Marine Life

(Dive Travel Business News - January 22, 2012) -- This article is provided by shark specialist Debbie Smith, owner of  eco-tourism company Diving With Sharks. Her specialty area is annual Sardine Run in South Africa. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - Nov 9, 2011) -- With more than 400 servings of a new menu item last month, Bimini Big Game Club‘s General Manager Michael Weber and Chef Alvarez Bastian have found a recipe to help the environment and sate the most discriminating palate at the same time.

The Bimini Big Game Club’s Panko Breaded Lionfish Nuggets are the talk of the island, a gourmand’s answer to a tasty snack and an eco-solution for helping to rid nearby reefs of an aggressive and non-native predator.

“Our lionfish nuggets have become a huge seller. Though we don’t serve endangered species such as grouper – and we were the first Bahamas resort to feature a shark free marina - we have absolutely no problem turning lionfish into a menu item,” said Weber. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - November 3, 2011) --  Icelandic whalers are trying to win tourists over to their point of view, offering them the chance to go to see with them, feel harpoons and eat whale meat and blubber.

Now after being alerted to the fact that whale meat is on sale at an Icelandic airport, the British Foreign Office has issued a stiff warning to Britons not to bring home any whale meat, saying to do so is in breach of international law protecting endangered species.

Penalties of imprisonment or fines up to £5,000 could be meted out by the courts, says the Foreign Office, because importation into Britain and other EU countries is illegal under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (Cites). Up to 70,000 Britons who visit Iceland each year however so far there have been no reports of whale meat on sale in the UK or being seized at the border. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - October 23, 2011) -- Colombian environmental authorities have reported a huge shark massacre in the Malpelo wildlife sanctuary in Columbia's Pacific waters, where as many as 2,000 hammerhead, Galápagos and silky sharks may have been slaughtered for their fins.

A team of divers who were studying sharks in the region, reported the mass killing in the waters surrounding the rock-island known as Malpelo, some 500 kilometres from the mainland. The divers spotted 10 fishing trawlers “entering the zone illegally,” said a Colombian environmental official. All reportedly flew Costa Rican flags.

“When the divers dove, they started finding a large number of animals without their fins. They didn't see any alive,” the official said.  The shark kill estimate is based on calculating an average of 200 sharks per boat. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - October 17, 2011) -- So much Sargassum seaweed has been washing up on Eastern Caribbean beaches this summer and fall that St. James's Club & Villas in Antigua was forced to close for several weeks in September to clean up the harmless but foul-smelling algae. Beaches on Antigua's northeast and southeast coasts were affected as well as some beaches in St. Maarten and Anguilla.

“The seaweed is gone now. It is floating around here and there, but the resort is back in full swing with white sandy beaches,” said Steve Heydt, president of Elite Island Resorts, a collection of seven properties on four islands, including St. James’s Club. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - Sept 1, 2011) -- A unique resource is being built to help curious ocean adventurers identify the inhabitants they encounter.  Everyone from the advanced SCUBA diver and underwater photographer to the occasional snorkeler is helping build the largest user friendly online database of our ocean's inhabitants to date.  By utilizing the power of the public, everyone from the professional ocean adventurer to the casual aquatic vacationer can quickly and easily identify a chance encounter with one of our world's ocean inhabitants. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - May 25, 2011) -- There is something you need to know about Jaws. He was a fabrication. Photographer and explorer Amos Nachoum dispels the misconception of killer species in a photographic exploration presented at TEDxConejo2011. See the video below.

Amos Nachoum is a photographer and explorer. He has shot just about everything there is to shoot, but what he loves most is wildlife photography. Especially if it's in the water. And he has become world-famous at it. So much so, in fact, that he has been asked to lead National Geographic expedition teams with Dr. Eugenie Clark, Dr. Sylvia Earle, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. He has co-produced documentaries with Stan Waterman, and he was the team leader for National Geographic's Red Sea, Great White Shark, and Killer Whale photo expeditions.

His commitment to wildlife led him to co-found Israel's Marine National Park on the Red Sea. He works tirelessly to bring attention to some of the most fragile regions of the underwater realm, with preservation of the environment foremost in every encounter. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - March 25, 2011) -- Connecting visitors with one of the most intelligent and fascinating inhabitants of San Francisco Bay, Aquarium of the Bay today welcomed a new Giant Pacific Octopus, Octopus dofleini. Like others of its kind, the animal came to the Aquarium in a roundabout fashion, by way of a local crab fisherman.

Giant Pacific Octopuses have a particular hankering for crabs as well as den-like enclosures, and often mistake crabber's nets as a hunting and hiding ground, where they can be accidentally caught. If the octopus kills and eats the crabber's catch, many fishermen respond by killing the octopus. Aquarium of the Bay works with local fishermen to change this behavior by purchasing the octopuses for exhibit, where they help strengthen visitors' connection to the animals. The Aquarium's Husbandry team posts fliers around local piers and tackle stores, alerting crabbers of this opportunity.

"Aquarium of the Bay is always happy to provide a safe haven for octopuses that would otherwise meet a hasty demise," says Christina J. Slager, Director of Husbandry for Aquarium of the Bay. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - March 4, 2011) -- Often heralded as the top dive destination in the Caribbean, the Cayman Islands has sunk the ex-USS Kittiwake off the north end of Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach creating another dive site.  The USS Kittiwake, a decommissioned 1945-vintage submarine rescue ship, was scuttled on Wed Jan 5, 2011 in the Cayman Islands to create an artificial reef that will attract both fish and tourists. 

The former WWII US Navy ship was thoroughly prepared, with the removal of any hazard materials before it was towed from the US to Grand Cayman.  The former submarine carrier will become an important artificial reef that provides a haven for local marine life as well as a key dive and snorkel site. The Kittiwake sinking is part of the dive destination’s Dive 365 initiative, an on-going program to develop dive sites across Cayman for every day of the year. read more »