Browsing: Scuba Features

Welcome to the “Scuba Diving Features” section of The Scuba News, your comprehensive hub for all things scuba diving. This parent category encompasses a wide range of topics, including maritime history, underwater photography and videography, scuba diving training, scuba diver travel, surface interval entertainment such as books, podcasts, movies, and TV episodes, as well as webinars and scuba diving events. Dive into our diverse collection of articles, reviews, and guides to explore the fascinating world of scuba diving from every angle. Whether you’re a novice diver, seasoned enthusiast, or simply curious about the wonders of the underwater realm, our curated content has something for everyone.

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A shipwreck from every Canadian province to be featured

Beginning next week and running for 11 weeks, The Scuba News Canada will feature a shipwreck story from every province of Canada, as well as one in Canada’s north. Although both the east and west coasts, along with the Great Lakes, are best known for shipwrecks, we will feature a shipwreck from even the landlocked provinces. Stay tuned for our first shipwreck story from Matt Lerpiniere’s adventure in Bell Island, Newfoundland.

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Why Scubagaskets O-rings all come in black color?

This was a tough decision we had to make. We chose black because of its superior properties over brown or green material. The tests showed that Black Viton compared to Green or Brown Viton, with all parameters constant except for the color, is favorable. It has higher strength, better stability and better elastic properties originally (brand new), and also after exposure to extreme situations that cause material fatigue. It also possesses higher resistance to surface damage.

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My Favourite Critter – Seahorses

Every diver has a favourite critter or ocean giant they like to find during their travels and dives. Sharks, nudibranchs, whales and dolphins are often listed as popular but what about seahorses? These unusual and delicate creatures are found around the world and new species continue to be discovered. New Zealand is home to one species of seahorse, the Large-Bellied seahorse and, as its name suggests, it is the largest species of seahorse – growing up to 35cm in length. It lives up to a depth of approximately 100m and as shallow as 10metres and, like other species, is under threat from pollution of habitats and exploitation in commercial industries.

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The Gentle Giant – Ungentled

They travel the seas in search of feeding grounds, adding more than 25km under their belt every single day. Whalesharks are filtering the water for small nutritional organisms (plankton, krill, jellyfish, small fish, squid, etc.). In order to survive, a juvenile needs to process at least 21kg (46 pounds) of food on a daily basis. They have been called many names: Lord Fish (Cá Ông) in Vietnam, Butanding and Balilan in the Philippines, they even made it to the back of the 100 peso bill. But I prefer “Gentle Giants” for their calm nature and slowly moving huge bodies. Time is passing with a different speed for them. Their hippy nature backed by a school bus size of a body makes the perfect tool to show us the peace that is the main rule in the underwater world.

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A blast from the past, experiencing Tropical North Queenslands finest snorkel adventure

Being only five hours away on a direct flight from Auckland, I am surprised more people don’t or haven’t visited Cairns and the surrounding Tropical north Queensland across the ditch. Having lived in Queensland for four years in my early 20’s, I fell in love with the place and realised how lucky we were as Kiwis to have such easy access to the warmth, sunshine and more importantly – the Great Barrier reef. It’s been over a few years since I lived and worked there, and I felt it was time to go back and visit my old haunts (particularly the Reef of course) after hearing how El Nino, flooding and the dreaded Crown of thorns seastar (COTS) had started to decimate the coral.

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Exploring The Wreck of the Andrea Doria

The iconic Andrea Doria wreck featured in the press in June 2016 when OceanGate explored the wreck with their manned submersible and assessed her current condition. The footage that was captured showed considerable deterioration of the wreck in the last two years alone. As divers continue to explore this luxury liner, we look back at Bob Wilson’s account of his Andrea Doria 50th anniversary dive in 2006.

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Eiko Jones Photography – Photography with a unique perspective

While growing up in New Zealand, Eiko acquired his first SLR camera at the age of fourteen. He quickly discovered his passion for capturing images of animals, especially birds, in their natural habitat. During extensive trips along the West Coast of British Columbia and Alaska in the early 1990’s, his focus shifted to coastal landscapes above and below the waterline.

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Cambodia: A diving hidden gem

As the global population increases and world travel becomes more accessible for many people, it is increasingly difficult to find dive sites that offer spectacular marine life and minimal tourism. Many areas of world class diving are overrun in peak season with boats and large dive groups, which is a far cry from the serenity and peace of scuba diving that most of us seek. There are however some lesser-known diving locations to explore, if you are prepared to go off the beaten track and begin a travel adventure both topside and underwater.

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Exploring Seal and Sea Lion Populations in New Zealand

Are you looking for a different marine wildlife experience for non-scuba days? How about exploring New Zealand’s populations of seals and sea-lions? With opportunities to view both topside and underwater, spending time with these animals is a great day out for all the family and offers a fascinating introduction into their lives.

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Beginner diving tips to avoid danger

Safety is almost always at the forefront of any divers thinking, but occasionally and commonly even the most experienced and qualified enthusiasts find themselves in an uncomfortable situation. The inevitable will come for every diver when a little surprise catches them off guard and they need to re-group a little to regain control of the dive. For the most part, in an ideal world, this is all any diver would really want or expect to happen.

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Incident Insights: Sea Lion Bite

Early one afternoon near La Paz, Mexico, at Los Islotes, a popular dive site and sea lion rookery, a sea lion bit the diver on the stomach. At the time of the attack he was scuba diving in less than 20 feet of seawater with approximately 50 other divers from several dive boats present.

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A diver’s long swim from dive shop helper to commercial status

His father paid for his training for Open Water certification. A job in a dive shop opened his eyes to the work available to a scuba diver with the right qualifications. Eric Villeneuve was quickly acquiring them. “I became scuba certified at 16, a Dive Master at 18, an Instructor at 19, and a Commercial Diver at 27. But I have had a set of mask, fins and a snorkel for as long as I remember.”