Design At the heart of the D5 is a new RGBM (reduced gradient bubble model) algorithm, the Fused 2 Buhlmann 16gf. This was developed by Suunto with decompression expert Bruce Wienke, whose divEr

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research is incorporated into many popular computers and tables. The RGBM is meant to minimise silent bubbles, which form during ascent and after surfacing from a dive. The D5 differs from other Suunto computers in that it permits shorter decompression times following, for example, deep-air dives. It can handle normal air or nitrox plus two additional switchable nitrox decompression mixes of up to 99% oxygen. While nitrox is readily available from many divecentres and boats, helium mixes are not. While deep-air diving might be frowned upon by some, it’s been with us from the beginnings of helmet diving. People do it, and do it safely. For film units, for example, working at remote locations without access to helium, diving on air beyond the MODs set by nitrox but using nitrox to decompress might well be a pragmatic option. I know a few old pros who seemed able to operate a camera perfectly well on air in the 70-80m range. The algorithm can be further user-adjusted for different degrees of conservatism or liberalism. For example, a tubby diver in their 50s (like me) might choose to go conservative, while a fit 18-year-old might feel at ease choosing the liberal setting. For those diving in mountain lakes, altitude ranges are manually selected, as are maximum oxygen partial pressures. There is a simple Plan mode, so you can scroll through predicted nostop times for your air and PO2 limits, but not run a full depth/time simulation to see how overstaying the NDL (no-deco limit) would affect your decompression obligations. You can recall your dives for logging either by viewing them on the screen to transfer to paper or show to your divemaster, or wirelessly to your phone, using a Suunto app to share your dives on social media. The D5 can be integrated with your main cylinder, plus your stage tanks, using the Suunto POD, one of which is needed for each cylinder. It divErNEt.com

DIVER TESTS will predict remaining gas time based on your breathing rate. You need to program in details of your cylinder pressure and volume, and can also set warnings based on the reserve you’d like, either as a low-pressure warning or based on how long your gas is predicted to last. This option wasn’t tested. Alongside its air and nitrox capabilities, the D5 has a Gauge mode for those who prefer to plan their dives using tables, and a comprehensive Freediving mode. It also functions as a watch, of course! The built in li-on battery is charged from a USB cable. The units were naturally charged by our hosts ahead of time, so I couldn’t test this feature. Suunto wasn’t sure of the operating time itself, because battery life will depend on the final production model’s power draw.

the production unit. Key information such as current depth and remaining no-decompression time are very clear, with less important info, such as maximum depth attained and temperature, shown more discreetly. There is also a graphic display, but I find that reading numbers forces me to concentrate and actually retain the information. Graphics are for smart people, like divEr readers.

Alarms You can pre-set audible alarms to beep at a given depth and time. I wore a hood to test these, but failed to hear them through it. However, as I

In Use Suunto’s market research suggested an age-range ending in the mid 40s for the D5. At 55, I struggle with near vision and, as is often the case with watch-sized dive-computers, reading the displays can be a problem, as it was for me and several other oldies. I didn’t have reading lenses in my mask, so used a camera close lens to work out what I was seeing. A problem when testing dive-computers is often not with the read-outs themselves, but with testers’ over-familiarity with their own unit and glorious unfamiliarity with the test model. Normally I use my own computers as a reference but Suunto had, not unreasonably, specified that only its own computers could be used on the trip, and provided me with an EON Core with its huge display.

Deco Diving

Backlighting The numbers on the D5 are actually quite large, so the information I had been struggling to read were the functions to which these figures related, such as whether I was still within my NDL. The D5’s custom functions let you change the screen layout to suit your preferences as to which and where information is presented. The MIP colour screen is always illuminated by a powerful, adjustable-intensity LED, and I loved this! Parts of NEMO, such as the connecting tunnel between the two deep pits, are quite dark, and the D5 shone brightly there. On many dives it can be tricky to press a backlight button without having to rearrange your grip on a shotline, torch, reel or camera, and shining a torch on a computer screen with your other hand is a pain, because unless you get the angle just right, glare can render the numbers unreadable. With all the deco, navigation and, using the POD, gas info beautifully back-lit, seeing all your dive status at a glance in the dark is a real bonus. The first dive was about getting to know the D5’s basic NDL display. My read-outs had been pre-set and, I guess, will be the default ones on divErNEt.com

exits the menu. The upper and lower buttons scroll up and down to access functions. It’s a very straightforward, intuitive operation, and even I could read the displays easily. Among the functions I selected were high altitude and maximum conservatism because, on the next dive, I wanted to see the full-on deco read-out without actually going into decompression myself. Back at 33m, it wasn’t long before the unit asked for stops. The vibration alarm was sustained and unmissable, and I consider this a fantastic safety feature. Here’s why. Years ago, a good friend and very competent diver made the same mistake I had. He was photographing a clownfish off the stern of the Carnatic some 30m down. He had checked his NDL and felt he had plenty of time remaining. When he next looked, he had an eight-minute decompression stop on the go. From that depth, on a single, underfilled 12-litre, having enough air for decompressing can become an issue, the more so if the situation is compounded by being slow to begin your ascent, swimming against current or needing to share air. If you aren’t prepared for a decompression dive, it’s not good to be overtaken by mandatory stops. The vibration alarm, a bit like a pilot’s stall warning stick shaker, should be unmissable. Begin your ascent immediately and, chances are, the stop will clear before you reach it. However, I would have liked to test it with the D5 worn over a suit rather than a bare wrist.

Clockwise, from top left: Compass view; Freediving mode; POD-pairing; gauge-timer. crossed the depth threshold, a depth alarm was displayed on a strapline across the face of the D5, and remained there until I had acknowledged that I’d seen it by pressing a button. I tested the ascent-rate audible alarm by ascending quickly but, again, couldn’t hear the beep, although the graphic warning was very prominent. The trouble with most dive instruments is that they’re passive – if you don’t look at them, there’s not much they can do to tell you how to stay safe. I remember unintentionally straying into deco when I was at 12m shooting pictures, and plenty of divers have lost track of time, depth and air through inattention. So I was very interested in the Suunto D5’s unique selling point – a vibrating alarm. Back on the surface, I spent some time going through the D5 menus, including how to set this alarm. The D5 uses three push-buttons to access the menus. The centre one is basically a select button. A simple short or long press enters or

Once into deco, the information needed to manage it is neatly displayed. If you’re linked to your gas supply using the POD, you can see an estimate of how long your gas will last. You can see your TAT (total ascent time) and gas duration and ensure that there’s enough breathing gas to cover it. I’m casual about dives with up to 20 minutes of stops so, if I’m having a good dive, these features let me decide how far I want to push things. Along with TAT, the D5 indicates your ceiling, the optimum depth for decompressing, and works its way down, starting at 3m. It also has a deep-stop option that, even on no-stop dives, will ask for a brief stop at around half the deepest depth attained. On both NEMO dives, this was at around 16m. If you don’t care for deep-stop theory, you can turn it off. Decompression and safetystop time is clearly counted down once you’re in the correct depth zone. There are the usual visual and audible alarms if you rise above the ceiling. The electronic compass has an easy-to-see degree scale set around the D5’s perimeter. You can also preset your heading, helping you to navigate back to your exit-point, for example. The ability to customise displays might well help when using the compass, as a lot of information can be presented at once, which you might want to tame. ☛

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DIVER TESTS Other Features Suunto made a great deal of the D5’s strap range, as it’s likely to be worn as a dress watch. For diving, a Zulu strap offers similar security to a NATO strap, passing through both pins to prevent the loss of the D5 and all that divemanagement information should a pin break. For those with huge wrists and thick dive-suits,

REGULATOR

APEKS XL4+

extension straps are offered. The range of strap and casing colours should make it easy to keep track of your unit if your buddy also owns one.

Conclusion The Suunto D5 is a very well thought-through dive computer for the users for whom it is designed. You need to ensure that you can read the displays, as with any computer and especially watch-sized models. With user-updatable features, the option for gas integration and three possible mixes for advanced decompression schedules, plus those all-important social-media facilities, the D5 looks set to be another success for Suunto. Who knows, on closer acquaintance it might turn out to be worth even more stars. ■

Tank-pressure screen.

SPECS TESTERSteve Warren PRICE £545 (stainless), £595 (black finish) ALGORITHMFused 2 Buhlmann 16gf RGBM WEIGHT90g DEPTH-RATING100m CONTACT suunto.com DIVER GUIDE ★★★★★★★★★✩ divEr

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A FEW YEARS AGO, I WAS SITTING on the boat after a dive in Watamu Marine Park, north of Mombasa on the Kenya coast, listening to a pair of South African divers congratulating themselves on purchasing environmentally sealed coldwater regs. These they said had gone on working despite a marked temperature-drop on the dive. And indeed there had been a cold patch, a sudden sweep of cold current running from north to south that reduced the water temperature, for a short time, from 28° – all the way down to 24°. That’s Centigrade, not Fahrenheit, just in case you were confused. Apex clearly has a different definition of water that’s cold enough to freeze your regs. When I reviewed its XL4 last year, I talked about the work the manufacturer had done to produce a regulator with excellent freeze-resistance, and now it’s claiming even better performance in lowtemperature water with the XL4+. Well, Apeks, we’ll see. As usual with Apeks the quality was oozing out of the unopened box, but when I did flip the lid I found that the XL4+ has a white second stage and a white low-pressure hose, braided rather than rubber for better coldwater performance. The materials used have UV inhibitors moulded in to prevent discoloration to an unattractive yellow over time.

The First Stage The first stage is, of course, still based on the DS4. It’s environmentally sealed and features the same maximised surface area. This allows for heat

exchange and prevents icing, and the over-moulded end-cap adds to the anti-freeflow properties and helps to protect the regulator from knocks. Four medium-pressure and two high-pressure ports are featured, and my only real niggle with the first stage is that the hp ports point slightly backwards, forcing the hoses you plumb into them to curve in a longer arc than strictly necessary – and a tank-transmitter can be less than well protected. The lp ports are extremely well thought-out in terms of positioning, however, and on such a small first stage there isn’t oodles of room to place ports where you want them.

First stage from above, with the two backward-facing hp port-plugs slightly unscrewed so that you can see the positioning. divErNEt.com

DIVER TESTS

Second stage with venturi control lever in pre-dive position.

The Second Stage The second stage is as compact and lightweight as the XL4’s, and looks pretty much indistinguishable, colour apart. Its light weight plus the positive location provided by the standard Comfo-Bite mouthpiece should make jaw fatigue a thing of the past. Certainly for me two-hour dives and four dives a day with the XL4 had been no issue. The reusable clip that holds the mouthpiece in place and allows quick and easy replacement has also been retained. Internally, the second stage continues with the over-balanced diaphragm design that allows the intermediate pressure between first and second stages to increase more quickly than ambient pressure on descent. The result is a regulator that Apeks claims breathes better at depth. I couldn't say that the effect was noticeable,

but given Apeks’s reputation in the technical arena I’m not about to argue. The reg certainly stayed smooth at depth. As you’d expect, there’s a venturi +/- switch to the left of the second stage, where it falls easily to hand. As with the over-balanced design, I’ll admit that I’ve never really noticed much difference in breathing resistance when I’ve flipped venturi-equipped regs mid-dive to see what happens, though a friend who services regs for a living tells me I’m wrong, and that it make a very noticeable difference to him. Well, potatoes, tomatoes, the switch is there if you want it.

In Use Time to see what the XL4+ is made of, and I waited until I could find some proper cold water, determined to see if I could make this baby freeflow. See how much dedication you get from us at divEr? My mama didn’t raise no stupid kids, mind, so I wasn’t actually about to do that while I was diving with the XL4+ and relying on it to keep me alive. No, what I did was attach it to a steel 15 and leave it immersed in a horse-trough outdoors overnight when the forecast was for frost. The following morning the trough even had a thin layer of ice on the surface that I had to break before I could reach to press the purge on the second stage.

Gas flowed and, when I stopped purging, gas stopped. I pulled the second stage above the surface to encourage icing, and tried again. Same result. I stood the bottle up to encourage the wet first stage to ice up, re-dunked the second stage to make sure it was wet and still couldn’t make the XL4+ freeflow. And don’t think I just tickled the purge; I hit that sucker good and hard and held it down for a fair while before releasing it. Actually, 30 seconds, reasoning that even the slowest breathers among us won’t take only two huge breaths per minute. I’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t a scientific test, but after that I’ll just say that I had no hesitation using the XL4+ in water at 2°. That’s still Centigrade.

Conclusion What else? Well, the XL4+ works really well as a reg, breathing smoothly and staying dry regardless of orientation or depth, but that wasn’t exactly a revelation. This regulator is an all-round excellent performer, just like the XL4 before it. ■

SPECS TESTER Mike Ward PRICE £401 for first stage with single second stage

WEIGHT 925g as tested CONTACT apeksdiving.com DIVER GUIDE ★★★★★★★★★✩

BC

TUSA BC0103B LIBERATOR TUSA IS A JAPANESE COMPANY that started in 1952 and came to prominence in the UK in the 1980s as Tabata USA. CPS Partnership has distributed TUSA since 1998 as one of a number of diving-equipment lines. It further refines the ranges it offers by cherrypicking, rather than carrying every single product. This policy is designed to ensure happy customers. When I tested TUSA’s top-of-the-line Soverin Alpha BC I was very impressed, and it later won a divEr Award for its design and capabilities. CPS Partnership subsequently lent me the budget Liberator BC to trial. So does a bottom-of-the-line BC from a slightly under-the-radar manufacturer stand any chance of impressing a diver who has experienced top-of-theline kit from diving’s biggest brands? Well, once again TUSA over-delivers, making this a very attractive budget BC, and making me look as if I’m writing advertorial. Let’s go through its features and benefits and ☛

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DIVER TESTS how it performs in the water to understand why, examined objectively, it’s a winner.

The Design The Liberator is a jacket-style BC that distributes air either side of your cylinder for routine horizontal swimming under water, air that moves up to your shoulders during ascents. When fully inflated at the surface, air also fills the side-pouches, pushing a properly weighted and trimmed diver upwards to sit near-vertically with head and at least the top of the shoulders clear of the water. The single-bag outer bladder facing away from the diver employs 500-denier Cordura. This coarse weave should be resilient to punctures that can occur with wreckage and coral. On the side sitting against the wearer, smoother 420 denier is used. This is resistant to abrasion from constant contact with your suit. The choice of materials should make this a longlasting BC, even with a lot of use. The buoyancy of the medium-sized BC is 14kg, typical of BCs aimed at divers using single tanks and coldwater wet- or drysuits. The harness has breakaway shoulder-straps with side-release buckles. The height of the buckles is fixed, so you can’t adjust their position on the webbing. Height adjustment lets you change the buckles’ position, allowing it to rest comfortably on your collarbone, for instance, and this comfort feature is commonly left off budget BCs. The chest strap is also fixed (height adjustment can help prevent interference with a drysuit chest inflator), again with a side-release buckle and a small whistle built in for surface signalling. The cummerbund is closed with Velcro. Its length can be easily and quickly adjusted, so you can keep it snug if you change between a dive-skin and a drysuit, or (within reason) lose or gain weight. Finally, a waist-strap with another side-release buckle fastens over the cummerbund. The plastic back-pack has a built-in handle and is lightly padded. The cylinder camband uses TUSA’s Rite Tite

Direct feed and mouthpiece and buttons. divEr

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buckle. There’s an adjustable top loop to set the height of your cylinder, which can help with pitch-control and stop you hitting your head on the regulator.

Cargo pocket and weight pouch with hi-vis, easily identified, quick-release pull-handle.

Inflation Inflating and dumping is straightforward. The direct-feed is operated by a large push-button and oral inflation/mouthpiece dumping is done through a coldwater mouthpiece. There are three dump-valves. One is a rapid exhaust built into the top of the oral-inflation hose and activated by pulling down on the mouthpiece. A second is mounted on the right shoulder and the third is a bum-dump on the jacket’s lower right. The shoulder and bum-dump have nice large pull-knobs in hi-vis colours to make them easy for your buddy to locate. For stowing and carrying accessories, the Liberator has two pockets and five D-rings. The pockets are large and closed with double zippers, a nice touch. Above each pocket is a small plastic D-ring, suited to clipping on an octopus-holder or console. At the bottom of the BC are two more and, on the right shoulder, a large metal D-ring suitable for securing a safety-line or my very expensive camera!

In Use Back in Gibraltar once again as a guest of the Gibraltar Sub Aqua Club, a BSAC branch, I put the Liberator through my usual BC test criteria. The camband is really nice. The cam-lever can be pushed closed with two fingers, so there’s none of that huffing and puffing trying to force it shut, as with some makes. If you aren’t into brute force or don’t have strong hands, the Rite Tite buckle is a positive advantage. Once on my tank, I never took the Liberator off it for the six test-dives. Unlike with some other BCs, the top handle built into the pack is easy to use for carrying your set, or for someone else to hold as they pull your set into the boat. When you inflate the Liberator, the bladder

Rapid exhaust valve (double ty-wrapped).

does expand inwards a fair bit, as do many others, so it’s best to tighten the straps with the bladder half-full. I liked the harness – it doesn’t seem to flop around, so the shoulder-straps don’t tangle, or you find the cummerbund stuck together in back of you. So it’s very easy to put on unassisted. The weight-pockets were simple to load. I opted for around 3kg in each quick-release side pouch and 1kg each in the non-ditchable trimweight pockets. I was using a 300-bar 12-litre steel cylinder, so by the time you add air, regs and DSMBs and reels, you’re approaching an all-up weight of more than 30kg. Shore-diving on the Rock means 250m walks with a choice of steep slope or even-steeper steps, so this is a good test of a BC’s comfort under load. I found the Liberator far more comfortable than a rival top-of-the-line BC I used to own – those shoulder-straps would really cut into my shoulders. The TUSA’s lift is similar to that of other jacketstyle BCs but I found the buoyancy better distributed, pushing me a little higher out of the water. I measured this at the start of the dive, when I was around 4kg overweighted to compensate for air loss during the dive. The Liberator held my mouth around 20cm above the waterline, which is higher than other models I’ve so far tested. In reality you’ll float even higher when using the lower-pressure, smaller-capacity cylinders provided by most dive-centres and liveaboards. I floated vertically, rather than pitched forwards or backwards, so there’s no need to divErNEt.com

DIVER TESTS

expend energy finning to keep your head high as you look out for your pick-up boat on the horizon. Underwater stability was excellent. I didn’t find it necessary to flutter my fins or hands to

divErNEt.com

compensate for any pitching or rolling. Trim and weight properly and this is a consummate performer under water. Imagemakers will appreciate this, because it makes framing photographs easier and eliminates wobblecam when shooting movies. The direct-feed inflated the BC in as little as 4 seconds. It’s progressive, allowing some control of the inflation speed. Push the button gently and it inflates a little more slowly. Direct-feed and oral-inflation/dump-press buttons are easily differentiated by touch, shape and contrasting hi-vis colours. The oral inflator has an anti-debris mesh panel inside to keep out small stones, another nice feature for shore-divers. BC dump-valves are supposed to dump faster than the BC’s direct-feed can inflate, so that if your direct-feed jams open you can still control your ascent. I tested this and found that both the rapid exhaust valve and shoulder-dump could easily outpace the inflation rate. I also wanted to test the stopping distance if the BC was fully inflated, which might happen if the direct-feed failed and the diver began ascending before being able to reach the dump. I do this test in about 10m by holding onto a bit of wreckage, pumping up the BC and letting go. Either top dump could brake the ascent in a little over a metre. There was no water in the BC after I’d finished my series of test dives – the

dumps have really efficient non-return valves. The storage pockets easily swallowed a full-size DSMB, with space for a finger-spool. The two zipper-pulls mean that you don’t have to reach to the far front or back of the pouch to fully open or close the zipper, and I found removing and replacing items in the pockets easy, even with 3mm gloves. There’s an additional fail-point here, I suppose, because of the second pull-tab. The pockets aren’t impeded by the weight-pouches, either.

Conclusion The Liberator is a very nice BC for single-tank diving. It meets the needs of lift, comfort, stability, safety and ease of use like a trooper. Highly recommended. ■

SPECS TESTERSteve Warren PRICE £298 SIZESXS, S, M, L, XL WEIGHT3.4kg, Size M (including weightpockets)

DUMP VALVES3 D-RINGS5 COLOURBlack CONTACT cpspartnership.co.uk DIVER GUIDE ★★★★★★★★★★

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NEW BUT

Certina PH200M Watch 

The latest kit to hit the dive shops

Certina has reimagined one of its wristwatches from 1967. The DS PH200M uses an automatic movement sealed in a stainless-steel case with the manufacturer’s signature turtle insignia on the back. Easy visibility in total darkness is claimed, thanks to highly luminous indices and hands on a black dial. There’s a one-way bezel, and a brown leather dress-strap and NATO-style dive-strap are included. Supplied in a waterproof box, the watch costs £565.  certina.com

Amazea DPV  If its claimed underwater cruising speed of 20kph is accurate, the Amazea can outpace many a marine animal. Said to be highly manoeuvrable, the erstwhile water toy could also be a serious tool for scientists needing to tag fast-moving pelagics or survey reefs and wrecks. Or you could just go joy-riding and beat the dive-boat back to shore. Interchangeable rechargeable batteries power the jet-drives and all-up weight is a mere 20kg. The price is 6850 euros net. amazea.com

Scubalamp P53 Light OTS Spectrum Full-Face Mask  Ready to go full-face, but want to go on using your own regulator? The Spectrum from Ocean Technology Systems is said to be compatible with most second stages, and to offer comfort, including eliminating dry-mouth and jawfatigue, as well as a wide field of view. The Spectrum accepts a choice of wireless OTS communication sets. The price is US $399.  oceantechnology systems.com

 Not sure whether to shoot stills or video? The Scubalamp P53 is designed to light either. In Strobe mode, you have a 10,000lumen flash, claimed to be perfect for close-up and close-focus wide-angle photography. Select video and you have push-button power control of the 5000-lumen LED lamp. Covering 100°, equipped with lithium-ion battery-pack and rated to 100m, it costs £489 including fibre-optic cable, ball-mount and charger.  deepshots.co.uk

Scubapro Nova 250 Torch  Reckoned to pack into the smallest BC pocket, Scubapro makes a lot of claims for this compact dive-light. Putting out 250 lumens from its Cree XPG LED bulb, it features half-power and flashing beacon modes. A single CR123A battery is said to power the Nova 250 for up to five hours. The aluminium body is rated to 150m, and the price is 69 euros.  scubapro.com

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JUST SURFACED Denver ACK-8058W Action Cam  This new action cam and housing offers an impressive specification. The Denver ACK-8058W lets you shoot interpolated 4K video and 16MP stills. There’s a 130° wide-angle lens to take in all the action and a 2in HD TFT screen, plus wireless connectivity to your smartphone. The included housing is claimed safe to 40m – and all for £65.  nautilusdiving.co.uk

Scubapro Sport 3.0 Wetsuit  The new Sport 3.0 wetsuit uses extremely soft and supple 3mm neoprene with a triathlon cut to provide exceptional freedom of movement, according to Scubapro. The one-piece design features flat lock seams for comfort and a durable brass YKK rear zipper. In men’s and women’s fittings, it costs £125.  scubapro.com

INDONESIA SPECIAL

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JESPER KJOLLER

Ringflection A new angle on underwater photography

La Manga A wreck-diving jaunt to southern Spain

Perseus Victim ‘Guess what, I think I’ve just discovered an oil-tanker!’

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Bovisand Lodge Estate, Plymouth. 4* Gold Award, selfcatering holiday park, 2.5 miles from Mountbatten Diving Centre. Range of quality accommodations. Free parking for RIBs. Indoor heated pool. Weekend and part week bookings available. Tel: (01752) 403554 www.bovisand.com (71051) Venture Dive Charters. For quality diving from Plymouth, visit: www.venturecharters.co.uk or Tel: 07948 525030. (73533)

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Dive or snorkel with friendly seals at Lundy Island aboard our modern vessels (both with diver lift), and dive many of the exquisite sites around Lundy with the area’s most experienced skippers and crew, now in our 17th season. We are offering spaces and small group bookings on some dates. Contact: lundydiving.co.uk or 07971 462024.

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Arnewood Divers, Christchurch - where diving is safe and fun from our own hard boat. Training from beginner to Instructor. Find us on Facebook or https:// sites.google.com/view/adsac/home Active and friendly BSAC club. All year diving in local lake. New and qualified divers of all agencies welcome. Own clubhouse with 7m RIB and compressor. For further information visit www.mksac.co.uk (64403) Alfreton (Derbys) BSAC 302. Welcomes new members and qualified divers. A small but active club with own RIB, wreck diving a speciality. Contact Angela on 07866 799364. (68370) Appledore Sub-Aqua Club (SAA 35) Friendy club welcomes experienced divers from all agencies . Regularly dives Lundy island , own hard boat / compressor . Contact Damian 07831 152021. Banbury SAC. Friendly, active club with weekly meetings and training sessions, own boat, compressor and equipment. Welcome divers/non-divers. www.bansac.org or call 07787 097 289. (69308) Birmingham Underwater Exploration Club. Friendly, active dive club. Weekly pool sessions. Regular trips. Own RIB based in south Devon. Training and equipment loan available to members. Tim 07775 580033. Bracknell Sub Aqua Club welcomes new and experienced divers from all agencies. Meets poolside at Bracknell Sports Centre, Thursdays from 8.30pm. Diving, training and social calendar: www.bracknellscuba.org.uk or tel: 07951 855 725. (65792) Braintree Riverside Sub Aqua Club based in Braintree, Essex. A friendly club, we welcome divers of all abilities and have an active diving and social programme. Come and join us! email: [email protected] www.braintreeriversidesac.co.uk (69397) Bromley/Lewisham Active divers required. Full programme of hardboat diving throughout the year. Check out Nekton SAC www.nekton.org.uk or contact Jackie (01689) 850130. (68537) Buckingham Dive Centre. A small friendly club welcoming all divers and those wanting to learn. We dive throughout the year and run trips in the UK and abroad. www.stowe subaqua.co.uk Tel: Roger 07802 765366. (69433) Chelmsford and District SAC meet at 8pm every Friday at Riverside Pool. New and qualified divers are welcome. See our website for details: www.chelmsforddiveclub.co.uk (68620) Cockleshell Divers, Portsmouth, Hants. Small, friendly club welcomes new and experienced divers from all

agencies. Meets at Cockleshell Community Centre, Fridays at 8pm. Email: [email protected] (64762) Colchester Sub-Aqua Club welcomes experienced divers and beginners. Sub-Aqua Association training. Diving at home and abroad. Meets at Leisure World Friday evenings. Contact Tony (01787) 475803. (68263) Chingford, London BSAC 365. Friendly and active club welcomes divers from all agencies and trainees. Meet Wednesday 8pm, Larkswood Leisure Centre E4 9EY. Information: www.dive365.co.uk Email: loughton [email protected] (69208) Cotswold BSAC, a friendly club based at Brockworth Pool, Nr Cheltenham, Fridays 8pm. Regular inland diving and coast trips. Tel: 07711 312078. www.cotswoldbsac332.co.uk (68577) Darlington Dolphins Sub Aqua Club, small friendly BSAC/PADI, open to new and experienced divers. Meet Friday night in Dolphin Centre at 8.30. Tel: 07773 075631 or email [email protected] (72665) Darwen SAC, in Lancashire, with an active diving programme. Own RIB. new members welcome regardless of agency/training. We provide BSAC training. Weekly pool sessions. www.darwensac.org.uk (69161) Dream Divers. Very friendly dive club in Rotherham welcomes divers of any level/club. Meet at the Ring O Bells, Swinton, last Thursday of the month at 19.30. Email: [email protected] (69699) Ealing SAC, BSAC 514. Friendly, active club, own RIBs; welcomes new and experienced divers. Meets Highgrove Pool, Eastcote, Tuesday nights 8.30pm. www.esac.org.uk (68413) East Cheshire Sub Aqua. Macclesfield based BSAC club. Purpose-built clubhouse, bar, two RIBs, minibus, nitrox, compressor. Lower Bank Street, Macclesfield, SK11 7HL. Tel: 01625 502367. www.scubadivingmacclesfield.com (65609) East Durham Divers SAA welcome new/experienced divers of any agency. Comprehensive facilities with own premises half a mile from the sea. Contact: John: 07857 174125. (68663) East Lancs Diving Club based in Blackburn. Friendly, active club welcomes new members at all levels of diving from all organisations. Tel: 07784 828961 or email: ELDC@ (69411) hotmail.co.uk www.eastlancsdivers.co.uk Eastbourne BSAC; RIB, Banked air (free) to 300bar, Nitrox, Trimix. Enjoy some of the best diving on the South Coast, all qualifications welcome. www.sovereigndivers.co.uk (65695) Eastern Sub Aqua Club SAA 1073. We are a small friendly dive club and welcome new and experienced divers alike. We are situated north of Norwich for training. For more information please see out website: www.esacdivers.co.uk (65879) Ellon Sub Aqua Club, Aberdeenshire, welcomes newcomers and experienced divers. We dive year round and meet on Thursday evenings. Contact www.ellonsubaquaclub.co.uk (65523) Fife Scuba Divers Tel: 07575 372575. www.fifescubadivers.com. SAA Club No203. Meetings: Thu 19.30, 81 East Way, Hillend, KY11 9JF. Training Club, Crossovers welcome. (72380) Flintshire Sub Aqua Club based in Holywell, Flintshire, welcomes new and experienced divers from all agencies. Full dive programme. Meet Wednesdays. See us at www.flintsac.co.uk or call 01352 731425. (64293) Guildford BSAC 53. Welcomes new and qualified divers. Friendly, active club with 2 RIBs, compressor, Nitrox,

INSURANCE

meets Tuesday at clubhouse with bar. www.guildfordbsac.com or call 07787 141857. Hartford Scuba BSAC 0522, based in Northwich, Cheshire. A friendly, active diving club. Compressor for air and Nitrox fills. RIB stored in Anglesey. www.hartfordscuba.co.uk (67287) Hereford Sub Aqua Club, is looking for new members. Regular diving off the Pembrokeshire coast on own RIBs. Training and social nights. Contact: [email protected] (69146) HGSAC. South Manchester based friendly, non-political club welcomes newcomers and qualified divers. Lots of diving and social events. Family. Three RIBs and compressor. www.hgsac.com (68501) High Wycombe SAC. Come and dive with us - all welcome. Active club with RIB on South coast. Contact Len: 07867 544 738. www.wycombesubaqua.com (69131) HUGSAC - BSAC 380. Experienced club, based around Hertfordshire, with RIB on the South coast. Members dive with passion for all underwater exploration. All agencies welcome. www.hugsac.co.uk (63275) Ifield Divers. Crawley-based club. Twin engine dive boat with stern lift in Brighton Marina.Training for novices, diving for the experienced - all qualifications welcome. www.ifield-divers.org.uk Email: [email protected] or tel: 01883 731532. (64514) Ilkeston & Kimberley SAA 945, between Nottingham and Derby, welcomes beginners and experienced divers. We meet every Friday night at Kimberley Leisure Centre at 8.30pm. Contact through www.iksac.co.uk (68559) K2 Divers, covering West Sussex/Surrey. A friendly BSAC club, but all qualifications welcome. Training in Crawley, boat at Littlehampton. Email: [email protected] or tel: (01293) 612989. (68335) Kingston BSAC, Surrey. Two RIBs , clubhouse and bar, active dive programme, two compressors, Nitrox, Trimix, full training offered at all levels. All very welcome. www.kingstonsac.org or tel: 07842 622193. (69176) Lincoln - Imp Divers. Small, friendly, non-political diving club with our own RIB are looking to welcome new and experienced divers. Contact Richard: 07931 170205. (69383) Lincoln and District BSAC. Active club with own RIB, compressor and other facilities. Regular trips and training. www.lincolndivingclub.co.uk (69336) Lincs Divers BSAC 1940. Friendly, active dive club offering dive trips and training for new/experienced divers. Lincoln based. www.lincsdivers.co.uk Llantrisant SAC, two RIBs, towing vehicle, welcomes new and experienced divers. Meet at Llantrisant Leisure Centre 8pm Mondays. Contact Phil: (01443) 227667. www.llantrisantdivers.com (68519) Lutterworth Dive Club, active, social, friendly. Own RIB, regular trips. Welcomes qualified divers, any agency. Training at all levels. Most Tuesdays, Lutterworth Sports Centre. www.lsac.co.uk (70043) Leeds based Rothwell & Stanley SAC welcomes new and experienced divers, full SAA training given. Purpose built clubhouse with bar, RIB, compressor. Meet Tuesday evenings: 07738 060567 [email protected] Mansfield and District Scuba Diving Club. www.scubamad.co.uk. Sub Aqua Association - club 942. 8 Beech Avenue, Mansfield, Notts. NG18 1EY. (71643) Manta Divers. Norfolk wreck & reef diving. Small, friendly, experienced club. All agencies welcome. SAA training. www.mantadivers.org (64088) Mercian Divers (BSAC 2463) Active & Friendly club. New, experienced & junior divers welcome. Own RIB. Based in

CLASSIFIED ADS Bromsgrove, West Midlands. Tel: 01905 773406 www.mercian-divers.org.uk (65391) Merseydivers (BSAC 5) Friendly & active club with 2 RIBs & Compressor/Nitrox/Trimix. Meeting every Thursday 7pm till late. All divers welcome. www.merseydivers.com or call Steve on 07570 015685. Merseyside training club, new and active divers from all agencies, weekly pool session. Own Rib towing vehicle Contact www.wapsac.org.uk or [email protected] Millennium Divers. Active, friendly club for all levels and certifications of diver, based in Portland, Dorset. UK diving and holidays. Club social nights www.millenniumdivers.org (68351) Mole Valley Sub Aqua Club. Surrey based SDI club, own RIB, active diving UK & Abroad, training and social events. Trainees/crossovers welcome. Contact: 07410 949268 or email: [email protected] (68691) Monastery Dive Club (Dunkerton Branch). New divers welcome to join our club. Trips to Plymouth and NDAC. GSOH is a must. South Wales area (Crosskeys, Risca.) Text: Flinty 07971 432803 or email: welshflinty@ hotmail.com (65305) Nekton SAC. Based in Bromley, we are a friendly and active SAA Club that welcomes experienced and new divers alike. [email protected] or call Steve: 020 8467 4599.(68387) Nemo Diving Club. Small friendly dive club offering dive trips and training for non/experienced divers in Retford and surrounding areas. Contact: www.nemodiver training.co.uk (69640) North Wales Sub Aqua Club. Llandudno based and open to new and experienced divers. Fun, friendly and active SAA affiliated club. Training every weekend. www.nwsac.wales (70688) North Glos BSAC 80. Friendly, active club welcomes new and experienced divers. Own boat and equipment with weekly pool sessions, Thursdays, 8.30pm at GL1 Gloucester, (Gloucester Leisure Centre). www.nglos.co.uk (68483) Nuneaton. Marlin BSAC welcomes experienced divers to Pingles pool every Thursday. Active training, diving, social programme in a flourishing club with no politics allowed. www.marlinsac.com (69322) Orkney SAC. Small, friendly active dive club, based in Kirkwall, welcomes divers of any level or club. Own RIB and compressor. Contact Craig: 07888 690 986 or email: [email protected] (69735) Plymouth Sound Dive Club welcomes qualified and experienced guest divers. See www.plymouthdivers. org.uk for more information/weekly club notices. Contact relevant dive manager or divingofficer@plymouth divers.org.uk to join a dive. (72219) Preston Divers SAA 30. The friendliest dive club. Come and meet us at Fulwood Leisure Centre, Preston on Monday nights between 8.00pm - 9.00pm. www. prestondivers.co.uk (64198) Reading Diving Club. Experience the best of UK diving with a friendly and active club. All welcome. Tel: 01183 216310 or email: [email protected] www. thedivingclub.co.uk (69447) Reading Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC 28). Active, friendly, based Palmer Park. Clubhouse, licenced bar, compressor, 2 RIBs. Club night Thurs, all grades/agencies. Training to Adv Diver +. [email protected] www.rbsac.org.uk Tel: Colin 07939 066524. (72402) Richmond (Surrey) SAC welcomes new and experienced divers to join our active diving, training and social calendar. Meet Mondays 8.30pm at Pools on the Park, Richmond. Tel: 07825 166450 (Gemma) or email: [email protected] (67103) Robin Hood Dive Club. Yorkshire based and one of the most active in the country with a full 2019 calendar of trips. All agencies and grades welcome. No training or pool, just a growing bunch of regular divers. www. robinhooddiveclub.com or find us on Facebook. (59245) Rochdale Sub-Aqua Club. Beginners and experienced divers welcome. Full training provided. Pool session every Wednesday. Club has two boats. More info at www.RochdaleDivers.co.uk or call Mick 07951 834 903. (65103) Ruislip & Northwood BSAC. Friendly, active club, RIB, welcomes new and qualified divers. Meets Highgrove Pool Thursday nights 8.30pm. www.rnbsac.co.uk Tel: 07843 738 646 for details. (69469) Scotland Plug Divers. Small, friendly dive club welcomes newly qualified and experienced divers to join us. Regular hardboat diving around Bass Rock/Firth of Forth/ Eyemouth and trips abroad. Tel George: 07793 018 540. Email: [email protected] (64638) Selby Aquanauts SAA 1117. Family friendly club, welcomes new and qualified divers. Regular trips UK & abroad. Meet every Thursday, Albion Vaults, Selby at 9pm. Contact Mark: 07831 295 655. (69261) Sutton Coldfield SAC, friendly BSAC club, welcomes all divers from trainee to advanced. All agencies. Own RIBs and compressor. Meet every Wednesday, 8.15pm at Wyndley (3.4m pool). For free try dive call Alan: 07970 573638 or Mark: 07787 106191. (64974) Sheffield BSAC36. Friendly, social and active dive club welcomes newcomers or qualified divers. Trips, socials, weekly pool and club/pub meetings, club RIB. See www.bsac36.org.uk (69191) Slough 491 BSAC; small friendly club welcomes divers at all levels. Meet at Beechwood School Fridays 19.30. Diving holidays and South Coast. Email: [email protected] or tel: Tony (01344) 884 596. (69722)

SOS Divers (SAA 263), Stourport, Worcestershire. Founded 1979. Friendly family club welcomes qualified and trainee divers. Own RIB. Contact Althea by email: [email protected] (57542) South Coast Divers (SAA 1150) Portsmouth. A friendly and active club welcomes new and experienced divers from all agencies. Email: [email protected] or call Darren: 07449 794 804. (69224) Totnes SAC (Devon). We are an active multi-agency club and welcome new members and qualified divers from all organisations. Two RIBs and own compressor/nitrox, plus club 4WD. Diving all round South Devon and Cornwall. Visit www.totnes-bsac.co.uk for details. (68319) South Queensferry SAC, near Edinburgh. Two RIBs, gear for hire. Pool training during the Winter; trips & expeditions in the Summer. Pub meeting at Hawes Inn. Call Warren: 07980 981 380. www.sqsac.co.uk (64861) Steyning Scuba Club, West Sussex. All divers welcome. Steyning Pool , Monday evenings at 8.30pm. Contact Andy Willett on 07786 243 763. www.seaurchin [email protected] (63956) The Bath Bubble Club SAA777 seeks new members. New and qualified divers of all agencies welcome. Weekly pool training, every Wednesday at 9pm, Culverhay Sport Centre, Rush Hill, Bath. Regular diving programme from club RIB. www.bathbubbleclubuk.co.uk (68434) Wells Dive Group. Friendly, active club in Somerset welcomes new or experienced divers. Meeting/training at The Little Theatre or the pool on Thursdays, try dives available. Regular RIB diving, trips around the UK and abroad. Visit: www.wellsdivers.co.uk or Tel: Rob, 07832 141250. (69653) TridentDivers.co.uk (find us on Facebook) Cardiff-based SAA club taking on new trainees and crossover members contact us on 07547 398802. (71656) Wiltshire’s newest Scuba Diving Club - JC Scuba Dive Club. Friendly active dive club based in Swindon, all affiliations welcome. Pool sessions, UK & Worldwide trips, shore, boat & liveaboard diving, regular socials. Affiliated training school, fully insured. Exclusive member benefits. www.jcscubadiveclub.co.uk

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CORNWALL PORTHKERRIS DIVERS PADI 5* IDC Centre. Porthkerris, St. Keverne, Nr Helston TR12 6QJ. Tel: (01326) 280620. www.porthkerris.com E-mail: [email protected] 7 days a week, tuition from novice to instructor, hardboat/RIB charters, escorted dives, dive shop, beach café, basking shark trips, camping, shore dive.



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PADI Training

ENGLAND

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BSAC School

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ANDARK DIVING

OCEAN VIEW DIVING SERVICES

256 Bridge Road, Lower Swanwick, Southampton SO31 7FL. Tel: (01489) 581755. Fax: (01489) 575223. E-mail: [email protected] www.andark.co.uk Open 7 days, PADI 5* IDC, RYA powerboat, 3.5m pool & classrooms, large shop, mail order, kids parties, Club, helo escape, disabled friendly, 300bar.

160 South Street, Lancing, West Sussex BN15 8AU. Tel: (01903) 767224. E-mail: [email protected] www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk Open 7 days a week 09001700. PADI TecRec Training. Diving Holidays.

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DIVE CENTRE DIRECTORY

Leicester, LE9 4DW. www.stoneycove.co.uk www.underwaterworld.co.uk Sales & service: (01455) 273089; The Dive School (PADI 5* IDC): (01455) 272768; Nemo’s Bar & Diner: (01455) 274198. UK’s leading dive company. Dive “Stanegarth”, Britain’s biggest inland wreck.

The Pier, High Street, Swanage, Dorset. Tel: (01929) 423565. Mob: (07977) 142661. E-mail: [email protected] www.diversdownswanage.co.uk Open 7 days a week during the dive season. The UK’s oldest dive centre.

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Jenkins Yard, Hudson Road, Sandycove, Co. Dublin. Tel: (00 353) 284 5180. E-mail: [email protected] www.flagshipscuba.com Open Tue-Fri 1000-1730; Sat 0930-1700. Diving Malin Head to Rathlin Island.

TO ADVERTISE IN THE

STONEY COVE – THE NATIONAL DIVE CENTRE

DIVERS DOWN SWANAGE

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LEICESTERSHIRE

DORSET

IRELAND

WEST SUSSEX

Call Alex on 020 8941 4568

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX AFRICAN AND ORIENTAL LTD AGGRESSOR FLEET

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UNDERWATER EXPLORERS

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MERSEYSIDE

Unit 1, Maritime Business Centre, Mereside, Portland, Dorset DT5 1FD. Tel: (01305) 824555. E-mail: [email protected] www.underwaterexplorers.co.uk Open 7 days a week 0900-1700 minimum Equipment for sale.

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MIRIHI ISLAND RESORT

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OCEANIC

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BEAVER SPORTS

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O’THREE

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BLUE O TWO

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OTTER

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DIVE WORLDWIDE

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PRODIVERS MALDIVES

DIVE MASTER INSURANCE

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REGALDIVE (LIVEABOARDS)

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DIVE MASTER INSURANCE

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REGAL DIVE (WORLDWIDE)

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DIVER APP

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SCUBA TRAVEL

WIRRAL SPORTS & LEISURE 164-192 Cleveland Street, Birkenhead CH41 3QQ. Tel: (0151) 666 6629. e-mail: [email protected] www.wirralsports.co.uk Mon-Fri 0900-1730; Sat 09001700. Air to 300bar. Diving, watersports, mail order and online shopping.

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SEA & SEA (DEEPBLU)

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TORCH

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SHEARWATER

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G&H DIVING SERVICES Unit 1 Willow House, River Gardens, North Feltham Trading Estate, Feltham TW14 0RD. Tel: (020) 8751 3771. Fax: (020) 8751 2591. E-mail: [email protected] Mon-Fri 0900-1800; Sat 0900-1230. ANDI Training.

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EGYPTIAN TOURISM

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SPORTIF INTERNATIONAL

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EXPLORER VENTURES

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SUUNTO DIVING UK LTD

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GO DIVE

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DIVER SUBSCRIPTIONS

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LONDON SCHOOL OF DIVING

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MAGIC RESORTS

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04/19

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DEEP BREATH

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Don’t call me a woman diver, says KERRIE EADE – I’m a diver, and I hope I never have to play that ‘female card’

HAVE SPENT 22 YEARS of my working life in male-dominated industries, and while this hasn’t been a deliberate decision, I’ve certainly learned a lot along the way about the differences and similarities between the sexes. I confess that I have been driven to distraction in recent years about the whole phenomenon of women divers and women in diving – but sadly it seems to be just a reflection of what is happening in much of the world these days. At the risk of sounding like a bigot, it’s political correctness gone mad and often, sadly, a minority of feminists giving many normal women a bad rep. This is, of course, just my opinion, but as background I feel it’s relevant to touch on some of my past experiences, both in and out of diving. After I graduated, I joined the investment banking world, working on the testosteronefuelled trading floor and undergoing a swift baptism of fire. I very quickly decided that I was not going to play the “woman card”, and instead would fit in, muck in and just get on with it. It worked really well, and I was treated as an equal, including, rather awkwardly, being invited along to broker nights at a dubious Spearmint Rhino’s strip joint! Rather than be offended, I decided to take it as a compliment. AFTER MY TIME in the city I set up a property-refurbishment company – but this time decided that I would trade on the fact that we were women in a maledominated industry – I called it A Woman’s Touch. I employed mainly female plumbers, tilers, carpenters, electricians and plasterers (and a few rogue men who were willing to accept my OCD standards). We gained a hugely positive reputation and won many awards. I did once get reported to Trading Standards for sending a male tiler to a job (along with four female colleagues), but when the guy visited my offices, I pointed out the ridiculousness of the claim, and asked him when he flew with Virgin if he really thought… He soon left, apologising

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women in diving men in diving for wasting my time. I digress, and for that I apologise, but I wanted to set the scene a little about why I have the attitudes I have. I confess that I have never really felt that “women in diving” was a thing. I have always just viewed myself as a diver, as a dive-centre owner (Ocean Turtle Diving), as a Course Director, as a buddy, as a mentor, as an instructor, whatever it might be – but never have I put the word “female” in front of any of those titles. I’ve been encouraged to market the fact that one of my companies, ProDiveUK, is owned and run by two women, but that doesn’t sit comfortably with me and so far I’ve avoided the temptation. There certainly are a few areas of diving that are, shall we say, less comfortable for women; the need for a huge zip-open flap

we interpret events – so ditch the victim mentality and give yourself an easy, happy life. While I don’t feel that gender alone normally requires that adaptations are made, I do believe it is important that we all adapt to each situation based on the individuals involved, especially at professional levels. I’ve had the pleasure of taking the PADI Adaptive Techniques Instructor Trainer training (catchy!), and it’s a real eye-opener. I have now met a double leg amputee who scored enough points on the water skills section not only to meet the requirements for the Divemaster course but also to have qualified him for the Paralympics team. It took him many months of training and commitment to get there, but it opened my eyes to what is possible. I haven’t whinged about my sore back or aching legs since.

EVERY TIME I’ve

for “elegant potty time” when wearing allin-one thermals, or the positioning of many harness and BC straps, which can sometimes squash one’s assets. At the end of the day, however, none of this is catastrophic, and I can honestly say that I have never been made to feel uncomfortable in male or female company while diving.

THERE ARE IDIOTS in all walks of life, of course, people who would be sexist or just downright horrible whether you met them on a liveaboard or at a dinner party – it’s unfair to blame diving for people like this. I also believe that there are some women who play on the female card a little too heavily. My advice to them is to remember that we choose our emotions, we choose how we feel about a certain situation, and how

taught any course, I’ve been acutely aware of the individuality of each student, and how I can adapt my teaching methods to empower them to meet the performance requirements. From young children who might be struggling to disconnect an inflator-hose to adults with learning difficulties, sightimpairment or dodgy knees – there is always something that can be done to help them get the results they want. In summary, I don’t think women in diving are any different from men in diving. I do think people differ from each other, and I’ve had the pleasure of working and diving with many wonderful men and women, and the misfortune to meet some absolute tw*ts from both sexes, and some in between (true story). But at the end of the day we choose the people we surround ourselves with in every part of our life – so choose wisely, and spend your diving hours with people you respect and trust, and with whom you have fun. divErNEt.com