NOAA, Proteus Ocean Group to explore uses of groundbreaking underwater lab
NOAA and Proteus Ocean Group offsite link have signed a formal agreement to use the “underwater space station of the ocean,” PROTEUS™, to advance marine science, research and education. Together, NOAA and Proteus Ocean Group seek to develop a deeper understanding of the ocean environment and reveal solutions to some of the planet’s most pressing concerns, including those related to climate change. [See NOAA media release] -- Posted Thursday, May 4, 2023 by chb

Case Study: Computers in Marine Exploration
In March 2023, Carol Cotton, RuggedPCReview.com's Director of Photography, participated in an expedition to the Silver Banks marine reserve off the coast of the Dominican Republic to record and document humpback whale behavior. Her departure coincided with the world's governments finalizing a new UN Treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. Cotton brought along a compact rugged Windows-based Durabook R8 tablet computer as part of her gear. Read about the review trip and Cotton's experiences with the rugged tablet. [Read Case Study: Computers in Marine Exploration] -- Posted Monday, April 3, 2023 by chb

Marine archaeologist George Bass has died
George Bass, known to many in the dive community as the “Father of Marine Archaeology,” passed away this week at the age of 88. He has written and edited twelve books and over a hundred articles, five of which are featured in National Geographic. An early practitioner of underwater archaeology, he co-directed the first expedition to entirely excavate an ancient shipwreck at Cape Gelidonya in 1960 and founded the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in 1972. He then became a professor at Texas A&M University, where he held the George T. and Gladys H. Abell Chair in Nautical Archaeology. -- Posted Friday, March 5, 2021 by chb

Olympus TG Tracker now US$199!
While the Olympus TG Tracker isn't anywhere near as popular as GoPros, it is an absolutely fabulous, super-compact little 4k video camera that can also do 8mp stills. It can handle depths to 100 feet without housing and comes with everything you need to shoot above and under water. The TG Tracker is so good that we take it on every dive trip and every dive. And now Olympus has them on sale for $199 (usually $349). [See Olympus TG Tracker deal] -- Posted Friday, March 22, 2019 by chb

Great scuba cameras: Canon G7x/WP-DC54 housing
We've tested and reviewed a large number of cameras underwater over the years, both with and without housing. Initially, it was safe to say that the average underwater photographer would get one decent shot out of ten, if that. That has changed dramatically. We explain why the Canon G7x with its WP-DC54 underwater housing has become our go-to camera on dive trips, and why it works so well underwater. [See review of the Canon G7x and WP-DC54] -- Posted Wednesday, March 20, 2019 by chb

Battery replacement for old dive computers
Maybe you're using an older dive computer. Or you keep one or more old dive computers around as backups (we always dive with two wrist-mount computers, in case one fails). In any case, eventually the battery dies and it may be difficult or impossible to have it replaced. We can greatly recommend Terry at uwatecbattery.com in Florida. He's an expert at replacing batteries in old dive computers, not only Uwatec. -- Posted Thursday, September 20, 2018 by chb

Mexico declares Revillagigedo Archipelago a marine sanctuary
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has established the Revillagigedo Archipelago marine sanctuary via decree. Measuring over 57,000 square miles and encompassing San Benedicto, Socorro, Roca Partida and Clarion, the sanctuary, which is about 250 miles south of the tip of Baja California, is the largest fully protected marine reserve in North America. [See Mexico Creates Pacific Marine Sanctuary To Protect Its ‘Crown Jewel’] -- Posted Tuesday, November 28, 2017 by chb

Tragedy Strikes Multiple Scuba Record Attempts
DeeperBlue.com reports that two scuba record attempts ended in tragedy. In the first case, Polish diver Waclaw Lejko failed to surface after attempting a 275m/902ft dive in Lake Garda, Italy. The second incident occurred in the water off Toroneos Bay, Greece, where Bulgarian technical diver Theodora Balabanova died while attempting to break the women’s overall depth record with a dive to 231m/757ft. [See DeeperBlue.com article] -- Posted Wednesday, October 4, 2017 by chb

Billion dollar dive shop
20 years ago, a little company called Atlantic Diving Supply started selling wet suits to Navy SEALS. They operated out of a trailer behind a dive shop. Last year, they had sales of over a billion dollars from Federal contracts. And almost ten billion dollars in the last ten years. Looks like one can make money with a dive shop... [See article] -- Posted Saturday, August 12, 2017 by chb

Global coral bleaching event likely ending
After analyzing satellite and model data, NOAA’s experts say coral reefs around the world may finally catch a break from high ocean temperatures that have lingered for an unprecedented three years, the longest period since the 1980s. The latest NOAA forecast shows that widespread coral bleaching is no longer occurring in all three ocean basins – Atlantic, Pacific and Indian – indicating the likely end to the global coral bleaching event. Scientists will closely monitor sea surface temperatures and bleaching over the next six months to confirm the event’s end. [See Global coral bleaching event likely ending] -- Posted Friday, June 30, 2017 by chb

Review: CoCo View dive resort, Roatan, Honduras
CoCo View on the Honduran island of Roatan has long been one of our favorite places to dive. We re-acquainted ourselves with CoCo View again during an early October 2016 product review trip. And took the opportunity to update our detailed review and description of this unique dive resort where one can go from a 100 foot wall dive to the bar in ten minutes. [See review of CoCo View dive resort on Roatan, Honduras] -- Posted Tuesday, October 11, 2016 by chb

iPhone 7 does survive on scuba, deeper than we thought
Well, the team at EverythingApplePro actually took the new iPhone 7 on scuba. Shooting 4k video for five minutes each at test depths of 10 and then 15 feet worked fine, with no leakage or damage to the phone. At 20-25 feet, the iPhone 7 still worked and recorded video, but apparently had begun leaking and enough water made it in to disable the start button and, back on dry land, eventually the phone. Definitely not recommended, but it shows that the new iPhones are able to survive not just rain, but even full submersion. [See video of iPhone 7 on scuba] -- Posted Thursday, September 29, 2016 by chb

Apple Watch Series 2 waterproof
The good news: the Apple Watch Series 2 is waterproof down to 50 meters, which is 164 feet. The bad news: Apple cautions not to use the watch for scuba diving or "other activities involving high-velocity water or submersion below shallow depth." So you get you cake, but you can't eat it. There's a swimming app, though, and it should be interesting to see how that works. -- Posted Thursday, September 8, 2016 by chb

Trip report: Diving the North Carolina Coast
Just below "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" off the Outer Banks of North Carolina lies the "Crystal Coast" with its own assortment of historic and artificial reef wrecks. ScubaDiverInfo made a quick trip to see, with the help of the folks at Olympus Dive Center in Morehead City, NC, what diving the North Carolina coast is like. [See Diving the North Carolina coast] -- Posted Wednesday, August 3, 2016 by chb

Trip report: Diving wrecks and reefs of South Florida
How exciting could diving off Pompano Beach, Florida, possibly be? Very much so as ScubaDiverInfo found out during a product-testing week of wreck and reef diving with the great folks at Pompano Dive Center. Seven wrecks in six days. And we even had a nice close-up with a hammerhead. [See Diving South Florida May 2016] -- Posted Monday, May 23, 2016 by chb

Mermaiding: Making a splash for a bigger cause
Who doesn't love mermaids? Mermaids are not only in lore, but also movies (The Little Mermaid, etc.), on TV, and they rival unicorns in popularity in fantasy art. Now there are even mermaid schools, where interested parties can learn mermaiding as sport, with special mermaid fins and all. One of them is run by former Singapore national swimmer Nicole Cheng – who goes by the moniker Mermaid Lilith and is a strong proponent of mermaiding as sport. [See Mermaiding: Making a splash for a bigger cause] -- Posted Friday, April 15, 2016 by chb

The world's most luxurious liveaboard dive boats
For many/most divers, being on a liveaboard is not only on top of the list of dive adventures, but also an exercise in trying to find affordable liveaboard deals. If price is not an issue, then check out Fred Garth's "The world's most luxurious liveaboard dive boats" feature on CNN. [The world's most luxurious liveaboard dive boats] -- Posted Friday, April 15, 2016 by chb

Reducing drag underwater
We may swim with the fish, but compared to them we scuba divers are about as hydrodynamic as a cathedral. Ma href="http://www.deeperblue.com">DeeperBlue has published a very interesting four-part series entitled "Diving Performance — Beyond Drag" by Ron Smith. Smith is an aerospace engineer and inventor who developed the DOL-Fin hydrofoil type monofin products. Great reading. [Read Diving Performance — Beyond Drag] -- Posted Wednesday, April 6, 2016 by chb

Underwater breathing gills project raises US$800k funding
Things that sound too good to be true usually are, at least with current technology. That didn't keep a SciFi-looking "artificial gill" project by Triton that would allow its wearers to breathe underwater for up to 45 minutes at a max depth of 15 feet to raise over US$800k on the Indiegogo startup fund raising site (see campaign). The International Business Times has doubts (see here) -- Posted Tuesday, March 29, 2016 by chb

Interest soaring in dive lessons
The Sunshine Coast Daily reports that after years of a steady decline in the worldwide recreational diving industry, growth is now the trend. At a recent conference in Italy, Scuba Schools International — one of the world's largest dive retail organisations — confirmed that for the first time in many years, learn-to-dive courses had increased. In Australia, many retail dive businesses did not survive the global financial crisis and those that did were burdened at the same time by an unrelenting workplace health and safety crackdown across Australia. Thankfully, those times have passed. Retail dive businesses as well as dive charter operators are optimistic about their future. [See article] -- Posted Friday, February 12, 2016 by chb