Scuba Diving Blog & Forum
There are definitely great white sharks in Long Island Sound, as white sharks tracked by Ocearch shows that three of their tagged white sharks have visited the sound, including Cabot, Montauk and Scotia. The last ping of a tracked great white shark in Long Island Sound was on 18th October 2019.
Red tide cough is caused by aerosolized brevetoxins that get into and irritate your airways. Coughing and other symptoms from red tides normally subside after a few hours if you remove yourself from exposure. Symptoms like coughing are often worse for those who have respiratory diseases like asthma.
It’s possible that at certain times of the year great white sharks could be near to the Galapagos Islands. This is because of the water temperature drops to within a great white shark’s “temperature comfort zone” of 12-24°C (54-75°F) in June to December and sealions are present as a food source too.
There are great white sharks in the Caribbean and it’s thought they come to breed in the warm safe waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But the scientists are still researching why the largest predators of the oceans visit the Caribbean when they normally prefer cooler waters.
Great white sharks have been spotted on the southern most coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef off Lady Elliot Island. The most recent great white shark encounter was a female measuring over four metres (13 feet) in August 2020, which is only the second sighting in 25 years.
Tiger shark Tarantino at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas likes to be petted like a dog by shark conservationist Jim Abernethy. But not all tiger sharks like to be petted, so don’t rush out and start petting them yourself.
Scientists have only as recently as 2015 discovered that a small gecko-like lizard that lives next to streams in the mountains of Costa Rica appears to have evolved a kind of scuba tank. This scuba diving lizard can stay underwater for long periods, where it was originally thought it was holding its breathe. The river anole can remain submerged for at least 16 minutes. It does so by blowing out air into a bubble and then re-inhales this air whilst underwater.
Earth Day is celebrated every 22nd April and has been so since 1970. Which means that Earth Day in 2020 is the 50th anniversary from when it began. The main aim of Earth Day is to raise awareness on the negative impact of our actions as mankind have on the environment and on Planet Earth as a whole. This includes mankind’s impact on pollution, poaching and animal trafficking, deforestation, habitat loss, unsustainable agriculture and pesticides. Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world to demonstrate support for environmental protection in more than 193 countries.
You may not know this, but bits of plastic have been found in almost every corner of the world…26 tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans each year. From the remotest of uninhabited islands to Antarctica and the deepest ocean trenches, including the Mariana Trench, you’ll find plastic pollution. The creatures of our oceans are being caught up in plastic too, which includes sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and seabirds. Plastic pollution in the ocean can be mistaken for food and it kills! Always remember that every river leads to the ocean.
Whether you like it or not as a scuba diver, as a snorkeler or as a conservationist, lionfish in the Caribbean are being slaughtered by scuba divers with spears. Invasive lionfish are out-breeding, out-competing and living longer than the native fish stocks and other marine species in the region. The native species that the invasive lionfish are decimating, are important for ecological, commercial and recreational reasons. So this article considers whether it’s right to kill these creatures on spears as scuba divers. For me it goes against the grain for the usual conservationist nature of scuba divers, as lovers of all marine creatures. But I will admit to joining a group of scuba divers that went on a culling exercise of lionfish.
