An international team of marine scientists returns to the Chatham Islands next week hoping to fit satellite tags on up to 13 great white sharks. The tags will allow the scientists to track the sharks’ movements for up to nine months.
The team is led by Dr Ramón Bonfil of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (funded by National Geographic), Dr Malcolm Francis of the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, and Clinton Duffy of the Department of Conservation.
White sharks are long-lived and slow to reproduce. They have a ferocious reputation, but their ...
Sharks could be more vulnerable to the fishing industry than was previously thought, research has revealed.
Marine scientists led by Aberdeen University have discovered that the deepest oceans of the world appear to be shark free. One possible reason, they tell a Royal Society journal, may be lack of food.
The researchers warn that the findings mean all shark populations are within reach of human fisheries and could be at greater risk than was thought.
In their paper published on Wednesday - The absence of sharks from abyssal regions of the world's oceans - the international team ...
Grey nurse sharks are in danger of becoming extinct, according to a genetic survey of the fish in their natural habitats.
Scientists analysed DNA from small populations of the sharks off the western and eastern coasts of Australia and South Africa to see how much the groups mixed and how diverse their genes were.
They found that grey nurse sharks living around the Australian coast are isolated from other small groups of sharks, suggesting that their dwindling numbers will not be boosted by sharks migrating from other waters.
The survey also discovered that each individual population ...
A diver in South Africa was injured after a boat ran over him.
The incident, in Melkbossstrand on the country's Western Cape, reportedly involved a 71-year-old diver who suffered lacerations to his buttocks after the helmsman of a motorboat failed to see him and drove over him.
The diver, who was reported to have been spear-fishing with two others, was airlifted to hospital, where he was described as being in a stable condition.
Source: ...
The Maldives is claiming a new Guinness World Record for the most people diving together at one time.
On 25 February 979 divers, aged 10-73 and drawn from Maldivians, tourists and expatriates, are reported to have got into the water together at Sunlight Thila on North Male Atoll.
Organised by the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board, the event involved divers brought to the site through a joint effort by 37 resorts, nine dive centres and 14 safari vessels, with support from the Coastguard.
The President of the Maldives, His Excellency Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, attended the dive with other ...
The 27,400 ...
Just as State Department officials announced that Libya will be dropped from America's list of state sponsors of terror, the Independent Online is suggesting that the North African country might be the next hot travel/dive destination. Located on the southern edge of the Mediterranean, Libya is following Saudi Arabia's lead, hoping ...
Back in November, I mentioned South Africa’s Shark Lady and her “Crystal Cage” – a virtually invisible Lexan cage with 250 times the impact strength of glass. Capable of withstanding an attack by a great white, the Crystal Cage isn’t really a cage at all. Rather, it’s a ...
Juergen Freund of Queensland, Australia is a winner in the NatureÂ’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards 2007 competition. His image titled Dwarf Minke Whale won first place in the Oceans category.
One of the most prestigious photo contests in the world, drawing over 17,000 entries from photographers in ...
Blue Tangs are often found roaming the reef, in search of their favourite food - algae. They are surgeonfish which may appear either singly or in large schools, which can contain hundreds of individuals.
The name surgeonfish comes from the defensive spines located on the caudal peduncle (the part of the ...