DIVE Spring 2018

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GALÁPAGOS

Solving the whale shark puzzle

LAKE HURON Stunning wreck dive under ice

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S P E C I A L R E P O R T – D O U G L A S D AV I D S E I F E R T ON THE FUTURE OF THE MALDIVES

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IS PARADISE LOST? See Page 18

T

THE TEAM

he Maldives is facing an unprecedented crisis. Not only is there immediate political chaos with the authoritarian current president refusing to accept the rulings of his own Supreme Court, there is also a geopolitical clash, with China flexing its muscles in the region, much to India’s indignation. How all these factors play out will have a profound impact on plans to dramatically increase the amount of tourism in the archipelago. Douglas David Seifert’s special report (Page 18) on the challenges facing one of the world’s most famous diving destinations makes sombre reading.

Add coral bleaching and global warming to the mix and you can see why many fear that a diving paradise is about to be lost. Another political issue impacting on the diving world is the UK government’s insistence on banning direct flights to Sharm El Sheikh. On Page 9 read why we are calling on the Foreign Office to follow the rest of Europe and lift its ban. Yet it isn’t all doom and gloom. We have a stunning set of images by Alfred Minnaar on Page 38 of tech divers ‘in the zone’ in Indonesia, and on Page 64 an equally impressive set of a wreck under ice from Jerzy Kowalczuk.

Plus, you can win an awesome trip to the Philippines on page 17. Good luck!

Graeme Gourlay Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Gordon Beckett Art Director Paul Critcher Production Editor Joanne O’Brien Sub Editor Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell Senior Correspondent Douglas David Seifert World Editor John Plumer Cartographer Chloe Smith Advertising Simon Simmons Operations Director Ramesh Parshotam Accounts Manager FOUNDERS Graeme Gourlay & Joanne O’Brien PRINTING Stephens & George Goat Mill Road, Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 3TD 01685 388 888 NEWSTRADE DISTRIBUTION Intermedia +44 1293 312001 getintouch@inter-media.co.uk

Graeme Gourlay, Publisher – graeme@dive.uk.com

CONTRIBUTORS Josef Litt Based in Berkshire, England, Josef explores fascinating places around the world. ‘I love photography, and I also want to know more about an area.’

He took on underwater photography in 2007, and ten years later he brought together elements of history, science and beautiful photography in his new book.

GALÁPAGOS. www.joseflitt.com

Alfred Minnaar South African Alfie is a former dive instructor who has been living on the island of Gili Trawangan, Indonesia for the past four years . He has turned his passion for photography into a full time career, specialising in taking stunning images of the tech diving community.

Instagram @alfredminnaarphotograph & @mantadivegilit

DIVE (ISSN 1471 6240) ©2018 is published by Syon Geographical Ltd. Registered office: Suite 3.16, Q West, Great West Road, Brentford, Middlesex, TW8 0GP. Registration number 07457559. All rights reserved. Syon Geographical Ltd cannot be held responsible for unsolicited material or photographs.

COVER IMAGE Alfred Minnaar

www.divemagazine.co.uk

5

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DIVE U.K._11.2017.indd 1

11/18/17 9:18 AM

Contents DIVE SPRING 2018

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www.divemagazine.co.uk

9

Briefing

Sharm Airport, Chamber’s 25th & Nekton 11

16

Lost at Sea

How a routine dive turned into a drama

18

Can Paradise be Saved?

The challenges facing the Maldives

38

In the Zone

18

Tech portraits by Alfred Minnaar

49

Lap of luxury

Pampered diving in Alphonse, Seychelles

59

Whale Sharks of Galápagos

Latest research & fascinating folklore

Win a DIVE trip to the Philippines worth

£5,000 page 17

64 49

Frozen in Time

Exploring a wreck under ice

64

Equipment Matters

Round-up of the best regulators

82

Miscellany of Curios # 10

Pseudocolochirus violaceus or the sea apple www.divemagazine.co.uk

7

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BRIEFING

DROP THE BAN

OPEN SHARM AIRPLANE

Large pelagics are back in Sharm; left, the quiet airport

DIVE’s senior correspondent Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell - formerly an instructor based in Na’ama Bay - is calling on the UK to join the rest of Europe and lift its ban on flights to Sharm El Sheikh n On 31 October 2015, a Russian Airbus A321 was brought down in the Sinai Desert, shortly after leaving Sharm El Sheikh airport, killing all 224 people on board.

In the wake of the disaster, amid accusations of incompetence and inadequate security, flights to the airport were cancelled, and over two years later, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has refused to lift its restrictions on direct flights to the airport.

The massive loss of tourism to the resort saw some of the largest and most popular dive centres either closed or mothballed, including big names such as Sinai Divers, Werner Lau, Colona and Emperor Divers.

Many of the non-Egyptian dive staff were forced to leave, but their numbers pale into insignificance compared to the thousands of Egyptian workers who found themselves unemployed. Sad as it might be for a European dive instructor to have to leave their favourite place of work, at least they can move elsewhere, or head back home. Many of the Egyptian staff, however, had very few alternatives, especially some of the boat crews, who have grown up plying their trade on dive boats operating from Sharm.

Within six months of the incident, the German authorites lifted their ban on travel to Sharm Airport. Germans, who had previously constituted the

third-largest number of visitors to Sharm, behind the Russians and the British, began flying just a few months later, with other nations rapidly following suit. Business began to pick up again, slowly, and enough divers made their way to Sharm that Sinai Divers and Werner Lau partnered up to reopen as a joint venture, one year after the disaster.

By the beginning of 2017, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine had resumed direct flights to Sharm El Sheikh.

Since then, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands have followed suit, yet despite the pleas and petitions, and despite the resort itself being designated as ‘safe’, the www.divemagazine.co.uk

9

BRIEFING UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office refuses to lift the ban on travel to the airport.

After the terrorist incident, teams of experts were dispatched by the UK and other governments to appraise and address any problems with security at the airport, with new security measures and equipment implemented as a result.

Since the 2015 disaster, there have not been any other terrorist events or security breaches at the airport.

No reason for the delay in li ing the ban to Sharm airport has been given by the FCO. e stock reply to press requests is that they are ‘waiting to see what happens’.

Egypt undoubtedly has had problems with sectarian violence, but they are in the most part very far away from the resorts of Sharm and Dahab on the Sinai peninsula, and those on the Egyptian mainland, which have also su ered losses over a general reluctance to travel to Egypt. Reports of violence in the town of Al-Arish, located in the north of the Sinai peninsula, on the Mediterranean coast, are regular occurrences, but the long-standing con ict has existed since 1948, and it’s a world away from Sharm. e shortest route by road is over 460km long, there is only one road from Taba to Sharm, and there are a number of security checkpoints along the way. e rest of the peninsula is a mountainous desert, inhabited by tribes of Bedouin who do not take kindly to trespassers.

That there has been a tragedy of epic proportions is without doubt, but it has now extended beyond the Russian airline disaster.

Sharm El Sheikh needs the UK tourist business to support itself, and it needs people to visit and let everybody know that it’s still safe to go there. Is it possible that there could be another attack? It can never be ruled out – but the same argument could be applied to London, Manchester, or Paris...

It’s also worth pointing out that the decline in tourism to Sharm – and to Egyptian resorts as a whole 10

SHARM – WHAT CAN YOU DO? SIGN THE PETITION. n On the UK government website there is a petition calling for the ban to be dropped. If it gets 10,000 signatures the government has to respond, at 100,000 signatures the petition has to be debated in Parliament.

Https://petition.parliament.uk/ petitions/202204 WRITE TO YOUR MP. n You can find your MP and all their contact details at http:// www.parliament.uk/mps-lordsand-offices/mps/.

There are other helpful websites available, such as https://www. writetothem.com.

Send yours an email, write a letter, pop into their local offices.

Write to other MPs, Cabinet ministers and Lords. Be polite, concise and present factual reasons as to why you think the ban should be lifted.

has had a major impact on the world of diving. Sharm was the training ground for many European divers.

If there is a silver lining to this cloud (and clouds are a rare occurrence in the skies above Sharm), it is that the drop in tourism has seen a resurgence in the reefs that were impacted by the volume of divers in the busiest years before, the ban and the return of large pelagics to the area on a much more frequent basis. The friends I

GO THERE! n Camel Dive Club has a full list of direct flights available from European airports on its website.

One of the most popular routes is via Istanbul with Pegasus, so popular that they have started to offer free tours of the city during the stopover. Another option is to fly to Cairo and take an internal flight to Sharm.

SPREAD THE WORD n If you or your friends have visited Sharm recently, share the experience on social media.

Follow your favourite dive centre’s social media feeds and like, share or retweet everything they post. Remind people that it’s still a great place to visit, as safe as can be, with some of the best diving in the world. Raising public awareness will hopefully get more people to rethink their dive holiday options.

have that remain in Sharm tell me it’s the best diving that they have seen in years.

High season in Sharm is from September onwards, but it can take six months to a year for tour operators to reschedule their charter flights. There are still many routes to get to Sharm from the UK via European airports, but it’s time for the UK FCO to re-think its approach to its travel restrictions to Sharm airport, and lift the ban now!

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BRIEFING THE CHAMBER THAT NEVER CLOSES

n Twenty five years ago, four huge shipping containers arrived in Sharm El Sheikh by truck.

Four technicians spent 40 hours assembling, testing and starting up what would become the world’s busiest hyperbaric chamber. On 10 March 1993, the Hyberbasric Medical Centre opened for business. Since then it has treated more than 1,700 people for decompression sickness and from 2005 to 2010 it was the world’s busiest hyperbaric facility.

The vast majority of patients have been divers and the chamber is supported and staffed by volunteers from the local dive industry.

It was custom-built in the United States to a design by Dr Ali Nasr and Dr Adel Taher, the founders of the centre. Dr Adel, who still runs the centre today, and the staff at the HMC, are particularly proud of the fact that since its opening, they have never closed, never turned away a patient and never lost a patient.

‘At the chamber, if we get a fault we switch to a backup system, roll up our sleeves and usually the problem is quickly fixed,’ said Dr Adel. ‘What we don’t do is close the place down and wait for a specialist to arrive from the United States or Germany. The whole concept of the design means we can keep the chamber running ourselves.’

The volunteers from the local

Dr Ahmed Sakr, right, and Dr Adel Taher at the Sharm HMC

diving community receive worldclass training in exchange for their time spent treating dive accidents. Hyperbaric specialists from around the world come to Sharm to learn how to deal with medical diving emergencies. The chamber is supported by local diving centres encouraging visiting divers to donate a Euro for each day of diving.Unfortunately, the

recent drop in tourism since the ban on direct flights to Sharm airport has devastated the local diving community and this making the chamber’s future uncertain.

The HMC is currently looking for sponsors for a 25th anniversary celebration in November, to include guest lecturers and an open day.

Report and photo from Michael Schneider in Sharm

An updated edition of this excellent guide to great white sharks, with more than 100 images, has just been published.

On Amazon for £14.95 www.divemagazine.co.uk

13

BRIEFING The Titan three-man submersible during Nekton 1

EXPLORING INNER SPACE James Field reports on the Nekton mission to survey the depths of the Indian Ccean

n ‘We have better maps of the moon and Mars than we have of our own seabed,’ laments Oliver Steeds, cofounder and chief executive of Nekton.

‘We’ve come to the point where the most important part of our planet is the least known to us.’

Addressing this paradox was one of the founding principles of the Nekton Oxford Deep Ocean Research Institute, and why in October this year it plans to launch the Nekton II Mission, to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean. The three-year mission will focus on six regions: the Mozambique Channel, the Aldabra atoll in the Seychelles, the Maldives, the Chagos Archipelago, the Andaman Islands and the Sunda Trench off Sumatra The project will involve 42 weeks at sea exploring 24 different locations in the six regions. It will concentrate on two distinct zones. The first is the area from the surface down to 200m which has been most effected by human 14

impacts such as over-fishing, climate change and pollution. But it will also be going deeper and looking at the bathyal zone – the ocean from the edge of the continental shelf (around 200m) down to the abyssal zone at 3,000m.

It is estimated that at least one million species live in this zone – 90 per cent of which are unknown to science.

The team behind Nekton believes we face a ‘race to the deep’, before the damage created by human activity encroaches catastrophically on the world’s oceans.

‘The deep ocean is the largest and most poorly explored and studied ecosystem on our earth,’ says Professor Alex Rogers, co-founder of Nekton and the project’s science director. ‘There is an immediate urgency to get a better understanding of how life is distributed in the ocean, how the ocean works and how to improve our management of it so it begins to recover.’

More than 70 per cent of our planet

is covered by ocean, yet less than five per cent of it has been explored. At least 97 per cent of our biosphere is in the ocean, and it’s estimated that more than 90 per cent of marine species remain undiscovered – yet only 2.8 per cent of the ocean have any protection.

For Rogers, this is what makes the deep sea the next great frontier.

‘From 1872 to 1876, the global Challenger expedition transformed our understanding of the ocean and resulted in the birth of marine science.

With the systematic exploration of the bathyal zone, we have the opportunity to create another step change.’

Rogers adds: ‘The Indian Ocean contains a treasure trove of unknown biodiversity as well as features such as large submarine plateaux which are scarce or unknown elsewhere.

It is also a rich area for coral reefs, and mesophotic reef ecosystems are completely undocumented.’

One of Nekton’s key objectives is to

The pilot of the Titan submersible photographs the Nemo submersible on Tiger Bank in Bermuda

contribute to work on standardising ways of measuring the condition of the oceans as part of the General Ocean Survey and Sampling Iterative Protocol (GOSSIP). The plan is to use cutting-edge technology to automate data analysis, including the aptly named OCTOPUS (Ocean Tool for Public Understanding and Science) – a system created to crunch information from 98 billion global data points.

The hope is that these innovations, particularly the OCTOPUS system, can eventually lead to improved scientific practice and improve policy to protect our oceans.

The Nekton’s Mission I to Bermuda was part of the XL Catlin Deep Ocean Survey, which ran from 2016 to the start of 2018 The new mission plans to use many of the survey and datacollection methods pioneered on the first mission. The team, based on a research vessel, will be using divers, manned submersibles, ROVs and multibeam mapping. Water chemistry will be measured in each area visited and samples will be taken from the sea bed. Nets will be used throughout to take pelagic samples.

More than 430 scientistists from the Indian Ocean region, and a further 165 international researchers, will be involved from 35 different scientific institutes. They plan to make at least 10 million DNA species sequences, and publish 600 scientific

papers, identify 250,000 specimens of which, hopefully, as many as 1,000 will be new species.

All data collected during the mission will be open access and will be uploaded to the OCTOPUS data bank.

All this work should help establish a baseline for the health of the Indian Ocean and help understand the distribution of its marine life and the impact of human activity in the area.

The project will culminate in a major conference on the subject of the

Divers working with the Titan submersible

Indian Ocean and to establish policy priorities for its protection to take place in November 2021 in Oxford.

Another element of the mission is to involve people in the project and to share its discoveries with as wide a public as possible. Local journalists, students and policy-makers will be

invited on the voyages. It is planned to create 150 Indian Ocean ‘ambassadors’ to help spread the word about the importance of the ocean for the region’s future. It is hoped to involve more than five million students, both in the region and worldwide, and to reach a 1.5 billion global media audience with content produced during the expedition.

Oxford University marine biologist and Nekton’s principal scientist, Dr Lucy Woodall, said: ‘The idea is to excite a younger generation, so that in another ten years’ time a young scientists from one of the regions we plan to visit will go out into their own waters, instead of us.’

For co-founder Steeds, the expedition’s most important goal lies in sustainable development.

He explained: ‘Creating a regional organisation that can manage the sustainable governance of the Indian Ocean is our Everest. The anchor of the mission is a summit on the state of the area that we hope to hold in Oxford in 2021, where we’ll bring together our scientific discoveries and policy recommendations.’

Media involvement will be crucial to the success of the mission, he said.

And to engage as many people as possible the team plans to celebrate the ocean using techniques such as 360-degree filming and to broadcast the deepest-ever live radio show.

‘The majority of current communication about our oceans is about their demise and destruction, which has an important place in the spectrum of reporting, says Steeds.

‘But we feel that we can add something different. After all, Martin Luther King didn’t say “I have a nightmare,” he said “I have a dream”.’

Renowned deep-sea explorer and oceans campaigner Dr Sylvia Earle says: ‘Neckton is boldly undertaking exploration of the vast depths of the sea with new technologies and new ways of communicating the urgent message that everything we care about – the economy, health, security and most importantly, our existence –depends on understanding and protecting the living ocean.’ www.divemagazine.co.uk

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IPTO R H TA FPOPLEINO E D T O M E

LOST AT SEA As he drifted out to sea Michael Moore was confident the helicopters would find him. A few hours later he started to feel he might not be found…

T

he boat was a large RIB, it was about 10:30 in the morning and the first dive of my trip to Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland. We were diving the Loch Garry, a World War Two wreck that sits at 28m.

A rebreather diver and myself were not part of the main group aboard and we agreed to dive together as a buddy team. There was a shotline down to the wreck and, equipped with a twin set and a seven-litre back-up side-slung, plus my camera, I descended with my new buddy.

I started to take a few pictures as soon as I got to the wreck but quickly realised I didn’t know my buddy’s whereabouts.

I stopped and looked around the immediate vicinity, but there was no sign of him. After about ten minutes I decided to ascend, deployed my SMB and went up. I later found out that my buddy had seen me ascending but decided I was okay and continued with the dive. I completed my stops and surfaced.

I saw that there were three other divers at the surface waiting to be picked up and saw the boat about 30m away. I signalled and thought I had been seen.

The boat picked up the three other divers and then it headed off towards the mainland on the other side of Rathlin Island. I was not immediately concerned because the skipper in his safety briefing had said he would prioritise who he would pick up first. I assumed my buddy had surfaced elsewhere and the skipper had decided to pick him up and then he come back for me.

However, after about 15 minutes it became clear he hadn’t seen me. I made an attempt to swim to land, which was about 500 metres away, but the current had now picked up, and was taking me out into the open sea. It was at about the

16

same time that I saw the first helicopter appear. Five minutes later a second one came into view, plus two RLNI boats.

It was clear to me that they thought I had surfaced in the channel between the island and the mainland and were searching this area, although I was about a couple of kilometres away. I was heading to what looked like an island but I later found out was Scotland!

A rescue helicopter headed straight for me on a few occasions only to veer away just before it got close enough to see me. By now I had ditched my weights and inflated everything that I could to stay afloat. The weather conditions were good, bright and sunny with only a slight swell.

Rathlin Island

their diving to help in the search. They assisted me into the RIB and after that it is a bit of a blur. I saw the RNLI boats and the helicopters around us. I was transferred into a lifeboat and checked over, then the helicopter hovered overhead and I was winched up. I was plugged into various devices and asked some questions – I got the date wrong and sounded disorientated.

They decided to take me to hospital in case of decompression sickness.

When I arrived at hospital there was a specialist doctor present. I still had my computer, which was examined and they could see I had completed my stops, so after a few checks they decided I was okay and I was discharged.

‘By now I had ditched my weights and inflated everything I could to stay afloat’ I knew they were looking for me and I was confident I would be found. Yet after two hours I was quite far out and the helicopters were now over the area where it had all gone wrong and I could see the lifeboats starting to search the coastline in case I had made it ashore. I thought if only they had started off there I would be in my digs having a brew by now! I was starting to feel that I might not be found. I made a list of what I was going to ditch and when – my camera was last, not because of the cost but because I had taken some pictures of the rescue operation and wanted to keep them (sadly, they did not come out).

Thankfully, it didn’t come to that because half an hour later I heard a whirring behind me and turned and saw a RIB heading straight towards me. It was from Lisburn Dive Club. They heard there was a shout on and abandoned

Later I found out my buddy had surfaced after completing his dive and immediately asked where I was and then the Coastguard was quickly called.

Unfortunately, I had drifted far out to sea by that time. Some of the group volunteered to dive the wreck again in case I was down there (dead, in other words!). When they surfaced they were told I had been found.

Lessons learned: If you’re diving with someone you are not familiar with, get to know them, their experience and equipment beforehand. Agree rules, especially separation procedure. And I must remind any buddies that, as a photographer, I might well be headsdown taking photographs rather than keeping close tabs on them.

I have also bought a Nautilus GPS transmitter to use if I am ever in that situation again, God forbid! n

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17

T PH OE R TMF AO LL DI OI V E S

SPECIAL REPORT

IS PARADISE LOST? Can one of the world’s premier diving destinations survive the twin blows of rampant development and global warming? Douglas David Seifert reports

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Douglas David Seifert

The Maldives is still one of the best places in the world to see and dive with manta rays

www.divemagazine.co.uk

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T PH OE R TMF AO LL DI OI V E S

Above, giant frogfish waits to ambush unwary fish passing too close to its cavernous mouth 20

Left, bluestripe snapper are ubiquitous on reefs of the Maldives

All photographs Douglas David Seifert

Below, vast school of golden sweepers

Right, honeycomb moray eel

www.divemagazine.co.uk

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A clown triggerfish and a soft coral covered outcrop

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Douglas David Seifert

T PH OE R TMF AO LL DI OI V E S

T

oday there are 105 dedicated resort islands in the Maldives, scattered across an archipelago of 26 vast atolls comprising 1,192 mostly uninhabited individual islands which straddle the Equator in the Indian Ocean.

They attract more than a million tourists a year, but the Maldivian government has started an ambitious and many fear overblown plan to increase that number by a factor of five over the next few years. One hundred new resorts are at the planning stages and many are already under construction. An airport expansion effectively creating a new airport will open this year, which is designed to process 7.5 million travellers annually and the Maldivian authorities are entering into some major infrastructure projects with Chinese and Arab Gulf states backing which will irreversibly change the islands in ways which may render them unrecognisable.

In barely 50 years this string of islands, which rise no more than two metres above sea level, has already been transformed from an occasional trading and substancefishing existence into a high-end supplier of masstourism dreams of desert islands and barefoot luxury.

The fear is that the next stage in this development could destroy the purported paradise.

Over the years, one of of the main draws of the islands has been the healthy coral reefs and colourful fish, making for excellent snorkelling and scuba diving.

The Maldives has marketed itself extremely well as one of the world’s premier scuba-diving destinations.

With the archipelago spread over 90,000 square kilometres, there is no shortage of coral reefs and dive sites. Reef surveys have been conducted extensively since the legendary Hans Hass’ first expedition in 1957 (see From Bartering Cowry… on page 28) and the inventory of sea life is impressive: 180 – 250 species of stony coral, 1,100-plus species of fish, 400 species of mollusc, more than 145 species of crab, 48 species of shrimp and 83 species of echinoderm. Beyond the reef dwellers, 21 species of cetacean can be found around the Maldives, as well as five species of sea turtles, dugongs, giant clams, whale sharks, saltwater crocodiles, and the world’s largest population of reef manta rays.

Estimates of the total population of manta rays in the Maldives are said to be as high as 10,000 individuals; some believe the figure could be double that. Without question, the Maldives is the best place in the world to see manta rays.

The Maldives is ranked by the United Nation’s Environment Programme as having the world’s seventh-largest coral reef system within its territorial boundaries. These reefs within the atolls are semishielded from wave action but are subject to tidal currents, resulting in a thriving environment for soft corals and gorgonians. The colours displayed by soft coral species found in the Maldives are a breathtaking palette of pastel shades of lavender, pink, yellow, blue or fiery reds and oranges. Walls are lavishly adorned with soft coral but the channels can be challenging to dive at times, due to the sheer intensity of the current.

Schooling fish assemble in these high-current areas to prey upon plankton and smaller fish. The larger predators that remain after years of fishing pressure – snappers, groupers, emperors, barracuda, jacks – gather to feed upon those further down the chain. Although Maldivian waters were declared a shark sanctuary in 2010, with a total ban on killing sharks, local fishermen had a long history of shark fishing and have more or less made sharks regionally extinct, which is why one is hard pressed to see many sharks when diving most of the Maldives, except for grey reef sharks in the southern atolls and at some of the deeper dive sites. The one exception to the shark shortage is the relatively reliable year-round presence of whale sharks aggregating off South Ari Atoll, and the 300-plus, more or less resident, whale sharks in the Maldives.

CREATING FANTASY ISLANDS The runaway development of resort islands is causing major disruptions in the interconnected ecosystem of the reefs. The main environmental concerns are discharges of waste (both solids and sewage), pesticides, oil and toxic chemicals into the waters around the resort islands. Tourists produce far more waste than locals, with some resorts generating 40 – 200 tonnes per year.

Some estimates put tourist-resort island associated waste at 16.5kg per visitor per week (multiply that by 1.3 million visitors... ) At present, very few resort islands have waste-management facilities so most waste is incinerated or dumped at sea. Many resorts have sewage pipes leading away from the resorts, out through the reefs so that the outflow dissipates into the ocean ideally, www.divemagazine.co.uk

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T PH OE R TMF AO LL DI OI V E S

but in practice, it can create a toxic waste hazard which is swept back into the atoll lagoons.

Dredging, harbour construction and land reclamation have had tremendous impact upon the reefs. There is no construction that does not put a large amount of sediment into the water column. Silt deposits blanket the living corals and smother them or stress the animals until they are vulnerable to disease. Changing long-established water circulation virtually overnight by creating man-made structures in areas that had achieved an ecosystem equilibrium over eons has exacerbated the situation, leading in some cases to hazardous levels of nutrient concentrations from sewage effluent, which can, in turn, cause phytoplankton, algae and seagrass population explosions outcompeting the living coral. If haphazard waste management and ill-considered coastal management practices were not enough, there is the pressing coral apocalypse triggered by elevated sea temperatures.

In 1998, 90 per cent of the shallow hard coral in the Maldives died as a result of elevated sea temperatures.

There have also been subsequent mass coral die-off events in the years since.

Coral reefs, in the form known today, have been around for 25 million years and they thrive for the most part in clear, tropical waters within a narrow range of water temperatures, typically between 23 degrees and 29 degrees Celsius. They can tolerate higher temperatures only for limited periods of time. When seawater exceeds the normal maximum seasonal temperature by as little as one degree Celsius for a prolonged duration, the coral reef begins to malfunction.

This occurs because within the tissues of each coral polyp lives an algae-like dinoflagellate called zooxanthellae. The animal and plant partnership has evolved for hard corals to overcome the challenge of living in a nutrient deficient environment.

The warm, clear water niche that coral thrives in is sparse on sustenance, so the coral polyps rely upon zooxanthellae to convert light energy from the sun into chemical energy by means of photosynthesis.

The zooxanthellae provide an intricate and essential recycling function within the polyp: metabolic waste is removed and the carbon dioxide produced from the polyp’s respiration is converted into oxygen. Sugars, glycerol and amino acids are by-products created from this process and the polyp uses them to manufacture energy in the form of carbohydrates, protein and fats which it uses to build its reef structure. In return, 24

the zooxanthellae is given a protected habitat and an elevated, unobstructed access to sunlight.

The polyp-zooxanthellae symbiosis is one of the planet’s most enduring partnerships and the basis for the success of coral reefs to grow as the largest living structures on Earth in an environment that is paradoxically resource deprived. They are indispensable to each other and are conventionally indivisible due to their acquired niche in the ocean ecosystem.

However, with global warming and elevated sea temperatures beyond the historic maximum seasonal highs, the zooxanthellae weaken or die within a month.

When that happens the coral becomes stressed by having dead, non-enriching cells in its tissue and, in a lastchance gambit for survival, expels the zooxanthellae.

Since the zooxanthellae provide 100 per cent of the pigmentation to the translucent coral polyps, when the zooxanthellae have been expelled, the coral exhibits a ghostly pallor and is described as having ‘paled.’

If the sea temperatures drop back to normal, the polyps will acquire another colony of zooxanthellae and life will return to normal. The coral can live another month or so without the zooxanthellae, but its stores of energy become depleted around Day 60 of overwarm sea temperatures and the coral dies. If the coral is stressed by poor water quality, sedimentation, low salinity or pollution, the survival time is diminished.

When all that remains is the calcium carbonate skeleton of a dead coral colony, which is initially bright white, it is described as ‘bleached’. The skeleton doesn’t remain white for long, as algae and cyanobacteria colonise the skeleton and the habitat shifts from coraldominated, healthy reef to algae-dominated wasteland.

This occurred in 1998 and recovery was slow. First, sea temperatures must return to normal, then coral recruitment from surviving or distant corals has to have favourable conditions to survive and colonise. Coral planulae must find real estate without algal interference and then start acquiring zooxanthellae. Scientists monitoring the reefs after 1998 estimated the coral cover returning at a rate of three per cent per year.

Ten years after the bleaching event of 1998, the reefs may have looked to the untrained observer to be healthy, but in fact many reefs had shifted from huge coral species (Porites species, also known as finger coral and hump coral) and encrusting coral species (Pavona species, leaf coral; Leptastrea, crater coral and Mussidae, brain coral) to be predominated by the fast-growing Acropora species of table corals and staghorn corals.

Bleaching Douglas David Seifert / Shutterstock

More than 70 per cent of the coral in the Maldives has been affected by bleaching

Some of the designs for the new resorts

Architect’s model of proposed new town which is to house 70% of the country’s population

The upgraded airport is designed for 7.5 million visitors a year

The new US$210m bridge funded by China www.divemagazine.co.uk

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Some reefs had greater colonisation by corallimorphs – also called mushroom anemones – which are an intermediate order between sea anemones and scleractinian corals.

By 2013, fifteen years post bleaching, many coral species had not recovered, the composition of the reefs had changed, with structural complexity diminished.

That there was recovery at all is attributed to the high biomass of herbivorous fish on the reefs. These act as reef gardeners constantly pruning the reefs of algal growth and allowing coral some growing space. In the past these reef fish were not traditionally targeted for food, as the Maldivian diet is tuna-based.

How much of this stunted recovery is natural and how much is exacerbated by water quality and pollution issues from expansion of resort islands is still a matter of debate. What is not debatable is that from 2014 to 2016, the longest and most widespread coral bleaching event on record occurred and its effects are still being quantified. Beginning in 2014, fuelled by an El Niño, already overly warm surface seawater across the IndoPacific slowly spread across the Pacific and continued around the Equator and to latitudes low and high, with warm water invading coral reefs worldwide.

Surface water temperatures reached 31 degree Celsius in the Maldives in May 2016, resulting in paling, then bleaching of up to 95 per cent of the (recovering) coral around many islands; subsequent analysis has determined the average percentage of bleached corals measured around the Maldives was 73 per cent .

One of the hardest-hit genus was the branched and tabular species of Acropora. By contrast with the 1998 bleaching event, it was the encrusting (leaf and brain corals) and massive corals (hump and finger corals) that fared the best. The loss of the quick-growing Acropora enabled other corals that do not colonise as rapidly to find their places in the newly available reef occupancy.

However, the large-scale loss of Acropora is troublesome for the many fish species that utilise the Acropora’s complicated structure as a refuge and habitat.

Also, the corals associated with thilas (sea mounts) were more resilient than reefs in protected lagoons and their salvation is attributed to a greater volume of current flow. The biggest concerns following this second coral bleaching event are two-fold. Firstly, the period between bleaching events is decreasing, making it challenging for corals to fully recover from one bleaching event before another occurs. And secondly, if the water quality in terms of pollutants, waste, siltation ➤ 26

THE RISE OF THE WORLD’S FLATEST NATION

n The Maldives runs along a north-south ridge 960 km in length, straddling the Equator between 1°S and 8°N latitude. The archipelago is 120 km wide east-to-west and is a double chain of atolls. spread over 90,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean.

The territory is a patchwork of islands, reefs, lagoons, shallow sandbanks, channels, passes and an inland sea, and is estimated to contain 3.14 per cent of the total coral reef area of the world.

The Chagos-Laccadive Ridge is flanked by deep water at a depth of 270-380m to the west, and up to 2,500m on the east.

The atolls are all that remain of ancient mountains, created in the distant past and worn down by erosion of ocean waves and rain acidification since before the last ice age, when the sea level was 100m lower than it is today. More than 20,000 years ago the sea slowly started to rise as the earth’s ice coverage shrank.

Reef-building stony corals colonised the near shore of such volcanic islands and so started the formation of what is known as coral atolls. The word is taken from the Maldivian language of Dhivehi, oddly enough, considering there are many more and larger atolls in the Pacific Ocean. But the term was used by Charles Darwin in his The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs 1842– based on his observations at Keeling Island in the eastern Indian Ocean – and has stuck.

Atolls form when corals grow on the stable substrate around the islands, and build reef structures which over time attain

Schooling bannerfish

Douglas David Seifert

THE RISE OF THE WORLD’S FLATEST NATION

considerable mass and become fringing reefs. Meanwhile, the islands gradually subside through erosion and their shoreline recedes from the fringing coral reef. As the corals continue to grow upon the limestone structure laid by generation after generation of corals, they become barrier reefs. Eventually the volcanic islands themselves disappear through erosion and rising sea levels, leaving only a ring of coral and shallow sandy lagoons in the place where the islands once stood. The corals continue to grow, rising upward upon the foundation of the earler colonies, all on the base of the volcanic rock of the original island. The growth keeps pace with the rise in sea level over geological time, ultimately evolving into atolls with their own sandbars and series of reefs thriving at their margins. So, where once stood towering mountain ranges, followed by islands fringed with coral reef, there is now a unique geography of coral rings, each enclosing a shallow sand lagoon and bounded on the reef face by a vertiginous drop-off surrounded by a large expanse of deep sea.

In the Maldives this process has created a mosaic of 26 atolls and some 1, 192 islands, mere fly-specks of dry land barely emergent above the surface of a vast and deep ocean basin.

For the most part, the islands are low-lying sand and coral rock, with the average land elevation of 1.6m above sea level; the highest elevation in the entire archipelago is 2.4m, making the Maldives the world’s flattest nation. www.divemagazine.co.uk

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T PH OE R TMF AO LL DI OI V E S n The Dhivehis, an Indo-Aryan people, started to migrate to the Maldives from Southern India and Sri Lanka, East Africa and Arabia from around 2,000 years ago. Their culture is a blend of those diverse influences, originally an amalgamation of Dravidian and Sinhalese heritage, through many permutations over the centuries from sun worship to Hinduism and Buddhism to the nationwide embrace of Islam, since conversion, courtesy of Arab traders in the 12th century. Along the way, various colonial powers – the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British – have tried unsuccessfully to dominate the islanders' lives and destiny.

The Dhivehi people have always been dependent upon the sea. Although some islands afford enough land and fresh water to achieve a subsistence agriculture of coconut, taro, breadfruit, tubers, and a few tropical fruits, it is the rich waters surrounding the archipelago that truly provide a living.

The deep offshore waters are the realm of the Maldivians' most coveted resource, the abundant schools of yellowfin and skipjack tuna. The Dhivehi have traditionally been hook and line fishermen and although they do take reef fish and, until recently, sharks (including whale sharks), their preferred catch is tuna.

Following centuries of tradition, the freshly caught tuna is filleted and eaten that day in a variety of preparations and recipes, or preserved through sun-drying

FROM BARTERING COWRY SHELLS TO CATERING FOR MILLIONS OF TOURISTS or smoking. Maldivian dried fish has a unique taste that is appreciated in the cuisines of not only the Maldives, but also of neighbouring countries.

Another valuable export was the cowry shell (Monetaria moneta) that used to be found in great abundance in the tide pools and shallow reefs throughout the Maldives. In an era before coins were minted and universally recognised

➤ and disrupted current flow continues to impact the recovery of bleached reefs, there is a danger of algaedominated reefs taking the place of coral reefs unless a supply of coral juveniles and herbivore fish is abundant.

Many fore-reefs of the Maldives have shifted from health and growth to weakness and erosion. When that occurs, the reefs no longer provide the breakwater benefit against wave action that for millennia gave the islands security against natures caprices, such as storm surges and tsunamis. Increasing tourist infrastructure and numbers of visitors may put unsustainable demands on reef fish populations as a food source. While the Maldivians themselves have mostly eschewed reef fish preferring tuna, tourists are not so fussy.

Another component of global warming is the 28

as a medium of exchange, cowries were the first tradable store of value encapsulating all that negotiable tender must be: mobile, durable, desired, and impossible to counterfeit.

Coir was also a highly prized local product. Made of the fibres of coconut husks and fashioned into ropes stronger than hemp, coir is waterproof, impervious to seawater, and was valued by sailors

prospect of melting ice caps triggering sea-level rise – a situation dire for a country that is, on a calm day, essentially 1.5m above sea level. A sea-level rise of half a metre would be catastrophic; some climate prediction models suggest that the seas could rise two metres by the end of the century.

THAT SINKING FEELING In October 2009, the then Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed held the world’s first and only underwater cabinet meeting to bring worldwide media attention to global warming, sea-level rise and the plight of the Maldives. The first democratically elected president and eleven of his ministers donned scuba gear and descended to a horseshoe-shaped table placed at five

Shutterstock

One of the large fleet of sea planes taking guests to a resort island for a ship’s ropes and rigging. The one plant that was not in any shortage in the Maldives was the coconut palm.

With limited forests, wood was used primarily for boats, not shelter. Coral rock was mined to build dwellings, blocks quarried from the limestone substratum and cemented together with pulverised limestone mixed with sand to create a mortar holding the coral bricks together.

Coral rock makes for a strong shelter but over time, as the population increased, and the size of the islands did not, the environmental impact of coral removal has degraded many reefs beyond recovery.

Thus, for a few thousand years, the Dhivelis lived their lives with the serendipitous visits of traders seeking supplies at a mid-ocean crossroads,

metres. There, working via hand-signals, they voted to ratify a proposal they later presented to the United Nations Climate Change Conference stating: ‘We must unite in a worldwide effort to halt further temperature rises. Climate change is happening and it threatens the rights and security of everyone on Earth.’

This press stunt brought tremendous exposure for the Maldives and its president. Here was a developing nation that was the poster child for the consequences of global warming. In a subsequent interview, Nasheed said: ‘The Maldives has announced a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2020—which means a 100 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide levels by the end of this decade. If we can reduce our carbon emissions so radically, we believe bigger countries can be equally ambitious.’

but mostly unaffected by the world at large. European powers tried to mold the Dhivehis into colonies without any success. The Portuguese tried to convert the islands to Christianity and were expelled, the Dutch were tolerated as they did business but did not impose their culture on the Dhivehi and the British stayed low-key and were only interested in the Maldives as a strategic port for their navy.

Two World Wars came and went without any effect upon the archipelago other than British infrastructure on Gan in the southernmost atoll.

It wasn’t until the post-war era and an expedition to explore the underwater world of the Maldives that arrived in December, 1957, that the Maldives was thought of any more than a remote place on a map that no one knew much about or cared much about.

Pioneering Austrian scuba diver and underwater film-maker Hans Hass visitied the islands in 1957. He, his wife Lotte, and a complement of researchers, ichthyologists and coral scientists explored the archipelago for four months aboard his expedition sailing ship, Xarifa. Hass had financed the trip by contracting to make 26 television programmes for the BBC, which were enthusiastically received by a primarily European audience enthralled by these first glimpses of life beneath the waves.

His lifelong rival, Jacques Cousteau, who had the North American market locked up with his own series of underwater ➤

The Maldives was to become the leader in mitigating global warming through example! But the internal political situation was far from stable. First it was reported that Nasheed had resigned, then it was reported that he had been arrested for treason, then he left the country for back surgery and sought asylum and is now represented by human rights barrister Amal Clooney. The lifting of his conviction for treason by the Maldivian Supreme Court in February this year has been a major spark in the current repression and imposition of emergency powers by the beleagured regime.

The next president, Waheed Hassan, did a 180 degree about-face on global warming, sea-level rise and the plight of the Maldives. He stated to a group of businessmen and investors: ‘The good news is that ➤ www.divemagazine.co.uk

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Hans Hass and Lottie (centre) aboard his expedition ship

Alamy

➤ television programmes, travelled through the Maldives in the 1960s but didn’t make a feature specific to the Maldives.

Hass inspired scores of viewers into the world of scuba diving and underwater exploration. But the Maldives were, at that time, so remote that unless one had a private yacht, visiting the archipelago was difficult.

Flights were not so much irregular as rare. There was only a small airstrip on Hulhule Island, the island closest to Malé, the capital of the Maldives, and it had a 1,000- metre runway that had only been built in 1960. A fact-finding delegation from the United Nations investigated the islands as a prospect for tourism and issued a report in 1970 stating the country was not suitable due to lack of infrastructure.

‘We had nothing in the Maldives then,’ recalls Mohamed Umar Maniku, the visionary and pioneer who created the first resort in the Maldives’ ‘No banks, no airport, no telephones only ham radio or Morse code contact with Colombo.

Even the UN experts said that tourism would never succeed because there were no facilities, no infrastructure.’

An Italian travel agent named George Corbin, visiting Sri Lanka in 1971 looking for remote island destinations, saw the Maldives on a map. He went to the Maldives High Commission bureau in Colombo were he met Maniku who arranged for him to sail from Sri Lanka to Malé aboard a cargo ship with a photographer. On arrival, the agent and the photographer were blown away by the unspoiled beauty of the islands, the stunning coral reefs, the crystalclear waters, the rich diversity of fish and sea life, white sand beaches and the relaxed atmosphere of the islands.

They returned to Italy and published a number of magazine articles and organised a tour group to visit the islands the following year.

On February 16, 1972 an Air Ceylon charter flight landed on the airstrip in Malé with 22 tourists, including writers and photographers. They stayed for 12 days in a few borrowed houses in Malé and cooked pasta for themselves when

they found the Maldivian cuisine too spicy. They spent their days sunbathing, swimming and spearfishing. Building upon the success of the first trip, Corbin returned to Italy and began sending tourists with greater frequency. His first brochure extolled the virtues of the abundant sea life.

With Corbin’s encouragement and commitment to send 150 clients a year, the first resort was built on Vihamanaafushi, North Malé atoll, called Kurumba Village and it opened in October 1972. It was a massive undertaking to construct and yet it was very basic by any standard: thirty coral stone block rooms with thatch roofs, brackish water showers, and ceiling fans. There was sporadic electricity from generators and a restaurant that could serve 60 guests.

The resort proved to be an immediate success. The Italians loved the simplicity and back-to-nature experience. They were also pleased they could bring their spearguns and kill an abundance of fish.

By accounts, it was a massacre and the house reef soon began to look barren as the fish were slaughtered.

A German group visiting during that first year objected to the spearfishing and complained. ‘Spearfishing, was a common pastime among tourists then,’ says Maniku. ‘But we met

some person, I think from the World Tourism Organisation and he said: “My goodness, you’d better stop this harpooning business, it’ll kill all the fish life.” And we had already seen this, because after a group of guests shot fish in Funadhoo area, there was practically no fish for five months. So we stopped it.’

Witnessing the success of Kurumba Village, Maldivian partnerships began to form and other resorts were planned; a second resort, Bandos Resort, also on North Malé atoll, opened in December, 1972, with 220 beds. The first year of tourism had brought 1,097 international visitors to North Malé atoll. By contrast, there were 122,000 people living in the entire country, the largest number of them living on Malé and the remainder on 185 islands out of the 1,192 comprising the archipelago.

Tourism was up and running in the Maldives and by 1974 there were six dedicated resort islands. Through the 70s and 80s is grew slowly but shot up in the 90s. Today there are 105 dedicated resort islands and the next wave could more than double that with resorts of a far larger scale. Last year 1.39 million tourists visited the Maldives - 306,530 from China, 112,109 from Germany, 103,997 from the UK, 88,848 from Italy and 83,019 from India.

a 3.2-kilometre runway, a fuel storage area and a cargo complex. This expansion is financed by loans worth US$200 million from the Saudi Fund for Development, the Kuwait Fund and the OPEC Fund, along with a US$373 million dollar loan from the EXIM Bank of China. China’s Beijing Urban Construction Group is the contractor, raising concerns about Chinese expansion into the Maldives, especially since the Chinese are also building the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, a 1.4 km-long, US$210 million bridge that joins Malé’s eastern edge to the western corner of the island of Hulhulé, where the airport is located. The project is being financed with US$126 million in grant aid and a concessionary loan from China, along with US$12.6 million from the Maldivian state budget. The bridge is part of a masterplan to link Malé with the airport and then to connect them both to the reclaimed island of Hulhumalé, where what is being called a Youth City is being built. The government plans to relocate 70 per cent of the Maldives' population, presently scattered across 188 islands, to the new city and the Hiyaa housing project involves the construction of 36 blocks of flats to house 80,000 people, according to the president’s office.

While many Maldivians from the poorer islands welcome relocation and the amenities and employment opportunities the government promises to provide in the Youth City, another sizeable vocal segment rebuffs casting away a traditional Maldivian life of fishing and family on islands that they and their

Bluestreak fusiliers

Douglas David Seifert

➤ Maldives is not about to disappear.... on the basis of technical and scientific information that we have, we will be able to manage climate change in the Maldives and prolong the life for the islands and for our life on these islands.'

The current president, Abdulla Yameen (the half brother of Abdul Gayoom who ruled the country from 1968 to 2003 without elections), is committed to a dramatic escalation of development through foreign loans and foreign investment in tourism and infrastructure. Although the Maldives possesses one of the highest literacy rates in the world, at 98 per cent, there are not many employment opportunities for the average Maldivian, besides tourism. Twenty-five per cent of Maldivians are unemployed. Currently, the population of the Maldives is 341,256, 39 per cent live on the 5.8 sq km island of Malé. Tourism accounts for 33 per cent of the country’s GDP and the government says it needs to expand it further. Minister of Tourism Moosa Zameer announced a target of 1.5 million visitors for 2015, although that target was not reached.

The Maldives received 1,389,542 visitors in 2017 with 25 per cent of those visitors coming from China.

The Ibrahim Nasir International Airport on Hulhulé Island, currently at capacity, is being dramatically expanded. It will be able to receive 7.5 million visitors each year when it fully reopens later this year. The airport expansion project is budgeted at USD$800 million (but expected to surpass one billion by the time it is completed) to pay for a new terminal,

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families have inhabited for generations. Further, critics and opponents warn that concentrating large numbers of literate, but not necessarily well-educated, economically-challenged young people into a confined district, with time on their hands and access to the internet, combined with a largely subservient role in the tourism industry, is a proven breeding ground for discontent and religious fundamentalist recruitment.

In fact, there have been reports of Maldivians going to Syria to join ISIS and similar fundamentalist jihadists (one said 61 men had been identified as Maldivian jihadis fighting abroad). The Maldives government takes this threat seriously enough to have enacted legislation that any would-be jihadis caught in transit to join in overseas wars would be sentenced to a mandatory minimum ten-year prison term. Justice can seem harsh to outsiders not familiar with Sharia law as practised in this Islamic Republic – in 2015 a local woman was sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery, though the verdict was finally annulled in February after she spent nearly three years on death row. But it does beg the question of the impact on local people of vacationing Westerners with different social and sexual mores and their nightclubs and bars.

The plan to turn the Maldives into an Indian Ocean Dubai needs the support of well-funded international travel and hospitality conglomerates. Tourism Minister Moose Zameer recently said: ‘To fill our tourism targets, we will need 100 new islands with 100 to 200 rooms each. There are about 120 properties that will be developed over the coming years by major international brands, such as the Four Seasons. These developments will have about eight to 10 small hotels per lagoon.

One of the proposed schemes is that of Thailand’s largest brewery, Singha, which is to build nine new resort hotels including a Hard Rock themed one in the already highly developed South Malé atoll. Other schemes involve Chinese investors. Last year the Maldives signed a free-trade agreement with China after President Xi Jinping made a state visit to the island nation - much to the consternation of India which feels the Maldives was its traditional ally.

To facilitate this expansion of foreign investment the Maldives’ Parliament has passed a constitutional amendment legalising foreign ownership of land.

However, the foreign land-buyers must reclaim at least 70 per cent of the desired land from the ocean and invest at least $1 billion in a construction project approved by the Maldvian Parliament. But once 32

Douglas David Seifert

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Bluestriped snappers take refuge out of the current beneath a wall of a soft coral covered thila

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Both photographs Douglas David Seifert

A giant sea fan braced against the current

that is done, the island is effectively no longer a part of the Republic of the Maldives and is privately owned.

This is one of the only places in the world where a country is selling its sovereign territory.

If the expansion comes to fruition, the future of the Maldives is one not so much of idyllic desert islands but of massive hive-like hotels situated on stilts above lifeless lagoons or cheek-by-jowl on reclaimed sand islands, to all appearances like nothing much more than cruise ships that have run aground. All this infrastructure is reliant upon fleets of commercial and cargo aircraft burning a tremendous amount of jet fuel to bring tourists and raw materials to these no longer quite so isolated islands.

Just about every bit of food and drink that is consumed and the majority of construction materials for these hotels, must be brought in by air or by ship.

The carbon footprint for Maldivian hospitality is immense and it adds to the surplus of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming. So, in a fashion, the Maldives has undergone a transformation from being part of the solution – pledging to be the first carbon neutral country – to being part of the problem with expansive development plans that are impossible without an indefinite fuel-consumption dependency.

As this feature goes to press, all bets are off as to what the future holds for the Maldives. Former President 34

Mohamed Nasheed is very much back in the picture, as the Supreme Court reversed his conviction and also released other imprisoned opposition leaders.

The court also tried to dissolve the parliament but President Yameen is refusing to comply and has enacted a state of emergency which is ongoing.

Protests and demonstrators fill Male’s streets as the military tries to retain order and minimise violence.

North American, European and Chinese governments have issued travel advisories to their citizens considering visiting the Maldives and dissuading travel at this time. Tourist numbers are down and dropping while expensive infrastructure projects continue, bills to be paid somewhere down the line.

Former President Nasheed could well regain the office of president in the near future. He has been very vocal about the precarious future for the Maldives and has stated: ‘A large, emerging power is busy buying up the Maldives, buying up our islands, buying up our key infrastructure, and effectively buying up our sovereignty. This land grab is very worrying.’ Nasheed says the massive infrastructure projects encouraged by the Chinese and Arab Gulf states are a ‘debt trap’ that will strip the Maldives of its assets and sovereign territory to compensate Chinese and Arab lenders calling in loans that cannot realistically be repaid.

Clearly, the Maldives is a story to be continued…

The more remote reefs of the Maldives are awash in fish populations and activity www.divemagazine.co.uk

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Douglas David Seifert

The Soneva-in-Aqua, launched last year

The Soneva Solution

S

oneva Fushi was the first resort in the Maldives to combine luxury with an environmentally-friendly way of operating. It opened in 1995 on the island of Kunfunadhoo in Baa Atoll at a time when sustainability was an unheard of concept. The hotel was the idea of Eva and Sonu Shivdasani and went on to be the template of a successful international chain of ethically aware luxury hotels. Today the couple concentrate on the original resort and another just opened in the Maldives plus a similar hotel in Thailand.

Soneva Fushi still sets the benchmark on how to run a first class, environmentally sensitive resort. Just one of the many examples of the green

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Beach villas, Soneva Fushi

ethos running through the business is its vegetable garden.The island grows its own cabbages, cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes, watermelons, aubergines, bitter gourds, bananas, watercress, chilli, lettuces and spinach. The staff have also built ‘caves’ in which to grow oyster mushrooms. One of its keys to gardening success was in identifying

drought-resistant varieties of vegetables and acclimating them to the local environment. Pest management and weeding are all done by hand, without the use of pesticides.

An arid sand and limestone plot was transformed by making topsoil by adding organic food waste to the alkaline soil, and mixing in mulch derived from wood-

Photographs Soneva Fushi

Above, a gardener tending the highly successful plot on the island

Left, laid-back luxury aboard the Soneva-in-Aqua chips from tree management and jungleclearing. The agriculture has been so successful that Soneva now sells its excess vegetables and compost-derived topsoil to other local islands and resorts.

Since most fruits and vegetables served in the Maldives come from abroad and from agrochemical farms, this local, sustainable, agriculture success story

could be a way forward for the Maldives.

But, obviously, it is a matter of scale.

Soneva Fushi caters for 57 villas and a few private residences. Some of the new giant resorts being suggested are as big as 350 rooms – it would need a very large island to produce enough crops to make a resort of that scale self-sufficient.

To be sustainable you have to work

within available natural resources and a resort such as Soneva Fushi is an indication of what would be an achievable scale for the Maldives.

Everywhere you look on the resort you find another example of what can be achieved. Last year the resort launched its own luxury yacht, the Sonevea-inAqua which can take parties of up to six guests on private cruises. Besides all the gimmicks and pampering such as a glass-bottomed Jacuzzi in the main suite and a retractable dive deck at the stern, this modern take on a Chinese Junk, is primarily powered by sail and solar power. Food waste is returned to Soneva Fushi’s recycling centre for composting.

Drinking water is created through reverse osmosis and filtered and served in glass containers – there are no plastic bottles for one-time use to be found anywhere on a Soneva property.

The groups total carbon footprint across its hotels was 33,714 tonnes of CO2 in 2015-16. Only 20 per cent of those emissions came from energy consumption, which is the figure typically quoted by companies when measuring carbon footprint. Sixty-eight per cent of the emissions came from guest air travel.

To counter such emissions Soneva has set up an environmental fund.

A levy of two per cent of room revenue is added to each guest’s stay, which has raised $6.2 million to date. The Soneva Foundation invests these funds in projects that have a positive environmental, social and economic impact, and importantly, offset carbon emissions from resort activities and guest flights. It has implemented and initiated projects that will mitigate around one million tonnes CO2 over the next seven years.

Soneva shows what can be done if you start from a premise of sustainability. By the wildest stretch of the imagination it is impossible to conceive that the dramatic growth of tourism planned in the Maldives, if realised, could be built without serious impacts on the local environment nor it is possible to argue such development could be sustainable.

Soneva does show that even the most luxurious type of tourism, if matched to the resources of the local environment and it it is of an appropriate scale, does not have to a environmental disaster. n www.divemagazine.co.uk

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G IP L IO R TR TA FW O LAINO G A N

T

ech divers from around the world gather in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, to check out the deep walls, learn from some of the best instructors, and to hang out on the hip and bustling island. South African photographer and former dive instructor Alfred Minnaar, 35, has been taking stunning images of the divers there for the past four years.

One of his obessions is that moment just before they hit the water.

‘It’s a special time, those moments just before you dive,’ he explains. ‘A photograph can capture both the raw emotion and the single-minded focus of a diver as they get themselves together.’

Gili T, population around 1,500, has few roads, no cars (horse-drawn carriages, bike or foot instead) and is just 3km by 2km in size. It is the largest of the three Gili islands just off the coast of northwest Lombok.

Over the past 20 years it has built up a remarkable diving scene, training vast numbers of open-water divers and increasingly becoming a hotspot for technical diving.

The islands are the tips of volcanic mountains emerging from the ocean and surrounded by steep, submerged walls - the perfect place to push the limits. Coral-festooned walls with plenty

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Technical dive instructor Theresia Gollner (second from the right) with two students on her right.

Instagram: @theresia_gollner

of pelagic action stretch down to abyssal depths. Famed tech diver Simon Liddiard led the charge when he founded Blue Marlin on the island more than 25 years ago, offering an ever-widening range of technical training.

Today, more than a dozen dive centres compete for business including Manta Dive (@mantadivegilit), where Alfie is based. Here we feature some of his images, taken in that strange calm as people prepare to go deep.

IN THE ZONE Photographs by Alfred Minnaar

www.divemagazine.co.uk

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IPNO RT THFEO ZL O I ON E

PADI staff instructor Laura Kazimierska @laura_kazi Dive instructor Bruno Lyra @bruno3lyra

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Right to left, Sarah Richard, Caro Linii and Amber Cochrane

Australian travel blogger Jackson Groves @jackson.groves

www.divemagazine.co.uk

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IPNO RT THFEO ZL O I ON E

Bruno Lyra

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Dive instructor Pernille Larsen @pernillemajlund

www.divemagazine.co.uk

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IPNO TR HT E F OZLOI N OE Advanced mixed gas CCR instructor and TDI instructor trainer, Will Goodman who holds the 290m CCR world record

44

Dive instructor Saskia Meijer

Dive master & technical diver Greg Forge @iquitmylife

Technical dive instructor Philip Christoff

Christoff with a scooter @christoff_ccr www.divemagazine.co.uk

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IPNO RT THFEO ZL O I ON E

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Dive advocate Sarah Richard @girlsthatscuba

Technical dive instructor Alex Cerra @al_capture

Dive instructor Caro Linii @caro_linii

Dive instructor Leesa Scanlan @a_girl_and_the_ocean

Technical diver Jack Riff www.divemagazine.co.uk

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PE S OY RC TF H OE L ILOE S Coming in to land at the island of Alphonse. Photo: Anthony Grote

DIVING IN THE LAP OF LUXURY More turtles than you can count, hungry sailfish, marauding sharks, ancient hard corals and lots of reef fish. Mark Crowley Russell is pampered in the remote island of Alphonse in the Seychelles

www.divemagazine.co.uk

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PE S OY RC TF H OE L ILOE S

S

eychelles. Just the name is evocative.

Coming in to land on the remote island of Alphonse in a small, light aircraft, fulfilled all my expectations. It is an emerald green dot at the end of an arching coral atoll 400km south of the main island of Mahé. Once the propellers wound down, the only sounds were of the surf on the beach, the breeze through the palm trees, and the enthusiastic greetings of Gordon, the general manager of the resort. At just over half a square mile in area, this is a small island. There are only 27 villas – 22 bungalows catering to couples (and possibly a young child) and five larger suites for families of four.

As a result, each villa is very private, set back from the sandy lanes that meander through the island. Each has a spacious surrounding area and is secluded from the others by tall vegetation on each side, with open access to the beach front which they overlook.

Before going any further, it is worth addressing the fact that Alphonse is a sport-fishing resort, with some scuba diving. This does not always sit well with the dive community, but it needs to be stressed that – as a dedicated eco-resort – Alphonse is committed to sustainable fishing practices. Fish that are caught are measured and weighed and immediately released, except those that are brought back to the kitchens for the restaurant and for the workers who live on the island. If it’s not needed, it’s not taken.

The resort’s dedication to conservation is also very apparent from a diving perspective. Alphonse caters for eight divers at any one time, with two instructors – Lucy and Byron – and Sam, the dive centre manager, on hand to look after dive guests.

There are no plans to increase the number of divers on the island, as Gordon told us over dinner: ‘It’s not about bringing in more divers, it’s about bringing in the same number of divers on a more consistent basis.’

Underneath the clear blue water, the reefs are in

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Forests of gorgonians surround the island. Photo: Anthony Grote

www.divemagazine.co.uk

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PE S OY RC TF H OE L ILOE S

excellent health. There is no evidence of over-fishing, and very little in the way of damage. A wide swathe of broken coral indicated a possible collision with a boat at some point in the past, or perhaps the natural effects of storms and currents, but it was old, and there was no sign of repeated damage caused by boat traffic, of which there is very little.

Coral bleaching in recent years has had some effect on the reefs in the area but not at any of the nine sites we dived. When they’re not busy with customers, the dive staff, along with Pep and Ariadne, who maintain the Alphonse station of the Seychelles’ Island Conservation Society, are out at sea monitoring the state of the underwater environment.

The scale of the coral colonies is immense. Some of the giant porites formations have a lifespan measured by the millennium, dwarfing everything but their neighbours. Some of them would make for an entire dive all by themselves – especially for photographers – were it not for the distraction posed by the richness of the rest of the reef.

The coral cover was perhaps not as colourful as it can be in the Indo-Pacific region or the Red Sea, but this is only due to the extent of the colonies which exist here. The aforementioned porites, for example, are not the most colourful species of coral, neither are the thickets of gorgonian fans, the extent of which I have never before encountered. My mind’s eye will always revert to my time as a guide in Sharm El Sheikh, but the gorgonian forests we used to delight in at Ras Umm El Sid, for example, were mere shrubberies by comparison.

And yes, there are long-nosed hawkfish in residence.

What the coral lacks in colour is more than made up for by the sheer mass and exuberance of the fish life.

Much of it will be familiar – tiny golden anthias are everywhere, swimming for their lives to stay in the same place in the current, a welcome sight on any reef. Large schools of bright yellow blue-lined snapper circulate and gracefully part as you swim through them – excellent footage for any amateur videographer, as are the almost motionless oriental sweetlips. Humpback snapper, bigeye trevallies and barracuda school by the hundreds, with inquisitive batfish circulating around the divers.

We encountered so many turtles that I lost count.

Their behaviour may be somewhat indicative of how 52

The neighbouring small island of Bijoutier with Alphonse in the distance.

Photo: Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell

One of the many turtles feeding near Alphonse. Photo: Mark Hatter

A large tawny nurse shark cruises by.

Photo: Chris Mason-Parker

little these reefs have been dived. Unlike some other locations, where turtles will chomp away at the reef and ignore divers until the underwater paparazzi set their beaks on edge, Alphonse’s turtles were much more wary of our presence. The same was true of most of the Napoleon wrasse we encountered. Often known for their close approaches, these Napoleons, however, kept their distance from the divers. One of the giant potato groupers, the size of which I have not seen since the Great Barrier Reef ’s Cod Hole, was far more inquisitive.

It appraised me as if it were considering its dining options, and came so close that I thought I might be more than just a ‘consideration.’

Large pelagics are in the area, although perhaps not as many as there once were. The Seychelles was at one time known as a destination for whale shark encounters.

However, their numbers have declined to such an extent that in 2015 a government-funded programme to study the creatures was suspended due to the lack of sharks.

The reasons for this are not well known. An increase www.divemagazine.co.uk

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Reef manta rays inside the lagoon. Photo: Sam Balderson

in sightings towards the archipelago’s outer islands in the past couple of years may have indicated a shift in their food supply. David Rowat, chair of the Marine Conservation Society Seychelles, thinks one explanation could be that the wind and the currents have changed and there is now more plankton found towards the outer islands.

Other species of shark, however, did put in an appearance, including two of the largest tawny nurse sharks I’ve ever seen, and I had an odd encounter with a sicklefin lemon shark. It sidled up behind me while I was engrossed in trying to photograph a gorgonian.

I turned to find it not two metres behind me, and it appeared to be as startled as I was. The sicklefin has a brutish, muscular front, but an altogether more slender tail section – rather like a bodybuilder who just exercises his torso. As it barrelled away up and over the reef, I was left with the impression of a cyclist in low gear, pedalling furiously, but not moving very rapidly.

We were also treated to what, for me at least, was one of the most memorable sights of the trip. Under instruction to ‘find sharks for the journalists’, Lucy took us to a site called Galawa, and we jumped in to find at least two metres of grace and beauty circling underneath us. It was an oddly familiar shark, but I hadn’t seen one before. I knew what it wasn’t, but couldn’t quite identify what it was. It circled a few times, toddled out of sight for a moment and then returned for a second, closer inspection. I was therefore delighted after we surfaced to be asked: ‘How was your first bull shark?’

54

My colleagues, proper photographers with industrial sized cameras, had all fitted their macro lenses for the dive and weren’t so pleased.

Most of our dives had been very pleasant, gentle drifts, with one at West Side Wall picking up slightly, but nothing to make stopping for photographs a significant effort. The exterior of the atoll can be prone to much harsher currents, but there is always the shelter of the atoll’s lagoon in which to dive. The lagoon has a flat and sandy bottom, with slightly sparser but still impressive, arrays of coral than the outer walls, making for perfect entry-level diving and training, though still with a chance of encountering larger critters.

It was inside the lagoon that we found our reef manta, albeit from the boat, and giant trevallies are in residence. The GTs follow the boats to shore where they will circle as you disembark, hoping to catch scraps of food from the fishing boats. The giant trevallies leaping out of the water hunting birds, as seen in the recent BBC series of Blue Planet II, were filmed in the Seychelles.

Ours didn’t take off, but one did have a good chomp on a colleague’s camera.

Our final highlight was to head a few hundred metres out to sea to snorkel with sailfish. This was awesome. Not in the cheesy, American teenage way, I mean actually being ovecome with awe. The giant fish are attracted by a lure trailed from the back of the boat, and once they appear, the boat is put into neutral and you jump in for 60 seconds of mayhem. Three of these magnificent animals flashed in front of us, each

Lettuce coral. Photo: Anthony Grote

ESSENTIALS

Flights: London Heathrow to Mahé via Dubai with Emirates. Prices start at £700 return. Etihad via Abu Dhabi came in slightly less at £594, but with a much longer journey time.

Visas: None required for UK passport-holders Alphonse Island: www.alphonse-island.com.

Tel: +248 422 9700 / +248 422 9030 Skype: reservations@alphonse-island.com

A two-person villa, Alphonse

Seychelles Tourist Office UK & Ireland www.seychelles.travel. Tel: +44 207 730 0700

www.divemagazine.co.uk

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PE S OY RC TF H OE L ILOE S A sailfish in action. Photo: Anthony Grote

of them with their sails raised, two metres of fish – half of which appears to be their rapier-like bill – thrusting at lightning speed towards your soft, unprotected flesh. It was moderately terrifying, brilliant fun, and an outstanding memory.

Back on the resort island, life was tranquil and sedate, just as it should be. Cycles are provided to each guest for transportation, with the dive centre a pleasant fiveminute ride from the resort’s centre, although you can be collected by golf cart, if necessary. Travelling through the dense palm trees might give the impression that something larger is lurking in the jungle, but there are no snakes or venomous lizards, or anything particularly unpleasant. One needs to be a little wary of palm spiders, not because they are dangerous, but because they build huge webs and cycling through them is bound to give you the willies. They are otherwise rather pretty.

A successful breeding programme on the island of Aldabra has reintroduced the giant tortoise to Alphonse, one of the longest-living land animals (Jonathan, the famous resident of St Helena on the other side of Africa, is thought to be over 180 years old). There was once a number of different species in the archipelago, but they were hunted to extinction by early French settlers, who used them as a beef substitute.

The Island Conservation Society monitors not only the tortoise population and the health of the reefs and the fish but also monitors the nests of the wedge-tailed shearwaters that come to breed on the island. Alphonse 56

is also a nesting site for green turtles, and visitors are sometimes lucky enough to find them doing so right in front of their accommodation.

Conservation is important to Alphonse. They have worked hard to build a sustainable resort, and are rightly proud of the fact that they grow as much 50 per cent of the fresh fruit and vegetables required to feed the staff and guests, in the island’s plantation.

There are other things to do besides fishing and diving, including kayaking, paddle-boarding and other water-based activities. There is a small graveyard where some of the earliest settlers in the Seychelles are buried.

Communal excursions can be arranged for cycling and snorkelling, and the guests gather for sundowners at dusk. The barbecue hosted out to sea on a brilliant white sand bank is so marvellous it’s almost decadent.

You dine under the stars in the beach-front restaurant.

Needless to say, diving in the lap of luxury on an island paradise comes at a price, and a seven-night stay in one of the beach bungalows comes in at US$7,385 (around £5,300) per person, which includes a ten-dive package, return flight from Mahé, three meals per day and the communal excursions. Flights to Mahé are not included.

Is it worth it? It’s not the most expensive diving in the world, but it’s not that far off. You do get a lot for your money. The island is remote, secluded and intimate. The catering is superb. It is an idyllic location with a tranquil atmosphere. Would I pay that much to return? Well – if I ever have the money, then yes, I would. n

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P GO AR LÁ T FP OA LGIOOS I S L A N D S A whale shark’s spots form a unique pattern which can be used for identification

WHALE SHARK TALES

Josef Litt in his definitive new guide to the Galápagos reveals many of the archipelago’s wonders. In this exclusive extract he focuses on the whale sharks which gather in the Eastern Pacific. Why are they mainly female?

How do scientists age these giants? He also looks at the use of space technology to keep track of them and recounts some fascinating folklore Photographs by Josef Litt www.divemagazine.co.uk

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P GO AR LÁ T FP OA LGIOOS I S L A N D S Darwin’s Arch, just southwest of remote Darwin Island, which many consider the best dive site in the world

W

hale sharks are the world’s largest fish, growing as much as twenty metres in length – more than a bowling lane and almost as long as a passenger train coach. To borrow from author Douglas Adams: ‘Whale sharks are big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big they are.’

We don’t know how fast they grow and what is their maximum age. The best estimates are that the big ones may be more than one hundred years old.

Scientists determine the age of sharks by counting growth rings in their vertebrae. This method seems to provide reliable results for younger animals.

To be more precise with older sharks,scientists have started using radiocarbon dating. The nuclear tests performed in the 1950s and 1960s, mainly in the Pacific,

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A whale shark’s sensitive claspers and attendant remoras – the favourite prey of silky sharks

increased the amount of radiocarbon in the atmosphere.

The radioactive material entered the oceans and imprinted a time-stamp in the whale shark’s vertebrae.

Today, that time-stamp helps researchers to establish an accurate age of older individuals.

Scientists also use Hubble Space Telescope technology to identify individual whale sharks. The spots behind their gills form a pattern as unique as a fingerprint.

Jason Holmberg, the co-founder of WildMe.org, adapted an algorithm used by NASA to recognise and compare the patterns. Anybody who photographs a whale shark anywhere in the world can upload their images to the Wildbook for Whale Sharks.

In the past two years, 5,200 people identified almost 9,000 whale sharks during more than 42,000 sightings.

The data gives scientists information about distribution and movement of the gentle giants, leading, it is hoped, to their adequate protection.

Since 2016, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature describes the whale sharks on its Red List as Endangered. The reason is the demand for shark fins in Asia and the appeal of whale shark meat, often referred to as ‘tofu shark’. Infuriatingly, despite their size, they also end up as bycatch.

Since early 2017, whale sharks have enjoyed protection in more than 125 countries. Research in 2004 estimated their value to tourism at over US$47.5 million a year – an amount that is indisputably higher today. Hopefully, governments will realise the species’ importance and enforce this protection. www.divemagazine.co.uk

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Most of the whale sharks seen around Darwin Island are pregnant females

Members of the Galápagos Whale Shark Project in 2014 reported sightings of 27 whale sharks, all females, all but one were pregnant, around Darwin Island.

Jonathan Green, the leader of the project, thinks that the deep sea surrounding Darwin Island serves as a breeding ground for whale sharks. However, nobody has ever seen a whale shark give birth or breed.

Local fishermen have a theory why male whale sharks avoid the area. Silky sharks frequent the islands’ waters in search of food, and remoras are a favourite staple. An attacked remora would hide among the whale sharks’ claspers to protect itself and the ferocious silky shark would find it hard to differentiate between a remora and a clasper. The poor male whale sharks are afraid that they may get hurt in such a sensitive place, so they avoid the Galápagos at all cost.

Whale sharks have never been seen feeding at Galápagos, which gives the following story a whiff of a fairy tale. Local legend has it that 20 or so years ago 62

there was a guide who used to ride the sharks holding their dorsal fins (a practice, thankfully, long since abandoned). On one occasion he plunged head-first over the animal’s upper lip into its gaping mouth.

Disappearing into the poor whale shark’s maw, he was spat out after a moment in a shroud of his bubbles, in slight disarray but unharmed. The animal seemed to be unperturbed, it turned slowly and swam away. n

This outstanding 288page, comprehensive guide to the Galálapagos, crammed with 300 photographs and detailed maps, is available from Amazon for £29.20 in the UK or $39.90 in the US.

Untitled-20 2

25/08/2015 14:40

IPCOER TWFROELCI O K

DEEP FREEZE Jerzy Kowalczuk dives a 130-yearold wreck preserved under the ice of Lake Huron in Canada

64

n The wooden schooner’s hull is well preserved in the cold, fresh water. Jerzy’s dive buddy Michael Marcotte approaches the remains of the starboard railing under the eerie light of the cracked harbour ice www.divemagazine.co.uk

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IPCOER TWFROELCI O K

T

he 36m-long, 218-ton schooner Sweepstakes sank in 1885 in Big Tub Harbour in the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, part of the Fathom Five National Marine Park in Tobermory, Ontario, Canada.

Sitting in only around 8m of water, the wreck is regarded as one of the best-preserved examples of its type, and is a popular dive site during the summer months. It becomes inaccessible to dive boats in winter as Big Tub freezes over.

The residents of the properties that surround the harbour are hesitant to allow divers access to the wreck from the shore – ice diving comes with its own unique set of risks, and the cracks in the ice that allow a diver to enter the water can be swiftly pushed closed if the wind blows into the harbour. Even a guide rope does not guarantee a safe exit, so careful observation and surface support for the divers underwater are essential.

Passionate wreck diver, ice diver and underwater photographer Jerzy Kowalczuk had previously dived the wreck in the summer, but wanted to become the first to do so under the ice. Jerzy teamed up with Michael Marcotte, owner of Tobermory dive shop Divers Den, who – thanks to his experience and local knowledge – was granted permission by one of Big Tub’s residents to dive the wreck from their property. Armed with his Nikon D800E and Aquatica housing, Jerzy managed to capture perfectly the Sweepstakes under the ice, for the first time.

See more of Jerzy’s work: www.underwaterpixels.com

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n The almost perfectly preserved windlass on the Sweepstakes’ bow.

Although the decking has begun to separate, the Fathom Five Marine Park authorities have been carrying out repairs to stop it from collapsing. www.divemagazine.co.uk

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n Michael and his buddy, local diver Steve Kim, swim past the windlass towards the Sweepstakes’ bow. There is little clearance, and cracks in the ice can shift and close, potentially trapping inexperienced and unwary divers

n Michael at the surface with his wife Kelly, who is braving the -11°C air temperature to act as dive marshall. With the water a good deal warmer at 1°C neither diver is in a hurry to get out of their drysuit

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n An unobstructed shot of the bow, with the tightly packed ice diffusing the strong sunlight from above. Mood lighting for ice wreck diving

n A large opening in the shifting ice allows sunlight to penetrate as Michael approaches the collapsed rear deck and hold. The original coal cargo was salvaged after the boat sank, and the hold has been sealed with an iron frame to prevent divers from penetrating the interior, where trapped air bubbles were damaging the schooner

www.divemagazine.co.uk

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EQUIPMENT MATTERS

n the modern era of scuba diving, there really is no such thing as a ‘bad’ regulator. Some may not be suitable for diving in particular environments and others may not meet your personal tastes and preferences, but they are all built to extremely high standards. Your life depends on them, and there are no regulators on the market which cannot perform safely and effectively. There are plenty of options available, and, as one of the most complex items of kit, regulators come with an associated dictionary of technical terminology. They are not cheap, but there are some relatively inexpensive models available for the diver on a budget. The jargon can be off-putting, is not always adequately covered during training, and is sometimes used by salespeople to direct you to equipment you don’t really need. Having a basic understanding of the components prior to making a purchase is essential, especially if it’s your first. So take a deep breath – here are the basics.

FIRST STAGE DIN or Yoke?

The first stage connects to the tank valve and converts the high pressure in the tank to an intermediate pressure for delivery to the second stages. Yoke – also known as A-clamp or ‘INT’ – regulators fit over the tank valve and are secured with a screw clamp. DIN (Deutsche Industrie Norm) regulators screw into tank valves with a threaded DIN opening. DIN regulators are a little less bulky, form a tighter seal, and can handle higher pressures, so many divers consider this to be a superior system.

DIN tanks have a removeable adapter which allows them to be used with yoke regulators, but DIN regulators need a separate adapter for use with ‘INT’ (International) tank valves, which do not have a threaded opening. DIN is rapidly becoming the dive industry standard, but is not universal.

Environmental Seals All regulators will work in warm, clear water, but compressed gases cool as they expand (aerosol deodorants are a perfect example) and can cause unprotected regulators to freeze open when diving in cold water (10°C / 50°F or lower). Environmental seals prevent cold water and particulate matter from entering the first stage, reducing the risk of freezing or fouling.

Unbalanced, Balanced and Overbalanced Unbalanced regulators are operated by tank pressure, so breathing resistance increases very slightly as the pressure drops. They are the simplest design, least expensive, and the mainstay of recreational rental gear. Balanced regulators are not affected by tank pressure, and deliver air at the same pressure throughout the dive. These days, all but the most basic of regulators are balanced. Overbalanced regulators slightly increase the pressure of air delivered to the diver at depth –it’s a nice, but not essential, feature.

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Piston or Diaphragm Piston regulators operate using a hollow metal piston opposed by a metal spring. They can be balanced or unbalanced, and cold-water diving requires that they have an environmental seal, or anti-freezing technology. Diaphragm regulators are more complex in design, but they are all balanced, and the rubber diaphragm acts as its own environmental seal, which makes them preferred for deep and cold-water diving.

Ports All regulators have at least one high-pressure (HP) port for the pressure gauge (SPG) or air-integrated computer, and four low/medium-pressure ports (LP/MP) for the second stages, BCD and drysuit inflators. Higher spec regulators may have an additional HP port and extra LP/MP ports.

SECOND STAGE Balanced or Unbalanced Balanced second stages reduce the ‘cracking pressure’ of the regulator – the minimum pressure required for it to operate – providing a small reduction in breathing effort.

Dive/Predive/Flow control The Venturi effect, where moving gas causes a reduction in pressure, is what makes regulators work, and also causes them to freeflow, especially at the surface. Most regulators have a Venturi control, often labelled dive/predive or +/-, which prevents this. Some regulators also have an airflow control which affects the cracking pressure.

Nitrox All regulators can be used with recreational nitrox up to a maximum of 40 per cent O2. Anything higher requires the use of compatible materials and specialist ‘oxygen cleaning’. EU standards require the use of tanks and regulators with a nonstandard connection for anything above 21 per cent, but are not universally enforced.

Hoses The standard rubber hoses are fairly inflexible and prone to cracking through poor care and maintenance. In recent years, lighter and more flexible braided hoses have become very popular, as they are easier to transport, provide better options for hose routing, and reduce jaw fatigue. Swivelling hose connectors provide similar benefits over the standard, rigid connectors. Some manufacturers are now fitting braided hoses and swivel joints as standard.

TIPS FOR BUYING Chief amongst your considerations is the type of environment in which you plan to dive. For tropical recreational diving, any regulator will do, but cold and deep-water diving requires appropriate equipment.Size and weight may be factors in your decision making, as should be the cost and availability of servicing. It’s therefore advisable to buy from a local dive shop with a brand-certified technician.The general advice is to buy the best that you can afford. For smaller budgets, the basic entry-level regulators are an option, as long as their limitations are taken into account. Spending a bit extra in the first place, however, may save you money in the long-run as your dive horizons broaden.

ENTRY-LEVEL

‘Entry-level’ is a much broader category than the name implies, and is targeted at divers making their first purchase, rather than the most basic regulators available.

Some manufacturers produce regulators tailored towards

dive centre rental gear, a good choice for the novice diver on a budget, but which may compare less favourably in terms of design, size, weight – and especially cold-water use – to the model that manufacturers promote as ‘entry-level’.

Apeks ATX

RRP: £236 Apeks’s entry-level offering definitely fits the category of regulators that cater to many more than the entry-level diver.

The DS4 first stage is an environmentally sealed, over-balanced diaphragm design, with a heat exchanger on the second stage making it suitable for cold-water diving which, as a British manufacturer, is an Apeks’ speciality. The ATX series has been around since 2002, and although it has been superseded by the XTX range, there’s a reason the old workhorse is still in production.

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Overbalanced diaphragm Cold water: Yes Ports: 1 HP, 4 MP Second Stage: Pneumatically-balanced with Venturi control Weight: (first and second) 1130g (Yoke) www.apeksdiving.com

Aqua Lung Core Supreme

RRP: £294 Aqua Lung’s most basic entry-level regulator would be the Calypso, an unbalanced piston design popular as rental equipment, a solid, easy-to-maintain warm-water regulator retailing at £156. For divers looking to buy a regulator with a broader range of options, the Core Supreme has a balanced diaphragm first stage featuring Aqua Lung’s auto closure device (ACD), with pre-angled ports for better hose routing and chrome-plated brass body. The balanced second stage is also suitable for cold water, with a low cracking pressure and Venturi adjustment knob Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Unbalanced piston Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 4 MP Second Stage: Balanced with Venturi assist Weight: (first and second) 688g (DIN) www.aqualung.com www.divemagazine.co.uk

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EQUIPMENT MATTERS

Atomic Aquatics Z2

RRP: £377 The ‘Z’ in Z2 stands for the Zirconium plated over the brass body of the regulator, designed for increased corrosion resistance. The balanced piston-based first stage features Atomic’s ‘Jet Seat’, and a factory-fitted environmental seal is an optional extra. Two HP and seven LP ports is more than most regulators, with the LP ports located on a fixed cap instead of a swivelling body, allowing for hose routing choice. The balanced second stage features Atomic’s patented Automatic Flow Control for consistent breathing with low effort, and the titanium seat saving orifice of the second stage reduces wear on the valve seat from repeated use, extending the service interval for the regulator to two years or 300 dives.

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced piston Cold water: Optional environmental seal Ports: 2 HP, 7 LP Second Stage: Automatic flow control with adjustment knob Weight: (first and second) 844g (DIN) www.atomaquatics.com

Seac P-Synchro

RRP: £163 The Italian company’s entry-level regulator is targeted at the ‘intense activities’ of dive centres and marketed as ‘high in reliability, safety, sturdiness, durability and simplicity’ – which is what dive centres want their regulators to be, along with low in price. The chrome-plated brass first stage utilises ultra-light technopolymers and, unlike some other rental sets, is of a balanced piston design. Basic, but robust.

Mares Rover 15X

RRP: £245 The Mares Rover comes in two flavours with identical, very compact second stages, but different first stages. The Rover 2S is the preferred rental regulator of many European dive schools, with an unbalanced piston first stage combination retailing at just £146. The Rover 15X is more expensive, but with a balanced diaphragm first stage, making it suitable for a wider range of diving conditions. Two HP and four LP pre-oriented ports give some flexibility to hose configurations while patented Mares technologies aid durability, air flow control and the second-stage mesh grid is also present. Cold-water kits can be purchased separately and fitted by an approved technician.

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced diaphragm Cold water: Optional extra Ports: 2 HP, 4 LP Second Stage: Balanced Weight: (first and second) 936g (DIN) www.mares.com 76

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced piston Cold water: No Ports: 1 HP, 4 LP Second Stage: Venturi dive/predive Weight: (first and second) 850g (DIN) www.seasub.com

Scubapro MK11 / C370

RRP: £229 Scubapro’s MK11/R195 combo is probably the most prevalent regulator rental set in the world, and with a RRP of only £189, a decent choice for the entry-level diver on a budget.

The newer MK11, coupled with the new, all-purpose C370 second stage, however, offers a great deal more to the diver in terms of performance, but is not much more in terms of price. The balanced diaphragm design of the MK11 is suitable for all but the coolest water, with two of the four LP ports being ‘high-flow’, delivering 15 per cent more air than the others. The air-balanced C370 second stage has been designed to be compact and lightweight, but remains rugged.

With the MK11 weighing in at 490g and the C370 at only 171g, the combination is one of the lightest available and excellent for travel.

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced diaphragm Cold Water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 4 LP (2 ‘high flow’) Second Stage: Balanced, airflow and Venturi control Weight: (first and second) 661g (DIN) www.subapro.com

Zeagle Envoy II

RRP: £240 Zeagle’s Tech/Rec philosophy is abundantly clear, even in its entrylevel Envoy II. Redesigned in 2015, the balanced diaphragm, brassbodied first stage has five low-pressure and two high-pressure ports.

High performance porting and precision engineering combined with the balanced second stage have gained the Envoy II a reputation for excellent, easy-breathing characteristics. A simple dive/predive Venturi control completes the package.

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced diaphragm Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 7 LP Second Stage: Balanced, Venturi control Weight: (first and second) 1150g (DIN) www.zeagle.com

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced diaphragm Cold water: No Ports: 2 HP, 4 LP (2 high-flow) Second Stage: Venturi control Weight: (first and second) 950g (DIN) www.tusa.com

TUSA RS-1001

RRP: £290 Tusa’s latest addition to its range, the balanced diaphragm R-1000 first stage is compact and lightweight, and although it is not environmentally sealed, comes with Tusa’s own coldwater insulation system. Two of the four LP ports are ‘high-flow’, delivering 15 per cent more air for each breath. The unbalanced S-0001 second stage has a compact composite case design, with left- or right-hand configuration, Venturi adjustment level and orthodontically designed mouthpiece to reduce jaw fatigue. www.divemagazine.co.uk

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EQUIPMENT MATTERS

ALL-PURPOSE

The all-purpose category is aimed at the diver who likes to explore a range of different environments, from shallow tropical reefs to deeper, colder waters, with both recreational and technical diving in mind. Thes regs are often made from higher-quality materials, perhaps lighter in weight, and

engineered with an extra degree of precision to make the most of their performance. Many people will enjoy diving with one of these models without noticing a great deal of difference, but for those who seek to master the art of diving, those extra tweaks might become much more important.

Apeks XL4

RRP: £339 Launched in October 2017, the XL4 is Apeks’ latest addition to their range, suitable for all divers in all locations, with a compact design and – for the features – a compact price. The first stage is based around the ‘expedition-tested’ DS4, and like it’s entrylevel ATX cousin, features an overbalanced, environmentally sealed design with over-moulded first stage endcap and large surface area heat exchanger, designed with cold-water exploration in mind. The single-piece body and flexible nylon hose reduce the overall weight, with the second stage geared towards reducing jaw fatigue on long-duration dives.

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Overbalanced diaphragm Cold water: Yes Ports: 1 HP, 4 MP Second Stage: Pneumatically-balanced with Venturi control Weigh: (first and second) 905g (DIN) www.apeksdiving.com

Aqua Lung Legend LX Supreme

RRP: £513 It takes a certain je ne sais quoi – as Jacques Cousteau, founder of the original Aqua Lung, mighty have said – to describe any product as a ‘legend’ before it has been tried and tested, but after more than 15 years of service, the various incarnations of the Legend have earned the reputation. The LX Supreme has an environmentally sealed, overbalanced diaphragm first stage, with an extremely useful ‘Auto Closure Device’ (ACD) which seals the regulator as it is disconnected. The pneumatically balanced second stage comes with Aqua Lung’s ‘Master Breathing System’ (MBS) which has a single knob to control Venturi assist and cracking pressure.

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Overbalanced diaphragm Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 4 MP Second Stage: Pneumatically-balanced, combined airflow with Venturi control (MBS) Weigh: (first and second) 868g (DIN) www.aqualung.com 78

Dive Rite XT

RRP: £399.95 Dive Rite caters mostly to the technical market and the XT draws on the company’s technical roots to provide a regulator that all divers can appreciate. The balanced piston XT1 first stage is environmentally sealed and comes with five LP ports on a swivel turret and two HP ports at right angles to the barrel, for optimal hose routing. The pneumatically balanced XT2 second stage is adjustable, to allow the diver to fine tune their preferred cracking pressure, with associated dive/redive Venturi assist lever

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced piston Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 5 LP Second Stage: balanced, airflow control with Venturi assist Weight: (first and second) 1250g (DIN) www.diverite.com

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced diaphragm Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 4 LP (2 DFC) Second Stage: Balanced, automatic air control Weight: (first and second) 782g (DIN) www.mares.com

Mares Abyss 52X

RRP: £363 The Abyss 52X features an all-metal second stage, with most of the same features of the Rover series, including the air bypass tube (VAD) which balances the second stage for sensitive and easy breathing, regardless of depth. The smart-looking balanced diaphragm first stage is designed for cold water diving, with the Mares NCC (Natural Convection Channel) increasing surface area for heat exchange. 2 of the 4 LP ports are Dynamic Flow Control (DFC) ports, which reduce intermediate pressure drop during the breathing cycle. The two regulators are connected with a lightweight ‘superflex’ hose as standard. www.divemagazine.co.uk

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EQUIPMENT MATTERS

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Over-balanced diaphragm Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 4 LP Second Stage: Diver-adjustable with Venturi assist Weigh: (first and second) 1000g (DIN) www.omsdive.com

OMS Airstream Evoque

RRP: £422 The OMS Airstream is a high-performance regulator which has been designed with the optimisation of hose routing in mind. Specialised HP ports at an angle of 45 degrees helps to keep gauges closer to the diver’s hips, and the 30-degree angled LP ports help to ensure optimal trim by guiding hoses directly over the diver’s shoulder. The overbalanced diaphragm first stage is environmentally sealed as standard, with a polished stainless-steel finish. The balanced second stage is among the best in terms of work of breathing rate, with an adjustable airflow control and Venturi switch, coupled to the first stage with a 75cm Miflex hose as standard.

Scubapro MK25 EVO / S620Ti

Specifications Fittings: Yoke / DIN First Stage: Balanced piston Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 5 LP (high-flow) Second Stage: Diver-adjustable with Venturi assist Weight: (first and second) 749g (DIN) www.scubapro.com 80

RRP: £619 The Mk25 first stage has been a favourite of both recreational and technical divers for years, and the latest evolution is no exception.

Although the balanced piston first stage is not environmentally sealed, Scubapro’s patented thermal insulating system and anti-freeze protection ensures reliability even in the most extreme water temperatures. Five high-flow lowpressure ports are mounted on a swivelling turret, with two HP ports on either side. The titanium-barrelled S620Ti is a recent upgrade to the long-standing S600 second stage, smaller and lighter but reinforced and using the same-sized diaphragm, reducing the work of breathing rate by 37 per cent over the S600. Useradjustable inhalation effort knob and Venturi assist lever are standard.

Seac DX 200 ICE

RRP: £390 The DX 200 ICE has a balanced diaphragm first stage of forged brass with a sanded chrome finish, with an anti-ice kit and is insulated from the outside. Two of the four LP outlets are inclined at 20 degrees and the others at 30 degrees for increased hose routing options, and a stainless-steel removable valve seat is designed to increase servicing safety and simplicity. The balanced second stage is treated for abrasion on the outside, and has airflow and Venturi controls to regulate cracking pressure and prevent freeflow.

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced diaphragm environmental seal Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 4 LP Second Stage: Balanced, airflow control with Venturi assist Weight: (first and second) 1,040g (DIN) www.seacsub.com

TUSA RS-790

RRP: £335 The chrome plated R-700 is a balanced diaphragm regulator with a full environmental seal and dry ambient pressure chamber, ensuring that the internals of the first stage are protected from all contaminants and cold water, with a ribbed external heat exchanger to further reduce problems associated with cold water. The associated S290 second stage is pneumatically balanced to reduce cracking pressure, and is also equipped with a dive/ predive Venturi lever Specifications

Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced diaphragm Environmental seal Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 4 LP (2 high flow) Second Stage: Balanced, Venturi lever Weight: (first and second) 1000g (DIN) www.tusa.com

Zeagle F8

RRP: £576 Zeagle’s flagship F8 was given a makeover a few years ago, with more than 20 improvements in the balanced diaphragm first stage. The environmentally-sealed ambient chamber ensures the internals remain clear of water and silt, making it perfect for diving in all conditions, with the low-profile first stage barely reaching the top of the tank valve. The re-designed second stage with inhalation effort control knob features the same seat-saving orifice as found in Atomic Aquatics regulators, with a zirconium plated inlet tube for better corrosion resistance, and a new larger-area heat sink reducing the risk of seizure in cold water.

Specifications Fittings: Yoke or DIN First Stage: Balanced diaphragm Cold water: Yes Ports: 2 HP, 5 MP Second Stage: Breathing resistance knob with Venturi assist Weight: (first and second) 1,170g (Yoke) www.zeagle.com www.divemagazine.co.uk

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DIVE’s Miscellany of Marine Curios #10 Pseudocolochirus violaceus or sea apple

This rotund sea cucumber is found in Indo-Pacific waters and can grow to 20cm in length. Its stunning aposematic coloration (meaning it wards off predators by boldly declaring it is toxic) is its first line of defence. If it is attacked by an unwary fish, its next trick is to double its body size by ingesting water, and to float away in the current. If that fails, it can, like other sea cucumbers, expel its Cuvierian tubules – a spaghettilike tangle, from its hindgut. At the same time its squirts out a highly toxic soup.

The hindgut, or cloaca, is the sea cucumber’s equivalent of an anus through which it defecates and, unusually, also respirates. Another peculiar feature is that tiny pearlfish and polychaete worms often live in the cloaca of the sea apple and venture out at night to hunt. The sea apple moves slowly over the reef with its many yellow feet that cover the bulbous body. If a foot is caught on the reef and severed, it can grow back. A ring of mucus-covered tentacles around a sea apple’s mouth snares floating morsels of food drifting past, popping each bit into its mouth one piece at a time. In the process, the tentacles are covered with a fresh coat of sticky mucus, and the whole cycle is repeated. n Photo credit: Ethan Daniels, Shutterstock 82

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