Scuba News
What's Happenning with Scuba Diving Around the World?
Environment:
“Dive with Purpose: Exploring the Benefits of Eco-Friendly Diving Courses in Bonaire”
Courses like Reef Renewal Diver and Lionfish Hunter allow individuals to contribute positively to coral restoration and the removal of invasive species, making a significant environmental impact. Second, these courses enhance diving skills and promote awareness, helping divers become more considerate of their effects on the ocean. Third, gaining knowledge about marine environments empowers divers to advocate for ocean conservation and engage others in these discussions. Additionally, courses such as Fish Identification deepen the understanding of marine life, fostering a stronger desire to protect the ocean. Lastly, joining volunteer initiatives like Sea Turtle Conservation adds purpose to diving adventures, making the experience more fulfilling.
Travel:
Unique Diving in an Unusual Place—Niue is Like Nowhere Else
This wild drop of an island is located in the middle of an ocean triangle formed by Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands. From the air, it resembles a flat green muffin top: Niue’s highest peak is 223 feet above sea level and rocks (rock pools, rock chasms, rock pinnacles) dominate the landscape; white sand beaches are thin on the ground.
Niue is believed to have been settled more than a thousand years ago by voyagers from Polynesia. Visitors are absorbed into the island’s daily rhythms, rather than set apart in tourist areas. Niue is Niue, and you’re welcome to come along. Strike up a conversation while picking up some homemade coconut bread from a café, or browse the thrice-weekly market (makete) for handicrafts and fresh fruit, or to ogle at live uga (coconut crab) for sale.
Mostly, though, visitors are given their own space to explore, and driving tours of the island never disappoint
Technology:
“Anduril unveils ‘Copperhead’ line of autonomous underwater vehicles
Anduril Industries unveiled a new family of autonomous underwater vehicles called Copperhead, designed to meet military and commercial needs for larger fleets of uncrewed maritime vessels.
“Copperhead enables a comprehensive, intelligent maritime capability that allows operators to quickly respond to threats in the undersea battlespace, at a fraction of the cost of legacy options,” the company said in a statement Monday.
The product line includes two variants, each offered in two different sizes. The baseline Copperhead is designed for rapid-response missions, the firm said, including environmental monitoring, search and rescue and infrastructure inspection.
The vehicle, which can reach speeds greater than 30 knots, can carry a range of payloads, including active and passive sensors and magnetometers, which can detect changes in the Earth’s magnetic field.
The Copperhead-M variant is a munition that can be deployed from a larger system, specifically Anduril’s Dive-LD and Dive-XL vessels. It offers “torpedo-like” capabilities and is designed for mass production, Anduril said.
Discoveries:
Divers Accidentally Discovered an 18th-Century Pirate Ship Loaded With Priceless Loot
Wreck divers recently discovered a heavily armed, 18th-century pirate ship in the waters between Morocco and Spain. Armed to the teeth, it now sits at the bottom of the ocean, serving as an example of an enterprise that terrorized the seas off the coast of Africa for over a century. The ship, known as a Barbary corsair, was “the first Algiers corsair found in the Barbary heartland,” Sean Kingsley, an archaeologist and researcher on the discovery, told Live Science.
Barbary corsairs—the name for both the ships and those who crewed them—were privateers who sailed for several countries along the northern coast of Africa. Often referred to as pirates, they ruled the Mediterranean from the 17th century until the early 19th century, when they fell after the Second Barbary War. “Less famous than the pirates of the Caribbean, the corsair capital of Algiers turned to piracy far earlier and was a much bigger business,” Kingsley told Newsweek. “Where Blackbeard and his gang put the fear of God into single ships, the Barbary pirates terrorized entire nations.”
