SCUBA News - #196 - September 2016

SCUBA News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) Issue 196 - September 2016 http://www.scubatravel.co.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hello and thanks for subscribing to SCUBA News. If you prefer to read a pdf version of the newsletter you can download one here. It is Mola-Mola Season in Bali! From July until mid-November the magnificent Mola-Mola (Ocean Sunfish) rise up to recreational diving depths off Bali's coast. Join us for a truly memorable experience. Contents: - What's new at SCUBA Travel? - Letters - The Bull Shark is Creature of the Month - 50% off Red Sea Liveaboard - Diving news from around the World What's New at SCUBA Travel? Unspoilt diving around India's Remote Islands Hundreds of miles from the Indian mainland, the Lakshadweep and Andaman Islands are renowned for beautiful diving. Read More…   Beneath Antigua's Seas When, where and why to go diving in Antigua Read More…   Revealed: the World's Top 100 Dive Sites More divers' votes means that our list of the World's best dive sites has changed again Top 100 Dives… Letters Unknown Diving Certificate Hello I have diver that showed me a card for Open Water from N.P.O master scuba instructors association from Japan from a CI International. Anybody know this certification? Nicolas Have you any info for Nicolas? E-mail news@scubatravel.co.uk and we'll pass your comments on. The Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas) is our Creature of the Month One of the extraordinary things about Bull Sharks is that they are as happy in freshwater as they are in the sea. They have even been see far inland up the Mississippi river. Many spend time in the freshwater Lake Nicaragua - jumping up the river like salmon to get there. Bull sharks are medium-sized sharks with thick-set bodies. They are requiem sharks, related to tiger sharks and oceanic whitetips. Like these they are aggressive hunters. They eat all sorts of animals, including turtles, birds, dolphins, terrestrial mammals, crustaceans, fishes and other sharks. The young bull sharks live in inshore esturaries whereas adults are highly dependent on coral reef communities for their food. Bull shark by Pterantula CC BY 2.5 Bull sharks cruise the seas alone until it's time to mate. The mothers are viviparous - they give birth to living babies rather than to eggs. Their litters contain between one and fourteen pups. A single litter of pups can come from two fathers! Scientists think that the female sharks mate several times with different males to increase either the number, or the quality, of their babies. The IUCN assess the bulls shark as "near threatened". This means likely to become endangered in the near future if trends continue. The location of nursery areas in estuarine and freshwater systems makes the species vulnerable to pollution and habitat modification. Other threats include recreational fishing and by-catch in commercial fisheries. Further Reading First Evidence of Multiple Paternity in Bull Sharks, SCUBA News, 9 November 2015 Simpfendorfer, C. and Burgess, G.H. 2009. Carcharhinus leucas. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2009: e.T39372A10187195.http://dx.doi.org/. Downloaded on 22 September 2016. Evidence of Partial Migration in a Large Coastal Predator: Opportunistic Foraging and Reproduction as Key Drivers? Mario Espinoza , Michelle R. Heupel, Andrew J. Tobin, Colin A. Simpfendorfer, February 3, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371. Downloaded on 22 September 2016. 50% Off Diving the Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone Join the Red Sea Aggressor liveaboard in December to dive the world class Brothers islands, Daedalus and Elphinstone reefs. Transfer from Marsa Alam or Hurghada. Book now and save 50%! Learn More & Book… 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 Ocean Art Underwater Photography Contest 2016 Now Open Enter the Ocean Art underwater photography competition to win one of $75000 of prizes. Categories for all levels of underwater photographers, beginners and experts alike. Sharm el-Sheikh flights to resume soon? The British Government should lift the ban on travel to the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh as a crumbling tourism industry in the region could leave it "vulnerable to radicalisation", the head of the cross-party parliamentary group on Egypt told the Daily Telegraph. Fishing ban in four new marine reserves Four vast marine reserves are to be created around remote British islands in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Commercial fishing will be banned permanently in a million square kilometres of ocean teeming with sharks, turtles and whales. Human activity means sharks are disappearing from the North Sea Long-lived species like sharks, rays and skates are declining at an alarming rate in sites across the North Sea. Sharks smarter than we think Sharks are large-brained species and they are capable of such an incredible range of complex behaviours Melting Sea Ice Boosts Food Availability for Bowhead Whales About 23600 square miles of Arctic sea ice melted every day in May, a record-high amount.That is good news for one group: bowhead whales, the Arctic's largest marine mammal. The melt seems to boost food availability, at least if you're a bowhead. Endangered dolphin with broken blowhole learns to mouth-breathe Not just a pretty face? A dolphin has learned to breathe through its mouth after developing a faulty blowhole, highlighting the animal's ability to adapt. 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, Pterantula [CC BY 2.5], Ocean, NOOA 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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