Divers and beachgoers in the United Kingdom need to be aware that there are potentially dangerous jellyfish-like creatures in the sea. Four Portuguese Man o’ War, very rare in the UK, have been seen along the south west coast of England.

Portuguese Man o’ War is not a jellyfish, it is a floating colony of hydrozoans. The Portuguese Man O’ War (Physalia physalis), is commonly thought of as a jellyfish but is actually a siphonophore—a colony of specialized polyps and medusoids.

The Portuguese Man O’ War is found in warm water in all of the world’s seas. It lives at the surface of the ocean, with its blue float above the water, serving as a sail, and the rest of the organism hanging below the surface. It has no means of propulsion, but is moved by a combination of winds, currents, and tides. Very rarely is a single Portuguese Man O’ War seen, but rather the discovery of one is usually a warning of more to come. Extreme “swarms” of this nature can cause the closure of beaches, due to the danger of painful stings posed to surfers and swimmers. (Wikipedis)

Touching the tentacles will result in painful stings that leave lesions and ulcerations. The poisonous sting has been known to trigger fatal anaphylactic shocks. The public are asked to report any sightings and not to touch the creatures.

It is believed that the deepest-ever living fish has been found in the Japan Trench, Pacific.

A research team of British and Japanese scientist5s located and filmed the shoal of 17 fish on the bottom in 7.7km (4.8 miles) depth.

The 30cm-long, pale-coloured fish could be seen swimming about surprisingly energetically and eating shrimps.

The Hadeep research project began last year and has involved scientists from the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab and the University of Tokyo’s Ocean Research Institute. They have concentrated their lifeform studies on trench systems mainly around the Pacific Rim, at depths from 6-11km.

Funding has come from Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council and Japan’s Nippon Foundation. Research equipment has included custom-designed “landers”, highly pressure-resistant contraptions which have legs to stand on the seabed and, with lights and cameras at the ready, lie in wait for any passing creatures.

The newly discovered fish, named Pseudoliparis ambylstomopsis, is not the deepest ever located. That honour goes to the species Abyssobrotula galatheae which, in 1970, came up in a dredge from the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench at a depth of 8km (5 miles). But it was dead by the time it was observed at the surface.

Genetic analysis has shown that a female shark gave birth to a pup made up entirely of her own DNA.
The American study, on an Atlantic blacktip shark housed in a Virginia aquarium, showed that the female had managed parthenogenesis - the ability to reproduce without having mated with a male.

The project team used DNA analysis similar to that used in human paternity testing. They were alerted to launch the study after the adult aquarium blacktip, called Tidbit, was found to be pregnant despite the fact that she had remained in captivity, with no contact with males, since shortly after her own birth in the wild.

This followed the discovery, in May last year, of parthenogenesis by a hammerhead aquarium shark in Omaha, Nebraska. More »

The Flipper Uno, one of the dolphin spotting boats which departs from the picturesque village of Los Gigantes in Tenerife, Canary Islands twice daily made an unusual discovery on one of their trips recently.

Erik Bos, one of the crew members of Flipper Ono, whose job it is to spots the dolphins and chat to the passengers about their daily lives and habits, noticed that one of the dolphins alongside the boat was acting in an unusual way. After a few moments of observation he noticed that she was giving birth as she followed the boat. Quick thinking he grabbed his camera and took a couple of shots before the boat changed course and left her in peace.

The boat’s captain, Jennifer Dubbelaar sent the photographs to a biologist who confirmed that as far as they were aware, they were the first recorded photographs of a dolphin giving birth in the wild.

Leading airlines are scrapping extra baggage allowances for diving equipment, blaming rising fuel prices.

Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Qantas have all changed baggage rules which will force divers to pay excess weight fees for carrying heavy scuba diving equipment.

All three airlines now have a strict per passenger limit of 20kg for all check-in baggage, with excess charges up to £40 per kilogram on some flights. Previously, the airlines granted around 10kg extra for passengers carrying diving or other sporting equipment. More »

Armed with giant tentacles, swivelling hooks, and the world’s largest eyes, the colossal squid is thought to be the biggest squid species and the source of centuries-old sea monster myths.
But the largest squid ever caught was “a giant, gelatinous blob,” sluggish and highly vulnerable to predators, a squid expert who dissected the specimen said last week.

The dissection of the half-ton female at a New Zealand museum in April suggests she was an egg-producing machine, which—like most squid—would probably have given birth once before dying, said Steve O’Shea of New Zealand’s Auckland University of Technology.

The 30-foot-long (10-meter) squid, snagged on a fishing line off Antarctica in 2007 (photo), carried some partially developed eggs. But when fully mature, he said, she would have had “many, many thousands of eggs” inside her mantle cavity, a chamber inside her tubular upper body.
That may explain why she had been scavenging from fishing lines, rather than actively hunting. More »

The Atlantic goliath grouper, found in warm waters of the Americas and western Africa, is a separate species from the goliath grouper that roams tropical reefs of the eastern Pacific Ocean, a new genetic study shows.

The newly identified Pacific goliath grouper can grow more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) long and weighs nearly 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms).

Since the oceangoing giants are identical in body shape and markings, scientists hadn’t thought to analyze their genes.

“For more than a century, ichthyologists have thought that Pacific and Atlantic goliath groupers were the same species, and the argument was settled before the widespread use of genetic techniques,” Matthew Craig of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology said in a statement.

Craig led the study, which appeared recently in the journal Endangered Species Research.
The goliath groupers split off into two species about three and a half million years ago, when the Atlantic and the Pacific became separated by modern-day Panama.

But the new species may be short-lived, experts warn: The Pacific grouper will likely join the Atlantic grouper as critically endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Source: National Geographic—Christine Dell’Amore
Photograph courtesy Rachel Graham/Wildlife Conservation Society

Ambient Pressure Diving has found that some hoses fitted to its products could be unsafe due to insufficiently crimped connector fittings.

The fittings should be crimped so that eight flats are clearly visible on the fitting collar (picture, top). If the collar is smoothly rounded, crimping has not been done (picture, bottom).

“While these [uncrimped] hoses work properly for a time, there is potential and a very real risk of the hose fittings coming away from the hose,” says the company.

Potentially affected are low-pressure hoses used on Inspiration, Evolution and Evolution+ rebreathers; the Buddy Blast Hose (air horn end only); second stage regulator hose (second stage end only); and gas connection system (second stage/ADV end only).

Among the rebreathers, the hoses to examine are the ADV hose (ADV end only); buzzer hose (both ends); oxygen supply hose (solenoid end); and handset hose (lid end).

It is thought that the problem relates to a small number of hoses made between April and July this year. But it is “prudent to look back further”, says APD, such that customers who purchased hoses after January 2007 - either as part of another product or as a spare - are asked to check their hose-crimping.

Divers should not dive again with any hose suspected of being defective, but contact APD to obtain a replacement.

APD is contacting directly all its known customers who have bought potentially affected equipment.

APD hoses which employ screw-together fittings - which account for the majority of low-pressure hoses made by the company since the mid-1980s - are not affected by the recall.

To obtain a replacement or make an enquiry about the recall, call AP in the UK on 01326 563834, or in the USA on 603-447-2600. Alternatively send an email to Nicky@apdiving.com

Two professional British divers have been found guilty of fraud by claiming £250,000 from the National Health Service (NHS) for treatment of bogus cases of the bends. David Welsh, 49, from Plymstock, Devon, and 43-year-old Michael Brass from Liverpool, at Welsh’s Fort Bovis diving centre in Plymouth, paid strangers to pose as divers needing decompression treatment and billed the NHS £6,500 each for 37 fake victims… More »

We all know the answer to that one, but researchers have proved that the one thing we all think we know about the octopus is wrong. It has six arms and two legs! The researchers were surprised to find that our most basic assumptions about the creatures are in fact incorrect… More »