Blue Attitude

(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 - August 23, 2011) -- Green Globe today announced the recertification of Atlantis Submarines, Barbados. Atlantis Submarines was first certified in December 2008. This flagship company has demonstrated its continued focus and commitment to sustainable tourism, directing resources and funds to maintain its Green Globe certification status. 

Green Globe Certification CEO, Guido Bauer said, ‘Atlantis Submarines is a truly unique tourism experience which offers an educational platform for travelers to learn about our precious marine environment.’

‘Barbados is one of Green Globe’s most committed destinations with all the important tourism businesses certified or in the process of certification. Atlantis Submarines Barbados was one of the first to join Green Globe and since 2008 has been a beacon for responsible tourism practices’, added Mr Bauer. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - October 1, 2011) -- As a California based stunt woman and scuba instructor, Szilvia Gogh has worked on exciting movie sets with actors like Drew Barrymore, boss around LAPD Dive Team Leaders during training and swim with sharks in remote reefs around the world.  Yet one of her favorite activities is the Chance for Children Summer Camp.

A bit of history here. In the early 90's Greg Bonann, a Los Angeles County lifeguard and creator of the world famous television series Baywatch, talked about the concept of having a "Baywatch theme related camp”.  A year after hearing him talk about the idea, Tai Collins a freelance writer for the show, spoke up. She asked Bonann if he was serious about the summer camp and he was. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - September 30, 2011) -- The increasing demand for ecotourism can play a vital role in saving endangered forests, a United Nations-backed partnership said today, while also warning of the potential damaging effects if its expansion is not effectively managed.

According to the findings of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), which consists of 14 international organizations and secretariats, including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the benefits of ecotourism flowing to local businesses are dramatically higher than those from mass tourism, providing an incentive to local communities to take care of their environment.

“Ecotourism has a far greater potential for contributing to income and livelihoods in poor rural communities than what is realized,” said FAO’s Edgar Kaeslin, a forestry officer in wildlife and protected area management. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - September 26, 2011) -- Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, and Edward Norton, actor and activist, will speak at the third annual Six Senses SLOW LIFE Symposium, to be held Oct. 6 to 9 at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives. The four-day conference, bringing together business leaders with global policy-makers and heads of state, will focus on practical solutions to the principal challenges facing the tourism industry, including low-carbon infrastructure, transportation, resort management and threatened biodiversity.

(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 - February 27, 2011) -- According to a report presented by Caribsave at the Cancun COP16 Climate Change Conference, the likely prospect that the ocean will rise one to two metres by the end of the century due to climate change will be disasterous for the Caribbean.  The new report cites 49% of resorts will be damaged or destroyed by a 1 metre sea level rise (SLR). 

According to Dr Murray Simpson of Oxford University who contributed to the study,  said that the report was prepared on a robust actuarial basis and clearly highlights the danger the Caribbean is now in. He emphasized the fact that smaller islands will be disproportionately affected and that the lethal cocktail of high water levels, coastal erosion and storm surges could reap catastrophic damage in the area.

The new report outlines the future for the Caribbean with a rising tide caused by climate change:
 
* Sea level rise will be relatively more pronounced in the Caribbean than other coastal areas of the world; read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - December 17, 2010) -- The following is the official report from the expert team brought to Sharm El-Sheikh to investigate a series of shark attacks in late November and early December in the waters off the popular Egyptian resort area.

Between November 30 and December 5, 2010 there were 5 unprovoked shark attacks reported from Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Following these attacks the Egyptian government assembled an international team of experts to conduct a forensic analysis of the attacks: Ralph S. Collier, President, of the Shark Research Committee and Director of the Global Shark Attack File; Marie Levine, Executive Director, Shark Research Institute; Moustafa Fouda, MSEA; Mohammad Salem, EEAA; and Nassar Galal, CDWS.

The team gathered eyewitness testimony, examined the attack locations, and reviewed the forensic evidence, including all environmental factors present prior to each of the attacks. The following is a list of those factors they believed contributed to the attacks: read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - December 12, 2010) -- American scientists are making rapid progress in the investigation of an unprecedented string of attacks off a 3-mile stretch of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The shark experts, flown into the Egyptian resort after 5 shark attacks killed one woman and seriously injured 4 others, have positively identified at least two of the sharks responsible.

The breakthrough came after the team questioned witnesses, studied photographs, examined forensic evidence and pathologist reports, and investigated the waters near each of the incidents. The scientists say they are working on the basis that between two and four individual sharks were involved in the attacks.

The team has concluded from photographic evidence that clearly shows that an oceanic whitetip with a unusual notch in its tail-fin that attacked a Russian man on Nov 30, is the same individual shark that returned six days later to a nearby stretch of water to attack and kill a 70-year-old German woman, the fifth shark attack victim. read more »