It may be necessary to charge Divers on Egyptian Red Sea liveaboards to help cover rising fuel costs.

Egypt’s Chamber of Diving and Watersports (CDWS) has recommended that liveaboard operators charge around £24 per diver per week for northern Red Sea itineraries and £32 per week for marine park and southern itineraries.

The announcement by the CDWS, an association that represents more than 500 dive operations in the region, follows an increase of 50 per cent on fuel prices in Egypt.

‘To date, all rising costs of commodities have been absorbed by liveaboard operators in order to allow the end user to benefit from a highly competitive market place,’ said CDWS in its statement.

The fees are not compulsory and will depend on specific agreements between liveaboard operators and tour operators, CDWS added. Divers have been advised to contact their tour operators for further information.

A new wreck has been sunk in the Red Sea in technical diving depths.

The Al Shorouk lies off the Eel Canyon dive site, to the west of Kirk’s Forest in Aqaba, Jordan.

The ship is lying on her starboard side across two reefs in 40-60m, however depths of 70m can be achieved under the wreck.

She was scuttled by the Aqaba Marine Park on 18 June 2008. As she started to sink she started to drift and could have easily ended up in over 100m of water.

Organisers managed to push the Al Shorouk back to a shallower depth just before she slipped beneath the waves creating a new exciting site for technical divers visiting Aqaba in addition to the other technical diving wreck the Taiyong.

For more pictures of the wreck, visit: www.diveaqaba.com
Pictures courtesy of Rod Abbotson

Poseidon has recalled a batch of its BeSea W50 winged BCs for replacement.
The move has come in response to what appears to have been a “manufacturing error on the inner bladder”.

The fault, says Poseidon, “causes the seam that holds the two inner bladder halves together to break, making the wing unfit as a floating device”.

Units affected carry the batch number 5445, which covers BCs made from 16 September 2007 to 10 June 2008. Owners of such units should not dive again with the BC until the inner bladder has been replaced, says Poseidon.

Owners can read their unit’s batch number and manufacturing year by opening the zipper between the two legs of the wing. A tab between the two legs of the exposed bladder carries the information.

Affected units should be returned to the shop from which they were bought. Alternatively, in Britain, contact Poseidon Diving Systems, 01420 84300, www.poseidon-uk.co.uk

Aqua Lung has recalled a batch of its Titan first stage regulator DIN cylinder fittings.

The recall comes after one example broke after being weakened by manual tightening during servicing that exceeded the recommended torque load.

Owners of units on which serial numbers are lower than 6062501 and/or are marked “300 BAR MAX” (as opposed to “300 BAR MAXI”) should return the fitting to the Aqua Lung retailer from which they bought it. It will be replaced by a new unit with a DIN screw made from stainless steel.

Alternatively, in Britain, contact Aqua Lung UK, 0116 212 4200, www.aqualung.co.uk

Manufacturer Apeks is recalling any second stage or octopus for its TX, ATX and XTX regulators bought at any time before this July - if it has not undergone an authorised annual service.

The recall comes as the result of the realisation that an incorrectly assembled second stage has been purchased at some point.

If you have an Apeks regulator that has not been serviced, the company asks that you take it to your nearest Apeks dealer for a visual inspection before diving with it again.

If owners cannot return the regulator for any reason, they are asked to contact Apeks’ Customer Service Department for assistance. Call (0044) 01254 692200 or email info@apeks.co.uk

A British diver Richard Neely, 38, and his American girlfriend Allison Dalton, 40, have been rescued after drifting for 20 hours following a dive off the Great Barrier Reef.

They were separated from their boat on Friday 23 May after surfacing 200 metres away. The crew did not see them and currents carried them away.

The incident happened off the coast of Queensland. Involving 7 helicopters, 3 planes and 6 boats, and is estimated to have cost around £200,000.

The couple sold their story to a Sunday newspaper for a rumoured £500,000, There have now been calls for them to pay back the cost of their rescue.

Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said: “If they are going to profit from their story I don’t think a contribution back would go astray.”

The pair were winched to safety nine miles from where they had been diving near the Whitsunday Islands off the eastern coast.

“I truly thought we were going to die. Sharks were on our mind the entire time, but neither of us mentioned the ‘S’ word,” Mr Neely told the Sunday Mirror.
“We just had to stay positive and calm to help each other through the ordeal and not think about being eaten alive.”

Fellow divers and the crew of the boat Ozsail have since criticised the couple for ignoring instructions in the safety briefing. They did not remain on the dive site, they did not follow the clear instructions of the dive instructor they did not surface immediately upon leaving Gary’s Lagoon.

In another interview, the couple denied any wrongdoing. “I don’t consider that we drifted away from the dive site,” said Mr Neely. “We were on the dive site for the entire time of our allocated dive time.”

British diver, Alan Costello, 52 yrs, from Moss Bank, St Helens, was last seen exploring the wreck of the Rosalie Moller in Egypt’s Red Sea on 20 May.

Costello and his buddy left another buddy pair and went off to explore the engine room.

The pair became disorientated and stirred up the silt. His diving buddy made it to the surface but there was no sign of Costello.

The alarm was raised and an extensive air and sea search was launched, also involving dive boat operators.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that a British citizen went missing off the coast of Egypt and we are working with the local authorities there to do all we can to find him.

“We are also liaising with the family and offering them support at this difficult time.”

The Ministry of Defence has reported that a nuclear-powered submarine, HMS Superb of Britain’s Royal Navy hit rocks beneath the surface of the Red Sea. There were no casualties and the sub has now safely surfaced.
The Swiftsure-class attack submarine does not carry nuclear weapons. It remains watertight and its nuclear reactor was completely unaffected.
A ministry spokesman refused to reveal the vessel’s current mission in the area, which he said was being reassessed as its sonar was damaged.
An investigation into the cause of the accident is in progress.

The Aegean city of Bal?kesir’s Ayval?k district, one of the two places in the world where red corals live, has opened its tourism season. The district, which is also a significant diving spot, makes a good promotion of red corals and attracts domestic and foreign diving buffs who are interested in this type of coral. More »

The Twilight Zone became famous as the name of the hit TV series, but what happens in the real ‘twilight zone,’ at depths between 40 meters and 100 meters in the sea, may be even stranger than fiction - at least in the eyes of a marine biologist.

There are less than 10 dedicated teams in the world studying the dangerous twilight zone, and one of them is stationed at the northern shore of the Rea Sea in Israel. There, Oded Ben Shaprut (pic above), head diving officer for the Interuniversity Institute of Eilat (IUI), who heads the team, is helping marine biologists go where few divers have gone before. More »