News Article: February/March 2010Local NewsShark 'Pingers' on Coast by Mid-20108-02-2010New acoustic alarms designed to warn whales about shark nets could be fitted on Australia's Gold Coast in time for the whale migration. The alarms have been developed with a stronger frequency known to be audible to whales. Every year dozens of turtles, dugongs, dolphins and rays fall victim to the Gold Coast's shark nets, prompting opponents to call for their removal. More Historic Shipwreck Site8-02-2010Maritime archaeologists made the claim of discovering a ship's cannon embedded in a reef in the Coral Sea off Australia's North Queensland. It is thought to belong to the Cato, which sank in the area after running aground in 1803 en route to India. Kieran Hosty, of the National Maritime Museum, said it was significant to Australia's maritime history. The 450-tonne vessel and HMS Porpoise were both wrecked after hitting an uncharted coral reef 17 August 1803. The two were reported lost by a third ship. More Rare Stingray8-02-2010
Centaur Identified8-02-2010Australian Hospital Ship (AHS) Centaur was positively identified with high definition video footage. Shipwreck hunter David Mearns found the Centaur wreck 48km east of the southern tip of Moreton Island at a depth of 2,059 metres. Mr Mearns positively identified the ship's red cross, a distinctive star on the bow, and a corroded identification number 47. More OZTeK '118-02-2010
Keep off Poor Knights or else8-02-2010New Zealand's Poor Knights marine reserve is 'look but don't touch'. An Auckland couple who clambered on to the Poor Knights Islands may face prosecution by the Department of Conservation (DoC). The department also warns visitors to stop feeding fish or face massive fines. Over the holiday season, the rangers busted 'boaties' flouting the rules in the Whangarei Harbour and Poor Knights marine reserves. The Poor Knights Islands, the Hen and Chickens and Bream Islands are all nature reserves. It is illegal to land on any of them without a permit. More Baby capers thrill dolphin watchers8-02-2010
Historical Artefact Raised8-02-2010The sea anchor was first discovered in Wellington Harbour (New Zealand) in 1995, and believed to be more than a century old. Its origin remains a mystery. The anchor weighs between eight and 10 tonnes, and is 5.1 metres long. 'It's of a style made for a very large battle ship in the 1890s, called the Orlando Class Battle Ships,' said the project manager Malcolm McGregor. It is believed that there was a very large Russian battleship of that class in the Wellington Harbour in the1890s. The lifting of the anchor was the first step in its restoration. More Marine Wildlife Trust Launched8-02-2010Launched in Auckland, New Zealand, on 25 January at an event celebrating Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter/Underwater World 25th anniversary, the primary objective of the Trust is the rescue and rehabilitation of sick or injured marine wildlife - and their eventual release back into the wild. Over the past 25 years Kelly Tarlton's has facilitated the rescue, rehabilitation and release of hundreds of marine wildlife. The establishment of the Trust is imperative to ensure this kind of work continues and advances says Mr Horne, CEO of Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Undersea World. More Scientists head to Antarctica for whale study2-02-2010
Early February an international team including
Tip off to Buried Treasure30-03-2010Precious 18th century silver coins believed to have been from the wreck of the Dutch trader Zuytdorp were handed over to Fremantle's Shipwreck museum, Australia. More New Species of Stingray30-03-2010Scientists from CSIRO and the Western Australian Government discovered a new species of stingray (Neotrygon sp.) in Australia's Ningaloo Marine Park. More SS Keilawarra's Safe Cracked30-03-2010Divers plundered the 123 year old shipwreck the SS Keilawarra off North Solitary Island, Australia. More Hector's Dolphin Ruling30-03-2010The High Court rejected the fishing industry's challenge to four of the six fishing restrictions imposed by previous Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton. More Fiordland Waters Protection30-03-2010As part of a joint agency work programme to protect New Zealand's unique Fiordland marine environment from the damage caused by marine pest species, Environment Southland launched a register to help keep track of vessels visiting Fiordland. More Pilot Whales Die30-03-2010Twenty-eight pilot whales died after stranding on a remote Stewart Island (New Zealand) beach. Wild seas and strong winds made rescuing the 19 survivors impossible and they were euthanased by Department of Conservation staff to prevent them from suffering. It was not known why or for how long the whales were stranded. More Seabed Vents30-03-2010American scientists found evidence of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor between New Zealand and Antarctica. More than 220 vents have been discovered worldwide - many on the Kermedec Arc between New Zealand and Tonga. So far no one has found them in the waters off Antarctica. The scientists were tracking plumes in the Southern Ocean of rare helium-3, an isotope found in Earth's mantle and in the magma bubbling below vents, when they found a vent in the Pacific Antarctic Ridge. More Plan to End Whaling Ban30-03-2010A plan floated by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) would allow the resumption of low-level whaling to replace the scientific whaling that kills up to 3000 each year, says New Zealand's representative on the commission, Sir Geoffrey Palmer. The deal would lift the IWC's 1986 overall ban on whaling, while restricting the scientific whaling carried out by Japan, Norway and Finland. The change is intended to lower the overall number of whales killed worldwide. More Bronze Age Ship Relics30-03-2010Amateur divers from the South West Maritime Archaeological Group in England discovered three shipwrecks off the coast of Devon all believed to be from the Bronze Age. More International NewsNew World Record set by British Diver8-02-2010
Zoning the Ocean May Help Endangered Whales to Recover8-02-2010Scientists in Scotland, Canada and the US propose a new method to identify priority areas for whale conservation. The team's findings, suggest that even small protected areas, identified through feeding behaviour, can benefit highly mobile marine predators such as killer whales. 'There are enormous challenges associated with setting conservation priorities for such mobile and migratory species as whales,' said lead author Erin Ashe, a PhD student at the University of St Andrews. More Cancun Unveils the World's Largest Underwater Museum8-02-2010The National Park West Coast of Isla Mujeres, Punta Cancun and Punta Nizuc, which receives approximately 750,000 tourists annually, will feature more than 400 concrete sculpture figurines comprising the world's largest underwater museum, right in the waters in front of Cancun and the island of Isla Mujeres. More Investigating GOM 'Dead Zone'8-02-2010A new study by University of Texas at Austin marine scientist Peter Thomas aims to determine whether a large area of low-oxygen water called a 'dead zone' in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) could cause declines in environmentally and economically important fish populations. The dead zone varies in size, but can extend to 8,500 square miles (roughly the size of New Jersey) in some years, according to experts. More Red Grouper Create Home For Many8-02-2010Researchers from Florida State University have found that red grouper (Epinephelus morio) dig out and maintain complex structures at the bottom of the sea. They remove sand, exposing hard rocks that are crucial to corals and sponges and the animals that rely on them. More Europe's First Multipurpose Reef8-02-2010El Segundo, California-based Amalgamate Solutions and Research Ltd (ASR) has completed Europe's first multipurpose reef on the Boscombe shoreline, outside the city of Bournemouth in southern England. ASR was enlisted to help Bournemouth improve its surfing conditions in order to increase tourism, but ASR said the new reef will provide a much more substantial benefit to the beachside community. More WWII-Era Dive Bomber8-02-2010A Maui scuba tour operator recently found what appears to be the previously undocumented wreck of a World War II-era dive bomber off South Maui, Hawaii. The aircraft appears to be a nearly intact Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless. Both canopies were open, with the plane's gauges clearly visible on the console, and the back flaps down. More Acid Oceans and Mass Extinctions8-02-2010
Shark Fin Traders8-02-2010Hong Kong shark fin merchants reacted angrily to a US study stating meat from endangered species was being sold in the city's markets. US scientists found 21% of the fins came from endangered scalloped hammerhead shark stocks in the western Atlantic. But the Hong Kong Shark Fin Trade Merchant's Association said its members had not done anything illegal. A spokesman said 'We are not doing anything against the law. The sale of endangered scalloped hammerhead shark fins has not been made illegal here.' More Civil War-era Schooner8-02-2010The schooner, thought to have sunk in 1862, was located in the depths of Lake Ontario. Two shipwreck explorers chanced upon the 36-metre-long C. Reeve while conducting underwater surveys a few kilometres off the lake's southern shore west of Rochester, New York. The twin-masted ship lies mostly intact, its main mast still erect, at a depth of nearly 122 metres. More 'Swarms' Of Robotic Ocean Explorers8-02-2010Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, were awarded $1 million from the National Science Foundation to develop a new breed of ocean-probing instruments. Scripps researchers Jules Jaffe and Peter Franks will spearhead an effort to design and deploy autonomous underwater explorers (AUEs) to trace fine details of fundamental oceanographic mechanisms. More Charges for removing treasure2-02-2010
A group of divers in Tonga are facing charges after allegedly removing items from a ship which sank in 1853. Fifty-year Anniversary Historic Voyage30-03-2010In rough Pacific sea on 23 January 1960, United States Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer and oceanographer Jacques Piccard lowered themselves through the narrow opening into the cabin of the bathyscaphe, Trieste. More Diver Survives 48-hour Drift30-03-2010A diver was rescued after drifting for two days in the Red Sea. According to Arab News, the young Saudi man went missing having already completed three dives with two other divers in the Jeddah area. More Orca Whale Kills Trainer30-03-2010An experienced trainer was killed at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. Dawn Brancheau, 40, a trainer at SeaWorld for 16 years, had just fed fish to the large male, called Tilikum, having finished a show with him. More Fraudster Caught and Jailed30-03-2010A diving industry professional from Liverpool in England, Michael Brass, who was found guilty of fraud, has begun his jail term after a period spent on the run. More Shark More Endangered Than Tigers30-03-2010According to a leading marine biologist, Ronald O'Dor, a senior scientist at the Census of Marine Life, great white sharks may be more endangered than tigers with only a few thousand left in the world's oceans. More International Cleanup Day30-03-2010Project Aware Foundation's International Cleanup Day 2009 reports that volunteer divers and water enthusiasts removed over 222,000 kg/490,000 lbs of debris on International Cleanup Day 2009. More Humane Whale Study in Antarctica30-03-2010An international team of 18 scientists including New Zealand scientists headed to Antarctica in February for six weeks to study whales in an attempt to show that Japan's annual kill for scientific purposes is unnecessary. More Aquarium Leak30-03-2010Aquarium visitors and shoppers in the Dubai Mall were evacuated when a panel in its large aquarium leaked. Six divers went into the tank to work in co-operation with maintenance workers on the outside of the panel, while others mopped up. More Charges for Removing Treasure30-03-2010A group of Tongan divers face charges after allegedly removing items from a 1853 shipwreck off the main island of Tongatapu. Police confiscated what are believed to be gold pieces ... More Sea Life in Decline30-03-2010In 10 years life in Mexico's Sea of Cortez has declined dramatically due to highly destructive new fishing methods. Traditional hook-and-line fisherman have been put out of business by more damaging gill net fishing and hookah diving More World Guide to Cetaceans30-03-2010A comprehensive online guide to the world's whales, dolphins and porpoises was launched by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS). More 70 Million Pounds of Silver Off Galway Coast30-03-2010A salvage operation will attempt to recover £70 million (NZ $152 million) of silver 300 miles off the coast of Galway, Ireland. More Scuba Diving on a Bicycle30-03-2010London School of Diving's scuba diving instructor Nick Mobley created what he believes is the world's first 'underwater turbo training cycle' for use in a diving pool. More |
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