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Scuba News..because we can’t be underwater all the time
Archive for July, 2007Construction of oil site ‘frightening whales away’Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
Unusually high noise levels at an oil and gas construction site off the east coast of Russia is frightening endangered whales out of their feeding grounds, environment groups are claiming.
Skinny grey whales swim Pacific CoastTuesday, July 17th, 2007
An unusually high number of skinny grey whales are being seen from Mexico to the Pacific Northwest. Thus far this year, there hasn't been a decline in grey whales but this is the scrawniest they have been since malnourishment and disease claimed a third of their population in 1999 and 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported. Scientists suspect the same thing may be happening now that triggered the die-off then: rapid warming of Arctic waters where the whales feed.
Zooplankton move to the moon’s tuneMonday, July 16th, 2007
How do ocean animals that live below the depth to which moonlight penetrates migrate in phase with the moon? Hans van Haren of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in Den Burg used sonar to track zooplankton movement over 18 months. They migrate up and down the water column on daily and seasonal cycles, and van Haren also identified a strong monthly movement that coincided with lunar cycles. But the zooplankton remain at or below 800 metres, while moonlight penetrates no deeper than 150 metres. "This has nothing to do with physical processes," say van Haren, "but a biochemical clock could explain it."
Other studies have shown that zooplankton kept in the dark can retain light-induced biorhythms for several weeks. Van Haren's work suggests that biorhythms can be preserved for far longer.
Update: Diving in AfricaFriday, July 13th, 2007
More details on the diving and dive operators in Sudan, Zanzibar, Mozambique and South Africa, including what has been described as "the best dive on the planet".
Thousand of new volcanoes revealed beneath the wavesThursday, July 12th, 2007
The true extent to which the ocean bed is dotted with volcanoes has been revealed by researchers who have counted 201,055 underwater cones. This is over 10 times more than have been found before. The team estimates that in total there could be about 3 million submarine volcanoes, 39,000 of which rise more than 1000 metres over the sea bed.
When fish get emotionalWednesday, July 11th, 2007
Like humans, fish process information - and perhaps emotions - on different sides of the brain. Fish growing up in the wild among predators use their left eye to look at novel objects, while their offspring raised in captivity use the right eye. This suggests that life experiences can affect which side of the brain fish use, and even, says Victoria Braithwaite of the University of Edinburgh, UK, that they have emotional mindsets, since different sides of the brain may correspond to a curious or suspicious attitude.
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