Owner: Scuba Diving Fiji URL:http://scubadivingfiji.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 23:02:48 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog about the great scuba diving around the Fiji Islands. Some of the highlights of living and working in Fiji is the diving on the soft coral reefs with sharks, mantas and teeming life on the reefs.
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Effort to Catalog Species Tops One Million 2007-04-13 23:54:00 April 10, 2007 — By Randolph E. Schmid, Associated PressWASHINGTON -- A worldwide scientific effort to catalog every living species has topped the 1 million milestone. Six years into the program the total has reached 1,009,000, researchers report. They hope to complete the listing by 2011, reaching an expected total of about 1.75 million species. Thomas M. Orrell, a biologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said the finished catalog will include all known living organisms, from plants and animals to fungi and microorganisms such as bacteria, protozoa and viruses. "Many are surprised that, despite over two centuries of work by biologists and the current worldwide interest in biodiversity, there is presently no comprehensive catalog of all known species of organisms on Earth," Orrell said. The listing does not include fossil species from the past. The Integrated Taxonomic Information System-Species 2000 Catalog of Life provides access to data maintained by a Read more:Effort
Trawling, Industry Threaten India Turtle Nesting 2007-04-11 00:56:00 DEVI, India
-- The scattered carcasses of dead turtles bake on the hot sand. Scraps of the white shells of turtle eggs surround a hole where stray dogs have dug up a nest. Until a decade ago, this beach on India's east coast used to witness one of nature's most spectacular sights -- the mass nesting of tens of thousands of Olive Ridley turtles on a single night. Not since 1995 has that happened. These days just a handful of turtles come to the beach at Devi to nest, and its status as one of three main nesting sites for the Olive Ridleys in India's coastal state of Orissa is under threat.Read the full article on ENN... Read more:Nesting
Tagging of Pacific Pelagic (TOPP) research project 2007-04-09 21:21:00 The Tagging
of Pacific
Pelagic (TOPP) research project explores the Pacific, using a carefully selected group of animals from its ecosystems to gather data about their world. As a pilot program of the Census of Marine Life (COML), an international endeavor to determine what lives, has lived and will live in the world’s ocean, TOPP scientists will tag individuals from 21 species of marine predators in the Eastern Pacific to obtain an “organism’s eye” view of their world. Jointly run by Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Lab, the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory, NOAA’s Pacific Fisheries Ecosystems Lab, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, TOPP also includes team members from several countries. TOPP tests the effectiveness of using animals to gather biological and environmental data, tracking the individuals’ movements while recording valuable oceanographic and ecosystem data f
Seeman Sub to join Scubapro and Uwatec 2007-04-09 21:08:00 Johnson Outdoors - owner of Scubapro and Uwatec - announced it is adding the popular German brand, Seemann Sub, to its portfolio of winning outdoor recreational brands. The family-owned and managed German company was acquired from Robert and Ella Stoss. The transaction, which closed on April 2, 2007, continues Johnson Outdoors’ strategic focus on acquisitions that complement its businesses, have market-leading potential and strengthen long-term profitability.Seemann Sub, founded in 1979, is one of Germany’s largest dive equipment providers, offering a complete line of dive gear for the price driven consumer. Over the next six months, the Company plans to relocate its existing SCUBAPRO® and UWATEC® business in Germany into Seemann Sub™ operations located in Wendelstein, Germany. “Continuous innovation and strategic, targeted acquisitions are key to achieving our future growth vision,” said Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and
Full protection for great white sharks 2007-04-09 21:04:00 Sunday, 1 April 2007, 2:38 pm Press Release: New Zealand Government 1 April 2007 Media StatementFull protection for great white sharks starts todayWhite pointer sharks will now be fully protected within the 200 nautical miles of water around New Zealand, and from fishing by New Zealand-flagged boats further afield, the Ministers of Conservation and Fisheries announced today.Conservation Minister Chris Carter said despite the white pointer's reputation as a predator, it was vulnerable to fishing and becoming rarer throughout the world."These majestic animals occur naturally in low numbers and, without protection, could be pushed to the brink of extinction. The Wildlife Act provides a strong deterrent against targeting great whites with a $250,000 fine and up to six months imprisonment as a maximum penalty."Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said the white pointer shark was not known to be targeted by commercial fishers but was occasionally taken as by-catch. "However, recreationa
Diving Donkey! 2007-04-07 01:23:00 See more diving photos from Brian on Flickr... Read more:Diving
, Donkey
ReefBase Pacific: Strengthening Information Access and Dissemination in Support of Effective Coral Reef Conservation and Management 2007-04-06 07:04:00 Duration: January 2006 – December 2008Funding: AFD, UNFPartners: International Coral
Reef Action Network (ICRAN), Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), Secretariat of the Pacific
Community (SPC), University of the South Pacific (USP), École pratique des hautes etudes (EPHE), South Pacific Environment Program (SPREP)ObjectivesThe ReefBase Pacific project will make an important contribution to realisation of the objectives of AFD’s Regional Initiative For The Protection And Management
Of Coral Reefs In The South Pacific (CRISP) by:Promoting a holistic approach to the protection and management of coral reefs (considering not only ecological, but also social and economical information requirements) by applying the lessons learned from previous and existing activities by ICRAN, ReefBase, GCRMN, and regional partners.Mobilizing, standardizing, integrating, disseminating, and promoting the extensive data-, information-, and knowledge-bases currently present, but underutilized, in Read more:Access
, Conservation
, Support
Rare "Prehistoric" Shark Photographed Alive 2007-04-04 05:59:00 Flaring the gills that give the species its name, a frilled shark swims at Japan's Awashima Marine Park on Sunday, January 21, 2007. Sightings of living frilled sharks are rare, because the fish generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water's surface.Spotted by a fisher on January 21, this 5.3-foot (160-centimeter) shark was transferred to the marine park, where it was placed in a seawater pool."We think it may have come to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," a park official told the Reuters news service. But the truth may never be known, since the "living fossil" died hours after it was caught.See these photos and more at National Geographic Read more:Alive
, Photographed
, Prehistoric
, Shark
Shark Declines Threaten Shellfish Stocks, Study Says 2007-04-03 06:27:00 Dramatic declines of large North Atlantic sharks due to overfishing have upset the balance of entire marine ecosystems, a new study shows. Now scallops, clams, and oysters are paying the price. Smaller sharks, skates, and rays that are normally eaten by the large sharks have become so abundant that they are ravaging shellfish stocks, the researchers say.Read more at National Geographic... Read more:Shark
, Stocks
, Study
Dive In To Earth Day 2007 2007-04-03 06:03:00 Dive In To Earth
Day is an international Earth Day
celebration that mobilizes environmentally conscious communities, park managers, dive shops and other marine lovers around the world to take a stand in protecting our endangered water world.Dive In has become a huge driving force for environmental awareness and has involved thousands of participants in active marine conservation. In the past seven years, Dive In organizers have held 2,000 marine conservation events in 117 countries worldwide, removing trash, educating children and their communities, supporting marine protected areas, and much more.Sign up their website here...
Millionaire diver wins right to explore wreck of the Lusitania 2007-04-03 05:57:00 Mystery surrounding the sinking of the Lusitania may be resolved after the American owner of the Cunard liner won his case to dive on the wreck. The decision by the Supreme Court in Dublin, the highest court in the Irish Republic, to overturn a refusal for an exploration licence from the Arts and Heritage Ministry clears the way for Gregg Bemis to realise a 40-year dream to uncover what made “the Greyhound of the Sea” sink so fast after she was torpedoed by a German U-boat off southwest Ireland in May 1915. Mr Bemis, 78, is planning a dive on the Lusitania, lying in 300ft of water, this summer. But his main research will be conducted next year. “All the equipment that I need has already been booked for this year,” he told Irish newspapers.Read the full story on Times Online... Read more:explore
, Millionaire
Vitamins benefit divers' health 2007-04-03 05:51:00 Vitamin doses can reduce ill-effects of scuba diving on divers
' circulation, a study suggests. Scientists gave vitamins C and E, which work as antioxidants, to divers. The vitamins stopped ill-effects of the dive on the cells lining blood vessels, which can lead to high blood pressure and other associated diving problems. But diving experts said the vitamins would have a limited impact.See more of this on BBC News Read more:benefit
, Vitamins
Shark Alliance send open letter to Commissioner Borg 2007-04-19 07:08:00 On March 1st, 2007, the SharkAlliance
sent an open letter to Commissioner
Joe Borg. The letter calls on Borg to ensure that the European Union (EU) use the occasion of next week’s meeting of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Committee on Fisheries (COFI) to address the plight of the world’s valuable yet vulnerable shark populations. Commissioner Borg acknowledged last year that a comprehensive set of management measures is required and the Shark Alliance calls on him to set a timeline for plan development and implementation.Less than 20% of COFI member nations have completed the promised National Plans of Action and no international catch limits for sharks have been adopted. COFI provides a key opportunity for the EU to take the floor during discussions of the FAO International Plans of Action (IPOAs) to report on progress and expected completion of this important goal. OPEN LETTER TO COMISSIONER BORGCommissioner Joe BorgEuropean Commissi
DoubleClick 2007-04-18 09:57:00 (306) Alesti RSS Reader: "Posted by Susan Wojcicki, Vice President, Product ManagementAt Google, we are constantly looking for new, innovative ways to make the information you want more accessible and more relevant—and to deliver it as fast as possible. Since Google's inception, it has always been our intention to present users with highly targeted, useful advertisements when appropriate—ads that unobtrusively complement users experience. We have always believed in, and tirelessly pursued, the idea that serving relevant, unintrusive ads would best serve our advertisers in the long term.To that end, we are truly excited to announce our acquisition of DoubleClick. DoubleClick provides a suite of products that enables agencies, advertisers, and publishers to work efficiently, that will enable Google to extend our ad network and develop deeper relationships with our partners.This new partnership represents a tremendous opportunity for us at Google to broaden and deepen our inventory o
American Chronicle: Self Enlightenment While Diving in Fiji 2007-04-18 07:53:00 American Chronicle
: Self Enlightenment
While Diving
in FijiVickie MilazzoInc. Top 10 Entrepreneur, Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD is the founder and president of Vickie Milazzo Institute, a legal nurse consultant training and certification company. She is the author of Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn?t Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now, 2006.We all understand the significance of agility to grow a successful business. But how agile are we really and how can agility in our personal life help us grow in our business life?A near-drowning experience when I was a child left me wary of swimming and totally unwilling to go deeper than snorkeling along the water's surface on a trip to Fiji.Before Tom and I went to Fiji, he had already been scuba diving many times during the preceding five years. I'd heard his fun stories, but I knew he still occasionally experienced anxiety due to a long-ago diving incident. Tom, the daredevil, with all his diving experi Read more:American
Scuba Diving Board - Dive Fiji Fiesta 2004 2007-04-18 07:32:00 Scuba DivingBoard
- Dive Fiji Fiesta
2004: "Dive FIJI!Fiji can be described with one word: WOW!Believe me, you want to go to Fiji at least once in your lifetime. You owe it to yourself! But be forewarned: once won't be enough."As a media representative from ScubBoard.com on a familiarization trip sponsored by the Fiji Visitor's Bureau I recently spent 11 days in Fiji and had the opportunity to visit ten different resorts. We barely scratched the surface of what Fiji has to offer but in that short time I came to realize what a treasure Fiji is� especially for a scuba diver!Read full article here Read more:Scuba
, Scuba Diving
International Underwater Photo & Video Competition 2007-04-20 21:30:00 Under the Blue 2007 Over $20,000 in Prizes! Next in the series of UnderwaterCompetition.com underwater imagery events, and on the heels of the popular Our World Underwater & DEEP Indonesia competitions, Wetpixel, DivePhoto
Guide and the 2007 SCUBA Show are proud to bring you “UNDER THE BLUE 2007”. Photographers will compete in four still image categories, including a category for images that focus on California’s unique and beautiful underwater environment, and one video category. Winners will share in more than $20,000 in prizes, including premium dive travel, underwater photography and diving equipment! Travel prizes include trips to some of the top photo destinations in the world including Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and Australia. 2007 CATEGORIES Majesty of the OceansThe Macro WorldMan & the SeaCalifornia UnderwaterVideo Read more:International
Master Guide for Underwater Digital Photography 2007-05-03 06:01:00 New book shows how to make the most of digital technology, with tips for purchasing gear, selecting camera settings and taking the first dive with a digital camera.Also included are exposure techniques; lighting tips; ideas for close-up and super-macro photography; tips for fish photography, reducing backscatter; travelling with and caring for underwater digital equipment; and tips for reef protection. Read more:Digital
, Guide
, Master
Astronauts Recall View Before Earth Day 2007-04-28 05:02:00 April 20, 2007 — By Seth Borenstein, Associated PressThe rarest view in humanity -- Earth
from afar -- moves many of the lucky few observers to tears and gives them a new appreciation of that blue marble we all call home. When astronauts return from space, what they talk about isn't the brute force of the rocket launch or the exhilaration of zero gravity. It's the view.Only two dozen men -- those who journeyed to the moon -- have seen the full Earth view. Most U.S. spaceflight has been in low orbit where only a piece of the planet can be seen -- a lesser but still impressive glimpse. Those travelers have seen the curvature of Earth, its magnificent beauty, its fragility, and its lack of borders. The first full view of Earth came from the moon-bound Apollo 8 during the waning days of a chaotic 1968. Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders put it all in perspective in a documentary: "We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth." Some Read more:Earth Day
The Great Turtle Race 2007-04-20 21:15:00 Eleven Leatherback Turtles to Compete in the Great
Turtle Race from Costa Rica to Galapagos from April 16 to April 29 The Great Turtle Race, a unique international sea turtle conservation event bringing corporate sponsors together with conservation organizations, will take place from April 16 to April 29 in a global bid to raise awareness and funds for the critically endangered leatherback turtle.Ten corporations and institutions will compete in The Great Turtle Race, including Dreyer’s Ice Cream, GITI Tires, Plantronics, Travelocity, West Marine and Yahoo!, which is hosting The Great Turtle Race online at www.GreatTurtleRace.com .Non-corporate sponsors include Bullis Charter School in Los Altos, CA; Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA; Life Sciences Secondary School in New York, NY (through the financial sponsorship of Microsoft); and Offield Center for Billfish Studies. An eleventh “celebrity” turtle will be announced during the week of April 9.
Real Men Wear Utilikilts - News - Travel Gear Blog 2007-05-01 06:46:00 As a Scotsman who is into the Outdoors, I just couldn't go past this post at http://www.travelgearblog.comReal Men
Wear Utilikilts - News - Travel
Gear Blog:"Real Men Wear UtilikiltsBy Mika | Permalink | No Comments | January 4th, 2007 | TrackbackReal Men Wear UtilikiltsAt one of the many coffee shops around Portland that I swing by to grab a morning cup o’ joe, I spotted a guy sporting a Utilikilt. It’s not my first time seeing a kilt wearer, but I’d say they’re fairly rare on this side of the pond.After chatting with our new friend, an REI employee, he agreed to let me take a picture with my new T-mobile Dash smartphone (more to come on the Dash another day) to post here on Travel Gear Blog.If you see him running around Portland - and you might, as these kilts are donned more days than not for him, be sure to say hi. But remember, it’s culturally insensitive to ask whether it’s worn in true Scotsman style."
Indonesia Quake Caused Huge Coral Die-Off 2007-05-05 04:56:00 April 12, 2007 — By Reuters JAKARTA -- A strong earthquake that struck Indonesia
's Sumatra island two years ago caused one of the biggest coral die-offs ever documented, a study by scientists from two conservation groups found. The quake itself killed nearly 1,000 people on Nias island off the western coast of Sumatra island. The scientists, who surveyed 35 sites on the coastline, found that the earthquake had raised the island of Simeulue near Nias by up to 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in), exposing most of the coral reefs ringing the island over about 300 km (190 miles) of sea floor, a news statement said. The scientists were from the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the government-backed Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral
Reef Studies (ARCCoERS). "This is a story of mass mortality on a scale rarely observed," said Dr Stuart Campbell of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Indonesia marine programme. "In contrast to other threats like coral bleaching, Read more:Quake
Scientists Equip Narwhals as Arctic Oceanographers 2007-05-10 04:51:00 April 23, 2007 — By Will Dunham, ReutersWASHINGTON -- Scientists have enlisted some supremely qualified recruits to retrieve important data on one of the most remote and inhospitable places on Earth. And all these recruits want is a nice fish dinner. That's because they are narwhals, a deep-diving arctic whale famous for the males' long, spiral tusk. University of Washington marine biologist Kristin Laidre and colleague Mads Peter Heide-Jorgensen of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources have equipped three narwhals with sophisticated satellite transmitters to send data on water temperatures in ice-clogged seas between Greenland and Canada. "In a way, we've converted these animals into oceanographers," Laidre said this week. "We're not only learning about their ecology and biology, but we're collecting data that can be useful for bigger-picture climate change questions." The whales are collecting data about Baffin Bay, their winter habitat between northeast Canada and Gre Read more:Arctic
The Fiji Dive Game 2007-05-10 08:03:00 Well here we are with another little stunt by FVB which they failed to tell everyone about!AMAZING!http://www.fijidivegame.com/
Undersea Productions: Marine Life of Fiji & Tonga, video identification guide 2007-05-10 08:00:00 Undersea Productions: Marine
Life of Fiji & Tonga, video
identification guideMarine Life of Fiji and Tonga: A Video Identification GuideCreated for divers, snorkellers, aquarists and all underwater enthusiasts.Includes 2 DVD videos that you can play on your TV or computer PLUS a 16-page reference booklet with line drawings, descriptions and helpful information.This "V.I.D." Guide (Video ID) covers the incredible marine biodiversity of this fantastic corner of the South Pacific. Beautifully filmed and visually engaging, Marine Life of Fiji & Tonga contains pretty much every species you are likely to see, catch or hear about when getting wet in this part of the world. Three years and more than 3000 dives in the making, this is both an essential tool and exotic entertainment. 77 intuitive and easy-to-navigate DVD chapters 3.5 hours
Scientists Work on Encyclopedia of Life 2007-05-10 00:57:00 Wired News - AP News:By SETH BORENSTEINAP Science WriterScience VideoBuy AP Photo ReprintsWASHINGTON (AP) -- In a whale-sized project, the world's scientists plan to compile everything they know about all of Earth's 1.8 million known species and put it all on one Web site, open to everyone."http://www.eol.org/See website here.... Read more:Encyclopedia
Aqua-Trek Fiji oins the Shortlist of Finalists in Best Practice in Travel & Tourism 2007-05-09 05:10:00 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards 2007 – AQUA-TREK FIJI joins the Shortlist of Finalists showcasing World’s Leading Examples of Best Practice
in Travel
& Tourism The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) of London announced the finalists for the 2007 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards and Aqua-Trek, a scuba diving company in the Fiji Islands, is one of 3 Awards Finalists chosen for the Conservation category. Tourism businesses from all over the world applied for these prestigious Awards, which represent the highest accolade for best practice in Travel & Tourism development. An international committee of experts selected the finalists from hundreds of applications from more than 40 countries representing Travel & Tourism on all seven continents. According to the WTTC, Costas Christ, Judging Chairman of the Awards and an internationally recognized expert in sustainable tourism said: “With rigorous evaluation standards and detailed criteria, the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards have become the Read more:Tourism
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