The wreck of the Thistlegorm, one of Egypt’s most popular wrecks will be off-limits to divers for a month while measures to conserve the wreck are carried out.

The wreck will be closed to all diving from 15 November to 15 December, the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) has announced. The aim is to avoid a continuation of the damage caused by the many thousands of shots which have been put down into the ship over the years.

To this end, a system of moorings is to be laid around the wreck. Live aboards will be required to tie up at one of eight mooring stations, each capable of accommodating three vessels. Divers will then be dropped off by tender at buoyed dive lines, designated separately for descents and ascents.

A series of holes will be drilled in the ship to allow the escape of divers’ exhaled air, which tends to create air pockets in parts of the wreck. Over time, given the combination of water and air, these have the effect of accelerating erosion of the wreck’s structure.

An improved blueprint for dive briefings will also be introduced, to prepare diving visitors in the best possible way for sympathetic diving on the wreck.

Some had expected the authorities not to sanction closure of the Thistlegorm until, say, the end of January, with the peak diving season over, in order to protect tourism revenues.

But HEPCA has succeeded in pushing through the measures, which it has described as “urgent”, with near-immediate effect. The Thistlegorm will be shut at the height of the season.

The work is being carried out as part of the new Saving the Red Sea Wrecks campaign which, in Britain, will be launched by HEPCA and the Red Sea Non-Governmental Office at the Dive Show in Birmingham over 13/14 October.

The campaign will soon tackle another popular site, the Rosalie Moller, along with a number of other wrecks, in order, says HEPCA, to “raise the benchmark for Egypt’s reputation in providing environmentally sustainable tourism”.

“The campaign already has the full support of many influential individuals, dive centres and boat operators, tour operators, the Chamber of Diving and Water Sports (Egypt), regional bodies and organisations,” it said.

Investigators from the Society for Cetacean Study have scored an historic first in waters off south Tenerife by filming a whale eating a giant squid.

Such scenes have never been captured on film before and they were obtained in an area where a deep underwater ravine exists in which it is believed the giant squids live and breed.

Vidal Martín, president of the society, said the observation was made in June when he and a team of researchers were watching a group of pilot whales. They were astonished to see one of the animals emerge from the water and appear to “jump about”.

“We looked hard and saw a tentacle of a squid hanging from its mouth and there were other pieces of squid stuck to the whale’s body. It made a number of brusque movements on its side in the water to free the tentacle to eat it – and there we were filming and photographing it all.”

He reckoned the squid could have been some five metres long, a comparatively modest size for the species. Examples have been found which reach 20 metres in length and weigh in at a thousand kilos!

On the sea’s surface in this same area it is quite common to see dead giant squids, some half eaten and bearing teeth marks. In one recent episode there were a number of whales nearby.

“We thought the squid was already dead and the whales were just playing with it,” said Sr Martín. “But now the pieces of the jigsaw are beginning to fit.”
He explained that pilot whales dive time and time again between brief five minute rests, submerging at a speed of 2 to 3 metres a second.

It is known that they can dive as deep as 1,200 metres without any problem though the average submersion reaches depths of around 800 to 900 metres. Unlike other whale species they dive down and swim back up at speed, staying down for no more than 22 minutes at a time.

As for the giant squids that inhabit that fascinating abyss in the straits between Tenerife and La Gomera, little is known about them and they remain very much a mystery for the present. Over recent years a number of expeditions have undertaken dives in search of them but they have met with little success.
But then again, as Vidal Martín says, neither is much known about the deepest depths of the submarine landscape that surrounds us.

Source: losgigantes.com/news

A dive leader in Equador’s Galapagos Islands has captured what are thought to be the first ever images of a massive, all-white whale shark.

Antonio Moreano, a qualified naturalist, was with a group of devers off the eastern coast of Darwin Island. Preparing to dive, they were still in a tender deployed from the live aboard Deep Blue when the shark’s huge, pale form was seen coming towards them.

Moreano entered the water with just mask and fins and managed to stay with the shark for a few moments to capture some fine shots of the creature.

The shark was identified as a female adult of 10m or more in length. Moreano had seen its eye, which was also white. Once back in Britain, Kitchen-Wheeler did some research and concluded that the sighting was most probably “the first report of an albino whale shark, although occasional reports of other [different types of] sharks have been made”.

It’s amazing that the shark had survived for as long as 30-odd years, particularly through its more vulnerable juvenile phase. “The albino colouring would make the animal more susceptible to predation by large sharks or orcas, due to the lack of camouflage when seen from above,” she said.

Photography: Antonio Moreano

The mystery surrounding a popular wreck off the coast of Anglesey, North Wales, has finally been solved by Chester SAC.

The steam trawler, Cartagena went missing on passage between Fleetwood and Rio de Janeiro in 1928 and was never seen again. After extensive research the club has revealed that a wreck known locally for many years as the Kincorth is the Cartagena.

Lying at a depth of 35m, the bell of the Cartagena was recovered in the late 1980s. The bell was marked TR.4.

It is only recently that the club has managed to establish that the TR.4 is in fact the Cartagena. It is now established that the ship was built in Canada during the First World War as a minesweeping trawler and was subsequently sold by the government to a UK-based fishing company in 1926.

Further dives are needed on the wreck to establish how it sank as there is no obvious damage.

The club have also located a wreck which is possibly the Kincorth, but further research is needed

Myth 1 - Scuba diving is a male-dominated sport!
Reality - About 50 percent of all new divers are female. Scuba diving appeals to a diverse group of people.

Myth 2 - Scuba divers are prone to shark attacks!
Reality - Most animals are afraid of things they don’t understand. The bubbles created by scuba equipment keep most underwater animals away, including sharks. In 2006, 31 dog attacks resulted in death; only 4 shark attacks were fatal, and none of the victims were scuba divers.

Myth 3 - You need to be a good swimmer to scuba dive!
Reality - Many divers are not good swimmers. Scuba equipment and the gravity-free nature of being underwater, make moving through the water less strenuous.

Myth 4 - Scuba diving is a dangerous sport!
Reality - Recreational scuba diving (U.S. & Canada combined) had only 88 fatalities compared to 700 from boating, 3,200 from swimming, 33,100 from home injury and 44,800 from motor vehicles.

Myth 5 - Scuba diving is an adult-only sport!
Reality - Sport diving imposes no legal limits on age, but most diver training organizations require candidates to be 15 years old for full certification. Of course, there are always exceptions, and 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds can be taught if they are capable of handling the equipment and training.

Myth 6 - Scuba diving is a “summer-time only” sport!
Reality - Special diving equipment, such as “dry suits,” enables enthusiasts to dive regardless of water temperature - and stay warm in the process.

Myth 7 - If you care about the environment you should not scuba dive!
Reality - The more you are aware of the underwater environment, the more you can appreciate it. Seasoned divers are the No. 1 diving subgroup who take up underwater photography. Experienced divers know that touching the reef is not safe for divers nor good for reef life and take a “hands-off” approach.

Myth 8 - If you are claustrophobic scuba diving is not for you!
Reality - Some who are claustrophobic still enjoy scuba diving. Others dive to overcome phobias.

Myth 9 - I need to spend a lot of money on scuba equipment!
Reality - Start slowly and only buy the (personal or basic) essentials, such as mask, fins and snorkel. Combined, these can cost less than most tennis rackets. Online scuba stores offer deep discounts to make the sport more appealing to the masses.

Myth 10 - Scuba diving is not a sport!
Reality - Scuba diving requires training, specialized equipment, a uniform (wetsuit), concentration, skill, teamwork (your dive “buddy”), knowledge and practice.