A group of divers enjoyed an exciting, close-up encounter with 2 orcas while on a trip with Waterworld out of Castlegregory, County Kerry, Ireland. The whales inquisitively approached and circled their boat for a good half-hour.It was the first time the killer whales had been spotted so early in the year and so close to the local islands. They are normally seen in late August and September around the Blasket Islands, the most westerly islands in Europe.
The larger of the whales, a male of about 9m in length, had a distinguishing large, erect dorsal fin standing some 2m out of the sea. The smaller whale, probably a female, had a shorter, more curved dorsal fin.
There have also been a healthy number of sightings of other species in the area this year, a very large increase in basking sharks, whitesided dolphins, long-finned pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins and minke whales. There has also been two sightings of a very large fin whale.
An unusual specimen appearing to be a half-squid, half-octopus has been found off Hawaii.
Excited local biologists hope it is a new species. The unusual creature was caught in a filter in one of Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority’s deep-sea water pipelines. The pipeline sucks up cold, deep-sea water for the natural energy lab.
Sadly the creature only survived 3 days. Now preserved it is going through further studies.
A drive in the Philippines to control the plague of coral-eating starfish has resulted in the removal of thousands of crown of thorns starfish. The crown-of-thorns starfish is a red starfish with thorn-like spines sprouting all over its body. They grow to a diameter of up to 40 cm across and have 12 to 19 arms. 
The crown-of-thorns starfish is a coral reef predator and preys on the coral polyps by climbing onto them, extruding its stomach over them, and releasing digestive enzymes to then absorb the liquefied tissue. During times of food shortage, these creatures can live on their energy reserves for over six months.The starfish’s stinging, spinney coat is a very effective deterrent against most predators. The starfish’s natural predators are the Napoleon wrasse, Harlequin shrimp, and Giant triton. If touched or stepped on by humans, the starfish’s long spines will sting, inflicting great pain that can last for hours, as well as causing nausea and vomiting. Often, around the puncture a dark blue swelling will occur lasting a number of days.
One of the world’s biggest diving liveaboards has run aground on a reef in Chuuk Lagoon,
There were no reports of any injuries and everyone on board was rescued.
Thorfinn, a converted Norwegian whale hunter vessel, was one of the first of its kind in the Pacific to operate specifically for divers. It is thought that she was carrying approximately 70,000 gallons of oil at the time of running aground - part of her annual excursion objective was to help small islands recycle oil. The pumping of the oil from the vessel is underway.