SCUBA News - #194 - July 2016

SCUBA News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) Issue 194 - July 2016 http://www.scubatravel.co.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to SCUBA News. Thanks for subscribing. This month we've an article by Maggie Martin on the intelligent octopus. Plus spectacular diving in Papua New Guinea 10% off Maldives Diving Book in August with Manta Divers for 10% off diving and accommodation packages Cheapest prices in all the Maldives You can download a pdf version of the newsletter here. Contents: - What's new at SCUBA Travel? - Letters - The most intelligent invertebrate - what can the octopus do? - Diving news from around the World What's New at SCUBA Travel? Diving Papua New Guinea The diving here is spectacular - with waters jam-packed full of fish. Expect walls, reefs and wrecks at this remote location. Read More… Diving Lanzarote Warm water, loads of marine life due to nutrient-rich upwellings from the Canary current, what's not to like about diving Lanzarote? Read More… Bali Dive Operators Diving highlights of Bali include Tulamben's awesome Liberty wreck, the reef manta rays of Nusa Penida and the fascinating macro marine life Seraya Secrets. Choose a Bali dive centre from our reviews Read More… Letters Getting to Egypt from Saudi by Boat I heard of a speedboat that can people from Ynabu or Duba in Saudi to Egypt (Hurghada). Do you know how can I contact them? Thank you Ned Sam Can you help Ned? E-mail news@scubatravel.co.uk with any advice. The most intelligent invertebrate - what can the octopus do? by Maggie Martin The octopus is believed to be the most intelligent of all invertebrates. As well as its relatively large brain, each of the octopus’ eight arms has its own rudimentary intelligence. This allows the arms to function independently. Researchers think that the octopus evolved intelligence to help it hunt and elude predators. In the wild, octopuses collect and manipulate objects. For example, octopuses have been observed arranging stones around the entrance to their dens. One octopus was captured on video using two coconut hulls as a makeshift suit of armour, holding the shells around itself and rolling along on the sea-floor like a ball. This has been construed as evidence of tool use. All octopuses can imitate their environment. The mimic octopus can also imitate other sea creatures, such as the predatory sea snake or a fish-eating sea anemone; this helps deter predators and also allows the octopus to get close to its own prey by mimicking a less dangerous creature. Laboratory experiment reveals that octopuses can recognise different patterns, open jars, and containers, and can solve fairly complex puzzles. One puzzle involved three transparent boxes that could be locked with a simple catch. Food was placed in the smallest box this was then placed inside another box, which was then shut inside the third box Some octopuses were able to unlock, open and remove the boxes until they obtained the crab. In another experiment, octopuses were able to remove the lids of childproof pill-bottles containing food items; one octopus was later observed playing with an empty bottle, moving it around her tank with jets of water. Octopuses are also reported to recognise individual humans, choosing to “shake hands” with preferred individuals while squirting ink or water at others. About Maggie Martin Maggie Martin is completing her PhD in Cell Biology and works as a lab tech for Mybiosource.com. You can follow her on Twitter @MaggieBiosource. Diving News From Around the World Our round up of the more interesting underwater news stories of the past month. For breaking news see our Twitter page or RSS feed Whale sharks added to endangered species list Whale sharks and slender hammerheads are nearer extinction due to human actions. Personal care products "still polluting oceans with microbeads despite company promises" A ranking of the world's 30 largest personal care companies shows that big brands are failing to remove microplastics from their products. Divers could be used to measure ocean temperatures Decompression computers worn by recreational and commercial divers provides accurate data, study shows. Upload your data to the citizen science site. South Africa's great white sharks facing extinction A six year study of the country's coastal waters concluded that only 350 to 500 great white sharks remain, half the level previously thought. Trophy hunting, pollution, shark nets and baited hooks are among reasons for decline. Queensland setting catch limits for endangered sharks based on dodgy data Experts calls for reinstatement of observer program as commercial shark catches jump dramatically on Great Barrier Reef 'Zombie corals' pose new threat to world's reefs Scientists discover corals that look healthy but cannot reproduce, dashing hopes such reefs could repopulate bleached areas Farmed fish drive sea change in global consumption The world is eating more fish now than ever - with farmed, rather than wild-caught, animals driving the increase in recent decades. Still sustainability problem for wild-caught fish. SCUBA News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. This means we are happy for you to reuse our material for both commercial and non-commercial use as long as you: credit the name of the author, link back to the SCUBA Travel website and say if you have made any changes. Some of the photos though, might be copyright the photographer. If in doubt please get in touch. Photo credits: Tim Nicholson, Rick Tesoro, Postlethwaite Previous editions of SCUBA News are archived at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html SUBSCRIBING AND UNSUBSCRIBING Visit Unsubscribe and add or remove your e-mail address. To change whether your receive the newsletter in text or HTML (with pictures) format visit this link ADVERTISING Should you wish to advertise in SCUBA News, please see the special offers at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/newsad.html Other advertising opportunities are at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/advertising.html CONTACTING THE EDITOR Please send your letters or press releases to: Jill Studholme SCUBA News The Cliff Upper Mayfield DE6 2HR UK news@scubatravel.co.uk PUBLISHER SCUBA Travel Ltd, 5 Loxford Court, Hulme, Manchester, M15 6AF, UK

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