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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
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.
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…
Our round up of the more interesting underwater news stories of the past month. For breaking news see our Twitter page or RSS feed
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
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